#+HUGO_BASE_DIR: ./ #+HUGO_SECTION: posts #+HUGO_AUTO_SET_LASTMOD: t * Meta :@Meta: * Technology :@Technology: ** TODO A perfect email setup (for me) :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: a-perfect-email-setup-for-me :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :toc true :END: I've never been satisfied with any of the email clients most people use. I've tried [[https://www.thunderbird.net/en-GB/][Thunderbird]], [[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evolution][Evolution]], [[https://getmailspring.com/][Mailspring]], [[https://support.apple.com/mail][Mail.app]], [[https://roundcube.net/][Roundcube]], [[https://sogo.nu/][SOGo]], [[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Geary][Geary]], and /many/ more. /None/ of them handle multiple accounts particularly well because all of the emails associated with that account are bound within it. Sure, you can make a new folder somewhere called ~TODO~ and move all of your actionable emails to that folder but, when you go to move actionable emails from /another/ account into that folder, you'll likely find that the client simply doesn't let you. If it does, when you reply, it will likely be sent from the wrong account. This is a limitation of the IMAP protocol; everything is /managed/ locally but changes are pushed to the remote server and mixing things the way I want leads to broken setups. Before I go any further, these are a few characteristics of my ideal email tool. - Support for multiple accounts (obviously) - /Native desktop application/ (*not* [[https://github.com/electron/electron][Electron]]) - Has stellar keyboard shortcuts - Doesn't require internet connectivity (other than downloading and sending of course) - Organisation can be done with tags *** Why tags? Because they're better. Hierarchies are useful for prose and code but not for files, emails, notes, or anything where an item may fit within multiple categories. Imagine you get an email from your Computer Science professor that includes test dates, homework, and information about another assignment. In that same email, he asks every student to reply with something they learned from the previous class as a form of attendance. In a hierarchy, the best place for this might just be a ~TODO~ folder /even though/ it would also fit under ~School~, ~CS~, ~Dates~, ~To read~, and ~Homework~. Maybe you have a few minutes and want to clear out some emails that don't require any interaction. In a tag-based workflow, this would be a good time to open ~To read~, get that email out of the way, and remove the ~To read~ tag. It would still show up under the other tags so you can find it later and take the time to fully answer the professor's question, add those dates to your calendar, and add the homework assignments to your ~TODO~ list. Hierarchies can be quite cumbersome to work with, especially when one folder ends up getting all the data. Tags ensure that you only see what you want when you want it. Tags are more efficient and they will remain my organisation system of choice. *** The tools In short, the tools we will be using are... + [[https://www.offlineimap.org/][OfflineIMAP]] to download our emails + [[https://notmuchmail.org/][~notmuch~]], the primary way emails will be organised + [[https://afew.readthedocs.io/en/latest/][~afew~]] to apply initial ~notmuch~ tags based on subject, sender, recipient, etc. + [[https://neomutt.org/][NeoMutt]] to interact with those emails, reply, compose, add/remove tags, etc. + [[https://marlam.de/msmtp/][~msmtp~]] for relaying our replies and compositions to our mail provider Yes, it's a lot. Yes, it's time-consuming to set up. Yes, it's worth it (in my opinion). *** OfflineIMAP As I said above, IMAP is limiting; we need to use some other method of downloading our emails. There's an awesome piece of software called [[https://www.offlineimap.org/][OfflineIMAP]] which is built for exactly this purpose. Its configuration can be rather daunting if you have as many accounts as I do (17) but it's not /terrible/. **** General #+BEGIN_SRC text [general] metadata = ~/.offlineimap accounts = use_exa maxsyncaccounts = 1 ui = basic ignore-readonly = no pythonfile = ~/.offlineimap.py socktimeout = 60 fsync = true #+END_SRC The first big option is ~accounts~; it tells OfflineIMAP what to actually sync. What to put there will be defined further down but ~use_exa~ is just filler text. The example account is ~user@example.com~ and I shortened that to ~use_exa~. ~maxsyncaccounts~ is also fairly important as it tells OfflineIMAP to only pull emails from one account at a time. This is certainly slower than multiple but it's also safer because we'll be running this in the background and don't want many OfflineIMAP processes executing concurrently and interfering with each other. ~pythonfile~ will be discussed later. **** Account #+BEGIN_SRC text [Account use_exa] localrepository = use_exa-local remoterepository = use_exa-remote quick = 10 utf8foldernames = yes postsynchook = notmuch new #+END_SRC In the first block, ~localrepository~ and ~remoterepository~ tell OfflineIMAP where to look for your emails. ~use_exa-local~ is an arbitrary naming scheme I use to differentiate between the various local and remote accounts. It can easily be swapped with something else. **** Repository #+BEGIN_SRC text [Repository use_exa-local] type = Maildir localfolders = ~/mail/use_exa sync_deletes = yes [Repository use_exa-remote] type = IMAP remotehost = imap.example.com starttls = yes ssl = no remoteport = 143 remoteuser = user@example.com remotepasseval = get_pass("use_exa") auth_mechanisms = GSSAPI, XOAUTH2, CRAM-MD5, PLAIN, LOGIN maxconnections = 1 createfolders = True sync_deletes = yes #+END_SRC The repository sections describe how the emails are stored or retrieved. In the ~local~ block, you'll notice that the type is ~Maildir~. In this format, each email is given a unique filename and stored in a hierarchy of folders within your account. This is often how your emails are stored on your provider's mail server. ~pythonfile~ is used here to authenticate with the remote server. This can be complicated and depends /entirely/ on how you manage your passwords. I use [[https://keepassxc.org/][KeePassXC]] and love it. When I set OfflineIMAP up, however, it didn't have ~libsecret~ compatibility. This would have made setup significantly easier but, as it already just works™, I don't really see a reason to change it. This new feature allows ~libresecret~-based applications to query KeePassXC for your passwords or store them there on your behalf. CLI/TUI applications that need a secure mechanism for background authentication can use ~secret-tool lookup Title "TITLE_OF_PASSWORD"~ as the password command. See [[https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/pull/2726][the pull request]] for more details. Because this wasn't a feature when I first set it up, I put my passwords in plaintext files and encrypted them with the GPG key stored on my YubiKey. As long as my key is plugged in, OfflineIMAP can authenticate and download all my emails just fine. The process for using a GPG key /not/ stored on a hardware token is pretty much the same and I'll talk about that process instead. These are the contents of my ~~/.offlineimap.py~. #+BEGIN_SRC python #! /usr/bin/env python2 from subprocess import check_output def get_pass(account): return check_output(["gpg", "-dq", f" ~/.mail_pass/{account}.gpg"]).strip("\n") #+END_SRC This runs ~gpg -dq ~/.mail_pass/use_exa.gpg~ then strips the newline character before returning it to OfflineIMAP. ~-d~ tells GPG that you're passing it a file you want decrypted and ~-q~ tells it not to give any output other than the file's contents. For a setup that works with this Python script, put your passwords in plaintext files with the account name as the file name (e.g. ~use_exa~). You'll then encrypt it with ~gpg -er use_exa~. Running ~gpg -dq use_exa.gpg~ should display your password. Repeat for every account and store the resulting files in ~~/.mail_pass/~. The other option, ~sync_deletes~, is whether or not to delete remote emails that have been deleted locally. I enabled that because I want to have easy control over how much remote storage is used. Here's the next block again so you don't have to scroll up: #+BEGIN_SRC text [Repository use_exa-remote] type = IMAP remotehost = imap.example.com starttls = yes ssl = no remoteport = 143 remoteuser = user@example.com remotepasseval = get_pass("use_exa") auth_mechanisms = GSSAPI, XOAUTH2, CRAM-MD5, PLAIN, LOGIN maxconnections = 1 createfolders = True sync_deletes = yes #+END_SRC This one's pretty self-explanatory. ~type~, ~remotehost~, ~starttls~, ~ssl~, and ~remoteport~ should all be somewhere in your provider's documentation. ~remoteuser~ is your email address and ~remotepasseval~ is the function that will return your password and allow OfflineIMAP to authenticate. You'll want enter the name of your password file without the ~.gpg~ extension; the script takes care of adding that. Leave ~auth_mechanisms~ alone and the same for ~maxconnections~ unless you know your provider won't rate limit you or something for opening multiple connections. ~sync_deletes~ is the same as in the previous block. Copy those three blocks for as many accounts as you want emails downloaded from. I have 510 lines just for ~Account~ and ~Repository~ blocks due to the number of address I'm keeping track of. *** ~notmuch~ [[https://notmuchmail.org/][~notmuch~]] is /a fast, global-search, and tag-based email system/. This what does all of our organisation as well as what provides the "virtual" mailboxes NeoMutt will display later on. Configuration is incredibly simple. This file goes in ~~/.notmuch-config~. #+BEGIN_SRC text [database] path=/home/user/mail/ [user] name=Amolith primary_email=user@example.com [new] tags=unread;new; ignore=Trash; [search] exclude_tags=deleted;spam; [maildir] synchronize_flags=true #+END_SRC First section is the path to where all of your archives are, the ~[user]~ section is where you list all of your accounts, ~[new]~ adds ~tags~ to mail notmuch hasn't indexed yet and ignores indexing the ~Trash~ folder, and ~[search]~ ignores mail tagged with ~deleted~ or ~spam~. The final section tells ~notmuch~ to add maildir flags which correspond with ~notmuch~ tags. These flags will be synced to the remote server the next time OfflineIMAP runs and things will be somewhat organised in your webmail interface. After creating the configuration file, run ~notmuch new~ and wait for all of your mail to be indexed. This could take a short amount of time or it could take minutes up to an hour, depending on how many emails you have. After it's finished, you'll be able to run queries and see matching emails: #+BEGIN_SRC text $ notmuch search from:user@example.com thread:0000000000002e9d December 28 [1/1] Example User; Random subject that means nothing #+END_SRC This is not terribly useful in and of itself because you can't read it or reply to it or anything. That's where the Mail User Agent (MUA) comes in. *** ~afew~ [[https://afew.readthedocs.io/en/latest/][~afew~]] is /an initial tagging script for notmuch/. After calling ~notmuch new~, ~afew~ will add tags based on headers such as ~From:~, ~To:~, ~Subject:~, etc. as well as handle killed threads and spam. The official [[https://afew.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html][quickstart guide]] is probably the best resource on getting started but I'll include a few tips here as well. *** NeoMutt *** ~msmtp~ ~msmtp~ is what's known as a /Mail Transfer Agent/ (MTA). You throw it an email and it will relay that to your mail provider's SMTP server so it can have the proper headers attached for authentication, it can be sent from the proper domain, etc. All the necessary security measures can be applied that prevent your email from going directly to spam or from being rejected outright. ~msmtp~'s configuration is also fairly simple if a bit long, just like OfflineIMAP's. #+BEGIN_SRC text # Set default values for all following accounts. defaults # Use the mail submission port 587 instead of the SMTP port 25. port 587 # Always use TLS. tls on #+END_SRC This section just sets the defaults. It uses port 587 (STARTTLS) for all SMTP servers unless otherwise specified and enables TLS. #+BEGIN_SRC account user@example.com host smtp.example.com from user@example.com auth on user user@example.com passwordeval secret-tool lookup Title "user@example.com" #+END_SRC This section is where things get tedious. When passing an email to ~msmtp~, it looks at the ~From:~ header and searches for a block with a matching ~from~ line. If it finds one, it will use those configuration options to relay the email. ~host~ is simply the SMTP server of your mail provider, sometimes this is ~mail.example.com~, ~smtp.example.com~, etc. I've already explained ~from~, ~auth~ simply says that a username and password will have to be provided, ~user~ is that username, and ~passwordeval~ is a method to obtain the password. When I got to configuring ~msmtp~, [[https://keepassxc.org/][KeePassXC]] had just released their ~libsecret~ integration and I wanted to try it. ~secret-tool~ is a command line tool used to store and retrieve passwords from whatever keyring you're using. I think KDE has ~kwallet~ and GNOME has ~gnome-keyring~ if you already have those set up and want to use them; the process should be quite similar regardless. As mentioned above ~secret-tool~ stores and retrieves passwords. For retrieval, it expects the command to look like this. #+BEGIN_SRC text secret-tool lookup {attribute} {value} ... #+END_SRC I don't know what ~kwallet~ and ~gnome-keyring~'s attributes are but this can be used with KeePassXC by specifying the ~Title~ attribute. If the password to your email account is stored in KeePassXC with the address as the entry title, you can retrieve it by simply running... #+BEGIN_SRC text secret-tool lookup Title "user@example.com" #+END_SRC If you have a different naming system, you'll have to experiment and try different things; I don't know what KeePassXC's other attributes are so I can't give other examples. You could also just use the same method I described in [[*Repository][the Repository section]]! It will work perfectly fine here as well. #+BEGIN_SRC passwordeval gpg -dq ~/.mail_pass/use_exa.gpg #+END_SRC Now that the whole block is assembled, copy/paste/edit for as many accounts as you want to send email from. *** Summary *** TODO Pong fluffy when finished ** TODO Making yourself overly available *** References [[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-cal-newport.html?showTranscript=1][Stop. Breathe. We Can’t Keep Working Like This.]] *** Notes **** Get rid of information that isn't important **** Escalate the info that is **** Set /clear/ boundaries for when you are available **** Enforce those with automatic DnD rules or use timers **** With groups... ***** Specialisation is /good/ and should be /encouraged/ ***** /All/ of the above points apply with coworkers as well *** TODO Pong Jake when finished ** TODO Catchy title about Supernote being "the new paper" :Supernote:Writing:Productivity:Organisation: :PROPERTIES: :EXPORT_FILE_NAME: something-about-supernote :EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :toc true :END: I like writing things down. I like the feel of the pen (preferably a fountain pen) glide smoothly over the paper, that nice solid feeling of the tip against the table, seeing the ink dry as it flows from the nib, accidentally swiping my hand through it before it's finished and smearing a bit of ink across the page, cursing under my breath as I dab it up with a handkerchief or a napkin or something else nearby. I also love that writing things by hand [[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581][has an impact on memory and improves retention]]. *** The problem Unfortunately, I don't love keeping up with that paper. Across many different classes, even with dedicated folders for each one, something important inevitably gets lost. Notebooks are also bulky and can take up a lot of space. I tried [[https://bulletjournal.com/][bullet journalling]] for about a month earlier this year and, while the process was enjoyable, the maintenance was not. My brain moves faster than my pen (even though I have terrible handwriting) and I inevitably forget letters or even whole words. This is a problem while writing in pen because white-out looks ugly and I dislike wasting whole pages because of a couple mistakes. The obvious solution here is to get an iPad with an Apple Pen, right? Right?? Wrong because Apple bad[fn:2]. *** The solution Enter the world of ... what are they even called? E-ink notebooks? Paper tablets? E-R/W[fn:1]? Do they even have a "device category" yet? I don't know but they solve my problem in a wonderful way. As the names suggest, these are devices that can /usually/ open and read e-books (EPUBs, PDFs, etc.), annotate them, and create standalone pages of notes as if they were full notebooks. The most well-known of these devices is likely the [[https://remarkable.com/][reMarkable]]. They had a [[https://venturebeat.com/2019/10/08/remarkable-raises-15-million-to-bring-its-e-paper-tablets-to-more-scribblers/][hugely successful crowdfunding campaign]] and produced the reMarkable 1, followed by [[https://blog.remarkable.com/remarkable-2-the-next-generation-paper-tablet-91b47d0080cb][the reMarkable 2 in 2020]]. There are a few others by now but we'll look at the reMarkable first. *** The reMarkable This device boasts all of the features I was looking for. It renders digital content, from books and manuals to comics and light novels, allows you to mark those documents up as you would if it were physical media, create full notebooks of hand written text, organise them, search, and, if your handwriting is legible enough (mine certainly is not), perform OCR on your notes and email a transcription to yourself. It even runs Linux and the developers have opened SSH up so you can remote in and tinker with it as much as you like. Because of this, there's a pretty awesome [[https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable][community of people creating third-party tools and integrations]] that add even further functionality. My favourite is probably [[https://github.com/bordaigorl/rmview][rMview]], a really fast VNC client for the reMarkable that allows you to view your device's screen on any computer. After watching all of [[https://www.youtube.com/c/MyDeepGuide][MyDeepGuide's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsSI9-gaSSmiXwb7Vjk5Vb-nB41UTnrXd][extensive playlist on the reMarkable]], however, I decided to go with a different product. *** Enter the Supernote A5X The [[https://www.supernote.com/#/product?type=SN-A5-X][Supernote A5X]] has all of the basic features the reMarkable has: reading documents, writing notes, and organising your content. Its implementation, on the other hand, seems to be much more polished. It also lacks some features from the reMarkable while adding others. *** Operating System While the reMarkable runs Codex[fn:3], a /"custom Linux-based OS optimised for low-latency e-paper"/, the Supernote just runs Android. There are both benefits and detriments to this; on one hand, they're running all of Android, bloated that it is, on a very lightweight tablet. On the other, they don't have to develop and maintain a custom operating system. This allows them to focus on other aspects that are arguably more important so I don't actually mind that it runs Android. The only place that Android stands out is in system operations; file transfer uses MTP and, when you swipe down from the top of the device, a small bar appears as in early Android. This lets you change WiFi networks, sync between the companion app on your LAN, the remote servers, take a screenshot, search, and access the system settings. Nothing else about the device really makes me think of Android. *** Community I don't usually browse Reddit but [[https://old.reddit.com/r/Supernote/][the Supernote community]] there is fascinating. I haven't looked around enough to know exactly what his relationship is with the company, but one of the members, [[https://old.reddit.com/user/hex2asc][u/hex2asc]], seems to represent Supernote in something of an official capacity. He's incredibly active and usually responds to posts and questions within a couple of days. Before I purchased one, [[https://old.reddit.com/r/Supernote/comments/lhffyd/sync_targets_open_document_formats_and_crossnote/][I wrote a post]] asking about a couple of things that concerned me: sync targets, open document formats, and cross-note links. I don't ever plan to write full documents with a keyboard on the Supernote but it would still be nice. The other features would be absolutely killer for me as I would like to maintain a Zettelkasten (I wrote about [[/vim-as-a-markdown-editor/][using Vim to do so]] last year but didn't end up sticking with it) and manage document synchronisation with my own Nextcloud server. The community was quick to respond and confirm that Zettelkasten functionality would be implemented soon™. u/hex2asc responded /the day after/ and said that WebDAV would be supported but not earlier than May, ODF would likely not be supported, and cross-note links were definitely a possibility. Another community member has been avidly following the subreddit and even put together an [[https://app-rm.roadmunk.com/publish/03e6dca3d769e2b7015f7f48a649cb3f75f44d9e][unofficial roadmap]]. *** Interfaces **** Home & Organisation ***** TODO Record very short videos **** Settings ***** TODO Record very short videos **** Writing & Annotating The following images are screenshots of the full page above with the possible UI variations while reading a book. This first one is default, with the editing bar at the top. It is exactly the same as what's displayed on the blank pages for hand writing full notes. From left to right is the Table of Contents toggle, the pen tools (fineliner, "fountain" pen[fn:5], and highlighter), the erasers, lasso select tool, undo/redo, context menu, palm rejection toggle, previous page, goto page, next page, and exit. [[/assets/pngs/supernote-reader-default.png]] You can hold your finger on that bar and drag it down to detach it from the top. The default width exposes all the tools without whitespace. You can move it around the screen by dragging the circle with a straight line through the middle on the far left. [[/assets/pngs/supernote-reader-medium.png]] If you tap that circle, the width shrinks and everything except the pens, erasers, and undo/redo buttons are hidden. It can be dragged the same was as in the previous image and tapping that circle will expand the bar again. [[/assets/pngs/supernote-reader-small.png]] The last mode is with the bar completely hidden. You achieve this just by dragging it to the right edge of the screen. Once hidden, you can swipe right to left from the edge and it will be revealed flush with the right edge. [[/assets/pngs/supernote-reader-minimal.png]] *** Experience **** Reading content I love e-ink. I think it looks beautiful and would love to have an e-ink monitor[fn:4]. That said, the Supernote has an especially nice display with 226 PPI (pixels per inch). The image below was taken with my phone's camera so it's not very good. However, if you zoom in a bit, you can see that the curved edges of some letters are /slightly/ pixellated. Viewing with my naked eye at a comfortable distance, it does look better /to me/ than some of my print books. [[/assets/pngs/supernote-resolution.png]] /At the moment,/ I am pretty disappointed with Table of Contents detection for ePUBs. A great many of my books seem to use a legacy ToC format that the Supernote sees and tries/fails to read before attempting to read the more recent **** Writing notes I write notes as often if not /more/ often than I read and annotate books. It's the main reason I purchased the device and I love the experience. **** Surfacing Content *** TODO Pong Isi and Volpeon when finished ** TODO Setting LXC up for local "cloud" development * Education :@Education: ** TODO Homeschooling * Music :@Music: * Pipe Smoking :@Pipe__Smoking: * Dungeons & Dragons :@Dungeons__and__Dragons: * Footnotes [fn:5] It's not really a fountain pen even though that's what they call it; it's just pressure-sensitive. [fn:4] While this would be absolutely awesome, it would also be prohibitively expensive and difficult to write software for. E-ink displays are /far/ from cheap and the incredibly low refresh rate would render usual computing habits ... odd. For example, words wouldn't show up right as you type them; the delay there would be significant and the same goes for a mouse. The idea is nonetheless compelling. [fn:3]Taken from their [[https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006699537-About-reMarkable-2-][support page about the reMarkable 2]]; search the page for /operating system/ and it should show up. [fn:2]I dislike Apple's operating system, their hardware, business model, privacy practises, and much of what they stand for as a company. Don't @ me. [fn:1]E-R/W is a play on media commonly being labelled as R/W when you can read from it and write to it.