How an HTTP header caused time.gov to skew from UTC
Exploring a clock synchronization problem
Apr 2026
Built on Shards of Silicon
RSS BlogrollThe personal blog of Robert Alexander
This blog contains my thoughts on technology, programming, computer security, and the cloud. I especially enjoy posting about hobby projects I've built (see more on my home page), and foundational technology like TLS and DNS. I think we need to measure the world to understand it, so I publish Internet measurement trends.
I love finding technology that doesn't behave the way you'd expect. Clocks that tell the wrong time, unique identifiers that aren't unique, security controls that have no effect. Promises that were never really there, the "shards of silicon" that we build upon.
Posts
This blog post tells the time
Using Cloudflare CDN to synchronize a clock
Apr 2026
GUID reuse in WordPress
Surprising collisions of WordPress post GUIDs
Mar 2026
Uptime of GitHub Pages alternatives
Measuring service availability of static website hosting
Mar 2026
RSS feed discovery with FeedLand
FeedLand enables social blog discovery
Jan 2026
Does the Internet know what time is it?
Measuring out-of-sync clocks on the Internet
Dec 2025
Discovering the indieweb with calm tech
Blog Quest and StreetPass help you discover the independent web
Dec 2025
Oops, my UUIDs collided!
Why UUID collisions happen in practice
Oct 2025
The UUID collection
Publishing my first collection of blog posts
Oct 2025
Why UUIDs won't protect your secrets
UUIDs and Indirect Object Reference
Oct 2025
The most popular email providers
Measuring the popularity of email hosting providers
Aug 2025
Choosing Vim over VSCode
Why I keep coming back to Vim
Feb 2025
MTA-STS Preload
Tracking domains that support MTA-STS
Nov 2024
The next stage of getlocalcert.net
Keeping the project going
Nov 2024
Is email confidential in transit yet?
Measuring vulnerable SMTP configurations and defenses
Nov 2024
TLDs with novel behavior
Thoughts on .internal and gTLDs
Oct 2024
SMTP Downgrade Attacks and MTA-STS
Running a bunch of mail servers to audit email security
Sep 2024
One year of getlocalcert.net
Reflecting on a year of running a free domain registration service
Jul 2024
Moving to Hugo
My blog now uses the Hugo blog framework
Jun 2024
RSS Categories - In Practice
How do RSS Categories work in practice?
Jun 2024
RSS blogrolls are a federated social network
Could a modern look at RSS feeds and blogrolls help the small-web much like the fediverse is revitalizing community in social networks?
May 2024
Designing Personal Software
Why we need more to-do apps
Feb 2024
Certificate Authority Trustworthiness
Challenges facing the CAs and why we still trust them
Jul 2023
HSTS preload adoption and challenges
A review of HSTS and HSTS preload list growth
Jun 2023
A mental model for on-demand pricing
A model for thinking about AWS EC2 on-demand and reserved pricing
May 2023
Improving HTTPS on private networks
Launching the getlocalcert.net service
Apr 2023
Name "Constrain't" on Chrome
When Name Constraints ain't enforced
Apr 2023
Hello! I'm Robert Alexander, a DevSecOps consultant available for contract work. This blog features some of my work and thoughts on software, the cloud, and security. You can subscribe to my posts with your favorite RSS client and follow me on Mastodon.
If you'd like to show your appreciation and help support my writing, you can do so via this link.
Statements are my own and do not represent the positions or opinions of my employer.