Personal use call recordings

This has me a tad unsure, and curious on views...

Someone on the internet said ...

... that it is better to not use a call recording when making a complaint or dispute. Why? Because you can "legally only make the call recording for personal use".

Well, yes, first off, GDPR related, "personal use" is a thing that takes stuff out of  GDPR. But it is also possible to make a call recording as someone registered with the ICO under GDPR and comply with the rules and use for something else. After all, the call centre you are calling does that. But I fully agree, that would be unusual for someone personally making some sort of complaint. So yes, it would be for "personal use".

But then, surely, "personal use" must cover "having a record of what I said and what was said to me", and "personally using that in a court or with an ombudsman" - is that "personal use"? Maybe, maybe not, I really do not know.

But then... I could definitely make "personal use" of a recording to "aid my memory" in making a transcript of the call - nobody else hears the recording, only me. And making a transcript of a call is something I can legitimately do with, or without, a call recording, yes? The fact that "I made this transcript using a call recording to aid my memory so as to ensure it is 100% accurate" has to carry a lot of weight with a court or ombudsman. Indeed, if the other party claimed my transcript is wrong, it starts to be accusations of fraud, and I am sure in such cases a recording could then be used to validate the transcript, surely?

I also seriously doubt a court or ombudsman would ever exclude a call recording anyway. The other party raising legal objections that the recording should not have been made would rather hurt their argument as it is "we only said wrong things because we thought you would not have proof of it". Of course if a court or ombudsman said they won't accept a call recording, you just say "fine, here is the transcript I made, using the call recording to aid my memory" (perhaps even with an oath of its accuracy) - they are going to accept that - so the call recording has been useful.

I also find that simply saying "I'll check the call recording" is a hugely powerful phrase, and you don't even need the recording most of the time!

However, this then got me thinking of the alternatives suggested.

Email - keeping a record of the emails sent and received. I 100% agree this better, but not based on "not being able to use a call recording". I can take my time composing an email (I fail to do that some times, sadly). I can avoid losing my cool, etc. But then so can the other party (and they may have more training and practice).

My thought here is: how exactly is a record of an email exchange any different, legally, from a record of a spoken exchange. Why would one be "legal" and one not? Surely they hold the same "personal information" (if any). Does GDPR differentiate between them? Or is this not GDPR but something else? Surely the record of emails is just as much only allowed for "personal use"?

And how is that different than taking a screenshot of an "on-line chat" (another suggested idea). This even has the fact that the other party cannot simply assume that of course you have a copy (like email), as you had to actively make a copy, without asking.

And really, how is this different from old school written letters?

I am curious to know - where is the line drawn, why, and by what law?

Import Duty

Latest update on import Duty and VAT.

VAT is sorted for most couriers (well DHL and FedEx) as postponed VAT accounting. This is mostly automatic.

For duty we have an HMRC account now, all works. We advised DHL and they were helpful which was shocking. We have now received our first import delivery with duty, albeit £7.25. Emails from DHL about it. Statement from HMRC. I expect the direct debit soon from HMRC. ZERO ADMIN FEE from DHL.

This is finally clean, and no stupid admin fees. DHL for the win. Well done.

I have emailed FedEx and they are struggling to handle it, so yeh, not good. Hopefully we sort with them soon.

But DHL are still arseholes, sorry.

Before this import was one with £5.76 duty, which sort of kicked off sorting this all. They invoiced £5.76 plus a £5 admin fee.

To be clear, we have no contract with DHL, their contract is with the sender.

What is extra fun is when they told us, before delivery, we said "but we have a duty deferment account at HMRC" (not realising this needed setting up in advance with DHL), but also advising our published terms which state a charge of £20+VAT admin fee for payment demands from couriers.

Even after that they delivered - in my view that means they have accepted our terms.

Invoice for £10.76

However, being generous, and as they had actually been helpful getting the duty account all sorted, I confirmed we would pay the £10.76 and checked bank details for this. We paid it on 9th Nov, including the £5 admin fee we never agreed. We quoted the reference they asked us to.

Note, if you pay A&A with right reference it appears in your A&A account in seconds, you are immediately emailed a statement, and if clearing an overdue debt your services are instantly re-instated, 24/7 automatically. Handling incoming payments (especially if they have the correct payment reference) is not hard, honest.

Threat of legal action

Today (13th) I get a threat off legal action for £10.76. Yes, the £10.76 I generously paid (generous as it included £5 I never contracted for or agreed).

You can imagine the reply I have now sent...

Fucking arseholes!

WiFi details via NFC

This seems a no brainer - an NFC tag that provides WiFi details. Perfect for people to get WiFi details when physically present, e.g. in bar/restaurant and so on. NTAGs are available as stickers even, great to stick to a menu, etc.

So I coded it, using a PN532, and making a client (card/tag) work.

This was not simple!

• Some aspects of the NFC / NTAG / NDEF are in specifications you have to buy.
• It is layers on layers on layers, so a nightmare to work out - many hidden in the PN532 itself.
• It is different choices for layers - it seems the host and card can work in a variety of ways, including DEP, PICC, and a raw tag format. The cards/tags and phones seem to handle various ways of doing it. I really struggled with some of them - the PN532 claiming not in the right mode or that I have a wrong header of some sort. Drove me round the bend. Finally managed a sort of raw tag initiator/response message thing that worked.
• NTAG and NDEF coding is fun, LOL, well more layers.

The first step was a simple NDEF URL, which is not hard. It has a type (U) and a byte for well known prefixes (like https://www.) and the rest of the URL, all wrapped up in a message format in another message format logically in memory on the card. That works.

The next step was WiFi, and this is a pain in the arse. Again, layers of stuff, but this time the type is a MIME type tag application/vnd.wfa.wsc and it has an ID (0). Then the content is a list of tag/values, but not a simple one (i.e. some implicit lengths). However, I was able to make it all, based in part on an actual NTAG card programmed with WiFI using an app. I was able to read using the NTAG app.

But I missed a step - I did not try the real tag on my iPhone. If I had, I would have realised that it does not work on an iPhone!

I have found issues listed on the internet where people have been hoping iPhone will handle this for years. Some suggested it is a security issue? But I cannot see how it worse than a QR code with WiFi, and that works. So weird.

So please, Apple, support NFC WiFI details!

The Streisand effect

I think we all know the Streisand effect, and to be honest I find it extra amusing that the effect is now named after this initial incident, making it doubly so.

I am kind of hoping that what we have now is another Streisand effect.

It seems Daikin have complained to Amazon that my Faikin boards breach their trademark for the word "DAIKIN". My product does not have DAIKIN on it.

FAIKIN is not DAIKIN, that is pretty simple. So waiting for a dispute to Amazon to be resolved, The call I had was encouraging as the agent from Amazon could not see "DAIKIN" on my product at all.

There is a logic for something close enough to be "confused with" a trademark, but the very "fake" aspect here would avoid that - no way anyone buying a Faikin will mistakenly think they are buying a Daikin product.

My view, not a lawyer, is that "Faikin" is "fake", much like "I can't believe it is not butter" is not "butter", like "Fake Daikin"...

If we do not get anywhere with Amazon, it will be marker pen over "Faikin" on the PCBs, and re-instating listing.

Suggestions welcome for new name "Fake Daikin", "Not Daikin", though I may go for "Daikout" or "Faikout". Yeh, Faikout is my favourite for now.

Update: So in essence Amazon are judge and jury here. Had we got a letter from Daikin we could have replied, discussed, maybe even compromised on something, ultimately even gone to court (not that we would go that far) - but because Amazon have just accepted their complaint, there is zero we can do. We have tried - we explained DAIKIN is not on the product, but they just say "we need more information" without saying what information they want (there is no more information). So it is now "Faikout" (trademark pending).

Update: Latest is they still insist on a letter authorising use, and totally missing the "IT IS NOT A BREACH OF TRADEMARK" aspect. So I did a letter saying: As author and designer of the "Faikin" PCB and software project, I hereby authorise Andrews & Arnold Ltd to produce and sell "Faikin" boards. For the avoidance of any doubt, such boards are to be marked "Faikin", and must not be marked "Daikin" as "Daikin" is a registered trademark. We would not want anyone confusing "Faikin" products for being "Daikin" products, hence the different word "Faikin" being used. Yours sincerely... We'll see if they appreciate the irony or not.

Update: They do say that if we can get the rights holder (Daikin) to send Amazon a retraction, that would sort it - but obviously we have no contact at Daikin, no idea who to contact, and Daikin have ZERO INCENTIVE to retract their claim, so why would they.

Punched paper tape

I decided to make a scalable LED panel, so a grid of LEDs, all full RGB (WS2812).

I can manage this at 2x2mm, using 1x1mm LEDs, but no space for decoupling caps or vias, or well, a lot, so can be stacked one way but not the other...

The alternative LEDs I am using, instead of 1x1mm LEDs, are 1.5mmx1.6mm. These are way better, lower profile, and do not get knocked off the PCB.

So spacing at 2.5mm grid is just about possible.

But in honour of my ASR33 teletype, the latest LED strip designs are like this...

This is 2.54mm spaced, 30x9 full RGB LED block. So can be stacked to make longer strips.

This is the exact size of punched paper tape, all 0.1" spaced stuff.

The 0201 caps are in-between, which is neat.

So, this may be on Tindie soon, if they work...

Oven pre-heat

One of the things my wife does is "pre-heat" the oven. It is a gas oven. I have issues with this.

My first issues is that the gas/air and radiant heat in the oven surely takes literally seconds to be "at temperature". Yes, the metal tray/rods the food goes on will take more time, but they are small, and actually way less mass than the "baking tray" on which items will be placed and which are not pre-heated.

The only way I could really test this would be temperature probes and tests, but I really do not see the logic of pre-heat on a gas oven of more than like 60 seconds.

My second issue, which applies more so if the first is wrong, is why not put the damn food in the oven during the "pre-heat". Not doing does clearly waste energy. Yes, the time calculation for cooking may need to allow for a short period of lower heat at the start, but overall it will be less than pre-heating an oven whilst the food is simply sitting at room temperature just waiting.

Noises off

Yes, I make videos, and one of the things I always screw up is avoiding extraneous noises - I forget to put my phone on silent, etc.

But doing this video, the final "Monzo ka-ching" was perfectly timed, LOL.