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Bye Vodafone, Hello Lebara - time to switch from the Big 4

 —  James Oakley

A Bit of History

Back in the day, there was a very small number of mobile phone providers you could use. Orange merged with T-Mobile to become EE. Vodafone has been around for a while. BT Cellnet demerged out of BT to become O2. Three was the newest addition, radically not offering the older 2G connections. (How quaint: 3G is about to be turned off.) So you had 4 choices.

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The problem with Flexiplus+

 —  James Oakley

Last weekend was the busiest of the year for Eurotunnel, as holidaymakers from France and across Europe head back to Britain for the start of the school year.

As a result, some delays are to be expected.

The staff at Eurotunnel did a very good job at communicating with their passengers. They sent text messages both 2 days beforehand and throughout the day, and responded rapidly on Twitter.

However my tweet went unanswered, and that prompted me to dig a little deeper. Maybe they were just busy, or maybe the question was close to the mark.

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Doorstep Clothes Bags

 —  James Oakley

Now for a slightly different post.

Sometimes you get a bag like the one pictured above-right put through your letter box.

They are inviting you to fill the bag with old clothes you no longer need, and leave it out on the advertised day roughly a week later. They'll collect the bag from you.

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Beware: FamilyFriendlyDNS

 —  James Oakley

Yesterday, someone posted a comment on a post of mine discussing a critical bug in NetNanny, software that can be used to help children use a computer safely (including browsing the internet without stumbling across inappropriate material). At least, it could be used, once they fix this absolutely devastating bug that makes it absolutely useless.

KidStart: Unique cashback for kids from websites you use anyway

 —  James Oakley

Edit: November 2021

For some months now, I've not found a single retailer not on other cashback sites listed on KidStart. Where retailers are on both, cashback rates are consistently higher on the other sites. I can therefore no longer think of a good reason to use KidStart. Use TopCashback, and if you want to give your cashback to your kids then go ahead - they'll get more that way anyway than if you do it through KidStart.

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Beware fake domain invoices

 —  James Oakley

There are many scams doing the rounds. People must fall for them often enough to make it worth the criminals' time to keep trying. Here's one which you'll likely meet if you ever register a domain name. If you've just registered your first domain name, there's a risk that your lack of experience will make you vulnerable to panic and respond. So I'll post this to unpick how this works, and to put your mind at ease that you can safely ignore these emails.