exxos blog - random goings on

[exxos]

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

That sucks When they are the de facto standard at what point do they start charging....?

Yes I think exactly the same. They just get so big they just engulf everything. As I mentioned previously and others have been YouTube videos.. Do we really want these companies having all this control over our lives ?

As I mentioned a couple days back, if Google decided to ban me, that's my gmail account gone. Which I have had to use more and more lately because I cannot send emails from my own server any more. Likely play store, you tube.. Probably multiple the services which login via Google.. I mean just look at all the chaos when evilbay / paypal banned me. You basically do not exist.

Similarly when I was actually trying to sign up with other payment processors, if you did not have a photo driving licence then you did not exist! As I live with my mum I don't have any utility bills.. I have never had a passport.. But all these companies want such information and never assume that maybe someone does not have these.. I only got a photo driving licence because of some slightly iffy dealings with a local post office. I got our local hairdresser to sign a form to say I was who I said I was etc

This is what I will fear about these companies are just getting too big and have too much control over our lives. When they pull the plug your basically wiped off the grid. I think email is just basically dead now unless you want to play the corporate monster game.

The fight against spam is really not helping all this. I can understand companies like Microsoft clamping down on it. But who voted for them to be judge and executioner of whose email server is allowed to send and receive emails ? It just "seemed to happen" to end up that way.

Some companies I have been emailing regularly buying parts etc have suddenly gone all quiet. I tried to email one of my main supplier contacts and of course.. Got rejected.. I really cannot be bothered to keep sorting this out with companies. By using the MS services they have lost a customer and I doubt I am the only one they have lost.

Louis Rossmann bangs on about such things regularly. But from a different aspect. Basically it is the same thing that we are unknowingly giving up our rights and control over our own information and rights to big companies.When they decide to screw you over, it is always when, not if. I mean the choice is either take a gamble and just used their "free email" services. Or make life difficult by trying to not use them. It is just far too convenient just to use Microsoft for Google accounts. But like I say, we should not be giving control to these companies to this extent. They certainly don't give a crap about little guys just like every other company out there. So becomes a matter of stop using emails sooner rather than later becomes the only real choice IMO.

And if you think about it as well, what about forums such as this one. I have already put a note on the registration screen for people to stop using hotmail etc because they will not get the registration emails. This problem is only going to get worse. Then what ? Basically all forums will be killed off because nobody can register with them any more! We will just end up locked into services which MS and google offer. everything else will just get wiped out of existence.. Likely yourself along with it of course.

EDIT:

Case in point. Just a snippet of one of my many email accounts.

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It is one good thing that PCBWAY have a online chat portal for such messages. As I would be unable to contact them.. Well without resorting to Google mail which would probably not send anyway going by past experience So back to the point of PCB companies to use in the future.. Also gets limited by if they have a online chat system or not.. I get bombarded with emails for PCB companies etc two of them I tried to reply to this morning and got rejected because they are using MS servers. Everything just has to be a uphill battle all the time. Self-inflicted I guess

[exxos]

Finally getting back to testing 030 CPUs.

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I should probably unplug the TOS104 board


EDIT:

So Chinese customs is causing havoc now it seems

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At what point does one give up and just say this is just not worth the hassle any more

[exxos]

A quick video showing how 10K bus pubs are unstable on the original machine but work perfectly well on the H5 with 2.2K and various other mods.





I built a relocator as these have 4.7K pullups on them. Runs fine now with the "iffy" CPU.

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[exxos]

Today's chaos is my mouser order just arrived.. Only it has one of the parts for Trudie in there The parts I sent before are still stuck in customs somewhere.

Because of the parts I got today are about £150.. If I send these to China, I'm going to have to declare £100 value to get the stuff through customs without it being a PITA. Plus the cost of shipping. It would just be easier for China to buy these direct from Mouser. Might as well have a bag of 100 chips which I may be able to use for something else or another batch of Trudie in the future. Better to have spare chips and just lose money on postage and taxes unnecessarily.

It's back to the point of companies screwing over people again. I think it flags up because the declared value is less than the postage cost. So flags up as suspect. So by my reckoning the cheapest you could send anything to China , Even just one resistor which has zero value, it would end up costing £183 at least. £53 shipping, £100 value, + 20% tax. I think China people told me before I told me not to declare less than £100 Because of customs problems.

So again companies can operate however they like and cause problems when you end up paying more to circumvent such problems It's nothing but a money racket that system is I can see them been told to reject packages below £100 Because they cannot charge enough tax on them. If they cannot make money on them then screw it, send it back and make life as difficult for the customers as possible.

Also got an email from PCBWAY with a problem because the tracks are too close to the edge of the board. So great news they spotted this problem. But slightly annoying as they wanted me to reply to that email, which I cannot do because they are using Microsoft where I am banned. So I gave up and use Google mail where I requested a read receipt and delivery email not got either yet, even after several hours. I don't know if they have actually got my email or not. Using their online chat they said they put me on their whitelist but that did nothing either.

Even more annoying is that how come they could request updated Gerber files on this occasion but they could not replace the Gerber files for the problem a couple of days ago. Things have not even gone into production at that time. Is like dealing with the tax office in this country, every time you contact someone different you end up with a different story

If I honestly had the money,space, health and energy to set up my own mini PCB manufacturing company then I probably would. I can't be the only person who just wants odd things assembling without resulting in utter to chaos every single time.

[exxos]

A few more of the Falcon VGA adapters are now in stock.

Will have to dump the rest on to the guy I keep in my personal dungeon to assemble the rest.

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[mrbombermillzy]

Will have to dump the rest on to the guy I keep in my personal dungeon to assemble the rest.

Gosh. Does he also wear a gimp suit?

[exxos]

Gosh. Does he also wear a gimp suit?

Nope. But he probably would if there was beer involved. It gets very confusing with all these currencies.. I mean there is sterling, crypto, dollars, beer...

[exxos]

No floppy drives.. No audio jacks.. what's the world coming to! Might as well get rid of pencils, don't need that ancient crap any more

[exxos]

So anyway. I'm still testing 030 CPUs with my REAL floppy drive.

Now why cannot there be a leg straightening tool for these things ? I tried <insert your favourite brand of search engine here> And just came up a load of golfing results

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[Badwolf]

Gosh. Does he also wear a gimp suit?

He would, but it's not very static-safe!

BW