-
Vulnerability that allowed anyone to send any email using any ox.ac.uk address
Recently I started doing a masters in maths at Oxford. I was very proud of myself to be able to get a place at the best university in the world. As a nice perk, I got an email address deyao.chen@maths.ox.ac.uk. Very cool. But it required some special configuration using SMTP, because by default, the sender’s address is deyao.chen@reuben.ox.ac.uk. I love Reuben College, but I think I love maths a bit more (sorry!). To be utter surprise, not only could I send from my @maths email, anyone can send from any email ending ox.ac.uk (like finance@ox.ac.uk). This sounds too good to be true but it actually was.
-
The Power of Namespaces in Computing
In recent years, containers have become one of the most powerful tools in computing. Containers are essentially isolated areas of code that perceive the outside world as whatever they need it to be. Technologies like Docker have revolutionized software deployment and usage, allowing each containerized application to define its own environment. On Linux, Flatpak is gaining popularity because it addresses the issues of fragmentation and lack of standardization by allowing each application to specify its required system environment. Using relative paths instead of absolute paths is often recommended for making programs more portable. Similarly, we solved the problem of running out of IP addresses by using Network Address Translation (NAT), which splits one IP address into many. These are all examples of the fundamental concept of namespaces. 1
-
I wrote this blog post, and then asked chatgpt to edit it for me. ↩
-
-
The Unexpected Joy of Using Paper
Ever since I got an iPad with a digital pen around eight years ago, I have continuously been trying to stay away from paper. I thought paper was old-fashioned and outdated. They take up a lot of space, are heavy, and cannot be organized easily without tools like folders. Even when they can, they cannot be nested infinitely and very logically like I can with files on a computer. Moreover, I can do everything I can do on paper on an iPad and more. More importantly, I think technology is the future so why should I use something that is literally thousands of years old, and seemingly used only by old people who don’t understand new technology, when I can use an iPad that is only a few decades old?
-
ChatGPT frequent requests refusals
Recently, I was trying to investigate printing works at my university. I know it sends files with some protocol over https because I had to input some http url into a system dialogue to add the printer, as well as my university email and password, but I was not sure how it works exactly.
-
Applications of First Principles
We often overlook first principles due to their self-evident nature, as our focus lies in uncovering less apparent truths. In mathematical contexts, while clear first principles, such as the definition of differentiation, exist, their direct application may not lead us far in practical derivations. Instead, we leverage a multitude of clever methods devised by brilliant minds over centuries, allowing us to work efficiently without constant contemplation of the foundational principles.
- •
- 1
- 2