My transformation into one of the k00l k1dz of the 1nternet continues apace: I signed up for a Gmail account tonight. In my defense, my longstanding ISP of choice is making noise like they want to get rid of my favorite e-mail client (accessed via shell, of course) and I’m not sure they understand that I want them to replace elm and its antiquated mailbox format with mutt and its much nicer maildir mailbox format. Well, let’s be honest: I don’t really care about mailbox format, but they do; elm doesn’t do what they want it to, so they want to get rid of it, and if they’re going to keep me as a customer, I need to have shell access. Which more or less means mutt.

Yes, I know about the Gmail and privacy issues. I know how much webmail sucks. I know all of these things, and then some. But at the time it seemed like a reasonable thing to do, and it seemed like something sensible, and I always have the option of not using it, and… now I have it, and that’s the end of the discussion. So in addition to my half-dozen other e-mail addresses, I’m now also dochazmat@ (you know the rest; if you don’t know the rest, chances are I don’t want to talk to you, because you strike me as a clueless person).

As for why I don’t POP my mail over and keep it locally… well, I have more important/useful things to do with my time than fight with one of: sendmail/qmail/exim/MTA-of-doom. Trust me on this; I don’t get paid to do that crap anymore, and even if I did, I think I’d still outsource the mail management to someone else, because… it’s a real pain in the ass.

Incidentally, I think this is a hilariously useful (and very generous) service. If you’ve got some spare invites kicking around, or you’re looking for one of your own, why not drop in and say hello?