FF:SIX - Pattern Recognition for Dummies

So it’s a thunderous return to stride for a post in the FUD Fighters collection.?

Today we are breaking down pattern recognition, if you look carefully there are patterns in everything, numeracy, shapes, code even silly things like whenever there is some ‘cyber hack’ a certain Ambulance Chasing Andy Jenkinson, none other than Andy Jenkinson appears recounting a tale of woe and blame squarely on the company for having ‘exposed positions’ or a ‘swinging appendage’ without a permit on a Friday night when it should be for a Saturday night.

What is pattern recognition?

When we?decompose a complex problem we often find patterns among the smaller problems we create. The patterns are similarities or characteristics that some of the problems share.

Pattern recognition is one of the four cornerstones of Computer Science. It?involves finding the similarities or patterns among small, decomposed problems that can help us solve more complex problems more efficiently.

What are patterns?

Imagine that we want to draw a series of cats.

All cats share common characteristics. Among other things?they all have eyes, tails and fur. They also like to eat fish and make meowing sounds.

Because we know that all cats have eyes, tails and fur, we can make a good attempt at drawing a cat, simply by including these common characteristics.

In?computational thinking, these characteristics are known as patterns.?Once we know how to describe one cat we can describe others, simply by following this pattern.?The only things that are different are the specifics:

• one cat may have green?eyes, a long?tail?and black?fur
• another cat may have yellow?eyes, a short?tail?and striped?fur

Why do we need to look for patterns?

Finding patterns is extremely important. Patterns make our task simpler. Problems are easier to solve when they share patterns, because we can use the same problem-solving solution wherever the pattern exists.

The more patterns we can find, the easier and quicker our overall task of problem solving will be.

If we want to draw a number of cats, finding a pattern to describe cats in general, eg they all have eyes, tails and fur, makes this task quicker and easier.

We know that all cats follow this pattern, so we don’t have to stop each time we start to draw a new cat to work this out. From the patterns we know cats follow, we can quickly draw several cats.

What happens when we don’t look for patterns?

Suppose we hadn’t looked for patterns in cats. Each time we wanted to draw a cat, we would have to stop and work out what a cat looked like. This would slow us down.

We could still draw our cats - and they would look like cats - but each cat would take far longer to draw. This would be very inefficient, and a poor way to go about solving the cat-drawing task.

In addition, if we don’t look for patterns we might not realise that all cats have eyes, tails and fur. When drawn, our cats might not even look like cats. In this case, because we didn’t recognise the pattern, we would be solving the problem incorrectly.

Recognising patterns

To find patterns in problems we look for things that are the same (or very similar) in each problem. It may turn out that no common characteristics exist among problems, but we should still look.

Patterns exist?among different problems?and?within individual problems. We need to look for both.

Patterns among different problems

To find patterns among problems we look for things that are the same (or very similar) for each problem.

For example,?decomposing the task of baking a cake would highlight the need for us to know the solutions to a series of smaller problems:

• what kind of cake we want to bake
• what ingredients we need and how much of each
• how many people we want to bake the cake for
• how long we need to bake the cake for
• when we need to add each ingredient
• what equipment we need

Once we know how to bake one particular type of cake, we can see that baking another type of cake is not that different - because patterns exist.

For example:

• each cake will need a precise quantity of specific ingredients
• ingredients will get added at a specific time
• each cake will bake for a specific period of time

Once we have the patterns identified, we can work on common solutions between the problems.

Patterns within problems

Patterns may also exist within the smaller problems we have decomposed to.

If we look at baking a cake, we can find patterns within the smaller problems, too. For example, for ‘each cake will need a precise quantity of specific ingredients’, each ingredient needs:

• identifying (naming)
• a specific measurement

Once we know how to identify each ingredient and its amount, we can apply that pattern to all ingredients. Again, all that changes is the specifics.

A real world example

Let’s take this screenshot I found on some private warez server just the other day while I was searching for the latest season of Amazons ‘Linux Season 2’

Ok so it’s an Ambulance Chasing Andy Jenkinson special.

Now can you see the pattern?

Let me give you a little nudge on this one, we can check DNSViz.net for ivanti.com:

Ah yes very good very good, so when you see this following screenshot, do you see the pattern?

It’s super complex I know.

If you look very very closely you can see he’s misspelled ivanti.com and instead written ‘Oh god I have no idea how DNS works I just need a page that displays an error so I can act superior on the internet while also pooping on Microsoft because I hate them and grasp at any recognition I can get even if it is just bots and maybe a couple of mates I (probably) pay to help boost me’

Pattern Recognition is as easy as that, if you take a larger sample say….. every post he’s made thanks to Comcast DNS Sever ‘Gi99l3s’ You can see every few days/posts (as he often posts multiple times a day and edits) these screenshots come out, you can also see what kinds of things he types in to get thee errors.

Be warned. If you point out these clearly fudged results he will likely block you and remove the offending comment, he needs to keep up the illusion that he knows better.

He will even go as far as tagging Satya Nadella in one of the more recent posts:

I’ll be honest, the only thing this post shows to professionals in this field is how very little Andy knows.

I am also taking mental bet’s on the statistical probability that I will actually meet Satya Nadella in person and get a cool photo with him, before he would ever even thinks to check LinkedIn and see anything from Andy Jenkinson.

The probability is greater than zero so…. If anyone working at MS could put in a good word? I promise not to completely geek out cross fingers

I mean it worked when I got to meet Nick Sanders (fastest man around the world on a motorbike).

In the meantime keep a level head folks, things are a little hectic at home right now and we are working on it, hopefully things improve but I will always be here, a watcher and guardian.

Peace???

• One thing I do want to tag on the end of this one (quick edit) can someone who isn't blocked by Andy (or yourself dude I know you read these), please check on him? It's getting to the point where people are actually starting to worry about his mental health as he genuinely believes he is correct even when the evidence clearly does not show this, even more so when people have vetted the issue like the Microsoft Email hack from like 3 days ago,,, something Icy Blizzard(?), I forget, a lot is going on behind the scenes that I am not going into. Andy is still adamant it's because of 'insecure DNS servers' that have absolutely nothing to do with password spraying attacks. Just give Andys Man Club a call dude, talk to someone and get well.