So you have an old Quasar Microwave from the 80’s or 90’s and it’s time to set back/forward the clocks.

I find myself checking online for instructions every six months and finally tinkering to get the clock changed, so for the records this is how you change the clock on a Quasar Microwave.

To set the time on a Quasar Microwave.

1. Press Hold/Clear.
2. Press the Clock button twice.
3. Press the10 Min and 1 Min buttons until the proper hour is displayed (press 10 min once for 10-12, then 1 min once for 11, twice for 12, etc).
4. Press the 10 Sec and 1 Sec buttons until the proper minute is displayed (i.e. press 10 Sec four times and 1 Sec six times for 46).
5. Press Clock to finish setting the time.

Now to either replace this ancient microwave or contact my local representative to have daylight savings time repealed.

On top of everything else I saw at the MySQL UC, I saw enough snazzy digital SLRs to make me green with envy (curse you Stewart, Mike, George, Colin, Jeremy and Julian!)

So, I decided to whip up a way out-there camera wishlist to rule them all! I may not actually have any of this, but when some generous millionaire buys it all for me I shall have the mightiest setup of all at the next uc!

Ok so it is just an excuse to play with the wishlist plugin for wordpress.

Quick, if there is a fan of this blog out there somewhere with money to burn who always wanted to show appreciation, buy me this!

Man that is pretty, and would be great for working on some PocketPC MySQL stuff.

Late last year I bought a Dell Inspiron 9200 laptop for my work machine while on the road. It was a fine machine, plenty powerful to run all the tools I need to document MySQL.

The laptop came with a two-edged sword — the 1920×1200 WUXGA screen had awesome resolution, allowing one to work on so many windows at once it was practically like having dual monitors. The disadvantage was that the screen had a lowsy anti-glare coating that produced a sparkle effect when your viewing angle shifted, which can be read about with this Google search.

I first thought this was just the way the screen was and dealt with it, but it later became apparent that this screen was sub-standard compared to …

I just finished an upgrade to Shaw Extreme cable internet for my home network. The service requires that you change from a Terayon modem to a Motorola SurfBoard modem, and the payment of an extra $10 a month, but from what I can tell it will be oh so worth it.

Just before switching modems I started a download of the debug version of MySQL 5.0.12 (50 megs), I got around 300-400K per second. After the upgrade I tried the same download from the same mirror and saw 800-830K per second. SO far so good.

Of course, seeing that I host some sites from home, I was more interested in the upstream. Here BroadBandReports.com helps:

Certainly a step from the claimed 1.5 up / .5 down that my old service claimed. The new speed is supposed to be 7 down 1 up, and while the download speed is not hitting the claim, the upstream is right on target (according to BroadBandReports the …

In order to better document MySQL on Mac, I have recently acquired a Mac Mini. This brings my collection of desktop machines to three:

The black machine is a Windows box, the white machine runs Linux, and now a Mac Mini.

The new addition closer up:

This is the first Mac I have had regular use of, so I am sure I have some learning to do. For now I just need to get MySQL and the GUI tools installed, then find where they hide the command-line.