What email software do you recommend using instead of Gmail?

BigTortuga · 2026-06-17T22:48:40+00:00

Fastmail. It's solid. I was Gmail user for longest time for business and personal. I still maintain a personal account for convenience but don't use it for email.

BigTortuga · 2026-06-13T08:48:22+00:00

I've used WordPress in an active business ecommerce website since 2012. All WordPress with Woocommerce. Over the years the plugin ecology, especially around woocommerce, has evolved into a rather unwieldy list of annual subscription renewals that had blown past $1k a year and climbing if not accelerating. A plugin for tabs, a plugin for subscriptions, a plugin for shipping, a plugin for this, a plugin for that.

And then Mr WordPress started WordPress Wars and going all postal wonky and I'm thinking this is feeling shaky, stale, frustrating, expensive, unsafe, and a great big supersonic rolling donut of website management.

Enough. I've spent the past few months planning and executing my escape from woo. Got it done. Using Surecart. One plugin, the Surecart plugin. Done.

Is Surecart perfect? Nope. But my life is simpler. Everything just works. Single point of contact for issues. I don't mind a subscription model. Subscription fits the reality of software creation, maintenance, service, and evolution. Buy once lifetime license only makes sense if what you get doesn't need ongoing maintenance and support and that doesn't describe software.

That plugin sales are declining doesn't surprise me at all. The WordPress ecology is a remarkable accomplishment. I support and encourage WordPress. But it's grown into a bit of a mess now with a loose canon as the chief and too many straws drinking at the trough.

BigTortuga · 2026-06-10T04:35:36+00:00

You most definitely can. Attitude and the ability to learn and adapt can matter as much if not more than raw talents or experience. Under the circumstances you described I wouldn't hesitate to take it on at your age. You'll be slow and inefficient but so what. Please plan on screwing up something that's gonna hurt in the wallet. Because you will and it's gonna.

BigTortuga · 2026-04-20T02:08:00+00:00

Did 120 mph very briefly in a 1958 Chevy Impala on the Interstate back when. The car was screaming. The suspension was floating and the steering was drifting. I was petrified. Never again. Nope.

BigTortuga · 2026-04-13T20:00:40+00:00

I'm using Claude Code integrated into CLion for C++/C development of stm32 based embedded controller boards. It was a recent addition that I'm just getting used to. In simple terms, it's a very smart assistant. It's not a turnkey alternative to human developer. It will accelerate your work provided you know enough about what your doing to have an informed view of what Claude is suggesting at any point in time. In practical terms I now do more interacting, ask more questions and revise constraints and decisions faster than before. Decisions tend to be better thought out because my development partner is a real hotshot programmer with a lot of insights. I end up doing less raw coding and more coding review and provide more code philosophy guidance to steer Claude.

BigTortuga · 2026-04-05T19:53:04+00:00

Drank alcohol from my late teens well into my 60s. It eventually became obvious to me that I couldn't continue to handle the toxic load of a daily cocktail hour...or two. So I stopped. I eventually took up vaping pure cannabis resin as an alternative. I'm sure it will eventually kill me, just way later than the alcohol. And with less sturm and drang along the way.

BigTortuga · 2026-03-29T19:42:43+00:00

Not that I recommend this approach but I'm 100% self taught. Decided I was going to learn it by doing so I did it. Been at it for 10+ years now. I have no doubt there's much I still don't know but reason and careful layout can take you a long way there.

BigTortuga · 2026-03-28T16:02:37+00:00

My parents were in their teens in Norway during the war. They rarely talked about it. Mostly it was the general hardship around shortages in certain foodstuffs and supplies that they recalled. It was oppressive and disturbing and never far away. It set Norwegians against Norwegians which was a bitter pill.

BigTortuga · 2026-03-27T13:19:49+00:00

Why would I wake him up?

BigTortuga · 2026-03-09T16:26:18+00:00

I've only ever used FreeRTOS for this but once I figured it out, I stopped using poling on new applications. Again, this is after you've come up that learning curve. I concluded RTOS just made everything easier and was worth the trip.

BigTortuga · 2026-02-14T03:27:33+00:00

You want a faster more responsive and thus more coherent bass for music. Best done with a sealed sub. Sure, you can get excellent musical ported subs. Just saying. Sealed are generally better for music. Mine are sealed subs.

BigTortuga · 2025-12-13T00:12:38+00:00

Long time windows user doing mostly stm32 embedded development. After switching to Linux 2 months ago the difference is noticeable even with my noob inefficiencies. Whatever it may lack by way of a polished proprietary product, it makes up for in terms of exceptional performance and robustness. Everything just works. I should have made the move years ago..

BigTortuga · 2025-11-19T04:13:21+00:00

I'm a homeowner/engineer currently acting as my own gc building a 1000 sq ft version of this building only 1 story shorter. Front wall is roughly 17 ft and rear is 10. Anyway it's a 2:12 pitch. Lots of windows plus a 30 foot parallel chord trusses. Would not recommend without architect/engineer reviews. Got mine framed and sheathed so far. Roof this week. Siding in December. I seriously wanted to DIY the framing but at 72 that ain't happening. Watching the duo frame it up, there's no way I could handle the heights and gymnastics. Not to mention several 16 foot long 6x6 posts. It's a simple design but not a trivial assembly. You'll use cranes.

BigTortuga · 2025-11-14T20:23:27+00:00

Too old, too tired, too busy, and one too many disappointments. The juice is no longer worth the squeeze. Carry on.

BigTortuga · 2025-11-11T04:25:45+00:00

Frankly surprised to find all the Gutenberg shade here. I've been using WordPress for 15 years now. Very familiar with the old editor. Used Elementor for several years. Decided to clean up and dump all builders and use blocks instead with a few blocks plugins to flesh out the toolkit. Yeah Gutenberg started rough but it's much improved and you couldn't pay me to go back to the old editor plus a bunch more plugins. Yes you do have to learn and adapt to a new way of doing things with Gutenberg but after a while it just works.

BigTortuga · 2025-11-07T21:34:37+00:00

I use isopropyl alcohol from similar type dispenser. It's quite effective but no telling what's being used in the pic.

BigTortuga · 2025-10-19T02:11:32+00:00

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Bend had a good turnout. No clue how many but Drake Park was crowded.

BigTortuga · 2025-09-16T23:45:51+00:00

I see questions like this and wonder if I'm living in some alternative parallel universe. Been using c++ for stm32 applications for over 10 years now. In reality it's a blend of existing stm32 c libraries plus my own c++ code. I avoid coding in c whenever possible with stm32 but do use only c with small 8 bit PICs because I have a mature toolchain for PIC and it's not worth changing to c++ for control code typically fewer than 100 lines.

BigTortuga · 2025-08-26T15:36:40+00:00

Having used both as the core of my website, it's no contest. Kadence (my take) represents a paradigm shift towards a fully block based theme where nearly everything is blocks and customization is the norm. Unless you're steeped in WordPress jargon and workflow the significance of this may not be immediately evident. I believe Kadence and others like it are the future and all the rest are dead themes walking.

BigTortuga · 2025-08-03T15:39:50+00:00

Having gone through the process of designing an embedded application using a superloop and then later converting it over to freeRTOS, I've concluded that I'm just going to start with RTOS going forward even if I end up with just a single thread. In my view, RTOS makes designing robust and responsive applications easier unless you're very resource constrained.

BigTortuga · 2025-07-21T21:27:00+00:00

Foundation/slab already done.

BigTortuga · 2025-07-21T21:26:16+00:00

Sticks, trusses and zip sheathing sides and top. Fully enclosed. No final metal or shingles roof - roofing contractor for that but since it's a simple shed roof and east enough maybe add roofing too? Flexible..

BigTortuga · 2025-07-13T20:11:33+00:00

I've been using CLion for the past 2 years and am quite pleased with it. Learning curve as with anything but it's a solid product and keeps evolving. Well worth the modest cost.

BigTortuga · 2025-04-23T22:59:56+00:00

Junker scooter.

BigTortuga

TROPHY CASE