Ubuntu Linux: Back up your files

While I wrote my post about online backup services I remembered that my last regular backup has been a while ago. A backup is only valuable when done on a regular basis and it has to be quite recent.

But there are two problems with most backup processes:

  • People forget about the backup
  • Backing up takes some time and can take some effort

So ideally there is a fixed backup schedule (automatic or with notifications) and the backup process is very simple and easy.

Currently I am using “Simple Backup” on Ubuntu. The good thing about it is, that it is easy. 😉

But to be honest: I think it is a little bit too simple! Here is what I would like to have in my backup program:

  • Reminder when to backup the data
  • Show the progress of the backup process and estimate when it will be finished
  • Finally a message when the backup process has finished

You might ask why I don’t want an automatic backup. Well, my NAS is connected via NFS and not always switched on, because currently I online use it for backup purposes. The problem with automatic backups and the NAS offline is that the backup files are saved in the folder that is linked to the shared directory on the NAS with in “media”. This happend to me and I first didn’t notice. Only when Ubuntu began to behave funny because the hard disc was full.

Open Source Business: Survey Software Limesurvey

Limesurvey is probably the most advanced open source survey software at the moment. I have used it for a short survey projekt already and I was impressed.

The successor of PHPsurveyor is based on PHP and MySQL, which gives the possiblity to install it on many shared hosting services. The current stable version is Limesurvey 1.71 and they are currently working on Version 1.8.

At the same time the team around the project leader Carsten Schmitz work on a total reworked version Limesurvey 2.0, which looks very promising. Continue reading “Open Source Business: Survey Software Limesurvey”

WordPress Plugin: Automatic Upgrade

I like WordPress. It is free, simple and has loads of usefull plugins and nice themes.

What was always quite annoying was the upgrade process. An annoying upgrade process leads to the problem that one might not immediately upgrade to a new version, which can make the installations insecure.

Then WordPress added a feature to easily upgrade plug-ins, which was an important step ahead. But upgrading the blogging software itself was still annoying. Continue reading “WordPress Plugin: Automatic Upgrade”