Thoughts on web3, tech, life, and everything else in between
Zhang Yimins 2018 Reflections
A historic event, reproduced below. Apology and reflection 今日头条的朋友们： Dear friends of Jinri Toutiao: 我真诚地向监管部门致歉，向用户及同事们道歉。 从昨天下午接到监管部门的通知到现在，我一直处在自责和内疚之中，一夜未眠。 I earnestly apologise to regulatory authorities, and to our users and colleagues. Since receiving the notice yesterday from regulatory authorities, I have been filled with remorse and guilt, entirely unable to sleep. 今日头条将永久关停“内涵段子”客户端软件及公众号。产品走错了路，出现了与社会主义核心价值观不符的内容，没有贯彻好舆论导向，接受处罚，所有责任在我。 Jinri Toutiao will shut down once and for all its “Neihan Duanzi” app and its public accounts. Our product took the wrong path, and content appeared that was incommensurate with socialist core values, that did not properly implement public opinion guidance — and I am personally responsible for the punishments we have received [as a result]....
Dropping Into Djikstra (P1)
My skateboard routine is fairly standard. I’ll pack my gear into my Adidas backpack, throw in a bottle and my keys, and head out the door grabbing my skateboard and the helmet. I don’t bother bringing my phone. I’ll get to my bike parked beneath my block, mount the skateboard onto the backseat, and cycle towards the direction of Bukit Batok MRT - passing by the station, passing by Princess Elizabeth Primary, over the green fields before reaching Yuhua, followed by Chinese Garden MRT, and then finally reaching the skatepark at Lakeside....
Recap on Same Origin Policy CORS and CSRF
I had a fascinating lecture earlier this week with Prateek Saxena as part of my Web Security course, where we learned about a core pillar of web security, the same origin policy. Briefly speaking, the same origin policy disallows different web apps from accessing each other’s content and resources through the browser. It’s a framework for access control. Just like how User A cannot access User B’s files on a Mac OS, website A cannot access website B’s HTML, Javascript, CSS, by default....
Excel and VBA
In my first lesson of the current course I am taking, BMD5302 - Financial Modelling for Fintech professionals, I was introduced to first to VBA, and then to a couple of popular functions in Excel. I mean, I was mindblown a little bit by VBA. I’ve heard of it before, but I’ve never known what it does. Now I know: it is a way for you to control excel programmatically. The syntax seems easy enough, and very quickly I can see how it can be really powerful....
Inside the Expansive Mind of Liu Cixin
Warning: massive spoiler alert for Death’s End. Reader’s discretion advised. A brain gets shipped to outerspace, embeds itself into Trisolaris civilization, finds success as a fairy tale writer, and rendevous with his crush deep in space to send a cryptic warning back to human civilization in the form of a fairy tale. Four dimensions collapsing into three, and three dimension ultimately collapsing into two. A tale that spans billions of years, dimensions, and universes, yet tied together by a singular thread of human (the writer’s?...