[Spambayes] IEE and Deleting

[David Hirst]

I expect you are aware of the letter in the IEE review commending Spambayes,
but I attach a PDF of it in case it is news. It was this that persuaded me
to install Spambayes, and I am very happy with the results so far.

I did have a minor problem installing it on my notebook. The registration
initially failed, but, after repeated attempts, including uninstallation, it
seems now to have taken. I am happy to enlarge on my experience if this is
likely to be helpful.

My discussion point concerns deleting emails. It has been my habit to delete
junk from everywhere where it might exist as early as possible. There are
three reasons for this:

1.	Much of it is offensive, and I just do not want it on any space that
I own or manage. 
2.	I have a PC and a notebook, and use both to download mail. If I have
not thoroughly deleted junk mail from the server, it can come back to haunt
me when I change "mode" from notebook to PC or vice versa.
3.	When travelling, and so with only a low bandwidth connection, my
habit is to download only headers, and delete the junk before it reaches my
notebook.

So I find myself uncomfortable with your suggestion that I maintain a
library of junk mail in order to train spambayes if I should lose the
spambayes database. I want to delete it fully and as soon as I can.

In following up, I see you keep the database where Microsoft suggests, under
application data, but I now also find that the spambayes database is
probably the most important thing kept in the whole of the application data,
and deserves my normal thorough cross computer backup. So application data
is not, for me, the best place to keep such data. I would prefer to keep it
in my high volatility directories for which I have routine protection
processes, which also serve to synchronise my PC and notebook.

Since the Application Data "belongs" to applications, is very specific to my
desktop on the particular PC, and I do not understand it well enough to feel
secure swapping such data across machines, I cannot sensibly keep these bits
synchronised across the PC and notebook. 

So I guess one plea is for the Outlook add-in to have a mechanism to
redirect to another directory, which I can then more readily share and
backup.

My other and more speculative plea is to have a mechanism that would work on
just headers, so that when I am on the road, and have only low bandwidth,
Spambayes can do some of the work of detecting the junk from the headers
alone. It need not have the same reliability as for normal use, and can
restrict itself to deleting just the very high probability stuff.

But do not let these suggestions imply that I am not very happy indeed with
spambayes. It is a super product, and addresses a problem that has been
becoming an increasing nuisance to me (and I am sure to many others).

Regards

David Hirst

!-!?!-Hirst Solutions Limited

Mobile +44 7831 405443

Home/Office +44 1273 570113

Innovation Technology Sustainability

www.davidhirst.com

 

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