Recent content on Eric Khun
On July 23, Google Finance left beta and the “Switch to classic Google Finance” link disappeared. If you’ve opened a ticker page since then, you’ve seen the result: the AI-powered redesign, tested in the US since August 2025 and global since April, is now the only Google Finance there is.
Google Finance has been my default quick-check for years — it’s a big part…
I was in the middle of building a feature. Everything was fine, until Claude Code Opus 4.5 started to doubt about itself:
I need to check something - when I reverted, I may have lost your working changes. And then:
I apologize - when I ran git checkout to revert my changes, I accidentally reverted your original working code for the 'Add Tags' modal as well. Your uncommitted changes were…
What if instead of deciding what your app should do, you let it figure that out for each user?
There’s something happening with coding agents right now that makes this possible. I’m not talking about ChatGPT or Claude apps you use every day. I’m talking about agents that have access to tools - they can browse your files, query databases, read documentation, hit APIs. They…
Sometimes I have a lot of thoughts that I’ve only talked through with myself internally, then forgotten. I know it helps to write them down or talk them out, but I usually never do this. The best ideas usually come when we’re walking, but then we forget them instantly.
After talking to Mike about how much he likes taking voice notes and dropping them to ChatGPT, I had a…
It’s 2025, and /usr/local/bin still not a directory in MacOS (15.1) 🤦♂️ . Programs you download (via Homebrew or online) are usually set inside this folder.
Here the correct way to create it:
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin Why 755?. It follows the principle of least privilege while still allowing the necessary functionality - anyone can use the programs,…
Unfortunately, there is no way to set up versions older than 5 previous versions with brew. Here’s a quick workaround:
brew uninstall hugo Head to github.com/gohugoio/hugo/tags and navigate the version you need The Mac versions are the hugo_*_darwin-*.tar.gz ones darwin = macOS universal = works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs extended version includes additional features like…
Increase Your Chances of Seating in “Non-Reserved Seats” Cars During peak season, it can be really hard to get a reserved seat for Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR) tickets. Either you book months in advance, or you can get one of those “non-reserved seats” tickets. Each HSR train usually has 3 non-reserved seat cars (usually cars 10, 11, and 12). However, the issue with…
I started using Android Phones since 2011. I recently (2 months ago) made the leap from the Google Pixel 4a to the iPhone 15 Pro. My decision was influenced by certain changes in the Pixel series: the removal of the unlimited photo backup feature, the elimination of the physical fingerprint sensor, and the shift from selling “pro” services to unlocking “advanced” features,…
Are you using any Google service (Gmail, Youtube, Google Maps, Google Cloud, Google Voice, etc…) daily? You might want to know that Google has the really bad habit to kill products and lock you out of your own google account | for | all | sort | of | possible | and | random | reasons.
If their AI determines that any of your activity is suspicious, it might lead to the closure of your…
Google Maps is the application I use the most in my daily life. Whether I need a direction, looking for a place to eat, fix my phone…. The influence of Google Maps goes beyond mere navigation – it has also became a key platform for local businesses, where reviews can make or break their success. Whether it’s choosing a dining destination (sometimes right in front of the restaurant…
There is something special about Taiwan that I couldn’t really explain when I first arrived. During my initial trip, I couldn’t put words to the positive feeling I experienced while roaming around the city. It was a blend of relaxation, freedom, safety, friendliness, and convenience—all at once. I didn’t do much; I wandered through the city, worked in coffee shops, and ate in random…
Here the github repo for who want to fork my template and use it directly.
If you’re looking for a seamless and efficient way to handle user authentication and management in your web applications, Nuxt3 and Firebase make this process incredibly easy. They both have lot of advantages:
Nuxt3 :
Allow you to have a frontend (and backend), easily deployable with 2 command line to…
💡 I wrote 750+ restaurants reviews on Google Maps - Follow me if you live in Taiwan I post food restaurants I like on Instagram If you live in Taiwan and love sharing gems you've found, we have a Line group for you! Hit me up with the food photo and what you think about it, then I'll add you to the group. When visiting Taipei the sheer number of restaurants can leave you feeling overwhelmed when…
When depositing money in a bank, we usually forget that money you deposit in the bank isn’t ours anymore. We are essentially giving the bank temporary custody of our money in exchange for a promise that they will give us back the same amount (and sometimes more).
Over the past decade, I have encountered numerous challenges dealing with banks across various countries, which made me…
💡 tldr Looking for an English friendly and Competitive beach/grass volleyball? Drop a message in this Line Group, with your level Map of where to beach volleyball or install a portable net Play grass volleyball in Taipei (B- to A- level) Play beach volleyball in Taipei (BB to A- level) Play outdoor volleyball in Taipei (BB to A- level) Play indoor volleyball(BB or +) Volleyball Skill level in…
DeFi, or Decentralized Finance, is probably one of today’s biggest opportunities to generate high yield interest. It also unlocked the possibility for anyone to become their own bank. DeFi allows its users to make all kinds of various transactions, like exchanging currencies (via your bank that uses the FOREX in the traditional financial system), lending or borrowing. And with this…
💡 I wrote (750+) restaurants reviews on Google Maps - Follow me if you live in Taiwan I post food restaurants I like on Instagram If you visit Taipei, here my restaurants recommendation list for travelers If you live in Taiwan and love sharing gems you've found, we have a Line group for you! Hit me up with the food photo and what you think about it, then I'll add you to the group.
It is Thanksgiving / Christmas, and you are looking to cook a turkey in Taipei for your group of friends. You came at the right place!
Costco (available in 2024!) In November 2024, Costco has Taiwanese Turkey! They cost 315TWD/kg, between 1800 to 2400 TWD for a 6 to 8kg one:
Previous years, they had the Frozen, pre-brine, Butterballs Turkeys , which appeared around mid-October to December…
Today’s biggest misconception about NFTs is that they’re “jpeg” images stored on the Ethereum blockchain, it’s not. Probably because that digital art can be easy to visualize, and famous artists attempt today to sell their digital art as an NFT on a platform such as Opensea, it has gained lot of attention these past months.
Artists start creating them on a piece…
How can you trust an individual, company, or government with the money you send to them? What tells you there are no hidden fees, or middleman in the contract you’re signing for? How do you make sure terms won’t be changed? Those are one of the exciting things I’m excited about smart contracts on public blockchains, the “Code is Law” feature (also called “immutability”). They are the promises of…
What is a blockchain? Why are some people using it? Even as a developer, it took me a few years to understand what a blockchain really is,how it is working from inside out. I’ll share here what I believe is a comprehensive explanation of what is a blockchain from a developer point of view.
What is a blockchain? In simple words, it’s a slow database.
For Bitcoin, this database…
I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time investigating how to invest from Taiwan. Many expats asked me the questions, so I’ve decided to write down how I do it. I’ll also write different alternative options you could explore. This article will likely apply to Tax resident in Taiwan, non-US citizens and talk about long term investment (15+ years horizon).
Remember: I’m not…
Ship 1 side project that makes money Write 12 blog posts Gives at least 2 public talks Buffer’s product teams adopting SRE Figure out a system that helps to work a strict 4 days per week Clean High Pull Ups 5 Handstand Push Ups (I can’t handstand) Achieve the Full Planche (I can barely Tucked Planche now) 10 seconds Front Lever
The world’s current and next innovations depend on a single country: Taiwan. It’s probably one country you might never hear about, or perhaps confuse with its neighbor, Thailand, or even think it’s a part of China.
I’ve been living in Taiwan for 3+ years, and am baffled that I never pay attention to semiconductors. I’m a software engineer but didn’t think…
YouBike is my first choice of transportation when it comes to moving around the city of Taipei. I largely prefer it over taking the subway, bus, or taxi. It is affordable, well maintained, comfortable, lightweight, and especially, at waking distance reach from anywhere.
The number of YouBike rides keeps increasing since it was launched in 2012. As for May 2024, there was 818 millions rides on…
At Buffer, we’ve been using Kubernetes since 2016. We’ve been managing our k8s (kubernetes) cluster with kops, it has about 60 nodes (on AWS), and runs about 1500 containers. Our transition to a micro-service architecture has been full of trial and errors. Even after a few years running k8s, we are still learning its secrets. This post will talk about how something we thought was a…
“True innovation comes an intersection of a cross-pollination of roles and ideas” - Sunil, former-CTO@Buffer
I’ve been working remotely at Buffer for 6 years now. As a software engineer, one of the critical skill I believe we should must have is being able to learn continuously. However, working in a fully distributed team, split accross 10+ timezones. I live in Asia (UTC +8)…
Don’t you feel alone when working alone? This might be questions that come the most.
I’ve been working remotely at Buffer for 5 years now. I think I’d qualify myself as an “introvert”. I like spending time by myself. I’m actually doing it every time I’m going back to my parent’s place where not much happen , and without stepping much outside or…
I often advocate people surrounding me to build their own side projects. I believe they can fulfill you in so many ways: for your career, your relationships, or your independence. Buffer, the company I currently work for, was itself a side project.
I’ve built myself multiple side projects. The major ones being TaipeiDev, TaiwanGoldCard, Citymayor, Project Memento, PartyInBeijing…
I’ve been flying between a lot between countries this past 4 years. Many people ask me how I keep exercising while moving between countries that often. I’ll try to explain here what I think helped me to keep that consistency.
For a bit of background, I’ve always enjoyed playing volleyball since middle school, and try to go at least once a week, in any country I visited. It…
This is a step by step guide to setup your own Ethereum node on the Ropsten network. At the end of this guide you’ll be able to:
Run your own ethereum node synced with the Ropsten testnet network Making sure to keep the node in sync with the blockchain on the network Be able to communicate via the JSON-RPC API of your own node Using the same method to run your node on the main network…
An ex-classmate shared with me today the Plum.io test. My results are available here.
The 3 “talents” that stands out were:
Conflict: Resolution: stay calm , empathie, being polite when you disagree Teamwork: be tactful, courteous of others, be sensitive to others needs, support others, encourage positive interactions Communication: “good long term relationships, even…

 Fitness is the first step to greatness. 
 
 It is my favorite quote that Justin Kan keep saying in Snapchat. 
 It’s a quote I just start understand. I start working out 1 year ago. I can definitely relate this to work. and I find I can achieve more at work. 
 Have clear goals to challenge yourself 
 When I started, I tried to exercice every 2-3 days without any…
Hi there, thanks for cheking the blog! I’m Eric, engineer at Buffer. I’ve been working remotely since 2013, from different places in the world. I happen to be mostly in Asia, my favorite part of the world! I now live in Taiwan, and can stay here with the Employment Gold Card
I’m travelling quite a bit, I’d like share a little bit of the places I visit, my experiences,…