IOS presently, partially to simplify de googling.

What Google password?

I don’t intend to browse RMS-style, but I have zero need of a Google account, nor of the major search engines directly.

I just add layers between myself and that particular company. I still can get their data, but without the creep factor.

Mostly.

It’s an imperfect solution, but I’m more comfortable with access by proxy than direct access.

I don’t know offhand, but thanks for the reminder. I would have remembered COVID this year, but could well have forgotten flu!

Woah, that’s absolutely insane. Subway has always struck me as a little pricey for what they offer, but they’re also dead consistent which counts for something.

JJs, no way I’d spent $26 for a sandwich of any size.

At those prices (or McDonald’s prices these days, TBH), I’d just as soon sit down and also tip for basically the same amount of money with better quality food.

Self-checkout tipping has never made sense to me. I haven’t done the deep dive research, but I suspect that since the tips are not directed at an employee, it’s an easy way for the business itself to get tips w/o being in violation of tip theft laws. No intended employee recipient == free-for-all and business can grab the cash.

More that they’ve had a number of food safety issues over the years, and seem not to have taken any definitive steps to resolve that - as opposed to e.g., JJ’s who got rid of the sprouts, since they were entirely unable to be cooked/sanitized/etc.

This is hardly a new law, so the question follows why this is timely / why now.

I’m hardly the expert here, but I wonder if there is even standing for TX to challenge a thirty year old federal law that’s effectively long settled law.

More PR bullshit.

There are three restaurants I distinctly remember long-term as health risks: Chipotle, Chi-Chis (decades ago), and Jimmy Johns.

The first, I still consider a risk. The second is long gone, and exists only as branding for salsa and the like. The latter, made a concerted effort to get rid of the one risky part of their product which couldn’t be cooked or otherwise sterilized (sprouts, by definition) and to my knowledge hasn’t had a large-scale problem since.

JJs is the only one that handled it even remotely correctly, after either the first or second outbreak, by straight removing the risk. They’re also the only one of the two remaining above that I’ll patronize. I’ve never eaten Chipotle, and it strikes me as highly unlikely that I ever will.

I’m not sure I fully agree with your suggestion of CloudFlare, though your point is well-taken - ten year renewals with nine to fix billing issues is a best practice. Last thing I want is to lose my primary email because I missed a billing email after replacing a card six months ago.

Catch-alls are definitely a win, especially for people who sometimes forget to write down every single ephermeral email address they’ve ever used to sign up for anything with… I like subdomains for email, but only when planned/executed in an intentional way. Has the potential to get out of hand quickly.

I’ve elsewhere mentioned my preferred provider, but it seems to be fairly common that most email providers also offer DNS as part of the package, which makes the whole process much simpler.

Migadu is relatively private, dirt cheap, and dead easy to set up. Supports both web and desktop email clients of choice.

IMHO, TLD matters and always will - the problem is that it matters to varying degrees depending on the destination host, the remainder of your setup, etc. If you’re fastidious about configuring all of the requisite DNS records, etc., it will be less of a problem.

I mostly avoid the newer non-CC TLDs for that reason, and general personal preference. Deliverability is enough of a challenge without adding more work to it, which is why ‘actually’ hosting one’s own email is mostly a toy project, and not something generally done as a serious endeavor. Useful for learning and understanding, of course, but not particularly practical to literally host one’s own email server for ongoing usage in any critical use case.

You’ll find certain providers easier to get your emails through to than others - Hotmail and variants are notoriously difficult, and tend to drop inbound mail at the gate without sending a bounce message, as if the inbound mail just disappeared.

Visible has worked well for me recently - it’s wholly owned by VZW as I recall, and exclusively uses their network. In most areas, VZW is objectively the best coverage of any carrier.

$30/mo and I have yet to see throttling, even with heavy use. It “just works”.

Yes, I’m effectively handing that data to VZW, but I have no illusions that any MVNO I chose would behave any differently. One way or another, they’re all reselling the same 3 carriers, who by definition must have some base level of access to your data.

VPNs go a long way towards mitigating that, but using a carrier is likely to leak some level of data. While I have a great deal of respect for RMS, my own life doesn’t really fit within his internet usage model and I’m forced to make choices. (Sacrifices, really, but informed ones.)

As far as function, they’ve got a nice little package all wrapped up and easy to use. Aside from the group text thing I mentioned elsewhere, it’s a pretty slick implementation. But for a user base of one, with privacy concerns, I’d rather use something that’s a bit rougher around the edges yet more configurable, and more private.

See voip.ms for voice. I can’t speak for specific non-European languages, but I’ve been quite happy with LibreTranslate for my on the fly needs. Setup was dead easy too. (And if you see a lack of coverage for particular languages, obviously your contributions to improve that would be welcome)

Seconding @Tazerface@sh.itjust.works 's suggestion of voip.ms.

I throw them a lil cash maybe once per quarter or so, they maintain a bunch of numbers that I may or may not utilize at any moment, but are just too good to give up, and anything I’m not actively using is set up to send inbound SMS to my email - that way I don’t lose access to multi-factor codes and such, but I’m not trying to juggle a bunch of numbers in some app or other either.

Dirt cheap, ‘just works,’ and they even made porting from GV easy.

Also, by the same token, to de-google your email, I’m a big fan of Migadu. Same sort of scenario - I prepay a lil bit once a quarter or so, have catch-alls set up so I don’t miss random crap from emails I’ve forgotten I created/used a decade ago, etc. A nice, simple solution that also plays well with on-the-fly outbound email addressing, Thunderbird for day to day needs, and webmail.

sed harbors no demon beasts, in my experience.

On the other hand, by default using sed -i is where the demons come in.

No, sed, NOT in place. Not the first time. Show me what you want to do based on the instructions I gave you, and then we’ll talk about letting you play with the real data.

Revolut does that, but far cheaper.

Seems like it would be a nightmare to purify. Perhaps useful for agricultural applications, but for drinking and household use…. Most water supplies don’t have e.g., human bodies floating in them.

Not a scientist, happy to be proven wrong here, but that’s my gut.

Digging my Mirage. Low-key cheap, simple display that integrates well w/ phone, and 40+ MPG.

Also easy to paddle shift into “oh fuck” mode, which burns more gas but gets me out of some hairy situations when AC is running.

Would prefer a hybrid, but this is the car the numbers worked out on in a sane way. I tried hypermiling in a Prius 1G (99, I think) on both a KY parkway and I24, and it sorta worked but was a huge PITA as well. Context, US 41 thru Evansville, Parkway, 24. Not terrible for the time at all, but a bit stressful here and there.

As others have pointed out - costs a few bucks annually,and requires beneficial ownership report (free IIRC).

Otherwise, it’s a tried and true tactic to pass businesses down through generations. An LLC vs. a corp vs a trust is a convo to have w/ lawyer barred in your state but the general premise is vaguely sane.

With ya. I smoke an odd brand that’s hard to get, in a state that (rightfully) taxes the shit out of them.

Still costs me an even C-note every two weeks, same as always. Have I cut back, probably. But mostly because I’ve started to face my own bullshit instead of expecting smoking to fix it for me.

I straight up enjoy my Kamel Reds, and while I don’t want to model that to the next generation, I’m the better part of thirty pack-years in.

I can either take the risk, or downright break all the other mental health progress I’ve made. Since I have a wife and some folks I care deeply about in my life, imma go with the mental health.

For unrelated reasons, I once was an unmitigated SOB in any interaction. On the rare chances I’ve been in hospital, I’ve been miserable.

Right or wrong, I prefer to communicate with people rather than attack them, and quitting now would not help that.

RJR can have my money, they won’t get the next genration’s money. We have dispensaries, video gaming, and casinos on every corner in my state. My choice of vice could be far worse, and I’m kind of grateful that I settled on smokes, and not gambling.

I met someone I thought I’d marry there in the exact same way around '99.

That feature was powerful, and now we just can’t be bothered because scammers and blah blah.