I just asked Apple on X whether they could make an AirTag that contained a battery that could be recharged wirelessly.

I’m thinking that it makes complete sense.

https://twitter.com/theslayford/status/1899181699214262433

I became a Vodafone customer as they were the best network after BT got its paws on EE and destroyed it. The network is new to me, as is the number that I should call to speak with customer services. A quick search gave me lots of links to their site, none with the answer of which number I should call. In the end, I had to speak to this retarded AI thing, and it then took a human, and countless messages to get the number. It’s 191 from the handset, alternatively 03333040191.

I think it is fairly evident that these companies do not give a hoot about providing a service. Their network coverage is worse than it was in the late nineties, their call handling is atrocious, and they seem to have a contempt for their customers, in the same way that the government does.

Here’s the thread, my responses are in bold;

Hi! I’m TOBi, Vodafone’s chatbot.

Give me a few seconds to get everything ready for you so that I can help.

Thank you for waiting! Ask me anything.
13:39

number to call
complaint
13:39
I’m here to help you understand call charges. Please select the type of call that you would like to know more about:

UK calls

International calls

I’m sorry, I couldn’t find an answer for you. Could you rephrase your question and ask me again?
13:39

number for customer services
13:40
Could you tell me your full name please?
13:40

no, I just want the number for customer services
13:40
To help save you some time when speaking to an adviser, I can complete some quick security checks first.

How would you like to complete security?

Receive a code to my phone

Log in with my PIN

Log in with my Password

13:40

No, I just want the number to call.
13:40
No problem, I can still check if an agent is available.

Could you please tell me your phone number?
13:40

No. I just want a number to call.
13:40
Please tell me what type of account you have with us:

Pay Monthly

Pay As You Go

Pay As You Go Plus

Small Business

Broadband

13:41

Small Business
13:41
Hi you’re chatting with Chandra. Thanks for connecting with Vodafone Webchat. How can I help you today?

Hi
13:41

For the last time, please just give me the number I dial to speak with customer services
What number do I dial from my handset?
That’s it.
13:42
I am so sorry for the inconvenience you faced . you can call our team on 191 or 03333040191
13:42

Thank you. I’m copying and pasting this onto social media.

Press and hold the SHARE button, then press and hold the PS Button until the light bar flashes. Then look for it on whatever device you are using to connect. When pairing is complete, the light bar blinks and the player indicator lights.

I wrote about Tesla a couple of times in November 2021, once taking the piss because they were sending out incomplete cars due to the chip shortage and the other stating that I think that battery electric vehicles (BEV) aren’t the way forward, but hydrogen is.

Today I got to spend a little time in London with the new Cybertruck, and I’m glad I did. I’d watched the unveiling a few years back and despite the glitches in the presentation, I was sold. I thought “Wow, that is beautiful!”. I’ve seen it being pumped on social media and it has a cult following. I sort of got swept along with it, and was interested enough to take a day out and drive up to London to have a look (I also got to drive the new Model 3 Highland). I’m glad I did. Since I’ve got home, I’ve reflected on the day and the experience, and this is what I think;

On walking into the room, the first thing that strikes is that it is bloody huge – far too big for UK roads. There’s no way I would want to drive something that’s larger than the huge Ford pickups over here, even with rear wheel steer. I could immediately see this is likely to be the biggest issue.

In terms of safety, I would imagine that if you were to collide with another vehicle, they are the one that is going to have the problem, it’s like a tank. Knocking the front of it with my fist made me realise how solid it was, where the bonnet meets the wing and the front plate there’s a corner where the three panels meet and it is a bloody sharp angle with no give at all. Even at slow speeds, it would pop a pedestrians skull like a melon. It made me shudder.

It has three motors, so has race car performance. This thing moves, really moves. It’ll leave virtually every performance car standing.

The load space on the rear is far too small to be of any real use, so it leads one to wonder who would want it. I think I have a fair idea already; Celebrities, ‘Names’, the well heeled and so on. It has no real practical use, so will be used in much the same way that Range Rovers etc are; for looking the part, flaunting money/image, the school run, and ensuring the occupants safety and to hell with everyone else.

There’s not a lot more to say other than:

It’s an impractical vehicle, that is far too big, far too fast, and unsafe for all other road users. What could possibly go wrong? Doesn’t take much working out, does it?

The only positive is that in its current form, I think that it would unlikely get approval for use on UK roads.

If I saw someone driving one over here, I would seriously pity them, their life must be deficient in some way and I’m sure that’s not the reaction that they were hoping to achieve.

I’ve been using Evernote for years, it’s been a great way to collate reference material, open loops etc in one place. It was this site;

https://thesecretweapon.org that started me off. It gives you tips on how to organise a file structure within Evernote to track everything in life. It’s particularly good for project or knowledge workers.

Many long term users of Evernote will remember the old version which they replaced with the browser based thing they’re currently offering. They allowed users to continue to use the old version which they named ‘Legacy’ making it available for download. I’ve been running this (Legacy) for a few years now, and changed PC’s a month or two ago, and couldn’t find anywhere to download it and have since had to install and tolerate the new version. It’s painful.

It’s slow, it’s clunky, keyboard navigation is painful, and it doesn’t seem to integrate as well with Outlook. Sometimes adding an email from Outlook into a note is extremely slow. The sync is way off pace, I could go on. I am no longer a fan, but put up with it because I have been using the folder structure detailed in the Secret Weapon for years, it’s ingrained.

I just received an email from Evernote about my renewal, warning of another price increase. It used to be £44.99 a year and at last renewal they increased it to £54.99 which I stomached.

This year they have increased it to £79.99 which is a £25.00 increase. That’s about 45%!

The first few paragraphs of the email read as follows;

We’re writing to let you know about an upcoming change to your Evernote Personal subscription.

Also, we’re excited to bring you an update on some of Evernote’s latest features and improvements. Each one is designed to help you enhance your productivity. The team has been working hard to bring them to you—more on this below.

First, the new pricing. The price of your Annual subscription will change to 79.99 GBP per Year. The new price will take effect on your next renewal, 12/20/2023. New pricing came into effect as of May 1, 2023 for new subscribers.

By introducing new pricing, we know there’s a risk of disappointing valued Evernote customers like you. The change helps us continue improving the performance and reliability of the product we all love, as well as adding exciting new features. Rest assured that you won’t be paying more for just the same product—we think you’re going to enjoy and get great value out of the latest features and improvements.

The improvements that they detail really don’t justify the cost, so I thought they can get stuffed. One of my colleagues sent me this back in July;

“Evernote increasing from £44.99 to £79.99! (It was £29.99 a few years ago.) I’ve cancelled, they can get fucked.”

In percentage terms, that is a massive increase. When you consider that you can get an Office 365 subscription giving you access to Word, Outlook, OneNote etc for the same price as Evernote are now asking, it looks very expensive.

My new approach to being ripped off is to not interact, but to simply vote with my feet, so I started the cancellation process to downgrade to a free account. I won’t lose any data, but will not be able to sync as much. I’ll be able to root through what I want and put it into OneNote.

The cancellation process was geared to keeping you on their subscription model, the final insult was to offer me a 40% discount if I stayed with them. Not happening. They should have simply applied a small annual increase, rather than ripping the backside out of it….

They asked for my reasons, I gave them this;

A 45% increase is excessive for a slow and clunky piece of software. I wish I could still use Legacy, but I couldn’t find it anywhere to install on my new PC.
So, I’ve been stuck with crippled software in the name of progress and now you want to charge me the same amount for this as I would be charged for Microsoft 365 5 user licence?
You’re so funny. Bye.

I felt better for it. I hold the chequebook. No software is indispensable.