sqybi

About one or two years ago, after working on an Arduino-based air conditioner temperature PID controller and writing some simple rapid-fire scripts for the Titan2 gamepad converter, I hadn’t touched embedded devices for quite a while.

Recently, I saw a new product called Quote/0 on 少数派 (SSPAI) and decided to buy one to play with. Before placing my order, I wanted to check out user reviews and get some details about the device’s features. However, whether it was the official documentation or user reviews across different platforms, there were still many parameters and details missing, especially in terms of hardware and software experience.

So I thought—at a price of just over a hundred RMB, even if it turned out to be a miss, it wasn’t costly. And if nothing else, I could write an article (which is the one you’re reading now) sharing the info I couldn’t find before buying—for the reference of others considering this device. With that in mind, I happily placed the order.

This article will discuss some features I was curious about before buying but couldn’t find documented elsewhere, focusing mainly on the product’s functionality and user experience, especially some explanations about its API handling and refresh mechanisms that just don’t seem to be available online. I won’t evaluate the device’s target audience, competing products, or its commercial value, nor will I give an overall verdict—each section will just cover the facts at hand.

In recent years, just before the Chinese New Year, the most important thing for me is not scrambling for a ticket home, but planning my travel itinerary.

As a Tianjin native working in Beijing, thanks to the short distance and convenient inter-city trains, going home has become something that can be done anytime. Consequently, spending the longest vacation of the year lying at home instead of traveling would be quite a waste.

Moreover, since there aren't many relatives back home and my parents don't insist on me coming home for the New Year, the Spring Festival has turned into a purely leisure holiday: last year, I went to Hunan, and the year before, to Harbin.

This year, one of my friends happened to want to take a trip during the Spring Festival as well, so the four of us from two families discussed and decided to go abroad for a major vacation. Initially, we thought of going to New Zealand, but after checking, we found out it's quite expensive now—the amount we wanted to enjoy would cost tens of thousands per person. We jokingly said the price was enough for a trip to the Maldives, and eventually, the four of us said, "Why not just go to the Maldives then?"

Thanks to our impulsive decision back then, there are now a few more rejuvenated workers in this world.

Last week, returning from a business trip to Shanghai back to Beijing, I again chose Air China for the return flight. Just before check-in, I noticed on the Air Travel Mini Program that the aircraft model was listed as 919/100B. It took me a moment to realize that this is actually the C919!

I'm not an aviation enthusiast and not very familiar with all the intricacies of airplanes. However, even for someone like me, the C919 is widely known, being one of China's major achievements in the field of mechanical engineering and high-tech last year.

In fact, China's large passenger aircraft project started earlier than most people, including myself, would think: proposed in 2001, demonstrated in 2003, and officially launched in 2007—even before the Beijing Olympics began, and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) was formally established only in 2008.

Yet, it wasn't until May 28, 2023, that the C919 made its first commercial flight. In the year following, only China Eastern Airlines operated routes using the C919. Air China's first C919 flight is already a recent event from September 10th this year.

The B-919Y model I flew on this time is Air China’s second C919 aircraft. If I'm not mistaken, its maiden flight was on November 14th—just 5 days before I flew on this plane on November 19th, less than a week apart! This was really a random occurrence as I didn't even notice the aircraft model when purchasing the ticket (maybe even if I had noticed then, it might not have been the C919, since it hadn't been officially in use yet).

Since I was so lucky, I just had to document it a little.

On this day last year, also November 20th, I rebuilt my blog and published the article SQYBI.com: Relaunching After a Decade.

Over the past year, I have indeed been diligent with this blog: a total of 17 articles were published (one of which was just for padding), including four articles from two series updates. Although there were periods of inactivity lasting two or three months, from a self-evaluation perspective, I still believe there has been consistent output on this blog—which is somewhat satisfying to me.

Exploring two separate paths, let's discuss each aspect. Objectively, the number of articles produced is fairly satisfactory; however, starting from the second half of the year, the time and motivation for writing have gradually diminished. Thanks to creating this All Articles page during spare time, one can quickly see that June-August and October-November were major inactive periods. If it weren't for an unexpected burst of productivity at the beginning of September, it would almost equate to a major gap starting in June lasting nearly half a year.

So, let's start by talking about these two inactive periods.

Since the last time SQYBI.com went offline, I've attempted multiple times to handwrite a blog system myself.

This might seem simple, but it's actually quite challenging. In SQYBI.com: Relaunching After a Decade, I mentioned a few details. Back then, although frameworks like Django provided a foundation, and I (painfully) completed the basic functionality, the frontend frameworks at that time were too rudimentary. Besides CSS issues, writing dynamic updates based on AJAX was also very cumbersome.

Fortunately, over the past decade, many new frameworks, languages, and service providers have emerged. Thanks to Node.js, React, Docusaurus, Cloudflare, ChatGPT, Brevo, GitHub, wysimark, Giscus, and possibly other infrastructures I haven't mentioned, I was able to quickly build the current version of this website.

After relaunching the blog, I had been using Giscus as the comment system. However, I noticed that over time, nobody was leaving comments anymore.

Giscus is based on GitHub, and as is well known, GitHub is inaccessible in China. Combined with some previous configuration issues, Giscus couldn't be displayed on some mobile devices even when using a VPN.

Though I don’t know exactly how much this affected people's willingness to comment, I decided to replace it with a self-developed comment system. After all, I can't simply assume all visitors have a VPN. Additionally, this gave me a chance to pick up where I left off on my blog system, at least completing a substantial functionality once and for all.

Another reason might be that after recently redecorating the website, Giscus's frontend seemed a bit out of place. Although adjusting CSS might achieve coherence, the workload would be significant. As it turns out, even developing my own system, most of the time was spent adjusting CSS.

A bit of self-praise, this counts as deeply customizing Docusaurus. I wonder if anyone else uses Docusaurus to build a blog and has done so much secondary development. If so, I'd like to check out their site.

It's been a while since I updated the blog. A few days ago, I published a new article and upgraded the version of Docusaurus along the way.

After solving some compatibility issues, it felt like something was different. So, I carefully read through the Docusaurus update logs and found that they indeed added many useful features recently.

After making changes according to these features one by one, I decided to briefly summarize these updates and the corresponding modifications on SQYBI.com.

If you need to view other articles in the series, please use the tag to jump to the article directory page: #becoming-an-brilliant-programmer.

Thanks to MD-20880 for pushing for an update, let's continue writing this series this time.

I've actually been writing this article for several months, but when work is required, my energy is really consumed significantly. This means that every time I have the chance to continue writing, it has been a week or two since the last session. Even though I have a rough outline ready, I still need to spend a lot of time re-reading what I wrote previously to connect with my past self.

After much reflection, considering that I haven't been able to update a single article for several months, I've decided to break this article into several shorter ones. This way, on one hand, I will have more stock on hand, and on the other hand, I can divide the content into chapters for easier recall of what was previously written.

In the first article, let's discuss why I chose "management" as the theme for these articles.

Disclaimer: This article contains no advertisements, although I do hope to get ad revenue someday.

About a month ago, I left a company where I worked for over seven years and transitioned to a new industry, starting a new job.

Because of this, I'm currently in the initial stages of various tasks and have a lot to learn. As an introvert pretending to be an extrovert, the social pressure is not insignificant. Along with previous colleagues and friends wanting to catch up and my own search for housing, I indeed haven't had much time to update my blog. Even the photos from my trip to Japan in early April have only had a few edited.

Time flies, and now it's already the latter part of the month. To avoid a gap in May, I decided to write this article.

Over a month ago, I got my hands on the Xiaomi 14 Ultra (along with its photography handle kit), replacing the Xiaomi 12 Pro I had been using.

On one hand, my previous phone was somewhat lacking in performance — severe frame drops with certain games, especially worsened when using WeChat's video call in the background, made it clear that it was time for an upgrade.

On the other hand, the photography-focused direction of the previous Xiaomi 13 Ultra models did impress me. However, I noticed some design flaws and chose not to purchase it. At the latest release event, it was apparent that the previous issues, especially the balance of the device, had improved significantly in the 14 Ultra.

Moreover, I have increasingly realized that not every moment of a trip is suitable for carrying a camera. Given the maturity of mobile photography, it serves well as a casual alternative to a standard camera. This sparked a stronger need in me for a phone with superior image quality.

All these reasons combined led me to purchase the Xiaomi 14 Ultra at its launch. Coincidentally, some recent changes at work gave me nearly two weeks off, which I used to visit Japan and thoroughly test the pros and cons of this phone.

Overall, this smartphone has many advantages. It aligns with various reviews, whether in glowing or regular articles. From its large aperture and sensor size that enhances low-light performance to the great one-click photo quality achieved through Leica color tuning, and the various video optimizations, anyone who has used this phone would likely agree.

However, the upcoming sections will focus more on some of the phone’s minor drawbacks. This does not mean it isn't an excellent phone, but its specialized focus makes it less suitable for everyone or perhaps even the majority of users. If you are its target audience, these drawbacks might be minor; if not, any one of these issues could be a dealbreaker.

The right fit is the best fit.

This is software used to connect to Sony cameras.

Creators' App

This is also software used to connect to Sony cameras.

Imaging Edge Mobile

This is yet another piece of software for connecting to Sony cameras.

Play Memories Home

Sony has historically released many different versions of apps and software, and sometimes different software may only be compatible with different cameras. For example, my A7M4 and α6000 require different apps for mobile connections; it's not feasible to use Imaging Edge to connect the A7M4.

Even with seemingly tailor-made software for each camera model, there are still various problems in use. Frequent disconnections and slow speeds are minor issues. Even the A7M4, released in 2021, requires a third-party WiFi connection to link the camera and mobile app.

Since the camera itself lacks a browser interface, if your WiFi requires additional web page login verification (as many hotel WiFis do), you might lose the opportunity to transfer photos from your camera to your phone... right? Not necessarily!

Today's featured app is Monitor+. Not only does it solve the tricky problem mentioned above, but it can also turn your phone into a real-time monitor and remote shutter release. Many of my timelapse photos, such as this one, were shot with this app.

This app supports not only Sony cameras, but most mainstream camera brands can be connected to it as well. Photo transfer and basic remote monitoring and shutter triggering functionalities are all free!