In addition to the rumors about layoffs and closure, they emailed me yesterday about a whopping price increase. Here's how it went down:

1) I start using Evernote in 2009 on all of my devices, and eventually started paying for the yearly subscription at about $74/year.

2) Email arrives saying they're raising my rate to $129.99/year. The email acknowledges that "By introducing new pricing, we know we risk upsetting valued Evernote customers like you." Ya think?

3) I look at Evernote alternatives (like Joplin, which made importing easy, but common storage across 4 Apple devices a little less easy), before realizing that Apple's free Notes application can import Evernote's .enex export files and lose nothing in the process. Not to mention that Notes can store everything in the cloud by default for easy sync among 4 Apple devices.

4) Off to Evernote's web site to cancel. At the end of the cancellation process, when they offer to give me a special rate of $77/year, duration unspecified, I cancel anyway.

That's the story. If I were cross-platform I probably would have worked harder to make Joplin (open source, joplinapp.org) effective for me, but for my needs, Notes will be fine.

Hope this helps someone.

Almost all Windows software runs in Windows ARM because it includes Intel emulation.

The question wasn't "where does iron come from." I specifically wondered where iron powder comes from... I was assuming it takes energy to get iron into powder form, since it doesn't really start out that way. And the article left out that part of the equation, so I asked. Thanks though.

I read the article and it doesnâ(TM)t say. I assume energy is involved in creating enough iron powder to be useful. That seems to be an important piece of the equation theyâ(TM)re leaving out.

Unless tons of iron powder is a byproduct of something and weâ(TM)ve had it just lying around for years waiting for a use?

As I recall the Barclay episode, he was conscious in the matter stream (so he could rescue those trapped crewmembers from the other ship). "Conscious in the matter stream" (and able to take actions) struck me as ridiculous at the time, but if you accept that, then he's continuously "Barclay" throughout the entire process, so he's not killed and re-created.

And the Riker episode proves conclusively that there's no such thing as a soul.

So the movie where Spock dies and stores his soul in McCoy's brain so that, when a brand-new body grows, it can inhabit that body, seems to conflict with *all* of this.

I replaced all of my plastic storage containers with Pyrex glass a couple of years ago. Now, a lot of the lids are cracking and disintegrating. No problem, sez I, I'll just go to the internets and buy replacements.

But Pyrex charges US$7 for replacement lids. They charge less for a new container. So guess I can recycle my entire set of glass storage and replace them for less than getting replacement lids, so waste is the economic answer.

Does anybody know of a brand other than Pyrex where replacement lids are a fraction of the new cost?

Unfortunately for that theory, anyone trained as an anesthesiologist has also taken an oath to do no harm, so that eliminates everyone who has the skills from using them.

Oh well.

When I first got my iPhone, the Apple Store reps could not figure out how (or wouldn't admit to knowing how) to sell an AT&T contract without a social security number. They sent me down the way to the AT&T store who also couldn't figure it out without calling in to a customer service line and escalating to a supervisor. It took over two hours to buy the damn phone without a SS#, but would have been five minutes if I had given it up. Eventually, they admitted that they have a placeholder number they can use instead of the SS# and we completed the transaction.

Granted, this was a few years ago, but I don't see why they'd be any more cooperative today.

So that's why people give it to them. Is it required? No. Do people have several hours to waste and the stubbornness to jump through the hoops? Not usually.

Hey, where did all of those people who say anonymity on the Internet isn't necessary run off to?

One advantage over Netflix: Amazon streaming plays movies on non-Intel (well, G5) Macs, which Netflix won't do because the required version of Silverlight is Intel-only. It never hurts to have one more system that can stream movies, especially since I was paying for Prime anyway.

Of course, this is somewhat offset by the fact that Amazon can't stream through Wii as Netflix does. Oh well.

Just so you know, the Snow Leopard specs say that an Intel processor is required, so no G5 support.

I have one G5 system and one Intel system, so they'll be out of sync for the first time after I upgrade to Snow Leopard (which I will do immediately after it arrives, since I do nightly backups and therefore upgrade without fear, or less fear, anyway). The speed increases and MS Exchange support are enough reason for me to try it, but my G5 will have to stay on Leopard forever, I guess.

When my cell phone was stolen as part of a neighborhood-wide crime spree, I contacted the police about using my phone, with my full permission and cooperation, to help track the criminal. Whenever I called my phone, the thief (or someone who did business with the thief) was answering. And yet the police declined to take me up on my offer, and never did recover my phone. If my privacy is (potentially) being compromised by how trackable my phone is, where's that "benefit to society" I keep hearing about?