Anyway, the real point of popping my head above the parapets here is to wish anyone who actually pops by a very merry Christmas. Hope you also have a great new year and maybe I put something useful on here in 2012.

Not making any promises though…

I managed to do the full cardio workout I usually do, just with my speed a little slower on the treadmill and my resistance turned down on the cycling machine. I didn’t feel that great during the workout though as I picked up a stitch within the first five minutes running.

Of course the next challenge is to get out running on Sunday. After my 10km run I made two new routes around Queensferry for running. Both these routes are around 10 km long so with the weather’s agreement I will be trying one of them out. Wish me luck!

We went for a drive to Padstow today. It’s a lovely little harbour town with loads of tiny streets to walk around. Bought our dinner there – cornish pasties of course. Discovered an odd way to do parking charges as well. It’s 70p for 1 hour or £2.20 for two hours. Funnily enough I managed to pay £1.40 for two hours…

Not going to type any more as I’ve got a large bottle of farmhouse Scrumpy to drink.

Bleeding all the old brake fluid out of the system was easy enough, as we removing the calipers from the bike. Not much that can go wrong there to be honest. Completely expectedly, the first caliper pad-pin wouldn’t budge. I’m sure there are better designs for the seating of a pad-pin than my Tokico caliper has. I would ideally like some way to push the pin out from behind. In any case, a whole pile of blow-torch heat later and I managed to free the pin – result! Next step was to pop the two pistons out. Of course, one came out no bother. The other piston was totally stuck and probably the cause of my braking issues. I tried removing the stuck piston with some low pressure air and also by reattaching the caliper to the braking hydraulics. Unfortunately the seal around the piston got damaged (probably when I was blow-torching the pin) and was no longed sealing anything that well.

On to caliper number two and I was instantly defeated by the pin pad. I heated it to red-hot and still I couldn’t convince it to turn. At this point I was very annoyed and three days through the long weekend. So I did the only sensible thing – had a beer and a barbecue.

My only option now was to take the box of caliper bits and replacement seals to a bike shop and get the professionals to do the job. The day after I dropped the box off I received a call saying the brakes were ready to collect. Well, that was two days shorter than me. Bill was for 90 minutes of labour. I wish I could do it that quickly as well.

Fitting the brakes back on the bike should be nice and easy I thought. I’ve bled the brakes plenty of times before I thought. Well, no. One of the calipers would just not stop leaking air. Gah! This got me more and more annoyed so I would do a bit of bleeding, go watch some of the F1 qualifying, go bleed some more air… Eventually I was running low on brake fluid so had to leave and buy another bottle, which led up to dinner time.

Dinner was a useful break from the brakes as when I went back outside I noticed a puddle of brake fluid dripping from the bottom of the caliper onto the shed floor. Hmm, okay, where’s that coming from? I took the caliper off the bike and noticed the inner copper washer sealing the brake line to the caliper was slightly squint. God damnit, all this was just because I hadn’t quite put the hose on properly. If only I’d noticed that sooner. I think instead of getting annoyed I should have sat down and worked out what was actually going on – good advice for most problems.

So now, the bike is still in the shed and actually has pressure in the brake system. I’ve tied the brake lever on overnight to force any more air out and I’ll finish the bleeding tomorrow.

The whole point of doing this myself was to save a little cash. So far I’ve saved nothing and cost myself two weekends. I also had to suffer the horrors of taking a bus to work (another blog about that maybe). I think next time I’ll take the bike to the shop and just pay the bill.

My three aims for this, my first, 10k race were:

1. Finish
2. Finish in no more than one hour
3. Finish in 56 minutes

As you can see I accomplished all three of these aims so I am very happy indeed. I did have to slow to a walking pace a few times so there is definitely room for improvement though.

To date I have raised £168 for CHSS which is a pretty good figure and I thank all who donated. You can still donate at my justgiving.com page if you wish.

As for me, well I have one very sore foot which is apparently a pinched nerve. My legs are also rather stiff but recovering nicely. I have started hunting down my next 10k run I will take part in. Don’t worry though, I won’t be looking for sponsorship.

I can’t imagine anyone with any sense using this in anger. It is fairly trivial to set up an iSCSI SAN using Linux or the images of OpenSolaris which still kick around. To be honest though, these days I would probably go with NexentaStor if I needed a SAN in a hurry.

Driver signing in 64-bit Windows is a real pain. I’m unsure why Microsoft decided this would be a good idea unless their main aim was to further disadvantage people who create free software. Thanks to this driver signing requirement, if you write a Windows driver for some piece of hardware you either have to shell out several hundered of your hard-earned monies for an accepted code-signing certificate or expect people to run Windows in test-mode. This second option removes any advantage Microsoft may feel they introduced by adding the signing requirement.

I recently had to take a self signed MSI and put an accepted signature on it so the FlexiScale Windows images can load the drivers at boot time. Here’s how I did it.

• Download the MSI file and put it somewhere useful
• Install Windows Driver Kit from http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/wdk/wdkpkg.mspx
• Install Qwerty.Msi from http://www.qwerty-msi.com/
• In Qwerty.Msi go to File → Open and open the original MSI file. This will unpack the files to a folder called $FILENAME.Sources.
• Delete any exisiting “.cer” files
• Open a Windows Driver Kit shell (Start → All Programs → Windows Driver Kits → WDK 7600.16385.1 → Build Environments → Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 → x64 Free Build Environment).
• In the driver kit shell create new catalog files with the inf2cat command (example below is for the Xen GPLPV drivers, your paths will vary)

cd c:\Users\iwatson\Downloads
inf2cat /os:Server2008_X64,Server2008R2_X64 ^
        /driver:"gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xennet"
inf2cat /os:Server2008_X64,Server2008R2_X64 ^
        /driver:"gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xenpci"
inf2cat /os:Server2008_X64,Server2008R2_X64 ^
        /driver:"gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xenscsi"
inf2cat /os:Server2008_X64,Server2008R2_X64 ^
        /driver:"gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xenusb"
inf2cat /os:Server2008_X64,Server2008R2_X64 ^
        /driver:"gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xenvbd"

• Because of some issue between Microsoft and Verisign’s Certificates you may need to follow the instructions at https://knowledge.verisign.com/support/ssl-certificates-support/index?page=content&id=SO16565&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US to add the alternative intermediate cert from Verisign.
• Download the Verisign cross-certificate from http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/install/drvsign/crosscert.mspx. You need to remember where this unpacks as you need to supply the name as the /ac argument to signtool later.
• Get the SHA1 thumbprint of the key you want to use to sign the drivers.
  • Start → mmc → File → Add/Remove Snap-in… → Certificates → Add → Finish → OK
  • Go To Certificates – Current User → Personal → Certificates
  • Double Click on certificate you want to use
  • On Details tab scroll to bottom and click Thumbprint. This will display the hex you need for the /sha1 command line option below.
• Sign the catalog files

signtool sign /v /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll ^
        /sha1 $hex_string_from_sha1_section /ac "C:\Users\iwatson\Downloads\MSCV-VSClass3\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" ^
        "gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xennet\xennet.cat"
signtool sign /v /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll ^
        /sha1 $hex_string_from_sha1_section /ac "C:\Users\iwatson\Downloads\MSCV-VSClass3\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" ^
        "gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xenpci\xenpci.cat"
signtool sign /v /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll ^
        /sha1 $hex_string_from_sha1_section /ac "C:\Users\iwatson\Downloads\MSCV-VSClass3\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" ^
        "gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xenscsi\xenscsi.cat"
signtool sign /v /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll ^
        /sha1 $hex_string_from_sha1_section /ac "C:\Users\iwatson\Downloads\MSCV-VSClass3\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" ^
        "gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xenusb\xenusb.cat"
signtool sign /v /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll ^
        /sha1 $hex_string_from_sha1_section /ac "C:\Users\iwatson\Downloads\MSCV-VSClass3\MSCV-VSClass3.cer" ^
        "gplpv_Vista2008x64_0.11.0.238.msi.Sources\SourceDir\PFiles\Xen PV Drivers\drivers\xenvbd\xenvbd.cat"

• Finally go to Project > Build.

This will build the new .msi file and save it in “$FILENAME.Sources\Debug\Disk1_1″

It is, of course, too much to hope this will cover all eventuallities in Windows driver signing. If you have been following this article to sign your own drivers then I hope it gets you close.

If you are looking to donate any money to help with the disaster relief effort a worthy cause is Shelterbox. A shelter box is basically a plastic box containing a custom designed 10 man tent, ground mats, blankets, cooking equipment and other essential items. The idea behind the box is to provide emergency shelter for families with the tools to help them survive.

You can make a Japan-specific donation to Shelterbox using Justgiving.com.

Scott and I spent a lot of time out playing in summer. We used to go climb around in the adventure park beside the farmer fields or occasionally go play a bit of football in those fields. We would sometimes take a couple of golf clubs and balls up to the fields and see how many shots it took to get from one side to the other. Neither of us was particularly good, but Scott was better than me.

I used to help Scott with his paper round. There were 300 papers to deliver in two days each week. The bag was pretty heavy. I remember one summer taking full advantage of vouchers for Diet Coke that were meant to be given away with the paper. I can’t remember if the coke was cheap or totally free with this voucher but I do remember handing in quite a few to the local shop.

I started going to The Scouts with Scott. As Scott was from Torry we had to get two buses all the way across town to go to The Scouts there – Torry 16th: Aberdeen’s hardest! Scott made sure everyone there thought I was his cousin. He told me that was to make sure no-one would pick on me. I don’t know if that was quite needed as everyone one there was friendly, but he did say it more than once so maybe it was true. Walking up to the Scouts we always used to stop a little sweet shop and Scott introduced me to Sports Mixtures, which I still love to this day.

Another thing Scott introduced me to was good music. He gave me a copy of my first album with swearing on it. That album was Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction and is still a great album today. He also had a computer before me and we would play Commando on it. Again, I wasn’t very good. To keep the high scores on the little rubber keyed Spectrum Scott would leave it on all the time. I believe he burned through a couple of them that way as computers and power packs really weren’t designed to be left on all the time back then.

As Scott was a few years older than me he had to stop going to The Scouts and it was that which started us drifting apart as friends. I don’t remember us ever stop being friends, we just didn’t see each other or hang out anywhere.

It was about five years later we spent an evening drinking. It was just by chance that I was out watching a lightning storm with a beer in my hand. Scott was also watching the storm from his window and we got chatting. Scott came over to my house with a bottle of Coke and a litre of blue-label vodka. I don’t remember much of that evening other than throwing up around 7 am. From then it was around another five years later, in 1999, when I next (and last) saw Scott. I was walking through town heading to work when Scott came running up to me to say hello. I think we said something about meeting up for a drink, but that never happened. I occasionally though about getting in touch with Scott but never did get around to doing so. His parents still live beside mine so it would have been easy.

Yesterday my Dad called me to tell me Scott had died. Scott’s dad told him, but didn’t say how and my Dad didn’t ask. It’s odd that you don’t see someone for years and never really miss them, but once you learn you will never see someone again you do. At least I have lots of happy memories to remember him by.