chris@pixutl.UUCP (chris) (08/26/86)
> I've had this alias since the first day I used csh: > > alias ">" "cat /dev/null >" > > {decvax!genrad,harvard!talcott}!panda!enmasse!guy > panda!enmasse!guy@talcott.arpa You can make it quicker: alias ">" ": >" Chris -- Chris Bertin : (603) 881-8791 x218 xePIX Inc. : 51 Lake St : {allegra|ihnp4|cbosgd|ima|genrad|amd|harvard}\ Nashua, NH 03060 : !wjh12!pixel!pixutl!chris
sja@ih1ap.UUCP (Steve Alesch) (10/02/86)
In article <996@hoptoad.uucp>, tim@hoptoad.UUCP writes: > It's been a while since I mentioned this trick I worked up a cuple of years > ago, so I thought I'd distribute it again: > > The problem is that most of us have mailboxes which have back mail in them, > so the login message "You have mail." tells us nothing. Scanning the > mailbox takes too long on login. What we really want to know is whether > mail arrived while we were logged out. > I assume that you either never read your mail or your read it but keep everything in $MAIL. If you never read your mail why not just set up a cron job to ``rm $MAIL'' once a day. :-) It's more likely that you started reading your mail originally, but after a few weeks of leaving everything in $MAIL, the pile of mail grew to an unmanageable size. The mail software (SVR2 mailx or Berkeley mail) allows you to save your mail under appropriately named categories, or delete it. Why not use them? When you read your mail from the good ole U.S Postal Service do you then put it back in your mailbox? Or do you throw it away (delete it), or categorize it and save it somewhere in your home paper file system? If I were to suggest a clever tool that allowed you to determine what new pieces of mail were put in your mailbox by the mailman today, what would you say to me? E-mail does require some discipline on your part. You have to read it about once a day, delete the junk or informational stuff and save the rest somewhere else. I don't think this is such a big price to pay considering the benefits it provides. After all, you've done the same thing with your mailbox in front of your home your whole life. -- Steve Alesch AT&T (312)510-7881, ...!ihnp4!ih1ap!sja
kehres@styx.UUCP (Tim Kehres) (10/03/86)
In article <588@ih1ap.UUCP> sja@ih1ap.UUCP (Steve Alesch) writes: >In article <996@hoptoad.uucp>, tim@hoptoad.UUCP writes: >> It's been a while since I mentioned this trick I worked up a cuple of years >> ago, so I thought I'd distribute it again: >> >> The problem is that most of us have mailboxes which have back mail in them, >> so the login message "You have mail." tells us nothing. Scanning the >> mailbox takes too long on login. What we really want to know is whether >> mail arrived while we were logged out. >> > >I assume that you either never read your mail or your read it but >keep everything in $MAIL. If you never read your mail why not >just set up a cron job to ``rm $MAIL'' once a day. :-) It's more >likely that you started reading your mail originally, but after a >few weeks of leaving everything in $MAIL, the pile of mail grew to >an unmanageable size. The mail software (SVR2 mailx or Berkeley >mail) allows you to save your mail under appropriately named >categories, or delete it. Why not use them? > >When you read your mail from the good ole U.S Postal Service do >you then put it back in your mailbox? Or do you throw it away >(delete it), or categorize it and save it somewhere in your home >paper file system? If I were to suggest a clever tool that >allowed you to determine what new pieces of mail were put in your >mailbox by the mailman today, what would you say to me? > With the U.S. Postal service, you can usually tell by looking at the physical envelope something regarding the contents. Most of the time you will at least be able to determine the originator of the letter and have some idea of wether the mail is junk mail or not. Knowing this, you then make the decision of when you wish to open the envelope. This is roughly equivalent to the checkmail concept. If the electronic mail is from an important person, you will probably get to reading it before mail that comes from a less important source. Not everybody stops what they are doing the moment a message arrives just to read it. >E-mail does require some discipline on your part. You have to >read it about once a day, delete the junk or informational stuff >and save the rest somewhere else. I don't think this is such a big >price to pay considering the benefits it provides. After all, >you've done the same thing with your mailbox in front of your home >your whole life. >-- > >Steve Alesch AT&T >(312)510-7881, ...!ihnp4!ih1ap!sja Any system that tries to force an unwanted convention on a person is probably doomed to failure. Just because one user is confortable with the way a piece of software works does not mean that the rest of the user community will also be. Any auxilary tools that can make life easier for the rest of us should always be welcome. Tim Kehres Control Data Corporaton / Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ---------------------------------------------------------------- UUCP: {idi,ihnp4!lll-lcc}!styx!kehres ARPA: kehres@lll-tis-b.ARPA AT&T: (415) 463-6852