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Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

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Re: Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

#301

Post by theunixbeard »

jgrahamc wrote: post #135
ZetaZero wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cloudflare Email Routing is still in private beta. I'm eagerly awaiting it

It's open now: https://blog.cloudflare.com/email-routing-open-beta/

One thing that wasn't immediately clear from the blog posts --- does Cloudflare's solution allow configuration to also send emails from the custom domain email address?

In GMail (and using Google Domains to host my DNS) I've configured this by inputting various settings as per the guide here:

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22370?hl=en

The key relevant step is: "For school or work accounts, enter the SMTP server (for example, smtp.gmail.com or smtp.yourschool.edu) and the username and password on that account."

Is that kind of thing supported with Cloudflare?

Re: Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

#303

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F »

norom wrote: post #131
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #19

Buy a domain (I bought lastname.contact) and subscribe to Fastmail or a similar paid-for service. You can then use anything@lastname.contact and if your email service provider drops you, you can switch to another and not care about your contacts trying to reach you or updating the email address of all your online accounts. I couldn't be happier with the switch (I was using Protonmail before, and Gmail a long time ago…

> I couldn't be happier with the switch (I was using Protonmail before, and Gmail a long time ago) I am curious: What made you switch from Protonmail to Fastmail?

You can't use any 3rd party mail app on Android and the official one is really bad (no thread view, fails to send emails to some valid addresses…). Also, you can't two-way sync your contacts. And the encryption thing is not really useful since too few people are on Protonmail (so all your messages will be stored in plain text somewhere) and Protonmail will share your data anyway (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28427259).

Re: Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

#304

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F »

101008 wrote: post #38
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #19

Buy a domain (I bought lastname.contact) and subscribe to Fastmail or a similar paid-for service. You can then use anything@lastname.contact and if your email service provider drops you, you can switch to another and not care about your contacts trying to reach you or updating the email address of all your online accounts. I couldn't be happier with the switch (I was using Protonmail before, and Gmail a long time ago…

I tried to do this long ago but I have two main fears: 1. Is it easy to set up the redirect from Gmail to the new account? 2. When I send email from new account (custom domain), how are you completely sure it is not going to be on spam? I send unsolicited emails to people in big corps (journalist asking for interviews/comments, not spammy :-)

1. Yes, can't be easier 2. None of my emails have been flagged as spam.

Re: Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

#305

Post by Grustaf »

magicjosh wrote: post #300
Grustaf wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By hosted, do you mean that the blockchain would act as the mail server? Wouldn't that be incredibly slow and inefficient?

By hosted I mean stored on IPFS. It's a bit like downloading a file from Bittorrent in that it can be fast and distributed, but with some added crypto layers. The only part stored on the blockchain is the address itself. The files are not stored on the blockchain. More here: https://docs.ipfs.io/concepts/what-is-ipfs/ Appreciate your question! That should get you started.

Alright, the data can be stored on IPFS, but where will the computations be carried out?

Re: Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

#306

Post by magicjosh »

Grustaf wrote: post #305
magicjosh wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By hosted I mean stored on IPFS. It's a bit like downloading a file from Bittorrent in that it can be fast and distributed, but with some added crypto layers. The only part stored on the blockchain is the address itself. The files are not stored on the blockchain. More here: https://docs.ipfs.io/concepts/what-is-ipfs/ Appreciate your question! That should get you started.

Alright, the data can be stored on IPFS, but where will the computations be carried out?

High level, Ethereum is intended as "computer", and IPFS is intended as "storage". They complement eachother well.

Beyond that, it depends on what you mean by "computations".

Our example is setting up decentralized email. What computation is needed to send and receive email?

1. You may mean the computation needed to encrypt and decrypt the emails. That would happen on your computer locally.

2. You may mean the computation to send and receive emails. I'm not sure how/where this would happen in this example. It might be on the blockchain somehow.

Re: Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

#307

Post by Grustaf »

magicjosh wrote: post #306
Grustaf wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alright, the data can be stored on IPFS, but where will the computations be carried out?

High level, Ethereum is intended as "computer", and IPFS is intended as "storage". They complement eachother well. Beyond that, it depends on what you mean by "computations". Our example is setting up decentralized email. What computation is needed to send and receive email? 1. You may mean the computation needed to encrypt and decrypt the emails. That would happen on your computer locally. 2. You may mean the comput…

I mean any server application needs compute. Not sure how many clock cycles are needed to run a mail server, but since the Ethereum world computer is like a 10000 times slower than a single laptop, I figured it wasn't enough for really any kind of compute?

Re: Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

#308

Post by magicjosh »

Grustaf wrote: post #307
magicjosh wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High level, Ethereum is intended as "computer", and IPFS is intended as "storage". They complement eachother well. Beyond that, it depends on what you mean by "computations". Our example is setting up decentralized email. What computation is needed to send and receive email? 1. You may mean the computation needed to encrypt and decrypt the emails. That would happen on your computer locally. 2. You may mean the comput…

I mean any server application needs compute. Not sure how many clock cycles are needed to run a mail server, but since the Ethereum world computer is like a 10000 times slower than a single laptop, I figured it wasn't enough for really any kind of compute?

> any server application needs compute

I'm curious about this as well so will be learning more about dapps (decentralized apps). Starting here

https://blog.chronobank.io/what-is-a-decentralised-applicati...

https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/dapps

For messaging dapps, check out the new Blockscan chat by the creators of Etherscan : https://decrypt.co/91226/etherscan-creators-launch-ethereum-... (note: NOT very decentralized yet)

This is past my level of expertise, but you could map out what those clock cycles of a mail server are going towards. For example, serving files, like we talked about, can happen on IPFS. No compute needed there beyond what IPFS already does.

Re: Ask HN: Should we own the free stuff we pay for?

#309

Post by CRConrad »

mns wrote: post #40
Grustaf wrote: post #30

When you put it this way, it's really quite remarkable how tenuous our hold is on even paid for digital services. There is really nothing you could do with a car to prompt the car maker to take it from you. And the state will only take it if you break the law in particularly dangerous ways. When it comes to other possessions it's even harder for anyone to take them away from you. If I take a kitchen knife and stab so…

But you can't really download a car, can you? :) Joke aside, I think we are actually going in the opposite direction. Looking at the way Tesla wants/already does keep a score of your driving, maybe self driving cars in the distant future, I would predict that we are going in the wrong direction when certain people and groups will want cars to drive away from you back to their home base or your car to refuse to start…

> taking only the worst things from novels and stories, instead of the good ones, VERY slowly transforming our society in an dystopian nightmare.

I have only one objection here: Doesn't feel all that slow to me.

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