GMail Backup

The Cloud is great, right?

Keeping your precious personal data files floating about on who knows what server (located in which [totalitarian] nation?), "owned" by company X (subcontracted by company Y), which may (or may not) have a comprehensive security policy that may (or may not) be regularly enforced is (possibly) a wonderful thing, right?

Just for kicks, I think I'll keep a local copy of my family photos, "sensitive" documents, and (on to the point of this post) EMAIL.

Regardless of how our friends at Google utilize the personal information (see Terms & Privacy for more information), we all love GMail, right? It would be a sad day indeed if our beloved GMail account were to suddenly disappear for whatever reason. Or, the 10,000+ emails we never deleted were somehow lost. Again, I like local copies. I like backups.

Enter GMail Backup

GMail Backup is my current application de jour for doing exactly as it's name implies. Description:

Gmail Backup allows to backup and restore the content of your Gmail account. It uses the IMAP protocol to fetch and store your messages. It can also be used to migrate your messages between two accounts, for example between your private inbox and the Google Apps acount.

It's very easy to use, and offers your choice of full or incremental backup.

Download the latest version (gmail-backup-20110307 as of this writing), install, run, enter you GMail loging info, choose a location to store you mail backup, etc...

As you can see, the GUI is simple & self-explanatory, but a little note on the Since Date field is in order. This pertains to the "incremental" backup function. From the documentation:

Downloading all emails from your Gmail Account every time you want to backup your emails would be a nightmare. In this case it comes in hand the incremental downloading feature of email.

Gmail Backup checks all emails in the Gmail Account whether their are already downloaded. If so than it skips them. It only download emails which are not presented in your local copy. However, the checking emails takes time too.

As result, we recommend to specify the date since you want to download emails. For example:

gmail-backup.exe backup backup xxx@gmail.com passwd 20080101

In the example, I specify that I want do check and eventually download emails since 1 January 2008. Consequently, the process of updating of your backup is much faster.

I was using Thunderbird as my email client, and using it to keep a local copy of all my GMail. It has it benefits but these days the GMail web GUI & backing up the mail locally with GMail Backup works for me.


Notes:
Selecting Newest emails only seems the simplest option for keeping your backup current
Yes, you can run the application from the command-line
You can restore your mail to your GMail account with this application

Saving Large Video Recordings From An iPhone

This is a pain. This needs to be fixed. Workarounds should not be needed, but for now we do what we must...

There is some kind of limitation on the iPhone 4 (and iPhone 3GS apparently) that will not allow you to download / save video that you have recorded if it is larger then about a couple hundred MBs. If you have recorded video on your iPhone of any significant length of time—and your file ends up being say, 1GB or so—you simply won't be able to copy it to your system. Picasa can't even do it.

The simplest workaround that I have found as I Googled:

1. Use iTunes to Sync your phone
2. Open up My Computer and navigate your way to C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
3. Open up the folder contained at this location (it'll have a lengthy name ce46da1123whatever)
4. Select View → Details
5. Select View → Size or click on the Size column label to sort in ascending or descending filesize
6. Look for the largest file(s)
7. Copy them to the location of your choice, rename them and add the .mov extension
8. Done!

Metamorphose File - Folder Renaming

This is a pretty cool application. Something that should be brainlessly easy under the command line in Linux—all I wanted to do was replace one character in all the filenames in one directory. Well, I ended my search when I found Metamorphose—a Windows app that would do the trick which I could run against the filenames since the directory is on a Samba share. In seconds it was all over.

It makes me unhappy when something which should be blatantly easy from the command line ends up requiring a Windows application. Well, I'm sure it is simple. I'm pretty certain I even know how to do it. If so... I forgot...

Old age or Too Much Information

DriveImage XML Backup System

This has probably been around for a while without my noticing—I focus on Linux tools for the most part so I'm sure I missed it.

Runtime Software's DriveImage XML however is extremely cool! Free for personal use. "Hot Image" backups of drives that are in use, and other really cool stuff:

DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives.

The program allows you to:

• Backup logical drives and partitions to image files
• Browse these images, view and extract files
• Restore these images to the same or a different drive
• Copy directly from drive to drive
• Schedule automatic backups with your Task Scheduler

Image creation uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe "hot images" even from drives currently in use.

Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. Never again be stuck with a useless backup!

Restore images to drives without having to reboot...

You can create a boot CD to run DriveImage (not officially supported--but there is a video available to show you how).

There is no support for the Personal Edition, but there is a quick YouTube How-To video that will get you started using the application in no time.

I have already backed up my Windows XP partition with this amazing software, what are you waiting for? :-)

Get DriveImage XML Today!

PS Their GetDataBack application looks pretty awesome too. My Dad could have used this when his HDD crashed a while back... if we'd only known about it then.

Compile Perl Into Win32 Executable Applications

Want to run Perl scripts on Windows systems that don't have Perl installed? Compile them into standalone executable applications!

There's always a way...

After much Googling and much frustration trying to get it to work, it did!

I am using ActiveState ActivePerl 5.8.8 Build 822 on my Windows XP systems. I read much about PAR & perlcc, etc. but nothing seemed to magically turn my paltry Perl scripts into mighty Windows Executable files. Finally I found the answer hidden away in a little URL tucked away on some message board.

Here's the short sweet version: You can add Perl module repositories with ActiveState's included Perl Package Manager. You add the repository and install PAR-Packer (not just any PAR-Packer, see below for the particulars).

1. Open the Package Manager
   
2. Click Edit Preferences (or the little gear icon on the left)
   
3. Select the Repositories tab
   
4. Enter a name in the Name field (I chose theoryx5 for obvious reasons following)
   
5. Enter the following URL in the Location field:
   
   
   
   • http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/
     
   
   
6. Click Add
   
7. Click OK
   
8. Click File --> Refresh All Data if the app doesn't do it automagically
   
9. Click View --> All Packages
   
10. In the Search field (you know, the field with the little magnifying glass in it) Enter Packer
    
11. You will see a few listings (or maybe more then a few, depending). Two in particular you will find: PAR-Packer 0.976 & PAR-Packer-588 0.973. Select the first (the one without the -588 this is important!).
    
12. Either right-click on it and choose Install... or click the little package icon that has the green + on it.
    
13. Click the little play arrow icon or choose Action Install... at the top
    
14. Once it's installed with all it's dependencies, close the Package Manager
    
15. Add the following to your path (if Perl is found at C:\Perl): C:\Perl\site\bin;
    
    
    
    1. In Windows XP you can do this by right-clicking My Computer
       
    2. Click Properties
       
    3. Select the Advanced tab
       
    4. Click Environment Variables
       
    5. Scroll down in System variables & select Path
       
    6. Click Edit
       
    7. Add C:\Perl\site\bin; to your path
       
    8. Click OK & exit Evironmental variables, etc.
       
    9. You may need to log off and back on for the change to take effect
       
    
    

Now open up a Windows shell (you know, Start --> Run --> cmd --> OK), navigate to the directory with your perl script to compile and enter: pp -o myfile.exe myfile.pl and ta-da your newly minted .exe will magically appear.

Well, it should anyway. Remember, use this at your own risk, your millage may vary, etc. etc.

It worked for me and I was very happy.

Note: You can review all of the available packages for the aforementioned repository at the same URL: http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/