This is why I enjoy working on APIs. You get to be a part of things bigger than yourself. To be a part of other people's novel visions. :)

Cost Plus (Redmond) still has plenty of Bonne Maman advent calendars in stock, for those of you who always forget until it's too late. You all know who you are :)

Avoiding public WiFi, QR codes, or public USB chargers doesn’t prevent you from being hacked. Happy to sign onto this open letter alongside 80+ cybersecurity veterans urging a shift from folklore to guidance that actually helps people avoid the most common attacks. www.hacklore.org

WE HAVE A DATE! The new terminal at the Pittsburgh Airport opens in a week, on Tuesday, Nov. 18. More on the impressive new space: byerussell.substack.com/p/pittsburgh...

Bainbridge Island out showing its colors the other day.

I’m really proud of this talk and I hope you’ll watch it. I put care in to making it approachable while still delivering my perspective and insights to security professionals. If you don't get the "why" behind passkeys, this talk will help fill that gap. [2/2] www.youtube.com/watch?v=otOb...

[Politics, woo!] If you're writing to your senators (as I did today), be sure your message centers the vulnerable in your community. It's easy for us solidly middle-class people to be passionate, but at the end of the day, the fight is for our neighbors to have access to affordable, quality care.

Being a Washington state voter teaches you certain life skills. Chief among them is patience. 😎

Interested in working in .NET Tooling? My team is hiring for a few roles. This is a great to impact the .NET ecosystem, work with devs all across Microsoft and help drive the .NET platform forward. jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/jo... jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/jo...

This article perfectly summarizes my household's experience with the new Nest cameras. The camera quality is a good upgrade compared to the previous gen; but the Gemini integration feels like utility and reliability stumbled off a cliff, plunged into the sea, and drowned.

My fellow Washingtonians, 2025 might be an off-cycle election, but we've still got some important measures to weigh in on! Remember to have your ballot in an election drop box by 8:00 pm Tuesday! More resources, including drop box location and in-person registration & ballot casting, at votewa.gov

I'm writing another book, and the first few chapters are available through Manning Early Access now! For 50% off! hubs.la/Q03Q9PGP0 More details, and the story of how I came to write it, are on my blog at ericlippert.com/2025/10/30/i... It feels great to be writing again after a long break. :)

Vote by mail continues to be a glorious thing. :)

Apropos of nothing, my fellow Washingtonians, there's an election coming up in a few weeks! We even have same-day registration, but it's far more convenient if you register in advance. (They mail ballots! To your home! Return postage prepaid! How awesome is that?!)

Thank you Ron Conway for standing up for what's right and thank you Marc Benioff for listening. www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

It's Patch Tuesday and ASP.NET Core has a doozy, with a CVSS score of 9.9, our highest ever. Let's examine why. The bug enables http request smuggling, which on its own for ASP.NET Core would be nowhere near that high, but that's not how we rate things... * Thread- (1/7)

"Vibe working" a PowerPoint deck is fun! I had it generate a deck extolling the virtues of using Vibe HR to identify low-impact / low-engagement employees as layoff targets. (Note: Copilot forbids "layoff" as a dirty word, so I had to use "PiP" instead.)

New by me: A look into UK orgs outsourcing critical business and cyber functions to low cost providers and the fall out. I'll probably get in trouble for writing this one. doublepulsar.com/the-elephant...

@blowdart.me I think we should update .NET's envvar naming guidelines.

✈️ Thinking about holiday travel? Make sure your passport is ready! If you live in WA-01, join us in Mill Creek on Oct. 16 for a passport application event. Register below to renew or apply for a passport at the event. bit.ly/46gI5w1

the actual advances in new iPhone models are often about security (everyone is always trying to make memory allocation more secure and less of an attack surface because memory reuse/corruption attacks are key to a lot of exploits)

I’m picky about my dev workflow, so adopting new tools takes time. But I’ve used git worktrees exclusively for the past year and have loved it. 🌟 They’ve been game-changing as my engineering impact/scope has grown. More details on my setup: blog.safia.rocks/2025/09/03/g...

Most software tort proposals in the U.S. focus on defining a standard of care for developers, writes @csetgeorgetown.bsky.social's Micah Musser. But what happens after a finding of liability?

Ethics, social studies, and history should all be mandatory learning. "But I'm an engineer" or "but I'm a scientist," they'll say, " those are humanities subjects "... Yes, that is literally the point. Everything you do affects humanity, and that impact needs to be understood by everyone involved.

A Computer Can Never Be Held Accountable Therefore A Computer Must Always Make Every Management Decision So You Can Say “Don’t Blame Me, Take It Up With Executron The All-Knowing”

Interesting post that also touches on some issues we've had when trying to use LLMs to TM components. The big sticking point IMO: a threat model requires as input what you *intended* the component to do, but an LLM can only see what you *actually implemented*. This gap leads to false confidence.

I will caveat that "I didn't mean for this to happen" can be an absolving thing, but only when there's no reasonable way to know that "this" would follow from one's action or lack thereof, and that was manifestly not the case here. It's like the legal distinction btwn intent and gross negligence.

The Decima engine really is gorgeous.

"an entirely new version of the Siri voice assistant that can inject itself into conversations between multiple people. ... It could interrupt a conversation between friends about dinner plans, say, and suggest nearby restaurants..." No. No no no no no no. I keep my devices silent for a reason.

We still doing cancelable opinions? My turn. Tech company statements "we're democratizing <thing>" are bullshit. It's actively harmful because it delegitimizes expertise and papers over nuance. This in fact *undermines* an informed democracy. Stick with the less sexy "we're commoditizing <thing>".

let’s goooooo @elections.kingcounty.gov

Honest answer: Almost all 2FA deployed at scale shares one of the fundamental sins of passwords: being phishable. That is, a convincing but fake website can trick someone into giving away a 2FA code. What passkeys do is replace broken, phishable passwords with something that's always strong.

Oh, goodie! Wonder when we can expect windbg support?

There have been many attempts to farm out content moderation to AI that have been...not great. So I'm interested in this thread about Zentropi at TrustCon.

Obligatory classic:

Come take my money!

Seattle-area friends, friendly reminder that elections are coming up next week, and you can even get text alerts to track your ballot through the return & verification process! kingcounty.gov/elections

Jen Easterly writes a post on LinkedIn addressing her position at West Point being rescinded: "A casualty of casually manufactured outrage that drowned out the quiet labor of truth and the steady pulse of integrity." www.linkedin.com/pulse/harder...

Really great @caitjgibson.bsky.social profile of Ms. Rachel:

Windows Enclaves gain a useful primitive

Redmond / Woodinville / Bothell looking good today from the trail! (photo set 1 of 2)

J'ai arrivée chez @blowdart.me.

If you would like to laugh about incurable diseases and cry about a van, watch this incredible TEDx talk about technology by @scott.hanselman.com

Recent Edge update broke your omnibox search experience? Instructions for fixing it -->

Marvelously done, everybody involved with the decision to platform Musk at Microsoft's recent build conference. Really a strong demonstration of our ironclad commitment to high corporate values and ethical standards. 🙄

I am spending the day listening to audio recordings of my own voice. This is hell. I am in hell.

My fellow MSFTies! The Giving portal has a campaign running to collect donations to benefit Texas natural disaster relief efforts. Direct link: microsoft.benevity.org/campaigns/89...

Old 'n busted: case law New hotness: case slaw

I keep saying how strange it feels to talk to US tech folks about technology as if nothing else was going on, when so much is going on; that notion that technology can be apolitical is only ever a sign of privelige and politics is coming for technology. layoffs will be part of the changing landscape