Google Cloud Migration Part3

Continuing from Part 1 I had a change of heart…

I decided I really wanted my wild-card mail boxes (it’s a great way to manage spam) and I also noticed Cloudflare had launched their inbound mail relay service. The new plan is

• Inbound mail goes to Cloudflare who redirect it to whoever it’s for gmail account
• The gmail accounts are set up with an alias and a SMTP server (AWS SES) for gidley.co.uk to allow sending of emails from my domain
• Wildcards are resolved by cloudflare and set to a suitable mailbox

Cloudflare Setup

The email features of Cloudflare are in beta, but they seem pretty easy to get onto. While I was on I moved many of my domains over to Cloudflare as their DNS registrar is cheaper than most.

Google Cloud Migration Part2

Continuing from Part 1 the next task is to migrate email archives from Google Workspace email to the destination.

I decided to

• Use iCloud as the new primary domain
• Use Outlook.com as a backup for my old archive I split it like this as I have email going back a long time and frankly searching them is becomming a hassle.

Migrating a Mailbox

Migrating the mailbox is pretty straight forward - I decided to use imapsync running on a ‘free’ Google cloud instance. Using the cloud for this has the benefit of lots of bandwidth and being able to leave it running.

Google Cloud Migration

I’ve been a user of Google Workspace for ‘gidley.co.uk’ email for me and my family pretty much since it launched. At launch it was ‘free’ for small users and over the decade I’ve been using it they have slowly moved it over to a paid service putting us ’legacy’ users on a special (still free) plan. Google have finally decided it’s time to stop us freeloaders… so it’s time to migrate. It’s been a great service, but I guess the free lunch has to end eventually.

Microsoft Teams Virtual Backgrounds

I was excited to see Microsoft Teams have now enabled virtual backgrounds - but they’ve missed a key feature. How to set your own images.

A quick fix is upload files to

Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Teams/Backgrounds/Uploads

And presto you can use them in teams

Isolation - what changes are likely to stick?

We’re now entering week 2 of the UK’s recommended social isolation and people are adjusting to being at home. It’s early days yet - but I think it’s going to accelerate some longer term changes in our lifestyles. The first two that struck me were working from home and shopping!

Driving / Commuting

Many people have never worked at home for an extended period - after 3-6 months of doing it (based on at least 12 weeks as cited by Borris!) many will be glad get back into the office, but they will also be used to all the time they saved not commuting. I’d predict more people will want to work from home 2-3 days a week, and companies will already be set up for it - from the work done during the stay at home period.

What was more significant for PayTV the Apple TV+ or Google Stadia announcement?

There have been 2 big announcements this week that impact the TV industry - 1) Apple announcing their OTT proposition and 2) Google announcing Stadia and I’d like to argue that of the two the most significant for the TV industry is the Google announcement.

If we review what we know about each announcement

Apple TV+

• A PayTV Service reaching Apple and some non-apple devices (FireTV)
• A large potential global audience
• Lots of content - both original and from existing networks
• Aimed primarily at Apple Ecosystem, with some support for 3rd party devices (Amazon Fire, Samsung, LG, Roku)

Google Stadia

• A Gaming service based on cloud servers and low latency streaming
• A Game controller offer low latency response
• Tools to enable games to be ported to the service
• Targeted at any device - runs on Phones and Browsers

These are both big announcements but I’d argue the Apple one is less significant. Apple’s offering is similar to Amazon Prime, Google TV, Netflix and existing PayTV operators. It’s got nothing fundamentally new to offer consumers and is just adding to the range of competitors in that space. Google on the other hand are offering a new experience, high quality gaming on any device without needing to buy consoles or high end PCs. This is a fundamental increase in reach for gaming as an entertainment form.

Aston Crews & Surrounds

This is a collection of photo’s of the view from Aston Crews, Ross-On-Wye, Herefordshire, UK during 2018.

Photography