So I bought a CopperEdge-150 DSLAM on eBay for a very good price.

It didn’t come with the password.

CopperMountain is widely regarded as tight-lipped unless you have a service contract costing five figures with them.

So I broke in.

The CE-150 has two serial ports: the CRAFT port, for management, and the Diagnostic port, which is the equivalent to the console on a PC.

It has a pretty spiffy BIOS, based on vxWorks, so there’s something to work with.

First, I plugged my serial cable plus null modem adaptor plus gender changer into the Diagnostic port.

Then, found the IP address: ifShow, and looked through the output and found 63.171.192.23, with a netmask of 0xffffffe0

On my workstation, I set up an FTP server, added a temporary IP address to my machine: ip addr add dev eth0 63.171.192.24/27, and got to work.

On the CE-150, hostAdd “betelgeuse”,“63.171.192.24” sets up a host entry, then netDevCreate “betelgeuse:”,“betelgeuse”,1 sets up an FTP session device.

Then, cd “/CE200/SYSTEM”, and iam “username”,“password” for logging into the FTP server.

Then, the magic copy “CONFIG.TGZ”.“betelgeuse:cf.tgz”.

Voila, I have the config file, a gzipped text file (not a TAR file!). In it is an encrypted (hashed, I suspect) copy of the admin password.

So in the morning, I’ll have to edit the config file, re-gzip, and copy it back. With luck, it’ll take a blank. We’ll see.

(The next morning) No, no go. I was trying too hard. Just rm “CONFIG.TGZ”.

Playing the cello just now, I got some of the worst cramps in my left hand that I’ve ever had. I’ve had cramps like that twice, and never before while playing the cello. Ow.

On the other hand, I can play the Suzuki etude now, decently. Still a couple screeky bits to smooth out, but not bad.

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I played Ultimate Frisbee for an hour and a half yesterday. Now, I can hardly walk since my calves hurt so much. They feel like rocks I can’t even stretch without pain.

On the other hand, I got the DSLAM working part way today. Now I need to find the software for it, since it didn’t come along with it. Sigh. There’s always one more part that you have to get from Cisco.

I think I’ll test the Copper Mountain one tomorrow, since I think I have all the parts.

So much to do.

I do believe that Vruba now approaches Phil Greenspun in my approval of travel stories with pictures.

Obligatory brag about userpic. Hah.

You are the grammar Fuhrer. All bow to your authority. You will crush all the inferior people under the soles of your jackboots, and any who question your motives will be eliminated. Your punishment is being the bane of every other person’s existence, because you’re constantly contradicting stupidity. Everyone will be gunning for you. Your dreams of a master race of spellers and grammarians frighten the masses. You must always watch your back. If only your power could be used for good instead of evil.

What is your grammar aptitude?

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Except, however, I spell “Führer” with the umlaut.

And for those of you who missed it on wiki, I present the latest creation after midnight under the influence of a half-gallon of piping-hot mint tea: The Madlicki

I went to bed at 4. That was stupid. My phone invariably rings by 8:30, so I got: four hours of sleep.

Oh, well. It was the guy from the credit card store, and I asked if they had a referral program. He offered $50 every time I refer a customer to him. Works for me! Now to get the build-your-own-ecommmerce-site system done…

I figured out what made the dial-up service I run unstable: the server crashes a small part of the time when connecting to the database.

Time to figure out why.

Oregon is a nice place, isn’t it? Yes, it is. You should live there. So should I. As of now it’s not crowded, but you never know. So ummmm, ok…Oregon….yeah.

What State Is Perfect For You?

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I have no idea why I get Oregon and Carrie gets colorado. Maybe it was the gardening or the poppies.

I just finished eating french toast made out of Carrie’s Christmas Bread, which is a cross of Challah and Pannetone. Made into french toast, it’s one of the most delightful flavours in the universe: slightly above the bread plain, and slightly below how it tastes when it comes out of the oven the first time.

Last night: Pizza, wine, good company and egg-nog ice cream. Eating outside with a ton of candles, because it’s that warm. Slept with the window open.

This morning: Cold pizza, dirty dishes, a sunrise straight out of Michaelangelo’s painting.

Compare and contrast.

Today was calm. The phone rang often, but not excessively. I did not eat much lunch, but I am still acceptably sane.

Yesterday was nonstop phones, people having problems, and the internet connection went down too many times to count.

I think I prefer the former.

Okay, I’m better.

Arrrgh. I’m grumpy.