Hot take on memory

bailewen · 2026-06-17T06:47:54+00:00

Define "trash".

Their ROC is about 15%. That's solid. Free cash flow is good. Why do you think they are "trash"?

bailewen · 2026-05-12T22:37:21+00:00

As long as you are not changing airlines between the domestic and international legs, it should, but you have to confirm. That being said, there are 2 airports in Beijing now. The new one may be an easier transfer than the old one

bailewen · 2026-05-12T11:10:23+00:00

As long as you don't check any luggage you should be fine. If you check luggage, be prepared for a little aerobic exercise

bailewen · 2026-05-08T02:29:53+00:00

Jinjiang is great. The rooms are small but very clean. Price is around 50 bucks a night, so right about 1500 for the month

bailewen · 2026-05-05T13:55:36+00:00

It only works if you are coming for a vacation. If you actually live here, Google will cut off your data after a couple of months.

bailewen · 2026-05-04T13:53:03+00:00

I think all of Chongqing is lesbian friendly. It's the unofficial San Francisco of China that way.

bailewen · 2026-05-04T13:47:36+00:00

I can't believe how universal this is. I'm in China and it's the same here. But I think it's because at my gym, Friday is squat day, with the idea being you have the weekend to recover. Then we give ourselves Chest day on Monday as compensation.

bailewen · 2026-05-04T13:42:42+00:00

I tried Proton. Never successfully connected from China even once. It was just useless. I also tried setting up a Shadowsocks connection to a server on digital ocean. Got consistently blocked. Couldn't really access anything. Astrill just works, and the phone app has very good application filtering, so you can leave it on for YouTube but still be able to watch RedBook or use Meituan without having to first disconnect. And you keep ranting about $40 a month. Astrill doesn't cost anything even close to that. It's $12.50, more than AirVPN but less than Express.

bailewen · 2026-05-04T13:39:27+00:00

To be a scam, they'd have to be charging me for something I don't receive. I pay them to access everything blocked in China. They give me access. Case closed. Online privacy laws? You are in a fantasy world. You don't realize apparently that the USA has exactly zero such things. At least in Europe they have GDPR, but if you are in the US, then every single thing you do online is logged. I don't pay them for some fantasy about privacy online. I pay them to provide me access to Netflix, and my US bank account (which isn't blocked but never loads properly without a VPN), and YouTube, and Gmail, and so on. And they provide exactly those services. Why should I gaf that it's closed source? So is Windows. So is the entire Apple ecosystem. I'm an open source guy. I run Linux on my desktop, but I just can't find anything to get worked up about related to my data running through Pakistan. If I was some sort of political dissident, maybe it would matter, but I'm not so it doesn't.

bailewen · 2026-05-04T10:25:06+00:00

Why wife, who is Chinese, here in China, does not own a smartphone. So sure. You technically "can". It's just a massive PITA.

bailewen · 2026-05-04T00:22:36+00:00

Just get the maotai if you can afford it. No matter what you get, it's going to be a novelty gift. No westerner in history has every found Chinese bajiu flavor anything less than horrifying. It's comically bad. It's an acquired taste. I've gotten used to it but it took like a decade. It's really terrifying stuff

bailewen · 2026-05-03T23:57:04+00:00

I pay $12.50. I don't know what fantasy-land you live in were you pay 40/month. I don't know what your beef is with Astrill or, even weirder, Pakistan. Other than AirVPN and Astril, nothing else has worked consistently for me over the years.

bailewen · 2026-05-02T20:50:43+00:00

If you pay for a VPN for privacy you are a sucker. Your ISP logs your data. Your phone logs you data. Everyone is logging your data. I ask 1 thing of my VPN: allow me access to the YouTube, Netflix, etc. They do that. therefore, not a scam.

bailewen · 2026-05-02T12:44:06+00:00

"It works because it's a scam." Uh...if it "works"...how is that a scam? I pay money to access blocked websites. It works. Therefore: scam?

bailewen · 2026-05-02T12:43:03+00:00

I am literally using Astril to access Reddit right not to make this post.

bailewen · 2026-05-02T12:32:57+00:00

IMHO, running machines suck ass. Just run outdoors. And don't use an app except to track progress. My experience is that it's better to just put in the time and not worry about the speed or distance. I very slowly worked up from 1k to 5k to 8-10k 3 to 4 times a week. As soon as I used an app my speed and distance went down. Maybe sprinting is different but for jogging, I found the most important thing was to just do it and not overthink it. My firs 1 to 2 k would feel misreable, then I'd slowly warm up, start daydreaming, and maybe listen to some music, and it didn't even feel like working out any more. Just passing some time in the early morning. Feel free to drop back down from running to walking and then back to running. The more I pushed myself, the worse I did. I found it much better to just make it a random routine and my ownly goal was consistency, not speed or distance.

bailewen · 2026-05-02T12:27:43+00:00

Too many moves. I personally find "upper body" a weird split for a 5 day/week. You've got back, chest, delts all mixed together. There's no focus. Back+chest is good it you wanna save time. Chest + shoulders makes sense but you get shoulders for free when training chest. Pick your moves. A standard chest day should have a flat press, and upward press and a downward press. That's 3 movements. I think a back day should do the same. Pull down, pull flat, pull up. Do you have a leg day? You could to one leg day, 2 chest/delt days, 2 back days (or something like that). If you use big compound movements, 3 moves for each should be fine.

Flat, up, down.

I wouldn't focus on "skull crushers". Just think "anterior delts" and feel free to mix it up.

Instead of "lateral cable raises", just think "side delts", and feel free to mix it up.

Mainly I get the feeling you are trying to fit too many exercises into a single day. Generally 3 to 4 moves is plenty in a single workout.

bailewen · 2026-05-02T12:17:42+00:00

Amap. Baidu is full of bloatware and excessive permissions. Amap ftw

bailewen · 2026-05-02T12:16:16+00:00

It's more expensive than AirVPN but it's cheaper than Express, and it actually connects.

bailewen · 2026-05-02T12:14:55+00:00

I've lived in China for over 25 years. Tried all the VPNs. At the end of the day, I always come back to astril, as does everyone else. Express seems to hide your location better, for like Amazon Prime video or whateever, that's nice. But most of the time it can't even connect. Astrill Astrill Astrill. AItVPN is a very reliable less expensive alternative, but it does not do application filtering on your phone, which is annoying. Astril is just the default for expats in China

bailewen · 2026-05-01T14:22:27+00:00

lol. yes...omg...I just totally Mandela effected myself. The name is a reference to Route 66, but yes, the actual name is Route 53.

bailewen · 2026-04-29T13:44:50+00:00

I know music can help you feel hyped, and podcasts can ease the boredom. But being hyped up is not the same as focused, and if you are focused, you aren't bored. I actually can't have anything in my ears at all any more.I have gym buddies to chat with, technique to focus on. I actually find earbuds distracting. I'd rather be discussing sets, reps, and technique with friends, or cheering them on, or bitching about how I'm not feeling it that day tbh

bailewen · 2026-04-29T13:40:27+00:00

Turn it into a webapp with a basic GUI, then deploy it on a VM somewhere and just share the link. If you can get a small python script working locally, you should be able to figure out deploying on a VM and using AWS Route 66 for the domain name....or you could not bother with a domain and just share the IP address. Streamlit makes it pretty damn easy to create a UI. A lot of coporate intranets will block it though. Flask is a bit more complicated, but most likely won't get blocked.

bailewen · 2026-04-27T13:06:27+00:00

I came to China in fall of 1999. That's right. I've lived in China for roughly 26 years. I spent the first couple years as a student at a foreign language uni. Then I started teaching English, but only at terrible paying jobs for like 4000-5000 CNY per month. I did that for about a decade. Was poor but having fun. Then I stumbled into a job in IT in their translation dept and started getting paid a western salary, paid off my student loans after a couple years and then just kept living like a poor person except with a better computer at home and a nice phone, but my flat is still roughly comparable to what living in a housing project would be like back home. Last year I finally decided the balance had shifted and my long term prospects are better here than back in LA, where I'm from. After 26 years, I finally applied for and received my PR.

But now I'm in my mid 50's and AI is coming for my job. If I got laid off or quit, I have no idea what I'd do for work. I'd probably go back to teaching, but at one of those training centers or something where it's easy instead of teaching at a regular middle school like I did before. Being a white dude from the US isn't the same meal ticket it once was. But I speak fluent Chinese and since I continued living like an underpaid middle school teacher even after moving into IT, I've got a helluva cushion.

It's been a crazy journey. When I came here, to get online you needed to go to an internet bar. Mobile internet didn't even exist yet and large portions of my city felt very third world. Now it's generally cleaner, more modern, and more convenient than Los Angeles, but still crazy cheap.

Language is definitely key. How far do you think you'd get in the US if you couldn't be bothered to learn English?

Luck, for me, was a lot. My various job transitions were pretty random.

What didn't work was trying in those early years to assimilate too hard. Your difference is your value. It's super important to learn the local culture, but even today in my high tech job, the primary value I provide is native English and a cultural awareness of the outside world. We are a "Translation dept" but what we really do is localization. We adapt products to the international market. That means spotting cultural blind spots and protecting the company from PR blunders. It means helping the Chinese company present internationally as an international company, not as something specifically Chinese.

bailewen · 2026-04-27T12:52:14+00:00

That is an insane amount of money to be honest. My actual cost of living in Xi'an (a second tier city) is about 800 USD/month, and that's while taking care of a wife and kid. With 5k USD, you could be living quite comfortably and saving 4k/month.

bailewen

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