If you’re storing any confidential information on your server (or you’re just paranoid) you may need to securely delete it at some point. Let’s face it, you don’t want those plans for converting lead into gold to get into the wrong hands. Don’t fret though, your alchemy plans will be non-recoverable after running the shred tool.

This tool allows you to overwrite a file with random data (ones and zeros) a configurable number of times. This command line tool has the following syntax:

shred [OPTIONS] filename

The most common options you’ll use are as follows:

-n – The number of times you want to overwrite the file with random data. The United States Government defines 7 as the standard.
-u – Remove the file after overwriting (otherwise the file will still exists, just full of random data instead).
-z – Overwrite the data once more, this time just with zeros. This tries to make it less obvious that a file was overwritten.
-v – Verbose output (show progress).
-f – Forces permissions to allow writing. Likely not necessary in most scenarios.

For example, if you wanted to remove alchemy.pdf, you would use the following command (7 passes):

shred -n 7 -u -z -v alchemy.pdf

Which would output the following:

shred: alchemy.pdf: pass 1/8 (random)...
shred: alchemy.pdf: pass 2/8 (555555)...
shred: alchemy.pdf: pass 3/8 (aaaaaa)...
shred: alchemy.pdf: pass 4/8 (random)...
shred: alchemy.pdf: pass 5/8 (ffffff)...
shred: alchemy.pdf: pass 6/8 (000000)...
shred: alchemy.pdf: pass 7/8 (random)...
shred: alchemy.pdf: pass 8/8 (000000)...
shred: alchemy.pdf: removing
shred: alchemy.pdf: renamed to 00000000000
shred: 00000000000: renamed to 0000000000
shred: 0000000000: renamed to 000000000
shred: 000000000: renamed to 00000000
shred: 00000000: renamed to 0000000
shred: 0000000: renamed to 000000
shred: 000000: renamed to 00000
shred: 00000: renamed to 0000
shred: 0000: renamed to 000
shred: 000: renamed to 00
shred: 00: renamed to 0
shred: alchemy.pdf: removed

Now you can be rest assured that nobody will know why you buy so much lead.

The Apple iPhone was not the first cell phone to be equipped with a touchscreen display, nor is it the least expensive offering with that particular feature. However, it is quite clear that it was the iPhone that popularized the format. We could be on the cusp of the same phenomenon, thanks to the rumored upcoming announcement of an Apple iSlate tablet computer.

While it certainly won’t get the same level of media attention as its Apple counterpart, the tablet computer from Freescale could point toward the future of that industry and that niche. Looking much like the MIDs and UMPCs that have largely flown under the radar for the last couple of years, the yet-unnamed Freescale tablet features a 7-inch touchscreen display and your choice of either the Linus or Android operating system.

The tablet computer also comes equipped with a 1GHZ i.MX515 processor, a three-axis accelerometer (tilt sensor), 512MB of DDR2 RAM, between 4GB and 64GB of storage via the microSD card slot, integrated 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS, 3G connectivity, built-in speakers, a three megapixel camera, and a 1900mAh battery. The device itself measures just 128mm thick.

There is no word on the exact pricing scheme just yet, but many are saying that the Freescale tablet could retail for less than $200 when it hits the market later this year. The optimistic release schedule says this summer, though that may change.

And we’ve made it to the end of another work week, so that means it’s time to see what the blogosphere had to offer us. Enjoy the links.

Therese Borchard has noticed, as with many other people, that we tend not to adhere to our new year’s resolutions. We make these empty promises to ourselves and this has got to stop. That’s why Therese has five ways to make them stick. Whether you’re looking to drop a bad habit or get in shape, you’ll want to read her post.

David Pitlyuk has been pretty successful online. He’s been so successful, in fact, that most of us didn’t even know he had a day job with AOL. Well, he doesn’t have that job anymore and, thus, he is no longer working for the man. Then again, by his own admission, he could still be working for man; it just so happens that he is now the man. Welcome to full-time entrepreneurship, Dave!

Flexo knows that it can be hard to find viable investments in this kind of economy, especially if you don’t want to take on a whole lot of risk. Most people have tried high-yield savings accounts, but Flexo has some great alternatives that can earn you more money. Have you tried a money market account, for example?

Darren Barefoot has a certain way with his words and one way that you can do the same is to constantly expand your vocabulary. In one of his recent blog posts, Darren describes four new words that he has learned. I’ll be honest: I didn’t know any of these words either. Who says that someone is celling? Really?

Buzz Bishop has been undergoing a lot of changes in the last year. He got married, got laid off from his job, got a new job, and moved to another province. And now he has a new bundle of joy in his life, growing the Bishop clan and giving Zacharie a new baby brother named Charles. Hey there, Chuck. Welcome.

Different companies take on different strategies when striving for financial success. Some may try to stay within a particular niche and cater only to a specific segment of the populace. Others may try to expand their focus to capture as large of an audience as possible. This is the question of whether one should be a specialist or a generalist.

A similar concept can apply to the pricing scheme you have for your range of products and services. Are you only going to focus on people who want to spend a certain range of money or are you going to have possible offerings for people from all budgets? This can have a dramatic impact on how you choose to market your business.

If you are approaching only the high-end, as would be the case with a Ferrari dealership, it may not make a lot of sense to advertise affordable loan programs or the free umbrella that may come with the car. However, if you are selling a budget-minded vehicle, these kinds of perks may be more useful.

In like manner, do you want to spend your time attracting customers that may not be profitable enough to warrant the extra resources necessary? Aside from special retention plans, you’ll find that you cannot get a data plan on a smartphone in Canada for less than $25 a month. Adding in some minutes and other features, you can expect to pay upwards to $100 a month. Should Rogers, Telus, and Bell have cheaper smartphone plans with fewer features and less data, or is that not worth their time?

For marketing purposes, it seems that Rogers has addressed this issue by making Fido its budget brand, just as Telus has done with Koodo and Bell with Solo. Has this marketing approach been effective? What about the separation of Nissan and Infiniti? Smart and Mercedes? Ford and Lincoln?

There is already a rather popular WordPress plug-in that will automatically backup the databases associated with your WordPress blog and you can have this plug-in email the backup files to you on a regular basis. However, that’s only one part of the equation. What about your themes, uploads, and other information?

To get a comprehensive backup of your blog, you may want to consider Automatic WordPress Backup. Unlike the plug-in that only backs up the database, this plug-in provides a complete backup. According to the official page, you get a back up of your WordPress database, themes, plugins, uploaded files and setting files. This way, you can fully restore your site should something arise.

The system is automated, so it can make the back up on its own. It also uses Amazon S3, so you can achieve very good reliability. You can initiate a manual backup too, which comes in handy before you do any new updates or upgrades that may “break” your site.

For more information, point your browser to WordPressBackup.org. Note that this plug-in only works with Linux/PHP5 servers, so do not use it if you have Windows servers and PHP4.

Just as you may have new year’s resolutions in your personal life, now is a perfect time to set some objectives for the business side of your life as well. The critical difference is that you should transcend the idea of a resolution and make them into business goals.

A resolution can easily lack direction and plan. On the other hand, a proper goal can lead you to much higher levels of success. It is important that you devise S.M.A.R.T. goals. If the goals are not measurable and specific, they may well be little more than hopes and dreams.

This does not mean that you cannot aim for some rather lofty goals, but what it does mean is that you should be breaking these larger goals into smaller objectives that you can track along the way. You want to attract ten new clients in 2010? You may want to rework that goal to say that you want to attract one new client each month instead.

Have you set your business goals for the new year? Do you have a corresponding business plan with checkpoints along the way, ensuring that you are staying on track? Have you ensured that you have the right resources to aid you in your goals along the way? These are all important elements to consider.