1981 kawasaki z250c single cam chain timing

When I removed the cam chain from the bike I forgot to note what the timing was. There are a few different kawasaki z250 (twin), z200, kz250, kl250 workshop manuals kicking about but none of them seem to match the kawasaki z250c timing settings. Here's how to do it:

With the cam lobes at 4 and 8 oclock positions. Use the z200 timing mark and point it to the top position - not the kl250 mark. Push your fingers into the cam chain to make sure it's snug and still matches up.

At the crank case, ensure the ( T ) mark matches up with the guide. If these are perfectly aligned you are good to bolt it all down. It's best to turn the crank manually in the counter clockwise motion to make sure that no valves are hitting and do go on with the regular valve adjustment process in the manuals.

*This does not cover the steps for the cam chain tensioner and valve clearance bits which are important to ensure no damage is done once started. Please email me if you need a manual.

CHEMICO Valve Grinding Paste kawasaki z250c

Making sure your valves have a perfect seal is important to make sure you get proper engine compression. If your valves are scuffed you can get poor performance. At worst it can result in air being sucked when it should be blown and backfire into your carb.

Buy some cheap chemico valve grinding paste and a lapping tool. Use coarse first, then fine and make sure you clean it all off properly or else you will damage your valve guides or your cylinder.

Put paste under valve.

Use the lapping tool to grind the valve. You will probably want to do it for a minute or so to make sure it's all ground down. Minute for fine, minute for coarse.

To test the grinding put some petrol or spirits in the cyl head. The petrol should not drain down to your valve guides.

Landscape monitor to portrait without the price-tag.

Tired of that pesky landscape/horizontal view monitor, when all you want is portrait/vertical? Don't want to pay extra for an expensive monitor for the privilege? The answer is simple. Get a piece of 12mm plywood, a few self tapping screws and fix it.

webMethods 8 notification trigger and MS sql "Output Variable"

If you try to mix old and new "Output Variable"s with webMethods 8 and TSQL, you will run into this hurdle.

Adapter Runtime (Notification): Error in Notification Callback:enableCallback notification someComponent.notifications:someJDBCNotification.

For MS SQL, the Output Value Type for all Expressions must be the same. Selecting both Old and New for the Output Value Type field in the same notification is not allowed. Select only Old or only New.  
To resolve it, firstly do you actually need the old and new values? If you're only checking for a change this is automatically done by setting Yes on "Notify On Update". If you really, really need the old value however, you will need to manually change the stored procedure.

ALTER TRIGGER WMT_someJDBCNotification_asdfa ON dbo.MyTable
for update as if update (MyTableKey)
begin
INSERT INTO dbo.WMB_someJDBCNotification_asdfa (MyTableKey, SomeValue, SomeValueOld) 
SELECT inserted.MyTableKey, inserted.SomeValue, deleted.SomeValue
FROM inserted, deleted     WHERE inserted.MyTableKey = deleted.MyTableKey  END 

Find and grep in powershell

Find and grep is easy. Powershell is slightly annoying.

#find some files by extension and grep
gci . -Recurse | where{$_.Extension -match "vb|resx|aspx"} | select-string -pattern "someTerm" -caseSensitive

#find all and grep
gci . -Recurse | select-string -pattern "someTerm" -caseSensitive

#find and grep webmethods files
gci . -Recurse | where{$_.Extension -match "xml|ndf"} | select-string -pattern "someTerm" -caseSensitive

Fixing stuck valves

Valves can be stuck due to rust, burnt oil from overheating or being slightly bent due to incorrect timing. This trick can fix them but at risk of lower valve compression or slightly more oil getting into combustion. Useful for old bikes of which new valve guides or valves cannot be found. Valve guide reams can be used but are often expensive for one off jobs.

Use masking tape to stick the valve to the end of a power drill. Drill until loose.

webMethods: do I have the top level issuer cert in java for linux?

Let's say your cert is signed by "Geotrust Global CA"

/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_18/jre/bin/keytool -list -v -keystore /opt/softwareag/jvm/linux160_64/jre/lib/security/cacerts | grep geo
hit return when prompted for PW

Enter keystore password:
Alias name: geotrustuniversalca
Alias name: geotrustprimaryca
Alias name: geotrustglobalca
Alias name: geotrustprimarycag3

WGET v CURL username password negotiate: cant we all just wget along?

Sometimes, for unmentioned reasons, CURL gets an auth error where wget doesn't. It happens in webMethods if a service allows Anonymous access and the user is providing an invalid username with the error e.g. Access denied for user lol on port 5555.

E.g.

wget http://lol:what@google.com OK

curl http://lol:what@google.com returns auth error

Auth no challenge uses the same protocol as curl to login:

wget --auth-no-challenge http://lol:what@google.com auth failed