The guest account seems like an arbitrary thing to remove. I assume it was a pretty popular and well-used feature. Any indication of why Microsoft went this way?

Probably not the intended use but I can see myself using this as soothing background noise to keep my productivity up.

Riveting extract. I’ve been enjoying Duhigg’s writing for a while and I’m looking forward to getting hold of his latest.

Good to know. Thanks for passing this along:)

Given their multiple uses, are these bags available for purchase or must they be stockpiled from when you buy shoes or whatever?

By far one of the most fascinating bags I’ve seen in these pieces. It’s really interesting to see the EDC of people working in niche or specialist areas.

That’s disappointing. VPN companies need to be as transparent as possible about this kind of thing. Glad you’ve found an alternative that you’re happy with:)

I’ve been using VyprVPN for years now (tied to a Giganews subscription) and I’ve generally been pretty happy with performance and features. Sadly I’ve recently become locked out of VPN-assisted Netflix access so I’m hoping this is something Golden Frog will soon address.

This will sound terribly dorky to many but stocking up on lots of books ahead of a holiday is an economical and immensely pleasureable way to spend your time and if you’re lucky you get to learn something too.

But in fairness if it’s only every once in a while and consumed in the context of an otherwise healthy lifestyle...

Yeah, Schott do some great jackets. Not the cheapest around but fantastically stylish and well-made.

I’m generally all in favour of higher standards of resolution, even if only for office work and web browsing, but I was disappointed by the hassle of fidgeting with zoom levels on my QHD Yoga-2 Pro because Windows and the applications I had running couldn’t handle it.

Up until the last year or so the advice was 4-8GB of RAM if you were only using your computer for office use/web browsing but I’m increasingly seeing configurations that feature 16GB+.

A fair point. Most people struggle to tame their email and it seems this has led to an aggressive aversion to checking your inbox first thing in the morning. Because I keep my email pretty scrupulously pruned, I don’t find that checking it early in the day is disruptive.

Interesting. Were you using any particular system with the paper planner?

You may want to take a look at the American Express line. There’s a British Airways card that optimises the accumulation of Avios points (you’re probably aware that Avios is BA’s frequent-flyer currency).

Not the most pressing of issues, but are you hearing that ‘Nutella’ is a likely designation for this update?

Despite the recent trend towards devaluing frequent-flyer points, Avios is still a pretty good programme. I’ve used it to snag some nice deals on flights within Europe over the last few years.

I’ve always enjoyed your Trello coverage. It’s definitely been a factor in my own adoption of the service. Is it still your primary productivity and organisation app or have you added other things into the mix?

A great tip. There’s lot of behavioural science research to suggest that people are more motivated by avoiding harm than gaining reward.