Forem: Kok Wui Lai

Reflection on my Contribution to Open Source in 2025 Hacktoberfest

Kok Wui Lai — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 02:47:46 +0000

Why i join again?

To be honest here, I'm here mainly for the digital badges and the goodie, secondly is to put my software development skills into good use to contribute to open source so my skills wont get rusted and dusted in my back closet and so that in future someone else will be benefited from my contribution. thirdly, i want to make some meaningful stuff during my career break? maybe uncertainty situation (i explain this later). Finally, i want to see what kind of challenges i will face this time as every year Hacktoberfest there's always a lot of blockers, new challenges.

Which project did i contribute and why?

I contribute to ShareBite, ProjectHive, and Vizit because i find these projects are closely related to my job which is Frontend developer. i think the contribution to Vizit are way more fun and i learnt the most from it because the maintainer really pushes my limit to actually want me to make something that is more intuitive and complex. Where as, ShareBite and ProjectHive are the easier because its just small task that feel like just plain old boring work. but it doesn't mean its bad but it lead me to realize how far i have gotten in my career that i see these tasks are so easy and if i ask myself in 2022 to help me do. i think i would have run away and disappear.

What i learned?

Based on my experience of Hacktoberfest 2025, i should have directly make pull request rather than submit issues because waiting for maintainer to response "go ahead" or "sure ok" wasted a lot of my time. if i submit a PR and if it doesn't meet the criteria or the standard. maintainer will provide feedback. There are many good maintainer that really points out what i should add or remove to make my contribution meaningful. Submit an issues created another burden and wasted my precious time. I rather jump straight in to contribute and that way i learned more.

Not only that, i also learned to adopt new workflow to my SDLC, which let AI to help me complete simple and time consuming tasks such as convert data types, small algorithm, code structure. Many of us never realize how much time it save me from going into thinking loophole and over engineering. So as long as i understand the codebase and the logic behind the system that I'm going to implement. i could let AI help me faster finish some part of the code. This is not vibe coding because i reviewed my code before submit PR and maintainer will also reviewed it. This will reduce the likelihood of making poor contribution. Adopting AI tools and new workflow for software development is a must to not get replace by AI.

What are my challenges?

the biggest blocker is my emotional and mental journey that i have to go through this month as i had many bad thing going on in my career life. Yes i also decided to switch job during this month to find better opportunity. Things were not going to what i expected so i was struggling mentally and physically because i also feel sick for some random virus. Second blocker is not knowing what to contribute to some of the projects because the tasks that i can think of to contribute was done and uncompleted tasks was way over my level, searching for tasks that i can understand and manage to handle took me a lot of time.

What is my progress?

i did manage to get 6 PR and 5 of them are under review. i don't think it will make it in time. Since the contribution are done during October i guess my review will go through after November 5. Lets hope that i am the first 10000 contributor to get the free t shirt? i wont expect to get that. cause of the challenge and blocker that i had that drag me down so much.

Conclusion

This is fun, i want to contribute again next year. I hope to face more challenges to shape into a better programmer that always learn and adopt to new tools and environment. Thanks for reading this blog all the way here.

Additional note - Progress update

I'm now feel like I'm unemployed, ya that is what i think it is because my situation now are really unsure as my new job which i suppose to get an offer letter by last Monday but haven't receive any update yet. I still have another contract (job training which my new company helped me enrolled to) on me but i didn't get anymore update about it as well. My previous job i finished the notice period and got my last salary pay. Well i guess i should look for a new job? I concerned about the legal issues for having 2 contract. the period is under mid December so not sure what else i can do beside trying to find new income source.

If you would like to support and help me go through this disaster time. you can always buy me a coffee. thank you so much for reading.

This is a submission for the 2025 Hacktoberfest Writing Challenge: Open Source Reflections

Bitcoin Future from now

Kok Wui Lai — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 01:30:21 +0000

as you know that Bitcoin has gone down from the all time high again...

as a new crypto investor here. do you think it is still a good investment on the long run?

Should i focus on altcoin instead? should i just quit?

Based on my feeling, i think Bitcoin will be very popular but not sure the price will go higher.

KendoReact Playground - Simple Habit Tracker App

Kok Wui Lai — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 14:16:02 +0000

This is a submission for the KendoReact Free Components Challenge.

What I Built

This is my review and experience on trying out using Kendo React library to build a simple habit tracker web applications. It was an idea just to kick start my kendo react components journey. My real intension is to try out and compare it with other react components that i usually use in my daily work environment

Demo

Home page

Dashboard

Calendar Page

Setting page

Dialog component

source code: https://github.com/Laikokwui/habit-tracker

KendoReact Experience

It was fun using kendo react components, the components have decent customizations and control on how it looks and have decent functionality to quickly develop a web applications. Kendo React provided layouts, calendar and charts components that are usually hard to find from other react library like MUI, material and so on. usually i have to create the layout manually, or use other calendar plugins, victory charts. We do have shadcn but it wasn't easy to import it in like kendo react and it is not store in node modules like kendo react does.

Delightfully Designed

Personally i really like the quick add component menu to speed up the UI design process. due to time constraint. i skip around designing the UI as my only intension is to try out everything that i can.

I really appreciate for your time and attention for my little post, have a great day.

Expect Tech to Change, But Not the Way You Think It Will

Kok Wui Lai — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 14:09:27 +0000

This is a submission for the Future Writing Challenge: How Technology Is Changing Things.

Imagine you’ve got the coolest toy robot ever 🤖✨. It walks, it talks, maybe it even sings your favorite song 🎵. Awesome, right? But then—oops!—its leg gets stuck, or its battery dies, and you’re stuck waiting for it to work again. That’s what tech is like for me in 2025, even though it’s supposed to be super smart by now. I keep asking the same silly questions: Why can’t I open my car’s charging hatch when the battery’s dead? Why won’t my old printer talk to my computer? 🖨️ Why can’t I log into my Meow Meow account even after fixing my password? And why is my Wi-Fi so slow when I’m the only one using it? It’s like my robot keeps tripping over its own feet, and I’m left scratching my head 🤔.

Back when I was a kid, 15 years ago—I dreamed big about the future 🌌. I thought by 2020 we’d have flying cars zooming around like in cartoons. Nope, didn’t happen. I pictured phones that never needed charging, where I’d never have to plug anything in or fight with wires. I hoped tech would be like a magic friend that just works—no fuss ✨, no muss. But here we are, March 11, 2025, and it’s still not that simple. Take listening to music: my phone doesn’t even have a headphone jack anymore! I’ve got these Bluetooth headphones instead, but when they run out of juice, no music for me. I’m stuck waiting, and that quiet walk home feels boring. That little hiccup doesn’t just bug me—it ripples out 🌊. Maybe I’m grumpy when I get home, and my dog doesn’t get his usual belly rub because I’m too annoyed 🐕.

We’ve got fancy stuff like AI now—think of it as a super brainy robot helper. I’m even chatting 🤖 with one called Deephide to write this... 😳 Sorry, that's beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.

But even with AI, these tiny problems stick around, and new ones pop up like weeds 🌱. Why can’t my Wi-Fi just be fast? Why can’t an AI grow arms and legs, march over, and fix my car’s charger for me? 🚗 (Okay, I’m lazy—I admit it.) When my Wi-Fi lags, I can’t finish my work, and then I’m late to meet my friends. They’re mad, I’m mad, and suddenly one slow internet signal messes up everybody’s day. It’s like dropping a pebble in a pond—the ripples keep spreading.

Have you seen those funny videos where they ask people from different times—like the ‘90s or now—to do stuff? Like, “How do you answer a phone?” 📞 or “How do you roll down a car window?” Back in the day, you’d pick up a clunky handset or crank a handle. Now we tap screens and push buttons. Tech changes how we live so fast, it’s wild! But it also makes us expect everything to be perfect and quick. When it’s not—like when my printer won’t print my homework 📄—it’s a big deal. That one glitch means I’m rushing around, my teacher’s annoyed, and my whole morning’s a mess. See? Ripples again 🌊.

I wish tech was more like a Nokia 3310 that never breaks 📱💪. And I wish we could all stay calm when it does trip up. It’s fun to use gadgets to make life better—like playing games or calling friends—but I don’t want them stopping my day 😌. Maybe we should even learn to fix stuff without always needing phones or computers. What if my car dies and I can’t Google how to fix it? I’d be stuck like a kid with a broken toy, hoping someone else knows what to do. Tech’s little stumbles don’t just bug me—they splash onto everyone around me, like my family, my friends, even my dog. So here’s hoping we figure it out someday—less tripping, more magic!✨

In reality tech will change unexpectedly 🌟.

2024 Dev Rewind: Breaking Comfort Zones and Embracing the Unexpected

Kok Wui Lai — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 13:43:28 +0000

2024: A Rollercoaster of a Year

This year has been nothing short of interesting—a wild mix of stepping out of my comfort zone, exploring backend development, job hunting, attending hackathons, contributing to open-source projects, and leveling up both my soft and hard skills. It’s been a whirlwind filled with happiness, challenges, and unexpected twists.

First up, I finally gathered the courage to apply for a new job, aiming for better pay and career growth. Things were looking great—I impressed the hiring manager and was this close to landing a spot at a big company. Then boom—tech layoffs and hiring freezes hit right on cue. Just my luck. To top it off, my work bestie resigned, leaving me feeling lonely and uncertain about the future. It caught me off guard since he left before his performance review, which made the whole thing feel bittersweet. Soon, more colleagues were either resigning or wrapping up their internships. Lunch breaks that were once lively became just me, myself, and I.

On a brighter note, Hacktoberfest 2024 was an absolute blast! This time around, I dived into real projects instead of settling for random dummy repos just to hit my four contributions. I met amazing online friends and mentors who made the whole experience unforgettable.

Hacktoberfest 2024: A Two-Year Transformation in My Development Journey

Kok Wui Lai ・ Oct 17 '24

#devchallenge #hacktoberfest #opensource

Then there’s my love-hate relationship with React Native. I’ll admit it—I had major trauma just looking at React because I used to overthink how tough it was. Plus, there was always that fear of disappointing my senior. He was never quite satisfied with my code, calling it too complicated, but honestly? His super simple code looked like a bug magnet to me. That’s why I added extra complexity to avoid potential issues. Fast forward to now, I’ve improved a lot. My code doesn't upset him as much anymore (though he still finds something to gripe about—but hey, that’s his problem!). React’s flexibility in code structure was tricky to manage, especially since my senior wasn’t great at reading code unless it matched his style. But hey, I survived collaborating with him and came out stronger!

Beyond work, I traveled a ton and enjoyed some much-needed breaks from coding life. I know, I know—"programmers are supposed to be glued to their screens 24/7," right? Nah, taking time off is essential, especially when debugging life is already a full-time challenge. On top of that, I geeked out over some cool new tech toys: the latest iPad with an Apple Pencil, a giant Android "phone" that’s basically a kiosk TV, a shiny new Mac Mini, a modded GameBoy, and of course, a sleek MacBook. Because hey, if you're going to take breaks, might as well do it with style and some cool gadgets in hand!

Looking back, 2024 was a wild ride of happy, sad, lonely, crazy, and surprising moments. Here’s to hoping 2025 is just as interesting (and maybe with fewer work hiccups). Thanks for reading my story—I know it’s not a blockbuster, but it’s real. Here’s to making next year even better! 🎉

This is a submission for the 2025 New Year Writing challenge: Retro’ing and Debugging 2024.

cover image is generated by AI to better understand my story.

Hacktoberfest 2024: A Two-Year Transformation in My Development Journey

Kok Wui Lai — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 14:06:13 +0000

Introduction

This was my second time joining Hacktoberfest, and it felt quite different from my first experience. Back then, I was a fresh graduate and i knew nothing about contributing to open-source and only want the goodie and tried to contribute easy and useless repos that i can just submit lame code to get the 4 contributions. Now, with two years of experience as a 9 to 5 software programmer, I was curious to see how my professional growth would impact my perspective and approach to open-source contributions.

Aim

Like i said, i am curious to see how my 2 year professional growth help me to contribute to open-source projects and make real impact. My goal is to apply my working experience when contributing to open-source projects. Not only that. I will focused on contributing to projects that had real-world impact and were likely to be used by actual users, rather than just picking any repository for the sake of making contributions.

Contribution

I contributed to several small to medium-sized projects, primarily focused on React and JavaScript because these are the language and library that i used the most on my main job, which allowed me to quickly understand the issues and making it easier for me to jump in and solve problems efficiently.

Challenges

Even with my experience, contribute to these projects wasn't as easy as i thought. My first challenge i faced is time limitation because most of time and energy already taken away by my main job and on my mind during this hacktoberfest was "faster get it done and throw it away". However, the real pain come after i finish the task and make a pull request i was presented with a long pr template that full of questions and checklist to fill up, it really feel like "finally i finish the exam and when i turn to the back of the last page and found another long question". After going through those and i still have to wait the reviewer and their approval. I already exhausted and reviewer reply me with more feedback on my work. I was mad but never mind it wasn't a big feedback so i finished it and got accepted.

Lesson Learnt

The biggest lesson I learned was not to rush, i seen many pull request that are opened and doesn't have any update for many days. I thought i have to get it done within a day which stresses me out. Choose weekend or free time to do it not after work and prevent from burn out.

Conclusion

Despite the challenges, I was pleasantly surprised by how much my problem-solving abilities and stress management had improved. I’m not the same person I was two years ago. Now, I’m more willing to tackle harder issues, and I’m capable of solving them with greater confidence. This realization was a significant takeaway, highlighting how much I’ve grown as a developer since my first Hacktoberfest two years ago.