Is Alexa spying on you?

I like these discussions. Makes me feel a bit better about being stuck halfway through the last century.
I bought an electric kettle a couple of months ago. A NOS 1960s Swan, still in its original box. It’s so basic it doesn’t even turn off when it boils. I don’t think that feature had been invented then!
You selling the Swan, fire on the For Sale thread and we can hook up. ;)
 
The one I bought has burgundy plastic bits and is chromed copper surprisingly. They were probably a fairly cheap kettle in their day, but you forget how much better things were made. It’s really solid and heavy and the chrome plating is lush.
- strangely, the power cable is wired with aluminium not copper. I didn’t know that was a thing!
 
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The one I bought has burgundy plastic bits and is chromed copper surprisingly. They were probably a fairly cheap kettle in their day, but you forget how much better things were made. It’s really solid and heavy and the chrome plating is lush.
- strangely, the power cable is wired with aluminium not copper. I didn’t know that was a thing!
Shortage of Copper in the late 60's and early 70's due to a war going on. The UK took to aluminium in house wiring and appliances.
 
One of the approaches I've moved to is buying old corded power tools rather than battery powered modern ones (still have a battery powered drill/driver though). Recently, bought a nice heavy hand held circular saw (all of the guards are steel) that turned out to have been made in Switzerland. Probably closing on 40 years old and still working perfectly.
 
Why would you buy such cancer crap for you and your household in the first place ...an iphone is more than enough pain to have in your pocket all the time.

But okay ... lets not expand this discussion to this.
 
Im very much im favour of sticking with late C20th tech....does what i need without the seemingly useless bells and whistles of new stuff.

Does my phone make "phone calls" novel idea i know, but if " yes" then its met its remit for me.

Another typical example is ive just bought a new car....well 2013......i looked at newer, but found them to be rammed full of utter rubbish i would never need and have no actual use for....all these features are just straining at the leash to go wrong i some horrendous, non diy fixable way; writing off a perfectly good older car, just because a screen goes down and becomes uneconomic to repair....new cars are green!🤣 don't make me laugh....green is a 25 year old astra, thats still got 10 years to go......not 10 year old car going in the scrap.

Do i need 1000 suspension settings? No...im sure the company who built it knows far more about the set up than me. Do i need lane detection, emergency braking, reverse cameras, heads up display, a driver wake up call, NO....im kinda looking what im doing and paying attention when i use a tool capable of killing multiple people at the same time! Oddly.....

If you want to improve road safety, fit a 6" spike to the steering wheel centre.....then see how careful people are....

Jees....i thought electric windows were nifty!
 

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