exxos blog - random goings on

[exxos]

Startpage is a wrapper for google, basically it removes any data that could identify you and passes the query to google. The results differ from google because google knows your are exxos and what you most likely want to find ;) If you launch google in an anonymous browser session, the results should be identical.

Google, the all seeing, all knowing corporate monster. Even going elsewhere is a sheep in a wolves clothing...:hide:

I'll probably get banned from google services one day. Won't be able to use half the internet then. Fine by me :lol:

[IngoQ]

Yep, but if you dig deeper you will find something wrong with every alternative. Startpages majority share holder is a marketing company, and Duckduckgo uses results from Bing and in exchange allows Microsoft trackers.

There is no free lunch ;)

[exxos]

:lol: did I mention about starting my own search engine :lol: :hide:

[IngoQ]

Yeah, you did ;) Actually I liked the idea, but it would be quite a project :) I recently stumbled upon https://archivebox.io/ which basically is a self hosted wayback-machine. Not quite a search engine, but at least a way start building an archive.

[exxos]

Yeah, you did ;) Actually I liked the idea, but it would be quite a project :) I recently stumbled upon https://archivebox.io/ which basically is a self hosted wayback-machine. Not quite a search engine, but at least a way start building an archive.

Interesting site. Always much to think about :)

[wub]

Startpage is a wrapper for google, basically it removes any data that could identify you and passes the query to google. The results differ from google because google knows you are exxos and what you most likely want to find ;) If you launch google in an anonymous browser session, the results should be identical.

Well that's a shame! :/

When they were ixquick they had a setting so you could chose to use their own search engine OR put your search through google using their front end. It was all very transparent what was going on, and because of the privacy stuff I was very impressed. I've just had a look and those settings were no longer there.. maybe they gave up trying to do their own thing, or maybe they never were and it was all smoke and mirrors?

[exxos]

Why does everything have to be such a faff about. PCBWAY sent me a email saying there was no invoice for the parts I sent too them and the package is stuck in customs. I sent pcbway a image of the box before I sent it. It shows documents stuck to the box! So someone hasn't looked very hard at customs.

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Why can't nobody do their bloody jobs properly anymore. Always falls back to me to pickup the slack of all these idiots. Its a fulltime job.
:pullhair: :headbang: :cussing:


Another email from PCBWAY. Also relating to the me sending them this package with parts in. They tried to quote me for parts which are clearly labelled customer supply. Thought I finally sorted this out and now they still have one line which they are trying to charge me for. FFS!

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PCBWAY have been pretty good until my last couple of orders and everything seems to have deteriorated somewhere along the line. It is just going back to constant chaos which is why I always end up not using companies again because my sanity just cannot take it any more. :pullhair:


Also the ongoing battle with spam filters is just a uphill battle.

Every time I removed myself from the stupid spam lists I end up back on them again. Then emails I really send out all the receipts and I don't think half the people get them any more anyway as previously mentioned.

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[Badwolf]

PCBWAY have been pretty good until my last couple of orders and everything seems to have deteriorated somewhere along the line. It is just going back to constant chaos which is why I always end up not using companies again because my sanity just cannot take it any more. :pullhair:

It's the China tax. You save in money, but pay for it in time.

Exactly like they do, to be fair: everything's low cost but high manual intervention.

I've not ventured into getting components assembled yet for just this reason. I don't think I can take the heartache!

BW

[Badwolf]

Also the ongoing battle with spam filters is just a uphill battle.

MS and Google are killing third party email suppliers. I run my own (private) and my company's.

MS in particular decree something has to be just so to email them and they're now big enough it sticks.

The irony is our corporate side (non-production) signed up for Office365 and now one of our customers and one of our suppliers are blocking us because MS are sending emails from a different address to any listed in their own SPF!

Shambles. Anyone I know who knows anything at all about email says the same thing: MS & Google are getting close to being the de facto email provider for everyone so third party email services will either have to get into bed with them or die off.

BW

[exxos]

It's the China tax. You save in money, but pay for it in time.

Yes indeed. Problem is this is not my first rodeo with them and I think this is maybe the 4th or 5th package I have sent to them in exactly the same way. I have had to pay their import fees (PCBWAY send me the bill) and I pay for it.

However this time they are requesting a invoice which is clearly attached to the box like it has been on the other packages. There's always a chance it fell off but I really find this unlikely.

I've not ventured into getting components assembled yet for just this reason. I don't think I can take the heartache!

For birdseed type boards then JLC is probably the easiest best option. Everything is basically automated throughout the checkout with basically no human intervention. But I stopped using JLC because partly, a lot of stuff was out of stock which is understandable. But their parts searches seriously broken. I just got frustrated with it in the end. Mouser etc show parts in stock, and then they don't exist according to JLC. They don't accept customer supplied parts either either. Any correspondence you have with them is like talking to a five-year-old all the time. Basically if they have parts in their basic library then you should be fine. But otherwise.. Oh my God..

All this is why I changed to PCBWAY. A lot more expensive but a least I could send them parts. The quality of work as undoubtedly been the best I have had from any company so far. I've course give them credit for that. But as soon as you have to deal with someone human the other end. Everything is just a total faff about every step of the way. I mean sure, they are not native English,I'm not expecting total miracles but it just goes back to the default of constantly repeating myself where they asked the same questions over and over and I give them exactly the same answers until they "get it". The amount of PCB companies I've used over the years.. Geez...

These are parts for flashy clock where I mentioned previously that myself and @Icky pulled our resources together to get enough parts to build up 34 of them. These parts were out of stock or very expensive. So basically PCBWAY we just obtaining the generic parts. I have labelled my BOM in exactly the same way my previous orders and yet this time they do not understand "customer supply". According to the online chat It is the the email address used ( which I cannot reply to their emails either in fact despite telling them numbers times) I don't think it is the same person I am dealing with as I was a few weeks back.