Month: June 2017

Update on Encrypting Email, It’s Not Just For Criminals

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In late April I wrote about my secure email plans as well as my waffling in a final decision for how I want to set up my system. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to be invited into the beta for ProtonMail‘s IMAP Bridge. One of the challenges I had in April was neither secured provider ProtonMail or Tutanota had a way for me to export mail once it was in their system. That was a huge drawback for me. I knew about the protonmail beta however at the time of writing that post I was not invited into it.

I’ve since started taking part in the beta and I’m very pleased with the outcome so far. I’m able to use the Apple mail app on my MacBook to connect to the service. Since the bridge can ask via standard IMAP I’m then able to use Devonthink to import my mail into a database for archiving. I was able to do that with my regular accounts before however this is new for protonmail since in the past I was only able to access it via the web.

The beta changes my opinion of the service now that my mail is not locked into it. I had high hopes for the beta when I heard about it and my experience to date confirmed my expectations.

The next big challenge I had was what email address to use. With the male archiving problem solve force myself to make a decision. I’ve opted to go with a new domain name. I will route my personal address from the old domain name to the new one. In my signature I will offer both addresses as reply to options. That is because the from address can only be new mail domain that I’ve set up. Proton mail does not allow me to create a fake alias phone address not hosted on their system. Perspective restriction however it was a minor inconvenience for me.

With all these changes set up I have been using proton mail for a few weeks now. I’m still sending a copy of my personal mail to my old mail server. In about a month if everything goes according to plan I will remove the redirect back to my hosting service provider’s email system and solely use proton mail for my personal email.

After that my next decision is do I move my nonpersonal email to proton mail as well. Not having the alias option is more of a challenge with that type of mail. That is because I have unique email dresses for many sites I use. If I need to email someone many times has to originate from the address where the account is registered to. For now I will stick to personal mail only and assess the situation in the future.

Overall very pleased my new set up. It’s not perfect however nothing usually is. It turned out to be very functional and the trade-offs are now well worth it.

Coincidence

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“Never ignore coincidence. Unless, of course, you’re busy. In which case, always ignore coincidence.” Crazy that a Doctor Who quote is semi-appropriate for describing how I feel about something at work.

Of course during the same issue I kept thinking and said out loud at least once “if Woody had only gone to the police, none of this would have every happened. I guess that I am just well rounded in my pop culture quotes.

The W Sisters And The Story of Their Sonic Screwdrivers (And Doctor Who)

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I feel like I have been careful not to impose our opinions on the girls. I was generally pleased then when on their own they started liking Star Wars. I believe I wrote about how I introduced it to them previously.

Like many things we want to expose the girls to we got a book or two about it. They enjoy it so much that I got the entire series as Little Golden books. That segued into watching the movies with them. The girls have now seen all of the movies in the original trilogy at least once. They have also seen the force awakens several times.

Watching the movies was a good segway into the girls requesting for Star Wars stuff. A more than T however T has an Ewok pillow and a few other things. A has numerous Star Wars themed accessories and things. I find it extremely cute. I also love that I can share something that I enjoyed as a child with them. Of course who am I kidding I enjoy it now as well.

Star Wars is of course very mainstream and it was surprisingly easy to introduce them to it. There’s lots of children themed ways to have them engaged in Star Wars such as the books I bought. Other things I have wanted to introduce the girls to have been more elusive to me on how to introduce them.

Doctor Who has been something I’ve enjoyed since I was around 10 or 11 years old. I may have been exposed Star Wars much earlier science fiction franchises have played an important part in my history. Lets not forget partly how we named both girls. T story is here.

Even before I started buying any Star Wars books T had a plush TARDIS. Both girls have lunch boxes however not sure if he’ll ever use them. I still maintain they had to have them.&nbsp. I’ve also gotten the girls action figures. I can’t remember exactly when I bought them however they’ve had them since probably before A could walk. Both girls know of the action figures and they can even identify who is who. I have one doctor, and Amy, and Rory. I am not a purist so it’s a 10th Doctor. since I like him better than the 11th. I wanted the Amy for A. I haven’t found a T one even though I know it exists. Beyond being able to identify them and never really played with them.

Something changed in the past few weeks however. I’m not really sure what however they started taking significantly more of an interest. We were playing with the dollhouse and the girls had several action figures. It was an assortment of wonder woman, Superman, Batman, Belle from beauty and the beast, Ame Pond, Rory and the doctor. I thought it was pretty hysterical the dialogue they had interacting. After that both girls started talking about thr doctor and the companions and asking questions.

Previously I bought a sonic screwdriver that I keep near my desk. Every once in a while and the girls complain that they’re scared about some imaginary thing in their room I take it out and make it light up telling them getting rid of all the bad guys. Both girls love to play with it and make it light up and make noise. After their interest in the action figures the girls started wanting to play with the sonic screwdriver more. I decided to buy another one so I had two of them and give them to the girls. T got my 11th doctor screwdriver and I bought A the 12th Doctor one.

I’ve had to confiscate them so they don’t take them to bed at night and make noise. I also had to prevent them from going to school however A claims she took it to school one day anyway. For right now that’s unconfirmed.

I’m still not sure if the girls are old enough to watch any episode. They do ask questions and I am showing them pictures. I also have shown them some small clips on YouTube.

We are planning a trip to Disney World. M showed the girls a video about it. One of the things that we’re doing with them when where there is a treat to go to Cinderella’s Castle one of the breakfasts. I forget which one. The video showed that one part of the meal everyone has or can bring magic wands, swords or other stuff. We saw kids with an assortment of things. At first the girls asked if they could bring their light sabers. Now they’re asking to bring their sonic screwdrivers.

Overall I’m just enjoying being in the share things I like my two adorable little people. They continue to live up to the statement I always say that they are my entertainment budget. They always seem to entertain me.

Writing A Better Puppet Module

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The kids were at Day care by my office today so I brought them over to work for lunch.  It was the first time I did that.  T decided she could write a better puppet module so she got right to work!