A method for calculating pattern relevance in a text
This article aims at presenting a method for computing the relevance of a given string (pattern) in a text. This algorithm is at the core of my WordPress plugin Smart Tag Insert. First of all, there is...
View ArticlebbPress – Anonymous Subscriptions
This add-on plugin for bbPress will allow anonymous users to subscribe to topics and get email notifications when a new reply is posted. The notification email includes an unsubscribe link. bbPress...
View ArticleLooking for help with Post Pay Counter development
Post Pay Counter provides an easy way to manage authors payments on a WordPress website. Three years ago was completely redesigned to meet the demands of its growth, and shortly after Post Pay Counter...
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Does C++ delete operator really free memory?
Well, I have been wondering about this for quite a while now, and I have tried to run some tests to better understand what’s going on under the hood. The standard answer is that after you call delete...
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Base conversion in Ubuntu (decimal to binary)
Need to convert a base 10 integer in a base 2 one? Or, at any rate, convert a number from one numeration system to another? In Ubuntu, the bc utility already integrates these features. It is usually...
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Getting started with Binary reverse engineering: an example
For a challenge in a university security class, I was given this file to crack: reverse1. I started with reverse0, which was considerably easier than the second one. In this post I will briefly explain...
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The one time pad and the many time pad vulnerability
The scope of this article is to present the one time pad cipher method and its biggest vulnerability: that of the many time pad. The one time pad: what it is and how it works The one time pad is the...
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Brute force a crackme file password with Python
I was to reverse a file for a challenge, MD5 hash 85c9feed0cb0f240a62b1e50d1ab0419. The challenge was called mio cuggino, purposefully misspelled with two g letters. It asks for three numbers. The...
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The Distributional Hypothesis: semantic models in theory and practice
This was the final project for the Data Semantics course at university – A report on distributional semantics and Latent Semantic Analysis. Here is the nicely-formatted pdf version (with references)....
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Numpy histogram density does not sum to 1
During a Computational Vision lab, while comparing histograms, I stumbled upon a peculiar behavior. The histograms pairwise kernel matrix – which is just a fancy name for the matrix holding histograms...
View ArticleA/B testing on WordPress: a framework for developers and tutorial
Some months ago, I changed one link in the menu in my website postpaycounter.com. After that, it looked to me more people were purchasing products, i.e. the conversion rate had increased. But how to...
View ArticleA tale in topology – The large clovers meadow
A small tale with a topological soul, with the aim of providing a very high level intuition for the notion of density and dense set in topology. Smally Open was a cheeky youngster of the Open family...
View ArticleWP CLI custom commands not working
Make sure to add them in active code. Adding a spare php file with the WP-CLI command definition in /wordpress won’t work, because that code won’t be loaded by WP. Dropping the file into...
View ArticleTasks un-owned are task that go forgotten
If you are a tech company, and your people commit code, then you probably have some code review policy. And if you do not, you definitely should: you want to have an extra pair of eyes on the code that...
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A day tour in Cork, Ireland: the best things to see and do!
After spending two months in Cork, Ireland, I feel like I can provide good advice for a nice day tour in Cork. I think the best way to go around is on foot, as you can really enjoy the town, but there...
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On knowing when to stop in software development
One of the very few things I learnt in art class is what the role of Jackson Pollock was in his art. Because, we were asked, what is the role of the artist, if the only thing he does is let paint drop...
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Endless Christmas X-MAS CTF Writeup
This is a writeup for the Endless Christmas challenge, md5 hash 866c92038d6e9fc47db4424f71f6167a. It appeared in the X-MAS CTF, and it’s a Reverse challenge. Using afl with Radare we can see there are...
View ArticleMeltdown – Overview of a security vulnerability (Slides)
Here is the pdf slides of my presentation about Meltdown, the security vulnerability. First are full slides, then real presentation slides (with stops when asking questions/pausing and pondering). Free...
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Install Windows 7 on a modern, Intel 8th generation computer
I spent a good week trying to get Windows 7 to work on a modern laptop, having an Intel i3 8th generation CPU and other recent components, such as a NVMe SSD. What I did not know in the first place, is...
View ArticleTroubleshooting the installation of IRAF on Ubuntu
So, found myself installing IRAF on a friend’s laptop running Ubuntu. There are some decent tutorials online about the general steps: for example, this one, and the official one. However, they all skip...
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