islandtech

I haven't, don't, and never will have a Facebook account. Ditto all the rest. No need for all that to stay in touch with the people in my life.

What concerns me is the lack of anonymity being pushed. The real name nonsense. Real name policies prevent so many people saying so much. Also highly bothersome is the trend with websites to have a Facebook sign-in and nothing else. It's like the want to track you EVERYWHERE, not just on their own digital properties. No, thank you.

It's still chat and email for me, coupled with as-often-as-possible face-to-face coffee outings.

Different times. You cannot hold past people to whatever the rights du jour are now. Slavery was legal then, right or wrong.

I'm sure in 100+ years, people will look back on us and laugh at how "unenlightened" we are.

"...the Walmart of coffee."

Thank you for the laugh. I never thought of it quite that way, but it's true if one considers it and the alternatives.

Actually, the right kind of bombing does work to great effect. Namely fuel/air bombing. It's also cheaper than conventional bombing.

The bomb detonates at an altitude over the target area and literally blankets it in fire, not necessarily destroying all the infrastructure. Couple this with perimeter napalm runs for a couple of hours and if the heat doesn't kill the enemy, suffocation most certainly will. Less ground troops to mop up the stragglers. Time these bombings for maximum effect. Saw these used whilst in the military. They do work and they work well. Does the West have the mettle and will to deploy them, though?

I think coffee is vastly overpriced compared to Europe. I always drink gallons of the stuff whilst in Europe for several reasons, not the least of which is that it's better over there. The experience is nicer. I have a favourite small European country where I can literally buy two espressos or two cappuccinos for the price of one here. I grew up in Europe and have always preferred the European idea of cafes to the North American variety. I can also usually get a decent meal in a European cafe, albeit a one or two course meal. One can still smoke outside at the tables in quite a bit of Europe. North Americans have their knickers in a twist over smokers.

I hear you, but do you really think the people who spent the last decade+ working on Perl 6 would have done so because of love of the language alone? That would be a terrible waste of time and talent. I think we will see something of a Perl revival when people see just what they can do with Perl 6. I'm hopeful, but at the same time, you yourself know how useful Perl can be for things like one-liner quick, clever hacks and even better yet, I don't think anything beats Perl for rapid prototyping, even if it means the final product is written in C/C++.

Hardly. Perl gets far more use than you might imagine and in some very interesting places. Anyone who thinks that Perl is dead or dying is a bandwagon fan of the language(s) du jour.

I've been in IT across three decades. Perl is just as useful to me today as it was whilst in college. Just because it isn't in use by all the sock-headed millennial hipsters doesn't mean a thing. I can do more with Perl in fewer lines and with less thought than with Python or Ruby. I like Perl's syntax and I like that it allows me to work with it in a way that works for me. Other languages are not so forgiving in this regard.

Look at the usefulness of CPAN. Perl 6 is analagous to Python 3. It's a different language more or less, but given a bit of time, Perl 6 will be used more and more. I already know people using it. I plan to use it more and more. There are huge swaths of the Internet still built on Perl.

I don't use FTP, nor do I allow it on my network. SSH or no go.

I miss the mainframe and thin clients. I really do. I miss when IT workers were white collar workers, not the now-expected know everything from cabling to programming crap that has become the hallmark of current HR demands. It's one thing to be well rounded, but very, very few people know all of the "skills" expected these days. I know of very, very few people who are both competent systems administrators and yet stellar programmers.

I know my opinion on the above is largely in the minority of IT pros, but I really disdain how IT is shaping up. Nothing seems concrete like it used to. It's difficult to put what I mean into mere words, but those who have been in this industry across three decades like I have will understand, even if they don't necessarily agree. I miss when IT was "magic" to most people. I miss feeling like I was accomplishing something rather than putting out fires because the pointy heads are making yet another useless change because they saw it at some C-title conference. I miss the absolute rock-solid performance of mainframes. I miss being able to deploy a new diskless client in 30 seconds with NFS running on a Solaris E10K. I miss running FreeBSD on Netra 1Us that never went down. I miss never having to be around a Windows environment. IT is a mess. I loathe BYOD, BYOT. Just my opinion. Not bitter, just worried a bit.

I would simply add that whilst Google have their fingers in so many different things, Fastmail does one thing very well: email and email-related.

Well, for Webmail, then, I would say Tutanota or ProtonMail, both of which are good.

Google's rendition of IMAP isn't following any standard but their own. Fastmail uses Cyrus IMAP server, which most certainly follows standards.

I've been a Fastmail user for almost 10 years. Never an issue that was not solved in very short order and most professionally. Fastmail offer a modern product with old world service and charm. A win-win.

I understand, but send these guys an email. One of the founders will likely respond to you.

I used to run all my own stuff, but when my children came along, I didn't want to spend all my time chasing issues with servers.

Look the Fastmail guys up. If anyone is doing email correctly, it's Rob, Bron, and the guys at Fastmail. They actually write some of the code for the Cyrus IMAP server, so if you were in doubt as to how talented these guys are, don't fear. I would now NOT trust my email to anyone else. They are that good. Yes, I know, I'm some random guy on the Internet, but I'm an IT guy, which in itself says nothing, but I'm nothing if not extremely picky about my own IT. These guys can fix any issues you may have and probably give you some awesome suggestions. They are approachable, something you will never get from any other company. They are based in Melbourne, Australia, but use NYI here in the US. Worth a call if you value good service and top-notch know-how from guys who know email better than anyone else I'm aware of. They routinely post in the Email Discussions Web site forum.

For Webmail or IMAP mail, look no further than Fastmail. These guys know exactly what they are doing with IMAP and they can easily accomodate your multiple accounts.

I've been a Fastmail user for almost a decade. I've never been happier with any email provider (or any provider, to be honest). You pay for the service, but it's worth the money and more. You are treated like a valued customer and the support, if needed, is rapid and professional. I cannot recommend Fastmail enough.