Mailman 3 October 2003 - SpamBayes

Install problem: conflict between Python versions using Mandrake 9.1
by Parzival Herzog Dec. 31, 2003

Dec. 31, 2003

Hello, I am in tp process making a transition from using Windows to using Linux, so I am quite inexperienced in the ways of Linux... I would like to install Spambayes, but I noticed that the requirements suggested Python 2.3 would be better thanPython 2.2. Since Mandrake 9.1 comes with Python 2.2.?, and I am a Python programmer, I thougth I would upgrade to Python 2.3. However, it seems that other software on mandrake requires 2.2 to be installed. So I downloaded built and installed Python 2.3.2. I wondered how the two versions would co-exist, and whether or not the Spambayes code would resolve the Python 2.3 interpreter and libraries, so I took a peak at the setup.py script, and the first line says: #!/usr/bin/env python It seems that neither the installed Mandrake, nor the new Python 2.3 installation configures a system-wide or user "PYTHON" variable, so I configured my .bash_profile with PYTHON=`which python2.3` export PYTHON The result is that in a bash shell PYTHON is defined: [parz@---- parz]$ env | grep PYTHON PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python2.3 [parz@---- parz]$ So I ran setup.py as root, and I got the following failure: [root@---- spambayes-1.0a6]# ./setup.py install running install Traceback (most recent call last): File "./setup.py", line 97, in ? classifiers = [ File "/usr/lib/python2.2/distutils/core.py", line 138, in setup dist.run_commands() File "/usr/lib/python2.2/distutils/dist.py", line 893, in run_commands self.run_command(cmd) File "/usr/lib/python2.2/distutils/dist.py", line 912, in run_command cmd_obj.ensure_finalized() File "/usr/lib/python2.2/distutils/cmd.py", line 112, in ensure_finalized self.finalize_options() File "/usr/lib/python2.2/distutils/command/install.py", line 273, in finalize_options (prefix, exec_prefix) = get_config_vars('prefix', 'exec_prefix') File "/usr/lib/python2.2/distutils/sysconfig.py", line 427, in get_config_vars func() File "/usr/lib/python2.2/distutils/sysconfig.py", line 332, in _init_posix raise DistutilsPlatformError(my_msg) distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError: invalid Python installation: unable to open /usr/lib/python2.2/config/Makefile (No such file or directory) So it seems that the distutils are retrieved from the Python 2.2 installation, not the Python 2.3 installation. So how do I get around this? Since I want to program using Python 2.3, and I can't apparently remove Python 2.2 without also removing other Mandrake 9.1 installed software, this problem affects me in a wider sense than just the ability to install and use Spambayes. Surely it must be a common situation faced by Python developers on Linux, with a straightforward solution.

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feature request
by Rayfes Mondal Dec. 8, 2003

Dec. 8, 2003

Hello, First I want to say thank you for making such a wonderful product available to everyone! It has worked wonders for me. I have a small feature request though. I am using Outlook and my computer and speakers are always on but I leave my monitor off when I'm not using my computer. When I receive email I hear Outlook's new mail sound but I have no way of telling whether the message is spam or not without going to my computer and turning on the monitor. Is there any way to have SpamBayes play a sound every time is marks a message a spam and maybe a different sound for possible spam? That way if I hear a new message come in I could just wait a few seconds to hear whether it was marked spam. If I happen to get multiple messages at time I may miss realizing that some Ham messages came in with some spam but that's ok with me. What do you think? I think others might find that feature useful. Anyway, great product! I'm an engineer and found out about from EDN (Electronic Design News) magazine. Cheers! Rayfes

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Outlook plugin - training
by Moore, Paul Dec. 3, 2003

Dec. 3, 2003

When the Outlook plugin filters mails, it classifies them as either spam or potential spam, and can put them in appropriate folders. In the spam/potential spam folders, there is a "Recover from Spam" button available, and in other folders there is a "Delete as spam" button. These buttons add the message to the training database as well as taking the appropriate action. One thing I don't see, however, is a means of confirming the classifier's decisions as correct. A "yes, that is spam" button for the spam folder, and a "yes, that's ham" button in non-spam folders. As I'm starting from a very small message base, I worry that correct classifications are still somewhat based on "luck", and training based on correct decisions would help to increase both my and the classifier's confidence level. I can do this by regular retraining, but that has 2 disadvantages: it's much clumsier than simply clicking on a "clever boy!" button, and it relies on me not deleting messages until I do a training run. Much of the ham I get is "read and forget", so I'd rather delete immediately. When I get a chance to dive into the code, I'll see how hard this would be to implement. Paul.

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RE: [Spambayes] Outlook plugin - training
by Piers Haken Dec. 3, 2003

Dec. 3, 2003

I don't believe you need this. I think that the classifier automatically trains on messages as they arrive (or at least on messages that it's sure about). You only need to retrain if it has made a mistake, or if it's unsure. Piers. > -----Original Message----- > From: Moore, Paul [mailto:Paul.Moore@atosorigin.com] > Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 2:09 AM > To: Spambayes (E-mail) > Subject: [Spambayes] Outlook plugin - training > > > When the Outlook plugin filters mails, it classifies them as > either spam or potential spam, and can put them in > appropriate folders. > > In the spam/potential spam folders, there is a "Recover from > Spam" button available, and in other folders there is a > "Delete as spam" button. These buttons add the message to the > training database as well as taking the appropriate action. > > One thing I don't see, however, is a means of confirming the > classifier's decisions as correct. A "yes, that is spam" > button for the spam folder, and a "yes, that's ham" button in > non-spam folders. > > As I'm starting from a very small message base, I worry that > correct classifications are still somewhat based on "luck", > and training based on correct decisions would help to > increase both my and the classifier's confidence level. > > I can do this by regular retraining, but that has 2 > disadvantages: it's much clumsier than simply clicking on a > "clever boy!" button, and it relies on me not deleting > messages until I do a training run. Much of the ham I get is > "read and forget", so I'd rather delete immediately. > > When I get a chance to dive into the code, I'll see how hard > this would be to implement. > > Paul. > > _______________________________________________ > Spambayes mailing list > Spambayes(a)python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes >

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RE: [Spambayes] SpamBayes vs. Outlook Mailbox Rules
by Ryan Malayter Dec. 2, 2003

Dec. 2, 2003

From: Dejonghe, Manuel [mailto:Manuel.Dejonghe@cycos.com] > Is there a way to delay the sb-filter-process ? This has been an option in the INI file since (at least) version 0.7 of the SpamBayes plug-in, and is now configurable in the GUI of v0.81. > Is this what the "Background Scanning" in the "Advanced" tab means ? Yes, looks like you found it! > I wasn't able to find anything about that feature. It's been documented on this mailing list, and in the INI files themselves as comments. Not sure about anywhere else. Regards, Ryan

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RE: [Spambayes] notate_subject
by Tony Meyer Nov. 26, 2003

Nov. 26, 2003

> What happened to hammie.py? It was deprecated a long while back. You can still access it if you want to, by using the hammie.py module (in the spambayes directory) as a script, or by using the hammiebulk.py module. The recommended method is to use sb_filter.py and sb_mboxtrain.py or sb_server.py with sb_upload.py (the former in your case, I would imagine). > Regardless, you're saying that there's an > open ticket which would fix my dilemma? Yes. > Iff true, this alone > would allow me to switch from SA to SB. Learning Python > seems like fun, maybe I'll idle the devel list and see if > there's anything I can do to help. Good plan :) The change isn't that difficult to make, but I can't see that I would be able to get to it before mid November (I'm going away for a while). One of the other developers might, though. Actually, although that is the correct long-term solution, you could add in subject modification to a local copy yourself without much trouble. I've only done a bare minimum of testing this, but it appears to work: """ *** hammie.py Mon Oct 20 19:51:31 2003 --- hammie2.py Mon Oct 20 19:47:20 2003 *************** *** 116,121 **** --- 116,125 ---- else: is_spam = False disp = options["Headers", "header_unsure_string"] + if disp in options["Headers", "notate_subject"]: + subj = msg["Subject"] + del msg["Subject"] + msg["Subject"] = "%s %s" % (disp, subj) if train: self.train(msg, is_spam, True) disp += ("; %."+str(options["Headers", "header_score_digits"])+"f") % Prob """ > I greatly appreciate your assistance, Tony. Have a great weekend. No worries, and thanks, I did :) =Tony Meyer

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Re: Spambayes Digest, Vol 59, Issue 9
by erik＠sky.cz Nov. 6, 2003

Nov. 6, 2003

Hi all, Mark replied to my recent message on installation problems in private, and I replied back in private... since there's been activity from Mark on the list but no reply to that e-mail, I'll take the liberty of continuing this one on the list. The basics again: - I first discovered the problem in the 002 binary, but it does repro in the 003. - both repro machines run Outlook 2K CZ - one runs W98SE CZ and the other W2K CZ - Reproduced in W2K under both CZ-CZ locale and EN-US regional settings - Addin joins the list in Outlook after installation, but cannot be successfully activated - each return to the COM add-ins dialog finds it unchecked. - The original report was for W2K CZ / binary 2; see the list a few days back for details. - Here is the behavior for W98SE/CZ regional settings/binary 3: Error connecting to Outlook! Traceback (most recent call last): File "out1.pyz/addin", line 800, in OnConnection File "out1.pyz/manager", line 682, in GetManager File "out1.pyz/manager", line 226, in __init__ File "out1.pyz/manager", line 487, in LoadConfig File "out1.pyz/ntpath", line 101, in join UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xed in position 9: ordinal not in range(128) ERROR: 'There was an error initializing the SpamBayes addin\r\n\r\nPlease re- start Outlook and try again.' Traceback (most recent call last): File "out1.pyz/addin", line 800, in OnConnection File "out1.pyz/manager", line 682, in GetManager File "out1.pyz/manager", line 226, in __init__ File "out1.pyz/manager", line 487, in LoadConfig File "out1.pyz/ntpath", line 101, in join UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xed in position 9: ordinal not in range(128) SpamBayes - Disconnecting from Outlook Addin terminating: 0 COM client and 1 COM servers exist. - the error with 003 on W2K was, as far as I can recall, mostly the same, except for the "can't decode byte XXXX" - a different byte was cited, AFAICR. Erik Piper

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Missing Messages
by Ann Jensen Oct. 31, 2003

Oct. 31, 2003

I installed Spambaye 0.8 and unfortunately, didn't have it configured properly. I realized there was a problem when a new mail message icon appeared in my system tray but nothing showed up in my inbox. I had been sending suspect emails to a nonexistent folder. I know for certain I'm missing 2 emails that were legitimate. Any ideas on how I can get them back? Ann Jensen Senior Consultant NPower Seattle 206.286.8880 __________________________ The next Tech Field Day is Friday November 7th. Sign up now, registration is limited for this free event! http://www.npowerseattle.org/happenings/fieldday/fall03tfd.htm

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Missing Messages
by Ann Jensen Oct. 31, 2003

Oct. 31, 2003

I installed Spambaye 0.8 and unfortunately, didn't have it configured properly. I realized there was a problem when a new mail message icon appeared in my system tray but nothing showed up in my inbox. I had been sending suspect emails to a nonexistent folder. I know for certain I'm missing 2 emails that were legitimate. Any ideas on how I can get them back? Ann Jensen Senior Consultant NPower Seattle 206.286.8880 __________________________ The next Tech Field Day is Friday November 7th. Sign up now, registration is limited for this free event! http://www.npowerseattle.org/happenings/fieldday/fall03tfd.htm

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RE: [Spambayes] I'm a web/php/mysql/javascript programmer and can help with making a snazzy/user-friendly website
by Tiller, Michael (M.M.) Oct. 31, 2003

Oct. 31, 2003

I don't know what your platform is, but you might think about putting up a Plone (http://www.plone.org) site for SpamBayes. It has the following advantages: 1) Runs on most platforms. 2) Built on top of Zope and Python. 3) Supports lots of content types and management features. 4) There is a Wiki product for it. 5) Supports users with varying levels of authority. 6) Very easy to customize (e.g. skin). ...among many other things. I've used it for several things and it really is a very nice system for content management. Just a thought. -- Mike > -----Original Message----- > From: Richie Hindle [mailto:richie@entrian.com] > Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 2:23 PM > To: Dave Mathiesen; spambayes(a)python.org > Subject: Re: [Spambayes] I'm a web/php/mysql/javascript programmer and > can help with making a snazzy/user-friendly website > > > > [Dave] > > I'm a web/php/mysql/javascript programmer and can help with making a > > snazzy/user-friendly website > > That could be a big help, especially the user-friendly part. > Our website > is not very user friendly, partly because it was written by a bunch of > programmers 8-) and partly because it hasn't kept up with the > user base of > SpamBayes. In the early days, SpamBayes was a research project, > investigating how Bayesian techniques could best be used to classify > email. These days it's an end-user spam filter, whether it's > ready for it > or not! > > One of my longer term aims for the SpamBayes Wiki - at > http://entrian.com/sbwiki - was to use it to improve the website. I > haven't had the time to take this idea any further, but if > you (and anyone > else) would like to use the Wiki as a tool for developing an improved > website, that would be fantastic. > > Getting users and web content developers involved with authoring the > website sounds like a very good idea to me. At the moment, > updating the > official website is a painful job even for the SpamBayes > developers, and > impossible for everyone else, but updating the Wiki is trivially easy. > http://entrian.com/sbwiki/HowToContribute gives a very quick overview. > > With a view to kicking this off, I've created an area in the Wiki > dedicated to website improvements: > > http://entrian.com/sbwiki/WebSiteDevelopment > > This page, and any others beginning with 'WebSite' that > people add, are > for developers and users to sketch out how the website could > be improved. > > > This beautiful tool has just saved me in so many ways -- THANK YOU! > > Always good to hear from a happy customer! > > -- > Richie Hindle > richie(a)entrian.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Spambayes(a)python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes > Check the FAQ before asking: http://spambayes.sf.net/faq.html >

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