Nameless

Get the (readable) certificate from a windows executable (PE)

2013-10-11T14:41:00.002+02:00

I searched high and low for a simple (linux) solution on how to extract the certificate of an authenticode signed windows binary. I don't want to use wine, nor mono. This is what I came up with:

Extract the certificate with 7zip: 7z e setup.exe CERTIFICATE
remove the first 8 bytes: dd if=CERTIFICATE bs=1 skip=8 of=setup.exe.pkcs7
Read it: openssl pkcs7 -in setup.exe.pkcs7 -inform DER -print_certs -text

How to get IPv6

2012-11-30T15:30:00.002+01:00

There's 4 ways to get IPv6:

Native (duh)

Your ISP hands out native IPv6 addresses using dhcp6 or RA (router advertisement, some sort of auto-configure)

Using a tunnel broker

Like http://www.sixxs.net

Using a 6to4 tunnel (see earlier post)
Using 6rd (if your ISP implemented this)

6rd

This looks and works a lot like 6to4. A router on your local network establishes a tunnel to a v4 router that has IPv6 and encapsulates the IPv6 traffic in v4 packets to this router. With 6to4, the prefix (2002::) and tunnel endpoint IP (192.88.99.1) are always the same. With 6rd, these are owned (and thus maintained) by your ISP. You can't setup 6rd unless your ISP tells you the IPv6 prefix and the v4 endpoint address they use. A way to do this automatically is using the dhcp "option-212" response. To test this using isc-dhcp, add this to your dhclient.conf:

option option_6rd code 212 = { integer 8, integer 8, integer 16, integer 16, integer 16, integer 16, integer 16, integer 16, integer 16, integer 16, array of ip-address };
request option_6rd; # add the option_6rd to the list of other request options

If the ISP has a limited set of IPv4 addresses, with the same prefix, they can choose to use a longer (base) IPv6 prefix. In the first picture, the full IPv4 address is used to build the full IPv6 address:

Here the IPv6 ISP prefix is 2011:1001::, the IPv4 address from the customer is 129.10.11.12 and to complete the IPv6 address, the MAC address of the customer (interface ID) is converted and added to this.
In the next picture, only part of the IPv4 address is used, so the ISPs IPv6 network used can be smaller:

Here the IPv6 ISP prefix is 2011:1001:01, the IPv4 address part used is 10.11.12 and the rest is the interface ID as in the previous example.

Images taken from: http://meetings.apnic.net/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/31148/APRICOT-6rd-final.pdf

Getting access to IPv6 for everyone using 6to4

2012-11-30T14:55:00.002+01:00

Using 6to4 seems deprecated, but it still works as tunnel servers are still available.

If you get your Internetz from a 19-century ISP who hasn't implemented IPv6 yet (read: almost all). You have a couple of choices to get access to IPv6.

Using a tunnel broker (recommended)

www.sixxs.net is a good one

Using 6to4 tunneling

To configure 6to4 tunneling, first see if you can reach a tunnel server by doing a ping or traceroute to 192.88.99.1. This IP exists on multiple networks, so you should be able to reach one.

Now to setup the tunnel, you first need to calculate your 6to4 IPv6 address:

printf "2002:%02x%02x:%02x%02x::1\n" `echo YOURv4ADDRESShere | tr . ' '`

Now build the tunnel:

ip tunnel add tun6to4 mode sit remote any local 188.142.102.38

ip link set dev tun6to4 mtu 1472 up

ip -6 add add YOURv6ADDRESShere/16 dev tun6to4

ip -6 route add ::/96 dev tun6to4 metric 1

ip -6 route add 2000::/3 via ::192.88.99.1 dev tun6to4 metric 1

Now test this:

ping6 google.com

To break down the tunnel:

/sbin/ip -6 route flush dev tun6to4

/sbin/ip link set dev tun6to4 down

/sbin/ip tunnel del tun6to4

Info taken from http://www.wlug.org.nz/6to4

If you like, you can setup reverse DNS and register it at https://6to4.nro.net/ (visit this page using your new 6to4 address to make this work).

Nokia N900 - charging a depleted battery that causes a bootloop

2012-07-03T22:06:00.003+02:00

So I have this Nokia N900 laying around. I once tried to flash something on it, which failed and caused a bootloop. I was dumb enough to leave it looping (had to catch a train and left it), which then depleted the battery.
The N900 needs a booted OS to charge the battery, and needs a charge in the battery to boot.. so there's the problem, I wrecked the OS, so it wouldn't boot up and thus wouldn't charge. Flashing the original OS would fail, as the battery was depleted and you can't flash on only the USB power.
I tried backing the battery with another 3.7V from another phone that I had somewhere, but that wouldn't help.
Finally I found the solution in using the rescueOS image. This image isn't flashed but just loaded and then booted. It's initrd contains a script to charge.
Here's how I got it working:

Download the newest kernel and initrd image from http://nin101.uni.cx/N900/rescueOS/
Download the flasher for your OS (see: https://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_tablet_firmware)
Start the flasher: sudo /usr/bin/flasher-3.5k 2.6.37 -n rescueOS-initrd-0.5.3.img -l -b"rootdelay root=/dev/ram0"
Remove battery and USB from the N900
Make sure to have the wall charger ready to go as the USB power won't be enough
Insert the battery
Press and hold the 'u' key on the N900 keyboard
Connect the N900 to the PC with the USB cable
Expect the following output:

flasher v2.5.2 (Nov 25 2009)

Suitable USB device not found, waiting.
USB device found found at bus 002, device address 005-0421-0105-02-00.
Found device RX-51, hardware revision 2101
NOLO version 1.4.14
Version of 'sw-release': RX-51_2009SE_21.2011.38-1_PR_MR0
Sending kernel image (1901 kB)...
100% (1901 of 1901 kB, avg. 27559 kB/s)
Sending initfs image (12548 kB)...
100% (12548 of 12548 kB, avg. 27761 kB/s)
Using kernel command line: "rootdelay root=/dev/ram0"

Remove the USB cable once the image has booted and insert the wall charger
Now start the charger script: /rescueOS/charge21.bash (see http://nin101.uni.cx/N900/rescueOS/documentation.txt)
Wait and see ;o) Voltage should be close to 4V and the battery level increasing within minutes

2012-04-08T21:25:00.000+02:00

Booting a 'broken' macbook pro

So I got a 'broken' macbook pro with a broken screen. When powering up the machine, the sleep light lights faintly, the CD-ROM drive spins and the fans come on. The HD doesn't start up.
Reading through a lot of forum posts, this is what finally got it back to work:

remove battery and power cable
press and hold the power button for over 10 seconds
remove the memory
press and hold the power button for over 10 seconds
replace memory and battery
replace power cable
power on

Some other reset procedures that found for the macbook pro:

Resetting the SMC

Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

Resetting PRAM

Shut down the computer
Press the power button to tun on the computer
Immediately press and hold CMD, Option (alt), P and R
Wait until you hear the gong for the second time
Release the keys

Booting in safe mode

Press and hold shift after powering up. This forces the mac to check things instead of assuming that hardware has not changed. Note that some drivers, like the WiFi, aren't loaded.

2012-02-22T10:41:00.002+01:00

Tuning for a high-latency, high-speed link.

So we got a link from Amsterdam to the US, a fiber link with about 100ms RTT.
Initial speed testing (DONT USE SSH/SCP) gave us 25.9M/s.
That's with a defaul linux centOS5 install with the following settings:

ipv4/tcp_mem: 196608 262144 393216
ipv4/tcp_rmem: 4096 87380 262144

ipv4/tcp_wmem: 4096 87380 262144

core/rmem_default: 262144

core/rmem_max: 262144
core/wmem_default: 129024
core/wmem_max: 131071
core/optmem_max: 20480
ipv4/tcp_window_scaling: 1
ipv4/tcp_timestamps: 1
ipv4/tcp_sack: 1
core/netdev_max_backlog: 1000
interface tx/rq queuelen: 1000

Tuning this, I get the full 111M/s. I used these settings:

ipv4/tcp_mem: 196608 262144 393216
ipv4/tcp_rmem: 4096 87380 26843546
ipv4/tcp_wmem: 4096 87380 26843546
core/rmem_default: 262144
core/rmem_max: 26843546
core/wmem_default: 129024
core/wmem_max: 26843546
core/optmem_max: 20480
ipv4/tcp_window_scaling: 1
ipv4/tcp_timestamps: 1
ipv4/tcp_sack: 0
core/netdev_max_backlog: 10000
interface tx/rq queuelen: 10000

For the max tcp buffer settings, I used: 2 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 *0.1 / 8 (2 times bandwidth times RTT)
Now it takes about 15 seconds to get to the full speed, as the tcp congestion is still set to the default (BIC). When changed to HTCP (highspeed TCP), this only takes 8 seconds (echo htcp > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_congestion_control).

How cool is this? a 1Gb/s connection overseas? :)

Apple netboot

2012-01-22T22:33:00.000+01:00

I tried updating an old Apple macbook (this one) to Mac OS Snow Leopard. I lost my install DVD a long time ago, but I did have an image of it.
First, I tried fitting the DVD image to a single layer DVD-r. I managed to do so, but it wouldn't boot. Next I tried booting from an IDE disk with the contents of the image via USB, it booted but hanged while starting the OS.
So there was one thing left to try: netbooting!
I once noticed this 'Remote Install Mac OS' in Applications/Utilities. So I started it, clicked through the menu and fired up the macbook in netstart mode. I don't know what this application does, but it doesn't even respond to DHCP / BOOTP. Maybe this does work for newer macbooks, but it doesn't work for this one. Googling away, I found some guides on how to use a Mac OS server as bootserver, but I don't own one. You can, however download the server package which contains the 'System Image Utility' (go to support.apple.com and look for 'Server Admin Tools'. This, together with a linux box, finally allowed me install the macbook.
On the linux box, you will need apache, tftp and dhcp.
To setup the image, mount the disk image and start the System Image Utility. Select netinstall, next, create. When done, copy the files in '/Library/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/xxxx.nbi/i386/' (xxxx being the name of the created image) to /srv/tftp/macnbi-i386/ on the linux box. Copy the dmg file to your webroot.
Now, setup DHCP with this config:

class "AppleNBI-i386" {
match if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 14) = "AAPLBSDPC/i386";
option dhcp-parameter-request-list 1,3,17,43,60;
if (option dhcp-message-type = 1) { option vendor-class-identifier "AAPLBSDPC/i386"; }
if (option dhcp-message-type = 1) { option vendor-encapsulated-options 08:04:81:00:00:67; }
filename "macnbi-i386/booter"; # the kernel to boot from
option root-path "http://xx.xx.xx.xx/yyy.dmg"; #xx.xx.xx.xx being the IP of the web server and yyy.dmg the name of the dmg file
}
allow booting;
allow bootp;

Setting up a driver as dkms in Debian 6

2011-12-02T22:05:00.001+01:00

So I have this weird intel 4-port network card. It uses the igb driver. Now after switching from Ubuntu to Debian 6, I could not get any traffic over the ports. It seems the version delivered with Debian is too old to correctly support my card. So I decided to add the current driver, which can be downloaded here, as a dkms package. This means that the driver is automatically recompiled every time the kernel is updated. Here's how I did this:

first prepare the driver source. In this case, the tar.gz contains a src directory, so I moved everything from the src directory to the main directory: cd igb-3.2.10; mv src/* .
next, we need a dkms.conf file (place this inside the source code's tree), here's mine:
PACKAGE_NAME="igb" PACKAGE_VERSION="3.2.10" CLEAN="make clean" BUILT_MODULE_NAME[0]="igb" DEST_MODULE_NAME[0]="igb" DEST_MODULE_LOCATION="/updates" AUTOINSTALL="yes"
from the directory where you extracted the source (and added the dkms.conf file), execute the command to 'add' this source as a dkms:dkms add -m igb -v 3.2.10
now build and install the source: dkms build -m igb -v 3.2.10; dkms install -m igb -v 3.2.10
finally, create the dsc and the .deb file: dkms mkdsc -m igb -v 3.2.10 --source-only; dkms mkdeb -m igb -v 3.2.10 --source-only
now we need to install the dkms on the local machine. But before we do that, we need to remove the created dkms from the system as it conflicts with the created package. mv the .deb file and install it: cp /var/lib/dkms/igb/3.2.10/deb/igb-dkms_3.2.10_all.deb ~; rm -r /var/lib/dkms/igb; dpkg -i ~/igb-dkms_3.2.10_all.deb

msp430-rf2500 & linux

2011-12-02T21:31:00.001+01:00

I bought the msp430-rf2500. A development kit for the msp430 with a wireless 2.4 GHz transceiver. This is an USB programmer with 2 development boards containing an msp430F2274 microcontroller and a CC2500 transceiver. The USB programmer allows to communicate with the UART in the msp430. Under Windows this works fine. Under Linux however, it does not.
After searching high and low, I found a way to successfully connect to the UART without issues. I did this using Debian 6.0.3, kernel version 2.6.32-5-686.
Here's how:

disconnect the development board from the USB programmer
put the USB programmer (only the programmer!) in the USB port
use dmesg to find the device that it registered (/dev/ttyACM0 in my case).
now type (replacing ttyACM0 with the device name you found earlier): stty 9600 -brkint -icrnl -imaxbel -opost -onlcr -isig -icanon -iexten -echo -echoe -echok -echoctl -echoke -F /dev/ttyACM0
next open the port and start reading from it (for example using minicom, or cat /dev/ttyACM0)
and NOW you can put the development board in.

The issue seems to be that the UART is flooding the ACM device, which then decides to disconnect.

Happy hacking!

NEW Now with less functionality!

2011-02-02T15:14:00.000+01:00

I use a single linux box as a router, HTPC and storage server. I use XBMC for my HTPC needs which I control with an ancient MCE remote (1039). I don't use this remote much, as I mostly use the web GUI. I noticed some days ago that the remote didn't function anymore, or actually only the arrow buttons worked. After much swearing and looking for reasons I found that:

This was since the first reboot since I upgraded to Ubuntu 10.10
I could stop lirc and still have the working arrow buttons
irw did not echo anything on button presses

It seems this is all caused by a new driver that's included with 10.10. The mceusb kernel driver. Lirc used to make use of lirc_mceusb. I found this forum thread stating this. I also found some complaining about the state of the kernel driver in ubuntu on the lirc mailinglist.
So I figured it would be best for now to fall back to the old driver which did work correctly. Doing this is quite easy, as explained in the forum thread:

add 'blocklist mceusb' to /etc/modprobe/blacklist.conf
install lirc-modules-source which contains the old drivers
change /etc/lirc/hardware.conf to load lirc_mceusb instead of mceusb
stop lirc and unload all related modules (lsmod|grep -e lirc -e ir)
start lirc and test functionality with irw

Color management

2010-10-03T13:08:00.000+02:00

This article is a work in progress, I'll add stuff as I learn

I'm trying to get my head around color management. I own a Nikon D90 and I publish my pictures on Flickr.com. In between, there's a macbook pro with led screen that I use to edit my pictures with. So there's 3 devices (camera, laptop and the screen of the visitor to flickr) with all their variables to manage. I want to be able to take a picture, edit it and make it look natural and correct on most screens.

Between each 2 devices, there is a resulting picture. I think that it's important to make sure that the resulting picture is as 'perfect' as can be in regards to the color and light distribution.

Let's first look at the variables.

White balance
This is the color temperature, or the color that is used to display 'white'. It's expressed in Kelvin (K) or by standard (D50, D65). Some well known values are:

1850K
+/- 2700K
5000K / D50
6500K / D65

Now for the devices.

The camera
A camera doesn't see colors, it has to guess them. If the cameras white balance is set to auto, it does this by looking at the average color and defining that as 18% gray. If you use a preset, you are telling the camera what temperature 18% gray has. A third, and most exact, option is to photograph an 18% gray card and telling the camera to store that as a preset (custom white balance). Note that the 18% might be 12% or 13% with some cameras as read here.
So what happens if you make a picture where the average isn't 18% gray? The white balance will be off and the colors wrong. Think about orange street lights for example, or snow. These things change the average a lot and cause wrong colors.

So what to do? Best is to take a gray card with you and make pictures of it before every change of scene or light, but which amateur does that? Hence the need to post-process images...
This isn't a very difficult thing to handle though.. as it's one single white point you have to change, the rest of the colors slide with it. Many software programs can help you here, for example by letting you set a specific part of the image (like a gray wall) as average gray.

Another issue with a graphics device is the sensitivity for each color. This is never 'straight'. A camera might, for example, be more sensitive to red and thus assigning higher values to this channel.
To solve this, or better: adjust to this, color profiles exist. Each camera/lens combination has it's own little abnormalities which can be described in a color profile. This profile is then used by the post-processing or conversion (in case of RAW) software to adjust them. You can easily make such a profile yourself by photographing a standardized color chart and using software like argyllCMS to build a profile from it.

Last part is the color space used. This defines what the values that are recorded actually mean. In other words, how red is 50% red? The most popular color space is sRGB, this is what all browsers use as well. Some browsers are capable of reading a color space definition that is packed with an image (some firefox versions, chrome, Safari). But best is to not trust that and go for the standard sRGB. Adobe has a derived definition, AdobeRGB which allows for brighter colors. When a picture using this definition is viewed on, for example, Internet Explorer, it looks flat due to the mismatch with the assumed (by IE) sRGB.

So now we have a picture that has correct white balance set (or a least a way to fix it) and with the color values calibrated and defined. On to the next stage...

Post-processing
Most important to start with is to make sure we don't change the color space or white balance (color temperature) due to wrong settings. It's ok if you want to change either of them, as long as you do it on purpose. If you edit in a different color space for example, you will be bound to work in the space that's available in both. So if you photograph in a space with bright colors but edit in one with less bright colors, you loose the bright colors but ALSO the dark ones as they were not defined in both.

Then, if you want to change the colors or light levels, you need to make sure that what you see on the screen is correct.
First of all the color temperature. A computer with a screen is somewhat the reverse of a camera. The computer doesn't know by default what white balance the screen has. CRTs for example have a color temperature of around 9300K, while most laptop screens have below 5000K. A 5000K screen viewed with 6500K set looks reddish for example.
Second, there are sensitivity issues as well, a screen never displays the same brightness for each color at the same value, just like a camera is capable of capturing each color with the same brightness into the same values.
In order to adjust for these issues, we need to profile and calibrate. The profiling will tell you what color temperature your screen has, so that you can choose one that's close and use that in your software and calibrate for it as well. The calibration will display patches of colors on the screen to be measured in order to see the differences in color level. All this is then stored into a color profile (.cal) file.
When loaded into the operating system, and with the color temperature set in the editing software if applicable, you can be sure that what you see is what you get.

Of course on this level we have color definitions as well, so be sure to use the same one you chose before, in your camera.

A computer screen also needs a gamma setting. This is the graph that defines how a screen goes from dark to bright (which is never just linear). I find it best to get the value from my profiling software and feed it to the calibration software. That way I'm sure I see the correct distribution of light within a specific contrast.

Tube preamplifier with RIAA network

2010-07-04T15:15:00.002+02:00

I'm building a preamp kit with JAN6418 tubes (order here).

Day 1 20100702

I received the package from Oatley. After verifying the contents I found that I received 2 resistors of 170KΩ instead of 180Ω, and 4 capacitors with a max voltage of 25V instead of 35V (in a circuit of 30V). The diode delivered was the wrong type and size as well, as were some C's.

Day 2 20100704

I've soldered most of the components on the board. I need to buy some components that were wrong or missing and I need to measure the gain of the tubes to decide where to place which.

Linux analog surround on a GA-E7AUM-DS2H

2009-09-18T23:24:00.004+02:00

This took me quite some effort while it's actually very simple. So let's share this, shall we? :D

Install the latest and greatest ALSA stuff (script)
Make sure you don't have any /etc/asound.conf or ~/.asoundrc laying around
Use alsamixer to do the following settings:

Unmute everything! (using m)
Mute all S/PDIF (not really necessary, but won't hurt)
Set channel to 6 or 8

If you don't use your TV as center (why not?), you're done. If you do, and have it connected using HDMI, you need to alter the EDID it gives to X. This is because your Nvidia driver will give it an empty pcm stream causing your TV to not accept analogue audio any more. You can read about this flaw here.

Now test your setup:

speaker-test -Dsurround51 -c 6 -twav

If you are using Xbmc, you might want to change the 'default' audio device to 'surround51' or 'surround71'.

The road to espresso perfection

2007-06-19T17:40:00.000+02:00

After having used my Silvia for some weeks, I knew it was time for the next step... A grinder. After all i want my espresso to be perfect, which actually starts with the beans, but roasting is still a step too far for me.
I went back to the koffie cultuur centrum in Amsterdam for some advice, and a
grinder of course. This time I was helped by the even older man (sorry, you asked for it). After a quick chat I decided to by a Rocky, how surprising ;o)
I got the machine together with a big bag of beans to begin with and left after a nice chat and persuading another customer into the Silvia ;)
After having set up the machine at home and finding the right grind setting, I can honestly say it is worth it! My espresso is even better than before, which
was already amazing!
I can advise anyone who takes espresso seriously to get this beautiful couple, it's really worth the money.

On to the next level...;o)

A typical morning in the life of...

2007-03-08T10:19:00.000+01:00

This morning, it's a bit cold but sunny. I woke up at 8 and found my way downstairs. I had setup my Rancilio Silvia to start up at 7 so it would be nice and warm. Sadly enough, the timer device I used is broken.. So after half an hour I made some very nice espresso to finally wake up.
I missed my regular train, so I took the next one which forces me to change trains twice. The train was broken.. it kept on activating the emergency breaks.
Finally I got to the station in Diemen (close to Amsterdam). This station is directly under one of the major flight paths to Schiphol airport. I got out and the sun was shining on my face.. I took a deep breath and smelled the kerosene. I made me think of Pisa aeroporto and some visions of beautiful Italy passed by. I walked to the office, which is directly next to the train station. There isn't much green in Diemen, except for the small park like area on the other side of the office. I passed by some bushes and trees between the station and the highway exit and heard the birds singing. The sun was warming up my face and I was listening to the sweet tones of a nice piece of music by Fabrizio de Andrè. Live can be so beautiful...Then I entered the office building. Warm, dry air hit my face. I tripped over a piece of loose carpet.. dust everywhere. Why are we working inside these offices again?

This is the start of a new life

2007-03-03T18:30:00.000+01:00

I went to Amsterdam today, KCC the coffee culture center. I wanted to buy an espresso machine. I've been using the Bialetti for quite some time now. I was pretty satisfied with it, but I noticed that I started putting sugar into my espressi while I did not do that with espressi I bought in the bars in Italy. I found the reason for that in the bottom of my bialetti... As it's aluminium, it started to react, get darker. It added a sour taste to my coffee. At one point earlier this week I decided something had to be done.. so here I was...

The owner of the shop is an older guy who has much experience with espresso machines and also does maintenance for them. I expected a good chat about the machinery and their technique. I got exactly that. He took his time to explain me about the advantages and disadvantages of the different machines he has in his store. We arrived at the, in many peoples opinion, best machine for home use. The Rancilio Silvia. This machine is praised for it's ease of use and good quality. I've read a lot about it at CoffeeGeek.com.
I made my decision pretty quick as I knew this machine from the reviews already and know that it's probably the best out there for home use. After helping out some quick customers the owner of the shop took some time to show me and another customer the machine and explain how to handle it. He showed us how to set it up for first use, told us about a dozen time to decalcify it every 3 months, showed us how to make coffee with it and explained the use of the steam functionality.
After adding some stuff like a tamper, coffee, decalcify powder and a box to get the coffee out of the filter he told me that he would send me an e-mail after a little less than 2 years to get it in for free service just before the guarantee would end.

After a little more than an hour of travelling home I unpacked the machine:

Now that's beauty ;o)

After setting it up as told I made my first espresso. As the cup was just little bit too small, I missed the first couple of drops and filled it up too much.. However.. it was very nice indeed! I quickly made a new one. I remembered the complaints about not getting crema with the Silvia, but have a look yourself:

Now that is what I call beauty!
It tasted like espresso should taste like.. Closing your eyes I got a vision of standing in a bar somewhere in Lucca. The owner of the shop told me this first cup would be the start of a new life.. and I think he's right.
I know for sure now that I will carry this machine with me for the coming decades...

Sto arrivando a ...

2007-02-12T18:27:00.001+01:00

Sto arrivando a ...
Originally uploaded by HSmade.

I was in Lucca this weekend. I felt like taking a long weekend to rest and enjoy beautifull Italia, and I did. I went to see some friends, my ex girl friend and her parents. I really enjoyed it, had good weather and even better food and wine ;o)
Grazie mille a tutti ;o)

Is christmas too early or the snow too late?

2007-02-07T10:47:00.001+01:00

Is christmas too early or the snow too late?
Originally uploaded by HSmade.

This morning I woke up a little too late, but hey.. I just take the bike which saves me 15 minutes..... erhmm.. no.. let's not ;o)

Making pesto

2006-11-20T22:15:00.000+01:00

Tonight I made some pesto for my dinner, I thought I'd share the recipe with you:
Stasera ho fatto un po di pesto per la mia cena, pensavo di condiverlo con te:

The ingredients:
Gli ingredienti:

- a small hand full of almonds / un pizzico di mandorle
- one small piece of garlic / un piccolo pezzo di aglio
- salt (coarse) / un pizzico di sale
- 2 hands full of basil (fresh) / due mani di basilico (fresco)
- a hand full of parmigiano (grated) / un mano di parmigiano grattuggiato
- Extra vierge olive oil (really good one, not the usual stuff) / del buon olio d'oliva extravergine

First heat the almonds and start crushing them:
Per cominciare, tostare le mandorle e schiacciarle:

Make sure you make it really fine.. Next, after putting all of this in a small bowl, put in the garlic and some salt. I used a lot of garlic here.
Assicurati di schiacciarle finemente. Poi, dopo averle messe in una piccola ciotola, aggiungi l'aglio ed un po' di sale. Qui ho usato troppo aglio.

Now start putting in the basil bit by bit.
Quindi, cominci mandare il basilico pezzo a pezzo.

It makes it easier if you tear them first into tinier pieces.
The result should look like this:
E' più facile se lo strappi prima di aggiungerlo.
Il risultato dovrebbe essere questo:

Now put the basil and garlic together with the almonds, some olive oil and half of the cheese and mix it. Then add the rest of the cheese and some more olive oil and maybe some salt as well. Taste while doing this to make sure it's perfect. The result should look like this:

Ora mettere il basilico, l'aglio, le mandorle e un po' di olio assieme a metà del formaggio. Poi mescola tutto insieme. Quindi aggiungere il resto del formaggio e un po' di olio e un po' sale. Il risultato dovrebbe essere questo:

Buon appetito!

JOTA 2006

2006-10-24T10:43:00.000+02:00

This weekend I helped out the scouting club Marsua with the JOTA 2006. Except for the lack of sleep I really enjoyed it, as I did the previous times. Some figures:
Antennas:
3 HF antennas (FB-33, dipole 80m, FD-3), 3 VHF antennas (11 elements for 2m, 7 elements cross for 2m and a small dual 2/70 antenna).
Sets:
TS-940
Condor 16
Condor 3000
FT-817
Some Icom HF box
VX-2r
2 sets of PMR portables

Click here for some photos of this event.

The dutch government against it's nationals

2006-03-22T09:52:00.000+01:00

This link is a typical example of how the dutch government tries to make sure that everyone works for a boss, so everyone pays their tax and social security stuff. The article says that women who have finished a higer education, but choose not to work should be forced to pay part of their study (which is financed by the government) back to the government.
Another one is that if you want to be a ZZP (being your own boss, without personnel) it's mandatory to have at least 3 different customers. I think this kind of trying-to-regulate-everything-society will eventually kill itself.

Kittens!

2006-03-17T17:54:00.000+01:00

Kittens 1
Kittens 2
Kittens 3

This morning, one of my cats gave birth to 3 kittens, one of which dead.
The 2 remaining ones are very cute ;o)
My other cat (who is castrated) doesn't understand what these little creatures are but doesn't dare to come too close.

First post

2006-03-13T15:54:00.000+01:00

This is just a place holder untill I finally manage to write my real first post.

-- hsmade