Posts

October 03, 2012

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7:51 PM | Obfuscating XSS payloads with Horrible.js

Source code: https://github.com/amsqr/horrible-horrible.jsLive demo: http://amsqr.github.com/misc.js/horrible.html

October 02, 2012

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5:25 PM | Using the same random number generator in C++ and Python

Anyone who has converted code from one language to another, where there is a random number generator involved, knows the pain of rigorously checking that both versions of code do the exact same thing. In the past I’ve done a write out to file from one of the language’s random number generators (RNGs), and then [...]

September 27, 2012

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1:03 PM | C++ debugging with GDB and Valgrind quickstart

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m coming into C++ from Python and Matlab. I’ve programmed C++ before, but it’s been a while, and handling the memory management myself and tracking down seg faults again is taking some getting used to. Here are two things that really helped me out. Program – GDB As the scale of [...]

September 25, 2012

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8:29 PM | Web Vulnerability Games (a.k.a hacking for fun)

Just some links from several hackathons and web security events that I've attended this year:http://google-gruyere.appspot.com/part1https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Security_Shepherdhttps://www.hacking-lab.com/Remote_Sec_Lab/free-owasp-top10-lab.htmlhttps://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Vicnum_ProjectSome challenges are difficult, another are very easy...Have fun!

September 24, 2012

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12:17 PM | Running Windows 8 and VS2012 under VirtualBox

Yay! it works!

September 17, 2012

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1:53 PM | Welcome Anna!

The lab welcomes new graduate student Anna Coenen! Anna arrives from London where she recently completed her Masters in Cognitive and Decision Sciences at UCL followed by a short stint in industry working for Nick Chater’s Decision Technologies.

September 10, 2012

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5:13 PM | What can machine learning research tell us about self-directed learning in people?

Advances in Cognitive Science frequently come when open questions in the science of the human mind map on to new innovations in the machine learning or artificial intelligence communities. A new article in Perspectives in Psychological Science suggests that one such area of confluence may be the study of active or self-directed learning. Read on to learn how recent advances in machine learning research could alter our understanding of self-directed learning in humans.

September 06, 2012

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11:10 PM | Self-directed Learning: A Cognitive and Computational Perspective

A new review paper by Todd and Doug exploring the relationships between “active learning” in the machine learning literature and self-directed learning in humans.

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10:55 PM | Effective integration of serially presented stochastic cues

New paper from Mordechai, Todd, and Larry on sequential cue integration reported in the Journal of Vision.

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2:04 PM | L-systems and algorithmic sound experiments

New user-generated content music genres such as the "Bytebeat", that is a new genre of electronic music where a piece of rhythmic and/or somewhat melodic music is generated in real-time using just a relatively short formula, explore new ways of music and sound synthesis. This approach defines a waveform as a function of time, measured here in 1/8000 of a second [t], without oscillators, predefined score or instruments:t * ((t>>12|t>>8)&63&t>>4)As we saw in […]

Ville-Matias Heikkilä (2011). Discovering novel computer music techniques by exploring the space of short computer programs, Corr, arXiv: 1112.1368v1

Citation

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1:24 PM | VJSandbox: a GLSL shader editor with audio sync experiment

Uses GLSL Sandbox by MrDoob and beatdetektor.js by cjcliffe Music: "Big Smile" by Red Cap and "Kool Kats" by Kevin MacLeodhttp://amsqr.github.com/webgl.js/VJSandbox/VJSandbox.html

September 05, 2012

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6:42 PM | Amazon Mechanical Turk Blog

Amazon's Mechanical Turk (AMT) now has a official blog that publishes information relevant to academic researchers (e.g., how to improve data quality). (RT experimentalturk)

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1:58 PM | TENOR: A Lexical Normalisation Tool for Spanish Web 2.0 Texts

References:TENOR: A Lexical Normalisation Tool for Spanish Web 2.0 TextsAlejandro Mosquera, Paloma MoredaText, Speech and Dialogue - 15th International Conference (TSD 2012)

August 30, 2012

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8:32 AM | Beat Detection and Real-time Audio Analysis Demo

Audio and visual syncing is a common technique used in videogames, VJing, video-clips and several realtime visual performances. The creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime in synchronization to music is also one of the main topics of the computer-generated art or Demoscene.This is an experiment using my 3D Rikitake renderer and the BeatDetektor.js library by cjcliffe. Main Rikitake's ecuations parameters are changed in real-time using BeatDetektor processing output and […]

August 29, 2012

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6:26 PM | Drawing the Rikitake Attractor in 3D with Three.js

This is the 3D version of the Rikitake attractor 2D-only demo shown is this previous post http://www.amsqr.com/2012/08/rikitake-attractor-in-2d-html-canvas.html. The main ecuation parameters (scale, a, s, u, dt) can be configured in order to see how the attractor evolves in real-time.http://amsqr.github.com/webgl.js/rikitake/rikitake.html

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10:31 AM | WebGL oldschool intro

Music: rendered in real-time using Flod 1.0 by Christian CortiVisuals: HTML5 Canvas + WebGLhttp://amsqr.github.com/webgl.js/oldschoolintro.html

August 26, 2012

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10:46 AM | Facebook clickjacking POC (Likejacking)

Clickjacking or UI redressing is a malicious technique of tricking a Web user into clicking on something different to what the user perceives they are clicking on, thus potentially revealing confidential information or taking control of their computer while clicking on seemingly innocuous web pages. A clickjack takes the form of embedded code or a script that can execute without the user's knowledge, such as clicking on a button that appears to perform another function.One example of this is […]

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1:55 AM | Best easter egg ever (Google Fake XSS)

https://www.google.com/appserve/security-bugs/new?rl=<script>alert(1)</script>

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1:32 AM | Buddhabrot Fractal in HTML Canvas

The Buddhabrot is a fractal related to the Mandelbrot set. Its name reflects its similarity to classical depictions of Gautama Buddha, seated in a meditation pose with a forehead mark (tikka) and traditional topknot (ushnisha). Mathematically, the Mandelbrot set consists of the set of points c in the complex plane for which the iteratively defined sequence where z0 = 0 does not tend to infinity.http://amsqr.github.com/canvas.js/buddhabrot.html

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1:24 AM | Rikitake attractor in 2D HTML Canvas

"The Rikitake chaotic dynamical system is a model which attempts to explain the irregular polarity switching of the geomagnetic field. The system exhibits Lorenz-type chaos and orbiting around two unstable fixed points. It describes the currents of two coupled dynamo disks."This is just a 2D fast implementation.Have Fun:http://amsqr.github.com/canvas.js/rikitake.htmlReferences:http://www.princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery2011/one.php%3Fid=152.html

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1:19 AM | Fake Rotozoomer

Just a small update:http://amsqr.github.com/canvas.js/rotozoom.html

August 25, 2012

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2:24 PM | Mechanical Turk/Multi-voxel Pattern Analysis Workshop

On Monday, August 20th, 2012 the lab hosted joint a technical workshop with Yael Niv‘s group at Princeton covering how to run experiments on Mechnical Turk and how to do multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) on fMRI data. It was a kind of a random collection of tutorial topics, but the two half-day sessions were both fun and informative. The goal of the workshop was to share notes and give people to basic technical skills they need to use these techniques in their research. We've collected up […]

August 23, 2012

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6:15 PM | Welcome Patricia!

This isn’t necessarily “new” news, but Patricia Chan has joined us as our lab manager (also for Nathaniel Daw’s lab). Patricia has been around the lab for a while as a MA research assistant, but despite this we managed to convince her to stay on full-time!

August 18, 2012

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7:25 PM | Lab Hosting Mechanical Turk/Multi-voxel Pattern Analysis Workshop

Our lab, in collaboration with Yael Niv‘s lab at Princeton, will hosting a full-day technical workshop covering how to run experiments on Mechanical Turk and how to do Multi-voxel Pattern Analysis (MVPA) on fMRI data. The workshop will be held at NYU on Aug. 20, 2012 in Meyer Room 551.

August 14, 2012

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7:02 PM | Farewell to Nate

End of an era: The lab bids farewell to lab manager and etch-a-sketch artist Nate Blanco who is starting grad school at the University of Texas at Austin working with Todd Maddox!

August 09, 2012

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12:36 PM | RULETOOL v2: L-systems and turtle graphics

An L-system or Lindenmayer system is a parallel rewriting system, namely a variant of a formal grammar.It was primary conceived as a mathematical theory of plant development, but also able to model the morphology of a variety of organisms.A L-system consists of an alphabet of symbols that can be used to make strings, a collection of production rules which expand each symbol into some larger string of symbols, an initial "axiom" string from which to begin construction, and a mechanism […]

Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz, Aristid Lindenmayer (1990). The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants, Springer-Verlag. pp. 101–107, DOI: 10.1016/S0168-9452(96)04526-8

Citation

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11:31 AM | Burning Ship Fractal in HTML5

The Burning Ship fractal, first described and created by Michael Michelitsch and Otto E. Rössler in 1992, is generated by iterating the function:in the complex plane which will either escape or remain bounded. The difference between this calculation and that for the Mandelbrot set is that the real and imaginary components are set to their respective absolute values before squaring at each iteration.http://amsqr.github.com/canvas.js/burningship.html

July 26, 2012

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10:37 PM | Chromanin.js Editor Preview

Minimal functionality implemented, this is just an alpha preview.TO-DO:+ Load/save presets+ Dynamic attributes+ Error checking+ Help / manual+ Bugfixing+ More accesible and user-friendly UI+ Export options+ Custom texture sizes+ Share links+ ...http://amsqr.github.com/chromanin.js/editor.html

July 25, 2012

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5:08 PM | Malware Analysis Tools and Resources

A friend asked for my personal list of tools that I like/use in order to perform malware analysis so here it is.:Python, your favourite C compiler and a good assembler such as NASM or YASM are a must. Also, depending on the kind of threats that you have to deal with you may need:Windows sandboxes and/or automatic analysis […]

July 24, 2012

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6:11 AM | Using OpenGL inmediate mode in WebGL

OpenGL traditionally provides two main approaches for rendering geometric data: immediate mode and display lists.When using immediate mode, applications send all the geometric data to the graphics processing unit (GPU) every frame, which is advantageous in situations such as modeling or animation where geometry is frequently created or modified. But constantly re-specifying geometric data can cause a big performance penalty if this data does not change frequently compared with storing the […]