Life, n. the unending journey toward making sense of the world.
《娛樂至死》這本書雖然討論的議題（媒體生態學、媒體科技對文化的影響等）和當代非常有關，但書本身是一本很硬的哲學書，很慚愧的我也看不太完。 新版介紹有一段印象深刻、切題的摘句，Postman 比較了歐維爾的《1984》描述反烏托邦，相對於赫胥黎的《美麗新世界》，下譯： What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so…
I ve been closely watching coverage on Google s two antitrust trials on Big Tech on Trial. I am not naïve — as a public-traded company that is only and rightfully accountable to the shareholders, I have always known Google is not simply benevolent when it comes to funding the Web. But not only until hearing about [ ]
We developed methods of building nested layers of abstractions, hiding information at multiple levels. We took the problem of constructing software and morphed it into towering layers. We integrated these layers into the software required to use our computers, and the software that drives our lives. From The Software Crisis. One pivotal distinction between senior [ ]
This post is a response to We can have a different Web by Molly White. I enjoy her takes and her colorful metaphors. Go read that post and support her if you can. I too have a few things to say and it didn t fit into a Mastodon post. So I guess this is the [ ]
I love CSS despite I know there are a lot of haters out there. The problem with CSS is not cascade. The problem with CSS is it is hard to test. We know how to test JavaScript — create a bunch of test cases and assert the outputs — but we know too little about [ ]
You should care about that island nation called Taiwan. Not because I told you to (and I am obviously biased,) but because how your democracy engages the country reflects its value, and to some extent, your value. You should also try to understand it through its rich, complex history and people. Not just commentaries in [ ]
One perspective I ve profoundly changed compared to the junior engineer in me is how I see software quality. With decades of economic expansion and Internet boom, our industry has learned a rather sloppy norm on quality. In this post, here are my takes on how you should approach software quality. Your User is Your Customer [ ]
East Asian Input Methods are not hard to understand, but for English speakers, we can do better than a general explanation on Wikipedia with a concrete example. This post is me attempting to do that for English audiences. It is written for my own amusement, but I hope you would like it. My recommendation is [ ]
For some reasons, work has taken me to investigate current usage of Internationalized country code top-level domain. Something I came across all the way back almost two decades ago. I remember it was a big thing being promoted by NICs. As a web engineer, I have also found it to be an interesting technical endeavor [ ]
How to Kill a Decentralised Network (such as the Fediverse) This piece is a good history lesson of why XMPP failed to gain momentum and a cautionary tale on how companies can commandeer open, “public good” protocols. My experience with XMPP was limited: in an unpublished project, I wired GMail to MSN Messenger though the [ ]
When people talk about LLMs being at its Netscape Moment , this is the thing that ponders me the most. Tristan Harris, which I covered his early work, timewellspent.io, and Aza Raskin, discuss, quote, how existing A.I. capabilities already pose catastrophic risks to a functional society, how A.I. companies are caught in a race to deploy [ ]
Towards a modern Web stack by Ian Hixie Hickson This is not the first time people talk about a Web Platform design for applications, by sidestepping HTML. This is, nonetheless, the first time such idea is being lad out in a detailed proposal. What is surprising is that this came from one of the editors [ ]
Note: I promise, nothing in this post is generated by ChatGPT. Mental calculation and calculator I grew up in an East Asian culture that values learning mental calculation. I remember how adults think of calculators, and what children were being told to practice at Kumon. I can’t do mental calculations, and I still admire those who [ ]
Meet high-performance MapKit JS MapKit JS provides a JavaScript API to embed interactive Apple Maps directly into your webpages or apps across different platforms and operating systems, including iOS and Android. Learn about the latest features to help improve load performance and make your web and native apps more responsive and faster — all while [ ]
I am exceptionally intrigued by how Webspaces, made by Greg Fodor as a take on the 3D Web, is similar to the retro, Web 1.0 -era Web. I commend Greg for his deep insights and technical knowledge as shown in his detailed explainer on Webspaces. Webspaces: Rebooting the 3D Web tl;dr: Webspaces is a new way [ ]
I was meant to expand my thoughts on cookies previously blabbed on Twitter, but NPR’s Planet Money did a much better job than I did there: How the cookie became a monster. The episode faithfully covered how cookies was invented at Netscape out of the necessity to enable commerce on the Web, and how DoubleClick [ ]
I am on Mastodon as @timdream@mastodon.social. This blog is also ActivityPub-enabled as @timdream (thanks to info from Kanru.)
The title is definitely clickbait-y, but the author did a good job illustrating the current state. I highly recommend.
I highly recommend High Performance Browser Networking by Ilya Grigorik. Great overview and insights whether or not you are new or a veteran.
進入職場也超過10年了，換了三個工作之後，發現團隊績效與管理是經典的代理問題的印證。
This is something share-worthy or even celebrate-worthy. I was enthusiastic viewer of Last Week Tonight until I was stopped by compassion fatigue. After decades of exposure to late-night since Jon Stewart, I was looking for a break from having the news telling me what I should be angry about. Yet, the issue of political status [ ]
Last week, I ended my journey at Mozilla. The decision to leave was bittersweet, but I felt it was the right time for me to try something new instead. I am sincerely grateful to everyone who took their chances on me. I am thankful for the lemons too — you can t make lemonade without them! [ ]
This is a candid piece from Derek Muller, the science educator/YouTuber, talking about his journey leading to what he does today. This is not yet-another-so-successful-wow story or you-must-follow-your-dream story. His approach to life and grip is something to take inspiration from.
If you are into computer security and not a security expert, this is a great talk by Mikko Hypponen. He is a security researcher from F-Secure. Some of the highlights from the talk includes a floppy disk containing the first known computer virus from Pakistan; Y2K and Y38K (“Try to set the date to year [ ]
I kind of missed my blogging target last year, because I didn t feel I am in the right place. A place where I have some authority to talk about a few more things. It didn t take long for me to realize that s exactly how it feels like to be an impostor. It is said, the [ ]
@muanchiou shared this wonderful talk on Twitter. The talk mentioned a lot of things I have tired of organizing them into words, because of the things I mentioned on Twitter: Thank you very much for sharing this. It’s a sad reality but it’s a reality need to be told. I’ve find it hard to talk [ ]
I hate to touch /etc/hosts myself when a project asks me to do so as part of development setup. Tools like Vagrant use zeroconfig/Bonjour to dispatch a .local hostname, but no one seems to remember the ancient, all-mighty Proxy auto-config . Proxy auto-config allows you to setup hostname and URL mapping in JavaScript. It’s supported on [ ]
看到朋友不小心 renew 了網址在某愚蠢廠商搬不出來，想說在這邊紀錄與分享一下我的架站配置，給大家參考一下：
上個月在台北的 Mozilla 開發者大會給的演講。好久沒有給演講了，這次是一個短講，介紹今年底的 Firefox 新版新功能。 作為工程師，上台講新介面的設計風格有點無聊，所以我提到了一些前端效能的細節。希望這是一個開頭，讓大家對前端效能更有意識。
開放文化基金會發表了《開放政府觀察報告》。看了關鍵結論覺得真的是講到痛處啊⋯⋯跟 2013 年聽了張政委演講之後的感想有點相似：行政院主事者的目標是經濟發展，研考會的目標是政府效率，促進民主參與還是只能留給非營利組織。 另外讓我想到的是美國政黨輪替之後在媒體上出現的一句話：「用行政命令（而不靠推動修法）執政，後果就是政績可以輕易地被下一任消除。」幸好在台灣開放資料不是黨派議題，所以政黨輪替之後沒有全部爛掉？ 做為小額捐款捐贈人，很開心看到開放文化基金會能夠凝聚能量，細緻的幫這個議題找到更明確的方向。
台大史老師的這篇文章，精準的描述了中文的文法是什麼，還有作為中文使用者，如何從理解文法來避免寫出中文句法式的英文文章。 反過來說，她舉例的一些錯譯就很像是我會寫的中文。就是那種余光中等會崩潰的「英式中文」啦。 我還可以想到更多例子，像是國外服務寫中文公告時，常常破題寫「親愛的客戶您好，我們即將調整某某服務⋯⋯」。看久了，不被點出來還真的不知道怪在哪裡。 總之，知道歸知道，要能操作還是要練習啊。中文不好英文也不好 😵。
台灣真相與和解促進會專頁的文章是我捨不得讓他被 Facebook 演算法過濾掉的內容之一，所以就用了暗黑手法轉成 RSS Feed 來看了。 最近的文章是分享來自「我們的戒嚴記憶」活動的故事。相對於網路上很多帶風向的言論，這些故事很平淡，不會試著想要強迫灌輸什麼意識。但是看著看著，還是會心酸的體會，原來這個土地上的居民曾經是這樣的生活的啊。 大學有位老師曾經說過，他這代作為政治學學者極其幸運，國際上能夠見證蘇聯垮台、冷戰結束，在國內能夠親眼目睹解嚴、民主化。相對來說，我們這代好像是「不幸」的？但我反而覺得，做為凡人我們是幸運的，要帶著感恩的心理解這些傷痕。 最後最後 有沒有人可以請這個單位把網站改好一點最好有個部落格可以訂啊？網路的內容都被 Facebook 牆起來的 :'( 。
I feel utterly sad when people say “there are too much democracy in Taiwan.” That s what you get every day when you live in a young democracy. Those who think of that are often friends and families you respect. They are not dumb, nor arrogant; it s merely a lasting effect when one exposed to totalitarian, [ ]
Internet History Podcast 是一個研究以及介紹早期 Web 與 Internet 歷史的 Podcast。我是從湾区日报看到的。報主原本推薦聽一開始 Netscape 的那幾集，但是聽了幾集之後發現這一切是過去聽過的故事（像是 Code Rush）的背景。這些故事也讓我了解現在許多網路業的既成模式的發展背景，例如以廣告為營利模式的商業模式、開放的 Open Web 與封閉的 walled garden 的競爭、私有服務試圖快速擴張的「平台化」策略、微軟的 Windows 優勢對其他公司的威脅以及這些公司和他競爭合作的策略。當然，還有傳說中的「Information Superhighway」以及有線電視產業對其失敗的投資。 那是一個建立現在網路業舞台的時代。這個舞台的角色換了，但是舞台本身到現在還是沒有什麼很大改變。聽聽這些故事也比較能夠了解老闆到底在想什麼 🙂
Like my good old colleague Ben Francis, I too have a lot to say about Firefox OS. It s been little over a year since my team and I moved away from Firefox OS and the ill-fated Connected Devices group. Over the course of last year, each time I think about the Firefox OS experience, I [ ]
Time Well Spent 是一個宣導科技產品設計應該以人的價值為出發點的網站。他批評目前的科技產品以延長使用者的使用時間為目標，介面與互動總是設計成讓人會無法抗拒的繼續使用下去，或是竭盡所能地想要得到使用者的注意力，打斷現在正在專心做的事情。 這兩天和影片的作者聯絡，請他把 YouTube 的字幕翻譯功能打開，把中文字幕翻譯好。如果您在設計您的下一個網站或是 App，這是一個值得考慮的目標。 （人到了 30 歲對時間就會有不同的看法 ）
One of the sad things about a decentralized system is that they will never go away — they simply enjoy a slow death with critical infrastructures being turned off one at a time. I was recently told that Google Feed API had been shut down, years after Google closes the Reader. It, unfortunately, breaks many [ ]
You don’t normally find an educational video on YouTube ticks at 44 minutes mark, but I would strongly recommend you check this out if you are into this kind of things like me. Thoth s Pill an Animated History of Writing talks about writing systems across the world and what linguists think, as of present, [ ]
One of the downside being a middle manager in the office is the loss of focus on the big picture and focused on getting your team, your company, and your product to succeed. The article, “F**k work” by James Livingston, asks for application of universal basic income, and what s the shift of mindset the world would [ ]
到了 2017 年還是要講 Big5 編碼 這篇算是 But 的 Big5-UAO 從頭說起的續篇。 WHATWG Encoding Standard 是一個用 WHATWG 名義發表，試圖最後一次解決規範瀏覽器對 Web 的不同編碼的行為的規格書，還有提供標準的 DOM API。大約幾年前開始，規格書的編輯就和 MozTW 社群這邊討論，想要知道要如何產生一個統一的 Web 使用的 Big5 字碼表。 討論滿攏長的，總之最後的結論是因為在 Web 上沒有看到顯著的使用 Big5-UAO 編碼的網站，所以 Web 應該使用基於 Big5-HKSCS 的字碼表。那個字碼表後來也就和 Encoding Standard 一起被發表出來且實作在 Firefox 43 中。 當初其實和 but 一樣有點錯愕（或是哀傷）的，不過想想台灣（或是台灣的原 Big5-UAO 使用者）比起香港能夠先拋棄…