DrBacchus' Journal

Well, in just a few hours, the polls will open in the most important election in Kenya's history so far. Daniel Moi, president since 1978, will step down and let someone else have a shot. The numbers seem pretty clear, with Kibaki expected to take 55-60% of the vote, and Kenyatta taking about 35%, but who knows how accurate those polls are, and how much of a roll vote-buying and other corruption will play.

Ironically, now that it is almost over, I think I might actually finally believe Kenyatta's claims that he would break from the former administration, and that Moi would not have influence over him. However, all along, people have believed that the opposite would be true - that Moi would still rule through Kenyatta, and that we would just have another few years of the same thing.

It will be interesting to see what Moi does - whether he actually retires to his country home to take it easy for a while, or whether he remains actively involved.

I pray for peace and calm. I'm concerned that, whoever wins, there will be violence in Nairobi, and that many people will be killed. I pray that the people can recognize the solemn importance of this, and that whoever wins, that the transition will be a smooth one, paving the way for a peaceful future. If this transition goes well, it will bode better for the next one, and the next one, and perhaps in a few decades, Kenya might be able to drag itself up out of the pit that it has sunk into over the last few decades.

I'm also concerned that people will expect immediate results, and that, in 6 months, when things are still terrible, that they will lose patience with Kibaki (or, I suppose it is still possible, Kenyatta) and demand something different. If people can be patient for a few years, perhaps things really will change. If not, Kenya might fall into the cycle of coups and bloodshed that has plagued so many other places.

NKOSI SIKELELE AFRICA - GOD BLESS AFRICA

She certainly needs it.

I've started monitoring SpamAssassin via mrtg. (Google for spam and mrtg. Configuration information is 3rd or 4th on the list.) Turns out that 58% of all the email I have received in December has been spam. And that doesn't count all the stuff that made it through the filters because it was not quite spammy enough for Spam Assassin, which would probably make it up to the 60% mark. This is really quite shocking. Email is still one of the primary uses of the internet infrustructure, and 60% of that traffic is complete poop.

I found it additionally interesting that my parents, who are normal internet users, and are not paranoid about filling out forms (or at least, not as paranoid as I am) with their real information, get nearly 3 times as much spam as I do.

root@buglet:/var/spool/mail# grep -ic "^to:.*[dad's address]" spam
133
root@buglet:/var/spool/mail# grep -ic "^to:.*[mom's address]" spam
134
root@buglet:/var/spool/mail# grep -ic "^to:.*[my address]" spam
47

That's just today's spam, which I've been redirecting off into a file for the purpose of stats.

Anyways, the actual graphs are uninteresting, as they chart total messages vs total spam for the month. They will saw-tooth at the beginning of each month when I rotate the log files

http://buglet.rcbowen.com/mrtg/spam_spam.html

It appears that the CD-RWs that I've been using for nightly backups have *all* gone bad. I'm not sure how long it has been since I've had a good backup.

Note to self: Weekly restore tests.

Oy.

... where the old lady still lived ... in company of several other old ladies of both sexes.

(Little Dorrit, Chapter XVII, Charles Dickens, 1857)

Chrisman Mill 2001 Mead (Kentucky) ($8 for a 375)
J Pinot Noir 1999 (Russian River) ($28)
Tohu Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, 2001 (New Zealand) ($18)

I am sure that other folks will spend a lot more on wine for Christmas, but, for me, this is a *major* splurge, so they better be good.