Binary, IPv4, and Subnets

The IPv4 protocol which we broadly (but not totally) use today rests on an addressing system that was designed in the 1970s and formally published in 1980.

The Etymology of 'Deadline'

The word 'deadline' has a popular etymology story around 19th century prison culture. The explanation of the meaning behind the word 'deadline' often goes something like this — as many etymologists and US dictionaries frequently cite it:

Life of a Windows Process

In a previous post, I covered a bit about how Windows Processes are initialized. But how does process creation work in Windows? Let's explore a bit further into Windows processes.

Subshells in Linux (and Windows)

Or rather, subshells in Bash and Powershell. A subshell functions as a sort of isolated environment for executing commands, creating a subprocess or child process within the parent shell.

Portable Executable Format and Structured Exception Handling

The Portable Executable (PE) file format is the native file format for executable and binary files in the Microsoft Windows ecosystem.

Processes and Call Stacks

In Windows, our process information looks something like this.

XNU, a hybrid kernel

XNU was originally based on the Mach microkernel. But nowadays macOS blurs the lines. Though some parts of macOS follow the microkernel spirit, other parts are monolithic. It's more complex than a "pure" microkernel. Perhaps a microkernel has less abstractions. But XNU is a hybrid kernel that nonetheless still employs the priciple of least privilege well - striking a balance between the two realms.