How you can have an article talking about the history of email and it not be about Ray Tomlinson, I just don’t know. Wait - now I know: This person looked up the Wikipedia article on the smtp protocol and decided Mr. Postal was the pioneer of email.

The conclusion is completely incorrect, also. About the only correct thing was that reputation is important for email transmission.

No: you can’t just set up an smtp outbound server on your home server and expect the world to trust you. For good reason: we’ve had decades of trojans and viruses taking over home PCs and sending spam. Your ISP declares its “home” IP ranges, and those are immediately not trusted.

That doesn’t mean you need to use a big email hosting provider. If you set up on a business IP range, configure your DNS Correctly with declared mx and spf records, the world will trust you (until you demonstrate that it can’t).

Millions of businesses around the world do this.

Oh! I just remembered that I can control my neighbor’s fan! I got tired of the constant notification that I could see it/set it up. So, I connected to it and the notification finally went away. But yeah: I can see when it’s on/off and turn it on/off whenever I wish. I’ve never abused this power, they are old and will probably think their house is haunted or something. I just wanted the stupid notification to go away.

Hahaha great question. It’s funny how I thought it was a silly question when asked the other way. In a way, my response is the same for both phones: ‘The main thing stopping me is that I am not considering switching’.

That said, I carried both for years, so I can probably provide some insight. I switched from Windows Mobile to iOS in 2008. I had one phone until 2012. My “main” phone was iOS from 2008-2017. The biggest factor was (and still is somewhat) who had the best camera. Pixel 1 had a better camera, so I switched to Android as my main in 2017. These days, both have great cameras and it wouldn’t be a reason to switch.

My current job doesn’t need me to have two phones, but I still carry an iPad mini, so I remain in both ecosystems.

I prefer Android on my phone for lots of little reasons, but they all basically boil down to the same thing: Android lets me do what I want with my phone.

It’s difficult to explain if you haven’t been an Android user. If you don’t know what a launcher is, it’s the interface between you and your apps. I’ve never much liked Google’s launcher. I don’t like Google’s keyboard, so I use my own. I like to change the default number of rows/columns of my app icons. I like switching between two bottom-row docks. Then there’s stuff like default apps, and way better widgets, of course. Plus I can arrange my apps how I like.

Now - if you are on iOS and have never had this stuff, you won’t miss it. If you want your phone to “just work” and never think about personalizing it, you have no reason to even value the personalisation that Android offers. But, if you’ve gotten used to your personal phone layout, being forced into the Apple way is restrictive.

After middling success putting a modern take on simple rock beats, they renamed the band to The Wiggles and specialized on childrens entertainment.

Through a combination of record companies wanting nothing to do with them, and a willingness to tour in the wake of the World Trade Center attack when nobody else would, the new band becomes wildly successful and gets to keep all their own money and not share it with a record company.

(True Story)

The types of people we are talking about don’t actually read books, anyway. This is what has always baffled me about these movements. It isn’t like they’re affected by the contents of a book.

The neat thing about anonymous discussion on the Internet is that it doesn’t matter. What you have to say is all that matters.

I don’t know anything about anyone and that’s great.

That’s going to be a tough one to call. Nokia Communicator had diary (calendar), web browsing and email features in the 90s. You could also tether off it, but it was dialup and most phones could do that.

That was pretty much the definition of a smart phone at the time.

It may depend on your culture, but Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones were both fairly common in business circles years before iPhones.

The iPhone was an incremental advancement, not a major invention out of nowhere. The first iPhone was actually pretty crap compared to some models on the market. It wasn’t until the 3G model that iPhones took off.

The whole start to Graceland by Paul Simon is pretty vivid:

The Mississippi Delta Was shining like a national guitar.
I am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the Civil War.
I’m going to Graceland, Graceland - Memphis, Tennessee
I’m going to Graceland

Poor boys and pilgrims with families and we are going to Graceland
My traveling companion is nine years old he is the child of my first marriage
But I’ve reason to believe we both will be received in Graceland

I have never been to Tennessee. But this intro really conjures up some vivid imagery of driving down a highway through some historic country, along a river in the company of a child - and being among many others going to the same place.

It’s pure poetry.

I think this one was surpassed by X-Wing Alliance.

I kiss my sons and will continue to do so for as long as they let me. I can’t think of any other male friends/family that I kiss.

I don’t think I’d have a problem with being kissed, but it simply isn’t done. Hugs, yes. Kisses, no. I don’t feel a need to kiss any of them, which is pretty hypocritical since I readily kiss most of my female friends/family.

Interesting question. I can’t say I particularly wish that kissing my male friends/family was more socially normalised. But I’d probably embrace the societal change if it came along.

Accidentally shutting down a Windows server is impressive. They have that “why are you shutting down?” dialogue to prevent this scenario.

Monty Python.
I can’t believe people have semi serious responses to such an absurd turn of phrase. Spike Milligan would also be a reasonable response.

Oh wow. I can’t imagine going into Endgame completely blind. Had you read the comics at least? Or was it just an ensemble of weird characters with powers fighting each other and travelling through time?

What would have even been the point in the fight?

There is nothing that I want to watch badly enough that I would put up with this behavior.

I knew them (Sam & Zoe’s characters), but I watched the sequel only last year. I probably couldn’t have told you had you asked me in 2022.

I don’t remember any other character names from either movie.

I’ve contributed plenty to OSM, but not so much as a creative thing. I rarely upload photos to it. The question was about creative things we do.

While I agree my contributions help Google, I don’t do it for them. I do it for the community. And frankly, they’re mostly using Google maps.

I populate Google Maps. Fill in business names, opening hours, take photos etc. At the start, I was vociferous about it, putting thousands of photos on there. These days, just about everything is there and I only correct stuff and add/remove businesses as they come and go. Oh, and food/menu photos.

Some of my photos have tens of millions of views. Which means people have to see them many times I think. Otherwise every single Australian would have seen the most popular ones, which doesn’t make sense.

I’m used to Google just trusting me and immediately doing what I say. But I really had to convince them that Toys R Us really were closing down. That one took three attempts. The more prominent a place, the higher the rank you need to do major edits to it.

Would you kindly?

And the realisation that I not only have no choice if I want to progress the plot, but that at no point to now could I have progressed the plot had I not ‘kindly’ done as requested.

It was such a clever device to put in the story. Innocuous or obvious requests at first until it reached a point where you are forced to kill a guy. Or stop playing. It’s the most original and mind-blowing concept I’ve seen put into a game. I still think of it whenever someone asks me to ‘kindly’ do something.

(In case anyone doesn’t know, though I probably just spoiled one of its biggest moments if you don’t)

If you haven’t read the books, Chrisjen Avasarala is completely pointless throughout the entire first season.

She’s just ranting and reacting to stuff that’s happening on the far side of Mars and nothing to do with her. Yet she keeps getting screen time. She doesn’t become relevant to the wider plot until Bobby visits Earth.