Miscellaneous
Ruohang Feng @Vonng / Life & Essays
Essays, notes and personal writing — the things that are not about technology, or not only about it.
I Used AI to Build My Father a Digital Museum
I used AI and Oink to build a digital museum of my father's life, then started thinking about digital tombstones, copying, immortality, and how human memory might flow from stone monuments into model …
Kimi's Marketing Backlash: Don't Spend Ad Money to Burn Trust
Kimi's overseas marketing controversy brings an old problem to the surface: paying for ads while pretending they are organic word of mouth. How undisclosed sponsorships poison technical information …
My First EV Road Trip
After 12 years of driving gas cars, I rented a range-extended EV for a road trip to Huangshan. What won me over wasn't fuel savings, but the attention freed up by assisted driving—though beyond the …
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.
Waking Up at #1 on Hacker News Again
I woke up to check the war news and found X notifications saying my post on reviving MinIO had hit #1 on Hacker News—submitted by someone else after my own submission died at 2 points.
The Last Day of a 32-Year-Old Programmer
Sudden death from overwork is tragic enough, but what cuts deeper is that even death cannot hit the pause button. A heartbreaking case.
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.
I Used AI to Build My Father a Digital Museum
I used AI and Oink to build a digital museum of my father's life, then started thinking about digital tombstones, copying, immortality, and how human memory might flow from stone monuments into model …
Kimi's Marketing Backlash: Don't Spend Ad Money to Burn Trust
Kimi's overseas marketing controversy brings an old problem to the surface: paying for ads while pretending they are organic word of mouth. How undisclosed sponsorships poison technical information …
My First EV Road Trip
After 12 years of driving gas cars, I rented a range-extended EV for a road trip to Huangshan. What won me over wasn't fuel savings, but the attention freed up by assisted driving—though beyond the …
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.
Waking Up at #1 on Hacker News Again
I woke up to check the war news and found X notifications saying my post on reviving MinIO had hit #1 on Hacker News—submitted by someone else after my own submission died at 2 points.
The Last Day of a 32-Year-Old Programmer
Sudden death from overwork is tragic enough, but what cuts deeper is that even death cannot hit the pause button. A heartbreaking case.
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.
I Used AI to Build My Father a Digital Museum
Over the past few days, I did something: I built my dad a “digital museum of his life”: Dad has been gone for almost ten years. I had never gotten around to looking at the old hard drives he left behind. A while ago, while tinkering with a NAS at …
Over the past few days, I did something: I built my dad a “digital museum of his life”: Dad has been gone for almost ten years. I had never gotten around to looking at the old hard drives he left behind. A while ago, while tinkering with a NAS at …
Kimi's Marketing Backlash: Don't Spend Ad Money to Burn Trust
Moonshot AI released its latest model, Kimi K3.1 Pro, a couple of days ago. On paper, it was a strong release: its Artificial Analysis (AA) Intelligence Index jumped from 44 in the previous generation to 55, right on the heels of first-place Claude …
Moonshot AI released its latest model, Kimi K3.1 Pro, a couple of days ago. On paper, it was a strong release: its Artificial Analysis (AA) Intelligence Index jumped from 44 in the previous generation to 55, right on the heels of first-place Claude …
My First EV Road Trip
I’ve been driving for 12 years—databases by trade, cars on the road—yet until this trip, I had never once been behind the wheel of an EV. It’s not that I’m some diehard internal-combustion fundamentalist; I just don’t have a daily commute. Back when …
I’ve been driving for 12 years—databases by trade, cars on the road—yet until this trip, I had never once been behind the wheel of an EV. It’s not that I’m some diehard internal-combustion fundamentalist; I just don’t have a daily commute. Back when …
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 …
Waking Up at #1 on Hacker News Again
I woke up this morning to check how the war was going, only to find notifications on X telling me I had hit #1 on Hacker News. Sure enough, it was the post I wrote a few days ago about reviving MinIO. It was my article, though I was not the one who …
I woke up this morning to check how the war was going, only to find notifications on X telling me I had hit #1 on Hacker News. Sure enough, it was the post I wrote a few days ago about reviving MinIO. It was my article, though I was not the one who …
The Last Day of a 32-Year-Old Programmer
Saturday morning, November 29, 2025. Guangzhou. At 8:58, emergency services (120) received the call. At 9:14, paramedics arrived on scene. At 9:46, he was transferred to the hospital; the medical chart noted, “Suspected clinical death; family …
Saturday morning, November 29, 2025. Guangzhou. At 8:58, emergency services (120) received the call. At 9:14, paramedics arrived on scene. At 9:46, he was transferred to the hospital; the medical chart noted, “Suspected clinical death; family …
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 …