Category: Uncategorized

Should anyone ask, I predict the following

Sitting here with a glass of Port Ellen scotch and thinking about the new year: We live in interesting times and are about to move into a year with less smooth and more crunch. A friend an myself compare notes on the markets and finally we see our predictions coming true. A year or two later than I expected but it now seems like the crunch will be much harder than if the hit had been taken earlier. My summary for the new year:

  1. Growth in western economies will slow.
  2. The S&P 500 index will fall by 10%
  3. Tech stock speculation will push up companies like Apple and Google by another 100% before the multiples get too long and we see a long overdue correction. Value investors have long since deserted the sexy stocks and moved back to fundamentals with good multiples. Expect speculators to be burned.
  4. The new topic of London dinner parties turns to being unable to find tenants for their buy-to-let.
  5. the soap opera of lost government data will continue

Expect more soul searching as the crunch takes hold. Now may be a time to invest in publishers of books covering frugality.

Should anyone ask, I am at 3C24.

I’m currently sitting in the 24th Chaos Computer Congress. I arrived yesterday and have been entertained by talks ranging from a woman talking about her experience of surveilence when her husband was falsely accused of being a terrorist, to hacking DNA and how new developments in molecular contrustrction no long concerns itself the the building blocks of DNA but rather how it can now be built using kits of DNA features.

More soon.

Should anyone ask, I am at 3C24.

I’m currently sitting in the 24th Chaos Computer Congress. I arrived yesterday and have been entertained by talks ranging from a woman talking about her experience of surveilence when her husband was falsely accused of being a terrorist, to hacking DNA and how new developments in molecular contrustrction no long concerns itself the the building blocks of DNA but rather how it can now be built using kits of DNA features.

More soon.

Should anyone ask, I’m going to the Chaos Computer Club Congress

I was looking over the schedule for this years congress and there seem to be some interesting sessions. At the very least it’s a good way to meet interesting people. They should have wifi and I can work at the same time.

I like their scheduling it during the down-time between Christmas and New Year.

If anyone else want to join me just shout and we can go halves on an hotel room.

Should anyone ask, I’m going to the Chaos Computer Club Congress

I was looking over the schedule for this years congress and there seem to be some interesting sessions. At the very least it’s a good way to meet interesting people. They should have wifi and I can work at the same time.

I like their scheduling it during the down-time between Christmas and New Year.

If anyone else want to join me just shout and we can go halves on an hotel room.

Should anyone ask, it’s time to turn on spool expiry

Ever wondered what 862M of spam smells like? As you can see from this output some users are not cleaning out their spam folders:

du -hs /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/*/user/*/x-spam
376K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/a/user/alephone/x-spam
9.8M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/a/user/alex/x-spam
56K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/a/user/alistair/x-spam
148K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/b/user/bjb/x-spam
64K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/d/user/dangeross/x-spam
9.4M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/d/user/david/x-spam
250M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/d/user/dragon/x-spam
355M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/e/user/emberglow/x-spam
366M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/f/user/frank/x-spam
12M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/h/user/heather/x-spam
25M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/h/user/helen/x-spam
112K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/i/user/ivan/x-spam
194M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/james/x-spam
719M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/jason/x-spam
16K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/jenny/x-spam
12M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/joanna/x-spam
172M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/jonathan/x-spam
16K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/julie/x-spam
5.5M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/k/user/ken/x-spam
9.5M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/maggie/x-spam
698M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/manch/x-spam
328M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/matthew/x-spam
60K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/mattj/x-spam
235M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/matt/x-spam
92K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/mea/x-spam
236K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/mile/x-spam
65M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/monty/x-spam
164K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/n/user/nayetennant/x-spam
488K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/n/user/naye/x-spam
1.8M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/n/user/nick/x-spam
16K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/n/user/nid/x-spam
1.4M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/p/user/penchick/x-spam
5.3M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/ralphael/x-spam
418M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/rgkx/x-spam
1.2G /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/robert/x-spam
26M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/rob/x-spam
28K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/rslomkow/x-spam
15M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/ryan/x-spam
193M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/s/user/sgibson/x-spam
7.8M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/s/user/shelly/x-spam
39M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/s/user/simon/x-spam
652M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/s/user/stuart/x-spam
28K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/t/user/tam/x-spam
862M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/t/user/thomas/x-spam
119M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/t/user/tim/x-spam
232K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/z/user/zax0r/x-spam

Thankfully Cyrus, the mailserver I use, has an option to expire messages older than a certain time. I’ll turn on expiry of spam messages older than 30 days.

Should anyone ask, it’s time to turn on spool expiry

Ever wondered what 862M of spam smells like? As you can see from this output some users are not cleaning out their spam folders:

du -hs /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/*/user/*/x-spam
376K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/a/user/alephone/x-spam
9.8M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/a/user/alex/x-spam
56K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/a/user/alistair/x-spam
148K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/b/user/bjb/x-spam
64K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/d/user/dangeross/x-spam
9.4M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/d/user/david/x-spam
250M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/d/user/dragon/x-spam
355M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/e/user/emberglow/x-spam
366M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/f/user/frank/x-spam
12M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/h/user/heather/x-spam
25M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/h/user/helen/x-spam
112K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/i/user/ivan/x-spam
194M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/james/x-spam
719M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/jason/x-spam
16K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/jenny/x-spam
12M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/joanna/x-spam
172M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/jonathan/x-spam
16K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/j/user/julie/x-spam
5.5M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/k/user/ken/x-spam
9.5M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/maggie/x-spam
698M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/manch/x-spam
328M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/matthew/x-spam
60K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/mattj/x-spam
235M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/matt/x-spam
92K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/mea/x-spam
236K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/mile/x-spam
65M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/m/user/monty/x-spam
164K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/n/user/nayetennant/x-spam
488K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/n/user/naye/x-spam
1.8M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/n/user/nick/x-spam
16K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/n/user/nid/x-spam
1.4M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/p/user/penchick/x-spam
5.3M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/ralphael/x-spam
418M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/rgkx/x-spam
1.2G /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/robert/x-spam
26M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/rob/x-spam
28K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/rslomkow/x-spam
15M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/r/user/ryan/x-spam
193M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/s/user/sgibson/x-spam
7.8M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/s/user/shelly/x-spam
39M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/s/user/simon/x-spam
652M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/s/user/stuart/x-spam
28K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/t/user/tam/x-spam
862M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/t/user/thomas/x-spam
119M /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/t/user/tim/x-spam
232K /mnt/vault/backups/cave.imaginator.com/var/spool/cyrus/mail/z/user/zax0r/x-spam

Thankfully Cyrus, the mailserver I use, has an option to expire messages older than a certain time. I’ll turn on expiry of spam messages older than 30 days.