Technical Writing
& Case Studies
Deep dives into real engineering problems. Debugging sessions that became documentation. The guides I wish existed when I was figuring things out.
# Debugging Samsung TV Streaming
## The Problem
Samsung Smart TVs drop auth headers
on video range requests. The player
shows `0:00 / 0:00` indefinitely.
## Root Cause
The media player component makes its
own HTTP requests, separate from the
browser's cookie jar.
## Solution
Bypass cookie auth entirely. Use
subnet-based validation for local
network requests.|Featured
Recent case studies and technical deep-dives
Untangling my first Power Automate Nightmare
I inherited a purchase order workflow that crashed browsers. The original hardcoded every approval path. 3GB of RAM on the tab. I rebuilt it with JSON configuration and loops.
Building a Job Board Scraper That Doesn't Suck
I got tired of manually refreshing career pages, so I built a configurable tool to track job postings and notify me when something changes.
Why Samsung Smart TVs Drop Authentication Headers on Video Streams
A debugging journey through undocumented device behavior. How I discovered that Tizen's media player doesn't share the browser's session state; and how to work around it.
Browse by Topic
About This Documentation
I write about problems I've actually solved: debugging sessions that took hours, architectural decisions that required tradeoffs, and the undocumented behaviors I discovered the hard way.
These aren't tutorials copied from Stack Overflow. They're the guides I wish existed when I was stuck at 2am trying to figure out why my Samsung TV wouldn't play videos from my file server.
— Dieter Johann