Hairizuan Noorazman
Life is too exciting to just keep still!
Practical implementation notes, experiments, and lessons learned from building and operating software.
Recent
Persistent ext4 Roots for Multikernel Linux on Google Compute Engine
··1340 words·7 mins
My first Multikernel Linux experiment on Google Compute Engine (GCE) showed that one VM could run a primary kernel and multiple child kernels at the same time. The children could use different kernel binaries, but their root filesystems were either minimal initramfs images or DAXFS. That left an important question unanswered: could a child kernel have a persistent, read-write ext4 root filesystem?
Can Multikernel Linux Run on Google Compute Engine?
··1336 words·7 mins
The idea behind Multikernel Linux is unusual: one physical machine can run several independent Linux kernels at the same time, without placing a conventional hypervisor between those kernels and the hardware. A primary kernel owns the machine’s resources, moves selected CPUs, memory, and devices into a pool, and starts child kernels from that pool.
Three Approaches to Embedding Playwright in Electron
··702 words·4 mins
When Claude Code uses the Playwright MCP server, it opens a separate Chromium window. This window floats outside of Worklayer, disconnected from the workspace. I wanted Playwright-controlled pages to appear inside a web panel so the user can watch the AI work without Alt-Tabbing to a different window.
UUIDv4, UUIDv7, and Avoiding Deep OFFSET Pagination
··1246 words·6 mins
I initially thought UUIDv7 would be very important for avoiding expensive OFFSET pagination. UUIDv7 is time ordered, while UUIDv4 is random, so it seemed natural that changing the identifier would be the key to fast pagination.
PostgreSQL MVCC and Autovacuum Learnings
··1251 words·6 mins
PostgreSQL can let readers and writers work concurrently because of multi-version concurrency control, or MVCC. The trade-off is that an update usually creates a new tuple version instead of replacing the old one in place. A delete also makes a tuple obsolete without immediately removing its storage.
Fighting Electron's findInPage Focus Bug
I wanted find-in-page search for web panels in Worklayer. Electron provides webview.findInPage() which highlights matches and handles navigation between them. Simple enough. Except after the first character is typed into the search input, all subsequent keystrokes disappear into the void.
Initial PostgreSQL Index Optimization Lessons
··992 words·5 mins
I built a small Go CRUD service to learn where a PostgreSQL-backed application starts to slow down. The service manages companies, users, and inventory, while a separate load generator creates a repeatable mixture of reads and writes.
Deploying Agent Sandbox with gVisor and Memory Snapshots on GKE Standard
··1315 words·7 mins
Agent Sandbox provides a Kubernetes API for stateful, singleton, Pod-backed workloads. GKE can add a stronger gVisor isolation boundary and Pod Snapshots that preserve process memory and root filesystem changes.
Building a Custom MCP Server with Chrome DevTools Protocol
When using Claude Code inside Worklayer’s terminal panel, I wanted it to be able to interact with web pages displayed in adjacent web panels. The standard approach would be to use the Playwright MCP server, but that spawns a separate Chromium instance outside the app. The page Playwright controls and the page the user sees are two different browser sessions with no shared state.
Adding SSO to MCP Grafana Server
The MCP Grafana server previously relied on static API keys or basic auth for authenticating requests to Grafana. This works fine for local development or single-user setups, but falls apart once you have multiple users who each need their own Grafana permissions. Passing around shared API keys is a security concern and means everyone operates with the same access level regardless of their actual role.