-
New Dec 13, 2024
On Mortality
Content Warning: This post is about mortality. This morning, I awoke from a dream. I’d just discovered a ticking time bomb was a fake, and the dream ended as I said to my companion...
-
New Dec 12, 2024
Mark-of-the-Web: Real-World Protection
Two years ago, I wrote up some best practices for developers who want to take a file’s security origin into account when deciding how to handle it. That post was an update of a post I’d...
-
New Dec 7, 2024
My New Desktop
After a frustrating morning with my troublesome P1 Gen 7 laptop, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and stop working off laptops full-time, a habit that I inexplicably fell into at the start of...
-
New Nov 25, 2024
Fiddler – My Mistakes
On a flight back from Redmond last week, I finally read Linus Torvalds’ 2002 memoir “Just For Fun.” I really enjoyed its picture of Linux (and Torvalds) early in its success, with...
-
New Nov 22, 2024
Parallel Downloading
I’ve written about File Downloads quite a bit, and early this year, I delivered a full tech talk on the topic. From my very first days online (a local BBS via 14.4 modem, circa 1994), I spent...
-
New Nov 18, 2024
Security Software – An Overview
I’ve spent nearly my entire professional career in software security: designing software to prevent abuse by bad actors. I’ve been battling the bad guys for over two decades now, from...
-
New Nov 15, 2024
Best Practices for SmartScreen AppRep
Last year, I wrote about how Windows integrates SmartScreen Application Reputation to help ensure users have a secure and smooth experience when running downloaded software. tl;dr: When a user runs a...
-
New Nov 15, 2024
Defensive Technology: Controlled Folder Access
Most client software’s threat models (e.g. Edge, Chrome) explicitly exclude threats where the local computer was compromised by malware. That’s because, without a trusted computing base,...
-
New Nov 11, 2024
On Politics
I do not come from an especially political family. One parent has not voted in decades, and the other votes regularly, but is not an enthusiast and values harmony over potentially-divisive political...
-
New Oct 28, 2024
Lenovo P1, Gen7: Meh
I’ve been a loyal user of Thinkpads for over twenty-five years now, and I currently own four (with another on loan from Microsoft). In July, the screen on my Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen 6 failed at an...