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Migrating decades of personal archived email from Thunderbird mbox format into Proton Mail via the Bridge IMAP interface. On Linux. From the command line. Because GUI add-ons kept crashing. The Context I’ve been online since the BBS days on a Commodore 64. Watched email evolve from FidoNet netmail through SMTP, POP3, IMAP, webmail, and now end-to-end encrypted providers. My personal archive contains messages from Outlook Web Access, Lotus Notes, Gmail, Yahoo, and half a dozen defunct providers. Each era wrote headers differently. Each client had its own interpretation of “RFC compliant.” The result is an archive that represents 20+ years of real-world email, which is to say, a complete and utter mess by any strict standard. ...

The Kit Left to right: GL.iNet AR150, Banana Pi BPI-R3 Mini, GL.iNet Slate7. Different tools, same principle. I rotate through three routers depending on the situation. Each has a specific job. GL.iNet AR150. The smallest unit. Square form factor. Runs off USB power alone. Pulls maybe 2 watts max. I pull this one out for short flights, quick hotel stays, anywhere I need minimum footprint and maximum portability. It handles five or six devices without sweat. No fancy hardware. Just enough to get the job done. ...

What if your electricity provider could tell you’re not home without ever looking out the window? They can. Your smart meter has already done it. Every 15 minutes—sometimes every few seconds—it reports when you wake up, cook dinner, leave for work, and go to bed. That’s not just kilowatt-hours. That’s a Pattern of Life (PoL) map of your household, transmitted without your meaningful consent. No tinfoil hat required. It’s all legal. ...

The USAF’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft recent updates got me thinking about AI in software engineering. I spent my Air Force career securing information systems. Not flying them. But after decades in aviation, the Loyal Wingman concept hits different when you are building software. Grew up a military brat near air bases, hearing afterburners crack overhead. I joined the Air Force for information security, not the flight line. Closest I got to the cockpit was securing the systems behind it. Working in aviation most of my adult life makes the Loyal Wingman analogy for AI less of a stretch and more of lived experience. ...

I bought a Nordic Track treadmill back in 2024. What I expected was exercise equipment. What I got was a $2,000 Android tablet bolted to a motorised belt, running a walled garden so restrictive you couldn’t sideload a calculator without corporate permission. Six months in, the deck snapped under normal use. Warranty claim processed, no hassle—they replaced it with the newer 2026 model. I thought I was getting an upgrade. Turns out I was getting stricter DRM, more aggressive update checks, and an even more locked-down console. ...