niracler

March, the turning point of my life. The world's fog has only opened a little; whether it's heaven or hell, I suppose I must go and see for myself.

🍵 - An Unexpected Start#

The Arrival of Cold Waves: Constricted Spaces#

At the beginning of this month, I was inexplicably invited to an unexpected 🍵 meeting. This scene reminded me of when I was playing "Baldur's Gate 3," just disembarked from the spaceship, and within half an hour of the plot, I was dragged into prison. This incident stemmed from my previous (now) following of a certain account on platform X, which led to my unwarranted involvement. As a result, my X and Telegram accounts were canceled under an irresistible force. (Who is inflating the KPIs!!!)

Thus, I set foot in a police station for the first time in my life, and in such an absurd manner. The specific details cannot be disclosed here, or I might replicate the situation again. However, perhaps I can give you a version through a private chat on TG. ([[🍵 What I Experienced That Day]])

This incident hit me quite hard, especially since my TG channel had been around for six years, filled with memories. It is particularly regrettable that I only granted admin rights to my secondary account and did not give admin rights to add bots, which means I can no longer add bots to the channel. The only way now is to freeze this channel; you should be able to see the corpse of my channel in my Blog's Profile.

Regrouping: Future Strategies#

If I were to say what I did wrong before, the problem was that I was almost using my real name online. In light of the situation I encountered, I began to reflect on how to maximize the protection of my identity. Here are a few self-rescue insights I've gathered:

1. Differentiating Avatar and ID: Ensure that the avatars and IDs on domestic and foreign platforms are different. Using overly conspicuous IDs may lead to being searchable in various domestic databases, so it's advisable to avoid directly linking personal identity information. (My previous ID was too obvious; any high school student could easily search online and find me.)
2. Avoiding Distinct Personal Features: Avoid choosing overly distinctive ID features. According to the TF-IDF algorithm, selecting some more generic IDs, like Steve Jobs, can better conceal personal identity among numerous pieces of information. (So I want to take it a step further and use different IDs across platforms.)
3. Do Not Use Domestic Emails for Foreign Services: Email content is hard to avoid scrutiny domestically; if suspicious tendencies are discovered, the corresponding email platform may be forced to cooperate and hand over data. Now, I try to use randomly generated emails from fastmail for registration on various websites (which is indeed convenient with 1Password).
4. 。。。（There are many more）

The core principle is "I cannot let others infer which domestic account I have through my foreign account." However, doing so will have a huge impact on establishing a personal IP, and the information across platforms will become exceptionally fragmented. Because the means of counter-tracking is to prevent others from having a complete understanding of me, which is contrary to the idea of establishing a personal IP.

It's entirely a method of self-castration to seek survival. I also vaguely feel that this is largely just self-indulgence. (It might also be a reaction to PTSD; perhaps over time, I will recover.)

PS. I won't promote my new channel.

🦠 - Troubled by Illness#

After the New Year, things have not been quiet; I've been coughing non-stop. Being sick is truly frustrating. Over the course of about a month, I experienced two rounds of illness:

Fever (2D) -> Runny Nose (2D) -> Persistent Cough (14D)

I wonder if this is due to the aftereffects of COVID-19. Now, I easily cough into bronchitis whenever I catch a cold, which never happened before.

During a visit to the emergency room, the hospital was packed. Unless you have a fever of thirty-nine degrees, you might have to wait nine hours to be seen. In the end, I couldn't get seen and had to go home empty-handed. Moreover, appointments for the respiratory department on Sundays can only be scheduled for Thursday, and the hospital is truly overwhelmed.

Fortunately, I have finally recovered quite a bit. Looking back, it seems this illness indirectly led me to confront my boss and resign.

🌰 - Time to Open the Map#

Yes, at this point, I have already resigned.

Procrastination is a Bad Habit#

It took me half a year to finally resign; the most suitable time was a year and a half ago. However, at that time, I was filled with countless fears and unable to face the unpredictable future. And it turns out that procrastination made the reality I faced increasingly difficult. (The employment environment right after the pandemic was much better than this year's situation.)

I should say that writing xlog has helped me regain a sense of self to some extent.

But missing out is just missing out; it is what it is. Continuing to procrastinate would only lead to a worse outcome for both parties.

WHY#

The reasons for my resignation are complex, but ultimately, it still boils down to personal choice and direction. The weariness with my current job, the desire to change jobs, and the people around me—all these are reasons. Specifically, there are three main points: one is what I mentioned before, one I will mention later, and one that hasn't been mentioned yet.

I find it hard to imagine repeating the same routine with the same people day after day in the same place. After all, I am a greedy and weary person. As the following passage states:

A person's height is defined by their vision; if you see the same kind of people every day, read the same types of books/videos, and (read) write code belonging to the same domain, then your vision is likely not broad enough. The internet is developing at a rapid pace, and changes are swift; if you confine yourself to a small world, it's easy to become like the people in Tao Yuanming's Peach Blossom Spring: unaware of the Han, regardless of Wei and Jin.

Later - Perhaps Worse#

Perhaps what awaits me is an even worse future, and I might have to give up YY for XX. But perhaps this is also something I am destined to endure. I am still young; if I fail next time, there will be another chance to rise again.

I can't say I'm an excellent person; I rarely invest myself wholeheartedly in work. Just as a magician cannot cast spells they cannot imagine, I have also, in a sense, defined and limited myself. I even doubt whether I truly perceive and recognize my own issues.

The only thing I can be sure of is that my views and what I think are correct are mostly wrong, even absurdly naive. All I can do is continuously perceive and adjust them.

I want to go to a place with subways outside of Guangdong. "Cities without subways are like being nailed to the map—unable to move." I really don't like being so close to home; it's like I've never stepped out of my front door.

PS. The fog of my world has only opened a little; whether it's heaven or hell, I suppose I must go and see for myself.

Works#

Articles#

• Steam Customer Service :: Steam Family User Guide and FAQ - Come build a cyber family. In less than five days, I've already gathered 5 people to enjoy over 160 games (though I'm currently experiencing gaming impotence).
• Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe | Hacker News - Good news, I haven't used it much yet.
• My Attitude Towards Piracy - Minority -

  Imagine an e-book being published in a bookstore without any protection; what would happen? Of course, piracy would be rampant! Hence the emergence of Digital Rights Management (DRM). It seems perfect! But at what cost? Let's take a look at these seemingly brain-dead system designs:

• Reinterpreting Heptabase | Jin Cheng Goidea - I was originally looking for mind mapping tools, but now it seems I should try Heptabase. (In the end, I still returned to the embrace of Obsidian~~)
• Person X Community X Object - 2024-03-26 - niracler - It seems to have been updated quite a bit, about eighty to ninety percent done.
• DNA Testing Reveals the Actual Severity of Incest - It turns out there really are plots like this in the comics.

  Geneticist Jim Wilson from the University of Edinburgh was shocked by the frequency of incest he discovered in the U.K. Biobank, an anonymous research database: according to his unpublished analysis, about 1 in every 7000 people is born from a first-degree relative—meaning siblings or parents and children.

• Exploring High-Quality Content on the Internet | Immersive Translation - Just in time to organize my information sources.
• Personal Information Acquisition and Knowledge Management System (Heptabase + Logseq + Readwise) · Pseudoyu - Unlike others who are "confident in their ability to filter and digest their own information," I found that I completely lack this ability. (Especially since Yu-chan can use too many tools simultaneously). I often swing between two extremes: either "information cocoons, unaware of world affairs" or "obsessed with scrolling, then feeling lost." I often find it hard to stop once I start scrolling. Ultimately, it feels like fishing for a needle in a haystack to find content I'm interested in.
• Mental Health in Open Source - Some of my thoughts on my mental health during my journey in Open Source.
• c - Why is the create system call called creat? - Stack Overflow - Just like a real name, the more it's referenced, the harder it is to change later.
• Using Cloudflare Workers to Bypass GFW and Avoid Being Banned for OpenAI API - Proven effective. Basically, any inaccessible API abroad can be accessed this way. I have set up forwarding for GitHub, xlog, Telegram, OpenAI, Pinboard, etc. in China.
• milanvarady/Applite: User-friendly GUI macOS application for Homebrew Casks - Previously, I downloaded software from various providers' official websites and installed them via dmg, leading to a mixed bag of software sources—brew, dmg, cp/mv, all jumbled. Sometimes, I accidentally uninstalled software installed via brew when trying to uninstall. After a friend's reminder, I checked Applite, and as a result, I almost reinstalled all the software on my computer. In the future, I can export the list with brew list --cask in one click.
• Weekly Report #33 - Beijing x Story x Farewell · Pseudoyu - Just a year ago, someone else's story. Indeed, this is the real, cruel side of life that must be faced.
• Hurl - Run and Test HTTP Requests - Used for API testing; it seems pretty good so far. No need for Postman and other GUI tools.
• The Collapse and Rebirth of a Six-Year Open Source Project - DIYgod - Just in time as I'm working on a project based on hono; it seems I can learn from it.
• The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Whitelist is Here; How Should We Safely Bypass the Firewall? A Conversation with Zhang Lei, Head of 360 Safe Desktop - YouTube - Privacy and security!!!

If There's Anything Else to Say#

Honestly, I feel a bit at a loss. I can only mention some things I plan to do next. I'm not sure if I can accomplish them; let's start with the simple tasks.

Cover Image#

In a cyber bar, naming a drink after myself.