newbie questions

[Radu MOLNAR]

I hope this is the right place to post this.Sorry if it isn't

Just some stupid newbie questions:
1) I have an alias made in my .profile alias vi='/usr/local/bin/vim' but
the alias is not made when i log in X. If a log in console or using ssh
from a remote host the alias is made but when i log in x it is not.
Anybody know why? As shell i use bash.

2)In /etc/syslogd.conf i have comented the line
#*.err;kern.debug;auth.notice;mail.crit         /dev/console
so that i wouldn't get any logs on my first console. But there are some
logs that get printed on the first console. They're printed in bright
white :) and they appear for example when someone tries to scan for opened
ports on my computer. My question is who makes these logs?

3)Why does pine say:
[Folder vulnerable - directory /var/mail must have 1777 protection]
these are the rights on /var/mail/taipan where taipan is my user:

[taipan at hawat mail]# ls -l /var/mail/taipan
-rw-------  1 taipan  wheel  11089 Apr  9 11:08 /var/mail/taipan

and alsoe the rights on /var/mail:
drwxrwxr-x   2 root    mail     512 Apr  9 11:07 mail

That's about it for now.
Happy Easter to everybody!

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Radu Molnar
Babes-Bolyai Comunication Center
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