Backup your files to the net automatically and securely with Dropbox and RAR

So you want an automatic backup which you set up once and then you can forget? If so then first install Dropbox. Dropbox works in a very simple way, it creates a directory (usually "My Dropbox") and everything you copy there is uploaded to Dropbox's servers automatically.

The next step is collecting the files you want to backup. RAR is a good tool for that. It can put all your files into a single archive file and it can take the directories to be archived from a file list.

So create a file in which list in separate lines the directories you want to backup and then create a batch file with a command like this:

"C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" u "c:\My Dropbox\backup.rar" @c:\backup_file.list

This command reads the list of files to be backed up from c:\backup_file.list and puts the result in the Dropbox directory. The command u means the archive will be updated, so only files you change is written to the archive if you run the command again and again.

Because that is what you should do and you should do it automatically, so run the batch file daily with the Task Scheduler.

Are we ready? Almost. If you want to secure your stuff (and why wouldn't you?) then you should encrypt your backup file. RAR can handle this too easily, just add two more switches to the command line in the batch file and replace password with your own encryption password:

"C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" -p"password" -hp u "c:\My Dropbox\backup.rar" @c:\backup_file.list

That's it. It backs up your files, encrypts them and uploads the backup to the cloud with Dropbox. And with the help of the Task Scheduler all that happens automatically. Isn't it a great thing?

Ignore duplicate commands in Emacs shell

(setq comint-input-ignoredups t)

Call batch file from other batch file

I always forget how to do it, but it's simple, use the CALL command:

CALL other.bat

Watching country blocked Youtube videos

Is a Youtube video blocked for your country? It sucks, doesn't it? But it's easy to circumvent the block. Just go to this site which provides a proxy video player which usually can play blocked videos just fine. Just copy the video URL and paste it.

Why there is no Android in Eclipse Galileo Preferences

You have to run Eclipse in administrator mode when installing the Android SDK, otherwise it won't work.

Microsoft Wireless Mouse stops working

It's always interference for me. Today it stopped working after several weeks of problem free behavior. Try putting the receiver somewhere else. It solved the problem for me.

Split a long audio mp3 file into smaller parts

I had a several hours long audiobook file and it was cumbersome to handle it with my mp3 player, because it had only rudimentary controls for moving in the file. So I wanted to split it into smaller parts and as it turned out it's quite easy. The file can simply cut into pieces, no complicated trickery is needed. I used Total Commander to split the file and it worked beautifully. Try it yourself.