Media Monkey Rocks

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Media Monkey Screenshot

Media Monkey Screenshot

No, really, it does. Like a hurricane even. I found this nifty media player and manager while looking for something to replace iTunes. WinAmp used to be a cool product, but recent versions leave me flat. I tried others and ended up choosing Media Monkey after I found it. Not only is it an awesome media manager, but it can sync to your iPod as well. I couldn’t get rid of iTunes altogether because I get books from Audible, and the DRM is tied to iTunes, but I still like Media Monkey for everything else. I liked it enough that I bought the gold version, it’s a great tool. Check out their website at http://www.mediamonkey.com/ and give it a test drive.  I bet you will dig it as much as I do!

MySQL Database Backup Script

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Here we go folks, I thought I would share a handy little script with you that I use to backup all of the databases on a particular Linux/UNIX server.  I do this by getting a list of the databases, and then using mysqldump to dump them all to a text file.  This seems to be the best way (short of replication) to get good clean backups of the data.  Toss it into a cron job and you can have it done automagically.  There isn’t anything yet to rotate files, but I might add that later.  Also, I am going to try and rewrite this in PERL so our Windows (and other OS’s that don’t have a shell like Bash) brethren can run this script as well.  For now though, it’s written for Bash but almost any shell would work I think.

OK, onto the script.  Continue reading →

Solarum’s MySQL Reference

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Heads up, I have added something that I think you will find useful.  I have added a MySQL reference to the Library!  This is more than a cheat sheet, I try to explain the things that are going on in there as we do it, so it should be a good way to not only see how to do specific things, but also understand them as well.  Check it out here and see what you think, if you see anything wrong with it or you have some tip of you own you’d like me to add, drop a line and let me know.  Enjoy!

Nice Usenet News Reader For Free

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XanaNews Screenshot

XanaNews Screenshot

I was looking for a good, solid and preferably open source news reader (usenet client) whilst booted into Windows XP on my laptop earlier, and I found a dandy. I found a lightweight client called XanaNews, which although lightweight, not over burdened or bulky, it is also solid and easy to use. Throw in that it is open source and free, and it’s a nice application.

I looked at the screen shots and it looked like it was along the lines of what I wanted, so I decided to download it and give it a try.  After running the installer I easilly configured my news server (Giganews, if you aren’t using them and you want AWESOME usenet access, check these guys out! Like NOW!) and off I went, effortlessly subscribing to groups and reading posts on procmail.  That’s what I was working on at the time.

Well, I liked XanaNews so much, that I decided to install it on my main machine running Ubuntu.  I fired up Wine and ran through the same install steps and it again worked like a charm.  So now I can use this dandy little news reader on Windows and Linux.  I felt like I just had to share with everyone, because it seems like good usenet clients are hard to find unless you want to try and use something bundled into a web browser or email client which I usually don’t.  Give me an app made especially for what I want to use it for, and it’s probably going to do a better job of it every time.  Not always, but most of the time I would say.  Hope you enjoy it!

New Feeds Foretell Patching Plagues

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You may already be familiar with the feed I put up from Security Focus so you can easily get the latest news on vulnerabilities that are either already out in the wild or have the potential to be soon.  If not, check it out here.  As I am always looking to improve things, I recently added some feeds that will deliver the latest advisories for Red Hat, SuSE and Ubuntu Linux quickly and easily.  So, to recap, from here you can easily get information on the latest vulnerabilities overall, plus the latest advisories for three top Linux distros: Red Hat, SuSE, and Ubuntu. Check ’em out and look for more good stuff, as I find new ways to deliver goodness, I’ll be adding them.  Thanks.