Outgoing DKIM and exim4

So, I sent an email to my sister, and I didn’t hear back. After exchanging some SMS-es, it turns out my mails went to the spam box on Gmail.

Rude!

That’s a new development for my MTA (quimby.gnus.org), so I tried poking around seeing whether I’d ended up in a blacklist or something. But, no, apparently Gmail now sends you to the spam hole if you don’t have DKIM on your outgoing email, and the moon is in the wrong alignment with Saturn.

So I thought “well, enabling outgoing DKIM on exim4 on Debian is surely just one command?” Right?

After googling around, I found… nothing. I did find a bunch of howtos, but they were obviously outdated because the referred to stuff that no longer exist.

So if you’re in my situation, and really don’t want to know anything about DKIM beyond AAARGH GMAIL THINKS I”M A SPAMMER, I’ve written a teensy script that should get you up and going.

At least at the time of writing, and with the current version of Debian Stable. (I’m writing this at on March 22nd, 2020, at 23:43. If you’re trying to set this up any time later than that, you probably have to tweak stuff a bit.)

And look what Mail Tester says now:

Gawrsh.

Of course, my email is now so authenticated and secure that if my MTA goes down, I’ll never be able to send a single mail ever again.

OTB#48: The Searchers

The Searchers. John Ford. 1956. ⚃

There’s sure a whole bunch of westerns on this survey, padner. I got this one from a 20 disc box set some years back. I think it was this? That’s a pretty solid collection.

This is the only John Ford movie on the list, which is somewhat surprising. And if I remember correctly, this isn’t the most visually striking of his movies…

But perhaps I misremember; it’s been decades since I saw this movie last.

[…]

Or perhaps I have never seen it before, because (I’m half an hour in), and nothing seems familiar.

It is pretty startling seeing the white made-up guy playing the lead Native-American role.

[another half hour passes]

OK, I don’t quite get it. I usually love John Ford’s movies, but this is all kinds of … squicky? Around the edges? Like the funny bits where the comedy sidekick accidentally buys a Native-American wife (for the price of a hat)? It’s… in a different, more goofy context, that would still have been pretty odd, but here? Where they’re searching (note: title) after a guy that’s killed (and heavily implied, raped) a whole family, and kidnapped a little girl, it’s…

Weird? Slightly squicky? Especially when the comedy sidekick’s “comedy” spouse abuse sets in?

The mood swings in this movie is enough to give you a whiplash. The deranged cowboy set on revenge and the homey interludes…

OK. On the positive side, it does looks quite nice. I wish I had this on 2K instead of DVD, but it still looks surprisingly spiffy. John Wayne is, as ever, iconic, and the rest of the actors are… present…

I do not understand, at all, why this movie is on this “best of” list in preference over… a dozen other movies by John Ford.

Well, that’s a varied list of directors voting for the movie.

OK, I was bored, so I googled around seeing if anybody had a full data set of all the Sight & Sound polls. Nobody has, but this guy has done an interesting analysis of the available data.

This blog post is part of the Officially The Best series.

OTB#48: Pickpocket


Pickpocket. Robert Bresson. 1959. ⚅

Oh, I’ve got this both on DVD from Artificial Eye and bluray from Criterion…

I’m watching the Criterion release.

OH MY EMACS! Bresson is straight from the screen into my pretentious mind. Those affectless deliveries! The moral quandaries! Those French hairstyles! It’s just pure fabulousness. I’m there from the first frame to the last.

It’s 230% riveting. This movie is PURE EXCITEMENT! MY HEART IS POUNDING IS IT THE COVID NO IT”S THE MOVIE.

[…]

THIS IS A LIE.

It’s the most thrillerey thriller ever.

Bresson is still hyper-modern; i.e., his style hasn’t arrived yet, but it must some day.

OK, the last fourth is a bit of letdown.

Oh, this one has a lot of leftover liqueurs. It’s all liqueurs! I B Damm’d.

Hm… I had expected something super-flavourful, but the liqueurs weirdly cancel each other out.

This blog post is part of the Officially The Best series.

OTB#48: Pather Panchali

Pather Panchali. Satyajit Ray. 1955. ⚄

There aren’t a lot of movies on this list from outside the US/Europe/Japan/Hong Kong axis. Is this the only one? Haven’t made a survey, but it kinda looks like it? Uhm… Oh! It’s got Close-Up by Abbas Kiarostami, too. (From Iran.) That one’s really good. My guess is that the next survey (scheduled for 2022, if the world hasn’t ended by then) will include a lot more, like, for instance, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

This is Indian, by the way, and is in Bengali.

I am not a conne… conos… connersue… I don’t know much from Indian movies. I watched a bunch of them last year for my Netflix blog series, and… I guess they weren’t any worse than the American movies, really? I mean, not much.

This is not a Netflix movie. (Note: Insightful comment.)

I really like this. I mean, on a scene by scene basis: I really love the pacing; it’s languorous and slippery, and every scene of picaresque poverty is exquisitely framed. The actors are great; not exactly naturalistic, but every look speaks volumes. It’s not that far from contemporaneous Italian cinema, I guess?

But…

I have to admit growing distracted after an hour or so. There’s some excellent, heartbreaking scenes here, but there’s a bit too much time spent on stuff that is less interesting than the movie assumes it would be. There’s like no… tension? In those scenes?

It is a lovely movie, though. I laughed, I cried.

The scenes with the cats feel quite 2020, I’m sure.

This leftover recipe (Bikini Martini) depletes both my stock of Peachtree and blue curacao, but not by much.

It’s OK? But it’s very alcohol-forward. After diluting it a bit more, it’s nicer.

This blog post is part of the Officially The Best series.