A Tour of the Internet Archive
In the west of San Francisco, between the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, there’s a hidden gem that serves one of the most important purposes in the world.
probablyalex
Recent content on probablyalex
Latest posts
Building the Notetaker of All Time
A few months ago, I wrote about momentum, finding the right hill, and rolling down it.
Rolling Downhill
A couple of weeks ago, I was at a Y Combinator event hosted for Waterloo students interested in entrepreneurship.
What I Learned About Myself, Others, and The World on Exchange in Singapore
Quick post to recap what I learned during my exchange experience!
About
About Alex Zhu
Five Learnings from My Shopify Internship
I wanted to share five impactful learnings I was lucky to discover during my co-op at Shopify, one of the biggest tech companies in the world and one with a great engineering culture.
Getting Uncomfortable: Portaging Trip in Killarney Provincial Park
Fun fact: Ontario, Canada has over 330 provincial parks and more lakes than anywhere else on Earth: 20% of the world’s freshwater supply is stored in Ontario’s 250,000 lakes alone!
UW Debate Vlog — Panama WUDC 2025
The University of Waterloo Debate Society had the incredible opportunity of competing at the Panama World Universities Debating Championship 2025.
Defending the Title at Léger Cup 2025 & What Debate Means To Me
Prologue # During the past weekend, I went to compete at the Léger Cup 2025.
Spicy YouTube Mixes You Need To Listen To
I really enjoyed studying with some YouTube mixes this term.
2B — Co-op Search Lessons
I wanted to share a few lessons I learned during this co-op search that aren’t immediately obvious:
CS348 Final Project — Formula 1 SQL
As a part of CS 348, Introduction to Database Management, we had the option to create a project using a database.
UW Debate Vlog — Vietnam WUDC 2024
I spent the winter break in Vietnam competing at the World Universities Debating Championship 2024, and also filmed a vlog for it!
2A — Random Life Updates
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
Waterloo Debate Vlog — McGill Central Canadian Novice Championship 2023
Last weekend, The UW Debate Society went to McGill Canadian Central Novice Championship 2023 and had a great time!
Tutorial: Learning Full-Stack Development With a Project
Project-based learning is one of the most enjoyable and effective ways to learn new skills.
Ten Tips for Digital Minimalism to Win Back Your Attention
If you haven’t yet, make sure to read A Case for Digital Minimalism.
A Case for Digital Minimalism
A while ago, I was reading The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, and came across this footnote.
AI vs. Creative Writing
While I was writing a Facebook post introducing my friend David as director of a debate tournament, I started thinking about the creative writing process and whether AI would be able to do it or not.
Three Golden Tips for the Waterloo AIF
If you implement these three tips, you will increase your chances of being accepted.
What I Learned From My First Term at UWaterloo
This is what I learned about studying and lifestyle during my first study term in Software Engineering at Waterloo!
Tutorial: How I Made This Website and You Can Too
I wanted a simple blog website that was easy to set up and use, and also one where I had ownership and customization: the answer was a Hugo static site hosted on GitHub Pages.
Lightning Speed Tutorial: Git and GitHub
No one really teaches Git and GitHub, but it’s a must-know if you’re ever going to develop software in a group (like at a company).
SE 101 Final Project: Full Stack Arduino Exercise Tracker (4Gains)
Our final project for SE101 was supposed to be a exercise tracker device that would revolutionize the fitness experience.
Why We Should Be Together
Please read: this is not about relationships.
Radomir Chess: Grade 12 Summative
This is the Readme file from our Grade 12 summative project.