Author: Dave

He was born in Canada, but currently lives in Boulder, CO up in Boulder Heights.

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Technology & Gadgets

PHP 5.3 connecting to remote MySQL database

So there are many solutions out there discussing solutions to the error in PHP 5.3 while connecting using the built-in mysql library to a MySQL server:

mysqlnd cannot connect to mysql 4.1+ using the old insecure authentication. please use an administration tool to reset your password with the command set password = password('your_existing_password').

Unfortunately, none of these solutions seem to work on a remote MySQL server. I have WebFaction running my MySQL server, so it’s impossible to configure the old_passwords in a my.conf file. What you have to do instead is:

SET SESSION old_passwords=0;
SET PASSWORD=PASSWORD('existing password');

This should reset the password to the 41 byte hash compatible with mysqlnd in PHP 5.3.

Categories
Personal Technology & Gadgets

Free of Bluehost at last

So this post has been a long time coming (almost 2 years), mainly due to my own lack of motivation and the sheer amount of work necessary to move a bunch of websites between hosts.

After trialling WebFaction for almost 1.5 years, and finding them to be reasonable and responsive, I have now moved this blog from BlueHost to WebFaction. Many folks have written about how bad BlueHost is, and so with this blog (finally) safely off of that host, I now feel free to add my $0.02.

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Personal

Winning runs from Sunday’s Rally Cross

So Sunday Cassie and I went out to Fountain, CO for Event #6 of the Colorado Rally Cross season. I won, but barely. I videoed all 12 runs that Cassie and I did using my iPhone 4 with a homemade mount (lots of double-sided tape and taped ports to keep the dust out). I think the footage came out pretty good. Our car, a 2002 Jetta with recently replaced engine and transmission mounts (old ones kept breaking) sprung a coolant leak, so we were filling the coolant with water every run, and it redlined on temperature every run (260° F). By the end of the day, we managed all 12 runs thanks to everybody who let us maximally separate the runs, and Eric Genack‘s supplied water (used 2 gallons). The coolant was clear instead of red by the end of day (completely diluted).

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Personal

Must-see movie

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Personal

Neat optical illusion

Takes a while, but quite cool. Follow the instructions…..


Cool Optical Illusion – Watch more Funny Videos

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Personal

Now a BizSpark startup

My company, Tall Pine Technology, is now a Microsoft BizSpark Startup. I think with this development, it’s hard not to go all-microsoft for e-mail, etc.

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Personal

Stalking me for tech support

Well, I have an interesting, if cautionary tale of why you might not want to help out strangers with software advice.

It started out when I posted detailed instructions on how to setup wview on Ubuntu. I posted and updated detailed instructions on how to set up a complete system, from start to finish. I maintain(ed) this very carefully, and when changes came up, I updated the article. Nonetheless, this process has become outdated, and so the procedure documented still works, but is not the easiest way to do it (techies: the developers have packaged up the install, so it’s almost a one-liner, now).

Continue reading “Stalking me for tech support”
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Personal

Weather underground now making a video

This is the last 24 hours from my webcam:

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Personal

Stuff I install on Windoze

This is a partial list of stuff I install on Windows Vista and newer, on nearly every machine I configure, with a short description of why I use it:

Continue reading “Stuff I install on Windoze”
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Personal

Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 upgrade NIGHTMARE

Well, the Ubuntu team really screwed the pooch on the latest upgrade. I manage three Ubuntu machines, all with clean installs of 9.04. Well, I locally upgraded one of them, and tried to remotely upgrade the other two.

For the local upgrade I used the GUI, and for the remote systems I used do-release-upgrade as instructed.

All three upgrades failed, in various ways.

The local upgrade lost its internet connection. I had to MANUALLY select the Wired Connection 1 after upgrade.

The two remote ones failed (I had to visit the machines) on reboot, failing to mount the file system.

Then one (perhaps two) of the remote systems did an interface swap, rendering them inaccessible on the internet.

It seems this particular upgrade was not tested sufficiently prior to release, as any google search on this upgrade will show.

This was the Vista of Ubuntu upgrades for me and many others. A complete disaster, and likely to throw beginners off of Ubuntu and linux for a long time.

I was buried in command line hell for hours to get this upgrade to finish, and needed a friend to fix the network problem introduced in this release.