Chapter a Day?
I had an idea for a service that lets you read a book via email. Like, it sends you a chapter a day. But, maybe you're busy one day and you don't have time to read the whole thing, only reading 1/2. Well each paragraph would have a "stop here" link. And tomorrow's email would pick up there.
Truth is, I don't know if I'd use a service like this. I find it hard to imagine that I would read something, but maybe having it delivered in chunks would make it more likely. No idea. But I found the idea for being able to mark where you stop interesting.
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The next big growth in email functionality is going to be when they enable you to reveal the email distribution but limit who gets replies. I don't BCC to hide the distro list (usually) from the recipients, instead it's almost always to avoid folks getting spammed with replies.
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Fourteen years ago today I posted about how my GMail had just crossed 1.5 gigs. As of today my GMail is nearly 13 gigs. That is adding around 800 megs of email a year. I should have tried to make a guess at the current numbers as I would have been way off in both size of my current GMail (I think I would have guessed 20 gigs.)
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Respond Via Email
I may live to regret this, but for now - given the modest traffic to this blog - I've added a "respond via email" link to every post in an effort to foster conversations and get feedback from readers.
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"New Gmail Attack Bypasses Passwords And 2FA To Read All Email"
Bolding below is mine for emphasis.
According to cyber security firm Volexity, the threat research team has found the North Korean 'SharpTongue' group, which appears to be part of, or related to, the Kimsuky advanced persistent threat group, deploying malware called SHARPEXT that doesn't need your Gmail login credentials at all.
Instead, it "directly inspects and exfiltrates data" from a Gmail account as the victim browses it. This quickly evolving threat, Volexity says it is already on version 3.0 according to the malware's internal versioning, can steal email from both Gmail and AOL webmail accounts, and works across three browsers: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and a South Korean client called Whale.
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Tweaking the Newsletter
Spent a little bit this morning tweaking the newsletter code. I cut out some empty space to make it look better.
Also, I've decided to invert the order of posts. It has been publishing posts newest to oldest for the newsletter, I've decided to invert it, so the emails will now read chronological through the day. It hasn't happened since I started the newletter, but there are some days where I do multiple entries on a developing news story. And I think for the purposes of the newsletter, this makes more sense.
I'm still trying to figure out why some UTF8 characters don't encode right for it. Not sure where it's getting mucked up.
And, sort of invisible to you, I'm changing the creation process for the newsletter. Up to now, the email sending has been a quasi-automatic process. The system would automatically generate it via a cron job. But then the newsletter tool still requires me to manually approve it. So, depending on how late I stay up it might go the same night or first then in the morning when I wake up or, honestly, it sometimes goes out when the dogs wake me up to go outside in the middle of the night.
In any case, I've now made it so that it will be a fully manual process. The intent being when I've made my last post for the night, I can click a link to initiate the process. I dislike the fact that more often than not the newsletter for yesterday is arriving at 9am Eastern for most people. There is of course the chance that this new process is simply not going to work and I'll keep forgetting to send it. I have an idea for a more elaborate system which has the safety catch of sending it each night if I haven't manually done so, but I don't know if that system is needed yet. We'll see.
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I just discovered I can turn off the Gmail inbox divisions (Primary / Social / Promotions / Updates / Forums) and I am thrilled. (Click the gear in the upper right, then 'Customize' under the Default Inbox Type.)
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I no longer give email marketers any mercy. Junk and block immediately. Especially with the newest trend of writing subject lines which make it seem like there is correspondence.
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The Email That Sent Me Back in Time
Yesterday morning I received an email which took me back in time. It was an invite to a reunion of people who had previously been part of the Orlando Magic hype squads. The current iteration is "321 Hype", but back when I did it in the mid 2000s it was the "Blue Crew."
I got the job because, at the time, I was working at an improv comedy theater and we had gotten notice of an audition for new high energy people to be part of the crew. And, as someone who had been a lifelong Orlando Magic fan, I thought it sounded pretty cool. Unfortunately, I couldn't go to the audition because I had a date scheduled during the audition.
But, day of, she called and canceled our date. And, at first, I was feeling pretty dejected. I had really liked her and she gave me a total puff piece of an excuse for canceling. I read the tea leaves and knew we were done. I was laying in my bed at home feeling sorry for myself when I was able to snap myself out of it and I decided to go to the audition - what would the harm be? Being rejected from an audition would hurt less than the date rejection. At the worst, I figured maybe it would be a fun story one day. Either way, it beat sitting at home feeling sorry for myself.
As you might have guessed, I ended up getting hired. I ended up working for the Magic for three seasons. I would wear a straw cowboy hat that had the Orlando Magic patch on it, and then run around the arena. Shoot t-shirt canons into the crowd, etc. It was a good time. Sure, there was running around, but as the big guy I usually ended up with the more stationary roles - like wearing a backpack with an extending hoop and backboard so people in the crowd could throw a plush basketball and try to make baskets, etc. Or, holding one end of the giant slingshots, etc. And when you boil it all down, I got paid to watch basketball - hard to beat that.
My time working with them came the season after I sprained my ankle while I ran the court. As I like to tell it, "I tripped on a painted line." Thankfully the team took good care of me and I recovered fine. They revamped their in-stadium entertainment and I ended up falling off. At the time, it worked out, because I was about to move from a life of gig income to my first programming job.
Fun memories. I'm glad this email popped up and brought it all back to me.
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