Planned Dullness, Unplanned Excitement

[jesse_the_k]

So far today (at 123p) it’s been gray, sunny, snowing, drizzling, and now blowing hard at around 30mph with 45mph gusts.

I’ve been data & stuff gardening which is very soothing

• Deleting 770 messages from my DW inbox.
• Decided to quit Gmail. This means I need to update around 150 logins that use Gmail addresses as usernames. Thank goodness I use 1Password to manage all my logins and software licenses and insurance numbers and so on. Being cautious, I must perform all those updates before I actually close my G-accounts.
• Switched all my clothing: winter comes upstairs, and summer goes down. I’m so glad MyGuy is willing to sling the bins around.
• Ditched many items I’d been hanging on to because I had them, even though I didn’t like them. I’m sure that someone in the thrift-store ecosystem will get better use of them. Goodbye shoes I haven’t worn in 8 years! Goodbye hats I thought better of the third time I wore them! This proves to me that I really don’t need more clothing.
• Our monthly movie-night crew went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens to admire GLEAM, an installation of light sculptures. Art was C+, company was A1, temps were 55° even at 7pm.

Comments

[isis]

Why are you quitting gmail?

Yay for getting rid of items that you don't really like!

[jesse_the_k]

I'm just tired of having everything I've ever emailed people about stored on their servers.

I'll admit it's a gut reaction to the "disabled people are the alpha testers for every technology and these goons are using my words to improve their text processing algorithms".

So, mostly partly-informed grar.

[mdlbear]

I've been considering dumping gmail because their web app has gotten so blasted slow.

[swingandswirl]

Bon courage re: quitting Gmail! I've been thinking about it, but the sheer scale of the task is super intimidating. What alternative have you decided on, if you don't mind my asking?

[jesse_the_k]

I got a ten-year paid email account at Pobox.com back in 1999–only $50! It’s more expensive now, of course, but still around US$50/year. It was purchased by its only real competitor, Fastmail.com. FM is based in Australia. They provide several nifty web interfaces, phone apps, as well as IMAP and POP. It’s been down twice for me since 1999. Great spam filters, and 24hr email/chat service that’s helpful!

My real life account has been there almost 20 yrs. Now I added a “fandom” address there (each account offers 5 aliases). Then for truly throwaway stuff, I use mail.com, which is free, ad supported, and its web site is peak Yahoo 2003.

Happily, a paid Fastmail account lets me fetch the throwaway address from the mail.com server so I don’t ever use that terrible web site.

The $50/year FM plan lets one person admin 5 addresses, so it’s conceivable 5 folks could split the cost—less than a movie.

Each account also has private file storage, address book, and CalDAV for iCal etc.

I will create a fresh Google account so I can save places in Maps, but that’s the only G-service I care about. It’s not immediately obvious, but one can join GGroups with a non-Gmail address.

Typed on phone - ask if unclear

[brainwane]

Congrats on the gardening! and I also use Fastmail -- hi neighbor! :)