www.copyandwaste.com

I’ve procured a few cisco devices for a network lab and needed serial console access.  I don’t have any windows machines anymore so there was no teraterm or hyperterminal…. but I forgot about screen!

1. Get a usb to serial cable – link
2. Install driver – link
3. Open Terminal

To make sure the USB to serial adapter is connected:

akonkol$ ls -l /dev/tty.*
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel   10,   0 Oct 24 23:08 /dev/tty.Bluetooth-Modem
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel   10,   2 Oct 24 23:08 /dev/tty.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel   10,   4 Oct 24 23:09 /dev/tty.PL2303-000013FD

Now to start the terminal session:

akonkol$ screen /dev/tty.PL2303-000013FD

To quit the session press: control + a, then control + \

And of course for more info: akonkol$ man screen

I’ve created a simple bash script for this….

#!/bin/bash
# script to start screen with usb to serial adapter
# akonkol 2008-11-02

#VARIABLES

#adjust adapter filename for manuf (works for iogear)
adapter="/dev/tty.PL2303-000011FD"

if [ -a $adapter ]; then
    echo "*** Adapter $adapter exists ***"

    echo "*** Starting screen on $adapter ***"
    echo
    echo "Don't forget: control + a, control + \ to kill"
    sleep 5
    screen $adapter
else
        echo "!!! No Adapter Found !!!"

fi

#exit to parent shell
exit 0;

It’s time for the best holiday ever… haloween!  I’ve seen some pretty sophisticated pumpkins carved out so far this year.  I’ve decided to ditch the freestyle and make a stencil for my pumpkin this year.  I found a couple of music related stencils but I didn’t care for them.  Anthrax has a little cartoon character that they use all over the place so I decided to use him, and plus it already looks like a jack-o-lantern.

1. Took a picture of the guy off one of my shirts

2. Did some touch up in photoshop

3. Layered it with clear packing tape and cut out the stencil

4. Placed the stencil on the pumpkin and outlined the design, then cut it out.

I think next year I’m going to get an electric pumpkin jigsaw… because.

I remember when the only picture editor I had was mspaint.  I did EVERYTHING in it, from logos to letterheads.  An online community’s members drew their favorite album covers in mspaint… this is awesome.

http://www.publiccollectors.org/MSPaintAlbumCovers.htm