Two experiences this week reminded me of a very important principle for improving the quality of software… if you see something, say something. And the best way to do that is to file a bug. Something Weird? File a bug! The first case was last Thursday, when a user filed a bug in Chrome’s trackerContinue reading “File the Bug”
Category Archives: tech
File Paths in Windows
Handling file-system paths in Windows can have many subtleties, and it’s easy to forget how some of this very intricate system works under the covers. Happily, a .NET developer has started blogging a bit about file paths, presumably as they work to improve .NET’s handling of paths longer than the legacy MAX_PATH limit of 260Continue reading “File Paths in Windows”
Downloads and the Mark-of-the-Web
Last update: September 1, 2026 tl;dr: Downloaders can taint a file originating from the web so that file-handling apps will handle the file more cautiously. Background To help protect the user and their device, Windows and its applications will often treat files originating from the Internet more cautiously than files generated locally. The Windows SecurityContinue reading “Downloads and the Mark-of-the-Web”
Repairing Corrupt ZIP Files
Fiddler’s default file format is the SAZ Format, which is just a ZIP file with a particular structure (I’ve written a lot about ZIPs). Unfortunately, sometimes users’ SAZ files get corrupted due to failing disks or incomplete downloads, and when this happens, Fiddler can no longer open them. Because Fiddler uses a standard ZIP file,Continue reading “Repairing Corrupt ZIP Files”
DotNet Makes Me Sad, In Pictures
.NET Framework KB 3088956: Ouch, that sounds pretty severe. I guess I’d better go manually install a hotfix? Seriously? An email address and a CAPTCHA? Fine. Oh, an email delivered HTTP URL pointed at an executable file? That seems totes legit. Yup, definitely legit, it says “Microsoft” right there at the top! Sure, let’s putContinue reading “DotNet Makes Me Sad, In Pictures”