Moving from Exchange to Zoho Mail

Somewhere back around 2011 or 2012 I moved from my ISP’s email service to Microsoft Office 365 Business plan that offered access to MS Exchange server. I had previously toyed with using Gmail’s services with my own domain name but didn’t find that it met my specific needs. Too, I really didn’t have a great love for Gmail.

My motivation for moving, as I recall now more than a dozen years later, is that I was starting my doctoral studies and needed to be able to coordinate more easily with classmates, access calendars and documents across multiple platforms, and generally have better control over my workflows. I was already using Microsoft Office for my word processing and spreadsheet needs, and was looking for an integrated solution that would allow me to plan and execute my work more easily. After playing around with several solutions I finally settled on Office 365.

My History with Self-Hosting

My journey with Linux started in the summer of 2020 when I enrolled in an intensive course in IT designed for a specific ISP (which no longer exists). The course was provide through a state university in cooperation with that company and in conjunction with a state level push to encourage tech companies to settle in Georgia. I ended up not taking a job with that company. While was at the top of my class, the company decided not to extend an employment offer to me and so I moved on. In retrospect, I think that was probably a good decision and the guys that were in the class with me all left that company and, honestly, I’m not sure where most of them landed. Despite that, the class was still one of the most exciting and fulfilling experiences I’ve had. And, I left it with fairly sound skillsets in networking, programming (C and Perl, primarily), web development and graphics (which I still suck at).

PlainText Preferences

Over the last ten years there have been a couple of preferences that have driven many of my technology decisions. One is a preference for using plain text rather than proprietary software. The other is a preference for flat files over databases.

Let’s Talk about Plain Text

My move toward plain text came about for several reasons.

First, I just wanted to take notes that I could quickly create and reference as needed.

My Wife Always Wanted to Marry a Pilot

A Bit of Background

I became interested in drones in the spring of 2021. My wife was preparing to retire from her teaching gig and considering a new career in real estate. After 15 years in our relatively small town in the mountains of North Georgia, we were planning a move to a little larger town with fewer challenging hills and more conveniences. We were building a new home in our soon-to-be new town. This was, I thought, a great time to explore my interest in drones. After all, I could document the progress of our new home and, if she did go into real estate, I would be positioned to do some of her photography. Win!

I Don’t Trust Gmail. Here’s Why.

I have had an email address with Gmail for probably 20 years. I mean my email address is my name @ Gmail. No numbers, no weird abbreviations, no strange punctuations, just my firstnamelastname @gmail.com How long has it been since that was possible?

Three or four years ago I began receiving emails to my address that were clearly intended for another person with my same name. Their email was literally my email address! At first I thought it was just an glitch in the system. Later I thought perhaps they had simply mis-typed their name (maybe left out a letter or something) or had made up a name so that they did not get spam emails. However, many of those emails were for legitimate purposes – receipts from Tractor Supply or from their cell phone provider. What gives?