140. Loving Wang Xiaobo 中
The cover photo shows the Wang Xiaobo Bookstore—my “spiritual home”—near Wulin in Hangzhou. It’s a very quiet place. I’ve been reading Wang Xiaobo since university; I love his wisdom, rationality, and unique, “uncommon” perspective.
Record the down-to-earth trending technologies seen every week, and publish them here after screening. If you find it good, you can follow this weekly to get update notifications.
Technical Related
Pake - Building Lightweight Apps with Rust
https://tw93.fun/2023-08-03/pake.html
I gave a talk last Thursday on the cross-platform tech behind Pake. I shared my experiences with Rust, open-source development, and turning technical ideas into products. Check out the slides and let me know if anything needs clarification.
What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work?
https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/
A brilliant explanation of the underlying principles of ChatGPT by computer scientist Stephen Wolfram. it’s comprehensive yet accessible.
CS Exam Preparation Notes
https://github.com/ddy-ddy/cs-408
I found that notes for the Chinese Graduate Entrance Exam in Computer Science (408) are actually great for working engineers too. They provide a solid review of CS fundamentals that helps ground you better than most “anxiety-driven” tech articles.
Trending Tools
Maple: A Handy Browser Bookmark Extension
https://github.com/tw93/Maple
Version 2 is here!
- Instant search for users with many bookmarks.
- New tab page uses the cover photos from this Weekly (or can be set to blank).
- Command-click a folder to open all bookmarks within it.
- Ctrl+B shortcut for Windows and various bug fixes.
InvokeAI: “Productized” Stable Diffusion
https://github.com/invoke-ai/InvokeAI
Stable Diffusion can be daunting for designers. InvokeAI provides a clean, user-friendly interface that feels like a real creative product rather than just a technical demo.
driver.js: Web Onboarding and Guidance
https://driverjs.com/
A minimalist tool for creating product tours and highlighting key features. it’s best used sparingly to show off the most important parts of your UI.
Web-Check: The Hacker’s Tool for Websites
https://web-check.xyz/
A very cool tool to see almost everything about a website: IP, SSL, DNS records, cookies, server location, open ports, routing, and more.
Dozer: Hide Menu Bar Icons on the Notch
https://github.com/Mortennn/Dozer
Since switching to a MacBook with a notch, I’ve found Dozer to be the cleanest way to manage my menu bar. it’s far better than Hidden Bar for this specific hardware and keeps everything looking tidy.
TypeChat: Schema Engineering vs Prompt Engineering
https://github.com/microsoft/TypeChat
Microsoft’s Anders Hejlsberg (creator of TypeScript) released TypeChat. it uses TypeScript types to define the expected JSON output of an LLM, making it much easier to integrate AI results into your code.
Just Looking Around
Community Libraries: A Modern “Poetry and Distance”
https://www.huxiu.com/article/1893933.html
While some crowd into city libraries, others find peace at local community libraries just 300 meters from home—no commute or 40-RMB mocha required.
The Long-Term Runner’s Journey
A fascinating discussion on Zhihu about the long-term effects of running. Does it improve health, or lead to injury? Does the habit stick, or fade away? Worth a read for the perspective.