With all the recent buzz on Planet MySQL about using LVM to perform "semi-hot" backups of MySQL on Linux, I remembered that we once created such a Perl script for a server project that we worked on in cooperation with a hardware vendor. As this particular backup method was also mentioned and recommended in my talk about MySQL backup and security on Linux and the script hasn't actually been publicly available so far, I offered to take over the ownership and release it under the GPL. The first tarball release (0.1) is now available from …

I got a "Sun T2000":http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/t2000/ server from their "test drive":http://www.sun.com/emrkt/trycoolthreads/index.html program a few days ago. I didn't have the right serial adapter to get to the console port at home and my 30 minutes of trying to stitch together the right cable didn't work out, so I am taking it down to the perl.org rack instead of playing with it at home.

I took a few pictures and uploaded them to flickr.

I don't know if we get to keep it, but if we do then it's probably going to be in that rack anyway, so... (crossed fingers - if you work for Sun please put in a good word for me with your marketing department :-) )

When we get it up we'll try setting it up as a perl5 and parrot smoke test server. With the Solaris zones we might be able to have it safely run tests of everything …

I got a "Sun T2000":http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/t2000/ server from their "test drive":http://www.sun.com/emrkt/trycoolthreads/index.html program a few days ago. I didn't have the right serial adapter to get to the console port at home and my 30 minutes of trying to stitch together the right cable didn't work out, so I am taking it down to the perl.org rack instead of playing with it at home.

I took a few pictures and uploaded them to flickr.

I don't know if we get to keep it, but if we do then it's probably going to be in that rack anyway, so... (crossed fingers - if you work for Sun please put in a good word for me with your marketing department :-) )

When we get it up we'll try setting it up as a perl5 and parrot smoke test server. With the Solaris zones we might be able to have it safely run tests of everything …

I got a phone call the other day from someone asking about MaxDB MailDB. He said that he got my phone number from something he read online. I publish my phone number with a lot of my writings, as well as the url to *this page you're reading now*

So some people call me on it sometimes. I might have to put up an asterisk filter some time if I get too many calls.

He called me to tell me that MailDB is the new Jesus Christ and that I should *sell sell sell*!!!! (!!!)

He didn't put it quite that way, but that's the gist of the conversation.

Those of you who are interested in buying, please accept a license to the following code under the GNU GPL:

http://colliertech.org/svn/maildb/

I spoke with my manager about working on this code for MySQL during work hours. That means that any work I do on it belongs …

My freecycle email parser is now processing freecycle email and dumping metadata and email bodies into my MySQL database! Anyone interested in seeing the source?

For those of you with mail accounts on colliertech.org:

http://colliertech.org/phpsaadmin/

Tell me if you'd like me to add you to the list of folks who can use that tool, and you can add addresses to your black/whitelist from your web browser.

To get this working, I read these docs:
http://spamassassin.apache.org/dist/sql/README

The INSTALL file from this dist:
http://www.misak.dk/download/phpsaadmin/

The main bit is that you need to turn on the -q or -Q flag for your spamassassin daemon. For Debian-based systems, edit /etc/defaults/spamassassin

You'll also need to make a small modification to /etc/spamassassin/local.cf

…

For those of you with mail accounts on colliertech.org:

http://colliertech.org/phpsaadmin/

Tell me if you'd like me to add you to the list of folks who can use that tool, and you can add addresses to your black/whitelist from your web browser.

To get this working, I read these docs:
http://spamassassin.apache.org/dist/sql/README

The INSTALL file from this dist:
http://www.misak.dk/download/phpsaadmin/

The main bit is that you need to turn on the -q or -Q flag for your spamassassin daemon. For Debian-based systems, edit /etc/defaults/spamassassin

You'll also need to make a small modification to /etc/spamassassin/local.cf

…

I installed OOo 2 today. And I connected it to my locally running MySQL database via JDBC. I've been learning a lot about JDBC recently, what with a rash of customers wanting to know how to connect to MaxDB via Java.

I'm also working a bit with Peter Harvey and learning something about ODBC. It seems somewhat more complicated. Perhaps that's because it doesn't have a virtual machine to target. I don't know. They all seem similar to DBI.

I also installed the beta version of Thunderbird. The Debian package was a bit out of date and didn't have index-by-recipient. It was a major hassle for me, so I fixed it.

Ulf and I have been working with a potential customer who has been having issues connecting to his x_server with MaxDB SQL Studio. He was initially reporting that he could not issue a particular query. I tried to get it working locally and put together a little script to build his example database, given …