Ashe

About 10 years ago, Twitter used to be a good social media platform where you could just about tweet about anything without the risk of abuse. However, roll forwards to 2016, and things started to change rather significantly and it has continued to get worse and worse.

It has become a platform whereby abuse has become mainstream and conducted by anyone against anybody for any reason. Then there are the troll farms which are created by organizations or even governments to spread information, true or not, and try to sway people when it comes to political discussions. These trolls or bots are usually identifiable as they will have around 8 numbers after their name.

Twitter becomes an exercise of locking down your account for a couple of weeks due to the volume of abuse. The abuse is organized as it results in a huge pile on attacks by dozens or hundreds of people with nothing else better to do in their lives.

I think the abuse has reached a level where Twitter cannot really do anything about it. A British politician had brought up this matter within a bill proposed to the House of Commons, and then it later transpired that this politician was sending people defamatory accusations and abuse. The problem is endemic.

If you do not have a Twitter account, for the love of God, do not sign up. It will wear you down emotionally in the long run.

I have never had an issue with Argos whether it be in-store or their website. When you think about how Argos works, it is rather strange when you compare it to other retailers. It is basically a warehouse with a small storefront, but it works and they are a reliable and trusted company.

My last order went smoothly and arrived very quickly compared to other retailers that aren't Amazon. Others would take 3-5 days for delivery as well as costing more, but with Argos, same-day delivery is more than possible or the next day.

I bought the Stadia Premiere Edition that comes with a Stadia controller and a Chromecast Ultra as part of the Black Friday sales. It originally retails at £69.99 but it was £19.99 during the sale.

Having ordered the product on the 25th of November, I was told I would NOT be charged until it was ready for dispatch. When I saw a notification from my banking app, I was charged right that moment.

However, to my surprise, on December 1st, I checked my phone after a notification and discovered that Google had charged me £19.99 again for the Stadia Premiere Edition. I contacted Google's chat and they told me that this was a "double authorization" to guarantee I get the product. There was no warning of this at the time of purchase, and I find it to be completely odd. I asked the representative if this was normal for the Google store and they confirmed it to be so.

I was told that I would get the £19.99 back in 3-5 days. I want a Google Pixel 6, but I will not be buying one from the Google Store. I don't want to chance losing £1,198, even for a temporary period of time, because of their strange double authorization system.

Once upon a time, Nokia used to be the largest phone company in the world with such greats as the N95, 3310, 3330, 5230, and 3510. Today, HMD Global owns the name, and dear oh dear.

My most recent "Nokia" is the 3.4 in the Fjord colour, which looks nothing like the images shown on Amazon. The phone started off great but soon became slow and then unusable. Seemingly an all too common trait of any HMD Global phone. It is unable to integrate a MicroUSB card into the internal memory as other phones can do, and the procedure of making it work with an AUX cable is tedious (cable must go into the phone first, and then into the device you are connecting it to).

Prior to this, I had an even more budget HMD device, the "Nokia" 2.2 after seeing it reviewed by tech YouTuber MrWhosetheBoss, and let me tell you one thing, that phone, despite having less RAM and a slow SoC, was far superior to the newer 3.4. The MicroSD card integrated with the internal storage no questions asked, and it didn't matter how you connected an AUX cable.

It is sad to see a former great fall on its sword at the hands of HMD Global.

RIP Nokia phones 1992-2010

This is my first Oppo phone I have had, the Reno2, and I love it. When I buy a new phone, I have a checklist of things I want a phone to do or have. These would include, 3.5mm headphone jack, more RAM and storage than my previous, a telephoto lens, a full HD display minimum of 400ppi or more, support of a MicroSD card, and a decent SoC (Qualcomm, Mediatek, Kirin, Exynos...). The Reno2 has something very special about it that has sadly disappeared which is the pop up front-facing camera. I never take selfies, and to not have to see the thing obscuring the screen via a notch or dotch is great. If you have used other android phones, the settings menus in those are generally straightforward (I have had LG, Nokia, Huawei, Honor), but with Oppo's ColorOS, it is a bit of a mess which takes getting used to. I do intend to upgrade soon to a Google Pixel 6, but I would jump back to Oppo again in the future.

I have the Rode NT-USB which has been great since I bought it, though I do find the popshield it comes with to be rather useless. A few days ago (17th November 2021), the mount ring snapped as I was screwing in the mic to its tripod. I contacted Rode to see about getting a replacement, and the very next day, a new one arrived in the post as it was still under warranty.

19/11/2021
Since I have been using the service, I have made over £200 from it. However, it can be exceedingly frustrating from time to time when it comes to survey declines and survey completion times.

Now I wouldn't put the blame for those two issues onto QMEE itself, but more on the companies who send out the surveys. Many of them are genuinely carrying out marketing research but once in a while, you will get a survey that wants more information than QMEE ordinarily permits.

Surveys are showing with an estimated completion time, and sometimes these are wildly inaccurate and can take 2-3 times as long and often for a small reward. Another frustration is the 'late decline'. whereby you complete the majority of the survey and the survey declines you towards the end or even after completing the whole thing.

I wouldn't recommend anyone using QMEE as a substitute for full-time income. It is best suited as a top-up if you can spare the time and have the patience for it.

23/4/2023
When you do not use the website for a period of time, you will find emails from Qmee asking you to come back to earn more money. In my current position, I had not used the site for many months and returned to it yesterday (23rd April 23). I did 19 surveys and only 3 were successful. This is why I stopped using the site, to begin with.

Never had an issue with Audible since I started with them around 2015 I think it was. For the times that I had to cancel the subscription, it is a very easy process to do and that was that.

Audible has a wide collection of audiobooks within different categories, and before too long, you will end up with a rather long wishlist of books. I have found some treasures on the site including all the radio broadcasts of Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, and so many history ones to listen to.

The app is easy to use and new purchases will appear there instantly. If you have an Amazon Echo smart speaker, then you can simply say "Alexa, play (Book title) on Audible" and the book starts.

The Daily Mail is a troubling news source. They have a problem whereby ads are disguised as genuine news stories, and this isn't always immediately obvious. They have many news stories that focus on science and health, and in the past, they have resembled scare stories based on "a source" rather than someone(s) who has been peer-reviewed and certified.

Once in a while, the Daily Mail has some redeeming factors such as supporting a campaign or demanding justice for someone(s) who has not received it. Though, the rest of it is long-lens photos of celebrities wearing next to nothing, rampant criticism of Harry and Meghan for anything they say or do, obsessed with "wokeness" despite not knowing the true definition of the word, and dipping their toe into fake culture war nonsense.

Their comments boards have a reputation for being highly toxic. I disagree with that. I would give that award to the LBC Facebook page which is a lot worse. The Daily Mail does understand its readers very well, and for some stories that focus on race, religion, sexuality, and certain crimes, they implement moderation which is fully justified.

Opinion or news? It is often the case that an article on the site is a fully loaded opinion piece, but I do not think it is clear whether is such or a news piece. This hinders the Mail's newsworthiness and whether it is credible or reliable. In journalism, it is standard that a journalist should have at least 2 supporting sources for a news story, but they do not always make clear of who their sources are, "a Daily Mail source", and sometimes do they do not publish who wrote the story, "A Daily Mail Reporter".

The BBC has a wide variety of programming that caters for people of all ages. They focus on TV, Radio, and Online, with current affairs news, entertainment, drama, comedy, national and local radio stations, online news and a catalogue of programming and films on iPlayer.

The BBC does get a lot of criticism for a lot of things from people of all backgrounds. This is the thing, if the political left and right both deem the BBC being biased about a news topic, do you not think that shows neutrality? Remember, the BBC does not broadcast opinions as news, and broadcast their content as they see it to be with analysis. The BBC is not favourable one way or the other to a particular political party or view, as it would put their Royal charter at risk and being revoked. So it cannot happen despite the claims. I would say a lack of understanding of what the BBC is and how it works brings up the negativity.

Overall, for what you get from the BBC, it is good value for money compared to paid satellite services, and it is worth investing in. Although, I think they might have to rethink their future with the likes of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix changing how people view content.

I know Hermes has a bad reputation of packages going missing etc . . . but personally, I have never had an issue with the company. All my packages have been delivered on time with full tracking within the boundaries of their service.

I have bought 5 posters from them including The Lure of the Underground, It is Cooler Down Below, It is Warmer Down Below, 1941 Tube Map, and the 1933 Tube map. They are of great quality although I think the 1941 map could have been of the same design as the 1933 poster. I found the delivery to be a little slower than the provided estimates, but I do not hold that against them and I intend to use the shop website again very soon.

I have been a member for years and I have never had any issues. My favourite property has to be Dover Castle, and around 2012, I did a University project on the site and they were very accommodating and provided complimentary entry and everything went very smoothly. Their shop has a wide variety of products about the property as well as some novelty Dad's Army merchandise. The staff are knowledgeable and very passionate about their role. If I lived closer to Dover, I would definitely apply for a job a the castle.

On the whole, I have had no issues with Southeastern Railway except for one time in June of 2019. On that occasion, we went to London via Southern Railway for a concert at Wembley. We didn't make the last train back from Victoria as it had been cancelled. so we had to catch one via a Southeastern train in order to get the last one from their service to get home. We didn't make it and got as far as Tunbridge Wells. This is when things took a turn. We, my family and 2 other people, we're told that we couldn't wait for the first train in the station and had to wait outside. The staff at the station locked it up and went home having ditched 5 customers outside to stay the night on a bench nearby. Not to mention it was a Saturday and kicking out time, with drunken people staggering in the street and shouting antisemitic slurs. After a night on the street in Tunbridge Wells, we learned that a bus replacement service was running so at some time around 6 in the morning, we were finally able to leave and go home. When I raised this point with Southeastern's customer service on Twitter and then directly on their website. they were initially very helpful and issued a refund. They asked that I took a photo of the tickets and I also added the document from Southern Railway giving us permission to travel on the line at no extra cost. I submitted the information to Southeastern that they required and then silence. I contacted them again and again and they never responded and I never got the refund. They have a duty of care to make sure their customers can get home if their train service fails to do so. Yet this one time, we were left on the streets and made to fend for ourselves until the next day.

I have been with Natwest for 11 years which started off as a student account, then graduate, and now a current account and my main issue is with their overdraft charges. I saw the bank manager for my local branch in 2019, and I was told that the charges on my account would be cheaper. At the time, they were between £11 - £21. They were cheaper for a very short time, and went as low as around £8 - £11. Around 3-6 months later, the bank charges were going up and up and recently went as high as £27.60. The funniest thing was that despite swimming around in an overdraft for the past 8 years or so, I was told my account was in good health. That I found hard to believe.

I joined EE 4 days ago at the writing of this post, and it was a bit of a wobbly start, to be honest. I was trying to buy the 30GB Payg pack on their website and when I confirmed it, I got sent back to the payment page over and over. I asked for help on Twitter, and never got a reply. In the end, I had to work it out on my own by topping up £20 and then buying the pack. Only then, the option to buy these packs directly became available. Other than that, EE has fast 4G, 4 times faster than Home Broadband, and I have constant strong signal.

I am on my 6th or 7th box now and I have had no issues with the service at all. I came across Earth and Wheat on YouTube after they were featured on the food channel SortedFood. The boxes can be a bit repetitive, but if you lack the imagination to do something different with the bread products, then I suppose it will get boring for some people. The boxes are delivered by Hermes, who I do know have a bit of a reputation, but I have not had any issues and had full tracking with each box.

The downside to their service is their terrible website. My login information is always wrong despite it being the correct credentials. Twice now, I will have to contact them to get help.

I am back on the network again having been on EE for a time, and I immediately noticed differences between the two.

The connection with GiffGaff is very stable and never drops out from what I have noticed. The only downside I have with them is the very very slow 4G data speeds. It is almost laughably slow.

Before I jumped over to EE, I would get speeds of 25mbps on GiffGaff's 4G, and now, it seems to have become slower at between 3 Mbps and 10 Mbps on the download. Uploading photos for example is incredibly slow, and I now have to wait for WIFI.

4G can work at 150 Mbps and 4G+ (aka LTE) enabled phones can work at 300 Mbps, and yet on GiffGaff, breaking 10 measly Mbps seems to be the best it can do. Could it not be possible to boost the speeds to something more usable even if it was by another 15-30 Mbps?