Category: Technology

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advice and tips Software development Technology Windows

Before return the company PC or mac

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Mainly double check PC and mac to see if there are any personal info left behind

Delete chrome/safari/IE browser history

Chrome=>setting, clear browsing data, check saved password/forms, delete user, delete cookies/Content settings

Safari=>delete history, privacy=>delete website data; reset safari

IE=>Internet options=>Browsing history

Delete files and folders

check myDocuments/my pictures on PC

check Downloads/Documents/Key Chain folder on Mac

check myNotes, or notes.txt on Mac and PC (applicable to me only)

Some notes for new Mac Users

short cuts, and things different from windows
command + s, command + c, command + v

delete is backspace, fn + delete for delete

Categories
Economy Fun Technology

Is America becoming dumber and dumber

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Or it was always that way? It’s just I (dumb me) vastly underestimated some people’s stupidity. Or let’s blame the smartphones and the tech bros who helped this journey of “making us dumber” 🙂

Smartphone and Social Media

This is not a joke actually, because sometimes I joked too much and my kids usually think my “dad jokes” are not funny. Probably my wife doesn’t think highly some of my jokes either. There are research (google search) that says “social media” make people think less critically – if they were thinking critically before social media, I guess. Let me quite some results from Google search below.

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Search Labs | AI Overview
Is social media making us stupid and less empathetic? – Peerbagh
Yes, social media can make people less able to think critically and analytically, and it can also contribute to mental health issues.

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Reddit: Social Media is making us Dumber

Note with all the American exceptionalism (which in my mind, it’s a myth or overrated to say the least). I don’t think America is exceptional in terms of social media usage though – at the same time, the tech bros are raking in money from social media and overuse of big tech left and right:

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Zuckerberg’s FB/Instagram/Whatsapp;

Elon Musk’s X/Twitter (at least he hoped he could make more money from X, he did make tons of money from Tesla, with quite a bit government subsidies);

Jeff Bezos’ Amazon – earth’s biggest store, shop until you drop;

tech bros’ Google;

tech bros’ Apple;

and so on

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I do similar things on the Chinese social media platform WeChat and Red Note too 🙁 In other words, I believe overall we are all dumber because our eyes are glued to the phone or screen all the time (again if applicable, nothing personal).

Missouri aka the show money state

The outcome of recent lawsuit that awards Missouri $24 billion seems confirmed my worry. I was too simple, too naive. MO AG Andrew Bailey doesn’t seem to be a nice person, btw. As practical matters, this will just make the lives of Chinese people in Missouri a little bit harder. Because as a Chinese person who lived in the show money state since 1997, I know most people here cannot even tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese people and so on. I can’t either: when I met a Chinese couple back in January 2015 for my old daughter kindergarten registration, at first I thought they are Korean 🙂

I am expecting more “go back to your country” shenanigans 🙁

Tariff is another good example. It’s 100% shoot yourself on the foot – those who start the trade war. Here is a good example.

If a country wants to reduce trade deficit: the rational way is to reduce imports, or reduce consumption. Right: don’t buy the junks from Shein and Temu.

If a country wants to boost manufacturing sector, the country can do things such as educate young people on engineering and manufacturing, advocate and support manufacturing business (instead of doing the bitcoin and cryptos shit; or put 100% tariff on EVs from the country you don’t like), and soon. In either case though, tariffs for imports or subsidies for domestic manufacturing are interventions, in other words the Government is meddling in the market. What happens to the republicans free market narrative?

AP: Missouri plans to seize assets to make China pay a $24.5 billion judgment, but can it collect?

Categories
Business Technology

Switch of software or IT vendor

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Sudden Change vs Gradual Change

I have seen a few sudden changes of vendor in my career. And this is usually sign of either “not thinking through” or “the bean counters are in charge”.

Once at Ascension Health, it seems they only implemented the Okta two factor authentication for a few days or a few weeks, then suddenly they switch back to Microsoft AD (Active Directory). It seems to me this one was due to some executives have second thought on Okta. They want to go all in with Microsoft in terms of authentication (and authorization) as well, and they built a layer on the top of Azure AD B2C (and named it as AscensionID).

Now I think about it, in a way “sudden change” is probably easier than change an entrenched software (or rewrite), or trying to slowly change a software or app. Because the “sudden change” approach is somewhat like “just rip off the bandage”. In the case of the example above, because it barely went into production, it was not entrenched.

On the contrary, I have seen in a few cases in my career, we were trying to rewrite an app or a software, only end up going nowhere after spending quite some time. Re-write has its own challenges, btw.

In fact, in most cases: I realized we end up not switching – note this is after decent or significant efforts (in terms of money, multi-millions dollars). If it’s my money, I don’t think I would spend it like that.

FAA (Key Officials)

About 2 years ago, I recall this incident – (CNN) Aging, outdated technology leaves air travel at risk of meltdown. Quote:

The glitch at the center of this week’s headache was a corrupted database file in a pilots’ advisory system that issues warnings, known as NOTAMs, of various hazards that could affect a flight, ranging from notices of closed runways to the presence of nearby construction equipment. The damaged file was also present in the FAA’s backup system, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, which first reported the detail on Wednesday.

Officials moved to reboot the main NOTAM system early Wednesday morning, but it failed to be completely restored by the time rush hour began on the East Coast, leading to the FAA ground stop. A senior US official told CNN Wednesday there was no evidence of foul play in the incident, a detail the FAA later publicly confirmed.…

The NOTAM issue occurred just days after the FAA had said an “air traffic computer issue” was responsible for hours-long flight delays to Florida airports on Jan. 2. That system, known as ERAM, is responsible for tracking hundreds of flights at a time and is considered a critical component of the FAA’s efforts to modernize the US airspace.

More recently, I heard that the DOGE or more precisely Elon is going to fix the old systems at FAA. See below. Note this is different from the system above: also current system is neither Verizon or Starlink.

(Twitter/X) The FAA is close to canceling a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon and HANDING IT OVER TO STARLINK.

(Politico) Musk slams a Starlink competitor amid questions about $2.4B FAA contract

(Rolling Stone) FAA Officials Ordered Staff to Find Funding for Elon Musk’s Starlink

Quote Rolling Stone here:

Elon Musk’s satellite business Starlink may not have officially taken over Verizon’s $2.4 billion contract with the Federal Aviation Administration yet to upgrade the systems it uses to manage America’s airspace. However, on Friday, FAA officials ordered staff to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal, according to a source with knowledge of the FAA and two people briefed on the situation.

The sources note that these internal directives have mostly, if not entirely, been delivered verbally — which they say is unusual for a matter like this. The source with knowledge of the FAA tells Rolling Stone that it appears as though “someone does not want a paper trail.”

I can recall in a few other cases “verbal instructions only” are used, e.g., the dismantle of USAid, CFPB by the DOGE team.

And last but not the least, Protest held at South County Tesla dealership.

Full disclosure: no stock positions on $MSFT, $OKTA, $TSLA and $VZ at this time.

Categories
China gadgets iOS iPhone app Life Life Tips Technology Travel Web

VPN software I have used personally

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This article can also be read on Medium. But this blog post has all the up to date information, while the medium.com article doesn’t get regular update.

Sometimes called 科学上网 in CHN

Mac:

VPN Prime – Unlimited Proxy 4+

Update early June 2025, the free plan appears stopped working in my most recent CHH trip.

Update June 12, 2025: I purchased the paid plan, and it works (again I found a sever that worked). Considering switching from the below iOS app to this Mac app for my VPN needs.

Update 06-13-25: sometimes the connection will get reset and get lost. In that case, I tried to connect to another server and it usually works.

Update 06-14-2025: I felt more confident using this app. I think this is a viable option if I need to work from CHN (right now my employer doesn’t allow that).

iPhone, iPad

VPN – Super Unlimited Proxy 4+ (Update June 2025, it still works, I have the premium sub now, and I know not all servers work, and I have my fav server now. Email me if you like to know 🙂

Update 06-12-2025: I noticed this app doesn’t always work flawlessly. At least in the two hotels I stayed, it didn’t like the Hotel WiFi. I don’t know how the app works exactly, but during the connection process, it seems dropping the WiFi and used the cellular data, which would cause the connection issue.

Update 06-17-2025: again, this app works flawlessly when I am in the US. Now I tend to think due to its popularity, China blocks this app’s use 🙁

(Original) Note: both apps have free versions, and both have add-ons that are available for purchase. I verified them on my trip and they work for the most part, iPhone app sometimes takes a few tries to get going. The Mac app works out of the box most of the time.

Cell phone international roaming

I know T-mobile used to have it. Mint Mobile has international pass too: 1 day, 3 day and 10 day. The device can go to outside world just like the VPN would. One may have to check her/his current cell phone carrier and see there is such a program or a pass.

Cell phone roaming has its own advantage, for example, we can order food or ride-share cars as those apps are usually available on the smart phone and they usually require internet connection. But in the case of China, ideally one may want to get a local phone number, as it’s needed by the meituan and didi chuxing apps.

Other use cases:

Netflix (shows from other country etc.)

Organizations sometimes block certain social media websites: this can happen in the western countries too.

Other software

Nord VPN: paid. It takes some effort to get it working in CHN. It seems all the default servers are blocked. Had to open a ticket to get alternative server names (ip address etc.), try and error, to got it working in year 2023. Retrieved a list during most recent trip too (summer 2024), haven’t tried it out as I found the two solutions above are good enough.

Default setting for Nord VPN is working when in the USA. That’s true for the free versions for two apps above too.

(Update 01/03/2025) I found this bug a while back, the issue was when my phone is on the Mobile Data network (not Wi-Fi), and when the VPN was on via Wi-Fi before the cut over, it seems Nord VPN has difficulty connect to VPN. Took me a while to understand why I lost internet connection. I am ditching this app (and software) now – not solely because of this. It’s just another annoying thing or bug for me. I noticed it didn’t work out of box on the public K-12 school’s public Wi-Fi – had to use VPN – Super Unlimited Proxy 4+ (the free version: I may consider support them later once my Nord VPN subscription expires).

(Original post July 2024) Open VPN (I set it up on my own $DGCN server), but it stopped working for me in CHN in my 2023 trip. Bought Nord VPN in that trip too. Refer to this Chinese article if you want to learn more about OpenVPN or setup your own OpenVPN server (note it still works outside CHN’s GFW).

PS: you may want to take a look at eSIM app for travel.

我用VPN主要是因为我的personal email 是GMail，还有我有时会听YT/YT Music上面的歌。下面是谷歌中文翻译。

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这篇文章也可以在 Medium 上阅读。但这篇博文包含所有最新信息，而 medium.com 上的文章则没有定期更新。

中文有时称为“科学上网”，或者叫梯子：可能是从“翻墙”那里衍生出来的。

Mac：

VPN Prime – 无限代理 4+

更新于 2025 年 6 月初，免费套餐似乎在我最近的一次 CHN 之旅中停止了工作。

更新于 2025 年 6 月 12 日：我购买了付费套餐，现在可以使用了（我又找到了一个可以正常工作的服务器）。我考虑从下面的 iOS 应用切换到这个 Mac 应用来满足我的 VPN 需求。

更新于 2025 年 6 月 13 日：有时连接会被重置并丢失。在这种情况下，我尝试连接到其他服务器，通常情况下可以正常工作。

iPhone、iPad

VPN – 超级无限代理 4+（更新至 2025 年 6 月，它仍然有效，我现在有付费订阅，我知道并非所有服务器都能正常工作，而且我现在有我最喜欢的服务器了。如果你想知道，请给我发邮件

更新于 2015 年 6 月 12 日：我注意到这个应用程序并不总是完美无缺。至少在我住过的两家酒店，它不如酒店的 WiFi 好用。我不知道这个应用程序的具体工作原理，但在连接过程中，它似乎会断开 WiFi 并使用蜂窝数据，这会导致连接问题。

（原文）注意：这两个应用程序都有免费版本，并且都有可购买的附加组件。我在旅途中验证了它们，它们大部分时间都可以正常工作，iPhone 应用程序有时需要尝试几次才能启动。Mac 应用程序大多数时候开箱即用。

手机国际漫游

我知道 T-mobile 以前有这个功能。Mint Mobile 也有国际漫游通行证：1 天、3 天和10天。该设备可以像VPN一样连接到外部网络。用户可能需要检查当前的手机运营商，看看是否有这样的程序或通行证。

手机漫游有其自身的优势，例如，我们可以订餐或叫车，因为这些应用程序通常在智能手机上可用，并且通常需要网络连接。但在中国，理想情况下，用户可能需要获取一个本地电话号码，因为美团和滴滴出行等应用程序需要这些号码。

其他用例：

Netflix（其他国家的节目等）

一些组织有时会屏蔽某些社交媒体网站：这种情况在西方国家也可能发生。

其他软件

Nord VPN：付费。在中国使用需要一些时间。似乎所有默认服务器都被屏蔽了。不得不提交工单获取备用服务器名称（IP地址等），反复尝试，最终在2023年成功恢复。在最近的一次旅行中（夏季）也获取了一份列表。 2024），我还没试过，因为我觉得上面两个方案已经够用了。

Nord VPN 在美国默认设置下可以正常工作。上面两个应用的免费版本也一样。

（更新于 2025 年 3 月 1 日）我之前发现了这个 bug，问题出在当我的手机连接移动数据网络（而非 Wi-Fi）时，如果在切换之前 VPN 是通过 Wi-Fi 开启的，Nord VPN 似乎很难连接到 VPN。我花了一段时间才明白为什么我断网了。我现在正在放弃这个应用（和软件），不仅仅是因为这个。这只是另一个让我恼火的问题或 bug。我注意到它在公立 K-12 学校的公共 Wi-Fi 上无法开箱即用——不得不使用 VPN——Super Unlimited Proxy 4+（免费版：等我的 Nord VPN 订阅到期后，我可能会考虑支持他们）。

（原帖）Open VPN（我在自己的 $DGCN 上设置了它）服务器），但在我2023年的中国之行中，它失效了。那次旅行我也买了Nord VPN。如果你想了解更多关于OpenVPN的信息，或者搭建你自己的OpenVPN服务器（注意，它在中国的GFW之外仍然可以使用），请参阅这篇中文文章。

Categories
Edu-and-Ladue-School Technology

Two simple Microbit programs for valentines day

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I am going to show the below two simple programs with hearts tomorrow for the 4th graders in my daughter’s school.

Instruction for Microbit: download the hex file, paste it to the microbit, the code change will take effect 

Beating heart | micro:bit  – note I can switch back and forth 

Flashing Heart – MakeCode  – this is the one that’s currently on my Microbit, I will switch back and forth, also I will explain the code a bit, both the block code, and the Python code.

Also, refer to my old blog post Teach Kids Programming

Categories
Software development Technology

AI AI AI

Reading Time: 2 minutes
Screenshot from Chatgpt

Background

Years ago when I think of AI, I only think about the autonomous driving (driverless car or self driving car). The tech behind it is so called “deep learning“, and it’s a part of Artificial Intelligence. Now it’s all the Chatgpt and Generative AI, or in Chinese tech community, AIGC (AIG generated content) is on the rage.

Is it AI or just computer vs human? I recall I could not beat the computer on chess.com (I believe it’ just the computer algorithm behind it, there is no machine learning behind the scene) easily. Note I am not a very good chess player. But I recall Google has this AlphaZero and it beats chess world-champion. The latter probably has some artificial intelligence and some machine learning capability.

Apple’s approach

(CNBC) Apple’s practical approach to A.I.: No bragging, just features

Personally I like Apple’s way of roll out AI as time goes approach. For Apple: over the years I noticed iPhone in particular would guess where I want to go, I think it probably looked at my calendar and the usage of map app. Also I like the “featured photo” and “memories” feature on the iPhone photos app very much. The other day I saw the feature photo on my iPhone was my old daughter 1st school day picture. I know Facebook and Google photos can probably do that too. But for Facebook I think I would need to upload the photo that day. Not sure about Google, because I used Android at most for 1 year or 2, among my last 13 years use of smartphone.

Apple rarely rolls out things or features when they are not ready. I recall the rumor (a while ago especially) there was talk of Apple Car. But till today there is no Apple Car been seen in the real world, which is quite different from Tesla, Alphabet (Google) Waymo and Cruise (GM).

Impact on other people’s livelihood

The main worry in addition to invasion or erosion of privacy, is the AI could potentially take over people’s jobs. One area is in the creative arena, artists, writers etc. Below is a real story.

An artist explains why Marvel’s use of AI to animate a sequence is worrying : NPR

Also ethic issues such as faking (pretend as) other people, and we saw some of that as well: It takes a few dollars and 8 minutes to create a deepfake. And that’s only the start

I related question I have: how many of the Twitter Chinese porn video are made by AI, those #pigButcher style of videos. Also this one made by AI

Again, Google, Microsoft, and Meta can’t stop talking about A.I. — here’s why Apple rarely mentions it.

Tech leaders mention AI almost 170 times during earnings calls: report (you can do a google search on it if you are curious, I am not lying).

Categories
401k and Personal Finance DIY gadgets Life Tips Technology

Switching from Charter Spectrum to AT&T broadband

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I thought about this for a while. The last time I planned to switch, was a few years ago, at our previous home (condo), for some reason the AT&T technician could not find a port for the broadband, per my wife (I was likely working at the credit card company at the time). And the technician gave up. I vaguely recall the reason for the switch was to reduce the monthly bill. Internet providers usually gave a good introductory price for one year, before jacking up the prices. And in the case of Charter, they jack up prices almost every year. Once I called them, and said I wanted to switch, and then they lowered the price by $10 a month. Basically switching providers or phone calls are two ways I know to lower the broadband bill.

I didn’t think of switching during the move – partially due to the unpleasant experience I had with $T (AT&T, T is their stock ticker symbol). Partially because Charter/Spectrum gave a good intro price for a year for new customers (here new as a new address, or a new account). I recall it took me some effort to figure out which cable to plug into my cable modem (the broadband modern for Charter), set up the Wifi router, and my IP phone (iTalkBB, refer to this old blog post here, time flies. Probably time to cancel iTalkBB now.) and I didn’t bother to switch to AT&T until very recently. I did recall about 2 summers ago, we had a power outage, and Charter Internet came back as soon as the power is back (both the cable modem and wifi router needed electricity). But the communication lines were damaged especially the AT&T cables, if my memory is correct, and it seems today during my AT&T install, another outside technician needs to come to the outside terminal and do some work – likely a fallout from 2 years ago. Again back to the topic.

Recently I had some intermittent issues with the Charter/Spectrum internet so I decided to switch. The intermittent/reliability issue is both from my observation and from informal surveys among friends (thank you friends 🙂

I placed the installation order last week, and a technician came today. I did some surveys before today. So I pointed out the outside and inside cables. Installation took a few hours. The setup is relatively straightforward, I mean the embedded Wifi router. It’s done via an app called Smart Home Manager. The technician is friendly and helpful too. In addition to pointing out the app, as well as showing me how to get to it, he told me to switch off Charter shortly to avoid a new monthly bill.

I did a speed test just now, it seems Charter still has a faster download speed, but the upload speed is comparable. I will update this post as time goes on.

PS: I recall The Sound of dial-up Internet both in China and in the US. It’s a bit funny when I was applying for US graduate schools in the fall of 1996, I borrowed the email and computer access card from my friend in Fudan U. The professor in Rolla thought I was a graduate student in Fudan: which probably helped my application a bit as they are more prestigious than my graduate school 🙂 I still remember those days when I wrote emails on a terminal of a UNIX machine. Copy, paste, and save information or write information to a disk seems like a century ago, in today’s smartphone, and ubiquitous Internet world. Also, just came across this post back in 2014 when I had to do some magic or hack to make the iPad work with Wifi at home.

PS2: the monthly cost, was $80 per month for Charter, vs $50 a month for AT&T. AT&T has a slightly slower download speed, from the speed test. Also, some offers one may be able to use. Rakuten (eBates): I used it and I saw $112.50 cash in my account (this will cover the $99 installation cost, btw). Some Chase credit cards may offer cash back for AT&T fiber (I think they all broadband will likely work): I plan to use my Amazon Chase card as it has a $50 offer. Last but not least, I had a twitter poll for this.

Update 01-28-2024: I used offer from Amex Gold too. Also it seems Dosh App gave me cash back on the top of the Amex offer. Now we are talking about double dipping 🙂 Last but not least, I realized that I used the link at ebates (now rakuten) and I received $112.50 cash back from them as well (on 08-15-2023). So in summary, at least for now, the AT&T service (about $55 a month) is mostly free for me/my family at this time. I do expect to use fewer offer from now on. And I don’t plan to switch back to Charter soon as their service seems still spotty from time to time.

Categories
Business Politics Technology Web

I am leaving Twitter

Reading Time: 2 minutes

(Update 11-20-2024) Here is my Bluesky social profile. || I think I may need to go back to Twitter to back up some data, from time to time. I did a backup in last year but I think it was a big json file. Two things I may miss: one is health/fitness tips; another one is stock related (which I think as a more serious investor, I should try to ignore it so called #finTwit.

(Original) After 15 years, I mean the social media, not a job or something. I never worked for them. Although looking back I should have joined them back in 2008, or at least trying to apply for a job there, and get some stocks.

Why I am leaving:

In two words: Elon Musk. Elon created a lot of controversies during his about one year long ownership saga, from his public proposal to buy the company, after secretly building up a stake, to fire lots of people (which he may have a valid point, note a few big tech companies followed too, such Meta), to not paying bills for the Twitter SF office.

But the latest one: labelling NPR as “Government-funded Media” is the last straw for me. I googled “how much government fund npr is receiving”, and here is the answer: “NPR gets roughly 1-2% of its funding from the federal government, while the majority of its funding comes from corporate sponsorships and fees charged to local radio stations, according to the New York Times.” (source: NYTimes via Forbes). This is a cheap shot from Elon in my opinion.

Note NPR is one of my favorite news source, and I remember the days (more than 20 years ago), I listened to “Morning edition” from KWMU (now STL Public radio) on my morning commute. In addition to getting news, I improved my English listening comprehension greatly from listening to them. Other programs I listened frequently over the years: The Diane Rehm Show; MarketPlace; All Things Considered etc. In recent years, Some nights when I could not fall into sleep, I also listened to the BBC World Service via STL Public radio: it has a variety of topics. In the US, NPR may be considered a bit liberal or progressive (as opposed to the Fox News), but it’s mostly politically neural (similar to PBS). A fun fact, while a lot of western media are blocked in China, NPR is not (at least not now as of April 2023).

On the social media front, I will continue to be on FB (Instagram), LinkedIn, and YouTube. On blogging side, I have this stlplace.com blog website as well as medium, and substack. Btw, I posted some of the blog post here to the medium and substack.

Just notied that I have a post on Twitter about 6 months ago.

PS: as of 04-22-2023, it appears Twitter removed the “government-funded” label for NPR on Twitter. But it seems a bit late, at least for now, to get NPR back on Twitter, per this thread. Meanwhile, I am thinking back to Twitter for my own benefit. Consume or tweet in moderation.

PS 2: 06-05-2023, I bought the Twitter Blue today.

Categories
Investing Stocks Technology

Twitter

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I joined Twitter back in March 2008, and it’s been 14 years since I joined it. I don’t remember the exact reason I joined it, but I think one reason is probably in the early days of iOS (iPhone) app development, many developers are on Twitter as well. In recent years, the platform has expanded beyond techies, and into politics, entertainment, breaking news etc. The breaking news feature of Twitter has been there for a while, in my opinion. We can find important news on election, on both domestic and international affairs such as war, and so on. Twitter itself grew quite a bit over last 14 years too. I still remember in its early days, it’s quite often to see the whale picture when the system was down. I vaguely recall when they started they used Ruby (Ruby on rails) a web technology was popular or getting traction then, and slowly changed to something more comprehensive or complicated.

For me personally I probably switched my interest there too, in last few years, I am mostly interested in FinTweets (financial or stock related tweets). I tried to stay away from politics, and it was not always successful.

Compared to other platform such as Facebook and LinkedIn, I think I am more open minded, or sometimes blunt, one reason is probably I don’t know a lot of people in person, another reason is probably the culture of Twitter itself is more open. Note Tweets by default is available to everyone in the world (something newbies on twitter sometimes did not realize).

The business of Twitter obviously was not doing well over its 10 years of public market presence, until Elon took it over recently. Elon may even has some of his points: on people’s desire to work or not work, and blue verified could help clean up the public / digital town square. Interesting to learn some of his other thoughts such as easy / smooth jazz mode, vs heavy metal mode (combat mode?), and also his X.com grand plan 22 years ago. This is a recent interview of Elon btw.

Back to Elon’s idea (or ideal) of public / digital town square. This reminded me of something. Note I grew up in China and free speech (like the 1st amendment in the US constitution) was not emphasized. But in 1980s when I was in high school there was still a lot room for feedback or open communication. So once the students in my class put up a feedback notebook, and things quickly went off rails (imagine the early days of the BBS or discussion forum, and then put high school kids to it). Good intention alone sometimes is not enough. I guess similar can be said about Elon’s dream about full automatous driving (self driving), as well as the robots that do all of our work (in addition to chores).

Categories
Life Life Tips Technology

Alternatives to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

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The three legacy social networks 🙂

I have been using the 3 for a while, since 2008 to be precise. I started using LinkedIn after I switched job in Nov 2008 (amid financial crisis), because I realized I want to look for a developer job quickly after I jumped ship. I cannot remember the reasons I joined Facebook and Twitter. But both companies are under tremendous pressure nowadays, and both have lots of issues in terms of “doom scrolling” as well as their business model: the longevity of companies. For Twitter, bought by the worst richest person Elon Musk could have many implications as he was very much unpredictable. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is in full control of the company (Meta) and there were lots of controversies in recent years as well.

I think some people probably just live on FB, LinkedIn or Twitter. I don’t use much the newer and cooler social media such as TikTok, instagram or Snapchat. I may be too old for these. In addition to this blog, I am explorring the following, both on written and video contents:

  1. Medium
  2. YouTube (video and community). YouTube has a feature of custom handle: I still need to think about it (major1xu or oliveCapital)
  3. Substack (noticed Substack has some relationship with Twitter).

PS: I am thinking minimize the use of WeChat too, and use LINE instead.