After getting my new server up and running, and setting up new email accounts, I realized all my old emails where still on the old server. So on the chance someone might run into a similar situation decided to write up the recipe I used to transfer old emails.

Assumptions:

1) You’re using an imap mailserver (if you’re not you really should), i.e. all your emails are stored in ~/Maildir on the server, not in a pop file on your local machine.
2) You have network accessible samba shares on both old and new server, and they’re both connected to the same network and accessible from a network client.

Procedure for transferring emails between servers:

1) Log on to old server (console, telnet, or ssh) and go into your old home directory
2) Compress mail directory into a single file with ‘tar cvf Maildir.tgz Maildir’
3) Copy the tar file to a samba share on old server ‘cp Maildir.tgz /(samba share path)’
4) Copy tar file from old server samba share to new server samba share. I used windows explorer which had both the old server samba share and the new server samba share mapped. The file was about 600 meg.
5) Create a temporary user on new server, like oldjohn (john being the current user on new server and the original user on old server), with a full account (mail, home directory, etc). Webmin works great for doing that.
6) Log on to the new server, and copy the Maildir.tgz file from the samba share to oldjohn’s home directory
7) Go into oldjohn’s home directory and extract directories and files with ‘tar -xvf Maildir.tgz’
8) Important step here. Make sure you change ownership of extracted Maildir and contents to oldjohn (you were john on old server, so extracted files are still owned by john, not oldjohn) with ‘chown chgrp -R oldjohn Maildir’ .
9) On your desktop machine which you use to get your emails, which presumably has your current email account, set up a new account on the new server for user oldjohn . My favorite email client is Thunderbird.
10) Connect to your oldjohn email account and voila, there they are. If you want to you can drag and drop your oldjohn emails and folders to your john account. To avoid inbox confusion, I created an ‘Oldinbox’ folder and dropped all the inbox emails in oldjohn’s inbox into it, then moved the Oldinbox over to john’s account. Also moved all the folders from oldjohn to john. Final step delete oldjohn’s email account from your mail client.

This HDR image was taken a while back at an abandoned factory. I do believe the device behind the blue box with some type of logo on it is a dynamometer, used for testing engines. Looks like a few hundred horsepower capacity.

Well seems everyone’s had a go at this, so here’s my version. I went there with Vlad, we were scouting the building for a potential model shoot. Unlike previous visits to the place, it is now posted with many No Trespassing signs. Also some of the previously locked doors had been broken into. We went in anyway. Didn’t take long and we heard someone holler inside the building. Ever seen the Blair Witch Project? The disappeared guy calling from somewhere in the woods? Creepy. We were out of there in a hurry. Conclusion not suited for model shoot. If we’re not comfortable you can’t possible expect a model to be. To bad, it could have made for some interesting shots.

Two gangster getaways cars, in front of a …. swine barn?

Bartley’s favorite toy.

Taken during a walkabout with some of my fellow local photobloggers.

What happens above is mostly cosmetic. The real work happens below.

Southern Pacific 4449 all steamed up and ready to go. It left the station in Northeast Minneapolis at 8:00 am 18 July, destination Chicago. Once it left the station, I got ahead of it and got a few more shots as it was passing the Jackson Street Roundhouse.

For other Monochrome Weekly photos check here.

This is the engine room from which the engineers operated Locomotive 227. In the center you can see the coal shut leading underneath the boiler.

Locomotive 227 is located at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. Weighing in over 1 million pounds and capable of pulling a load of 36 million pounds, it has two separate ‘engines’, i.e. sets of powered wheels. Because of the locomotive’s length, the wheel sets are articulated, meaning they can ‘turn’ underneath the main body of the locomotive. This was necessary so the locomotive could handle the curves in the railroad tracks.

Looking at all the controls in the cab, one could almost imagine that the train engineers running this machine could probably have a go at running the space shuttle, aero issues excepted.

For other Monochrome Monday photos check here.

Another graffiti photo. Wonder about the implications of having multiple posts with the same title. Maybe I should number them, like Xavier? BTW, Xavier will be at the Uptown Art Festival this year again. Stop by at his booth if you happen to be there.

This shot was taken underneath a bridge across the Mississippi. That whole area was fairly tricky to walk around on, mini valleys and canyons, unstable soil. That’s one of the reasons I like to wear solid leather boats on photo shoots like this. They protect your feet and ankles, and give good ankle support. Unfortunately that doesn’t work during summer. Leather boots and shorts, now that would be a sight.

While I was taking photos, I heard this odd rumble behind me. Turned around a watched a section of the hill about the size of a refrigerator break loose and tumble down. Glad I wasn’t standing there :)