Posts by Andy Barker 76 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jul 2007
I asked Amazon about this when I was asking about the whole issue of not being able to NOT go on a trial above. Got the following email:
"I understand you'd like to know if you will still be able to send PDF files to your Kindle, without Cloud Drive plans.
Please be advised that Kindle Personal Docs no longer count against your Cloud Drive storage limits, so you’ll be able to access and send documents without a Cloud Drive plan."
Got a reply to this question from Amazon via the online contac us forms. You have to move on to one of the trials. You can stop the auto renew, but you can't currently cancel the trial.
A bit daft, but at least there is an option (but one designed to get you to subscribe by accident?).
Quotes from their reply:
"If you don’t want to upgrade to an annual plan at the end of the trial, you can choose to opt out at any time during the trial period from the Manage Storage page"...
"If you turn off automatic renewal, you'll be able to continue using your free trial benefits until the end of the free trial period but will not be charged for or upgraded to an annual plan when the promotion ends.
Please know that at this time we don't have the option of canceling the trial. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused in this regard."
I got the email today telling me about the changes, and I don't like what I see.
They are stopping the free 5GB service, and I have to choose a 3 month trial of one of the two paid services.
I can't see a way to just cancel now. I signed up for the free trial to give it a go. Didn't like it, so not used it since (although it does seem to include my documents I've sent to Kindle). Don't see how to not use one of the their trials, and get out now.
Nice to see someone responding with something other than problems. You have written what I was trying to dig up, but you look to have more credibility than me.
I do think that the information about this upcoming change wasn't well published. Everyone I've spoken to hadn't heard about it until I told them a few weeks ago.
Someone I know posted a table on Facebook describing some of the scenarios you also pointed out:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204529206482886&set=a.1078488435164.13926.1014855530&type=1&theater
I agree - the border / spacing around articles on the home page is too large. Makes it look like it is designed for large fingers on small screens. But then the toolbar works on mouse-over, and not click.
Can't see anything in the change that I personally like, and plenty that I don't.
As a lazy programmer, I recently started using Basic4Android to develop a small app for my own specific requirements. Language is similar to VB6, is translated to Java then compiled.
Works really well for my needs, may do for yours. The guy that wrote it started with a version for the old Windows Mobile, now does a version for Android and recently iOS.
I think it's a Data Protection Act issue - http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information
"You can ask the organisation you think is holding, using or sharing the personal information you want, to supply you with copies of both paper and computer records and related information."
Of course if the information is considered to be anonymised, then you may not get the result you want.
UK law on recording calls is a bit vague. You can record a call without telling the other party, if that recording is not going to be given to a third party. Not sure how it works if you later want to give that recording to a solicitor, or produce it in court.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/oftel/consumer/advice/faqs/prvfaq3.htm
Same for me. When we moved into this house, was either 100 MBit VM, or 3 MBit ADSL. Guess which we chose.
Does flake out every few weeks for 5 minutes a time, but I can live with that.
When I had Sky broadband and phone at the previous place (fairly remote, 1.5-2.0 MBit), their customer support was pants. Like most companies, if your problem fits into their expected list of problems you can do well. I gave up calling to report failures on the line, and just waited for them to fix it after other people reported the fault.
It specifically says "who have accounts" are infringing.
However I agree with your general direction - they are asserting that by having an account with the site you have infringed a copyright. Quite possibly true, but I could sign up and not use the account.
I totally agree. I've managed to find some reasonable stereo headsets over the years, but it has taken some trial and error by purchasing things rather than reading reviews (due to the lack of them).
I also find that a stereo headset for calls makes it much easier to hear the other person when in a noisy environment (wireless or wired). Also makes it nice to be able to wander around the office whilst on a call leaving the phone in the desk charger.
I would think the comparison would be better if it were made against a hardware manufacturer. AWS is IaaS - the key being Infrastructure, not SaaS or PaaS.
As such, the comparisons aren't the same any more. The accusations against Microsoft are that they force you to do things their way, use their software, and tie you into all things Windows. I would argue that AWS is more like there being one supplier of 90% of the PCs in the world - you can put all sorts of software on them, use them in a much more varied way.
Granted there is still a sort of lock-in, but the lock-in is only with the hardware that they are virtualising, and we are almost all using that in the non-cloud world.
The only companies they might put out of business are those that offer infrastructure related products. Amazon won't be writing Office type applications, but they will be offering more things that make it easier for people to build SaaS products on their service.
"With tablets and smartphones providing similar benefits to customers and increasingly becoming the same size"
Not sure this makes any sense. The largest common smartphone size is under 4.5 inches, and I believe that the smallest regular tablet size is 7 inches. Quite a difference I'd say, even putting to one side the 9-10 inch tablets.
The "research" seems to be a load of twaddle.
As Campbeltonian says, a whole Region pretty much went titsup! People's multi-AZ setups are having problems in that Region.
Makes you wonder how the heck this could have happened.... then again on occasions we have whole chunks of the UK dropping off the internet supposedly due to a single router / exchange failure.
I un-barred mine a few years ago, as I couldn't get to the national lottery website without unblocking. Easy to do, minor inconvenience at the time.
For anyone to use this as an argument for having the same on home broadband is bonkers, given the broad brush they used for site restrictions for mobile networks.
Perhaps they deliberately filtered silly things to show how hard it would be to filter broadband connections?
Hybrids and all electric vehicles have a number of negative points, such as their use of resources in the building of them. Their use does generate CO2, just the location changes. However I think they are a step in the right direction.
Some people used to talk about how horrible diesel engined cars were, but now they are all the rage. The technology improved, so their acceptability improved. I think similar will happen with Hybrids / all electric.
Seems odd to quote transport costs, when a lot of those items would be built in a country that is much closer to Australia than the USA!
If they wanted to really save costs, they wouldn't ship them to the USA and then to Australia.
Whilst quantities can make a difference, IF the product is identical then the only difference seems to be the shipping address.
So, they assume the guy lives in the area.
Then they assume he hasn't moved away already.
Then they assume he won't move away as soon as the public request for DNA is made.
And they assume he would gladly give his DNA when asked nicely.
Sounds like an MP looking for a little press coverage.
According to the Amazon site, Named Contacts are people at the customer's end of the equation and not at Amazon's end.
"Your Named Contacts
Add names to your company's account so that more people can contact us...instead of asking their questions through you."
So the 1, 2, 4, unlimited figures you quote seem to be how many people at your company that can contact their support department.
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