I Don’t Trust Gmail. Here’s Why.

I have had an email address with Gmail for probably 20 years. I mean my email address is my name @ Gmail. No numbers, no weird abbreviations, no strange punctuations, just my firstnamelastname @gmail.com How long has it been since that was possible?

Three or four years ago I began receiving emails to my address that were clearly intended for another person with my same name. Their email was literally my email address! At first I thought it was just an glitch in the system. Later I thought perhaps they had simply mis-typed their name (maybe left out a letter or something) or had made up a name so that they did not get spam emails. However, many of those emails were for legitimate purposes – receipts from Tractor Supply or from their cell phone provider. What gives?

My Technology

A common discussion in any of the technology forums is which platform is better. Some argue that Windows is best, others that Mac is and others, still, argue that Linux beats them all. What is my take? Well… it depends.

###I am Operating System Agnostic

Truly, I am. I have all three operating systems in use in my home as I write this.

I started my technology back in 1984 or 1985 with a Commodore 128. It didn’t take long at all to capture my imagination and soon I was doing some Basic programming, playing games, writing papers, etc all on that little computer. I’m not sure my wife was all that impressed. But, boy, I sure was!

Returning to Basics

The title of this blog is iamcuri.us. That title was chosen to reflect the many and sundry interests that I have and the drive I have to explore new ideas and to learn new things. While I think some of my posts here have reflected that, others seems to skew in specific directions that seem to narrow the focus on the blog. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the posts that outline my tinkering in websites and self-hosting do reflect my questioning and exploring and learning. Still, I think that it’s time I pushed into some new areas and revisit in more detail some old areas, too.

My 2020 Reading List

I set as a goal in 2020 the ambitious aim to complete 50 books over 52 weeks. I didn’t quite get there, but I did manage to complete 26. In addition, I read parts of four others and read probably a 100 or more journal and long-form magazine articles from a variety of sources. The four that I did not complete simply failed to sustain my interest. In general, I try to muddle through a book out of respect to the author’s efforts. But, I have come to realize that sometimes the best use of my time is not to spend time on an endeavor that I found not interesting or relevant to my interests. A couple of others, chiefly on electronics, I’m still working on, as they are detailed, and time-consuming.

Tips for Working from Home

In response to the coronavirus, many employers have shifted as many workers as possible to teleworking. That is, working from home. This can be a real challenge if you’ve not had experience with working from home. I’ve worked from home for the last seven years, so I think I have some pretty reasonable suggestions to help you be successful while working from home and to help you ensure you have an appopriate balance between work and not-work.