Python vs Perl vs Lua - speed comparison

I have written the base64 encoding algorithm in Perl, Python and Lua to compare the performance in basic arithmetic and file-io operations. Perl implementation was written a long time ago and it supposed to be a one liner. That's why the script looks so obfuscated:

Using ssmtp to send email notifications

I've been using ssmtp for a long time to send automatic notifications from all my embedded systems like routers or NASes and also to send anything from a command line to a desired email address. The program is only 8K (whereas mutt is 3.5M) but it can handle secure TLS/SSL connections to SMTP servers. Setup is very easy as only one file has to be adapted. Please read this tutorial to set the ssmtp up.

To make it easier to use I have written a bash script that handles email header creation and adds a simple command line interface:

Encrypting with the openssl in bash

With a bit of commandlinefu it becomes easy to encrypt and decrypt files with the strong 256 bit aes algorithm using openssl.

Add the following into your ~/.bashrc

# crypting functions
function encrypt {
  if [ -t 0 ]; then
    # interactive
    local fname="$1"
    shift
    openssl aes-256-cbc -salt -in "$fname" -out "${fname}.enc" $@
  else
    # piped
    perl -e 'use IO::Select; $ready=IO::Select->new(STDIN)->can_read();'
    openssl aes-256-cbc -salt $@
  fi
}
function decrypt {
  if [ -t 0 ]; then
    # interactive
    local fname="$1"
    shift
    openssl aes-256-cbc -d -in "$fname" -out "${fname%\.*}" $@
  else
    perl -e 'use IO::Select; $ready=IO::Select->new(STDIN)->can_read();'
    openssl aes-256-cbc -d $@
  fi
}

and source it to let changes take effect (source ~/.bashrc).