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Showing posts from August, 2014

Reversing the Telephone Table

Are you also fed-up with telemarketer calls?  Chris Blasco wrote a nice piece about social engineering a telemarketer into resetting his own phone set: https://plus.google.com/+ChrisBlasko/posts/GzCuzTyUXNq Being somewhat incredulous after reading that, I researched it myself.  It turns out that it really is that easy to reset a Yealink phone, but resetting a Polycom may require a password and for a Cisco, you need to enter the configuration menu first, so your mileage may vary. Here is a handy list: http://www.3cx.com/blog/ip-phone-configuration/factory-reset-your-phone/ This may become a new sport - at least until the telemarketers wizen up.

Canoeing in Cinque Terre

A Real Canadian always has a canoe at the ready.  We have inflatable canoes stashed with relatives in multiple countries.  These water toys are cheap, relatively light weight (about 25kg) and easy to transport in the boot of a car.  This summer, we took our European Sea Eagle to Northern Italy. We rented a tiny little apartment in Manarola, roughly in the middle of this picture, next to the old tower, directly above the harbour. Nowadays, I mostly use my Samsung phone camera - it has some spherical distortion, but the quality and warmth is very pleasing. Cinque Terre is a crazy place which really should be on your bucket list.  Many of the buildings are from the 15th century, but the craziest building period was in the 19th and 20th. Note that the best way to get there is by rail from La Spezia.  The railway runs up the coast in an infinite series of tunnels, so it is mostly invisible and doesn't spoil the park.  We went by car and dragging the canoe and luggage betwee