My Comcast business modem had dropped all 4 channels and I didn’t have physical access to the device (it was behind a closed/locked door). Never fear, I fired up Safari, pointed it to 10.1.10.1 and punched in the following credentials:

mso
D0nt4g3tme

I then went to the Administrative tools section which includes the ability to restart the modem. It worked!

**************UPDATE***************
I restarted the modem at work recently and as I watched the modem’s logs, I saw Comcast download a new config file to the modem that effectively wiped the authentication credentials published above. When I find new ones, I’ll update this blog.
*************************************

I needed to connect to the console of a WinXP machine in the office from my trusty Mac running Snow Leopard and Remote Desktop Connection 2.0 (RDC).

Fired up RDC, entered the name of the machine on the LAN I want to connect to, held down the command (Apple key), and clicked connect.

I love taking my kids for rides on their Adams’ tandem tag along behind my Big Dummy. I bought the tag along used on Craigslist almost 3 years ago. I haven’t replaced any components on it, aside from adding a couple bells to the handlebars that they lovingly ring as we cruise along. I was concerned about the rear tire potentially blowing out (being old/never replaced) and starting to crack, so I replaced the tire with a Primo Kevlar Comet up at Calhoun Cycle. This tire has a built-in reflector on the sidewalls, so when we’re heading back in the evening from fireworks or something, it should be a little safer.

After installed the new tube and tire, I inflated the new tire and I noticed that it could handle up to 100 psi, whereas the OEM tire could only handle 45 psi. I searched the rim for markings on what it is rated for, but found nothing, so I went to the web. The silver rim that is stock on this trail a bike is a KinLin (or Kin Lin) 20-inch x 1.5-inch 36 Hole 406 ISO. I couldn’t find much on the web about this wheel, so I talked to bikeusa on eBay who was selling a similar rim. Bikeusa believes this rim can handle anywhere from 30-95 psi. Right now, I have it pumped to 70 psi and everything seems fine. I’ll try taking it a little higher and report back later. I’ll attach some pics of the new tire some other time, but here are a couple pics of the Big Dummy reincarnated as the Tow Truck.

I had a brief scare today. I accidentally deleted the database for an equipment website I manage in our office (bumblebeedb). The database is running on a Mac OS X Server (10.5.8) machine that is curiously no longer completing Time Machine backups (argh). My last backup for the deleted database occurred back in 2008! Luckily, Apple has enabled mysqlbinlog on OS X Server, so all the changes that were made to “bumblebeedb”, since the last backup in 2008, were found in the following directory:

/private/var/mysql/

In this directory, there should be several file names like “mysql-bin.000040” (sequentially increasing) that contain changes you’ve made to your MySQL databases over time.

To get all the data for my equipment website back up, I fired up “Sequel Pro.app”, imported my backup from 2008 (a .sql file), fired up Terminal, and entered:

mac022374:bschwie$ cd /private/var/mysql
mac022374:mysql bschwie$ mysqlbinlog mysql-bin.000050 mysql-bin.000051 mysql-bin.000052 mysql-bin.000053 mysql-bin.000054 mysql-bin.000055 mysql-bin.000056 mysql-bin.000057 mysql-bin.000058 mysql-bin.000059 mysql-bin.000060 mysql-bin.000061 mysql-bin.000062 mysql-bin.000063 mysql-bin.000064 mysql-bin.000065 mysql-bin.000066 mysql-bin.000067 mysql-bin.000068 mysql-bin.000069 mysql-bin.000070 mysql-bin.000071 mysql-bin.000072 mysql-bin.000073 mysql-bin.000074 mysql-bin.000075 mysql-bin.000076 mysql-bin.000077 mysql-bin.000078 mysql-bin.000079 mysql-bin.000080 mysql-bin.000081 mysql-bin.000082 mysql-bin.000083 mysql-bin.000084 mysql-bin.000085 mysql-bin.000086 mysql-bin.000087 mysql-bin.000088 mysql-bin.000089 mysql-bin.000090 mysql-bin.000091 mysql-bin.000092 mysql-bin.000093 mysql-bin.000094 mysql-bin.000095 mysql-bin.000096 mysql-bin.000097 mysql-bin.000098 mysql-bin.000099 mysql-bin.000100 mysql-bin.000101 mysql-bin.000102 mysql-bin.000103 mysql-bin.000104 mysql-bin.000105 mysql-bin.000106 mysql-bin.000107 mysql-bin.000108 mysql-bin.000109 mysql-bin.000110 mysql-bin.000111 mysql-bin.000112 mysql-bin.000113 mysql-bin.000114 mysql-bin.000115 mysql-bin.000116 mysql-bin.000117 mysql-bin.000118 mysql-bin.000119 mysql-bin.000120 mysql-bin.000121 mysql-bin.000122 mysql-bin.000123 mysql-bin.000124 mysql-bin.000125 | mysql -u root -p

where, the file names ending in .000050 through .000125 contained all the changes I needed to update my 2008 backup to the present (mid-2010).

SUCCESS!

I need to automate a script to back up the mysql database in the future. The rescue effort shouldn’t have come down to this… MySQL has published additional information that may be helpful for your own recovery attempt. Additionally, they have another reference for recovering from crashes.

Had a problem with VirtualBox not launching. I fired up Console to view the console messages and found the following error message:

Cannot trust the directory “/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS”.

Turned out to be a permissions issue with the root user owning a directory. I fired up Terminal.app, ran the following commands, and all was good:

sudo chmod 755 /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS
sudo chmod 755 /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/components

If you have Mac OS X Server and are running a VPN daemon, enter the following the settings on the Windows XP client:

General Tab:
put your server’s address of resolvable name (vpn.yourserver.com)

Security Tab>Advanced>Settings…:
Require encryption ()disconnect if server declines
Microsoft CHAP Version 2 – only thing that should be checked

Security Tab:
IPSec Settings…:
Your share secret – the one you put in the Mac OS X server VPN

Networking Tab:
Choose “L2TP IPSec VPN”

Woohoo! I was able to bike to LRT to catch a train and plane to Omaha for work. This is my fastest recovery yet!

I booked an appointment with Meyer to see him this Friday. Maybe he’ll cut the stitches out for me, as they feel like they’re pulling on tissue beneath my skin when I do physical therapy… Speaking of which, I can bend my knee a good 90 degrees today and sometimes further in my ROM exercises (lifting the knee with my arm and pushing it down using my quad muscles). I’ve scaled back the use of the cryo-cuff, as I’m just getting tired of filling it with ice every day. Up until now, it was providing great relief. Oh yeah, maybe stopping the cryo-cuff was a little premature, as I noticed a good amount of blood/bruising on the inside of my knee and its also fairly swollen still.

The pain is a little less today, but still achy with a growing-pain-like feeling in and around my right knee. I’ve started to do 2 steps at a time, up with the good, down with the bad, but walking around is still one step at a time. Again, this feels slower than past surgeries, but maybe its just slipping my mind?

So, the pain seems less today which is good, but now its a cross between dull aches and growing pains. Still taking ibuprofen and by the end of the day I started to go up stairs, one step at a time 🙂