Mark Blaszczyk http://www.markblah.com This is my secret computer hideout. Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:18:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en PHP Social Networking API written in PHP using XML-RPC for scalability http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/24/php-social-networking-api-written-in-php-using-xml-rpc-for-scalability/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/24/php-social-networking-api-written-in-php-using-xml-rpc-for-scalability/#comments Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:15:17 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=16 I have been going through my list of uncompleted projects and I’ve decided that I shall release my scalable Social Networking Platform API in hope that someone or a team would be willing enough to get it over the dip.

It is separated into the following components,

Server Fuction Class - This API handles all the social network database/processing fuctions

* XML-RPC Server - The XML-RPC Server takes requests and passes it to the Server Fuction Class, it returns any meta data that is returned back to the XML-RPC Client.

* XML-RPC Client - This Class is given to the Social Website, it takes requests from the Client Website and  communicates with the XML-RPC Server, returns meta data.

* Client Website - accepts user input, accepts server input, and stores data in arrays, all webserver side processing is done here.

* Smarty Template Engine - Prints out formatted HTML for the websites visitors.

    The communication process can only go up or down one step at a time similar to the OSI layers.

    I am going from memory here as I do not have the source code at hand right now, but it currently has support for the following fuctions.

    * Add/Delete/Modify users

    * Unlimited amount of dynamic meta data fields, if a meta field doesn’t exist it will create it.

    * Tags

    * Friends Functions, Add/Delete/Is online etc.

    * File handling (text,image,video,etc)

      I also have a very base setup of a functional demo site demonstrating all available functions.

      Current problem is just time, I would love to see this operational just I can’t find enough time to get it complete. I will release it as soon as I read through the different Open Source licenses available as I would like some control over the direction of where this will end up.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/24/php-social-networking-api-written-in-php-using-xml-rpc-for-scalability/feed/       Most complex crop circle ever discovered in England http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/19/most-complex-crop-circle-ever-discovered/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/19/most-complex-crop-circle-ever-discovered/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:03:21 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=15 Crop circles amaze me, it’s a phenomena that I truly hope is not created by humans of our time. This crop circle was discovered in a barley field in Wiltshire. The mind boggling feature of this one is that it’s respesenting the first 10 digits (rounded up) of pi, 3.141592654.

      Complex Crop Circle representing PI.

      It has been recorded that the circle is 150ft (45.72m) in diameter, the digits are interpreted in 10th fractions of a circle, and by chance the index point from the center is pointing in the same direction as the dual lines.

      This interpretation of Pi makes me wonder how they would know that we would be using a 10 base number set, considering we only use 10 because that’s how many fingers we have.. Also why would they show a decimal place, and why would they start the index completely parralell to the verticle lines?

      Yes they could be communicating to show they understand our system, also demonstrating intelligence, who knows, if it’s a hoax, it just makes us feel that little bit more lonely in the universe, if it’s real, then I want to know everything there is to know.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/19/most-complex-crop-circle-ever-discovered/feed/       Wordpress PHPass hash bruteforce PHP script http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/11/wordpress-phpass-hash-bruteforce-php-script/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/11/wordpress-phpass-hash-bruteforce-php-script/#comments Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:30:26 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=14 Ok so I was a bit bored and was curious to know how Wordpress handled its authentication, turns out that it uses Solar Designers PHPass class, so I’ve decided to write a very simple Wordpress Bruteforcer for it.

      <?php
      require_once(‘./class-phpass.php’); //available at http://www.openwall.com/phpass/
      $hash = “\$P\$BaahIvdhRXW8Q419WC/alyMUsY7S8I.”; // remember to quote out the $’s
      $wp_hasher = new PasswordHash(8, TRUE);
      $handle = @fopen (“wordlist.txt”,“r”);
      if ($handle)
      {
       while (!feof ($handle))
       {
        $pass = fgets ($handle, 512);
        $pass = str_replace (“\n“, “”, $pass );

        if ($wp_hasher->CheckPassword ($pass, $hash1 ))
        {
          echo “FOUND: “ . $hash . “=” . $pass . “\n“;
          exit;
        }
       }
      }
      fclose ($handle);
      ?>

      Does seem to run a bit slow, but it serves its purpose.. If there is enough demand for a faster version I’ll consider writing one up, till then, peace.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/11/wordpress-phpass-hash-bruteforce-php-script/feed/       Goosh# - Google in a nutshell http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/02/gooshorg-google-in-a-nutshell/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/02/gooshorg-google-in-a-nutshell/#comments Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:27:54 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=12 I am definitely a console junky, and the internet should never have become graphical, if you have the same thoughts as me then you will probably appreciate this neat google tool.

      A guy named Stefan Grothkopp has written something that I wish I had thought of, an AJAX google shell named goosh# that allows you to quickly type what you’re after and get the info in a traditional unix format.

      guest@goosh.org:/web> help
      help

      


      
command
aliases
parameters
function

      

      
web
(search,s,w)
[keywords]
google web search

      

      
lucky
(l)
[keywords]
go directly to first result

      

      
images
(image,i)
[keywords]
google image search

      

      
wiki
(wikipedia)
[keywords]
wikipedia search

      

      
clear
(c)

clear the screen

      

      
help
(man,h,?)
[command]
displays help text

      

      
news
(n)
[keywords]
google news search

      

      
blogs
(blog,b)
[keywords]
google blog search

      

      
feeds
(feed,f)
[keywords]
google feed search

      

      
open
(o)
<url>
open url in new window

      

      
go
(g)
<url>
open url

      

      
more
(m)

get more results

      

      
in
(site)
<url> <keywords>
search in a specific website

      

      
load

<extension_url>
load an extension

      

      
video
(videos,v)
[keywords]
google video search

      

      
read
(rss,r)
<url>
read feed of url

      

      
place
(places,map,p)
[address]
google maps search

      

      
lang

<language>
change language

      

      
addengine


add goosh to firefox search box

      

      
translate
(trans,t)
[lang1] [lang2] <words>
google translation

      Now I am wondering if I should beat the craze and write a console app. Checkgoosh out for yourself at goosh.org.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/06/02/gooshorg-google-in-a-nutshell/feed/       How many Mark Blaszczyk’s are there? http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/27/how-many-mark-blaszczyks-are-there/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/27/how-many-mark-blaszczyks-are-there/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 23:20:35 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=11 This is crazy, I have just done a google search for my name, Mark Blaszczyk, and found a few of them, some work in IT, others were in Beverly Hills Cop movies, one does Marathon runs, and I’ve found a few on facebook also. I remember in Primary school and high school thinking that my last name is quite unique, people always struggling to pronounce it etc.

      This may be a long shot, but if your name is Mark Blaszczyk or Marek Blaszczyk and you have just googled your name, get in contact and we should make some sort of Mark Blaszczyk’s world domination or something.

      If you have found this page by searching for, i guess, “our” last name, feel free to join I created on facebook group named Blaszczyk, so far at the time of writing this it has 28 members in it.

      You know if your last name is Blaszczyk when….

      1. You’re asked how to pronounce your last name every time you spell it..
      2. When spelling the name over the phone or to someone else they always muddle up the SZ and the CZ.
      3. You have 5 different variations of your last name come to the same letter box.
      4. Telemarketers pause when they get up to the s.
      5. You abbreviate your last name to Blah.
      6. You’re asked what nationality that last name is from.
      7. You get annoyed when people try to pronounce your last name and get it completely incorrect even after you tell them.
      8. You run out of room when writing your last name on forms.
      9. people are amazed that it’s 9 letters long and only one vowel.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/27/how-many-mark-blaszczyks-are-there/feed/       PHP Round number to Nearest X http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/11/php-round-number-to-nearest-x/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/11/php-round-number-to-nearest-x/#comments Sun, 11 May 2008 21:58:36 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=10 I did a few google searches on rounding numbers using PHP, unfortunately the only thing I could find is the round() function that doesn’t allow you to round to the nearest specified number.

      <?php
      function roundnum ($num, $nearest)
      {
         $ret = 0;
         $mod = $num % $nearest;

         if ($mod >= 0)
           $ret = ( $mod > ( $nearest / 2)) ? $num + ( $nearest - $mod) : $num - $mod;
          else
           $ret = ( $mod > (-$nearest / 2)) ? $num - $mod : $num + ( -$nearest - $mod);
          return $ret;
      }

      echo roundnum (1234, 15);  // round to the nearest 15
      echo roundnum (1234, 5); // round to the nearest 5
      ?>

      Enjoy.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/11/php-round-number-to-nearest-x/feed/       Regular Expressions made easy http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/08/regular-expressions-made-easy/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/08/regular-expressions-made-easy/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 21:53:27 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=9 one thing I can definately say I hate, is regular expression syntax, I do however like what Regular Expressions can do. In a quest to search for an easier better way of assembling regular expressions syntax I’ve stumbled across an awesome website named http://www.txt2re.com/

      At first glimpse this website looks a bit complicated, but say we have an example string <a href=”foo.com/whatever”>blah</a>, and we want to extract the domain name, it’s as easy as entering the string, clicking Show Matches, and using the color coded chart to find the FDQN (full qualified domain name).

      The beauty of this website is that it also generates the code required for you, they have a selection of a wide range of snippets including Perl, PHP, Python, Java, Javascript, ColdFusion, C, C++, Ruby, VB, VBScript, J#.net, C#.net ,C++.net, VB.net .. Nice.  At the end of the day I can just get on with my programming.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/08/regular-expressions-made-easy/feed/       Solaris locked user http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/solaris-locked-user/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/solaris-locked-user/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 02:46:05 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=7 I came across a problem under solaris with mysql+PAM authentication where when creating a user via useradd, it locks them out by adding *LK* in /etc/shadow, shadow entries with NP worked fine.

      once the user is created, type passwd -N username_here

      you will now notice that /etc/shadow will have NP insted of *LK*.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/solaris-locked-user/feed/       Internet, not Innernet, you crazy Americans! http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/internet-not-innernet-you-crazy-americans/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/internet-not-innernet-you-crazy-americans/#comments Mon, 05 May 2008 11:54:43 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=6 Is it just me or do all Americans pronounce the Internet innernet. I hear it over the radio/TV/youtube everywhere, am I missing something here? is the T silent? this upsets me because at times I wonder if there is another Internet named Innernet, are there two different giant networks? one that I’ve never visited before? is the internet as I know it just a layer in a multiverse like multinet?

      It would be great if someone could clear this up for me.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/internet-not-innernet-you-crazy-americans/feed/       I guess I should introduce myself to the internet. http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/i-guess-i-should-introduce-myself-to-the-internet/ http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/i-guess-i-should-introduce-myself-to-the-internet/#comments Mon, 05 May 2008 11:46:59 +0000 Mark http://www.markblah.com/?p=5 well, hello, my name is Mark and like many people who blog I work in the IT industry. My earliest memory of operating a computer would of been the Atari with the strange function keys, I can remember sitting in my brothers room while he was either programming or playing random games, it wasn’t long after that when my brother got the Amiga 500, this is where I familiarized myself with computers and got given a copy of AMOS to learn how to program with..

      The first bootable application I wrote was to test joysticks and make sure all the directions and buttons worked, lame, yeah maybe, but I was in the 4th-5th grade when I done this and was rather proud of myself at the time. I also picked up on how to use the action replay card on the Amigas, which basically intercepted the CPU and we could directly access the memory space, this was fantastic for finding the memory location where your lives are kept in games, this sort of reverse engineering had fascinated me.

      I first accessed the internet back around 1994-95 using an amiga 4000, with netscape navigator to surf yahoo.com. Damn, if only I registered a few domains back in those days, I could retire now just by holding on to them, i wonder what google would of been called if that was already taken.

      Anyway, life moves on slowly but surely, I may one day fill in the gaps between then and the present, but to sum up till today, I’ve now been programming/sysadmin/networking and security as a profession which keeps things interesting, and I am hoping to use this blog to capture bits and peices that inspire me to keep going in IT, and jot down anything else that’s on my mind.

      ]]>       http://www.markblah.com/2008/05/05/i-guess-i-should-introduce-myself-to-the-internet/feed/