I've recently
enabled SpamAssassin on my mail server
and it's incredible how efficient it is.
The filter will run on the mail server itself and not the mail client on
your machine and it basically gives 'points' to mails depending on the
criteria they match.
If the threshold you set is reached, the mail is classified as spam and you
can either delete it on the server and you won't even see it in your mailbox,
redirect it to another mail account or receive it but with a tag (***SPAM***
is added to the subject).
I personally find dangerous to delete the mail directly if you are worried about false positive (mail being detected as spam while it's not), although it never happened to me.
Instead, I use my mail client to move the mails tagged as ***SPAM*** directly into a folder, so that I can delete everything at once.
Actually, before deleting them, I also like to read the mails themselves. Not really because I'm worried about false positive ones, but more because SpamAssassin adds the details of the points given to the mail and it's actually kind of fun to see what tricks the spammers use.
The highest score a mail got so far is 46.4, while only 7 are required to be classified as spam in my configuration!
As you can see in the list of tests performed on incoming mails, there is not much chance for spam to get through!
And if SpamAssassin is not able to detect the mail as spam, the junk filter on Thunderbird usually takes care of that :)
It's been a while since I posted a picture of Pitou...
I have been just too busy lately to do anything at all, but when I saw Pitou
climbing up the desk and put down her paw on the laundry setup to dry our
clothes, I just couldn't resist.
The full Pitou pictures collection.
While I was riding home earlier this evening, I had to cross a busy
street so I waited that all the cars were still, waiting in line in front of
the traffic light and started to go through the cars.
When I was about to reach the other side of the street, I got hit by a scooter
which was passing the cars by the left (people drive on the left hand side
in Japan) ...
I just couldn't see it before (maybe I wasn't careful enough either), as the car (a 4WD) was hiding it from me. The only moment I actually saw it was a few seconds before the hit, while I was checking it was safe to go...
The scooter came awfully fast and I didn't have enough power to get out of the way, not to mention that I had also left the bicycle light at home. The hit was inevitable.
I was put down by the hit, suffering several bruises at the legs caused by
the bicycle itself and also got hit at the torso, as I bumped into a barrier
on the road when I fell from the bike.
I believe I am quite lucky though as I didn't get more badly injured,
especially at the head or didn't have any bones broken.
The bike itself hasn't been that lucky as I believe both wheels have to be
replaced (I'm not sure about the frame yet).
Now, the lady who was riding the scooter fell too but didn't complain about any physical injury; the turn signal light of the scooter broke though, so we agreed I would pay for the reparation of that light, as I assume it was my fault in the first place.
However, I've been reading about bike accidents in Japan and it seems the law favours the smaller parties, and the responsibility always falls under the bigger party (car > motorcycle > bicycle > pedestrian).
Is it a case of shared responsibility, as the scooter may not have been supposed to pass the cars like that? Does the Japanese law give right to the bicycle in this case?
Should I ask her to pay for my bicycle too? The injuries I've suffered are probably nothing but how can you tell in the long term?
I will be calling the Traffic Accident Counseling Service (sponsored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government) to ask them their opinion on that matter: although I still believe I was at fault, it would be interesting to learn more about those laws.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government sponsors various counseling services where you can talk to lawyers and counselors regarding traffic accidents.
Problems related to compensation (for both the party at fault and the victim), out-of-court settlements, and correct insurance procedures are addressed.(in Japanese)
Hours: Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. (in person consultation); 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (telephone consultation)
Closed: Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays.
Tel: 03-5320-7733An English speaking person can be reached at: 03-5321-1111
The Sunday Mirror reports that the Queen was furious after Bush and his security service men wrecked the gardens of Buckingam Palace.
The beautifully mantained lawns were marked with three giant H for the
helicopters' landing, rare plants were trampled, trees and shrubs that had
survived Queen Victoria's reign were damaged by the helicopters, etc.
Even the Palace had its own share of damage, as high-tech links were specially
fitted for the president and his entourage.
The Palace's head gardener, Mark Lane, was reported to be in tears when he saw the scale of the damage.
Somehow, that's a scene I can picture with ease...
Please visit (and enjoy!) Richard Bram's portfolio as well as his project, called Big hair & True love.
Richard was kind enough to leave a message in my guestbook!
It is really an honour for me to have a message from him (I don't know how
deep Richard had to "dig" the Internet to find my homepage!), as I truly enjoy
his work and think he's a photographer of great talent.
Xavier dropped by Tokyo for a couple of days and it was
really great to see him again, to see he didn't change and even better to see
what he's accomplished in our headquarters in Paris, thanks to his great
vision of things and his unique character!
The restaurant we went to is the famous Kani Douraku, where each and every dish
is based on crab.
I especially liked the kani sashimi (raw crab), the taste is so much different
than when it's cooked, it's hardly believable.
On the other hand, Jean-Paul had a hard time there, as he cannot eat crab at all!
A quick word on the pictures,
from a technical point of view: they were taken with my 50mm f1.4 again (I
will never say it enough: this lens is a-ma-zing) under ambient light at ISO
400, that's why the depth of field is so shallow.
The rest of the merit goes to the camera itself, the Canon EOS 10D, which produces
almost noise-free pictures at high ISO!
On a rainy day, around Izumi Garden, on the
way to the office, I found those little dropplets which formed an
amazing mosaic of water above my head.
Luckily, I had taken my camera with me and went for a few shots with my EOS
10D and this amazing lens that the 50mm f1.4 is.
I have to say that I was astounished when I developped the picture, as I saw
all the details of those dropplets even better than I could see it with my own
eyes! The picture looked so unreal, almost like CG or out of an advertisement
of Apple!
The pictures here are just crops of the same picture, because it would have just spoilt the whole effect to merely resize the original one: all the interest resides in the details of the pictures.
I've put up the pictures
of our trip to Italy: Florence, Milano, Bergamo and Como.
I won't get too much into details, as I mentioned our trip before.
However, I'd like to thank Paolo for meeting us and showing us around in
Bergamo: it was such lovely city and we spent such a great evening. I hope we
can do the same to him when he visits Japan!
I think Eiko and I will try to go again soon, as
we both enjoyed the stay, in spite of the sudden winter which gave us a hard
time...
Florence and Milano were very different but so interesting in their own style,
I really wouldn't mind finding more about them, especially now that I have
some practice of the Italian language ;-)
Venice was not part of this trip but that something you cannot miss in a lifetime so I guess we'll be going there soon!
