KPN rings in mysterious ways

A few days ago, I cancelled my KPN telephone subscription. I hardly ever use my landline and really don’t like being called on it. It’s interesting how someting once so essential can become superfluous.

Only a handful of people had its – unlisted – number. I generally use my mobile to make the few calls I make and have done for the last decade or so. The KPN subscription was a waste of money.

I got an XS4ALL (my adsl provider) VOIP number at 5 euro per month instead. I don’t expect to use it much, but it’s nice to have anyway. I plugged my old phone into my modem yesterday, it was surprisingly easy. Had to fiddle around with the settings a little. Tested the old number. No answer. Good. Tested the new… yep, it worked.

Five minutes later the phone rang. Huh?

‘Hello, this is KPN, is this Ms Prolific? As a valued customer, we have an offer for you…’

‘I no longer am a KPN customer. I cancelled my number this week.’

‘OK, have a nice evening.’ *click*

How did they get through to me? Did they ring my old number? Or the new VOIP number? How would they even know my VOIP number?

I’m puzzled.

PDA for dummy

I think I want a PDA (Instead of the damn iBook I can’t seem to get rid off. Anyone interested in a SE ‘shell’ type ibook? No, I didn’t think so either.) I don’t need one, but having a phone that is a modem, has bluetooth and infrared just begs for a gadget to go with for that lovely internet everywhere sensation.

I know nothing about these things and the fact is I’m not going to be using it much for anything else but the calender and online stuff.

I found this handy page that explains most of what I wanted to know, but I am open to your suggestions.

Here are my criteria:

  • Not much need for Office related stuff other than calender
  • Must do wifi in some way
  • Must have bluetooth and/or infrared
  • Must be in the cheap range.

    The Dell Axim X3i sounds like a good option, but isn’t cheap.

    [ update: I put my iBook on a secondhand Mac site after writing this piece. Thirty minutes later the phone rang with an offer. Creepy. ]