Farcebook

Category: Technology

  • Amazon Mouse 2, Refund Boogaloo

    Amazon Mouse 2, Refund Boogaloo

    After chatting with some people on Discord they convinced me to be bothered to return the broken mouse.

    They explained that since it was so cheap, the refund would be issued immediately.

    They were wrong, but wait a minute … £9.36?

    I paid £4.37, that was the whole point – get cheap mouse, and also why I couldn’t be bothered returning it.

    But if I’m being refunded more, well alright then. There’s a returns box in Morrisons, it’s quite good and must be a new thing. Last time I did a return it had to go to an Evri dropoff point.

    I bought this amazing device instead. It’s fine… The Bluetooth is laggy, but the wireless dongle works well.

    So to recap…

    • I got a £25 Amazon gift card code for trialling a new app for charging my car
    • I spent £4 of it on some e-waste
    • I returned the e-waste
    • I got more money than I spent as a refund
    • The mouse was probably someone’s old mouse that had failed, and they probably did a shady switch after buying a new one and returning it.

    I wonder who will get it next 😄

  • Cheap Amazon E-Waste Mouse

    Cheap Amazon E-Waste Mouse

    Wherein I thought I was getting a bargain mouse…

    For a bargain price, using the Amazon returns warehouse thing…

    But instead I received someone’s broken e-waste that has clearly been used quite a bit, before they returned it…

    This is clearly not a return that was barely used. Someones’s had this a good while. Look at the photos and the primary mouse button has a shiny bit on it. The pads on the bottom are scratched, and the little QA sticker has gone all transparent.

    So what went on? Did they buy a replacement and then put this in the box and return it for a refund?

    I’m not averse to second hand mice, I work in a school and have a functional immune system. A bit of finger gravy doesn’t scare me.

    No, the problem is the mouse doesn’t actually work. Plug the dongle in… Nothing happens. The PC sees a USB Mouse, but the mouse pointer doesn’t move.

    And for 4 quid it’s not worth my time and effort trying to return it. So you win this one Amazon, well done.

    Although I did buy this with a free £25 gift card I received for using the new charging app for my car, so… You lose Amazon 😄 It wasn’t my money in the first place.

  • TV Licence Scaremongering

    It’s that time again where I have to certify that I promise not to watch broadcast TV.

    Although they do try very hard to make me click the wrong button

    Its like Amazon and their attempts at tricking us into buying Prime.

    And then once the relevant form is filled in, you get this email

    “If any of your circumstances change, such as you start watching live TV”. What is this, I come home one night after work and have a relapse and binge on 6 hours of Corrie?

  • Android desktop mode beta, or Chromebook in your pocket

    Android desktop mode beta, or Chromebook in your pocket

    I enrolled on the Android Beta and am typing this on my phone plugged into a USB-C dongle that provides HDMI and USB.

    The idea is it’s supposed to turn your phone into a portable “real” computer.

    I think it needs some work, it’s a bit unstable. The idea is there, and it works very similarly to a Chromebook, just they don’t quite know what to do with the phone’s screen. Interacting with that really confuses everything.

    Also apps are completely unaware of what’s going on. Trying to use Firefox is … interesting.

    I had to take this “screenshot” with my phone’s camera, because I couldn’t find any other way. Pressing Print Screen on the keyboard took a screenshot of the phone’s display.

    Also sometimes the phone’s display got confused with what it was trying to show

    No idea what’s going on here, but I’m fairly sure apps in windows are not supposed to appear on the phone. Pressing the “X” in the window makes the entire phone close all apps and lock itself.

    Maybe it’ll turn into something good, and in a few years time I bin my Chromebook, or Google will silently kill it off by December. The concept is good, but I don’t really have random monitors, keyboards and mice lying around waiting for something to plug into them. I have computers, or a laptop.

  • Power Cut 3 – Fall of the machines

    Something’s very wrong with the power here. It went off again this afternoon for about ten seconds. Just long enough to mess up all the computers and screw the Internet.

    Then it worked for an hour, before doing it again twice. So now instead of sitting in a dark room with no power, I’m in a lit fully working room just with no working network.

    I’m writing all this on my Remarkable 2 with its keyboard case. It’s quite pleasant to type on, I should do this more.

    Last month I switched my mobile phone from Smarty (budget Three) to Lebara (budget Vodafone) since I noticed our cheapo work phones on Lebara always seem to have signal, and my phone on Three/Smarty didn’t. They do seem better, but it feels like Lebara gets a lower priority on the network than Vodafone. Earlier my phone had a signal but no data, the little signal meter had an exclamation mark in it.

    I get to go home in 20 minutes. Today hasn’t been the most productive really.

    Update

    So it turns out where I work has quite a severe power supply issue. The main cable connecting us to the local substation has failed and it’s causing the power company some issues finding the fault.

    We have been running off generator power since the weekend, and the network failed because none of the switches in our building have any power. I’m guessing they use PoE from another part of the building that currently doesn’t have power, or has tripped offline due to the repeated power cycling that’s been going on.