WordPress Backup Script
I wrote this little script the other day to back up my WordPress install. Because I use Navicat, I had always been pretty good about backing up the database, but I didn’t backup the install base nearly as often as I should have. I’m sure it won’t be useful for everyone because it requires access to the command line, and mysqldump, but it’s nice to know that my blog is getting backed up.
It’s really just a simple shell script that is executed nightly by cron. You can set up the backup directories in any way you like, but if you store your database backups in a subdirectory of the WordPress install, make darn sure that the directory is not readable by the web server.
The example below assumes the following:
- WordPress (your web root) is: /webserver/wordpress
- Your dumps directory is: /home/backups/wp-backups
- The name of your WordPress database is wpdata
- Your WordPress database user is: dbuser
- Your WordPress database password is: dbpassword
Remember to change these variables for your install.
———-SNIP———-
#!/bin/sh
Date=`date “+%Y-%m-%d”`;
echo “Creating Database Backup”;
mysqldump -u dbuser -pdbpassword wpdata | gzip > /home/backups/wp-backups/wordpress-$Date.sql.gz;
echo “Done”;
echo “Creating Filesystem Backup”;
cd /webserver/;
/usr/bin/tar -czf /home/backups/wp-backups/wordpress-$Date.tgz wordpress;
Echo “Done”;
echo “Backup Complete”;
———-/SNIP———-
Each time the script is run, it will create two timestamped files in /home/backups/wp-backups. The first one: wordpress-TIMESTAMP.sql.gz is a compressed export of your database. The second file: wordpress-TIMESTAMP.tgz is a compressed tar archive of your WordPress install.
Google Blog Search
I’ve been saying for a long time that the world needs a good blog search engine, and Erich points out that the people who do search engines best have finally stepped up to the plate and come out with one. Google has just released the first beta (I know… Google has everything in beta) of its blog search.
My favorite blog search engines up to this point have been Mnongo and Technorati. Both are quite good, although competing with Google on the search engine front has proven difficult even for the largest and most powerful technology players. After tinkering with Google Blog Search for a bit, I have to say that it seems pretty good. It’s never quite clear how Google gathers their info and ranks their sites, although they do seem to lend quite a bit of weight to tags.
Here is what Google has to say about it:
Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively, and perhaps inspire many to join the revolution themselves. Whether you’re looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice.
Blogs are really quite powerful tools, and I’m glad to see that the world is taking them more and more seriously every day.
Open Source Radio
last week I listened to “Open Source” on NPR for the first time and I must say, I tuned in with a great deal of anticipation and excitement! “Open Source” is a radio show that uses blogs and internet sources as fodder, bringing the fast-paced independent reporting of the blogosphere to more traditional media outlets. This kind of “Old Media” meets “New Media” is exactly the kind of thing I feel will salvage what is left of unbiased reporting in mainstream journalism, and I was thrilled to hear about the show.
The show “Iraq’s First Fourth Estate” covered Iraqi Director Haydar Daffar’s new documentary film entitled “The Dreams of Sparrows” which was released on May 26th 2005. The film deals with the challenges of rebuilding Iraq, and the effects of long-term combat, violence and strife on the people of that country. The movie appears to be very well made, and extremely effective in delivering its message. You can read more about the documentary, view the trailer, or purchase it on DVD at Harbinger Productions.
In general, I like “Open Source”, but what I did not like is Host Chris Lydon’s propensity to interrupt his guests. For example, while interviewing Director Haydar Daffar from a Baghdad rooftop, with marginal cell phone reception he repeatedly asked “Are you still with us?”, interspursed with as many as three rapid-fire questions at a time. Daffar was dealing with a three to four second voice delay, a terrible phone signal, and a somewhat limited ability to speak English, while trying his best to answer quickly delivered, ambiguous questions like: “What were you looking for?”, “What did you find?”, and “What were the rules?”
Daffar had no chance of answering these questions, and it very much detracted from what was otherwise a very interesting and well put together show. “Open Source” has a great deal of potential, and I think it is exactly the direction in which traditional media should be headed. If Chris Lydon settles down a bit and lets his guests speak without interruption, “Open Source” may very well mark a turning point in how we all consume media.
Downing Street Memo picks up traction
Not to revisit recent topics, but I must say that I really am amazed that the mainstream press has finally started talking about the Downing Street Memo. More than two months after the memo was leaked, the so-called “liberal” media has finally gotten around to covering it, albeit not with much enthusiasm.
Not that they came to it on their own, mind you. Bloggers have bee covering it since it came out and congress has taken note with many House and Senate Republicans demanding an explanation from the White House. Democracy For America even has a petition with more than a half a million signatures calling for an independent investigation, yet somehow, up to now, the major news sources have fallen silent.
When bloggers, and the United States Congress cover a political scandal like the Downing Street Memo long before the major news sources we are supposed to be trusting for independent, objective reporting, we have to start asking ourselves about the integrity of our Nation’s media. We are living in a time when multinational conglomerates control both our politicians and our news sources. They used their money to finance the campaigns of their pocketed politicians, and their news channels to ensure the public maintains a favorable opinion of them. While voters maintain an illusion of the electoral final say, the truth is a disturbing flourish of Orwellian smoke and mirrors.
Sign the petition! >
Read the Memo! >
What’s up with the new CMS?
There are quite a few reasons I decided to move away from PhPNuke, but the biggest of the all was the fact that it is simply FULL of security holes. Day after day I read about SQL injection vulnerabilities that would allow a user to gain administrative access to the site, and go at it with a hatchet. I was simply tired of always worrying that someone would hack my site and leave me with a big headache.
I was also getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that PhPNuke never supported pingbacks, trackbacks, or xmlrpc. I read something months ago about someone developing trackbacks for PhPNuke, but it would seem he went the way of Jimmy Hoffa, and nobody ever heard from him again. As time went on, it was becoming more and more clear that PhPNuke needed to be abandoned for a better product, and the only question that remained was which product to chose.
I’ve always liked Mambo, but while it is much more secure than PhPNuke, it still lacks pingbacks, trackbacks and xmlrpc. Drupal is a very nice product that does everything I wanted it to do and more. There is even a script that will migrate all the users and data from PhPNuke into Drupal, but in the end, I was just not happy with the look and feel of the site under Drupal.
Casey over at maisonbisson.com had recently moved his site from P Machine to Word Press, so once I confirmed that it had Gallery2 Integration I decided to take a look to see what he liked so much about it. He had written a really cool statistics plugin called bstats, and overall the CSM presented things very cleanly. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the software. It does everything I want it to, and it’s quite nice to have the option of managing my stories through xmlrpc with Ecto.
Casey Bisson’s bstats plugin >
Word Press Gallery2 integration >
Howard Dean Speaks for me!
I’m getting a little sick and tired of hearing supposed Democrats wine and complain about how howard Dean in not speaking for them. Dean mentions that Republicans are mostly a “White, Christian” party; a statement that is entirely backed up by scientific data, and these cowards get scared and start knifing him in the back again.
Maybe it’s true. These fair weather Democrats have clearly bought into the Republican lies and rhetoric, and are now feeling guilty about their own political party and convictions. In that case, Howard Dean, a person who is willing to stand up for his beliefs and the values of his party, is most certainly not speaking for them, or anyone else who lacks the backbone to speak out against those in power.
I have a message for these wavering politicians. Howard Dean speaks for me, and he speaks for a lot of other people that would still be cynical and uninterested in government had it not been for his empowering message! Not only is he the first politician I have ever campaigned for, he is also the first political candidate to whom I’ve made a campaign contribution. If the Democratic party is to form a cohesive unit with a single, powerful message, we need Howard Dean at the helm.
So join me in demanding that these “Democrats” stop knifing the leader of our party in the back. By doing this, they are not only weakening their own credibility, they are destroying our chances of taking our country back from the Neo-Conservitive radicals in power.
Sign the “Howard Dean Speaks for me petition >
Cheney’s runs his mouth again >
The Howard BEAN: A Cafe For America Begins International Campaign for New Owner
The Howard BEAN: A Cafe For America has begun an international campaign for a new owner, its current owner announced today. The Montpelier, Vt., cafe opened on election day 2004 and was named (tongue-in-cheek) after a certain former Vermont Governor who is the chair of the Democratic National Committee. The cafe is also home to the monthly meetup of the Central Vermont Democracy for America.
As our cafe continues to gain a national following, we want to be certain that the person who takes over is truly the ideal candidate and will continue to serve a no-frills, affordable cup of coffee. None of that $4-a-cup, whoop-de-do, latte-boca-cucaracha-grande nonsense, says owner Patrick Mullikin. The Howard BEAN is, after all, a cafe for America.
The cafe is located at Riverwalk Records and Psychedelic Poster Gallery, which hosts the annual Green Mountain Bob Dylan Wanna-Be Contest, featured on Vermont Public Radio. Riverwalk Records was instrumental in resurrecting the again-vibrant live music scene in Montpelier and hosts in-store concerts featuring local artists.
For further information, e-mail: info@riverwalkrecords.com, or call (802) 223-3334 or (802) 229-9905.
Things to remember when creating Apache SSL certs
Since I don’t create certs all that often, I’ve always been frusterated by having to search out the commands every time I have to make one. Frequently I forget about removing tripple DES from the server.key file, and end up with a cert that makes me enter a psss phraze every time I start up Apache.
Thus, I decided to create an entry here with all the commands, so that I will never have to go searching for them again.
First, change directory into your Apache configuration directory:
# cd /path/to/httpd/conf
Generate the server key (with password):
# openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
Optionally, we can generate a key file without a password. This means that Apache will start without requesting a password. This is important should there ever be a power failure, or when a reset is required and no one knows the password. Use the following command:
# openssl rsa -in server.key -out server.pem
A CSR (Certificate Signing Request) is required for afirming that the server key is valid. The server.pem is used in place of server.key as we don’t require a password:
# openssl req -new -key server.pem -out server.csr
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated into your certificate request. What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN. There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter ‘.’, the field will be left blank.
—–
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:US
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Your State
Locality Name (eg, city) []:Your Cit
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: Your Company Nam
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Department Name
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []: server.spiralbound.net
Email Address []:me@spiralbound.net
Please enter the following ‘extra’ attributes to be sent with your certificate request
A challenge password []:
An optional company name []:
Finally, the certificate needs to be signed. Normally this is done by an official authority such as Thawte. However, if this is not available, we can sign the certificate ourselves. In this example a time limit of 3 years, or 1095 days is set for the amount of time to be valid. Again, we use the server.pem file without a password.
# openssl x509 -req -days 1095 -in server.csr -signkey server.pem -out server.crt
Bush Audio tapes Leaked
The quotes below are taken from a New York TImes article from Feb 19, 2005. Doug Wead is a personal friend of George Bush. During the course of writing a book about then future president he secretly recorded some private conversations.
NOTE: We are currently trying to acquire the entire transcripts of these tapes, as well as the audio files themselves. Check back regularly for updates.
>>Variously earnest, confident or prickly in those conversations, Bush weighs the political risks and benefits of his religious faith, discusses campaign strategy and comments on rivals. John McCain “will wear thin,” he predicted. John Ashcroft, he confided, would be a “very good Supreme Court pick” or a “fabulous” vice president. And in exchanges about his handling of questions from the news media about his past, Bush appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana.
>>Preparing to meet Christian leaders in September 1998, Bush told Mr. Wead, “As you said, there are some code words. There are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways.” He added, “I am going to say that I’ve accepted Christ into my life. And that’s a true statement.”
>>But Bush also repeatedly worried that prominent evangelical Christians would not like his refusal “to kick gays.” At the same time, he was wary of unnerving secular voters by meeting publicly with evangelical leaders. When he thought his aides had agreed to such a meeting, Bush complained to Karl Rove, his political strategist, “What the hell is this about?”
>>Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Mr. Wead on the tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He said it involved nothing more than “just, you know, wild behavior.” He worried, though, that allegations of cocaine use would surface in the campaign, and he blamed his opponents for stirring rumors. “If nobody shows up, there’s no story,” he told Mr. Wead, “and if somebody shows up, it is going to be made up.” But when Mr. Wead said that Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Bush replied, “I haven’t denied anything.”
>>He refused to answer reporters’ questions about his past behavior, he said, even though it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Bush said: “I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”
>>He mocked Vice President Al Gore for acknowledging marijuana use. “Baby boomers have got to grow up and say, yeah, I may have done drugs, but instead of admitting it, say to kids, don’t do them,” he said.
>>Bush threatened that if his rival Steve Forbes attacked him too hard during the campaign and won, both Bush, then the Texas governor, and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, would withhold their support. “He can forget Texas. And he can forget Florida. And I will sit on my hands,” Bush said.
>>Bush also regularly gripes about the barbs of the press and his rivals. And he is cocky at times. “It’s me versus the world,” he told Mr. Wead. “The good news is, the world is on my side. Or more than half of it.”
>>”I believe tomorrow is going to change Texas politics forever,” he told Mr. Wead. “The top three offices right below me will be the first time there has been a Republican in that slot since the Civil War. Isn’t that amazing? And I hate to be a braggart, but they are going to win for one reason: me.”
>>When Mr. Wead warned him that “power corrupts,” for example, Bush told him not to worry: “I have got a great wife. And I read the Bible daily. The Bible is pretty good about keeping your ego in check.”
>>Preparing to meet with influential Christian conservatives, Bush tested his lines with Mr. Wead. “I’m going to tell them the five turning points in my life,” he said. “Accepting Christ. Marrying my wife. Having children. Running for governor. And listening to my mother.”
>>…apparently ruling out potential vice presidents including Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Gen. Colin L. Powell, who favored abortion rights. Picking any of them could turn conservative Christians away from the ticket, Bush
>>…”Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I’m not going to kick gays, because I’m a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?”
>>…convention of the Christian Coalition, a conservative political group: “This crowd uses gays as the enemy. It’s hard to distinguish between fear of the homosexual political agenda and fear of homosexuality, however.”
>>”This is an issue I have been trying to downplay,” Bush said. “I think it is bad for Republicans to be kicking gays.”
>> “No, what I said was, I wouldn’t fire gays.”
>>Bush had already identified one gay-rights issue where he found common ground with conservative Christians: same-sex marriage. “Gay marriage, I am against that. Special rights, I am against that,” Bush told Mr. Wead, five years before a Massachusetts court brought the issue to national attention.
>>”Sovereignty. The issue is huge. The mere mention of Kofi Annan in the U.N. caused the crowd to go into a veritable fit. The coalition wants America strong and wants the American flag flying overseas, not the pale blue of the U.N
>>”I don’t like it either,” Bush said of the Clinton investigations. “But on the other hand, I think he has disgraced the nation.”
>>When Mr. Wead warned that he had heard reporters talking about Bush’s “immature” past, Bush said, “That’s part of my schtick, which is, look, we have all made mistakes.”
>>He said he learned “a couple of really good lines” from Mr. Robison, the Texas pastor: “What you need to say time and time again is not talk about the details of your transgressions but talk about what I have learned. I’ve sinned and I’ve learned.”
>>”I said, ‘James’ - he stopped - I said, ‘I did some things when I was young that were immature,’ ” Bush said. “He said, ‘But have you learned?’ I said, ‘James, that’s the difference between me and the president. I’ve learned. I am prepared to accept the responsibility of this office.’ “By the summer of 1999, Bush was telling Mr. Wead his approach to such prying questions had evolved. “I think it is time for somebody to just draw the line and look people in the eye and say, I am not going to participate in ugly rumors about me, and blame my opponents, and hold the line, and stand up for a system that will not allow this kind of crap to go on.”
>>…used illegal drugs in the past …”I am just not going to answer those questions. And it might cost me the election,”
>>”It’s unbelievable,” Bush said, reciting various rumors about his past that his aides had picked up from reporters. “They just float sewer out there.”
>>”I like Ashcroft a lot,” he told Mr. Wead in November 1998. “He is a competent man. He would be a good Supreme Court pick. He would be a good attorney general. He would be a good vice president.”
>>When Mr. Wead predicted an uproar if Mr. Ashcroft were appointed to the court because of his conservative religious views, Bush replied, “Well, tough.”
>>”I want Ashcroft to stay in there, and I want him to be very strong,” Bush said. ” I would love it to be a Bush-Ashcroft race. Only because I respect him. He wouldn’t say ugly things about me. And I damn sure wouldn’t say ugly things about him.”
>>Evangelicals were not going to like him, Bush said. “He’s too preppy,” Bush said, calling Mr. Forbes “mean spirited.”
“Steve Forbes is going to hear this message from me. I will do nothing for him if he does to me what he did to Dole. Period. There is going to be a consequence. He is not dealing with the average, you know, ‘Oh gosh, let’s all get together after it’s over.’ I will promise you, I will not help him. I don’t care.”
>>When Mr. Wead suggested in June 2000 that Mr. McCain’s popularity with Democrats and moderate voters might make him a strong vice presidential candidate, Bush almost laughed. “Oh, come on!” He added, “I don’t know if he helps us win.”
>>Bush could hardly contain his disdain for Mr. Gore, his Democratic opponent, at one point calling him “pathologically a liar.” His confidence in the moral purpose of his campaign to usher in “a responsibility era” never wavered, but he acknowledged that winning might require hard jabs. “I may have to get a little rough for a while,” he told Mr. Wead, “but that is what the old man had to do with Dukakis, remember?”
More as we try to acquire the transcripts….
Howard Dean Victory Celebration
Last Sunday, DFA, and the Howard Bean Cafe in Montpelier, VT organized a victory celebration for Howard Dean’s election to the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. The local news media were there, along with dozens of DFA Members and Howard Dean supporters. Free coffee, cake, and a wonderful time was had by all
The overall feeling was that of relief. Many of those attending became excited by politics for the first time in their lives because of Howard Dean’s empowering message, and had been frustrated by how the former Democratic establishment had treated him. Most of those I talked with expressed a renewed hope for the party now that Dean is at the helm, and were excited and optimistic about the future.
Howard Dean truly is what our party needs. An honest, trustworthy person who tells America the truth and speaks from his heart. He more than anyone else at this point has the political understanding, and grassroots support to take the moral high ground back from the conservative radicals, and turn the red states blue!
 Congrats Howard! |
 The Howard Bean Cafe. |
 Isn’t technology great? |
Where is The Bison?
Shockwaves were sent thought the Internet blogging community today when, for the first time in months, owner of maisonbisson.com and long time Blogger Casey Bisson, (The Bison) failed to post anything new to his website. Many of his friends and colleagues have expressed worries that he may have been hurt or fallen ill, as his site has become known for its nearly constant activity.
“I’m worried that he may have been killed in a fiery car wreck on the way home from work last night!” stated Alan Baker, a long time friend of The Bison. Others have pointed to the fact that Casey often lines up his stories many days in advance, suggesting that if something terrible has, in fact befallen him, it may well have taken place as much as a week ago, and that at this point there is little chance he could still be alive.
Sadly, there is very little we can do but hope for his safety, and keep an eye on his website for updates. Perhaps he is simply working on something very big, and we will be hearing from him soon, but if, in fact, a tragety has befallen him, the blogging world will have lost a true hero!
UPDATE:
We can all breathe a sigh of relief, as after two days of worry, it turns out that the Bison is not dead! Although i do maintain that nobody should be defending clam juice.
Jon’s Office Sculpture
Office life can be dull and boring, but office artist Jon Emmons has discovered a creative outlet between meetings, business luncheons, and process mapping reports by creating sculptures out of every day objects. These "everyday objects", of course are things like computer memory, Ethernet cable, and USB mice, but none-the -less, they are compelling works that give us insight into the complex mind of this office drone, and express to us his unique form of hard-hitting social commentary.
For instance, in his piece "Diagonal RAM climbing" , we can see the artist’s worries about how consumerism is constantly expanding, not only by his choice of medium, but by the way his strict and rigid lines are constantly climbing upwards towards the sky. He also seems to be predicting, by his use of thin and weak joints, that the American corporate model is fragile, and on the verge of falling apart at the slightest jolt.
We also can’t help but notice that much of Jon’s art takes the form of abstract trees and plants. Is he simply longing to see the light of day from his cubicle, or is there something deeper at work here? Perhaps, by his heavy use of wires and synthetic media, he is warning us that such over-use of these materials is damaging and mutating our environment. Or perhaps it is the artist’s own perception of reality that is being damaged and mutated by spending long days under fluorescent lights, surrounded by meetings and the sounds of copy machines.
We may never know. Like many artists, Jon is a secretive and reclusive man. He seems unwilling to divulge much about the intent or purpose of his artwork, and he declined an interview for this story. More images of Jon’s sculptures can be viewed by clicking his picture above.
 “Diagonal RAM climbing” |
 “Pull Cable Tree” |
 “Cat 5 with deep roots” |
Clean Graffiti
Ok, so this is just about the most creative thing I’ve heard of in quite a while. A British gentleman who goes by the name”Moose” has been spreading his graffiti around the UK, not by dousing the walls with paint, or marking them up with indelible ink, but rather by selectively cleaning small parts of big, dirty walls
Using old socks and shoe scrubbers as his paintbrushes, Moose creates positive and negative images in tunnels and on city walls by removing the grime that has built up over the years. The authorities are not quite sure what to make of his "Clean" graffiti, but they have apparently backed off since he has been gaining media attention.
Cellophane Tee Shirts
If you’re looking for random T-Shirts that will make everyone wonder what’s going inside that head of yours, the jokers at Cellophane Tee Shirt Company are most likely the guys you’re looking for.
Cellophane Tee Shirts has everything from the celebrated “Beef T-Shirt” to the bewildering “Broccoli”. They don’t make any sense, but they sure are funny!
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