Dailynewsound pivot (Jan. 22, 2022)

Short description

It is an app that lets people read articles or statements and have them say what they want to say privately and publicly. Public, this works the same way as Reddit, or any social media platform out there. Privately, the user can keep a list of thoughts or microblogs (similar to Twitter) that they can come back to anytime.

Future Features

1. Record user voice and convert them into text
2. Translates texts into other languages
3. Easy-to-use and navigation through sitemap
4. Merge texts
5. Listen using text-to-speech with realistic voice sounds
6. AI-enabled Sentiment scoring
7. User metrics for positivity or negativity
8. User metrics for introversion and extraversion

Time to get my hands dirty and decide on the domain design

Here is what I have come up with so far (as of January 28, 2022)

1. User –can have multiple Collections
2. Collection – domain for content itself in multiple forms (blog, reviewer, tutorials/guides, curriculum, anything informative); can have multiple Posts
3. Profile – user’s profile; can have multiple Comments
   • This domain provides a key role in separating and distinguishing the User
   • In it, the points are provided and based on the number of public or private comments, this determines whether the user is introverted or extroverted
   • Also based on the sentiment points of the Comments for the user, it is determined whether the user is leaned towards positivity, neutrality or negativity
4. Post – domain for an entry in a collection; can have multiple Comments
5. Comment – domain from another User
6. Username – domain to identify unique user name (all users have unique user names)
7. Article – domain for a given content that can be saved as Collection
8. Image – a field under Post containing metadata for image

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Social media effects

What is the main Problem we have in social media?

Social media doesn’t allow people to say things privately to the user themselves. I think this is the main cause of depression and insecurities among people. It is simply an open book of the person’s life. There isn’t any explicit private wall or space reserved for the user for their own thoughts and opinions. There is no outlet of anger, malice, or anything not appropriate that the public would be willing to put up.

This begs the question, is social media really for everyone? Not every person can reply to posts or articles for the fear of being ridiculed or bashed by other nonchalant users who are the typical “keyboard warriors”. Moreover, there are tons of people out trolling than speaking the truth. Not all people have the confidence and knowledge to back up their statements in social media posts which prompts the truthful or non-confident people to just read, watch, or simply to say it only towards themselves – this could be lost valuable data and human reaction that could only be lost. Or they simply, are not comfortable showing their opinions openly and won’t simply “go down” to the commenter’s level.

It doesn’t cares about what people say, EVERYTHNG they CAN say, publicly or privately.

Storytime: I was an introverted guy from elementary until I reach college. I would not say much and be embarrassed about weird and funny thoughts that I could have shared in every conversation. It seems it is only important to speak opinions the thing you have to say is important. And most of the time, those people are the leaders or the “courageous” type or the most aged and well-experienced in the group. I remember my friends calling me out openly during drinking sessions with them saying, “Hey Gio, why haven’t you said anything yet” to which I respond that I just feel tired, which is partly true; I’ve always felt that I don’t belong to any specific group of people, like an outsider (this topic should be in a different story). I resonate with the phrase from a song, “I got opinions that don’t matter. I’ve got a brain with the size of pancake batter”. It seems I am only concerned with my opinions and self-talk when someone is there to intently listen and give valuable feedback.

I was only talkative to some groups of certain people or better yet, to a single friend.

Sometimes I feel my opinions will not matter much to people when I say. This happened in the past when I said something I thought was very valuable or impactful and yet, no one really gave any care about it. Ever since I have always tried to keep it only to myself and it is almost unbearable given that it could feel like you are about to explode. I sometimes think that I just need to refine what I have to say first and be more sincere with my words and thoughts before really putting them out there.

Most of the time, I would really feel bad about myself and won’t be able to say anything. my outlet would be to listen to soft and sad music to ease myself out of the unhappiness, disappointments, and frustrations.

On rare occasions, I feel valued when I speak to really good people who genuinely listened.

I also feel like expressing myself through an art form like drawing, painting, or music.

What I target to achieve with Dailynewsound

I would like to let people value their thoughts more and to think that it is still valuable, no matter how adverse, counter-intuitive, or ecstatic their ideas are. The reason for this is so they can help themselves push their thoughts forward into action. Simple shedding a sentiment for any given thought could be insightful and highly valuable to one’s self.

I would like to help people move with their positive thoughts.

I want to make people feel that they are not out of place or feeling left out.

I would like to inspire people that it’s okay to be vulnerable with your thoughts accept facts about life and be able to move past the negativity and adverse situations around.

One cool idea is connecting people with similar thoughts, temperaments, and perspectives in life. And if they are the opposite sex, they can probably go on a date.

I’ll continue moving along with these thoughts and come up with an MVP on top of the Newsreader app.

BR,

G

My daily struggles

My problem

I have a habit of browsing through social media sites (Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter) and my email (both personal and work) 40-50% of my time while I am awake during the day. When I get caught by my wife, she would tend to almost always scold me making me feel worse because I knew that our main tasks during the day will get affected by it. This is on top of work and other distractions I consume during the day.

What stops me

I wake up every day and have different moods depending on what I did the night before. For example, if I watched a movie, I just feel guilt and there is a laziness streak that comes along with it the morning after. Another factor that affects me is what I ate the night before. Usually, if I consume alcohol, it makes me hyper during that night but I end up with a heavy head and aching the next morning. At times, I consume sweets and I also get the feet aches and guilt. There is just a lot of bad things that could happen the night before and it really depends on the person on when he/she becomes productive or how to activate that part of their lives.

In my wife’s parent’s house where we currently live, another thing that stops me is the distractions throughout the day. Once my wife decides to turn on Netflix or Youtube on the TV, there is basically no going back. On top of that, I get to use my phone instantly to browse on FB, Twitter, or my email while watching a movie or video loaded on the big screen. (Talking about dual distractions at one point in time) It is just multi-tasking of distractions. And I always feel the guilt after.

I also notice that I am distracted by myself with the “woulda, coulda, shoulda” mindset that I always place my thoughts into. I mean it’s not bad to be ambitious and dream big but I get distracted by what I can do in the future that I am thinking of preparing myself for today. I do these continuous mindsets, daydreaming of the human problems and how I want to solve them with the help of social media to involuntarily find a solution there while my mind is drifting and drifting further to other things I see, read, browse, and watch. I fail to notice that FB is already feeding me unnecessary crap like funny videos, fake or unimportant celebrity news, or simple other tech innovations that give me a FOMO (fear of missing out) feeling. I just cannot stick to what I need to focus on. There is just a lot of stuff out there that I am curious to know and 99.99% of them don’t have anything to do with improving my life.

The other thing I think is a big factor is how I have other responsibilities as an adult to my kid, my wife’s parents, their house, and my wife. There is just a big downside with a work-from-home setup where you are always expected to be productive on both ends – the work itself and the household chores. (men can mostly relate)

How do I plan to fix it

I cannot discuss this at the moment because I don’t see any change that can happen with the main activities during the day. The only thing I can discuss is how I can carve a good habit of following a strict night and morning routine. Not to mention, I need to follow a stricter diet by consuming less rice, fat, and high sugar foods.

Once that J&T package arrives, I can finally use the yoga mat and exercise attires to do insanity exercise in the morning. I think this will increase my energy during the day and have more patience with my wife and kid in dealing with their problems.

How I see myself in the future

I would like to have my future older self thank my current self for the things he did to have a better peaceful life, family relationships, and aspirations.

That’s all for now!

– G

Dailynewsound’s next moves and more…

Hello world, once again and…

First of all, yes. You see it above and I know how much we value our time most, especially for our ourselves and with our loved ones! Spread the love y’all!

A bunch of things come into mind (while waiting for my work laptop to arrive) when I think of improvements to dNs (or Dns, DnS – just want to come up with a cool abbreviation). Here is a list of things I have come across recently:

1. Google TTS – I have tried the demo and it rocks
2. AWS Polly – I have used it before and looking how to integrate it to the premium feature of DNS
3. Azure TTS – I have tried the demo and it also rocks
4. Talked to a person who seems like a marketing expert in a FB startup group (based in PH). We will have some kinda business strategy discussion on the 29th for DNS.
5. Tech stacks I watched and found interesting in articles and in Youtube: Web3, blockchain, NFTs (creating and minting your own NFTs)

DNS Features I would implement in the coming days:

1. Terms and Conditions + Privacy Policy modal
2. Responsive UI to show better image in the modal/subwindow
3. Tasker [Good to have] lets users create a Trello-like task appender and have it TTS-read sequentially
4. Explainer [Good to have] is similar to # 3 and it TTS-reads a blog hosted in DNS
5. Seeker [Pleasant to have] is a scrollbar that displays the post being shown in relation to the number of post array

Just dropping by for a quick update and advanced greeting 😀

G

Dunno what I am doing here – mixed thoughts after doing a workout

I just updated the write-up of my welcome page here and earlier had ideas while taking a shower. (I got really distracted with the former activity) Now it’s time to figure out what I really intend to do today.

Hmmm, let me see. I just did my workout today around 7AM and was able to take a bath after. It was tiring but really worth the time; I learned that the appetite to do the important things comes after doing it in the morning. The rush of thoughts and ideas just naturally comes out.

One idea I could remember is about “chasing the future”. I think it can be a slogan for a tech initiative. Not related: In order to be successful, there should be a spark of inspiration that needs to take place. (Again, the morning routine helps. Simply, can’t deny it). Going back, I think I have to make some effort to learn Web3 and decentralization. One use case is when there are thoughts of having the consensus of a group of people to tell whether a news is fake, irrelevant, or not substantial enough. I think no one should waste their time. There should be an action bias once we consume the information thoroughly. IT should resonate with a person for her/him to take action or simply call out people to do so. I might be going through random thoughts and letting them out prematurely, to be honest. Maybe I should set something up more realistically. And in particular, my deliverables for Dailynewsound.

I was thinking of changing its name to Dailynewspeak with two mountains on top of each other as the company logo. Let me check Canva and set a reminder.

I also thought of Jordan Peterson and how one should be best friends with Google Calendar to plot the daily tasks per minute, hour, or period of focus.

One last thing I can gather here is to look back on all my notes of the vision I have for Dailynewsound; dunno if this will work because I hear a lot from guys like Elon Musk and Eric Ries that it is better to do iterations and incremental development of a product based off of the users’ opinions and feedback. I guess I’d have to rely on my own intuition for now before I can share it more with everyone who will hopefully, find it useful. So here it goes. Most are taken from my personal messages/notes in Messenger. (Yep, I am sending myself a lot of private messages)

Technical features:

• Saving the most clicked (creation of function)
• Modal and email notification when there is a page visitor
• Email subscription for a user
• Internationalization – be able to select a language (ding ding ding! dibs on this feature!)
• Make headline clickable and display image
• Steal Spotify’s UI

Vision:

• DNS as a Wikepedia / Dictionary / Encyclopedia reader

Imaginary URL paths:

• dailynewsound.com/news
• dailynewsound.com/reviews
• dailynewsound.com/products
• dailynewsound.com/movies
• dailynewsound.com/quotes
• dailynewsound.com/food-recipies
• dailynewsound.com/chuck-norris
• get.dailynewsound.com (this is pretty outdated. dunno what to do with it)

TLDR; here is a notion.so page that I have made public just for reference.

I’ll close this entry for now. There is just too much info here. Let me see if I can start working and try to push some features today while my work laptop hasn’t arrived yet.

Best regards,

G

Dec. 7, 2021 – My Desk Setup

My Desk Setup

This can be a life changer for corporate boys like me. I know tons of other people working on desk jobs during the work from home have set this up neatly during their own time to boost their productivity. This is exactly what everyone needs to get into that state of mindfulness (not to mention, quick physical exercise like push ups and lunges) aside from coffee in the morning.

Take a look at the first iteration.

It has a monitor riser that is now holding my laptop in place. The cabinets can accommodate stuffs that could clutter a person’s desk so easily such as coffee maker and gadget peripherals such as chargers and phone cases. It is entirely up to the person on whatever he/she would prefer. For me, I also added a clip lamp for late night reading.

There are some improvements to plan about like a desk mat and a mechanical keyboard (here and another one both from Shopee).

That’s all for now! Will put another entry once improvements happen again in the future.

Regards,

Eugene

Shoulda, woulda, coulda mindset

Everyone at the right age and right appetite for information and curiosity gets in the phase where they feel that we have lost touch with themselves and even from the opportunities they could’ve stumbled on from the outside world .

Unrelated: Being stuck into a prolonged activity that is manual and uninspiring is just another way of putting it. Imagine being a fish who likes to swim in the water and being asked to climb a tree instead. It puts a person into a blackhole that seeps the creativity and general happiness. It suppresses the human spirit one way or another.

Two ways that trigger the “Should, woulda, coulda” mindset. The first one is Failure and the second one is FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

Failure lets the person taste a negative situation all because of his/her doing.

FOMO simply makes a person aware of what he/she might be missing in life to improve the overall quality of living.

In summary, people can go on different paths in their lives. The easy path or the hard path. Whichever they choose to pursue, it has corresponding consequences to them.

Personally, I am a software engineer who always experience the S.W.C. feels all the time. Thoughts like “I shoulda chosen a better company to work with, if I wasn’t given a good offer.” Other times, “I woulda started and done some cool SaaS (software as a service) business if only I am less busy with the soul-crushing work and allowed myself to become idle and take a receptive, safer path.” These thoughts just comes in almost everyday for me and I welcome them with open arms because they are just normal. I think it’s about my age and a better perspective in life that goes like, “I should just continue doing what I love or what makes me feel accomplished and fulfilled.” or anything that makes the online and software world a better place.

PS. I am working on the side for a pubic repo that showcases a basic microservice. Check it out!

That’s all for now. (Wife is calling me to take the kid to bath)

BR,

GIO

Taking it all slow this time – maybe because of age

I am planning to write down my thoughts everyday for 30 minutes and just see where it will take me. Let me come up with a routine for all of this then.

I will describe what I do everyday in Bacolod: in the morning around 6 or 7 AM, I occasionally wake up because of the cold air-condition and the cold morning air outside. I think that’s a sign for me to start my day. (Off topic: when something cross my mind like just now, I used to not follow through it and do something else but it seems, I have to stay the path of activity I did previously. It also crossed me just now how I became better in English conversation because of my previous company and how I will be communicating in the near future again with the next employer. I think I should really pray for this so I think I should visit a church before I leave.) My wife and kid are still sleeping around this time but I can be fully awake if I have enough energy from dinner the night before. Should I take a physical activity by this time or do some journaling first? Maybe the latter. I don’t have to eat anything. I just need to sit in a comfortable place like right now and start writing away. Oh man, but I have lesser time to do these things and that is why I have to start early and complete fast. Before, I used to have time to critique or appreciate my writing but now, I don’t think I have to privilege to do it anymore. As I said, my kid and wife will be walking up a few minutes anytime. Ok, around 6-7AM, I should go out immediately to my office (other room) to plan my day and do 30 minutes journaling to see where my thoughts will take me; I will be using this Mac and this WordPress account to do it.

The next part is where my mind will be more active, woken up a bit, and warmed up to think clearer; at least, that’s the expectation. The reality is that I might be not able to sit as comfortable as I can in that other room in Bacolod as what I am doing now in my room here in the condo in Manila. Therefore, I need to make that chair in that room as comfortable as it can.

With regards to the content of my writing, I think it should be comprised of plans for important things at work and at home. (LOL, I feel so dumbed down a lot and truly like an adult thinking more about what’s to come. But at least I am not trying hard to do this. I just let my thoughts run through. I have to let go and reach a point where I will be completely honest with my self. And just piece by piece, remove the layers of blankets and impediments placed on me for a long time with my work and doing family duties. It got me into questioning if we really, as human beings, can become better versions of ourselves. Maybe “better” is not the right word but it should be “focused”)

ALARM SOUNDED – 30 minutes has passed

Setting the countdown to another 30 minutes now.

It may be because of my health but I feel sleepy again after doing this. Let me really get started and get to the real task here which is to setup a daily routine.

Just now, I thought of going for a jogging/biking instead of writing for some days. Maybe a schedule of TTh in the morning then MWF, plan and write here (or using pen and paper) as mentioned above. I’ll also time this for 30 minutes. Come back, take a bath then check if there is food. One impediment I see here is that I may have to find a way not to get discouraged of sweaty shorts each time I work out. I think I can buy a trunks and use dry fit top to do this. Then just let the trunks just dry up each time.

And we’ll take it from there I guess. Note that some days that I become really lazy then I should still do the journaling in order to stop being lazy.

Been awhile – examining my thoughts

I have been trying to figure out what I care most about life now that I am back to my hometown where it all started. So far, I have two (2) modes of thoughts as I dealt with the everyday hustle and bustle. The first one would be my manual work-side where I have to be aware of the things I need to accomplish within the day to be more productive and attuned to my partner’s needs. I have been married with my wife since 2019 for quite some time but I feel like I am being moved from one place to another. It feels like all my movements are being tracked by her. The other mode of thought is leisure time and free time where I can only go mindless doing things from watching Youtube videos to scrolling endlessly in Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter

Things were easier now that I am away from my wife and being able to recollect my thoughts. I noticed that I have become a little stoic without even trying to be one. My movements and tendencies tend to be more aligned of what needs to happen now and not just go about doing whatever I want and can think of. I feel like I need to improve my fitness and diet. Thinking of creating a routine I would follow that will be favorable to my wife. It seems every move I make revolves around the family welfare.

I have gotten older and more wise with my simple and better decisions also thanks to my wife. I think I am getting a clearer idea of where I am heading. But I have noticed that I have become slow with how I comprehend. “Slowly but surely”, as they say. Or is it only because of the colder weather of the Ber months.

I have left the client I have been with for the last three (3) years and I can’t help but notice that I don’t feel emotionally affected by it. I resent my colleagues there because of the nature of the job they gave me. I wasn’t able to grow or use my skills to my advantage in order for me to grow.

I feel I have also become refined with my thoughts. Unlike before where I skip to any topic that goes into my mind, I am able to not proceed to think forward on things that I don’t think are relevant to what I have as a whole. Does it suggest that I have become dumber?

I have felt happiness somehow very recently. Mainly because I don’t have to show up to the job I hate and I could just really talk to more sensible people. I am just worried that they might think of me as a fossil who is slow to learn things. Before I am able to learn and adapt quickly. Maybe this time I need to be more honest whether the initial impression of the thought is good or bad for me. I want my brain to relax more especially after all the events, errands, and wife negotiations I have been to.

I still think I have potential and that I can become a better person as life goes on. I just don’t know if I can still physically withstand everything that I will put my body into. Moreover, I am also wary whether my brain still has what it takes to be a good developer and become what it takes to be a senior fellow on my next job.

I believe I can still make it. I believe I just need more coffee in the right amounts to proceed. I believe I can still judge the situations placed in front of me better. I think I can become more stable but more enforced to voice out my opinions moving forward. I mean after all these three (3) years, this is still me but with better awareness of myself and what I can and cannot do.

Being stuck in this condo studio type room could give me hallucinations. I also tend to forget a lot of words recently when I try to recall them. I mean I am just 34 but I just cannot take that I cannot become better with my thoughts. Overall, I think my rage is gone and with my current state of mind, I think I have to put it somewhere it can grow.

Now is the time and place. Some parts of an ugly past can now be put behind but still preserve the good learnings. I wish I can have this bliss once I come back to Bacolod. I think there has to be a balance of physical and mental exercise that should be made. I am thinking of putting maps and learning materials nearby will help me plan my career life more and pointing towards a better direction.

Not to mention, I have the kid to take care of. I think I still have to continue writing even as I am trying to be with him. As a modern father, I will always be there to give what the kid needs.

But right now, it might be the fresh air to breathe that I am missing. Let me just go outside and see if I can get some!

Regards,

Eugene

Scratch that and let’s go back to the classic one instead.

BEST REGARDS,

Gio

Review of Social Dilemma 2020

That movie / documentary struck a chord through most of us. It’s because the implications are uncannily real and tangible.

Take for instance, the scene where a young girl gets to her phone, takes pictures, does some filter to enhance her looks, and then reacting a certain way because of her friends’ comments, definitely paints how our society has become – we have been chasing increase on our social media status over and over without really looking at how it will make use feel and affect our actions. Getting validation for 100k to 1M people is not a healthy choice as it breaks the individual to grow organically and succumbing to social pressure as result.

What makes social media very powerful is it has become more than a tool that just lies around when we need to use. It has become part of our mannerisms. When we hear a bell notification, we instantly check our phone. Social media is constantly seeking to get our attention from the most important parts of our life we need to focus more on.

Social media has also been weaponized to sway a nation’s elections by targeting a certain population with content that have been manufactured by a certain political party.

Unbeknownst to most, the social media has similar mechanism as a roulette. The movie clearly exposed how we are hooked to the feed by seeking different results as we scroll through. It brings out the addictive side of a person making his / her consume his/her screen time to it instead of doing something productive. This is really bad and I am guilty on this. Come to think of it, I think it hasn’t brought me anything good.

The film also showed how social media could lead to relationship problems and real-life consequences. Numerous studies has come out already to derive the harmful effects of reading posts from friends or family ensuing jealousy, hatred and insecurity as common emotions felt by users.

One other speculation in the film is how fake news could be spread 6 times faster in social media.

Some quotable quotes in the film include:

1. “If you are not paying the product, you are the product”
2. “Attention is the currency”

Personally, I grew in a traditional Asian Filipino family in the 90’s where we are required to study hard, follow house rules, and finish our studies on time. That kind of training has made me, a “millenial”, more aware of the challenges Y and Z generations are experiencing; they are far more subtle, sugar-coated and deceptive than what was expected. Clearly, the world has changed as information is more accessible within the finger tips. For this day and age, adolescents and young adults like me are suffering a different battle we ought to take a stand from.