It’s been a few years since that elusive online persona going by the handle ‘FeliCa Dude‘ has posted anything on social media. Wish I was wrong but I think it’s safe to assume ‘the dude’ has tapped out and exited his final social media stop. I’ll miss him. Of all the tech blogs sites I’ve read over the years, from Daring Fireball to AnandTech, FeliCa Dude’s writing smoked them all. Incredibly smart and pointed, witty and sarcastic but never mean, he delivered the goods with punch and clarity, never wasting a word.
After I referenced some of his stellar Reddit posts he reached out to me and went out of his way to answer questions and guide me through the mysteries of FeliCa SD2 / Suica 2 in 1 and his discoveries of pre-installed Mobile FeliCa in all Pixel smartphones and the fact that as of Mobile FeliCa 4.x, ‘FeliCa’ chip hardware on smartphones is a quaint relic of the past, it’s all about software licensing on anybody’s Global Platform certified embedded secure element now. Thanks to FeliCa Dude, the GitHub deep geek crowd now have a way to root their non-JP model Pixel phones and install Suica even though real global NFC on Android and wearOS remains a complicated mess. Lots of fun.
I think I know the reasons for his departure, the ways people engage each other on social media / social news sites like Reddit and Hacker News has changed a lot since 2018, as AnandTech said in their farewell piece, “the market for written tech journalism is not what it once was – nor will it ever be again.” Ditto for written interaction too. Eyeballs and egos have migrated elsewhere. I understand the change, but precious time and focused attention is best invested where it makes a positive difference for yourself, and those around you. Good luck FeliCa Dude, and go well.