ubuntu / debian - installing packages offline (Raspberry Pi)

I now have a Raspberry Pi deployed in a commercial situation in a building with no internet connection. This means I have to take software there on removable media. I have a second Pi at home with the same software on it, so I can figure out dependencies.

First run a command on my local, internet connected Pi to get the links to the .deb packages for the package I want - in my case xscreensaver.

sudo apt-get --print-uris --yes install xscreensaver | grep ^\' | cut -d\' -f2 >downloads.list

Now on my local machine I need to download them

wget --input-file downloads.list

At this stage I have all the packages required to install my xscreensaver package in the current directory. I then put them onto a memory stick (or whatever) and transfer them onto the Pi with no network. Once on the Pi the files must be moved into the correct directory so apt-get can see them, and will not try to download them

sudo mv *.deb /var/cache/apt/archives/

All that remains is to install the packages (it will look like its going to download stuff, just answer 'Y' and it will install

sudo apt-get install xscreensaver

And voila - the package and all its dependencies are installed! Simple.

Reference : http://www.tuxradar.com/answers/517

Raspberry Pi (RPi) kernel build for eGalax touchscreen support

Recently I bought a 7" eGalax touchscreen from eBay, and got it working by downloading a kernel from this site. However, I wanted to have a go at compiling this kernel from newer source by myself.

I found a lot of information out there on cross compiling the kernel for the raspberry pi, but I couldn't find a single set of idiot-proof instructions that I could get to work. This article is for my own reference, and includes text from lots of other places (links at bottom).

To run this I downloaded Ubuntu 12.10 which I burnt to a CD. This creates a bootable live Ubuntu  or gives the option to install. So I got an old hard disk, and put it into one of my PC's, booted up from the CD and installed Ubuntu on the disk.

First, install the package dependencies, git and the cross-compilation toolchain:

sudo apt-get install git-core gcc-4.6-arm-linux-gnueabi

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc-4.6 /usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc

Next you need to get the source code for the pi kernel, and some tools. There are two ways to get this, either via git, which I couldn't seem to use because of my slow internet connection, or otherwise by downloading an archive

mkdir raspberrypi
cd raspberrypi

by git:
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/tools.git
git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux.git
cd linux

by archive download

wget https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/archive/rpi-3.10.y.tar.gz
wget https://github.com/raspberrypi/tools/archive/master.tar.gz

then extract the archives (tar -zxvf filename) and rename the linux-* source directory so it is called linux, and the master-tools to be called tools.


Next you need to generate a .config file. (cd into the linux dir)
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi- bcmrpi_defconfig
(you can substitute bcmrpi_cutdown_defconfig for bcmrpi_defconfig to create a smaller kernel, if you care.)


To make changes to the configuration, I had to run make menuconfig
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi- menuconfig

(I had to install the curses lib to get the menu working sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev)
From this I had to select Device Drivers->Input Device Support->TouchScreens. Select (press space bar) so that Touchscreens has a * beside it, and once you've done that press enter for a further submenu. In this menu you need to select USB touchscreen Driver which contains the driver for the eGalax touchscreen as one of its sub-components. NOTE: there may be other eGalax entries in the list above this that you do not have to select (don't select eGalax multitouch).

Once these selections are made just keep pressing ESC-ESC to get out (or select exit from the bottom) and when you get to the yes/no prompt, select yes to save the config.

Now we are ready to start the build. You can speed up the compilation process by enabling parallel make with the -j flag. The recommended use is ‘processor cores + 1', e.g. 3 if you have a dual core processor:
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi- -k -j3

This takes about 20 minutes on my PC (dell 755)

Assuming the compilation was sucessful, create a directory for the modules:

mkdir ../modules

Then compile and ‘install’ the loadable modules to the temp directory:

make modules_install ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi- INSTALL_MOD_PATH=../modules/

Now we need to use imagetool-uncompressed.py from the tools repo to get the kernel ready for the Pi.

cd ../tools/mkimage/
./imagetool-uncompressed.py ../../linux/arch/arm/boot/Image

This creates a kernel.img in the current directory. Plug in the SD card of the existing Debian image that you wish to install the new kernel on. Delete the existing kernel.img and replace it with the new one, substituting “boot-partition-uuid” with the identifier of the partion as it is mounted in Ubuntu.

sudo rm /media/boot-partition-uuid/kernel.img
sudo mv kernel.img /media/boot-partition-uuid/

Next, remove the existing /lib/modules and lib/firmware directories, substituting “rootfs-partition-uuid” with the identifier of the root filesystem partion mounted in Ubuntu.

sudo rm -rf /media/rootfs-partition-uuid/lib/modules/
sudo rm -rf /media/rootfs-partition-uuid/lib/firmware/

Go to the destination directory of the previous make modules_install, and copy the new modules and firmware in their place:

cd ../../modules/
sudo cp -a lib/modules/ /media/rootfs-partition-uuid/lib/
sudo cp -a lib/firmware/ /media/rootfs-partition-uuid/lib/
sync

That’s it! Eject the SD card, and boot the new kernel on the Raspberry Pi!








Referenced articles:
http://elinux.org/RPi_Kernel_Compilation
http://mitchtech.net/raspberry-pi-kernel-compile/
http://www.engineering-diy.blogspot.ro/2013/01/adding-7inch-display-with-touchscreen.html

Marriage - 5 P's

Proclamation - Marriage proclaims God's perfect design. Jesus is the groom and his bride is the church. Marriage is designed to be a display of this relationship as we interact and compliment each other in our different roles and responsibilities.

Procreation - Making babies. God's design, he made all the bits fit, and told us to multiply.

Partnership - In the Garden of Eden, before sin entered the world, God said “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” A man needs a woman as a 'helper' and a woman is complimented by a man.

Pleasure - Marriage is for fun too, it should be your best friendship, and of course the physical pleasure that is reserved for married people.

Purity - Marriage is the place where the fire of passion in your heart gets an outlet. Fire is good as long as it is kept in the fireplace, and the fireplace of marriage is the correct place for the sexual relationship.

How do I hope to get to Heaven?

Yesterday our minister gave us a challenge to spend 5-10 minutes writing out briefly how each of us think we will get to Heaven. Below is my attempt. Comments welcome.

What is the Problem? - we all have sinned (any time we ever broke any of the commandments) and this creates a huge gap between us and God that we cannot get across. God is Holy, and just and cannot tolerate any sin. All sin must be punished, because God is good.

What is the Solution? - 2000 years ago Jesus came to Earth and was fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life on Earth, facing all the same difficulties (temptations) as us, but never falling into sin. He died on the cross as all of God's wrath was poured out on him and he took the punishment for our sin (those who accept Him as Lord). Without this we would have to pay ourselves, and the only mechanism for payment is eternity (forever, with no way out) in hell (a place of eternal torment, where after 10,000 years of your flesh being burned you would be no closer to the end than when you first began). And on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, and walked the earth before ascending into Heaven, where today he intercedes for us.

What do I have to do? 3 answers:
1) Nothing. The work of salvation is complete - there is nothing I can do to add to that. Anything I do to contribute to my salvation will actually take away from it. Good works are like filthy rags. There is nothing I can do to earn favour with God, it's impossible. Nothing I do can make God love me more (and nothing I do can make him love me less)
2) Nothing. There is nothing I can do, unless I am called by the Spirit to salvation. Within me there is not even the power to choose salvation, unless I am prompted by God.
3) Trust and Obey (like the old hymn says) - In practical terms think of salvation as a free gift (which it is). Any gift is useless unless it is accepted. Believing (not just intellectual assent, but trusting) is how I accept the gift. This is the process of realising Jesus is Lord of my life (we cannot 'make him Lord of our life' as he is already Lord of all, we can merely come to accept the truth.) After this Jesus calls us to 'follow' him - to give up everything, to die to our sin, to ourselves, to die to our wants and desires. We must surrender everything to him, anything less is utterly unacceptable. All of this can only be done through his power, self-help or self-improvement is impossible for us, it's futile. Through him, and the spirit living within us, transforming us, we are in the process of sanctification, or being made holy, and this process continues as long as we live.

What do I get? Eternal live - which starts now, as I live in relationship with God. It is made perfect after death and continues in heaven for evermore. Now we get sonship - we are co-heirs with Christ, sons of God, with the full rights of bloodline sons (& daughters). We get to call God father.  We get direct access to the creator of the whole universe who is sovereign, and rules over each intricate detail of what happens every day. What more could we want?

St Peters, Rome

Today after work (in FCO, Rome) I took the bus from the airport to the Termini station, and got the metro to near the Vatican. Rome is an unfamiliar environment to me, I suppose like any big city. While travelling you can see ruins, elaborate hotels and other buildings, nice homes, and tin shacks. The full spectrum of life is on view. From the train it is possible to see a few homes built from waste materials right at the edge of the track. Walking through the streets of the city it is clear that there are a number of homeless people around.

Along with the blazing heat, all of these things are alien to me. I walked down the busy street alongside the Vatican area and arrived in St Peter's Square. It is an impressive place, and an epic experience to be surrounded by thousands of years of heritage like this, huge pillars, massive statues and monuments.

As I walk around the huge open area, whatever way I turn there are works of architectural art. Of course the pinnacle in this area is the Basilica and what's better is that it is completely free to enter. I found the way in and walked slowly around. The excess is everywhere, from the ornate marble floor to the heavy decorative iron gates, to the sculpted engravings on the doors, to the detailed artwork on the ceilings. The statues, paintings and carvings are everywhere, each more elaborate than the next. New wonders meet the eye at each new glance.

I have visited before, a few years ago, however, on this visit my heart was heavy. Today I had the same eyes, but a different heart. For this to be the headquarters of a church claiming the name of Christ doesn't sit very well with me at all. Let me be clear, I don't see a call to live in poverty for the sake of others, but I do see a directive not to live in excess. I think of Matthew 6:19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth" as I stand inside this huge treasure trove, the like of which is almost unequaled in the entire world. This doesn't add up to me. I think of the cost of building and maintaining a place like this, and at the same time those people living in cardboard beside the railway are in my head.

It is an amazing spectacle to see, don't get me wrong, if you're nearby pop in and see it. But it seems to smell a little of injustice when you contrast this extravagance with the local and global poverty that exists. There is no need for any church to have accumulated such wealth. I am aware that there is a lot of charitable work done, and so on, but I struggle to believe that what I see around me is the most efficient or effective way to help people. As I exited the building I had a tear in my eye for the errors of our forefathers and the stewardship of the church.

If you get the chance, go, visit, and enjoy the craftsmanship and the amazing artistic and architectural achievements. But do so knowing that a lot of the money that built it came from people who could ill afford it, who paid it to acquire their salvation, and those who were entrusted with it poured it into excessive property rather than pouring it into people who need it.

CFC Belfast

It was a series of coincidences that led us to CFC Belfast this past Sunday. I kitesurf with a fellow who goes there, and this I only found out on Saturday when we were talking about our plans. We had tickets to see Belfast Gospel Community Choir, which apparently has strong links with CFC and we had booked to stay the night at the Park Avenue Hotel in Belfast - just across the road.

We knew it would be something modern, but we had no idea at all what to expect. At the door we were greeted by two smiley people, and I was expecting to be recognised as new and mollycoddled a bit, but after they handed us some paper, they left us to our own devices. I asked where to go, and they pointed, and it became quickly obvious where the seated area was.

We picked two of the nice soft seats, and were quite surprised that at the start time only about half of the seats were filled. During the first 10 minutes or so, during the opening songs they quickly filled up.

There are three big screens at the front, and at the start a typographic type video was played, explaining man's fallen state, and what God did to bridge the gap, fixing the problem we could never fix. Gospel presentation within the first 90 seconds! The opening worship started, and it turned out Robin Mark was the worship leader. I thought it was good, Susan was a bit disappointed that she knew none of the songs.

The main service continued with a short communion. Obviously this was *very* different to how Presbyterians generally do it, but I suppose it is refreshing to have a change. There were a couple of things I didn't like though. I felt there wasn't the time I was used to in which to reflect on what is happening. If you were sitting in the centre block, like us, they brought us forward in rows, and there was no easy way to get out of taking communion, which I think is important for those who may not want to. Also, in our communion service, we normally have the passage containing 1 Cor 11:29, about being careful who takes communion, but nothing like that was mentioned, and I felt this was a dangerous omission.

The bread was a loaf of bread, which we got to tear a little off, and the wine was juice served in tiny plastic glasses, which were then deposited into a bin.

The whole thing was a bit rushed for my liking, but that's just my preference.

The speaker was excellent. It was about what commitment to Christ actually means, and dealt with all those difficult verses about 'cannot be my disciple' and hating father and mother. Very captivating delivery, and very scriptural message, backed up with a lot of scripture read and on screen. Before the service this is the part I was most dubious about; I wondered would the teaching be sound, and would I have to go away like a Berean, examining and searching for what I had heard. There was no need. It was all clearly backed up, and made sense right from the outset.

We didn't stay for tea/coffee afterwards which is a pity, but unfortunately circumstances didn't allow.

Overall it was a very positive and good experience, I was nervous about going in, and in the end I had absolutely no need to be. CFC seems to be a vibrant, strong, focused church, seeking and doing the will of the Lord, and long may that continue.

Saturday 11th May - Kitesurfing - Benone

What a great day today. The conditions were good, although variable throughout the day, sunshine with the occasional shower, some flat times, some huge waves, and about 5-7 kites on the water at any one time.

The wind was nicely cross shore, and enabled us to do a couple of nice downwinders. However on one, I had either not pumped my 9m hard enough, or sand was letting air out of the valve, and I had to abandon half way.

Still, a brilliant day, and even better people were there with cameras :)

Friday 3rd May - Kitesurfing - Benone

It has been ages since everything has lined up for me to get out on the water. Tonight the forecast was marginal, but it seemed to be blowing nicely at home.

I went to Benone shortly after tea, and the sand was blowing nicely along the beach. Once on the water it was clear the the wind wasn't too strong, on the 12 I couldn't stay upwind, but that was OK. It was fine for about two walks, then it was really quite calm, so I packed up and drove down to the river, where it was blowing nicely again.

I suspected it was a bit on the light side so I decided to go for a downwinder by myself. I parked up the beach, set up, and then drove off downwind a few hundred yards. I walked back to my kit, and launched, and went into the water. I like this method, it worked well. Once I was back to the car I packed up, and repeated, this time a little further. The only problem is having to pump up the kite each time - not so big an issue with a real downwinder as you get to go a lot further.

There were some nice kickers, nice flats. I didn't do much apart from cruise around, enjoying the waves, and  doing a few jumps. It was nice to get out, and as it turned out the weather was super too, having rained all day.

North Korea

I stumbled on this ages ago, and thought it was quite amazing. The barbed wire on the beaches stood out most to me. I recently spent ages looking for the article, and couldn't find it, but I managed to find it quite easily last night while watching an amazing documentary about the "Mass Games" which is a spectacle that IMO makes most Olympic opening ceremonies look amateur. (see video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3cLAMbWq54)

http://web.archive.org/web/20090616060613/http://www.mrlevek.com/northkorea.htm

SSH login with no password

I'm putting this here as I spend time looking for it regularly.


This is the important line:

cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@remote_host 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'

Full article here
http://www.linuxproblem.org/art_9.html

Lent 2013 - A little different

I'm not religious about lent, but sometimes I like to do something. I had toyed with different ideas this year but not settled on any. My favourite was replacing my "smart" phone with a normal one, like a Nokia 8210 or similar for the time, to see how I would do without this appendage. I decided not to bother.

However, I stumbled on www.40acts.org.uk which is a website whose tagline is "Do Lent Generously". Basically you sign up with your email (or facebook) and they post details of an act of generosity to attempt to perform each day. Something to make you think.

You can see the details of each day at http://www.40acts.org.uk/blog but it only shows up to the present day. You have to wait in eager anticipation for the next day.

Today is day 7, and so far for me it has been thought provoking, but not very practical. Maybe that'll come. I think I'm the kind of person who isn't particularly practical by nature, but hope to work on that. We'll see how it goes :)

Friday 1st February - Kitesurfing - Benone

After quite a long break I was back in the water today. There was no real reason for the break, other than just a lack of good conditions, and lots of other things to do.

It was only a short session today, about an hour in the water at lunchtime, but with the temperature, I think that was quite long enough!

It was very windy, really at the upper end of the scale for my 9M kite, so it wasn't the most pleasant. The wind was almost straight on, but there was a slight cross in it, which meant I was able to ramp over the waves as opposed to riding along them.

I didn't get up to much, just trying to hold onto the kite, few small jumps over the waves, a bit of toeside and a few big carving turns. There were lovely big flats between the waves, but it was so windy that sometimes they were quite choppy.

Anyway, it was good to get out, I'm looking forward to getting out again in slightly less wind, and more cross shore.

Christmas 2012 - Step away from the cash register.....

This has been something of a different year for me than normal, for a variety of reasons. One aspect is that I have become increasingly concious of the billions of people in the world who are living in poverty, and the millions who are living in abject poverty. My recent business trip to Jakarta cemented this view.

I am also aware that, tight as things are for us, we have enough, and much more than enough. There are bills to be paid, we've had to seriously tighten our belts over the past year, but we still live in a land of plenty. As a household we have made a concious effort to reduce waste, and try not to buy food which we end up throwing away.

My express wish this year is to receive no presents at all*. My wish is that no one will spend any money on me, not even a penny. If you want to give me something, give me an hour of your time, pop round some evening for a cuppa and a chat. If you really feel the need to spend money get your card out and put the details in here: https://www.standby.me/ [that's the charity we sponsor a kid through].

* if you've already got me something well done for being so organised, and don't worry, I'll not break it in pieces on the floor and tramp all over it, I'll be gracefully grateful.

Wednesday 26th September - Kitesurfing - Benone

I took today off work, as I had a couple of days to take off in lieu of travel. The forecast looked good, steady 15-20 knots onshore all day. I'm not totally fussed on onshore now, as it can be a bit boring, with no ramps to play on.

I got the kids off to school and was at the beach shortly after 8:30, so I was set up and on the water before 9. However there was some sort of problem with the kite; it was flying fine in one direction, but in the other direction the bar had to be held at a big angle. It seemed like there was a line caught, or short or something. As there was noone there to land me, I decided to make the best of it for a while. After 15-20 minutes I came in, as it was basically no fun at all, and just as I got to the car George arrived to land me.

I took the lines off and inspected everything, but couldn't see anything wrong. I launched and it seemed to be flying better. So I headed out again, and it was fine. We must have been out for 2-3 hours in the morning, it was a long session.

After a break for lunch we went back out again. I was a bit cold, but did some excercises to warm up, and was fine once I got on the water. Not sure how long I was out for this time, 1-2 hours.

Today I mostly worked on toeside, I was sailing nicely in my good direction, struggling a bit in the bad direction. Sailing cross-shore also enabled me to work on riding pretty parallel to the waves, which is always quite a challenge. The other thing was that any hint of cross direction in the wind was from the East, which isn't my usual direction. So there was a lot more practice going in my bad direction across the breaking waves too. Some good training, important, but not as satisfying as a good wave session.

Still, it's a long time since I've spent a whole day at the beach, and it was great!

Saturday 25th August 2012 - kitesurfing(?) Benone/Castlerock

Got the kite fixed, thanks Patrick for a great job!

Another of those marginal forecasts for today, it was a bit of a let down. I went to Benone, and there were a couple of others there, struggling to get going on their 17m Zephyrs.

After waiting a good while we decided to go around to Castlerock. There were more people there, they reported having a great time for the afternoon, but the wind died when we arrived.

Didn't get out at all today.

After tea I headed down to Castlerock again where the lads had had a fantastic two hours. I took some photos and left.

Saturday 28th July 2012 - Kitesurfing Benone

Got to the beach in the afternoon, wind not fantastic, but I set up and went out anyway. There were two other guys there flying a kite on the beach, not at the water stage yet. They disappeared after a while, and George showed up.

The wind wasn't great so we decided to do a downwinder. It was a bit tricky getting the cars sorted as there was a lot of soft sand, and it was it big ruts - 15mph on the beach max!

The downwinders were great. Plenty of power, and nice waves. I was working again on a backroll, and almost landed a couple, getting on really well.

On the second downwinder, after a backroll, I crashed the kite and looked at it to see that it was transparent! I could see through where the canvas was supposed to be. A huge rip, and I had to pack up.

That was the end of a fantastic session for me.

Friday 27th July 2012 - Kitesurfing Benone

I didn't get to the beach until late tonight, I thought there was going to be no one else there, and I also thought the wind mightn't be great.

When I arrived ST and some guy from Sligo were out, having a great time, doing a fair bit of walking. The waves were huge, even for Benone, it was really a case of staying out of their way when they are breaking. Short session.

Kitesurfing - Benone - Wed 18th July

This evening was horrible and miserable, but with the right wind conditions beggars cant be choosers.

I got to the beach after 8, and was on the water for 8:30, and out for about an hour. The wind was mostly good, although it dropped off badly towards the end. There were small waves, which were perfect ramps for me.

I was working a bit on my toeside riding, and switched to toeside much earlier than usual, riding in over some small waves. Not brilliant yet, but getting better.

The other thing I was trying was a back-roll. I think I tried about a dozen times, and some of the failures were more spectacular than others. I almost landed two of them, but I'm still a while away from having it nailed. The other times I under-rotated or my board fell off, etc. Only one really hard neck-jerking fall. Much better than the last time I tried. I feel like I'm getting closer, so I'll have to keep trying :)

Kitesurfing Benone Saturday 14th July 2012

I was out at Benone today for a few hours in the afternoon, almost perfect conditions, sunshine, and waves. The wind was a bit light, which meant a bit of walking, but it was well worth it. I would say it was the best time I have been out recently, but it is the only time!

It was great to get out again, I got a couple of really nice jumps in, and lots of smaller ones too. Toeside riding is coming on really well too, starting to feel a bit more controlled, and all but one of my carving turns went well; aiming the board at the kite on the way round is the best tip.

The usual summertime problems abound however, with car loads of children coming to play right in my way, ready to get sliced by my lines. Managed to miss most of them.

Kitesurfing Benone Monday 30th April

What a great country we live in. Got to Benone last night and it was blowing nice cross shore, quite steady, and big waves as usual. Not a person on the beach, should have been great.

Unfortunately with my limited time I decided to set up the 12 and was overpowered all the time. Also there was a really strong current going the same direction as the wind, which made it hard to stay upwind.

Also with the wind coming from the East, thats me heading out into the waves in the opposite direction to 99% of normal, and its like learning to ride through the waves all over again, really weird. Also had to pull the safety to land the kite, which resulted in the standard Naish BigLineMess ™

All in all not a great night, but could have been excellent :|

Saturday 14th April 2012 - Kitesurfing Benone

There was beautiful sunshine all day today accompanied by an air temperature of around 6 degrees. The wind was almost direct onshore, and so were the waves and the wind was relatively light, so it was difficult to stay upwind. However, when the wind had a bit of a swing it was possible to get a few ramps.

I tried a few backrolls today. First couple went not too bad, about 3/4 rotation, and wipe out. On the third attempt I landed hard directly 180 on my back against the water, it was like a snowboarding fall when the heelside of the board catches the snow! Then the wind was really too light to jump so I gave that up.

The wind swung around a little to the West, and as Susan had arrived I arranged to do a downwinder to the river on the middle of the beach. This was great, there actually seemed to be better wind down there. I did quite a few toe to heel carves, seem to be getting it better now. Also tried some toeside in the left to right direction and fell spectacularly a couple of times. However after a few attempts it was going better.

When I got to the stopping point the wind was stronger and I was doing some more carving turn practice, it was really nice, where you could basically do a figure of 8, really nice for practice. At that point my driver began to flash the headlights and at first I thought it was in appreciation of my great work, but then I realized it was time to stop...

Saturday 7th April - Kitesurfing Benone

It was windy all day today, killing me to stay away from the beach, so I finally made it down in the late afternoon.

I went to Benone, wind was marginal at best, but I began to set up anyway. By the time I was all ready the wind looked really poor, but I launched, and knew straight away that while there was plenty of wind to fly there was nowhere near enough to sail.

I quickly packed the half inflated kite into the car and headed down the beach towards the river, and when I got out down there it was blowing nicely. Within 15 minutes I was on the water.

It was a great couple of hours on the water, working on all sorts of things. Again the wind was good, maybe a little weak, but still fine, some walking required. I practised my jumping over waves, some toeside on the flats, carving turns and whatever else I could think of. On my last few runs I was trying some bigger boosts, and was managing not too bad, although as they say, it always looks huge to you, not so huge from land! This is the absolute best session I have had as long as I can remember.

Friday 6th April - Kitesurfing

Went for a session at lunchtime today, took Kate in the car with me so she could spectate. Went to Downhill, well over to the Benone side, enjoyed about an hour of perfect wind and flat water with nice ramps.

Tuesday 3rd April - Kitesurfing Benone

Headed to Benone on the way home from work today, nice hour on the sea before tea.

Castlerock - Friday 30th March

The forecast wasn't great for today, but it was North, so I decided I'd better check it out. I went to Benone and it was almost completely calm and the beach was empty. I headed for Castlerock and it was blowing steadily, showing about 25mph on the meter, so I got set up. This was my first outing for quite a while, so I hoped I hadn't forgotten the basics.

There were only a few people on the beach, a coupld of walkers and some RNLI folks getting some training.

I got set up and headed out, full power on the 12 was a little underpowered and I struggled to stay upwind. I was also keeping my tack quite short so that I was never too far out (although I suppose RNLI could have come to my rescue :) )

I started off doing a few small jumps over waves, practiced a little bit of toeside, and just enjoyed a bit of cruising.

I stayed out for about an hour, seems to be a good session length for my fitness level. Towards the end the wind picked up, I fell hard on small jumps a couple of times, which means I'm getting tired.

Nice wee after work session.

Weird virus on hosted site

Over the past couple of months I have been chasing a virus that has been infecting some computers visiting the church website  www.1st-dunboe.co.uk

The actual cause, which I just found today, was a modified .htaccess file, which contained a lot of empty lines, designed to hide the last line which was:
php_value auto_append_file /home/www/[username]/files/Thumbs.db

The Thumbs.db file, obviously meant to be hidden in plain sight, contains php code like this:



So, as I understand it, this php code gets executed at the end of every php file, which when using a CMS system like drupal, means for every page.

This evaluated to including a file from some random site jdfhjd.nl.ai - and a file called showthread.php, which included some more obfuscated code, which ended up loading a java applet. The clever thing is that this only happened periodically, which means it may or may not happen on a given visit to the site. Every once in a while I'd get a 'this applet needs your permission to run' dialog from the browser, but I knew there were no applets required for the running of the site. As it only happened periodically I never managed to get a browser with tools to show up where the issue was, until today. I got the dialog, and used chromes developer tools to see that the extra php page was included. From this I googled, and eventually found that the htaccess file could be the source of the problem. More info here : http://wewatchyourwebsite.com/wordpress/

I had also been receiving a Exploit Script Injection (Type 1702) error, which points to this type of problem.

Googling about it revealed that it seems to be a wordpress or wp plugin problem. I had tried out wordpress on the site a couple of months ago, so perhaps this is the cause.

Anyway, its all gone now, and I know what to look out for, so I'll be keeping an eye for the future. Anyone with a similar problem, post a comment.

Dooey Sat 29th Oct

Arrived at Dooey just after 10 this morning, and the wind was quite variable. At first I was tempted to try the 9, but after checking the wind for a few minutes I set up the 12.

Out on the water things were going much better today. I now feel like I'm back to the standard I was at a couple of months ago, which I had regressed from last time I was out.

The accidental rolling and board nose problems with jumps are almost gone, and I was riding out over the waves well. The wind started off cross, and moved around to cross on, so perfect conditions. Waves were good, quite frothy, but with long flats in between. Still haven't got a proper handle on the jumps, but getting a lot better; today I was able to consistently jump two waves that came in doubles - never managed that before.

My toeside riding right to left is coming on, usually I just carve around to heelside again, but sometimes I tried a flip back to heelside before turning, managed it not too bad, although I'm sure it wasn't that beautiful.

Not sure how long I was out, but I think after somewhere between one and two hours on the water I started to mess up some simple stuff, so I knew I was getting tired and lazy - time for a break.  During my break I helped launch/land the other four guys, and also took some GoPro footage of Jonny. It was a warm (~14 degrees) and sunny day, so that was perfect.

During my break the wind had picked up, so I set up the 9 before heading back out. Just as I was preparing to launch the wind seemed to drop, but I though the 9 would be ok. I walked to the water, and had a few runs out and in, but the wind was really for nothing, so I came back in.

I had a few good falls today, drank a fair bit of the sea, some through my nose, and also I think in my ears. Oh, and when I was setting up my new trim line I forgot to add the wee black stopper, so that was a bit of a hinderence, although it didn't cause me as much trouble as I originally thought, I just couldn't let go of the bar.

All in all it was a superb day, I think I'm more suited to short sessions than long ones; my fitness level can let me down.

Data Recovery - TestDisk

I was asked by a friend to help set up their 'new computer' and while I was doing so I discovered that they had taken the computer to a local (reputable) PC shop, and they had said the hard disk was done, and replaced it. They also said that there was no data left on the disk to recover, so all was lost.

I got the disk, and got to work on it. Sure enough, plugging the disk in showed an empty, newly formatted volume. I spent an evening downloading quite a few free data recovery tools, and ended up getting the best results from "TestDisk".

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

After a couple of tries, I was able to set the software to only bother about image files (otherwise you recover txt, dll etc that I really don't care about)

You could see it stall as it got to the bad sectors on the disk, but it kept spitting out files, thousands of them, mostly internet explorer cache images. It ran for a good few hours, I let it run overnight. I then filtered the images by dimensions (most of the cache images were thumbnail size). This left me with 700 image files, some of which I knew were of interest, others obviously came with the PC.

I used the unix (cygwin) exif command in a script to move all the files into folders based on the camera that took them, and subfolders named by the date taken. This should help the user to reorganise them, when they get them back.

I would heartily recommend this tool, its not very beautiful looking, but it is quite easy to use, and very effective.

Benone Friday 7th Oct

Today I had planned to have an extra long lunchtime session at the beach while working from home. I had already more than done my hours for the week, so had agreed to take some time off today. However plans changed, and it was after midday before I got to the beach.

It was sunny with showers today, as I got to the beach I could see the rain blowing in from the distance. I knew I could get set up in the meantime, and so I got the bar and lines out and got the kite pumped before the rain arrived. The rain was over in a few minutes, but it was so heavy that there were puddles on the kite.

When I went to get my harness out of the boot it had locked itself shut, but I managed to prize my way into it from the back seat (to repair later)

On the water with the 12 it was blowing great, although quite up and down, but some trim adjustments meant I was powered nicely, having a great session. The waves when breaking were huge, over 6ft, and it was a frothy break, but really long flats in between, just how I like it.

However, with it being almost two months since I had a proper run out I noticed I had lost a lot of progress. When jumping out over waves I was rotating a bit, meaning I had a tendency to miss the landing, and end up on my side. Once I did this and smashed straight into an oncoming wave, boy that was sore.

Apart from that I was getting on grand, lost the board a couple of times, bodydragged back and picked it up no problem. Still working on the toeside on the way in and the jumps on the way out.

I was sailing in, ready to turn in the shallow water and suddenly the bar disappeared away up the lines. I thought my chicken loop had come out, but when I looked it was still in! My trim line connecting the chicken loop to the front lines had broken!

Fortunately it was in the shallow water, so I could walk to my kite and gather it up. If it had been out in the deep water it would have taken longer. That's why its nice to have a big beach :)

automating ssh login

ssh instructions

http://linuxproblem.org/art_9.html

Linux secure disk erase

shred -vfz -n 100 /dev/hda

http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-to-securely-erase-hard-disk-before.html

Castlerock Sunday 28th August

From early this morning the wind was blowing well from the North, the water was visibly choppy from miles away. However we had a big family lunch, and it was big, so that took up a fair bit of the day, and it was after 4 before I arrived at Benone.

I was glad to see a few kites in the air, always a good sign, but on closer inspection they were all struggling. The wind was quite low, so I had a chat to a few of the guys and decided to head for Castlerock.

At Castlerock the beach was almost empty and the wind was howling. I set up the 12 and went out, and had a good wee session, it was up and down a bit, and at one stage I could hardly hold onto the 12. I set up my 9, but of course by the time I had it up the wind had dropped, and even the 12 wouldn't pull me.

Unfortunately some of my family had decided to spectate during the lull, which was pretty poor timing for them. Just after they left it picked up again.

Once it picked up I was out again for another reasonable session, although the wind shifted a lot more onshore, and it meant there were limited chances for riding over the waves.

Around that time lots of cars turned up and decided to park close to me too, so that didn't help, especially swimmers in my path and little kiddies in my crash zone. When that happens its time to pack up.

Not a bad session, felt a bit rushed, bit crammed, but it was nice to get out. My legs were still a bit tired from the cycle this morning, maybe not such a good idea. It will be nice when all the tourists go home and leave the beaches empty again ;)

Holiday Day 7 - Friday

After another poor nights sleep we had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We also got a drive through the shipyard, as the main road was closed and the diversion went right through the H&W yard.

We went into the city center this morning and browsed many, many shops.

After a snack lunch we went to visit Lisburn pool, which was a lot of fun as always, it always goes down well with the kids.

Tonight we came home and cooked tea; it's nice to get back to normal food.

I got back to the steps, did a bit more, a little more progress.

Holiday Day 6 - Thursday

Didn't sleep that great last night, but sure that's hotels for you.

The entertainment for this morning was provided by W5. Its a great science exhibition in the Odyssey which can provide many hours of entertainment. We'd visited a few times before, but it changes each time with the kids getting older. We built an aluminium bridge, a remote control car, few a helicopter, landed a plane, made stop motion films, presented a weather forecast, and saw a liquid nitrogen demonstration, to name but a few of the things we got up to.

In the afternoon we went to the cinema to see Mr Poppers Penguins, which is a reasonable film, carried by Careys humour, which I can't help enjoying.

In the evening after some shopping (Decathlon) we went to Andrew's house and had chinese for tea. Back to the hotel.

Holiday Day 5 - Wednesday

As a treat for the kids we decided to book a hotel for a couple of nights, and tonight is the first.

We spent some time figuring out what to spend the days doing, and decided to go to the Exploris Aquarium in Portaferry. It is a small aquarium, but still well worth a visit, the kids were well amused by all the wonderful creatures.

At teatime we made our way to the

hotel, where we got checked in. Its in a handy location beside the Odyssey, so we went to pizza hut to get tea. We had got a voucher for pizza for a fiver, but due to some weird "we are but we aren't" pizza hut wouldn't quite honour the deal. However, we got more than we could eat for less than thirty quid.

Holiday Day 4 - Tuesday

Another lovely day today, sometimes sunny sometimes overcast, but perfect weather for working.

I started work on the steps at the end of the wall. I spent a good while at it, a lot of time on planning as it is pretty tricky.

Picked the car up from Ryan tonight, its like a different car, the clutch has never felt like that in the last four years.

On the way back from Magherafelt we called in to see granny - nice way to end the evening.

Holiday Day 3 - Monday

Had a nice lie in this morning - its nice not to have to get up.

We went to pay for the rockery plants this afternoon but there was no one there. We did something I wanted to try for a long time and walked from the barmouth road towards castlerock which was really nice.

This evening I strimmed up the side of the grass. The new strimmer is a super job.

Holiday Day 2 - Sunday

Sunday. We had a visiting minister today, I have to say I just couldn't get tuned in at all, although everyone else seemed to rave about him. Mum and Dad were over for dinner; Dad took the kids for an epic cycle (to Castlerock & back).

After Benone tonight we went to Normas for a very enjoyable evening, and some very nice buns. Good not to have to go to work tomorrow.

Holiday Day 1 - Saturday - Silage

Got a phone call this morning to come help lift tyres to prepare for the silage. Well, one thing led to another, and Matthew and I ended up staying all day.

It was good fun, its nice to help out, but especially on a day like today, blue skies and fresh cut grass.....

Holiday Day 0 - Friday

Today is sort of the first day of my holidays. Well, holidays started at 4pm after work finished, but during the day 19 tonnes of stones had been delivered to the front of the house.

Matthew and I set about levelling them, which was a considerable task, and worked for a good few hours. By 10pm they were all levelled.

Benone Tuesday 16th August

I went straight to the beach today after work, and it was blowing nicely. I got set up and was on the water for around 5:30.

I was working a lot on some small jumps. Speed is key, more speed for a higher jump. That was on the way out, on the way in I worked a little on my load and pop with the kite at a solid 45. Making good progress, its all about practice, just need more time.

The session was really good, came in about 6:30 to call home, and went out again for about another hour. During this hour the wind dropped from 20mph to around 10mph. Time to quit.

How great to have a session in the sunshine

Benone Monday 8th August

For about a week now the forecast for today was to be solid NW wind all day. In anticipation I had booked a short notice day off work. I had hoped to spend the whole working day at the beach, but I had to work for a while in the morning. Still, I managed to be at the beach for just after 11.

It was blowing nicely when I got there, so I set up the 12 and went out. It was super up and down; must have ranged from 10-25+ mph, sometimes the kite wanted to drop, other times I couldn't hold the kite. The waves were big too, and fairly messy, although with the wind direction it was still possible to ride in a long distance without getting into the foam.

Met some new people today, a girl whose name I didn't get, who is a youth worker locally, she was out on the sand, and I met Mark from NIKF. Mark is up and riding, but still finding his feet, and was a bit daunted by the waves. Still, he looked to be getting on well.

After lunch it was back out again for another while, and during the afternoon the waves got bigger, but further apart, leaving huge areas of flat water in between breaks.

ST was there working with Pete to get him up and riding, but unfortunately his 9 burst its leading edge. Apparently they got on grand on Petes 11 later on.

As for me, I had a great day 'mowing the lawn' as ST talks about. Its good fun riding out over the break, and riding in along with it. I worked harder today than I have in a long time. I worked quite a bit on my toeside riding, and my toeside to heelside carving turns (going towards my left). The toeside riding is still quite flakey, sometimes when I think I've got it, I can't hold the kite, or mess up the board. I managed to control it pretty well today though, didn't have to ditch it once. Some of the turns are epic, others are embarrassing. Really nice when it works well, but you can go quite a distance downwind on a large circle turn.

On the jumps, I felt like I was actually making some progress just before I left, mainly on the way out, using the waves as a ramp. ST says I'm still not agressive enough with my kite motion, so I will continue to work on that.

Benone Yesterday

I have never seen glass flat water at Benone. Zero wind. Funny thing it was blowing 15-20mph at Magilligan, 5 miles away

Kitesurfing Castlerock 4th August 2011

Talk about wind chasing, on my way home I went to Magilligan, blowing 20+mph, then Benone, 0mph, then downhill, 0mph, then Castlerock 6mph, then home for tea.

Water at Benone was glass, I've never seen it like that before.

After tea it was back to Castlerock for a walk with the family 15-20mph, then back to Benone, still nothing, Magilligan, which had dropped to 10-15mph, back to Castlerock where I thought I may as well try.

As I set up it blew harder, and I had a good wee session out on the water. Nice and flat, well enough powered on the 12. After 9pm it started to drop a bit, so I packed up.

With the flat water I worked a bit on toeside riding, and my toeside to heelside carving turns. Getting better, still not very beautiful sometimes. I also worked a little on my jumps, although most times I think I was a little underpowered, but still cant get a good take off.

Nice to get out.

Benone Tuesday 19th July - Evening

Headed back down to Benone after we got tidied up, didn't make it there until 7, which was too late. It just wasn't windy enough.

Bad news is that my pump broke while I was pumping up, so need to go shopping.

Benone Tuesday 19th July - Lunchtime

Worked from home today, and made sure I got a long lunch. Had a bit of a saga with my half working kite quiver.

I went to Benone, got set up and went out on the 9, the only kite I have. It was ok sometimes, but mainly underpowered, so I decided to cut my losses and head to Castlerock where there is usually more wind. Not today. And there was that horrible foam everywhere too.

So, back to Benone, got the two kites out, and managed to replace the broken pulley on the 12 with one of the working ones from the 9.

Headed out, and the kite was steering to the side, had to immediately come back in and change the knot on the blue line that I shortened last night.

By this time my lunchtime was almost gone, so a quick scoot out on the water, few jumps, some toeside, nice carving turns and packed up.

Long time at the beach(es) short time on the water. Perfect conditions again. Was wondering half way through if they would sack me if I just didn't turn in for the afternoon. Decided not to find out.

Benone Monday 18th July

What a great evening. Home early from work, straight to the beach for just after 5pm, in the water around 6. Steven was there too, so had to chat to him for a while :)

It wasn't blowing hard when we got there, below 20mph, so I set up the 12, and to be honest I was well powered all night. Going nicely perfect conditions, quite steady wind, very long flats between reasonable sized waves. Only thing wrong was it wasn't sunny, but that was ok. Gerry called down to spectate too, so had to chat with him for a while. Going well, some small jumps, getting better, didn't do a lot of kite powered jumps, mainly waves. With all the flat water I did more toeside riding in than normal, getting a bit better. Some nice carving turns; Others werent so nice, still all on the left to right tack.

After 8pm I had a problem where the kite wouldn't steer properly, so I came in and landed. After a couple of attempts we noticed that the pulley on the leading edge of the kite was broken. Well, the wee wheel had one broken side meaning the bridle line could slide down between the pulley and the block, snagging the line. Once I'd figured that out it was game over for the night.

A good session, nice and long, quite consistant, and progressed a little. Can't ask for more than that, well, maybe just no equipment failures!

7th July 2011 - Famara

While on holiday in Lanzarote I decided to check out the local kitesurfing. I didn't bring my own gear, as we intended to spend most of our time around the resort. Instead I decided to get some coaching, and signed up to an IKO school for the morning. They are a Naish outfit, so I got the chance to fly a 2009 (I think) helix and a 2011 bolt. Not a lot of difference to my 2008 code, apart from the nice one pump system.

The wind was surprisingly variable and sometimes the 12m bolt was underpowered. The waves varied too, from infrequent with lots of nice flat water in between, to all on top of each other, huge waves. The board was smaller than I was used to as well, but it seems ok.

As for the lesson I may as well not have bothered, there were three other beginners there who were trying to master the board start, and the instructor spent most time with them.

He did call me out of the water to show the correct kite motion for some jumps I was attempting, but it wasn't really anything I didn't already know. I just need practice. And a beach with shallow water full of learners isn't the place to do it.

Another surprise was being kitted out in a full length wetsuit - I was expecting a shorty and warm water. Not so, in fact I would say the whole thing felt colder than my normal session at home. I suppose it was overcast, maybe if the sun had been out it would have felt a lot warmer.

It was a worthwhile morning, didn't learn a lot, got to fly some new kites, got to see that other people have trouble learning too; good to see I wasn't the only one. It's always nice to spend time on the water.

Benone Thursday 30th June

Took a half day from work today, although buy the time I got to the beach it was about 4pm. Wind was a bit sketchy, but I rigged up anyway.

I spent a fair bit of time on the beach practicing kite manouvres. When the wind was really low I also practiced a little unhooked flying.

I was out on the water for about 30 minutes in total the whole afternoon, but it was really good time, I did quite a bit of jumping practice, landed a couple of tiny jumps. Also managed to get a bit of toeside in, and toeside turns. Tried a wee bit of unhooked when the wind dropped a bit too, but couldn't get the angles right, and couldn't keep hold of the kite. Good practice, a good, if very short session.

Saturday 25th June 2011 Location 'X'

Hadn't planned on going out today at all, but got a phone call as I finished lunch, so I headed to the beach, at the mysterious location 'X'.

After being convinced that it was safe, and that I was at a good enough level to kite there I got set up, and headed out.

It was a middling session, good to get out, nice steady wind (mostly) and sunny with quite flat water! It wasn't a bad session, sometimes you think you shouldn't have bothered, but because of the new location I was a little unsure about trying stuff, so I was quite tame. I spent most time just riding around, which was fine.

I'm at the stage now where I like to try some stuff, but usually only where I know it can be quite easily recovered. I probably would have been OK trying stuff as kite relaunch and board retrieval would have been easy in the flat water.

Will definitely be there again, don't press me on the exact location be cause I could tell you, but then I'd have to....

Benone / Castlerock 22 June 2011

Its midsummer time, so I donned my winter wetsuit and gloves and headed to Benone tonight after tea. I was hoping to finish up work early and be at the beach just after 4pm, but the forecast dropped off a lot, so I knew if there was going to be wind it would be later.

When I arrived at Benone the wind was reading 13-16mph, but it was steady so I rigged up the 12 and went out. It was pretty difficult to stay upwind, especially as the wind was quite onshore.

I persevered for about an hour, and then decided to give up, it was working, but only just - very disappointing. On the way home I called into Castlerock when the wind was reading around 20mph! So I set up and went out for about another hour and a half. This was a much better session, staying upwind was no problem, and I got a bit of toeside riding in on the flat water too.

The combination of wind and wave direction made it a little tricky, but it was all good practice.

On both beaches there were only a few people, sometimes none, just the occasional walker out with a dog.

It certainly was a pleasant evening, should have went to Castlerock first!

Benone Sat 4th June

Had a short session out at Benone today, the forecast was marginal, but for almost straight onshore wind. I used to like straight onshore wind, because its very safe, no chance of falling in deep water, and you can ride for miles too. However, today the wind was just a bit light, making it difficult to get out into the sea at all.

I persevered for about an hour, it was nice to get out, but it was far from spectacular, although I still think I was having more fun than most of the others on the beach, including the guys in their buggies.

Even better, because of my super wetsuit, and the few times I was actually in the water, I didn't even get properly wet :)

Scale of the universe

http://www.primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

In car CCTV

http://www.pakatak.co.uk/shop/product.asp?P_ID=456

Some interesting recent Bible studies

Thought life:

http://www.dougbrittonbooks.com/onlinebiblestudies-temptationandovercomingsin/purelife-guardyourthoughtlife.php

Marriage:

http://www.dougbrittonbooks.com/onlinebiblestudies-marriageinformationandadvice/eightkeystoagreatmarriage.php

Parenting:

http://www.biblebb.com/files/ryle/PARENTSJC.HTM

Castlerock - 14th May 2011

Today was planned to be a busy day, but also a good wind day, so I decided to make an early start and headed off to the beach around 7.

When I arrived at Benone there was almost no wind. The anemometer was reading 7-10 mph! It was also cross-off.

I waited a while and then left. Randomly I decided to pop into Castlerock to see the beach there, and unbelievably it was blowing 20-30 mph! I stalled a bit as I haven't been out at Castlerock since I've been riding, it's a smaller beach, and there is a horrible pier at the end.

However, I did get set up, but as I finished setting up I noticed a big rain shower coming in. So I sat in the car(see pic at top) and watched the puddles form in the kite. After the rain finished (only a few minutes) I ended up having a great wee session out on the water in the sunshine. I was probably out for about an hour, the waves were choppy, big, flat, frothy, not frothy and then choppy again in that time - quite a variety.

Didn't really learn much, was trying a bit of toeside, some carving turns, and some small jumps. Just having fun mainly :)

What are the cameras for?

There are a lot of questions around the new cameras springing up all round the country. Don't worry folks, they aren't trying to catch you speeding, they just want to build a 5 year database of your movements...

http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/National_Vehicle_Tracking_Database

Benone Kitesurfing - Sun 1st May

Today was another sunny, windy day. I managed to make it down to Benone for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Again it was a pretty good day, wind was quite good, water was a bit too choppy though, but still very good.

I was trying a bit of jumping, but not getting on very well. I can do nice wee jumps on the way out, using the waves as a ramp, only a few feet, but still nice. I was trying to boost on the way in, but with limited success. I managed to just about land one of the million tries, but all the rest resulted in a static landing, or even landing with the kite facing the opposite direction.

Will keep working. This is my target for this year, simple boosts.

Benone Kitesurfing - Sat 30 April

The recent spell of weather has been quite unbelievable, although it's not uncommon to get a few hot days in April, it is uncommon to get a few good weeks! However the "good" weather didn't come with wind... until this weekend.

Easterlies had been forecast, sometimes slightly North, sometimes slightly South, but the forecast looked good for Benone.

I actually went down yesterday after work, Alan was out, but there was barely enough wind to fly, and it wasn't even worth a try. Today however the wind was blowing hard, well worth it.

I was out for about 2 hrs. It's unusual for me riding in an Easterly; going out across the waves with the right foot first is difficult to get used to. However once I got over my initial wobbles I was fine.

It was a really good session, a bit up and down. I also learned something about my confidence - normally I can turn really well at the shore side, and am more cautious and reluctant at the deep end. Well, changing the direction of the run didn't make any difference to that. I should have been able to make good turns, even ride toeside on the way out. No chance. It's clearly a confidence thing, and when the direction is changed the problem stays the same.

Looking forward to more sunshine riding tomorrow :)

Kate's first public performance

Tonight Kate played at the Spring Concert for the Causeway School of Music. When she was asked to play we didn't think an awful lot about it, we'd never been before and it was probably something like a school concert.

We were wrong. Kate was about half way though the program, and we sat and watched lots of brilliant acts come before her. By the time she was walking to the grand piano right at the other side of the packed theatre I think I was significantly more nervous than her. Most of the kids were some sort of child prodigy, there were some who were so young that they were just cute regardless of talent, but the standard was very high.

Kate took a few moments to compose herself, and began to play her grade 3 exam piece, which she played very well.

It was a great evening, really nice to hear such a variety of music and talent, from young and old.

Dooey, Sat 2nd April

The wind has been from steady S/SW direction all week, although some times very strong and others weak, but the forecast was showing reasonably good for Dooey for today.

I just got up at my usual time, got breakfast and set out on the road. I arrived at the beach just after 9am, and there was only a gentle breeze. After hanging around for a few minutes the breeze changed to wind, so I got the gear, and began setting up. At one stage the kite was hard to hold as I was pumping it, but when I finished setting up there was no wind!

At around 10am a couple of others landed, and decided to set up, and sure enough, by the time they were set up the wind had started.

We all went out onto the water, after a short time I had a big fall and lost my board. The waves were huge and frequent, and the body-dragging to get the board was really difficult; each time I took a breath another huge wave hit me, and it was hard to see where the board was. I was exhausted by the time I found the board, and came in for a short rest. Apart from that time I had a fantastic time on the water. My riding continues to improve, now easily recovering from little mistakes that would have tumbled me last year.

My jumping over waves is also improving and obviously I don't even attempt any jumps when further out - its just too risky for me at the moment. I haven't mastered the kite action for non-wave jumps yet, was practising a little, but I just enjoy riding back and forward too much (and don't like falling in :) )

I did one huge jump, seemed like 15-20 feet, probably more like 6, although it was a shock how far away the water was. I was going over a huge wave, and concentrating so much on getting up the front and down the back that I lost the kite, and it went into floaty jump position, so up I went. It was actually quite easy to control (once I noticed it) and I floated down to a nice soft landing in the water, without my board unfortunately. A good experience though - can't wait 'til I can do it under control.

After about 1.5-2 hrs on the water the wind started to pick up and it was time to come in for a kite change, and lunch - I could hardly hold the kite on full depower to get landed!

After lunch I pumped up the 9 and went out again. It began to rain, really the only proper rain we saw all day, but the wind was really steady during and after the rain. Otherwise the wind was very up and down, sometimes badly underpowered, and sometimes a little overpowered. But, it was another great session, although I was tired I still felt I was learning. Another 1.5-2 hrs on the water in the afternoon, and I was wrecked. It was pack up and home time.

A fantastic day, and helped by the fact the air temperature was 10-15 degrees, and the sun was out, really nice. A great mix of big waves, small waves, broken and unbroken waves, sunshine and showers.

Visual C# error - Unable to copy file .. because it is being used by another process

Since I downloaded Visual C# Express 2010 and migrated all my heating control projects to it, each time I build my main client application I get a really annoying error about the exe file being in use:

Unable to copy file "obj\Debug\MyProjectXXX.dll" to "bin\Debug\MyProjectXXX.dll". The process cannot access the file 'bin\Debug\MyProjectXXX.dll' because it is being used by another process.

It seems that the solution to this problem is to add a pre-build event that works some unlocking spell on the exe, found the answer here (which curiously says MS fixed it in 2003)

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/csharpide/thread/68648642-08d8-4cff-b0c3-c2782f010589

Benone Sunday 27th Feb

I made it down to Benone shortly after 1pm today, and its always great to be driving down and see the kites flying in the distance. When I got there a lot of kites were parked firmly on the beach, and people were holding wind meters up, never a good sign. The general consensus is that the wind was a bit light, but it felt surfable to me, so I got set up.

It was a beautiful day, sun shining, and nice long flats between the (sometimes huge) waves.

I probably only spent about an hour actually on the water, and it was a mixture of being nicely powered up, and sometimes just not having enough.

It was a good day, I think I am making some progress, feeling a lot steadier, and a lot more confident over the waves, and I didn't catch the nose of the board on a landing at all.

Still need a lot of work on a lot of things. Sean was trying to persuade me to try a back roll, so maybe I'll give that a go next time. I think I need to work on a bit of basic jumping etc first, but we'll see. Can't wait to get out again!

Benone, 1st Jan 2011

The forecast was looking marginal for today, but I took a drive down to the beach anyway. When I got there there were loads of people, and not loads of wind.

After standing for a while I decided to give it a try, so got all geared up and headed out. It was well worth it, although very straight on the waves were such that riding over them wasn't really a problem.

Spent only about an hour out, and then the wind dropped, so I came in for a rest. Wasn't cold apart from the tips of my fingers, which were freezing!! I should have worn my gloves to get set up.

I was going to go out again, but I felt a little cold and chickened out. Still, nice to get out after a long break.

Snow season

Second set of snow this season so far and it's only December!

Since the return of the snow last Friday I've been out on the snowboard either in the garden or on the hills every day at least twice. Due to the travel chaos I haven't been attempting to make the trip to work, so I've had early starts working from home which facilitate two hour long lunches. My father-in-law has very graciously lent us the quad, so the kids and I load it up with snowboard and sleds and head out to the fields each lunchtime.

We also went out for a couple of hours one evening when the light of the full moon was like daylight.

As for progress, I have been steadily improving, still sometimes struggling with basic stuff, but riding pretty solid now.

Got my regular riding going well, and linked turns no problem. Still scared like mad of any jumps though - they're a lot higher when you're going over them!! As for my switch side, I can ride ok, as long as nothing out of the ordinary happens, getting good enough to ride sections and do a sliding turn.

I have also been working on my 180s, but I think I'm just a bit too lazy to jump around. I started working on them on a small kicker in the garden, and managed to pull one off. However after watching youtube videos it seems that the best thing to do is learn gradually, and work up to jumps, so I have been practising the sliding change from regular to switch and back. Sometimes frontside and sometimes back.

Its all coming together, the biggest problem I have now is the short length of any run, they are just not long enough to get any real practice in. Need to head to the proper slopes. Penny saving has started :)

Now Christmas is upon us, which means no boarding tomorrow, or Boxing day, and then the forecast is for thaw :(

Linking turns

Tonight I got another chance to use my own private nursery slope. I first of all started to work on my toeside falling leaf, which I have to say went surprisingly well!

After this I spent the rest of the evening trying to link my turns, and sometimes was more successful than others. However, by the end of my time I was doing not too bad, maybe not very beautiful, but not too bad :)