Parsing Every Log Format: The Timestamp Problem in LogSleuth
Every application writes logs differently, and timestamps are a disaster. Here's the 15-heuristic fallback chain LogSleuth uses to parse them, and why it has to exist.
Field Notes
Field Notes
How the tools actually work under the hood — MFT walks, timestamp heuristics, file-lock forensics. Deep technical write-ups on the mechanisms behind the toolbox, Rust desktop development, and the odd Windows war story. No content calendar, no SEO filler — just things worth writing down.
08 All writing
Reading the MFT Directly: How DiskSleuth Scans a Drive in Seconds
Walking the directory tree is slow. When elevated, DiskSleuth reads the NTFS Master File Table directly — a million files in a few seconds instead of minutes.
What's Actually Holding This File? Two Approaches to Windows File Locks
The 'file in use' dialog tells you nothing useful. SMB locks and local process handles are completely different problems — most tools only solve one of them.
Why Event Viewer Is Slow, and How I Replaced It in Rust
120,000 events, 45 seconds of hang. The Event Log API is fast — Event Viewer just uses it badly. Here's the fix, and the wevtutil one-liner that works when you can't install anything.
Building Secure File Encryption with XChaCha20-Poly1305
I built SwatCrypt because I didn't trust myself to bolt crypto onto something else. Here's what I chose and why — cipher, KDF, and why unsafe code is banned at compile time.
Self-Hosting Security: Wazuh + CrowdSec on a VPS
Attackers automate their scanning. My setup uses Wazuh for host-level visibility and CrowdSec for crowd-sourced blocking — here's why they work better together than either alone.
Tauri vs Electron in 2026: What I Actually Found
I've shipped several tools with Tauri and maintained Electron apps. The size difference is real, but it's not the most interesting part.
Why I Chose Rust for AI-Built Desktop Tools
AI writes the code, but the language choice still matters. Rust's compiler guardrails catch whole categories of bug that would otherwise slip through unnoticed.