title: MySQL connection character set problems
body: <p>I'm using velosurf with MySQL on a Mac, without any encoding problems, but when I switch to a Linux machine, the values I get from velosurf are not encoded correctly.</p>
  
  <p>I found out it might be a problem with the default connection character set. On the Mac I got:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mysql&gt; show variables like "collation_%";
  +----------------------+-------------------+
  | Variable_name        | Value             |
  +----------------------+-------------------+
  | collation_connection | utf8_general_ci   |
  | collation_database   | utf8_general_ci   |
  | collation_server     | latin1_swedish_ci |
  +----------------------+-------------------+
  3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
  
  mysql&gt; show variables like "character_set_%";
  +--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Variable_name            | Value                                                  |
  +--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | character_set_client     | utf8                                                   |
  | character_set_connection | utf8                                                   |
  | character_set_database   | utf8                                                   |
  | character_set_filesystem | binary                                                 |
  | character_set_results    | utf8                                                   |
  | character_set_server     | latin1                                                 |
  | character_set_system     | utf8                                                   |
  | character_sets_dir       | /usr/local/mysql-5.5.11-osx10.6-x86_64/share/charsets/ |
  +--------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>While on the linux machine, I have:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mysql&gt; show variables like 'collation_%';
  +----------------------+-------------------+
  | Variable_name        | Value             |
  +----------------------+-------------------+
  | collation_connection | latin1_swedish_ci | 
  | collation_database   | utf8_general_ci   | 
  | collation_server     | latin1_swedish_ci | 
  +----------------------+-------------------+
  3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
  
  mysql&gt; show variables like 'character_set_%';
  +--------------------------+----------------------------+
  | Variable_name            | Value                      |
  +--------------------------+----------------------------+
  | character_set_client     | latin1                     | 
  | character_set_connection | latin1                     | 
  | character_set_database   | utf8                       | 
  | character_set_filesystem | binary                     | 
  | character_set_results    | latin1                     | 
  | character_set_server     | latin1                     | 
  | character_set_system     | utf8                       | 
  | character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ | 
  +--------------------------+----------------------------+
  8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The database collation and character set are set when I create the database. My problem is that I can't change the default character sets for the client/connection/results.</p>
  
  <p>Also, there doesn't seem to be any way to set the charset with velosurf when the connection is initiated.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions?</p>