Reflections |

Riding into the Year of the Horse

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Happy Lunar New Year, and welcome to the Year of the Horse.

In many ways, this feels like the right symbol for our time. The pace of technological change, especially in AI, has accelerated dramatically. Knowledge ages faster than ever, and skills that once lasted for years can feel temporary within months.

Living in this environment creates an unusual tension. I sometimes resent how quickly things move, how constant the need to learn has become. Yet at the same time, I feel a strong desire to keep learning, to grow, and not fall behind. It’s both inspiring and exhausting.

It’s a funny contradiction - being excited about the future while also wishing it would slow down a little.

There are moments when I feel motivated, and moments when I feel tired or unproductive. And perhaps that’s simply the human response to rapid progress. Technology accelerates, but people still need time to think, rest, and adapt.

Maybe that’s the spirit of this year. Horses run fast, but they don’t sprint forever. So this year, I hope to keep moving forward, learn what I can, and forgive myself for not keeping up with everything.

Anyway, may we all find our rhythm in a fast-moving world.

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2026: The Year Time Itself Broke (Again)

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.

The year 2026 kicked off with a bold statement: “What if time… just stopped working?”

First, League of Legends players around the world found themselves locked out for hours because an SSL certificate quietly expired. No dragons, no Baron, just TLS saying nope.

Then, not wanting to be left out, Logitech decided to add some cross-industry solidarity. As shown in the screenshot, Logi Options+ on macOS strikes. Purple screen with a loading circle. No mouse customisation enlightenment. 😇

Digging a little deeper, the issue turns out to be painfully familiar: a certificate expired at exactly the start of 2026.

codesign -d --extract-certificates /Applications/logioptionsplus.app
for f in codesign*; do
 echo "== $f =="
 openssl x509 -inform DER -in "$f" -noout -dates
done

macOS, being very strict about reality, looks at the clock, looks at the certificate, and says: “This app lives in the past. I refuse.” 🧐

Until Logitech remembers how calendars work, the workaround is gloriously low-tech. Just set the system time to before 20:39 GMT on 6 January 2026. It may also be necessary to restart the Logi Plugin Service. After that, congratulations: you have successfully debugged time!

So here we are, early 2026:

Gamers defeated by certificates.
A utility app halted by GMT.
Engineers everywhere muttering: “How did this pass CI?”

What’s next? 😈

Anyway, happy New Year! Of course, don’t forget to renew your certificates. ⏰

👋 Introducing a New Blogger: Arvin Zhao

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a late Spring Festival celebration from the new blogger. Yes, it’s me. Wish us a prosperous and joyful Year of the Snake! 🐍

I published my personal site in late 2021. At almost the same time, I planned to start blogging. Unfortunately, that only became real today, more than three years later. Since I know I’m very late to the blogging journey, I would like to share a few reasons.

Procrastination. Definitely! 🙄
Tired of social media sharing. Maybe a reflection of being an introvert? 👀
A stronger will to record guides, ideas, and thoughts. Never too late to learn; never too late to blog. 🤠

You might notice I put “record” rather than “share”. I would be glad if my blog could help you, but I don’t mean to tell or teach anyone the correct, great, or popular way to do things. Mostly, I am exploring an interesting way to take notes. My first priority, at least for now, is to occasionally share with my future self.

So when to update next time? 💆‍♂️