After years of running Linux and occasionally Windows I've made the switch to Macintosh. My wife has been using Macs for years and I have used them every now and then so it wasn't a big change, plus I supported them years back in a technician role, but I do believe I was missing out. My only complaint is the window management is lacking, and the fact that you can't do a lot of theming. Besides that, I'm in heaven.

If you use the iPhone application Secret Diary I wrote a little Python script to pull the contents from the backup file. Sorry, no GUI, but this script is very straight forward. You need Python 2.5, which should include SQLite3.

1. Save the backup attachment sent from your iPhone Secret Diary app, which should have an .sqlite file extension.

2. Extract the script and open a terminal, or cmd in Windows, and give it the full path and filename. If you saved in c:/secret/SD-Restore Some Date Time.sqlite this is the path you will need to give the script...

When complete you should have a restore folder where the Python script is located with all your entries and images.

Download Ver. 0.1 sedi_restore.zip

Download TK GUI version

Awhile ago I blogged some alternatives to Quickbooks on the Linux platform. Unfortunately these don't really do payroll. If you need a full package that does everything Quickbooks does then take a look a Nola.

Nola is a web based solution and it runs on OS X, Linux, and Windows. You also have the option to use Nola's hosting on the Internet, where they set everything up for you and manage the technical side, but setting up a web server, like the free XAMPP, really isn't that big of a deal. XAMPP includes PHP and MySQL as well as Apache in one location ready to go - all the requirements for running Nola on your computer.

If you need inventory and accounting features like payroll and receivables Nola has you covered. If you wish to import all your Quickbooks data they sell a check conversion tool. Be aware, you can only import 2005 and lower Quickbooks data, but it may save you time setting up you business. My friend worked on that this weekend and I haven't heard how it went getting his data moved over.

If you're in need of a Quickbooks alternative or want to cool tool to manage the back-end business details this will likely be your best bet. Best of all, other than the converter, it's free.

Visit Nola on Sourceforge

Visit Nola at their site

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