I wrote this a few years back, but I’ve had occasion to cite it yet again when explaining why engineering at Google was awesome. To avoid it getting eaten by the bitbucket, I’m publishing it here. Background: From January 2016 to May 2018, I was a Senior SWE on the Chrome Enamel Security team. GoogleContinue reading “Coding at Google”
Category Archives: dev
Troubleshooting Edge (or Chrome) Browser Crashes
In the modern browser world, there are two types of crashes: browser crashes and renderer crashes. In a browser crash, the entire browser window with all of its tabs simply vanishes, either on startup, or at some point afterward. The next time the browser starts, it should recognize that the last time it exited wasContinue reading “Troubleshooting Edge (or Chrome) Browser Crashes”
Web Platform Weirdness: Babies and Bathwater
When moving from other development platforms to the web, developers often have a hard time understanding why the web platform seems so … clunky. In part, that’s because the platform is pretty old at this point (>25 years as an app platform), partly because changes in form factors and paradigms (particular mobile) have introduced newContinue reading “Web Platform Weirdness: Babies and Bathwater”
Improving the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection Extension
Earlier this year, I wrote about various extensions available to bolster your browser’s defenses against malicious sites. Today, let’s look at another such extension: the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection extension. I first helped out with extension back in 2018 when I was an engineer on the Chrome Security team, and this spring, I was taskedContinue reading “Improving the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection Extension”
(The Futility of) Keeping Secrets from Yourself
Many interesting problems in software design boil down to “I need my client application to know a secret, but I don’t want the user of that application (or malware) to be able to learn that secret.“ Some examples include: …and likely others. In general, if your design relies on having a client protect a secretContinue reading “(The Futility of) Keeping Secrets from Yourself”
Explainer: File Types
On all popular computing systems, all files, at their most basic, are a series of bits (0 or 1), organized into a stream of bytes, each of which uses 8 bits to encode any of 256 possible values. Regardless of the type of the file, you can use a hex editor to view (or modify)Continue reading “Explainer: File Types”
How Microsoft Edge Updates
By default, Edge will update in the background automatically while you’re not using it. Open Microsoft Edge and you’ll be using the latest version. However, if Edge is already running and an update becomes available, an update notifier icon will show in the Edge toolbar. When you see the update notifier (a green or redContinue reading “How Microsoft Edge Updates”
Improving Native Message Host Reliability on Windows
Last Update: Nov 28, 2023 Update: This change was checked into Chromium 113 before being backed out. The plan is to eventually turn it on-by-default, so extension authors really should read this post and update their extensions if needed. The feature was relanded inside Chrome Canary version 115.0.5789.0. It’s off-by-default, behind a flag on theContinue reading “Improving Native Message Host Reliability on Windows”
A New Era: PM -> SWE
tl;dr: As of last week, I am now a Software Engineer at Microsoft. My path to becoming a Program Manager at Microsoft was both unforeseen (by me) and entirely conventional. Until my early teens, my plan was to be this guy: I went to Space Camp and Space Academy, and spent years devouring endless booksContinue reading “A New Era: PM -> SWE”
SlickRun
While I’m best known for creating Fiddler two decades ago, eight years before Fiddler’s debut I started work on what became SlickRun. SlickRun is a floating command line that provides nearly instant access to almost any app or website. Originally written in Visual Basic 3 and released as QuickRun for Windows 3.1, it was soonContinue reading “SlickRun”
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