Cristof de Loet

This video does a great job explaining the (simple) math and geometry of the famous “coin paradox” question that everyone who took the SAT got wrong (sort of) in 1982. I get it mathematically but have never been able to square (heh) it in my head. I love this kind of geometry and have since I was a kid.

At the risk of being one who doth pre-protest too much, I am a human being, not an AI or corporate shill (or both). I’ve been contributing to the web since its earliest days, but—after 5+ years of mostly idleness—I’m coming back online in a streamlined, low-key anonymous manner. So…hello! 👋

In my continued quest for simplification, but without self-hosting, I also needed to change my email system from Google Workspace to…something else. I don’t need a suite of anything, just email, and the following required features:

• Use my domain
• Speed and simplicity of interface
• Basic data privacy and ownership
• Folders, search, and filters
• Undo send
• Good spam filtering
• A solid set of keyboard shortcuts
• SPEED

Some nice, but not strictly necessary features:

• Catch-all option(s)
• Pinning and snoozing
• Integration with password manager (1password, specifically)
• Mobile app

After plenty of due-diligence, I chose Fastmail which meets has all the options, required and nice-to-have, is really fast, and reasonably priced.

I’m an avid user of RSS feeds. Inoreader has been my reader for many years, and its array of features remains unparalleled. But the constant price increases and limiting deals to new subscribers have become more than I can take. So I had to move on.

Web access with a usable interface, including via mobile, is required; app access is nice. I’m trying to keep things simple, so self-hosting is out, as are readers with busy interfaces designed for more casual users, so Feedly and the like aren’t my bag.

The features I need:

• Multiple, per-feed, viewing modes
• Full-text articles
• Searching and filtering
• Tagging, preferably with a public feed
• A solid set of keyboard shortcuts
• SPEED

And, if possible:

• Reasonable options for typography and appearance
• Quick saving to Pinboard and Instapaper

After too much browsing, I’ve chosen BazQux. It has all the features above and is blazingly fast. It’s also a paid product (at a reasonable price), making it more likely it will survive into the future.

Red oolongs have become one of my favorite teas, not least because—like pizza—even the “bad” ones are good. Always nicely fruity and usually sweet. If you like black tea and/or oolongs (or think you don’t like tea), I recommend trying this variety. The best source for oolongs: Floating Leaves.

So I thought that if I piled something good on all my bad.
That I could cancel out the darkness I inherited from dad

—Noah Kahan
—found in “Stick Season”

(Sadly, it doesn’t work that way, or I’d be a different person)