Andrew DeChristopher

Experienced systems and connectivity engineer from MA. Interests include network/internet engineering, OSP infrastructure, and geospatial system design.

Hangboard Training: The MacLeod Method

Dave MacLeod is one of my biggest inspirations in climbing. The man got his PhD in nutrition to better understand his own body and tune his training to squeeze every bit of performance out of it. Legend. This hangboard protocol is adapted from a protocol that he published in 2021. I've used it for two years as my go-to protocol for all-around finger strength training. It brought me back from basically nothing after many injuries, and I'm sure you will find use for it as well. Remember that mos...
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(#6) Tue Feb 2nd, 2022 - Labbing

The home lab. Those not in the tech industry may know of it as a workshop, a studio, or even a nook. One thing is certain despite the name: creators and thinkers do their best work in their happy space. As an avid technologist and only an aspiring DIY-er, my definition falls more towards the description of a "lab". In practice this isn't anything fancy like you'd see in a mad scientist's basement or garage. For me, an unassuming cluster of tiny computers and networking gear tucked away quietly i...
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(#5) Mon Jan 24th, 2022 - Colocation

Looks like I missed a day. I was going to talk about something but I ended up falling asleep last night. The 100 day blogging challenge is over. I don't think a post a day is going to be sustainable for me while keeping the subject matter palatable and interesting for the reader. Today, though, we'll talk about setting up a colocation business since that's what I've been up to the past few weeks. My aim with these posts is to be transparent about operating an ISP, and to inspire others to do the...
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(#4) Sat. Jan 22nd, 2022 - BGP Hell

Border Gateway Protocol, oh how we rarely get along. The thing about starting an ISP is that you usually don't have a lot of money flying around like the incumbents that took billions of taxpayer dollars to build sub-par networks in the 80s and 90s. With said lack of money comes the frustration of not being able to buy into the gold standard networking ecosystems like Cisco or Juniper. In our case, we decided to go with MikroTik. This is not a roast of MikroTik, as they've proven time and time a...
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(#3) Fri. Jan 21st, 2022 - Flow

There's something about competence that's so appealing to me. I'm regularly enthralled by people that are highly skilled in some sort of dextrous action. Whether it's mundane like counting money quickly or impressive like perfectly executing a sequence of body movements to climb a rock wall, nothing in life really commands my attention like this. When people talk about flow, it could mean thinking rapidly through a problem and making correct assumptions about it's scope and solution. Alternativ...
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(#2) Thu. Jan 20th, 2022 - Pathfinding

I'm still trying to find my bearings here. When I thought of starting a blog yesterday I really had no theme in mind that I wanted to stick to. I honestly think the topical nature of this is going to be mostly stream of consciousness. This is fine to me because it's probably just going to be me consuming it for a while. Luckily, my interests span a wide variety of subject matter. Thankfully, I find my interests interesting. Live well. ...
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(#1) Wed. Jan 19th, 2022 - So it begins

I guess this begins my ramblings on the internet. Or is it self-administered therapy? Who knows for sure? Not I, that's who. I've dabbled with blogging and Twitter in the past but nothing ever took. We're trying Listed now only due to its integration with Standard Notes, which I'm writing this in. Looks good so far I suppose. I like the idea of near-zero effort blogging with no distractions. Let's see if I can write for 100 days straight. I don't expect to amass a following, in fact I'll probab...
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