When filtering with procmail you can filter on anything you want, but in most cases a few regexes will get you what you need. In contrast the filtering options in Gmail are extremely limited. There are a couple of headers you can match against, and then just a simple string match.

I was able to tweak rss2email to add the URL of the RSS feed as the List-Id header. I can then setup a filter for each RSS feed. Again, like forwarding addresses, I monitor a lot of RSS feeds. Over 120 which means I will also need over 120 filters just for RSS feeds.

What would work is for the RSS feeds to be categorised before I send out the emails, I then only need a filter per category. An additional benefit is that when another RSS feed is added, a new filter is not required.

As I am considering further modifying rss2email (or replacing it completely), what else could I do?

Something that I don’t like about Gmail (and certain other mail clients) is that the message lists display the time the message was received by Google, not the time it was sent or the time in the message headers. This means that the RSS messages are clumped together because the script only runs once every few hours.

This cannot be changed as long as the messages are delivered via SMTP. But, thanks to a small project at work, I know that if I were to write the messages in directly via IMAP, the dates will be what I want.

If I were writing the messages in via IMAP, filters will not be run, but writing the messages directly to the appropriate label means that the filters are not even needed. I would have no idea how to modify rss2email to use IMAP, so I would be writing my own solution from scratch.

This method of direct injection via IMAP is also how my identi.ca/Twitter/Facebook updates should be delivered. In this case I indend to write something that uses the appropriate API, not the RSS feed as is the case for identi.ca and Twitter. I already use the API for Facebook, but only to produce an RSS feed that is then picked up by rss2email. It is a bit convoluted, bit it has worked.

Some time ago I started to setup Google Apps for my domain. Yesterday, after recovering my password, I completed that setup and got to the point where new mail would be delivered to Google. I also have RSS items delivered there as well, but more on that later.

One of the things that made me hesitant about switching to Google Apps was in regard to forwarding/nicknames/aliases. Whenever something asks me for an email address I will create a specific forwarding address. I do not handle this through an email catchall as it is possible to delete a forwarding address if it is no longer needed, or starts to get too much spam.

I currently have 150 forwarding addresses. Not too long ago I had over 200, but I did clean some of them out.

Google calls them nicknames and they appear to have a limit of 30 per account. Now I could create a chain of multiple accounts in Google Apps, each with 30 nicknames that forward on to a single account, but that just seems ugly. I am also considering paying for a Premium account (for greater piece of mine and the ability to turn of ads), but that is US$50 per account per year. Maintaining nicknames in Google is not worth US$250+ per year.

So I needed a way to keep the MX records pointing at my hosting where the 150 forwarders all point to a single mailbox. I then need that single mailbox to forward the messages on to Google. I had seen this done using the test-google-a.com temporary user address.

Two problems with that. First Google says that that address will dissappear from the Google Apps domain after a period of time, and second that had already happened to my domain.

After talking this over with Rob, he suggested that I setup a subdomain on my hosting and add it as a domain alias within Google Apps. The MX records for this subdomain point at google, and the single mailbox on my domain forwards to an address on the subdomain. Since Google knows about the domain it will accept mail for it and the messages end up in my account. It is working fine so far.

I have not attempted to migrate my existing messages yet, I will work out how to structure the labels and what filters I want to setup.

Now filters, that will be the topic of another post.

This Linux ’server’ started its life out routing internet. Over time it also became an (internal) web server, a file server, a mail server, etc. Over that same period of time it has stopped being some of those things. Also, for a period in the middle the services were split across two boxes, but then consolidated back to one, preston.

Right now core network services are handled by my router (WRT-54G running DD-WRT) so what services do I need:

• Mail – but I am again considering moving that into the cloud
• File sharing – both for media files and as a target for backups
• Web server – mainly these days for internal interfaces for a variety of tools I have made, it has been a long time since I used the dev version of this site
• Off-peak downloads – you know what this means
• A variety of scripts – eg automatically downloading webcomics

Mail can be excluded as I will move it into the cloud, which makes file sharing as the next most important service.

Currently preston has 640GB for media and 260GB for backups. My windows desktop has over 2TB. This includes the primary copy of all my photos (around 200GB) but it also includes over 600GB that should be on the file server, but there wasn’t enough space.

It has been in the back of my mind for a while to at least upgrade the drives in preston. But that means going to SATA drives. So I would either need to get a SATA controller (preston is an aging P4 2.4 with no onboard SATA) or get a new motherboard/cpu/ram. I had decided to update shaun, my Windows desktop, to get two year old hardware. But since my recent signing of some paperwork I have put that on hold.

Why? Because I am quite likely to build a media centre in my new place. How do I make the media centre? This could be a computer with TV tuners running Windows Media Centre or MythTV, it could be a MythTV frontend with TV tuners in the backend, or it could be a simple device to play media from the network.

Due to ease of setup and use I am leaning towards Windows Media Centre. This means the backend only needs to be a file server. So how do you build a file server these days? With Linux it is still manual setup and apart from ZFS FUSE, the RAID options are still block level. I am drawn to the disk management that Windows Home Server offers. You chuck disks in and then at the filesystem level you can configure redundancy. Need more space? Just add another disk to the pool and it works it out.

But what about my scripts and other tools that run under Linux? I am not going to run them under Windows and I still want to have a Linux box available. But nothing says that the Linux box cannot be a virtual machine.

Some of the other feature of Home Server (eg backups) are also quite appealing. But for now I will wait for V2 to be released, sometime this year.

I entered eleven images in three categories, most of them being images I had previously entered in WCC competitions.

Four projected images:

Three open monochrome prints:

Four open colour prints:

So how did they go?

My lowest score of any of them was 8, while the highest score was 11. The three that received 11 were “accepted” into the exhibition in September. These are one of the first images I entered into the monthly competition at WCC, a recent experiment with long shutter and black thread and a successful monochrome conversion:

I am pleased and it was definitely a learning experience that will be completed once I see the other acceptances at the exhibition.

At the auction I made some bids (against one other bidder and a single vendor bid) then later I signed various pieces of paper (one being small with special printing). All of this means that come Tuesday 7 December I will entitled to vacant possession of said unit.

Does this mean I will get my Saturdays back?

Sort of. While I no longer need to go to open for inspections, I should be spending that time sorting through my stuff. Decimating the collection has been a big part of that so far, but I have a lot of other stuff that I don’t need. This is compounded by the stuff I don’t have but will need. That second group contains items such as furniture and appliances.

My favourite of my August entries is an image that I knew I would enter for this topic (and entered into the Pakenham National, I’ll say more about that when I get the results) ever since I took it. At the start of the year Damien and I went on a day trip up to Mount Buffalo. As we were driving from Bright to Wangaratta we were heading towards a great sunset. A couple of times we pulled over so I could get a shot and it was at one of these that I noticed a gate in the fence along the side of the road:

It was awarded a merit.

I have become known for entering photos of Lego, so it should come as no surprise that I would try somthing with the old fence pieces that I believe are older than I am:

Another merit.

The club’s Sunday outing in July was to Cloudehill Gardens in The Dandenongs. Gardens are not my thing, but that is exactly why I went along. Fortunately these gardens are awash with fences, gates and walls of the living, wooden, brick and stone varieties. When reviewing the photos the only one that jumped out at me was of two free standing gates, one open and one shut:

Awarded a highly commended.

I really struggled to select my final entry and I finally selected a photo from the Labour Day weekend up to Halls Gap. On the track up to The Pinnacle was a short section of fence that appeared to be made from trees that had been cut down nearby:

The judge commented that it was too busy and I agree. The dead sticks in the foreground and on the ground, the burnt fallen tree with regrowth in the back just obscure the actual fence.

So what has prompted me to change? In order to answer that I took a step back and analysed how I have actually been using my iPhone in the (almost) two years that I have had it.

The easiest way to categorise my usage is to break it down into what icons I have in what areas of the iPhone.

The four icons I have in the dock are:

• Mail – Checking email is my most common action, this is against my home IMAP server, but I am again considering trying Gmail.
• Messages – I don’t send many text messages a month, but still an order of magnitude more than voice calls.
• Safari – Looking up an arbitrary page is also something I do often.
• Calendar – Follows behind email in regard to usage, this is synced with my Google Calendar.

Many of the icons I have on the various home screens are never used, this is across all of the screens. However, which screen an icon is on does relate somewhat to how much I use it.

Home screen 1:

• Phone – Mostly to view missed calls, and very occasionally to make a direct call.
• Photos and Camera – I will take a photo as a reminder (eg of a price tag or similar) and then forget to look at the photos. I also keep a copy of my camera club competition entries as a reminder of what my entries were.
• Contacts – Occasional lookup in order to make a phone call. It is more useful for caller id of incoming calls.
• Maps – For looking up maps when I am going somewhere unfamiliar.
• Clock – To set alarms that fail to wake me up
• Settings – Should be obvious…
• LibraryThing – Web link to my book catalog. Has prevented me from getting duplicate books at book sales.
• iPod – Very rarely I listen to the music I have on the phone.

Home screen 2:

• eBay – Used more often recently as I decimate the collection.
• WordPress – Very occasional input of blog post ideas.
• Metlink – Very occasional use when needing to catch public transport to get somewhere.
• OZ Weather – Although there now appears to be a full app, I still use the web app version to check the forecast.
• LaTwit (paid app) – About half of my posts to identica/twitter/facebook are made from here.
• HOYTS – Link to mobile version of Hoyts site for movie session time. (I also use the mobile version on the desktop as it is much more usable that the full site)

Home screen 3:

• Facebook – If I am really bored and reading status updates through email isn’t enough, very rare.
• IMDb – Before or after a movie to check details or look up trivia.

Home screen 4:

• TouchTerm – Used once or twice to remotely change mail filtering when at a conference.
• Flickr – Occasional use to search for photos.

From my research so far I haven’t found anything that I use my phone for on a regular basis that Android will not do out of the box. I expect that I will try out a variety of alternate apps, and in a few months I intend to write a followup post.

The decision was to let go of my Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh and the SGI O2. While I was at it I also let go of two Macintosh Pluses, a Macintosh Classic, some speakers, and some other bits and pieces. I haven’t actualy let go of them, but they are now listed on eBay and I will be selling them, even for a pittance.

I made this an easier decision than I thought it would be by re-reading what I said when I first announced that I would decimate the collection: the only item that I have a real emotional attachment to is the computer I grew up with, the Apple IIgs.

The first Macintosh that I actually used on a regular basis was my 12″ PowerBook. I never used any Macintosh computers, let alone any PowerMacs. I also never used any SGI machines, so why did I need the O2?

However, I will still keep some old computers with the centrepiece being the Apple IIgs, followed by other Apple II computers. This means that the Apple IIc computers will also stay. My cousins had a IIc, and at primary school and the first few years of high school we used Apple IIe computers (but I don’t have any of those, and probably won’t).

None of this is saying I will not have any Macintosh computers. I will keep one or two around in a supporting role for the Apple II computers. In fact I have an Apple IIe Card that puts a IIe inside an LC. I will probably keep an LC 475 or Quadra 605 for that purpose.

I will also be reducing the spare parts and peripherals down to those that can be used with or can support the Apple II computers. I have no need for a peripheral from the Power Macintosh era.

But what about the few remaining non Apple items in the collection?

While the Dauphin DTR-1 is quite unusual (it runs Windows 3.11 for Pen), I think it is time for it to go. The same can be said about the IBM PC Convertible, it is a piece of history, but I need someone else to take on the responsibility. These will all be listed on eBay in the coming weeks.

Lastly I come to the IBM JX. Unlike SGI, the Dauphin or the IBM PC Convertible, this is a computer that I did use. But not much, and that was only at school for word processing type activities. I don’t need it.

That actually sums up a lot of stuff that I have: “I don’t need it”. So coupled with my attempts to find a house…

On two occasions I placed offers. In one case the successful offer was $70k above my offer and in the other the successful offers was $45k above. Ouch.

So what am I looking for, where am I looking, and how much can I afford?

Money

Of the above three factors, the money is the easiest to sort out as it boils down to two factors: my savings, and the most of my take home pay that I am comfortable committing to loan repayments.

Working backwards from a loan repayment figure gives me the loan about. Adding my savings and then allowing for other costs (stamp duty, etc) gives me my maximum figure.

Location

Where to buy is the hardest of the three factors to work out as it has a number of sub factors:

• I don’t want to be too close to work, but I also don’t want to be too far to make commuting by bicycle impractical.
• Some areas are clearly out of my league, but I don’t want to be in what I have come to think of as a rental area, especially in a block of units where all the other units are rented.
• I would like to be close to public transport, including making it easy to get to and from the city.

Based on these I have been looking in the Mount Waverley/Chadstone/Ashwood area. Less than 10km from work, has a fair number of units and is near the Glen Waverley railway line.

What

My budget and location have led me to look for a two bedroom unit, preferably with its own street frontage (ie no common driveway). A two bedroom house in my price range would need too much work, as would a three bedroom unit.

When I started this I had no idea how much of my time would be consumed by it. May an evening has been spent reviewing listings online and my Saturdays have been taken up by going to as many as six open for inspections. In two weeks I am intending to bid at an auction and hopefully that brings the hunting phase to an end and I will be a home owner.

The opposite stance is default permit, number one of the six dumbest ideas in computer security.

In many aspects of my life I have been applying default permit. For example I used to buy up any vintage apple parts that were listed on ebay and I couldn’t walk past a secondhand book sale without buying a big handful of books.

Almost a year ago when I decided to downsize my computer collection I switched from default permit to default deny. I did this by starting to think about which items I wanted to keep, not about which items I could discard. The downsizing has continued in fits and starts, in some areas further than I had intended last year as I no longer have any PowerBooks or Newtons.

My other example above was books. I have a lot of books, specifically paperback novels, a mixture of fantasy, science fiction and action. But I have too many. Specifically too many to fit on the shelves so that they are doubled up.

A few weeks ago while listing some Apple parts on eBay I found that I was able to list items for free, so I grabbed quite a few books, photographed them and listed them. The books I selected first were mostly action and included a lot of spin-offs that were being mostly written by a secondary author, because of this I couldn’t see myself reading these books for a second time. Example of these include The Dreamers by David Eddings, the Dale Brown Dreamland collaborations, and Tom Clancy’s Net Force,

In hindsight this was default permit. I am going to get rid of a lot more books, but this time I will apply default deny. This means I will start by making a list of the books that I will read multiple times. This is a much smaller selective group that could contain everything by an author (Terry Pratchett is a clear candidate), or selected works from an author (early David Eddings, short story collections from Frederick Forsyth, Jeffrey Archer and Philip K. Dick).

Of course I will attempt to apply default deny to everything, not just computers and books, but I expect it will take time…