Convenience
Starbucks Arcaffe is like that crazy ex-girlfriend you still get together with:
You hate yourself for going back, but the familiarity makes it convenient, and until you find something better, it’s all you’ve got.
Derived from Blank is Like Blank
PNGout
pngout is a command line tool developed by Ken Silverman for optimising PNG files losslessly. I've been using it for a while and in fact, I haven't found anything that performs better than it. Even with the default options, it optimised some of my PNG's by up to 50%.
For those who don't know, Ken Silverman is the programmer that created the game-engine for Duke Nukem 3D. Silverman received lots of praise from John Carmack - which says a lot because Carmack is co-founder of ID Software and lead developer for games like Doom and Quake (he also wrote what is likely the fastest inverse-square-root function, but that's a topic for another day).
For those not comfortable with command-line, even after reading this tutorial - there's an IrfanView DLL available.
To run with default options:
pngout.exe png-file-original.png png-file-output.png
pngout is available from http://www.advsys.net/ken/utils.htm
Masaru Emoto
Emoto claims that prettier (or uglier) water-crystals can be formed by directing human speech or thoughts on water-droplets before being frozen.
Emoto claims this can be achieved through:
- Prayer
- Music
- Attaching written words to a container of water
The formation of the crystals seems to depend on the positive/negative nature of the words used on the droplets.
Gravatars
Gravatar: Derived from 'avatar' - Globally Recognized Avatar, is basically an avatar image that follows you across the web when you comment on gravatar-enabled blogs using a unique e-mail address.
Interesting, because this would imply that anyone could use your gravatar if they knew the e-mail address you used to sign-up for the account. So if you're going to sign up for one, I'd suggest using an e-mail address not known to anyone else.
If you have a blog of your own, take a look at the full implementation guide.
If you already have a wordpress blog, the easiest is to upgrade your installation to the latest available version (Version 2.5 comes with the functionality built-in - this only means gravatars will get more popular). Blogger hasn't implemented it yet - although it should only be a matter of time before they do.
You might have to do some tweaking if you developed your own wordpress theme:
The syntax is:
function get_avatar( $id_or_email, $size = '64',$default = 'http://url-to-default-avatar' )
This example uses the user's e-mail address to retrieve the gravatar at 80x80 pixels (add to comments.php):
<?php echo get_avatar( get_comment_author_email(), '80' ); ?>;
Simple MySQL backup-script
Being an Oracle database admin for the greater part of the day makes me a paranoid person and I'm usually shocked when I find out people don't have any backups of their blogs or their mySQL databases in particular.
The following shell-script:
- Creates an export of all tables in a mySQL database
- Compresses each generated SQL-export file
- Deletes any backups older than a week - mine are sufficiently small to do this
It's a small, straight-forward script that does the job and is exactly why I love UNIX/Linux.
Manually or from crontab:
mySQL-backup.sh DB-NAME-PARAM > mySQL-backup.logmySQL-backup.sh
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | #!/bin/bash SUFFIX=$(date +%y%m%d) # Get parameter DBNAME=$1 # Run mysqldump command mysqldump --opt -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD -h HOSTNAME $DBNAME > $DBNAME.$SUFFIX.sql # Zip all sql files individually find *.sql -exec gzip {} \; # Delete *.sql.gz files older than a week find *.sql.gz -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; |
Notes:
- I've only tested this in BASH
- I didn't use TAR to package and compress the files. Personally, I usually use tar when I want to retain certain important file-permissions and structures - didn't really feel it was needed here
- In this case, there would be a separate crontab entry for each database - you could choose to back-up all your databases on a server in one go
Getting your own paparazzo
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How's this for a great idea:
“MethodIzaz is a unique photography experience. Subjects are unaware of the exact moment they will be photographed and of the photographer's identity. Instead, the subject is photographed completely naturally, living life as normal.
MethodIzaz will provide you with a portfolio of pictures representing the fleeting moments of an authentic lifestyle. The photographs will allow you to remember these moments later in life. They will also give you a new perspective on the everyday, letting you see yourself and your surroundings through the eyes of an artist.
Using information provided earlier about their weekly routine, the photographer will arrive on the scene, and unseen, take shots of the subject. The subject will be photographed walking through the streets, going about their daily business. Without posing and artifice, the camera captures only the natural beauty of the person.”