K.C.'s Garage

Alright, here's some photos of the beast: And, in no particular order, some answers to the questions I've received: 1. This modem uses Bell 103A modulation, in "Originate Mode" only. Unfortunately, that means you probably couldn't have two Livermore Data Systems Model A modems talk to each other. The "Model C" seems to be the first one that also supported "Answer Mode" modulation. 2. This modem is solid state; it uses transistors (albeit early, metal canister ones.) It doesn't have vacuum tubes in it. (Whew!) It functions exactly as I received it twenty years ago - I haven't modified or repaired it in any way. Yes, I am as amazed as you are! :-) 3. The host used in the video, as well as all the accounts, credentials, &etc, were set up in my lab specifically for testing the modem and were taken down the next day. Hence, I didn't have to worry about obscuring my typing or login credentials, &etc. Than...

So I was going through some old stuff in my garage and I found this antique modem that I've had since I was a teenager.  Turns out it's a Livermore Data Systems "Model A".   I decided to hook it up and see if it works, and I made a YouTube video in the process: I'll get around to posting some better photos of it this weekend, I promise!

Kim, Willbob and I went to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica on vacation. We stayed in a lovely house in the jungle outside of town. My pictures are below. You can also check out Kim's photos on her Picasa Album

A coworker turned me on to this decaying textile mill in the middle of this West-side Atlanta Suburb.  I called up TK and we headed out there and took some photos.  Man, this place is decayed!  The main plant is (was?) two stories, but in many places the water damage from the leaking roof has caused both the roof and second floor to collapse onto the first. The office section has a couple of rooms that are no longer indoors.   Anyhow, enjoy the photos!

Several months ago I visited a decomissioned milk packaging plant that I once worked in as an IT engineer.  Unfortunatly, by the time I dropped by most of the interesting stuff had been removed. Though it looks like the Kool-Aid Man had gone on a rampage just before I got there!

I took Kim to New York City for her birthday this year. We stayed in an inexpensive hole-in-the-wall (read: cash only, up front) hotel in the East Village. It was a lot of fun! Here's my photos from the trip: Kim's photos can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/nonfucious/NewYorkCityOctober2008

Some time ago I needed an automated way to get the certificate DN, signing cert DN, and expiration date from a bunch of SSL web servers. I couldn't find a free tool out there to do that, so I hacked up this script in python. You provide it the IP address and it connects, retrieves the aforementioned information, and spits it out. There isn't any error handling &etc, but I thought someone else might find it helpful. Or use it as a starting point for something more advanced. It requires the M2Crypto library, since the built-in SSL library for python is SORELY LACKING in functionality. EDIT: 2010.01.26 - Fixed broken link caused by new hosting provider! Grab it here: sslprobe.python