Study

• Popular
• Information Security
• System Administration
• Programming
• Computer Science
• Science
• Technology
• Productivity
• Business
• Social
• Miscellaneous

While at university I realized the best way for me to learn something was to research how it works, write a tutorial for myself that covers the main concepts, and then post it online for me to reference when needed.

Below is the collection of articles I’ve created in this way. I hope they can help you as they have helped me.

Popular

• A vim Primer
• A tcpdump Primer
• A tmux Primer
• A Web Performance Primer
• A DNS Primer
• An Encoding Primer
• A Security-focused HTTP Primer
• An lsof Primer

Information Security

• The Difference Between a Vulnerability Assessment and a Penetration Test
• An Information Security Metrics Primer
• When to use Vulnerability Assessments, Penetration Tests, Red Teams, and Bug Bounties
• Information Security Definitions
• If You’re Not Profiling, You’re Not Doing Security
• The Difference Between Red, Blue, and Purple Teams
• The Difference Between Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Risks
• Serialization Security Bugs Explained
• Vulnerability Database Resources
• A bettercap Primer
• Security and Obscurity
• The Difference Between Events, Alerts, and Incidents
• Understanding the Blockchain
• Security Assessment Types
• Encoding vs. Encryption vs. Hashing
• A XSS Primer
• The Internet, the Deep Web, and the Dark Web
• Same Origin Policy
• A Shodan Tutorial and Primer
• A Security-focused HTTP Primer
• An iptables Primer
• An nmap Primer
• The Birthday Attack
• A Firewall Primer
• Hiding Your IP
• The Diffie-Hellman Protocol
• Not All SYN Packets Are Created Equal
• An Infosec Concepts Primer

System Administration

• A tcpdump Primer
• A vim Primer
• An lsof Primer
• OS X Commands
• A grep Tutorial and Primer
• A hexedit Primer
• A tar Primer
• A tr Primer
• A Unix/Linux Permissions Refresher
• Carriage Returns and Line Feeds
• How to Set Your IP in Linux
• A Subnetting Primer
• A Web Performance Primer
• A DNS Primer
• An ICMP Primer
• How Network Ports Work
• The Hyperlink Trailing Slash
• How to Remember Your TCP Flags
• Windows File Sharing

Programming

• An MVC Primer
• Encoding and Character Mapping
• A git Primer
• URLs vs. URIs
• The Difference Between a Programmer, a Hacker, and a Developer

Computer Science

• A Machine Learning Primer
• Artificial Intelligence
• P vs. NP
• Positional Number Systems
• Big Data Explained in Two Bullet Points

Science

• Horsepower vs. Torque
• Correlation vs. Causation

Technology

• Big Data Explained in Two Bullet Points
• Mobile (Cellular) Technologies Explained
• Glossary

Productivity

• A Siri Primer and Reference
• Alfred

Business

• Business Writing
• Hiring
• Leadership

Social

• Dining
• Coffee
• Wine
• Beer
• Steak
• Drinking
• Politics
• Wardrobe
• Class

Miscellaneous

• Photography
• The Table Tennis Loop

Notes

1. There is currently significant variance in the quality and depth of these primers. Some were done in 10 minutes, 12 years ago, and others were done recently and took days to complete. I continue to work on getting them all to the same standard of quality.
2. If you have any recommendations for a primer, please do let me know. A number of the ones above came as the result of requests.
3. Image from unknown author. If you know who created it, please let me know so I can seek permission and/or give credit.