Looking for that boy
Due to the need for part-time work, I often search for some software. On September 12th, I opened an automatic shutdown software called "iCloseDown". The interface was very retro. It was a product from 19 years ago. The author was 15 years old at the time. When he was 9 years old, he suffered from nephrotic syndrome and there was no specific medicine, so he relied on hormone treatment. The condition kept recurring and he didn't fully recover. The author's father was afraid that the illness would affect his studies and future employment, so he bought him a computer. The author made up his mind to learn a skill on the computer, so he created iCloseDown and a website called "Programming Hut".
The website is no longer accessible, but the software can still be used. I checked the content of the website in 2004 through the Wayback Machine. The author was very dedicated. In addition to iCloseDown, he also developed several other small tools, but it is unclear what happened afterwards. It was a software made with love, but he also wanted to use this software to reduce the burden of his parents' medical expenses. In the "About" section, he expressed his hope that people with the ability would pay for his software to fulfill his wish of lightening the burden on his parents. If you want to see the author's original content, you can click on this link to view it.
Today in 2023, reading the words he left 19 years ago feels like having a conversation across time and space.
I posted the above content on Twitter, and many people left comments, retweeted, and liked it, all concerned about the current situation and condition of the boy. Soon, a Twitter user named @CBunhaku discovered the author's personal website in 2013, where he stated that his condition had basically recovered and he had found a job as a programmer. In 2016, he continued to update the software, but did not disclose any personal information. I found out through a domain name whois search that his domain name was renewed last year, so there is no more information available.
When I posted the tweet, I made a small mistake. In my memory, 2004 was only 10 years ago, so I wrote "10 years ago" in the tweet. It was not until @陈仓颉 reminded me that I realized that 2004 was almost 20 years ago.
Originally, this matter would have ended there, until I saw the article posted by 和菜头 - "Things I Like to Write About". He said that there were many things he could have written about that day, such as Apple's press conference or Elon Musk's biography, but he chose to write about my search for the software author. From my tweet to the participation of other netizens in the search and providing information, this series of events was included in the article. Fortunately, he didn't screenshot my tweet, otherwise I would have been embarrassed.
One sentence that impressed me:
He won't appear in today's tech news headlines, but I like his life story. Just like I like the fact that netizens followed an old software from 19 years ago to find the original author. Because it's warm, and because it's powerful.
That day, I left a comment in the article's comment section saying that I was the Bruce.Hu mentioned in the article. Many netizens replied to my comment, expressing their gratitude and thanking me for creating a heartwarming story. 和菜头 also thanked me for having the motivation to search for that boy and for sharing everything I found online.
Actually, I didn't do much. After reading the author's words about the software, my first reaction was one of emotion and touched. Then I wanted to find out what happened to him afterwards. We often spend too much time focusing on celebrities and internet celebrities, caring about their daily lives and activities, but what's the point? Ordinary people and ordinary things may not catch our attention, but their seemingly insignificant actions and events can often leave us with the most sincere warmth.
Interview
A while ago, I submitted my resume to the human resources department of SF Express through their campus recruitment website. On the afternoon of the 13th, I participated in the first interview. It was a group interview, conducted in the form of leaderless group discussion. Six candidates discussed the content of a PDF file.
The general idea was that a foreign food company wanted to further expand its market in China and gave us four products to choose from. We had to choose two of them as the main focus for promotion, with a budget of 2 million yuan. We had to consider the healthiness and taste of the products, and also provide a marketing plan.
I'm not good at leaderless group discussions, especially when it comes to discussing topics unrelated to my major. At the beginning, the six of us each stated our personal opinions and choices for the products, and it happened that two camps were formed. But shortly after the discussion started, the other two people who had the same choice as me changed their minds. Helplessly, I had to go along with their consensus and continue participating in the discussion.
Throughout the process, I felt that my performance was not very good. After my opinions were rejected, my enthusiasm decreased. In addition, there were many marketing-related knowledge that I couldn't provide precise opinions on. Just when I thought I would be eliminated, I received a notification from HR that I passed the initial interview and asked if I had time for the final interview.
On the morning of the 15th, I participated in the final interview via WeChat video at 11 o'clock. This one-on-one interview was much easier, mainly focusing on the content of my resume. They asked about personal information, family background, extracurricular experiences, campus experiences, as well as a brief introduction to the job position and tasks. I should say that I was confident and smooth in my narration. I am currently waiting for the follow-up results, and there may be a third interview.
Passenger's Civility
On Thursday morning, my roommate and I went out to take ID photos and I suddenly realized that I looked good in a suit.
In the afternoon, I took a high-speed train to go somewhere. The journey there was relatively smooth, and the train was quiet, even when someone played videos out loud, the volume was low. But the experience on the return trip today was a mess.
It was also a high-speed train, a journey of over 50 minutes, and I was disturbed by a old lady on the train for at least 40 minutes. I observed briefly, and it seemed like a group of old ladies traveling together. They were talking and laughing during the return journey, and even snatching red envelopes in their WeChat group. When they saw someone who hadn't snatched it, they loudly urged, "Hurry up, hurry up." I had hoped that the passengers around them would remind them to keep quiet after a while, but obviously I was expecting too much. Despite repeated reminders from other passengers and the train staff passing by, it had no effect. They would just say, "Okay, okay, we'll get off soon," and then continue talking and laughing loudly. Is the fact that they're getting off soon a reason to be so noisy?
In the afternoon, people are prone to fatigue, and most people just want to rest for a while after getting on the train. I had my headphones on, listening to music, but it still couldn't drown out their voices.
A similar experience happened on August 26th, and that day after getting off the train, I wrote in my phone's notes:
If I have my own child in the future, I will definitely tell them, with their understanding, not to play videos or music out loud in public places, not to talk loudly or make noise, not to take off their shoes or socks; try to minimize unpleasant odors on themselves (such as body odor); and to maintain civility and politeness.
It's difficult to change the previous generation and the same generation, and I don't want to change them. All I can do is change myself and influence the next generation through effort.
Don't let our next generation become the people we dislike.
Interesting Things and Objects
- 和菜头's article "Things I Like to Write About": Ordinary people look up to greatness, but it is also ordinary people who can look down and discover greatness in the ordinary. Believing in the beauty that still exists in this world is important, just like believing that ordinary things and achievements are equally important.
- YeungYeah's article "The Power of Expression: Writing and Emotional Venting": Expression or output is an effective tool for showcasing oneself and a way to release emotions. There is an image in the form of a cartoon, where a person is full of emotions, and through writing and recording, the emotions are transferred to words and paper, which is an effective way to release emotions.
- Watched "Train to Busan 2: Peninsula": Although I haven't watched the first part, it didn't affect my viewing. Four years after the outbreak of the zombie virus, South Korea was isolated from the world, and the remaining refugees escaped to Hong Kong. Later, someone couldn't resist the temptation of money and took great risks to return to the Korean Peninsula to steal a large amount of US dollars. My feeling is that it was average, you could say it's "Train to Busan meets Fast and Furious".
- Currently watching "The Bad Kids": The plot is very exciting, but there is a sense of dissonance throughout. On Mount Longhu in Jiangxi, wearing Daoist robes to practice martial arts, and then taking selfies with a phone, playing games on an iPad... The character played by Peng Yuchang perfectly embodies the qualities of being pretentious, shameless, and shameless.
- Currently reading "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future": A biography published on Tuesday, there has been a lot of discussion on Twitter, and I read a few chapters out of curiosity. It starts from Musk's childhood and goes all the way to April 2023. These stories answer the question: is the same demon that drives Musk in his heart also necessary for innovation and progress? There are already Chinese versions available online, but they have been edited and abridged. I recommend reading the original English version and comparing it. The Chinese version has been modified.
- On September 12th, every time Apple's Spring Festival Gala is held, I wake up between 2-3 am, open my phone, and look at the "One Picture to Summarize the Apple Keynote" to see what new things have been released. Then I close my phone and go back to sleep. This year's iPhone seems to be disappointing, with incremental updates, and with the sudden release of the Huawei Mate 60 series, the iPhone 15 indeed doesn't have many highlights.
That's all for this week's content. I hope to review my week in a relaxed and calm manner, and I hope that subscribers to my blog can calmly read through my sharing and continue to love their own lives. Life is not just about nonsense.
The background image is the official wallpaper of iPhone 15.