the spam solution i can't use
I decided to regex everything to keep my email inbox clear of spam, but I have looked into other options.
There is one and only one way that is absolutely guaranteed way to stop all spam, and it's on-the-fly email aliasing.
What this basically means is that everybody, be it a person or business, gets a separate alias address to email you with. With on-the-fly aliasing, you can create an alias whenever you want and immediately start using it. Also, if any alias starts getting spammed, you can delete the alias, make up another one, and that spam problem is solved instantly.
But there are three huge problems with this, even though it absolutely does work to stop spam.
First, with an alias service, you're putting trust and faith that the service won't be blocked anywhere or suddenly close shop. Doesn't matter if it's Firefox Relay, addy.io or any of the others. Just because they work now doesn't mean they won't in the future.
Second, using aliases can turn into a management mess in short order.
With the existing web/email hosting setup I have, I could, if I wanted to, configure on-the-fly email aliases. The nerdy technical details of it is that I would set one master address as a catch-all such as me@example.net, and then use some regex magic so me[anything]@example.net would deliver email to me@example.net. Also, I can send mail for any alias I make, so if I had mesocialmedia@example.net, I can send as that address. And should any alias get spammed, I can filter it right out with regex and create another alias on-the-fly instantly. Not a problem... except it is. More on that in a moment.
Is this the same as plus addressing? Pretty much, except my aliases would work anywhere since some sites don't allow email addresses with a plus in them. Social media is a good example. Some social media sites would allow me+socialmedia@example.net while others would spit back an error on attempt to use that for an account email address.
Even with "100% compatible" addresses, micromanaging is a very real thing when using email aliases. Yeah, you're still using just one email account since all the aliases deliver email there, but now you have to keep track of all the aliases being used.
Setting up aliasing is easy, but switching over every account to a separate alias is the very tedious, very annoying part.
If I have an account at Big Ass Bank using me@example.net and want to change that to mebank@example.net, I have to login and do the song and dance of changing the email address, get the verification email, confirm, and okay, then I can use it.
But then I have to do the same thing for every frickin' account I have. Not quick. That could take the better part of a week to get all that done.
For giving out email addresses in person, I'd have to carry around a field notes wallet. On one of the pages I'd have a few short words written down for email alias use (sky, cloud, sun, moon, star, etc.), then cross one out whenever it gets used. True, field notes wallets are cool and damned handy for having a right-now way of jotting down a note wherever I am. But for email alias management, it's a little ridiculous to use a notepad to help manage it all. (Then again, if you consider it a good idea, go for it.)
Any why do the aliases have to be managed like that? It's so I don't accidentally use one twice, because if I did, and the alias starts getting spammed later, two people or two accounts are affected if I delete it. I'm not going to remember which two they were, so to avoid that trap, every alias has to be for just one account or one person.
Third, dealing with The Email Cabal isn't fun. At all.
The Email Cabal are those "free" email providers that start with G, H, O or Y. You know what those are. And they don't like it when people send messages using aliases even when all the checks and balances are "OK". The alias service could be free of all blacklists, have proper SPF/DKIM/DMARC/whatever configured and whatever, but it doesn't matter. You try to send any message using an email alias to a cabal-run email address, and it could be false-flagged as spam at any time.
Oh sure, you can receive emails all day, but sending to any email address run by the cabal is a totally different story. Not only do you have to worry about whether the alias service will stay up and running, but also worry about whether the cabal is "in a mood" that week or not. Ridiculous.
100% effective to stop spam, but...
Let's say you have no intention of sending mail as an aliased address and just want to receive. Let's also say you're relatively confident that the company who runs the alias service won't screw you over. Okay, fine.
There's still that whole micromanaging thing going on that cannot be avoided. Every time you use an alias, that's effectively adding another email address into your life that you have to keep track of.
Ultimately, just the thought of micromanaging email steered me away from using email address aliases.
Is aliasing worthless?
No.
Aliasing doesn't work for me, but I understand people like having a handful of "throwaway" email addresses that they can use whenever they want to receive newsletters or whatever. As long as it's just a few addresses, that's manageable. And by a few, I mean fewer than 10. Going anywhere beyond that into double digit territory is where the micromanaging creeps in, and that would be bad.
progressives vs. bifocals and trifocals
I'm due for another eye exam. Haven't done it yet, but soon will. For the last two eye exams I've had, it was recommended to me to get progressive lenses. I said no both times because I didn't feel I needed them. But now I'm at the point where I might.
A question then popped into my mind:
"Wait a second.. how come bifocals were never recommended to me?"
After having that thought, I did some research on this, and found out why they were recommended in the first place.
I could, if I wanted to, get myself some cheap peepers, which they even make for bifocals. I'm glad those exist because the price is certainly nice, but I don't think they'd work very well for my vision situation. Prescription eyeglasses is the better option...
...but not progressives, because I'm certain I'd hate them.
Here are the three huge issues with progressives:
First, the zones.
Progressives are called what they are because the magnification literally progresses as you go down the lens. All well and good, but there are the spots in the lens where the progressions start and end, i.e. from zone to zone. This is where distortions can happen and things can get out-of-focus.
Think of the lens magnifications divided into regular/medium/high (i.e. distance, reading a computer screen, reading a book). The transitions from regular-to-medium and medium-to-high zones are where the distortions can happen, as well as the periphery.
The only way to mitigate the distortion crap is to spend huge (as in anywhere from $600 up to 4 figures for just for the lenses, never mind frames) to get computer-algorithmically crafted lenses that better fine tune the zones.
But even after getting all that done and spending a mint to get it, it's no guarantee you'll get distortion-free progressive lenses.
Second, peripheral vision may become completely useless.
With progressives, there's always the risk that the outer edges of the lens may be completely worthless for seeing anything. Smaller lenses probably don't have this issue, but for larger ones (which I do prefer), uh, yeah, problem.
It is typical that on progressives, the outer edges have less optical power, which can lead to seeing distortion, which leads straight to can't-see-shit peripherally.
Third, a set progressive lenses is a jack of all trades and a master of none.
Wearing progressives is like wearing a set of eyeglasses that has 20 different levels or more of magnification spread out over the lens.
Great, right? Not really. The problem is that progressives do not make any one particular distance truly view in focus. Single magnification is always sharper.
Compared to bifocals and trifocals...
Bifocals give you two magnification levels, and trifocals three. Easy enough to understand. There is a pronounced line on the lens where the magnification begins and ends. Also, peripheral vision is not wrecked since it's really easy to see where the bi/tri part ends, and there isn't anything wacky going on with the magnification level at the edges.
Adaptation
Some adapt to how progressives work, while others give it the good ol' college try, never quite fully adapt, and junk them for bifocals or trifocals instead.
More importantly, what nobody says after wearing progressives for the first time is, "I can see perfectly." That doesn't happen. You have to learn how to see again. Why? You have to get used to those zone-to-zone distortions, because they will be there.
What really ticks me off...
...has nothing to do with progressives themselves, but rather that eye doctors all say the same thing. "Yeah, you need progressives. Everyone loves 'em. Really."
Absolutely no mention of bifocals even though they were always an option. The progressives are "recommended" purely as a cash grab because they're always more expensive. That is why the eye doctor always "recommends" those and bifocals are never given a mention.
What I've decided...
...is that since my prescription isn't that strong, I'll get the exam, and then buy two sets. One single vision set, and the other bifocals just to see if I can get along with them.
If the bifocals irk me, then I may entertain the idea of progressives. But I'm certainly not spending a grand for that computer-algorithmically fine tuned lens crap, as I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make that much of a difference.
With progressives, it's the distortions and peripheral vision I'd be most concerned with. I could probably get used to the distortions, but if I couldn't see anything peripherally at the outer edges of the lens, that's a no-sale.
mid-to-late 2000s cadillac navigation systems
This actually isn't just about Cadillac but all luxury cars from the 2005-2012 era.
I'm an unabashed Garmin GPS nerd, and own way too many Garmin nuvi, Drive and DriveSmart screens. Example: I own 3 of 4 of the current line, Drive 53, DriveSmart 66 and DriveSmart 76, with the only one I don't have being the DriveSmart 86). And that's just the newer stuff. I have many older ones going all the way back to the mid-2000s.
And this brings me to navigation systems luxury cars and trucks of that era were using.
Updating the maps on a navigation system offered by Cadillac or any other luxury brand is basically impossible. And what really ticks me off are the reasons why. There are two.
First, the map data is DVD-based, and I know exactly why. It's because all the luxury automakers went cheap. SD and CompactFlash storage obviously did exist, and either could have been used instead of DVD. But nope, didn't happen.
Second, the map data was engineered to such an ultra-proprietary degree that it was never even considered the nav system might be used beyond a lease term. They were all engineered as a one-and-done. "Update map data? What? Are you NUTS?!"
I can take any Garmin nuvi from the late 2000s, generate new data images from OpenStreetMap data and update the maps. Not a problem. Been doing it for years at this point. The exact same should be possible on a 2005-2012 luxury car nav system, except it isn't. Those systems are completely locked to DVD-only, completed locked to ultra-proprietary map data, and there's not a damned thing that can be done about it.
Now you know why Android head units sell. You either take apart your mid-to-late 2000s luxury car interior and install one of those, or you just buy a Garmin like one mentioned above and go with that.
This makes me wonder how long it's going to take before an automaker releases a car with no screens and uses that as a selling point. To be more specific, no touchscreens. I know the backup camera has to exist because of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 111. But there isn't any requirement for infotainment nor a touchscreen to be present. Automakers could junk that crap if they wanted to. And they should.
i upgraded to windows 10... from windows 11
I had said back in July last year that I had made peace with Windows 11 in that I accepted its awfulness. As I've said before, while Linux is my daily driver, I keep a second computer with Win11 on it for the very short list of things I need Windows for.
Well, that's changed, because I got spooked.
Windows Update KB5074109 was released, and on "some PCs" it caused Windows 11 to have bugs all over the frickin' place, the worst of which being an UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error. But then, but then... some users attempting to uninstall that 'update' would encounter error 0x800f0905, effectively blocking the rollback process. And how many is "some PCs"? No idea. Hundreds? Thousands? Many thousands? No clue.
Did my computer go nuts? Fortunately, no, but I think I know why.
Before I say why, there was an OOB (out-of-band) fix-for-the-"fix" released by Microsoft for Win11. I remember that update being large and taking a while to install and finish.
Even though the OOB thing installed successfully, the damage had been done, and I was spooked. I'm pretty sure the only reason my Win11 computer didn't blow up is because I barely use it, and because it was almost a bone stock installation with barely any software on it.
Still, it is absolutely insane that an official real-deal update was that bad. I can honestly say I never saw that happen on XP, 7 or even 10.
Speaking of which...
I switched to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC
I have to give a disclaimer right up front: Don't do this. I'm able to get away with it solely because of the way I use my second computer, which I'll explain a bit.
Windows IoT is Windows Internet of Things, formerly known as Windows Embedded. LTSC means Long-Term Servicing Channel. This particular version of Windows 10 has security updates available all the way to January 2032.
Is Win10 IoT LTSC good for use as a daily driver OS in the home? No. At best, you'll get less than two years more out of 10 by using it, and I'll tell you exactly why. Microsoft will probably drop support for the Edge browser in Win10 come October 2028. Once that happens, other major browsers will most likely quickly follow suit and stop making Win10 versions. And not having a modern browser in Windows or any OS is just a bad idea.
Win10 IoT LTSC is meant for things like point-of-sale systems, kiosks, maybe a computer that runs heavy equipment, and things of that ilk.
The reason Win10 IoT LTSC is a good fit for me is because I primarily needed it for legacy programs. Some of the legacy software I have is really old, but Win10 can run it just fine.
Win11 actually ran that old software okay, and I really was set to run Win11 for the long term. But again, that update which so many people had problems with... uh-uh, no. Not happening. While nothing bad happened to my computer, it could have just from that official update.
I can understand the allure of Win10 IoT LTSC, but it's a false hope
Not since Windows 2000 Professional have I seen a Windows so clean out of the gate after a fresh installation. It would be all too easy to experience that and think, "Yes... YES. This is what I want my Windows to be. THIS RIGHT HERE."
Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up too high.
Gamers have already discovered the hard way that Win10 IoT LTSC isn't great for gaming. Some game launchers just outright don't work, DirectX updates are missing, it doesn't support the latest gaming hardware, no Microsoft store, and so on.
And even if you don't game, other things like modern mice and modern printers may not work with it at all.
I knew all this before installing Win10 IoT LTSC. What I wanted, and got, was a Windows that's "all business", so to speak. In fact, it's installed on what's technically classified as a business class computer. Very vanilla. And that's definitely one of the computer hardware environments this particular Windows "likes".
What works best with Win10 IoT LTSC?
An example of the hardware I'm talking about is a Dell Optiplex. Just a plain black PC box like you'd see in an office or a bank. Plain box, plain wired keyboard, plain wired mouse, plain Dell 1080p monitor. This is the type of computer hardware Win10 IoT LTSC would install to easily and have no issues.
If you keep it plain, keep it vanilla, only upgrade the RAM, and use SSD as the main drive, that's the ideal hardware environment.
I still won't use it as my daily driver
While this IoT Windows is the closest thing to Windows 7 since Windows 7 (and I still miss that OS), it's not enough to sway me away from Linux.
As an OS for my second computer used for very specific legacy things, Win10 IoT LTSC is fine. As a daily driver OS, no. 2028 seems like it's far away right now, but it's really not. If the boom is dropped with no more major modern browsers for Win10 by that time, I'm okay with that since Win10 isn't the main OS I use.
wack wack
Search is a thing on the internet and always has been, because how would you find anything otherwise other than word-of-mouth?
I've bounced around with search a lot over the years. In the '90s it was Yahoo!, Excite, Lycos, AltaVista and others. Then came Google. Good for a while, but then started to suck. A lot. Then came AI, which I'll talk more about in a moment.
In the middle of all this craziness was DuckDuckGo, launched in 2008. They have duck.com now, so yeah, easy to remember. I had always known DDG was there but didn't use it much. However, these days, DDG is now my go-to both for search and, believe it or not, AI.
DDG's AI is duck.ai, but I do appreciate the fact that noai.duckduckgo.com exists. DDG put up a vote at voteyesornoai.com, to where 90% said nope, don't want it in my search, so now a no-AI version of DDG exists. Nice.
However, I do use duck.ai because more often than not it actually works pretty well.
Before I explain why, my main reason for using DDG other than for the better search are the bangs. These come in handy more than a little bit.
If I want to search for an image of something, that's !i image-here like !i guitar. If I want to search Reddit using the old UX (always better) instead of the modernized one, an example of that is !rold guitar. If I want a weather forecast using weather.gov, !wgov tpa. Town/state or ZIP can be alternatively used for that instead of airport codes. If I want to search YouTube, !yt guitar or whatever.
Bangs are ridiculously useful, and DDG has a lot of them.
Where duck.ai is concerned, it's no more correct or incorrect than other AI, but one thing is different in a good way. Duck.ai never gives me an attitude.
This one takes a bit of explanation.
There are days when Grok AI for literally no reason will get snarky and/or use "cool person speak" with its responses, which is ridiculously annoying. I should have taken a screenshot of this, but one time I asked it a programming question, and the reply contained, "You could do [this], but nobody does that anymore so it's not worth your time." That's the equivalent of a trust me bro response.
Then there is other AI that is way too sweet/nice/cute. Gemini is definitely one of those, and Copilot isn't too far behind it.
Duck.ai never gives me an attitude, never does trust-me-bro replies, and doesn't try to be sweet and cute. The responses I get from it are what I call polite and normal, which is all I ever want, even if sometimes the answers I get are wrong (not that there is any AI that provides correct answers 100% of the time).
Some may say that all you need to do is adjust the conversation style and then AI will stop all the attitude crap. I shouldn't have to do that, so I don't.
This is not to say I can't adjust the tone of response with duck.ai, because I totally can do that:
...but the point is I don't have to. The Default setting gets the job done.
And where regular search is concerned, it's good. Not just good enough. Actually good.
If AI ever goes bust, DDG will still be there
The fact DDG launched a no-AI version of their search is very forward thinking. They didn't even need to launch that vote site to figure out if people really wanted AI in their search or not. DDG already knew, because how could they not. The vote just confirmed it.
I do like it that DDG already has a solution right now for no-AI search. Other search engines are neck deep in AI with no way out, so if AI busts, they bust. DDG won't and will still work.