After restoring databases from one server to another I sometimes get this error on Ubuntu or Debian: error: 'Access denied for user 'debian-sys-maint'@'localhost' (using password: YES)' This makes a lot of sense, and the solution is pretty simple. If you look in: cat /etc/mysql/debian.cnf You’ll see the defaults for your system. Copy the password listed there, and open a connection to MySQL as root (or some other user). Next, enter this (lets say your password specified in debian.cnf was ‘abracadabra’:

I’m wrapping up an eventful four-day weekend here in Australia. Day 1 - On Thursday night, I went to the Blue Mountains and stayed with a few friends. I’ve always enjoyed visiting the area; it reminds me how much I like mountain terrain. I made my way back to Sydney on Friday and began considering what to do with the rest of the weekend. Day 2 - On Saturday, I woke early and drove to the local supermarket to buy food for the week, as the shops would be closed on Friday and Sunday. Soon after returning home, I turned the car around and headed to Kangaroo Valley, about two hours south of my house. The drive was lovely, and traffic was light. I arrived at the campsite and was stunned by its size; it …

Status: ❌ It is time for a new project. I’ve finally decided I want to do some electronics stuff - at least play around in that realm a little. However, I want to “get out and about” a little as well, so this leads me to my idea: a controllable long-range RC plane. I’ve been debating whether to go the embedded Linux route, or the more simple microcontroller route. One of the first things I stumbled upon was ArduPilot, a cheap Arduino-based board allowing for a UAV. However, after looking through the requirements I would have needed to purchase an RF transmitter, and they aren’t cheap. This made me rethink the ArduPilot route and to evaluate what I really wanted to do: control the …

Back in 2000 I managed to acquire several retired systems to bring to Uni: this included 4-5 cheap P120 machines. At the time, I thought this was great; I had an OpenBSD box as my gateway, a FreeBSD box, a few Linux boxes, and likely something else that doesn’t even exist now. The school has a superfast connection, unlimited bandwidth, and I was curious. Although I didn’t really have time, I still managed to install and have all these servers running from my room.

I like ESX. I like Linux. It is absurdly easy to configure Linux as an NFS server and mount it in ESXIi). Installed NFS I currently use Ubuntu Server for my home lab, but the process is basically the same for Red Hat and derivatives. sudo apt-get install nfs-common sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server Next, configure NFS so it can server your local LAN. Normally you would list only specific servers, but, well, we’re being cheap and dirty today. Open /etc/exports in VI or your editor of choice.

I realized a few of my log files were growing unusually large, and even worse, logrotate was skipping them. I took a look in logrotate.d and straight away realized why: I had created silly names for the log file. logrotate look for .log files, but I had specified mine as .log – e.g. kelvinism_access_log. I was as familiar with logrotate when I set up the domains, so set forth to get them in the rotation.

I first learned the term “white privilege” during my first year at university. I don’t remember whether it was in a general education class, at an ASPSU (student government) meeting, or through the NAACP, but the revelation has always humbled me. Today, I had another revelation. I woke up before 7:00 a.m., caught the bus, and attended my French class. After class, I hurried back to Granville train station to pick up a lost phone, then spent the rest of the afternoon reading at Borders. My mom offered to deposit about $50 into my bank account for my birthday, but I told her I would prefer a card or a small gift she thought I would like. In the mail arrived Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. I had …

I’m about to head off to bed, but I have to admit, today has been very productive. I woke up at 6:20am (it is a Saturday), had breakfast, and went into the city. At 9:00am I started my new French class, which looks like it will be great fun. My teacher has great energy, the students are interesting (and seemingly bright), and I’ve picked up a copy of Asterix. Although I haven’t made it past the first page, I’ve enjoyed looking up the words and reliving a comic book I read as a kid. I haven’t learned conjugation yet, so I might wait to read more until next week.

I’m not impressed too often with much software, especially the closed source kind. I find a leaning preference to all things FOSS. If I had a million dollars, I’d likely spend all day contributing to all the projects I wish I had time to contribute to. Regardless, there are a select few closed-source products that I believe are truly excellent. I mean, the type of software where you aren’t asking “I wish this could do this” and start asking “I wonder what else this can do.”

Last year I had a very special New Year’s Eve on one of the private piers next to the Harbour Bridge (arguably one of the largest displays of fireworks in the world). I had great food, good company, and jaw-dropping views. A friend was not in the country this year, so I had to find an alternative. Fireworks debris was falling around the train. My first plan was to try and go into one of the parks on the north side, thinking that somehow the view would be better. I quickly realized that I wouldn’t be able to get into the city until pretty late, and all the parks would likely be filled up. I pondered for a little while, and we came up with an idea: the train. Last year I noticed that the train still …