I was curious to study the behaviour of the Proof-of-Work protocol in block-chains. The essence of POW is the use of a nonce as part of the payload being signed. In order to do this, I decided to test it out with a simple signing test program. The signature algorithm chosen uses a 512-bit RSA key with a SHA-224 hash. A stronger hash algorithm would just take longer but it wouldn’t really deviate too much from the characteristics. The example...
Read moreWireshark is a free and open source packet analyser. It is used for network troubleshooting, analysis, software and communications protocol development, and education. This is not a well advertised feature but it is possible to use Wireshark to monitor the traffic on a third machine. This may come in handy when one is interested to study a remote system under monitoring. So, it is possible for machine C to analyse the traffic between machines A and B, without having to...
Read moreWe’re trying to increase IPv6 adoption by migrating things. However, slow IPv6 routes don’t help. We tested things using Vultr’s network as they had servers is 15 countries. These are an abbreviated sample of the results. LONDON HOST: vm1359261.vultr.com Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1. ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6. 2001:e68:5083:6d93:7555:c0a5:2945:cbd9 10.0% 10 269.5 269.6 269.2 269.9 0.2 PARIS HOST: vm1359265.vultr.com Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1. ??? 100.0 10 0.0 0.0...
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While there are a lot of examples that describe how to set up a LVM cache on an SSD for a HDD backed storage, they mostly fail to describe an additional step needed to preserve the cache across a reboot on a Ubuntu system. The culprit is that the drivers needed to enable the LVM cache are not built into the kernel, nor available in the initrd. Therefore, these drivers need to be added to the initrd. Additionally, some cache Read more
Weekly Review On 22nd September, I showed Dr. Shawn the new layout of the website, as well as the two versions that had different ‘Why Choose Us?’ sections. Due to the amount of faces being shown, however, we decided to scrap the section for the better. Since the main page is now 90% finalized, he suggested that I should start working on the individual pages for each section of the ‘flowchart’. The Making of Each Webpage I started doing my Read more
Weekly Review On 14th September, I showcased both versions of the website to Dr. Shawn, one with real photographs and the other with stock illustrations. He much preferred the version with real photographs, though he suggested to switch some photos around for better presentation. Working through Troubles One notable suggestion was the addition of a group photo with a lot of participants holding certificates with the judges in the ‘Why Choose Us?’ section. I had a bit of trouble doing Read more
Weekly Review On 7th September, I presented my current progress to Dr. Shawn. He told me that instead of using the current technique that I was using, I should get assistance from artificial intelligence tools to help search for the images I needed instead. He also pointed out that I shouldn’t be so focused on trying to accommodate every layout, and instead focus on the most important one—which was the mobile layout, since more people access websites exclusively on their Read more
This week, I investigated and worked on a fix for a login UX bug that could leave users facing a blank page for a while. The issue was difficult to reproduce consistently, so my first step was to understand what happened during the login process. Initially, I suspected a network problem. I inspected the browser’s Network tab while running the application locally and noticed that, during a first-time login, the system sent a request to a database address containing /null/. Read more
On 1st September, I presented my current progress to Dr. Shawn, showing the current look of the Sayembara website, as well as its mobile layout. He commented that since there were now real life photos at the bottom of the website, it ruins the harmony of it all. So, he suggested that I should replace the cartoon-like graphics with real photos. Just for the sake of comparison, he added that I could do two different pages, one that consists of Read more
On 24th August, Dr. Shawn and I had our weekly meeting. I showed him my current progress working on the homepage of the Sayembara website, which was 50% finished. He told me that my progress was okay, but reminded that I should also ensure that it also looks good on tablets and phones, as most people access websites using those devices nowadays. Therefore, I made that as my primary task this week. Thankfully, WordPress has some built-in features that allows Read more
My week 5 main task is to create edit and preview templates for email and comment. Previously, comment and email templates were stored as HTML attachments, but there was no way in the UI for users to edit the html , or to preview the result template after the backend turned the edited html into a pdf. My approach was to add two reusable dialogs in the Settings page: EditDialog and PreviewDialog, and wire them to their respective buttons on the Settings page, Read more
This week, I mainly focused on creating the settings layout and exploring a new feature for previewing comment slips and email templates. Creating the Settings Layout This week, I finished creating a settings layout that brings various configuration options together in one place. This makes it easier for administrators to find and update the system settings they need. Insights from the Template Preview Issue At the same time, I picked up a ticket from the project’s GitHub Issues page and Read more
Weekly Review On 17th August, I showcased my progress on the mockup to Dr. Shawn during our weekly meeting. He mentioned that it was already satisfactory, and that I should start working on the WordPress website. After the meeting, I started by uploading almost all the graphics I’ve edited onto WordPress. Since I had to double-check the quality of the clip art I edited, and to ensure they were the recommended size, it took me a bit of time since Read more
This week, I continued working on the Rank Judge and Rank Emcee modules, focusing on polishing the features and fixing remaining issues before raising an updated PR to Dr. Shawn for review and feedback. I also continued investigating the logo issue, which is still unresolved. I spent time comparing and debugging the changes to identify the actual cause rather than assuming the problem based only on the error message. Although my internship is getting closer to the end, I am Read more