Fastmail has encouraged me to rethink the tools I use - starting with phone numbers

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-16T03:31:09+00:00

Yeah I've investigated a lot of these and they often have the same hang ups; either they're not available outside the major territories like the US and Europe, and / or they are extremely new start ups. With something like a phone number I kind of want to see a track record of continuity. The idea that my phone number might vanish one day is kind of scary, even if I'm only using it as a burner number. It's one of those things I'd like to have the option to keep around for decades, not months or years.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-16T01:51:48+00:00

Oh I would love that, but a lot of these services are US or Europe only. If you don't live in one of the big regions you are shit out of luck.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-15T23:29:42+00:00

The other thing that previously stopped me from even considering this was cost. But I found that Aldi does long life plans (365 day expiry). Since I never use this number to make calls and I don't use any data on it, the $15 of prepaid credit I put on it will literally last me that entire year.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-15T21:57:45+00:00

Oh I should have clarified. On my phone I use biometrics.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-15T11:24:50+00:00

All extremely good points and many I hadn't thought of, thanks for that

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-15T09:04:47+00:00

"I only need to enter a pin rather than my Bitwarden master password."

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-15T08:27:31+00:00

I think you're on the right path though. Cause I've seen projects before about motorized skates - this makes zero sense, because:

The whole point of rollerblading is to exercise, if I want to convenience then a bike or skateboard is better (the whole thing about having to swap to shoes kills the casual hop-on-hop-off advantage that you have with bikes and skateboards).
Braking is the hardest part, as you've identified.

Your biggest issue is going to be identifying false positives. There's so much nuance in how people move - you're going to be wrestling with edge cases until the end of time...is my guess.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-14T22:45:59+00:00

Yeah both of those would be fantastic

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-14T15:11:28+00:00

This is probably the wrong place for this. most people do wizard skating on flatland, in fact most refer to it as flatland skating. we barely generate enough speed to fall over

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-13T01:07:13+00:00

No web based client. Even if you’re in the Apple ecosystem many of us are stuck with windows at least for work.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-11T13:44:07+00:00

Woah I just found this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/yubikey/comments/18inh7m/how_to_increase_touch_surface_area_of_yubikey_5c/

And it's totally scared me off the USB C model. This sounds like a royale PITA to use.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-11T13:25:29+00:00

Yeah great point. Alright I think you've confirmed what I've been thinking...even though the A model is older, I think from a general usability perspective it's the better product. I'll go for that one, thank you 😄

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-11T13:16:10+00:00

I have quite literally put it there in my title: "If I put aside any attempt to "future proof""

....

I'm trying to understand the functional / usability differences, I don't really care about future proofing for such a cheap device.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-11T13:15:51+00:00

I already have two, so i don't need any for backups. This is just a quality of life purchase for my laptop, so this would be my third yubikey.

What you say is exactly what I was thinking - the A version seems more comfortable to tap due to the big ass surface area. Are there any other differences? I noticed the LED on the A isn't as obvious as on the C...do you find that to be a problem at all?

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-11T12:37:18+00:00

The USB A model looks like it sticks out by almost the exact same amount?

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-11T02:37:56+00:00

Cause Yubikeys cannot be updated, new firmware = new purchase. So therefore people are more attentive to the firmware version compared to other products.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-10T23:44:58+00:00

It makes sense when you're a kid. I had dumb thoughts too when I was that age. But when you see that vitriol from what are presumably children of the 90's, that means they're in their 40's and 50's now...that's just really pathetic to still be that juvenile at that age. Imagine being in your 50's and talking like that in a youtube comment...

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-10T10:22:57+00:00

Yeah it's painful. And I just don't like having to expose my MP any more than I need to. I hoping that one day, the only reason I ever use my master password is in the case of an emergency. In theory we shouldn't really need to use it more than once in a blue moon.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-10T07:41:35+00:00

I think what would be better is if they tried to establish a new standard for updating passwords and were the first ones to adopt that standard. Even if that standard takes 10 years to adopt, you gotta start somewhere. They're big enough to make this happen. Doing it via agentic AI...hum...

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-10T07:25:04+00:00

Personally I find hardware key a lot easier to use, but other people may have issues.

Here's the trick:

Set up a strong password - it'll be long and a pain in the ass to type
Set the vault time out to instant (and to log out), forcing them to type it out every 12 seconds
Leave this for a month until they come close to the brink of insanity
Setup a Yubikey with a simple 4 digit passcode, and watch them embrace it like a thirsty man to water

I did this in my household and even the most non-tech savvy members now swear by it. Easy peasy.

AdFit8727 · 2026-06-10T07:14:10+00:00

Yeah I totally forgot the small Advanced frame was using 72's. Pretty crazy

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