Why are digital certificates so difficult?

    What I want:

  1. A root certificate from which to create a signing certificate
  2. A signing certificate
  3. A certificate to put on a device to validate code signed with the signing certificate
  4. To be able to do all this with openssl or the Java keytool

With the Java keytool I can make a self signed certificate and sign with that, and export the necessary component for verification, but some devices soom to want a root that the signing certificate is based on. It has no distinct root cert.

With openssl I can make the root cert and then the signing cert, but I’m not sure how to make the verifying cert.

 

Before reading Joseph Ellis’ “His Excellency George Washington” I think the most I knew was that he was the first president (two terms), he was the general in the revolutionary war, he had a wife named Martha, and he had false teeth. American history classes never talk about his except to acknowledge he was there before going back to the constitutional talk. Joseph Ellis’ previous book, “Founding Brothers” made me think there was more there and this book provides. It covers from George Washington’s childhood through his death and shows the influences that led to the decisions he made throughout his life. Like “Founding Brothers” it gives a feel for the time and the people, and makes it feel close rather than like history. If you ever wanted to know more about the man whose name and face is everywhere in this country I recommend this book.

 

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen so many cheesy cliches strung together. This movie was fantastic and is easily the best of the three Fast and Furious movies. More racing and less half-assed cop story to get in the way.

Elizabethtown – It started off slow and a little awkward and I didn’t much care what was going on. After a little while though I felt myself sucked in by the characters and they held me there until the very end.

Vanilla Sky – I wasn’t trying for a Cameron Crowe fest but I’m not complaining. Again, great characters, and a fun story for them to run around in. The imdb lists 4 theories about what is going on and I think I have to go with the basic explanation that the movie presents out front.

The Greatest Game Ever Played – Why do I like golf movies when I don’t like golf? I don’t know but this is another golf movie that I really like. One thing I have to say though is that the CG ladybug is just wrong! I think it’s one of the worst examples of bad gratuitous CG ever. The CG ball and flying effects didn’t distract from the movie and helped make the game seem more action oriented. Oh yeah, based on a true story.

 

I haven’t posted and house updates in awhile because I haven’t really known what to post. Mostly we’re waiting for some last few things. In the bathroom I painted the trim behind the “floating cabinets” and the bathroom pocket door. Now we just await the glass that will allow us to shower without spraying the bathroom.

In the kitchen the garbage cabinet has been fixed to be a one-piece pull-out instead of two doors that had to be opened all the way before you could pull out the cans. We’re still waiting for under cabinet lighting and the installation of the blower unit for the down draft.

What’s left aside from that? Painting the office and the other bedroom. Then finally things will be able to be moved into their places. One of the problems of remodelling something is that you decide to do other things while everything is messed up.

For us, that meant re-texturing the living room and the master bedroom and a wall in the “tv” room. We also have an electrical panel switched from the projection wall in the “tv” room to a wall in the laundry room. The water heater has been replaced with an on-demand heater (I can see it has cut gas usage by 1/3). The old water heater took up a corner of the office room so there’s 10 more square feet in there now that the heater is on the outside wall. Since the kitchen floor was being put in we had them re-coat the rest of the floors with more of urethane. We removed the shelf in the laundry room and shortened the interior window that looks into it so that needed a wall build-up. Also since we needed new windows in the kitchen and bathroom we decided to get new windows throughout the house. Re-texturing, windows, and all that means that when we’re done we’ll have painted pretty much the entire house.

 

Morning dose of fun

 

As of this morning I weigh 220.8 pounds.
According to a website that uses the Navy’s method of calculating body fat I’m at 27%.
Time to turn that around.

I’ve read that the Navy’s method is at least and generally more accurate than other body fat measurement techniques that can be easily done.

 

I think I’m going to consolidate my movie posts to Tuesday.

Nacho Libre – Nachooooooooooooooooooo! It’s fun. It’s rediculous. It seems like it wanders aimlessly from time to time like every idea was thrown in and not enough of them were taken out again, but I don’t care. It was fun!

Scary Movie 3 – The first of the Zucker style Scary Movie movies. Why aren’t the Wayans brothers on this anymore? Their versions tend to push a little more while the Zuckers fall into their groove. Their groove is still funny, but I liked the change. If you like Airplane/Naked Gun style humor you’ll like this. It’s not as consistently funny as those and I think that could have been helped a great deeal by losing the 8-Mile parody. That was just boring.

 

If the dryer’s heat is working but things aren’t getting dry it’s because exhaust air isn’t working. I knew that already. That’s bad because it can start fires, but that didn’t happen here and I knew that too. The likely culprit was the flex hose (knew that) but amazingly there was very little in there.

The problem was the vent opening on the outside of the house. It has a screen inside of a mesh just small enought oprevent a bee from gaining entry and just small enough apparently to gather up enuogh lint over time to become completely blocked. More likely is that lint formed little clumps over time that were then caught up and blown to the screen where they got stuck. Anyway, some cutting pliers to remove the screen fixed the problem. I’m not really worried about critters getting in there. Hopefully I don’t regret saying that.

 

Waiting… – This movie wanted to be Clerks, it even says so in the credits. It has the same problem for me that Road Trip had. The characters themselves were fun but their interaction fell flat. There were a few good scenes but mostly it was a lot of not caring.

Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – This is now my second favorite Wallace & Gromit after The Wrong Trousers. I loved all the small visual jokes, and that the rabbits say “whee!” a lot, and the general silliness. Definitely one to check out if you haven’t yet.

 

They weren’t forgettable, I was just forgetful.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – This goes high on the list of good adaptations of books to movies. The look was great, the characters came out very well, and nothing was left out. One thing I would have added was a little more of Edmund being a snot and being a slave to the Turkish Delight. It wouldn’t even take much more film… a line or two to try and convince them to head towards the witch’s palace, some more agitation shown in the beaver’s den, some complaining to himself and saying how he’s going to get some more Turkish Delight when he gets to the witch.

Keeping Up With The Steins – A Bar Mitzvah comedy movie! I think it’s good for people who haven’t been through one as well since Nicole liked it, but if you were there you’ll enjoy it more.

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