SaturdayMP Show 78: Advent of Code 2025 (Day 1 – Part 2: Success)

Posted on December 18, 2025 by Chris C

It took me two videos and over 2 hours, but I finally solved the Day 1 – Part 2 Advent of Code 2025 challenge! I wonder if I’m that is the slowest time on record? At least the slowest time anyone would admit too.

Apparently solving Advent of Code problems is not my strong suite. They remind me of university assignments which I never really liked and is a big reason for not perusing a Master’s or PhD. Hopefully someone will just give me an honorary Master’s or PhD one day.

Day 1 – Part 2: Failure:
https://youtu.be/FCAHNP9kJ3U

Advent of Code 2025 – Day 1:
https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/1

Thanks to Eric Wastl for creating Advent of Code and putting it on every year:
https://was.tl/

Have a question you want answered in a future video? A challenging or interesting problem you need you want to see solved? Constructive feedback? Then comment, DM me, or send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

Found this video useful? Then help others find it by liking, subscribing, sharing, and/or sponsoring: https://github.com/sponsors/saturdaymp

Thank you for watching!

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Weekly Dev Chat IRL: Advent of Code/Cyber

Posted on December 12, 2025 by Chris C

The hosts of Weekly Dev Chat are pleased to announce we will be hosting Advent of Code/Cyber. Come join us in real life on December 18 at Strathcona Public Library. We’ll be participating in Advent of Code and Advent of Cyber. Bring your laptop and come join the fun!

See here for more details and registration.

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SaturdayMP Show 77: Advent of Code 2025 (Day 1 – Part 2: Failure)

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Chris C

In this episode I explain how I previously solved Day 1 – Part 1 of the Advent of Code 2025 problem. I then proceed to fail to solve part 2, though I think I was close. I got stuck in the “keep trying random stuff” mindset instead of sitting back and thinking about the problem. A problem that is magnified when I’m recording as I have to think and talk at the same time.

Advent of Code 2025 – Day 1:
https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/1

Thanks to Eric Wastl for creating Advent of Code and putting it on every year:
https://was.tl/

Have a question you want answered in a future video? A challenging or interesting problem you need you want to see solved? Constructive feedback? Then comment, DM me, or send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

Found this video useful? Then help others find it by liking, subscribing, sharing, and/or sponsoring:
https://github.com/sponsors/saturdaymp

Thank you for watching!

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SaturdayMP Show 76: Hack the Box – Lock (Part 2 – Both Flags)

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Chris C

Part 2 of the Lock machine. I was able to capture both the user and system flags with the help of the walkthrough. My biggest learning was with the MSI Installer bug where you can use the installer repair action to elevate yourself from Guest to System Administrator.

Part 1:
https://youtu.be/M6CMolFPnGs

Hack the Box Lock Machine:
https://app.hackthebox.com/machines/Lock

Microsoft Windows MSI Installer – Repair to SYSTEM – A detailed journey
https://sec-consult.com/blog/detail/msi-installer-repair-to-system-a-detailed-journey/

Thanks to @HackTheBox and users xct and kozmer for creating the Lock machine:
https://app.hackthebox.com/users/13569
https://app.hackthebox.com/users/637320

Have a question you want answered in a future video? A challenging or interesting problem you need you want to see solved? Constructive feedback? Then comment, DM me, or send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

Found this video useful? Then help others find it by liking, subscribing, sharing, and/or sponsoring:
https://github.com/sponsors/saturdaymp

Thank you for watching!

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XPlugins.iOS.BEMCheckBox version 8, 9, and 10 released!

Posted on December 1, 2025 by Chris C

I’m pleased to announce that versions 8.0.0, 9.0.0, and 10.0.0 of the XPlugin.iOS.BEMCheckBox have been released. XPlugin.iOS.BEMCheckBox allows you to use the iOS BEMCheckBox, created by Boris Emorine (Boris-Em), in your MAUI projects.

You can find the releases on NuGet:

https://www.nuget.org/packages/SaturdayMP.XPlugins.iOS.BEMCheckBox

XPlugin project:

https://github.com/saturdaymp/XPlugins.iOS.BEMCheckBox

BEMCheckBox project:

https://github.com/saturdaymp/BEMCheckBox

The XPlugin.iOS.BEMCheckBox versions now match the .NET version so version 8 targets .NET 8, version 9 targets.NET 9, and so on. Version 8 and onwards use BEMCheckBox v2.2.0, which requires iOS 18 or higher.

I think I have the targeting and minimum iOS versions set up correctly in the project and the NuGet package, but if you spot a mistake, please let me know by opening an issue:

https://github.com/saturdaymp/XPlugins.iOS.BEMCheckBox/issues

Feel free to open issues for other improvements for either the XPlugin wrapper or BEMCheckbox. Happy coding!

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SaturdayMP Show 75: Hack the Box – Lock (Part 1, Almost Captured the User Flag)

Posted on November 26, 2025 by Chris C

In this episode I attempt the Lock machine on  ⁨@HackTheBox⁩ . Spoiler: I almost captured the user flag but ran out of time. Got delayed by installing items on my new Kali Linux WSL and learning new about MSFvemon, setting Python virtual environments, and the Cryptodome library.

Hopefully, the next video will be capturing the user and root flags. The joys of mostly live videos where you get to watch me struggle and hopefully we learn together.

Hack the Box:
https://www.hackthebox.com/

WSL:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/

IIS:
https://www.iis.net/

MSFvemon:
https://www.offsec.com/metasploit-unleashed/msfvenom/

Python venv:
https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/venv.html

Have a question you want answered in a future video? A challenging or interesting problem you need you want to see solved? Constructive feedback? Then comment, DM me, or send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

Found this video useful? Then help others find it by liking, subscribing, sharing, and/or sponsoring:

https://github.com/sponsors/saturdaymp

Thank you for watching!

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SaturdayMP Show 74: Migrate From Rails to Jekyll (Part 7 or 7)

Posted on November 19, 2025 by Chris C

The final episode in porting the SaturdayMP website from Rails to Jekyll where I update the DNS entries to point to the GitHub Pages site.

Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYPcrKbLqwutOPHv6zimONxErY7ke9tWn

Jekyll:
https://jekyllrb.com/

GitHub Pages:
https://docs.github.com/en/pages

EasyDNS:
https://easydns.com/

Found this video useful? Then help others find it by liking, subscribing, sharing, and/or sponsoring:

https://github.com/sponsors/saturdaymp

Have a question you want answered in a future video? Constructive feedback? A challenging or interesting problem you need a hand with? Then comment, DM me, or send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

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BEMCheckBox v2.2.0 Released!

Posted on November 13, 2025 by Chris C

I’m pleased to announce that v2.2.0 of the BEMCheckBox has been released! This release builds an xcframework instead of a lipo binary. More details can be found in the release notes.

I was made aware of the change from lipo to xcframework when trying to add v2.1.0 of the BEMCheckBox to a .NET 8 version of the XPlugins.iOS.BEMCheckBox project.

BEMCheckBox makes it easy to create beautiful, highly customizable, animated checkboxes for iOS. You can learn more about the project here.

BEMCheckBox Example Gif

Truth be told, I’m not very familiar with Xcode/Swift development, so if anyone notices any issues, please let me know by opening an issue or a pull request. Especially with the accessibility features as this is my first time adding them.

Thank you Boris-Em for creating BEMCheckBox. Myself, and likely lots of other people, really appreciate it.

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SaturdayMP Show 73: Migrate From Rails to Jekyll (Part 6)

Posted on November 5, 2025 by Chris C

No major hiccups in this episode, just several small tasks such as migrating the about and contact us pages, the favicon, and updating the documentation. All are done using Claude Code.

Only one more step to update DNS entries, which I think I’ll make a video for. If you want to see the DNS entries update video, let me know.

Part 5:
https://youtu.be/eRCGlsGHNNM

Jekyll:
https://jekyllrb.com/

Claude Code Visual Studio Extension:
https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/vs-code

Found this video useful? Then help others find it by liking, subscribing, sharing, and sponsoring. Have question you want answered in a future video? Pair on a problem? Constructive feedback? Send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

Need help shipping secure high-quality software faster? Check out Saturday Morning Productions.

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SaturdayMP Show 72: Migrate From Rails to Jekyll (Part 5)

Posted on November 5, 2025 by Chris C

In this episode I fix the SASS depreciation warnings for @import and other statements. By fix I mean just ignore them as Bootstrap does not yet support the new @use and @forward.

Part 4:
https://youtu.be/eJbMn75dQKo Jekyll: https://jekyllrb.com/

Bootstrap:
https://getbootstrap.com/

SASS and Bootstrap:
https://sass-lang.com/documentation/breaking-changes/import/
https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/pull/41236

Have a question you want answered in a future video? Constructive feedback? A challenging or interesting problem you need a hand with? Then comment, DM me, or send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

Found this video useful? Then help others find it by liking, subscribing, sharing, and sponsoring. Have question you want answered in a future video? Pair on a problem? Constructive feedback? Send an email to ask@saturdaymp.com.

Need help shipping secure high-quality software faster? Check out Saturday Morning Productions.

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