Waltzing Waters - on the Isle of Wight
At the weekend, Annie and I went to the Isle of Wight. Apart from getting sunburn on Saturday and then soaked to the bone on the Sunday, it was a fantastic weekend.
On the Friday evening we went to see Waltzing Waters in Ryde, which is a show of water fountains dancing to music! It’s basically an insane version of a sound-to-light system. A little too large for me to have one installed at home though…
We also had a visit to the Isle of Wight Zoo to see a few big cats and some of my family (monkeys in case you wondered). We stayed in a fantastic B&B in Sandown, treated to great service, fried breakfasts, and chocy bars too!
We also played crazy golf, spent a few pennies in the amusements, and sat in a freezing cold cinema where half of the seating area was flooded! My first visit to the Isle of Wight? An adventure.
Third cheque payment from GreasyPalm
I received another cheque from GreasyPalm this week, for £28.23. This brings my total earnings to over £80. It’s a good way to make some money on your purchases.
GreasyPalm have recently improved their click tracking, so getting paid should be a lot more reliable now! These kinds of cashback sites are popping up all over the place. Quidco is a new one that I am experimenting with, which has roughly a 50% better cashback rate compared to GreasyPalm.
Changing the network…
With recent changes in the SEO and webmaster world, I’ve decided to make some big changes to the JagoNetwork. I’m already at the stage where the number of websites I have are difficult to manage. I have plans to sell off a couple of websites, but that will happen at the end of July when a contract expires. For now, I am shifting the emphasis to just a few of my websites.
Resetting MySQL root password under Ubuntu
Having set up my Ubuntu box a little while ago, I had actually forgotten what I had set my MySQL root password to. I was trying to set something up today and had a need to reset it. Thankfully, if you have root access on a linux box, its a simple procedure to fix. I have Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) and MySQL 5.0.38.
Stop the MySQL server:
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop
Start the MySQL configuration without checking the root password:
sudo mysqld –skip-grant-tables &
Log in as root to MySQL (without a password):
mysql -u root mysql
Replace the password with your new password:
UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD(’YOURNEWPASSWORD’) WHERE User=’root’; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit;
And that’s it!
Playing with Microcontrollers?
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting 123 Pic Microcontroller Experiments for the Evil Genius for a while now. Its not entirely what I am after, but it does include some interesting applications of PICs that do interest me. It includes interfacing PICs with LCDs, interfacings PICS with computers, and working with stepper motors.
The book features information touching on all of these subjects, and sometimes its just nice to have a book like this. However, I am having trouble finding other microcontroller books that form a solid basis for PIC projects.