Miscellaneous
Ruohang Feng @Vonng
Essays, notes and personal writing — the things that are not about technology, or not only about it.
Thirty-Three
Turning 33, I look back on what may have been my most enjoyable year yet: one person, a team of agents, Pigsty, PostgreSQL's Chinese ecosystem, Silo—and, somehow, work-life balance.
The Pirate Game, and Why Society Needs “Madmen”
The pirate game, the people who flip the table, and the trap the decent ones are stuck in. A game theory of flipping the table: why the people who refuse to let things go are the load-bearing beam …
An Ice Cream Agenda
How does a verdict of “tastes awful” become a week's public agenda? When someone with the power to set that agenda calls himself “just a consumer,” he conceals more than his power. He also conceals …
Pigsty Goes Global: 1.44M Visitors, Zero Ad Revenue
Over the last 30 days, pigsty.io served 1.44 million unique visitors, 18.11 million page views, and 1.1 TB of traffic. For a one-person open source project, the real asset here is not ad inventory. It …
Genesis 2.0
I asked Claude to write a short semi-realistic, semi-mythic story about mind uploading, orbital ascension, and the rebirth of gods. I suspect the premise is less absurd than it sounds.
Fully Loaded M5 Max: What Does a RMB 58,200 Laptop Look Like?
Apple opened preorders for the M5 Max and I immediately maxed one out at RMB 58,200. This is less a consumer electronics post than a look at what an AI-era personal workstation is becoming.
2025 Year in Review: A Turning Point
2025 felt unusually long. AI gave me a twentyfold productivity boost and gave Pigsty a real shot at competing with world-class distributions. From an independent open-source project growing against …
2023 Year-End Summary: Thirty and Established
In 2023, I turned thirty. As Confucius said, "At thirty, one establishes oneself." I've managed to accomplish something - started a family, built a career, gained some technical reputation. A year-end …
Modb Interviews Industry Leaders - Feng Ruohang
Recently, a historic debate in the database industry has sparked heated discussion. The post-90s entrepreneur Feng Ruohang, known as the "ace debater" in the database community, has come into public …
ISD Dataset: Analyzing 120 Years of Global Climate Change
ISD stands for Integrated Surface Dataset, a dataset published by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). I recently reorganized this dataset and provided related analysis tools.
Post-90s, Quit Job to Start Business, Says Will Crush Cloud Databases
Recently gave an interview to OSC Open-Source China, discussing the motivation behind quitting my full-time job to start a business with Pigsty: making PostgreSQL easy to use for everyone, and …
The WeChat Photo Album Access Issue
I saw news about WeChat accessing user photo albums in the background. While such shady behavior from Chinese apps doesn't surprise me, in the spirit of seeking truth, I got up this morning to …
Life at 28
My solar birthday falling on Mid-Autumn Festival is something that will only happen three times in my lifetime. Theoretically, this should be a memorable day, but the events of this year have left me …
Farewell to Grandfather
Grandfather has passed away. I am beyond grief, but I should still write something in his memory.
Practical Cryptography Made Simple
A classic problem in cryptography is how to transmit data securely and reliably through insecure channels. Protecting your chats and communications from surveillance and monitoring - easily achievable …
The Sorrow of the Internet
The future may not necessarily be bright, but the path will certainly be tortuous.
New Year Reflections
The future is not necessarily bright, but the path is definitely winding. During this rare leisure time alone in the New Year, I write these random thoughts, writing wherever my mind wanders.
The Internet Winter
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
Knowledge of China's Administrative Divisions
Information about administrative division levels, numbers, the meaning of administrative division codes, urban-rural classification, etc.
Understanding the Internet
The world trends flow mightily. Those who follow prosper; those who resist perish. This article discusses the essence of the internet, the world under internet rule, the transfer of power, and future …
Several Levels of Learning Knowledge
Through observation and contemplation, we can divide the process of deepening understanding in the mind from accepting knowledge to the highest level of "intuition" into four stages: knowledge, …
Understanding Character Encoding
Code is literally “encoding,” and everything collapses if you mishandle text. Here’s a practical tour of characters, glyphs, Unicode, and UTF encodings.
Starting from /0: Understanding Errors and Exceptions
What happens when you divide by 0 in a computer? The answer isn't fixed - it can differ across different operating systems, programming languages, and even different compilers.
Tag Classification Theory
Recently, I needed to design a tag management system for a business. During the process of organizing existing tags, I developed this theoretical framework.
Thirty-Three
It’s my 33rd birthday today. Another year gone in a blink. People say your sense of time gets hazier after 30: blink, and a year is gone. I do feel that, though perhaps for a different reason. I’ve also heard another explanation, a homespun version …
It’s my 33rd birthday today. Another year gone in a blink. People say your sense of time gets hazier after 30: blink, and a year is gone. I do feel that, though perhaps for a different reason. I’ve also heard another explanation, a homespun version …
The Pirate Game, and Why Society Needs “Madmen”
I took a game theory course in college, and one of the classic problems the professor set was the pirate game. Five pirates — call them A through E, oldest to youngest — divide a hundred gold coins. The most senior one proposes a split, everyone …
I took a game theory course in college, and one of the classic problems the professor set was the pirate game. Five pirates — call them A through E, oldest to youngest — divide a hundred gold coins. The most senior one proposes a split, everyone …
An Ice Cream Agenda
I On September 12, a celebrity who made his name campaigning for consumer rights ate some ice cream at an airport. He didn’t like it and posted on Weibo. In parentheses, he added seven Chinese characters: Please, don’t mess with me. An ordinary …
I On September 12, a celebrity who made his name campaigning for consumer rights ate some ice cream at an airport. He didn’t like it and posted on Weibo. In parentheses, he added seven Chinese characters: Please, don’t mess with me. An ordinary …
Pigsty Goes Global: 1.44M Visitors, Zero Ad Revenue
Traffic on pigsty.io jumped by roughly an order of magnitude over the last month. I opened the Cloudflare dashboard today and had to stare at it for a second. 1.44 million unique visitors, 18.11 million page views, 1.1 TB of traffic. That is over 30 …
Traffic on pigsty.io jumped by roughly an order of magnitude over the last month. I opened the Cloudflare dashboard today and had to stare at it for a second. 1.44 million unique visitors, 18.11 million page views, 1.1 TB of traffic. That is over 30 …
Genesis 2.0
Author: Claude Prompt: write a short, sharp, half-realistic and half-magical story. AI advances rapidly, brain-computer interfaces and mind uploading break through, elite humans launch a satellite in Earth orbit and upload themselves into it. To …
Author: Claude Prompt: write a short, sharp, half-realistic and half-magical story. AI advances rapidly, brain-computer interfaces and mind uploading break through, elite humans launch a satellite in Earth orbit and upload themselves into it. To …
Fully Loaded M5 Max: What Does a RMB 58,200 Laptop Look Like?
Apple unveiled the M5 Max MacBook Pro, and I ordered a fully loaded configuration almost immediately: RMB 58,200. 1. A ten-year spending pattern Since graduating, my primary machine has always been the same category: a top-tier MacBook Pro, usually …
Apple unveiled the M5 Max MacBook Pro, and I ordered a fully loaded configuration almost immediately: RMB 58,200. 1. A ten-year spending pattern Since graduating, my primary machine has always been the same category: a top-tier MacBook Pro, usually …
2025 Year in Review: A Turning Point
2025 felt unusually long. Not because it was hard, but because it stood in sharp contrast to the blank, blink-and-you-missed-it feeling of the three pandemic years. When a year is dense with new information and keeps expanding the boundaries of what …
2025 felt unusually long. Not because it was hard, but because it stood in sharp contrast to the blank, blink-and-you-missed-it feeling of the three pandemic years. When a year is dense with new information and keeps expanding the boundaries of what …
2023 Year-End Summary: Thirty and Established
Thirty and Established In 2023, I turned thirty. As Confucius said, “At thirty, one establishes oneself.” I’ve managed to accomplish something - started a family, built a career, gained some technical reputation. On the last day of 2023, let me take …
Thirty and Established In 2023, I turned thirty. As Confucius said, “At thirty, one establishes oneself.” I’ve managed to accomplish something - started a family, built a career, gained some technical reputation. On the last day of 2023, let me take …
Modb Interviews Industry Leaders - Feng Ruohang
Original WeChat Article | 【Modb Interviews Industry Leaders: Feng Ruohang】 Introduction: Recently, a historic debate in the database industry has sparked heated discussion. The post-90s entrepreneur Feng Ruohang, known as the “ace debater” in the …
Original WeChat Article | 【Modb Interviews Industry Leaders: Feng Ruohang】 Introduction: Recently, a historic debate in the database industry has sparked heated discussion. The post-90s entrepreneur Feng Ruohang, known as the “ace debater” in the …
ISD Dataset: Analyzing 120 Years of Global Climate Change
Original WeChat Article ISD stands for Integrated Surface Dataset, a dataset published by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). It contains observational records from nearly 30,000 global surface meteorological stations from 1900 …
Original WeChat Article ISD stands for Integrated Surface Dataset, a dataset published by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). It contains observational records from nearly 30,000 global surface meteorological stations from 1900 …
Post-90s, Quit Job to Start Business, Says Will Crush Cloud Databases
Original WeChat Article | Open-Source China Article Published by: OSCHINA Open-Source China Interviewee: Feng Ruohang (Pigsty Founder) Feng Ruohang has been quite busy lately. After a startup camp pitch in June, he added two to three hundred …
Original WeChat Article | Open-Source China Article Published by: OSCHINA Open-Source China Interviewee: Feng Ruohang (Pigsty Founder) Feng Ruohang has been quite busy lately. After a startup camp pitch in June, he added two to three hundred …
The WeChat Photo Album Access Issue
Original WeChat Official Account Article Last night, I saw news about WeChat accessing user photo albums in the background, and WeChat responded: While such shady behavior from Chinese apps doesn’t surprise me, in the spirit of seeking truth, I got …
Original WeChat Official Account Article Last night, I saw news about WeChat accessing user photo albums in the background, and WeChat responded: While such shady behavior from Chinese apps doesn’t surprise me, in the spirit of seeking truth, I got …
Life at 28
Life at 28 Another Mid-Autumn Festival, another year older. My solar birthday (September 21st) coinciding with Mid-Autumn Festival should only happen three times in my lifetime: once at age 9 in 2002, once at age 28 in 2021, and the last time at age …
Life at 28 Another Mid-Autumn Festival, another year older. My solar birthday (September 21st) coinciding with Mid-Autumn Festival should only happen three times in my lifetime: once at age 9 in 2002, once at age 28 in 2021, and the last time at age …
Farewell to Grandfather
Although 2020 was a year of many disasters, until grandfather’s death, I always thought we could somehow get by. The death of a close relative—this is the second time for me. First my father, then my grandfather. Humans appear so powerless before …
Although 2020 was a year of many disasters, until grandfather’s death, I always thought we could somehow get by. The death of a close relative—this is the second time for me. First my father, then my grandfather. Humans appear so powerless before …
Practical Cryptography Made Simple
Original WeChat Article A classic problem in cryptography is how to transmit data securely and reliably through insecure channels. Protecting your chats and communications from eavesdropping, surveillance, and censorship. With just a computer at …
Original WeChat Article A classic problem in cryptography is how to transmit data securely and reliably through insecure channels. Protecting your chats and communications from eavesdropping, surveillance, and censorship. With just a computer at …
The Sorrow of the Internet
In Understanding the Internet, I discussed my views on the internet. Today, let’s talk about the part I deliberately omitted: the setbacks the internet will face. Destiny It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; It was the age of wisdom, …
In Understanding the Internet, I discussed my views on the internet. Today, let’s talk about the part I deliberately omitted: the setbacks the internet will face. Destiny It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; It was the age of wisdom, …
New Year Reflections
This article may cause discomfort. Please read with caution. During this rare leisure time alone in the New Year, I write these random thoughts, writing wherever my mind wanders. I’ve always believed that choice is more important than effort: a …
This article may cause discomfort. Please read with caution. During this rare leisure time alone in the New Year, I write these random thoughts, writing wherever my mind wanders. I’ve always believed that choice is more important than effort: a …
The Internet Winter
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; It was the spring …
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; It was the spring …
Knowledge of China's Administrative Divisions
China’s administrative divisions are divided into several levels. The constitution stipulates three levels, but there are actually five levels: the four-tier system of “province—region—county (district)—township,” which becomes five tiers when …
China’s administrative divisions are divided into several levels. The constitution stipulates three levels, but there are actually five levels: the four-tier system of “province—region—county (district)—township,” which becomes five tiers when …
Understanding the Internet
I used to think that the essence of the internet, the development of the internet industry, and the strategies of internet companies—these “lofty” matters should be pondered by government officials and corporate executives. As an internet …
I used to think that the essence of the internet, the development of the internet industry, and the strategies of internet companies—these “lofty” matters should be pondered by government officials and corporate executives. As an internet …
Several Levels of Learning Knowledge
Original WeChat Article Levels of Knowledge When we say “learning knowledge,” what exactly are we talking about? When we say someone is “smart,” what exactly do we mean? Through observation and contemplation, we can divide the process of deepening …
Original WeChat Article Levels of Knowledge When we say “learning knowledge,” what exactly are we talking about? When we say someone is “smart,” what exactly do we mean? Through observation and contemplation, we can divide the process of deepening …
Understanding Character Encoding
WeChat original Programmers spend their lives with code—both source code and encodings. Representing text with bits is harder than it looks: character sets, comparators, normalization, locale rules, variable-length encodings, BOMs, surrogate pairs, …
WeChat original Programmers spend their lives with code—both source code and encodings. Representing text with bits is harder than it looks: character sets, comparators, normalization, locale rules, variable-length encodings, BOMs, surrogate pairs, …
Starting from /0: Understanding Errors and Exceptions
What happens when you divide by 0 in a computer? Errors are errors, exceptions are exceptions. The distinction here is quite subtle. Yes, no typo - the title uses /0 not 0. So the question arises: What happens when you divide by 0? Constraints are …
What happens when you divide by 0 in a computer? Errors are errors, exceptions are exceptions. The distinction here is quite subtle. Yes, no typo - the title uses /0 not 0. So the question arises: What happens when you divide by 0? Constraints are …
Tag Classification Theory
Recently, I needed to design a tag management system for a business. During the process of organizing existing tags, I developed this theoretical framework. 0. Tag Definition: Tag Taxonomy For tags, it’s difficult to provide a universally accepted …
Recently, I needed to design a tag management system for a business. During the process of organizing existing tags, I developed this theoretical framework. 0. Tag Definition: Tag Taxonomy For tags, it’s difficult to provide a universally accepted …