In 10.8, you can set up the configuration in /etc/asl.conf such that applications won't constantly write to the system logs (particularly the folder /var/logs/asl/) every second. However, Mavericks seems to completely ignore any settings in the apple system log config file (asl.conf) and defaults to spamming the log files like crazy. Anyone have any idea what changed with respect to the log system and asl manager?