And the prize goes to... Re: Oops. And a brainteaser.

[Ric Werme]

> P.S. The prize has yet to be awarded.  Ben's explanation is close,
> but his wording (including that "perhaps") makes me hold out for
> one or two details.

Tip: there were LOTS of files, each one with a filename of a 
> string of decimal digits, the values of which grew by +1 with
> each successive message as it arrived (and they had not been 
> sorted or renamed).  For instance, the messages bridging New
> Year's 2006 were:
>     <snip>                      <size>    <date>     <filename>
>     -rw------- 1 sconce users    4442 2005-12-31 12:15 4572
>     -rw------- 1 sconce users    3867 2005-12-31 12:15 4573
>     -rw------- 1 sconce users    3495 2005-12-31 16:16 4574
>     -rw------- 1 sconce users    4469 2006-01-01 15:29 4575
>     </snip>

I haven't been following this thread ver closely, but the thing
that usually messes me up is grepping on file * doesn't give me
a numerically sorted list, i.e. you might have had things expand to 
  grep Hosstraders 1 10 100 1000 10000 10001 ... 9998 9999
and the Hosstraders Email you missed was in a 10000+ file.

So, how many messages per year are there on this list?  (Yeah, yeah, I know
the qualitative answer is "too many!")  I'll spend less time reading, that
way I'll reply less too.  Win-win.

    -Ric Werme