I route all my e-mail to my university account, and the machine there is having a Very Bad Day. All of my directories got changed to a 'read-only file system' overnight, and basically, nothing works. Mail sent to me is either in a holding pattern, or lost, until further notice. Update: Fixed, as of this evening.
On the subject of mail, I'm getting so much spam these days that it is overwhelming my procmail filters (I still use PINE to read my mail—it's virus-proof). More and more junk is getting through. As I tighten my filters, some legit messages are being tagged as spam, which means I end up having to wade through the trash folder to rescue them which is a serious waste of time.
Because I've been online a long time, my address is in every spammer's directory there is. I'm seriously thinking of starting over with a new address and configuring all my existing ones to auto-reply a .gif file with a picture of the new address—in order to foil bots. (I put my e-mail address in the published text of articles, and I want a way for readers to continue to be able to contact me.) I know this is unfair to people with visual impairments who depend on readers to read their mail to them. That and being pretty busy with other stuff, are my excuses for putting up with the flood for now.
