Simplenews is a quick and easy way to set up and manage newsletters on Drupal, but if you add it to a site which already has users, you might want a way to quickly subscribe all your users to your newsletter.

Rather than click through all users and manually subscribe them - which can be a little bit boring if you have thousands of users - you can run a few SQL queries to mass-subscribe everyone in one go.

I found myself with some spare time the other day and decided that my current mysql backup strategy is not the best in the world. The mysql server is a virtual machine in a Brisbane datacenter and it's backed up via a script that calls mysqldump on each installed database and dumps the content to (compressed) files. These files then get sucked down to Melbourne via rdiff-backup.

This is fine in principle, but does mean it's possible for me to lose 24 hours worth of data due to an accidental 'DROP table' query.

What I've long suspected turns out to be true; you can spend less money on hardware as well when using open source software. Double the savings! Don't believe me? The IT manager at Westall Secondary College (where I occasionally help out) has said just that in an article called "Ubuntu breathes new life into school's abandoned hardware".

Because we get a plug, I suppose I should explain a bit about the work I've done at the school :-)

Last year I properly attended my first Open Source Developers Conference, and this year's - held in Brisbane from November 26 to 29 - is coming up fast.

I'm planning to attend again this year and if you have any developers doing open source work or doing any open source work yourself, I can heartily recommend going. OSDC is a great place to pick up tick and trips and find out how to use your favourite tools and languages in unexpected new ways.

The theme for this year's conference is "Success in Development & Business".