Alexis Wilke's blog
Icecream Locks?!
Thu, 11/21/2019 - 13:34 — Alexis WilkeI like technology, but I think that at times, it just goes too far.
Today I found out that a company is actually selling an Ice Cream Lock. Yes! A lock so people can't easily open your ice cream, at least not without either picking the lock or breaking the ice cream box.
It's a simple lock with a combination and if you don't know that combination, you just won't be able to open the ice cream box. Here are some pictures:
Click the image to see more on Amazon.com
(Note that I'm an affiliate)
Now, I really think technology is going too far! 
Enjoy!
Alexis
Help with version 0.1.7 of Zipios (CVE-2019-13453)
Fri, 07/12/2019 - 17:45 — Alexis WilkeHere is yet another example of why opensource is a really good way of getting things fixed.
Assuming you have a project that is getting used by many, you are likely to see people post issues about bugs and possible enhancements. Your software is even very likely to get improved on its own by enthousiast users. On Github, for example, it is very easy to fork a project (make a copy) and then work on your version of the software. You can then offer a fix to the main authors of the project with a near one to one copy of the project.
In our case, a security professional, Mike Salvatore, was asked ...
Best C++ Books
Tue, 05/07/2019 - 09:21 — Alexis WilkeOnce in a while someone will ask me which book is best to start learning programming. The fact is that I do not know because I'm already an advanced programmer and it's rather difficult for me to get back to the basics (it feels like a waste of my time, sorry...)
That being said, at Made to Order Software, we've mainly been a C++ shop. We also do a lot of C, PHP, JavaScript and touch many other languages as required by the tasks we perform (bash, cmake, perl, C#, Java, etc.)
That being said, I wanted to underline some of the best C++ books available today. Especially, in the last ...
Put the label of an HTML Input inside the Input element
Mon, 10/29/2018 - 14:41 — Alexis Wilke
Update:
With HTML5 running on pretty much all platforms, you want to use the placeholder attribute instead of any sort of tricks to place a label inside your input widgets.
This is done like this:
<input type="text" placeholder="Phone Number"/>
This example will show "Phone Number" inside the input box until the user types some text in that box.
You can test with the box right here. This is just that one <input .../> tag I placed in my page HTML. (It is not in a form, but the widget itself will work as expected.)
For additional details, I ...
PHP eFax requires "ssl://" on RedHat EL7 and Ubuntu
Mon, 10/15/2018 - 20:32 — Alexis WilkeWe found out today that RedHat LE7 requires the use of the "ssl://" protocol instead of the default "tls://". The error we are getting from PHP looks like this:
PHP Warning: stream_socket_client(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:
error:1409442E:SSL routines:ssl3_read_bytes:tlsv1 alert protocol version in .../lib/http_request.php on line 294
PHP Warning: stream_socket_client(): Failed to enable crypto in .../lib/http_request.php on line 294
PHP Warning: stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to tls://secure.efaxdeveloper.com:443 ...Brief Overview of CRISC Certification Exam
Sat, 06/23/2018 - 14:08 — Alexis WilkeThe CRISC, also known as Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control, is a vendor-neutral certification that validates a professional’s knowledge and experience in the fields of information system control & risk management. The certificate is developed and administered by ISACA and designed for the individuals who work with organizations in mitigating business risks and implement information system controls.
Organizations in today’s world must consistently enhance their infrastructure so that they can survive and thrive in today’s competitive environment. It is a ...
No more excuses! Protect your passwords on your computer with strong encryption.
Wed, 02/14/2018 - 18:05 — Alexis WilkeMore and more, we hear talks about hackers entering personal accounts on systems such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others. There are many reasons why someone's account will be hacked. One of them is the lack of imagination for their password. Plus, some people use the same password for all of their accounts.
So, if you do it right, you will end up with many passwords. On my end, I have one password per account and that means about 400 passwords... That's totally unmanageable in a fairly standard human brain. For this reason, you end up writing down all your passwords on ...
Deleting a (Duplicate) Retweet from your Twitter Feed
Sat, 02/03/2018 - 17:30 — Alexis WilkeDouble Retweeting and How to Avoid Over-Duplication
I have seen many people retweeting like crazy and I've noticed that once in a while these people have been retweeting the exact same tweet more than once.
I'm pretty sure that in most cases these people ignore the fact. Personally I find their twitter feed annoying because of that. Retweeting is totally okay, it's sharing what others have tweeted and there is nothing wrong with it. However, seeing the exact same tweet 2, 3, 4, or even 5 times pretty much in a row is rather bad taste. I understand that this very tweet is super ...
Massive Bug in Intel, AMD, ARM and other Processors in Handling VM Memory
Wed, 01/03/2018 - 15:12 — Alexis WilkeIn the last few days, we started hearing about a massive bug in the implementation of the VM memory handling.
Intel has been frantically working on fixing host machines kernels in order to prevent one VM from accessing the memory of other VMs that run on the same machine.
Of course, most users are not going to attempt to read someone else memory so in that sense, most of us are relatively safe. But all of those who are not so lucky and have uninvited guests on their systems are running at very high risk. The information available from Intel says the memory is accessible only in Read mode. ...
Avoid automatic translation of Facebook posts
Sun, 12/31/2017 - 16:50 — Alexis WilkeOnce more today my French friend's post was translated.
French is my mother tongue so I sure don't need the automatic translation for French on my Facebook wall. I also like to read a couple other languages, even if I'm not at the best level I only need a little help with a few words here and there, so I like to have those in the original language to improve. The more you read a language the more you learn about it. Same if you live in a country and start talking with people there. You're going to learn a lot more that way than staying at home and not talking to anyone any ...
