🚀 go-pugleaf

   A friend worked for a cable company over the summer and "procured" a "lost"
unit or two.  (Shh!)  They were of the new Jerrold series, though I have
forgotten exact models, et cetera.

   Anyway, he gave them to me for inspection.  They had a metal plate on the
back that, when removed, revealed a connector of some sort.  I opened the whole
box (quite a trick, actually) and found that a small-ish (27128?) EEPROM seemed
to be rather directly connected to this interface.  I never bothered to track
down pinouts to test the theory, but from this I guessed that the EEPROM could
be programmed / read from the interface, and actually stored a converter ID
number or similar.  The system they were used on DOES send information signals
down the line, and an upgrade in service requires only a 15 second wait or so
while the operator types the authorization in, et cetera.  

   We cooked up this extensive plan to borrow a EEPROM programmer, take the
EEPROM from a box that was paying for all service, and make lots of copies of
it for ourselves and our friends.  We WERE aware of the illegality of such a
thing..no flames, please.

   So, would it have worked??  Are my assumptions on the EEPROM correct?  Am
I more confused than I, myself realize??

   Andrew
-- 
   Andrew Reynhout   (Internet: reynhout@wpi.wpi.edu)
                     (BITNET: reynhout@wpi.bitnet)
   All hail Eris!