#!/bin/sh
# Database backup 2008 <jemmrich@gmail.com>
# Nightly Usage:
# 0 0 * * * /home/james/Dropbox/Home/mobilewolf/scripts/backup.sh &> /dev/null

LOGFILE="/home/james/Dropbox/Home/mobilewolf/databases/databases.log"
BACKUPDIR="/home/james/Dropbox/Home/mobilewolf/databases"
STARTTIME="$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%r)"

# MySQL Login
SQLUSER="sqluser"
SQLPASS="sqlpass"

# Dump databases
echo "*** Database Backup Started: $STARTTIME" >> $LOGFILE

# Keep yesterdays databases
rm -f $BACKUPDIR/yesterday/*
mv $BACKUPDIR/*.gz $BACKUPDIR/yesterday/

for i in `echo "show databases" | mysql -u $SQLUSER -p$SQLPASS | grep -v Database`;
do
 mysqldump -u $SQLUSER -p$SQLPASS $i > /tmp/$i.sql
 echo $i >> $LOGFILE
 gzip /tmp/$i.sql

 # Send Databases
 cp /tmp/*.sql.gz $BACKUPDIR/

 # Remove our dumps to keep us clean
 rm -f /tmp/*.sql.gz
done

echo "*** Database Backup Ended: $(date +%Y-%m-%d-%r)" >> $LOGFILE
echo "\n" >> $LOGFILE

Setup

1. Change the user and password to a user that has ability to access all databases for dump
2. Download and set executable permissions chmod +x backup_databases.sh
3. edit cron to execute every night: crontab -e
4. add: 0 0 * * * /home/james/Dropbox/Home/mobilewolf/scripts/backup_databases.sh &> /dev/null

Ideas for your setup

• The line following “Send databases” replace cp, with scp to send the databases to remote server. You will need to have passwordless ssh connections setup.
• Have the log file emailed to you once completed

My Future Improvements

• Enable backup archiving for the past week rotated daily so I can go back to a database from 2 or 3 days or even a week ago

I have a folder in my Dropbox called Home. Here I have sub folders for each machine that I have. My two laptops, a desktop which hold computer specific files that are different for each computer I have.

Files such as:

• /etc/hosts
• /etc/fstab
• /databases/

Rather than copying these manually, I have simply moved the files to the dropbox and then symbolically linked them. That way when the system updates these files, Dropbox does it’s sync.

The databases folder is a folder which contains database dumps. My crontab is setup to nightly dump databases in tar form and place them here, for Dropbox to store.

I also have a folder called Resources. This contains files that are shared between computers. I have symbolically linked my .fonts folder here. Now whenever I install a new font for a design project, all my other computers are updated too.

For chat software like Pidgin and XChat, I have symbolically linked their folders .purple and xchat2 respectively, to my Dropbox home folder. Because these will be shared between computers I don’t have them in their respect computer sub folder. Now no matter what computer I chat on, my chat logs and software settings are up to date.

Projects that I work on are placed in my Dropbox under a folder called Projects, with each project as its own sub folder.

During my work, or daily routine I tend to shuffle, download, delete, and create new files. While I don’t always place these files to my Dropbox, I am very careful to not hold them on my laptops for long periods of time.

For files that I want to hold, I either move them to my Dropbox or to my NAS server depending solely on their importance and need of accessibility.

The results

I can now format my hard drive at any time, provided that Dropbox has had time to sync any changes. I also have the feeling of security knowing that my hard drive crashes will not take me out of commission.

James Emmrich is the man behind the new www.motopicks.com fantasy league.

MXP: Hey James, how is it going?
James: Things are going great.
MXP: So who are you for those that don’t know!
James: Well, I grew up in Walton and have been around Motocross for as long as I can remember. I managed to talk
my parents into getting me a Yamaha YZ 80 and started racing a week after that. I am not going to lie, I was quite
nervous, but after my first moto I was hooked. For the longest while all I did was race, but the geek in me had me
lugging around a 500 page programming book each weekend to read between motos. These days I still race, but now I
am involved with entrant management for the Walton TransCan handling entries, their websites and answering
questions. If you have raced the TransCan, you have probably talked to me in some form or another.
MXP: We see you out there rocking the old two-stroke KTM250? You are one of the two-stroke hold outs!
James: Yeah, I don’t know how long I will hold out, but that has been a great bike! It is a 1999 and I race it almost
every weekend with no issues!
MXP: Most don’t know, the whole entry and gate selection thing is maybe the most stressful part of the Walton event.
Lots of emotions, huh?
James: Yeah, it’s quite the process, and there have been far too many stressful moments to count. However, each
year things are becoming easier and easier. The first two years were pretty rough. TransCan greenhorns always have it
rough the first 2 years; if you make it that long. I think the system [MotoRegistry.ca] that I have developed has not only
made the process easier for everyone, but less stressful for the event staff allowing us to focus on other areas.
MXP: Tell us about Motopicks?
James: MotoPicks is a Fantasy Motocross League that Mark Perrin and I are running. Since Brett Daily’s Motoleague
shut down, I had a few people approach me and convince me to give it a shot. I guess the withdrawl got to them. This
is MotoPicks’ inaugural year.
MXP: Last weekend, you guys kicked off with the AMA Monster Energy Supercross Series. How did it go?
James: It went very well. I was a little nervous being our first major event, and kept by the computer and phone to
answer any questions as they arrived. Besides a few delays on our part getting the word out, I learned a lot and will be
putting it to good use come outdoor national time. Every day there are people signing up and a few thank yous along the
way, which is always nice!
MXP: Are there plans to do the US Nationals, and the CMRC Monster Energy MX Nationals?
James: Oh yes, for sure. The MotoPicks idea originated from the need for filling the CMRC Monster Energy National
Fantasy League void. It’s going to be a big year for us taking on both US Nationals and the CMRC Nationals. There are
big plans to come. We may even do a couple other events on top of those two.
MXP: Okay, so how can readers find you and Motopicks?
James: You can find me at any CMRC race in Southwestern Ontario, and maybe some out of province Nationals in
2010. For Fantasy League fans, visit http://www.MotoPicks.com/ to register and sign up. We also have Twitter and
Facebook, which can also be found linked on our website so feel free to participate in discussions and spread the word.
MXP: Thanks for taking the time to do this!
James: Thanks, and before we go, I would like to thank everyone for their feedback on MotoPicks.

Sign up for motopicks. Its the place to go.!!!

MotoPicks.com has launched their first ever Supercross fantasy league. Sign up and win sweet prizes weekly!

I have always loved hiking and exploring, and I often partake in geocaching, and those activities satisfy that desire somewhat. However, there is nothing like adding a little danger to the equation for a bit of that rush, the fear of getting caught or what you might find.

But there is one thing that I have never gotten a chance to really do, urban exploration, also known as Urbex or UE. Often highly illegal and involving the need to break through doors, locks, and fences.

Every now and then, I come across an article that rejuvenates my interest in the area. This posting is a list of really cool places that I will probably only ever dream of seeing in person.

Chernobyl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

Some day I would like to travel to the Ukraine and explore the area with a local guide of the tourists beaten path.

Abandoned Military Bunkers & Missile Silos

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277744

After reading an article about climbers exploring abandoned missile silos and mapping out military complexes, I knew it was something I would like to explore one day.

Paris Catacombs

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/paris-catacombs/16561

This is a fascinating place. Add on the fact that it is an extremely old tunnel system and the creepiness of thousands of human remains piled on the floor to the height of your head. Would be an incredible sight to see.

Sewers, Drains, and Subway Systems

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2651937/The-people-living-in-drains-below-Las-Vegas.html

Interesting article with pictures of people living the drains of Las Vegas

Caves, Cracks

Really don’t have some links for this, but any cave or crack in the earth/rock/ice would be interesting to explore, especially deep mutli-day treks into the void.

Various links on the topic

http://www.infiltration.org/index.html

A website dedicated to exploring places you should not be.

http://www.uer.ca/

A Canadian Forum for interested UE

Below is the official press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mark Perrin

(519)-384-1067

mark@mpisportmanagement.com

MotoPicks.com Launches FREE Supercross Fantasy League

Pick Your Team For the US Open of Supercross and Win Great Prizes

(September 29, 2009) MotoPicks.com has been launch with its first event, the US Open of Supercross! Fans can sign up and PLAY FOR FREE to win motocross prizes from AXO, Smith Optics, Thor, Answer Racing, and Monster Energy! Sign up and select your riders today! Oct 8th is the deadline for the US Open of Supercross.

MotoPicks has made it easy to pick your team and become your very own race team manager. All you will need to do is register an account so we know where to send your prize. Once that’s completed, simply select then series and event you would like (the US Open) and all that’s left is creating your teams name and hiring and firing your riders as you receive a 1,000,000 budget!

The top ten teams who scores the most points at each event will be sent prizes courtesy of our sponsors AXO, Smith Optics, Thor, Answer, MPI Sport Management, MotoHeaven.net and Monster Energy.

Join in the racing action and see how your fantasy team will place!

Good Luck to All Participates!

www.MotoPicks.com

About MotoPicks

MotoPicks is an online fantasy motorsports website. Fans can register and create profiles becoming their own Team Managers giving you have the power to hire and fire riders for each event. In 2009 MotoPicks will have the following series available for fans to participate in – 2009 US Open of Supercross, 2010 Monster Energy Supercross Series, 2010 Lucas Oil AMA Motocross Series and the 2010 Monster Energy Canadian Motocross Nationals.

Join MotoPicks Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MotoPicks/85714871747?ref=mf

Follow MotoPicks on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MotoPicks

An example of the bounce message:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.

Delivery to the following recipient has been delayed:

user@ourserver.com

Message will be retried for 2 more day(s)

Technical details of temporary failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 451 451 4.3.5 Server configuration problem (state 14).

At first I thought we had a blacklist issue, which happens from time to time as we send large amounts of email in the form of newsletters etc.

Going through /var/log/syslog I found some interesting entries related to Postfix and Postgrey:

Jun 23 06:25:43 server postfix/smtpd[14721]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from connet1.connect.uwaterloo.ca[129.97.128.124]: 451 4.3.5 Server configuration problem; from=<xxx@uwaterloo.ca> to=<xxxr@ourserver.com> proto=ESMTP helo=<connect.uwaterloo.ca>
Jun 23 06:26:48 server postfix/smtpd[16600]: warning: connect to 127.0.0.1:60000: Connection refused

My next thought was maybe Postfix was confused some how and decided to restart the whole server.

Server came up and found that now MySQL wasn’t running and all database driven websites were down. Yikes. Looking through the syslog I discovered the second issue, not enough hard drive space. A simple df -h confirmed it. 100% use on the /var partition.

I quickly removed some old log files, and crap and manually started MySQL. Everything runs, but still have the email issue.

I looked through the /etc/postfix/main.cf to look for clues and found:

smtpd_recipient_restrictions = reject_non_fqdn_recipient,
reject_unknown_recipient_domain,
permit_mynetworks,
permit_sasl_authenticated,
reject_unauth_destination,
reject_unlisted_recipient,
check_policy_service inet:127.0.0.1:12525,
check_policy_service inet:127.0.0.1:60000,
permit

Looking up info on postgrey, lead me to its config file /etc/default/postgrey which contained:

POSTGREY_OPTS=”–inet=127.0.0.1:60000″

So now we know from syslog that the connection issue is because of postgrey. I tried to restart postgrey, and discovered it wasn’t running, and failed to start. So I ran it manually in verbose:

/usr/sbin/postgrey -v –pidfile=/var/run/postgrey.pid –inet=127.0.0.1:60000

Turns out Postgrey failed to find its database. I checked /var/lib/postgrey and found it did infact have files there. Seems Postfix tells you it can’t find its database when the database is there, but unable to be opened due to being corrupt!

To test this, I moved all files within /var/lib/postgrey to a temporary location and started postgrey manually again. Started up like a charm and postgrey recreated a new database.

To make sure everything is running like new, I restarted the server. Loaded up a few websites, and sent some test emails from an external source (gmail).

Voila! I called up my clients and updated them on the issue and let them know they did not lose any email and that they would still receive email that was sent during the down time. A few minutes later, emails from the weekend started to arrive.

Useful excerpts:

Alternative method (via the terminal)

If you are just plain lazy, here’s a much easier step.

In your terminal, type the following command:

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false

To recover:

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch true

Original article here:

http://maketecheasier.com/remove-the-annoying-update-manager-pop-up-in-ubuntu-jaunty/2009/06/18

Tethering with the HTC Titan is surprisingly easy–who knew?

Windows Mobile

In Windows Mobile, go to Start > Programs > Internet Sharing

Select USB from the PC Connection drop down

Select your Cellular Provider from the Network Connection drop down.

Then press the Connect button. The phone should start connecting to your data plan. Obviously you need to have your phone plugged into a USB port on the computer.

Ubuntu

Once your cellphone has connected to your data plan, Network Manager should popup a message saying you are connected to a “wired network”. Make sure your wired network preferences specify DHCP as the method for getting an IP address.

I have not tested this on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, but it works fantastic on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.

Now I can use my Cellphones data plan for Internet access on my laptop.

HTC Titan

It has been a long time since I flashed my phone, so I figured I should archive the files I used and the process I took in case I need to do it again sometime in the future. Maybe this will help someone else with the same phone as well.

There are a couple important things before you flash your phone, they seem obvious but….

1. Your first time flashing will be a bitch, if it is your only phone and think you will need 9-1-1 between now and mid tomorrow, do not do it! Remember? Your life depends on it.
2. Backup your data. Use ActiveSync, or whatever software you like, and get your contacts, notes, emails, text messages, docs, etc off the phone. I would suggest getting an SD card 2 GB or better as the space on the phone is a bit limited. It is important to note that simply having an SD card does not mean you don’t have to back up!
3. Flashing will remove the devices usage stats such as lifetime use etc.
4. Flashing will void your warranty.
5. There is a remote possibility if you are not careful, that you could brink your phone, turning it into an expensive albeit flashy paper weight.
6. This is only for the HTC Titan model phone, in Canada it is called HTC P4000
7. Obviously this is for my own personal record and works for me, however, as always make sure you understand the process first so you don’t shoot yourself in the foot.

Benefits to Flashing

1. GPS module is activated (device ships with GPS module crippled)
2. Get the latest OS version and be able to cook your own version
3. Can be more stable and less RAM than previous, or, could lock up all the time and run out of RAM. This benefit is chosen by you.

The Method

I may have deviated slightly from the “standard” way of doing it. Although these instructions are almost identical to other places on the nets, this will work for HTC Titan owners in Canada, if you live in the States, it may differ slightly. Thanks goes to all those crackers out there who risked their phones so we can enjoy our GPS!

There are 5 stages to getting your phone flashed. Follow them very carefully, and read through the instructions a couple times before hand.

At the bottom of the page you can download all the files that I used.

You will need a Windows computer, (preferably Windows XP) with latest version of ActiveSync, and probably Outlook, atleast 250 MBs of free hard drive space, a USB cable for phone to computer, and plenty of paitence.

Stage 1: Retrieving Provisioning Data

Now that all your data is backed up….

1. Get your ESN, MSID and A-Key info by dialing ##778#, that will launch the EPST configuration menu Note: Some carriers (Canadians) do not need the last #, so just ##778
   1. Select view
   2. make note of your ESN (Hex) value
   3. make note of your ESN (Dec) value
   4. make note of your MSID value (looks like a 10 digit tel number)
   5. make note of the rest of the info on a different sheet of paper. And I mean all of it no matter how mundane. This is for backup purposes in case something does not work correctly later. I skipped this, and it took me a month to fix my data connection!
   6. select <view info> and select A-Key. Some carriers leave this blank, some need this info. If there is info here, make note of it now.
   7. click <cancel> to exit the configuration menu
2. Get your EPST
   1. download this file here .. this is the getspl file (in zip form)
   2. run the GetSPC.exe on your phone and in the Input field, type in your ESN(Hex) in the input field (you wrote this down earlier)
   3. press <go>
   4. the number produced in the output field is your MSLNumber (EPST unlock code)
   5. exit the application

You should now have noted these 4 items:

1. MDN: your 10 digit tel number
2. MSID: another 10 digit tel number (for some carriers it’s the same as your MDN)
3. A-Key: only required by certain carriers
4. MSL: a 6 digit number that you got when you ran the GetSPC.exe

Special Note: The great thing about using the following procedure is that typically you won’t even have to use the information you just obtained. But better safe than sorry.

Stage 2: Upgrading the Boot Loader & Radio

1. If you have flash this phone before, you will need to “relock” the phone so it can be flashed. If you have not flashed your phone or do not know what this is, skip and continue as you most likely have a virgin phone.
   You can get the relocker here: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
2. Run the Unofficial carrier released rom 3.16 which contains the boot loader and radio. This is a Sprint ROM, don’t worry about it, you’ll still be able to use your provider, in my case, Telus.
   You can get the ROM here: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Stage 3: Install a Custom ROM

I am running No2Chems ROMs which I find are very good and still feels like the stock ROM (how my phone was meant to be) but with some added features.

1. run the unLocker for 3.16 and above, don’t worry about getting out of the boot loader – tri-color screen
2. Download: No2Chems ROM version 5050 (old version as of writing but I still use it) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (warning 50mb download)
3. Download the RUU, the software used to flash the phone. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
4. Copy the .nbh file into the RUU folder
5. Make sure there is only one .nbh file in the folder
6. Double click RomUpdateUtility.exe to begin the update

Stage 4: Verify Provisioning Data

1. Dial ##MSL# – this is the 6 digit code you retrieved in step 2 above
   1. first select view (because if your info is correct, we don’t want to accidentally mess it up
   2. verify that the MDN and MSID fields match your info from above
   3. if the info matches, select cancel and skip following step.
   4. if the info does not match, then cancel and re dial ##MSL#, but select edit.
   5. input the correct MDN and MSID and then select <menu> and <ok> and your phone will now reboot. Check again to verify its correctness when the phone boots up.
2. If your phone had an A-Key then do this step, otherwise proceed to step 3
   1. dial ##778#
   2. select <edit>
   3. input your MSL (6 digit code retrieved in step 2 above) **Please note, you can mess up your phone if you change the wrong fields – use with caution**
   4. select <view info> and select A-Key
   5. input the A-Key from info above (if required)
   6. select menu and select <OK>, your phone will reboot

Verify your services

1. make an outbound call
2. receive a call
3. connect to the Internet

Congratulations, you have successfully updated your phone – Have fun!

Stage 5: Trouble Shooting

More to come here, just want to push this article out.