Natalie’s due date was today but since she was a bit early she turns three weeks old tomorrow. It’s hard to believe she’s been with us only that little while, it seems like she’s been a part of the family forever. It could be because she is so darn cute, I already can’t imagine life without her. Or, maybe it’s because of all the sleepless nights I’ve had lately =).

In other news, Tally and I ran out and bought Rock Band 2 on Tuesday. It was expensive but there are a lot of songs on there that we both like. It’s also a game that we can play together and something fun to do when friends come over. We’ve already played a few “gigs” and are on our way toward virtual fame with me as lead guitarist and Tally as the drummer. We need a singer, is anyone game?

Natalie games, Natalie, Rock Band

So I’ve pawned the baby off onto Matt for an hour or two. I’ve been constantly watching her since Monday. This is a much-needed break from the world of motherhood. I’m enjoying a glass of wine and hoping to catch an episode of “Mad Men.” Matt is on the couch with Natalie. She has been fed and diapered, so I have no reason to feel guilty, lol.

We have a few updates to share:

1. Saturday we went to the dealership and found a car. It’s a red ‘09 Corolla S. I feel as if I’m driving a rental, but I love this car.

2. Natalie’s bilirubin level decreased dramatically. It went from 14.6 to 7 in 3 days, without the use of her biliblanket. We finally get to rid ourselves of that hassle. She hated it!

Well, I’m going to catch the show now. I’ll write more when I’m less tired.

Daily Journal, Natalie

Prerequisites

A current Debian system with an MTA installed and working. This guide is specific to Exim4 although many of the steps would apply to other MTA’s as well. Also, the guide assumes you store your mail in Maildir format. If you store your mail in single files (mbox), you will have to adjust some of the commands below.

Install Packages

Use aptitude or apt-get to install the packages ’spamassassin’ and ’sa-exim.’

Configuration

Create a file called .forward in your home directory with the following content. If needed, update the save command to point to the location of your junk/spam directory.

# Exim filter
if $h_X-Spam-Status: CONTAINS "Yes"
or
$h_X-Spam-Flag: CONTAINS "Yes"
then
save $home/Maildir/.Junk/
finish
endif

Edit /etc/exim4/sa-exim.conf and comment out the second SAEximRunCond attribute like so:

# Remove or comment out the following line to enable sa-exim
#SAEximRunCond: 0

Edit /etc/default/spamassassin and change the ENABLED flag to 1.

Finally, start spamassassin and configure it to start at boot if needed:

# /etc/init.d/spamassassin start
# update-rc.d spamassassin defaults

Optimization and Maintenence

Take a look at the log file /var/log/exim4/mainlog. You should see SpamAssassin doing its thing for any new emails coming in. You will see what spam ranking it assigns to the message and what its fate is (allowed, allowed but flagged, or permanently rejected).

A good way to increase the accuracy of SpamAssasin is to teach it. First, organize your spam and non-spam (which we will call “ham”) into separate folders. Try to make sure you don’t miscategorize any. For this to work well, you will need over a hundred of each type of email–the more the better. Then, run the ’sa-learn’ command on the folders. For example, assuming your ham is in your inbox and your spam is in a folder called Junk:

$ sa-learn --ham --showdots /home/username/Maildir/cur/*
$ sa-learn --spam --showdots /home/username/Maildir/.Junk/cur/*

Linux Administration Debian, Exim, Linux Administration, spam, SpamAssassin

Natalie Jane Toso
Born: October 10, 2008 at 1:48am
Weight: 5 pounds 13 ounces

Natalie Natalie

Friday

I took off workon Friday so that we wouldn’t be rushed on our drive up north. Our destination was a bed and breakfast on the Gunflint Trail, 30 miles past Grand Marais. Tally and I were excited for a last get-away before the baby came. I heard that it was peak colors up there so I was excited for some quiet hiking, canoeing, and stargazing under the changing leaves.

The owners of the B&B are an elderly couple named Barbara and Ted. When I told Barbara over the phone that Tally was nine months pregnant, she was concerned that she would have trouble on the guided canoe trip we had signed up for–there would be uneven ground, a fair amount of walking, and getting into and out of canoes. I told her that, while yes she was quite pregnant, she was still mobile and could walk just fine but at Barbara’s insistance we got a note from the midwife saying that she was good to go. The only restriction was that she couldn’t walk more than a mile at a time.

Borrowing my parents’ TT, we left home in the late morning and made it up to Grand Marais around 5pm. We had an hour or two to kill so we explored the main street there. We ended up eating some of the “world’s greatest donuts,” bought some homemade fudge (chocoloate-walnut and chocolate-caramel), and ate some much-needed dinner at the Gun Flint Tavern. We then made our way down the beautiful Gunflint, overshot our destination by about 10 miles, made our way back and finally arrived at the Poplar Creek Guesthouse.

Saturday

Sunday

Travel