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While working on a recent Rails project, I wanted to occasionally backup the database to a remote location. Since we were already using Subversion for source control, I figured I could just use it for storing the DB contents as well and came up with a short Ruby script for this, called dbbackup (ironically, stored on a Git repo – I guess it could use a –use-git option ;)

The only Rails tie is that it uses config/database.yml to get the database name and login info, so you could easily adapt it to run on non-Rails projects too. It’s built so that it can be ran by a nightly cron task, and since it’s only sending the diffs it wouldn’t be too resource-heavy.

I wouldn’t use this for Facebook’s production servers, but if your needs are more moderate you might find it useful. Feel free to send over any questions or patches to niryariv@gmail.com. Here’s the repo URL again, with the script and an explanation on how to use it: http://github.com/niryariv/dbbackup/tree/master

Yesterday this image made it to Digg & co:

It was presented as the next Ubuntu theme, but it’s not – the linked page was quick to post an explanation: “I’m sorry to say that this is not planned to be the next Ubuntu theme. It has been passed it up to the art team, and there’s a lot of work ahead”

However, he adds – this is the cool part – “If you are visiting and you do have ideas or suggestions, please post them here! There’s an entire sub-wiki just for your input!”

Compare this to Apple sending a legal “please don’t send unsolicited ideas” letter to an 8 year old girl who wrote them. Not because Apple is mean, simply because that’s how it works in that type of business. Who do you think will eventually build the better product?

Ubuntu’s Brainstorm app is very cool. Basically it lets users post suggestions, bugs and requests for Ubuntu, and rate/comment other users’ posts. It enables users to get involved in the process and lets developers know what users are missing most and get ideas for future additions. It’s a new interface for discussion, something new on top of forums, bug tracking apps etc.

(Dell’s Ideastorm, predates Brainstorm, but the concept will probably work better with Open Source projects where users are more accustomed to this kind of feedback process. Ideastorm’s own top items are almost all Open-Source related. Having less of a life also makes some difference I suppose ;))

You can get the source at Ubuntu’s repository but unfortunately there isn’t a downloadable standalone package for this yet. It would be great to have an simple install of this, I think almost any product and company could benefit from something like this.

This is why open source software is growing so fast: it’s a positive feedback loop, its products feed its own growth. Good to see Ubuntu growing so nicely, with Vista & Leopard we definitely need an alternative.

This gives you (almost) complete access to Metafilter’s database: you can simply run any SELECT query on their DB that you like – export as CSV/Tab delimited file too. Very very cool. Wouldn’t it be nice to see something like this on, say, NYTimes or Amazon.com?

My friend Sandro Groganz announced recently he’s starting a marketing consultancy business focused on Open Source software.

I think it’s a fantastic idea and confident Sandro will do well. Marketing for Open Source requires strong understanding of developers’ mindsets and needs, and Sandro is one of the very few people who combine a strong OSS development background with an understanding of marketing & business.

How do you know your marketing consultant understands Open Source? When he actually shares his knowledge and advice regarding OSS marketing on his blog and wiki, I’d say it’s a pretty good sign :)

I think Sandro is tapping into a huge force here. In my opinion, after the Web x.0 hype settles Open Source is what we’re finally left with as the most important change in our times, which will go way beyond software. User Generated Content is just a preview of things to come when this method of building software gets applied to a host of other uses. Good luck mate!