Reset Root Password: How to?

[Thomas Allen]

I need to know:
1) How to stop/start the MySQL server via Terminal (Unix command line) in Mac OS X
2) How to reset my root password.

Here's why:

Bleh...I installed MySQL a couple months ago on my Mac because I'm a web developer who wants to learn some PHP and MySQL. I didn't understand how to set my root password at the time and got frustrated enough with the whole command line interface that I gave up.

Well, I'm taking another stab at it, this time I know my way around better, but I'm very much screwed:

I can't login as the root user because I don't know the password. Furthermore, the preferences pane that would allow me to easily start and stop the server never installed properly after a few tries.

Thanks for any help!