samad.bio

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Hey, I'm Samad.

I spend most of my free time learning about software and security. Right now that's mostly networking and Python.

This site is where I keep my notes and whatever I'm working on. I'm not an expert, so some of this is probably wrong.

Now

What has my attention at the moment. Updated when it changes.

  • learning Networking fundamentals. Subnetting confused me for weeks until an analogy finally made it click. I wrote about it in the most recent note.
  • building This website. There's a changelog at the bottom with everything I've changed.
  • reading Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick, and working slowly through Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.
  • trying To write one note a week. Current pace is closer to one a month.

The /now format comes from nownownow.com.

Notes

Short write-ups of things I've been learning, written mostly for myself.1

  1. Subnetting finally clicked (an analogy involving apartment buildings)

    I tried memorizing the rules and it didn't stick. Then I drew it all out like apartment buildings and it finally made sense. The note is basically that drawing with an explanation.

  2. I wrote a port scanner to understand port scanners

    Nmap felt like a black box, so I wrote a rough version in Python to see how one works. It took an afternoon and it's nowhere near as good, but it taught me the basics.

  3. Moving my notes out of three apps and into plain text

    My notes lived in three different apps and one of them wouldn't even export properly. Everything's in plain text files now, and months in, it's working fine.

  4. What I got wrong about the CIA triad in my first week

    I could recite the definitions fine, but knowing what they mean on an actual system took me a while. This is also a correction to my own earlier notes.

Some of these will turn into longer posts when I have more to say.

1 Mostly for me, but there was no reason to keep them private. Maybe one of them saves you some googling. ↩

Making

Things I've built or am building.

  • samad.bio

    in progress

    You're looking at it. It's hand-coded, and I keep coming back to tweak small things.

  • portscan.py

    works

    A TCP port scanner in Python. It's about two hundred times slower than Nmap, but since I wrote it myself I know what every part of it does.

  • home lab

    running

    An old laptop running Linux that gives me a safe place to break things. It currently runs a firewall I'm still getting the hang of and a wiki for odds and ends.

  • habit tracker

    abandoned, might return

    Built the interface in a weekend, then got stuck on the actual tracking logic and gave up. Maybe I'll pick it back up someday.