However, I have a limited amount of quota space on such machines. So I don't want to willy-nilly svn import my whole freaking home directory. Moreover, I already have a lot of ad-hoc backups floating around my directory structure, which would be silly to eternally commit to a version control system that is reluctant to let me conveniently delete them.
Not really sure how to separate the stuff I want under version control from the stuff I don't. If I don't have a clear separation, then I have only increased my commitment to copying around huge chunks of data every time I switch computers. Grr.