I was looking though some old notes and came across a reminder that I do indeed have a PID for my personal USB devices. A given PID code of 1209 / A55A.

The 1209 belongs to pid.codes, while the A55A belongs to me.

I can remember at the time this PID was offered, I requested a few different codes, but at the time, a lot of others were doing the same thing, and these requested codes were used up quickly. I finally chose and was awarded 0xA55A. Do you recognize the reference?

It was used by NEC's version of MS-DOS 3.30r3 to indicate that there are eight partition entries preceding the MBR's ending signature^†. This value of 0xA55A was found at offset 0x017C in the MBR.

Simply to express my opinion that it is okay to create outside the normal. You don't have to follow another's specification to create a wheel^†. Create your own wheel.

The Spring and Summer has melted the snow and dried the ground, so lately I have done very little work on this hobby of mine. I have been spending a lot of my free time out in the warm sun. If this coming Winter is anything like last Winter, there will be a few mornings that will get a few degrees below zero--time best spent inside where it is warm.

I still have done a little on this hobby of mine, adding a few additions and fixes to my edition of Bochs. Additions that include the start of a debugging interface for the USB, allowing you to view TDs as they are in a Queue/Ring before and after they are executed. However, much more work needs to be done.

(Maybe not so) Recently, due to a comment made by a fellow reader, I did make a correction to my Bucket Allocator. Many thanks to him/her for the catch.

With many emails and comments about my book series, I have made a few notes of desired additions.

• Volume 1 has the start of a few chapters on 64-bit development, though needs a bit more work before it can be released.
• Volume 4 (one of my favorite volumes) will have some added documentation about--you guessed it--obsolete hardware, with a few needed corrections.
• Volume 6 will have a few chapters added about text/character display techniques.
• Volume 8 has a few additions, more detailed explanations along with a few more illustrations.

As I have said before, I don't plan to give this hobby up, though I have found that in my older age, grandkids seem to be a more enjoyable hobby. However, when Winter comes again (season 8 was a great disappointment), I will spend more time indoors and may do more on this hobby of mine.

Anyway, just a note to say that I am still here, I still enjoy working on this hobby, and am still available for questions and comments. Thank you to all of you and hope and wish for a wonderful rest of the year ahead for us all.

I have enjoyed all of the comments and questions sent, and encourage you to continue to send them. Thank you.