Geeky stuff

[kerravonsen]

Well, I have just changed my mail system over from mailfilter+fetchmail+postfix+procmail+spam-assassin+mutt to mailfilter+getmail+maildrop+spam-assassin+tmda+mutt+postfix

...so I hope I don't lose any mail, though actually one of the nice features of getmail is that one is less likely to lose mail, because any errors in delivery cause it not to delete the mail from your postbox, so that's good. The main concern is that I've decided to be ruthless with my kat_lists email address, because it's meant to be ONLY for mailing list stuff, therefore everything else gets bounced. (Fear not, though, TMDA is clever enough that I was able to include a filter which accepts all mail which is a reply to mail that I've sent, due to some clever stuff with message-ids done in mutt -- thanks to some tips in the TMDA documentation)

Those wondering why I've changed the order of "postfix" in that list is that postfix is now only used for sending mail; it's ignored for recieving mail, because getmail bypasses it and does the delivery itself. Which is fair enough for as long as my system remains a dialup system without an internet presence in itself. And by the time I do have a permanent connection, I'd be setting up my mail system differently anyway.

After having discovered maildrop, I'm wondering why people keep on reccommending procmail, when procmail recipes are just so cryptic and incomprehensible, while maildrop uses a conventional programming language (with C-like or Perl-like syntax). So much easier to write tests with!

Yes, some people consider TMDA to be evil because it's a challenge-response system, because all challenge-response systems are evil, but it's more sophisticated than something which just challenges everyone who isn't on a whitelist. As I said above, for example, I've set it so that any mail which is a reply to my email will get through, so that wipes out worries for replies from mailing lists. Likewise, certain email addresses (which spammers don't have yet) get straight through, and so on. So the number of actual challenges isn't going to be that great, I don't think.

I'm thinking of setting up qmail in the future, but I need a running DNS server for that I think, so I'll have to do that first. Which I was intending to do at some point so that I could have things ready for setting up a wireless network eventually -- my foot-woe has made me wish that I could sit in bed with my laptop and still connect to the internet through my desktop, something which a wireless network ought to make possible.

But first on the to-do list is a digital camera, for my holiday.

Comments

completely tangentally

[ladyslvr.livejournal.com]

Saw your post on GenFicCrit, discovered you had an LJ, traced you back to this one, have friended you, and wanted to say hi.

"Hi."

While I marvel in the nouns losing another word to the verb side (friend - friended), I also want to say that I still harbor hope for that Drusilla/HL piece you inspired last May. It may actually get written someday just because.

Hope your foot isn't bothering you too much, and that things are going well.

...
Wendy

Re: completely tangentally

[kerravonsen]

Oh cool! Hi Wendy! (does add-to-friendslist stuff)

(sends Drusilla/HL vibes in Wendy's direction.... "I can see them dancing in the moonlight, dancing death, yes, bright sparks clashing...")

My foot is a saga; (it's my heel, actually) it came on all of a sudden last November and is unfortunately one of those things that takes a long time to heal (is notorious for it, actually). It has been improving, but I overdid it today, what with shopping for the digital camera.
That's right, I did actually do the thing on my to-do list. I now have expensive camera which I hope and pray will interact with my Linux laptop. Right now the battery is charging, so I can't check yet.