Today I finally hacked up a simple script to run from cron that will automatically dump, zip, and mail backups of my MySQL tables to an email address I specify. I set up a Gmail account to send the dumps to because they’re about 8 meg each. The dumps are also encrypted using my PGP 1024-bit public key to give me a bit of security.

Since I didn’t manage to find anything similar in my Googling, I decided to post it.

#!/bin/sh # Performs a backup of MySQL, encrypts it using PGP, and mails it to a particular user # The user to mail the backup to. Should have a public key in the above user's keyring... MAIL_TO="your-backup-account@gmail.com" MAIL_TO_KEY="Your PGP key ID" # Subject of the mail. A date stamp will be appended to it MAIL_SUBJECT="[mysqldump] MySQL Backup for ” ###################################### DATESTAMP=`date %Y-%m-%d` FILENAME=”/tmp/mysqldump-$DATESTAMP.gz” # Generate the dump mysqldump –all-databases | gzip > “$FILENAME” # Encrypt it gpg –encrypt –recipient “$MAIL_TO_KEY” “$FILENAME” # Mail it! mpack -s “$MAIL_SUBJECT $DATESTAMP” -c application/octet-stream $FILENAME.gpg” “$MAIL_TO” # Remove the backups rm -f $FILENAME $FILENAME.gpg

GtdWiki is a specially tweaked version of PhpWiki I’ve been using for a few months now as the core of my personal implementation of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”.

Download it, try it out, and let me know what you think.

Update: I’ve set up a online demo if you want to “try before you buy.”

Now its time to upgrade…

Update: Finished upgrading… Yayyyyyy…

As an experiment, I’ll be forwarding all my mail there and be using it as my primary email client. I’ll blog about my experience for those people that haven’t been lucky enough to get an account. Note the new “GMail” category on the right.

So far, it looks very cool.

“Trebuchet MS”… You’re the one for me now.

Update: Yes, I know, a trebuchet is a type of medieval catapult. But its also a standard Windows font.

You really don’t grasp the true value of RSS until you’ve got a good feed aggregator. I’ve got it set as my Firefox homepage now, and theres nothing like being able to glance through 40 or 50 feeds and see whats been updated in the last 15 minutes, and then scan quickly through the latest entries to see if there is anything new worth checking out. I can watch 50 sites with the same effort it used to take me to just read Slashdot.

Q: What is a GMTB? A: The short answer is “Gay Movable Type Blogger.” This does not quite paint the full picture, however. A GMTB uses a Mac. A GMTB is excited about “wireless hot spots” and “cafes.” The prototypical GMTB can be found at a Starbucks with a 15″ PowerBook. He will be wearing a black turtleneck and will go on at length about the wonder years where web designers were paid like programmers. The GMTB will blog about you. Do not be alarmed. In order to make sense of their fast moving and confusing world, GMTBers need to write at length about even the most trivial encounter. They will likely Google you and turn even the most minor conversation into an exploratory experience. Every experience is like that of the newborn boy who finds touching himself over and over to be a pleasurable experience. Do not make the GMTB angry. The GMTB has natural defenses known as “Google juice.” With the application of this “Google juice,” the GMTB will sour any future searches on your name. While there is no physical harm to be done, they can make any attempt at finding relevant and useful information about you a linkfest of armchair philosophy, ill-formed opinions, and broad and insanely overblown reactions to everyday occurrences. Should you find yourself confronted by a GMTB and wish to escape, one need only mention that their “CSS” is broken. The GMTB invariably considers the CSS “correctness” and “portability” to be a craft, and the output thereof to be an “art.” By pointing out that the page renders poorly on the most esoteric browser you can imagine, you will be assured a quick and uneventful escape.

Well, I don’t wear turtlenecks, use MovableType, or have a Mac. But I do like wireless hotspots and my CSS does render correctly on everything except for crappy old 4.0 browsers. And I’m blogging this. Wait a second… Damnit!

Right now I’m taking most of them with my Palm Zire 71. The picture quality isn’t half bad for what’s basically a webcam grafted to a PDA.

If you’re going to create a monopoly, at least create a standards-compliant monopoly. Then I don’t have to worry about your browser breaking every single bit of compliant CSS code I write. Mozilla, Firefox, and Safari play nice, why can’t you?

So if you need some web design, administration, or custom software development, give me a shot. I’m cheap.

Now all I need is customers.