Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Test drive: Toyota Prius + snow

I'm going to give my 2007 Toyota Prius a test drive. After numerous warnings about how tough can Prius be in snow, it makes it even more interesting.

There are some people complaining that Prius shutting down the engine when the traction control system believes that it's too slippery around. Well, driving Prius in California doesn't give you too many chances to try this out, unless you'll get into very heavy rain and will press the right pedal to the floor. (Which I did, by the way. It didn't kill the engine for me, but dropped the impact of the accelration a lot.)

I'm heading north to Pine Mountain Club, CA. It's not the very snowy place (webcam), but I think that we're going to meet the snow this year. (While we didn't see any last year, but the year before I got stuck on 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander there.)

I am driving for about 10 years, the most time (except the last 3 years) I used to drive in places, where one can see snow for at least 2 months in a year (sometimes more, sometimes less). I used to drive all types of cars, either front wheel or rear wear. The rear ones can be really tough in snow for inexperienced person, especially in the time when they require extreme caution. (And they still sometimes a headache for me.) The front wheel driven cars are a little bit more intuitive, but can be as much dangerous as other ones.

So this is not the first time I'm challenging snow, but it's for the first time I'm going to drive the car with traction control (especially, with so many complains!). I'm pretty sure it's going to be a lot of fun, excluding the areas which are too narrow for even two cars at the same time. ;)

P.S. And definitely I'm going to carry the pair of snow cables in the back. I didn't get the fancy (SC Super Z6), but the basic ones (SC Radial). The 4x price difference scared me, but I'm going to reconsider this, as soon as I'll start visiting snow places more often.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Крах США (по теории агента КГБ)

Профессор Панарин предсказывает "конец США". Сделал он это давно, однако Wall Street Journal написал статью только недавно.

Начал он это с красивой картинки того, как американские штаты будут "порваны" друг между другом и отданы Китаю, России, Японии, Мексике, Канаде и Евросоюзу.


Смысл утверждений товарища Панарина не изменяет сути.

"У США нет ничего, кроме долларов, а они и так ничего не стоят, ибо не поддержаны ничем кроме бумажных бумажек, на которых напечатаны." - не цитата, но по смыслу.

По утверждению товарища на место сильнейшей державы уже стоит очередь из Китая и России. И если Китай может быть силен своими бесчисленными представителями (не подвинут, так затопчут), то место России мне не совсем понятно.

Россия это не СССР. Несмотря на все попытки вернуть былые анти-американские настроения и пресс со стороны спецслужб.

Извините, когда полстраны вместо русского языка говорит на какой-то нелепой кальке с примесью коверканного американского, в стиле риспект, бай, мэн, герлза и так далее - говорить не о чем. Курите в сторонке.

А тем более, не стоит забывать что и Москва, в которой Игорь Панарин создает свои теории - это не Россия. Не помешает выехать на пару сотню км и осмотреться вокруг.

Товарищ Панарин также не забывает о нефтянном бизнесе России и предлагает продавать всем нефть за рубли. Вопрос в следущем - если США перестанет существовать как огромный механизм, кто же эту самую нефть будет потреблять? За 2007 год США импортировало более 3.6 миллиарда барелей. Интересно, во что обернется черное золото России, когда мировой рынок поперхнется переизбытком.

Очевидно, что сейчас США стоит перед одним из наиболее важных событий за последние лет 100. Очевидно, что что-то изменится, и характер изменений может многим не понравиться.

Может ли Россия "уплыть" на своей нефти от глобального экономического кризиса? Go figure.

Значит ли что сейчас идет розыгрыш места США в мире? Сомневаюсь. В лучшем случае откроется новая "скважина", которую нужно будет еще суметь разработать.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Social commenting

Потратил полчаса времени чтобы попробовать на себе, что же такое "социальные комментарии". Не совсем уверен, что понимаю в чем смысл, за исключением того что я дарю контент кому-то другому, а мне взамен дают удобное (не готов утверждать) меню, и механизм для более простого оставления комментария, якобы стимулирующее к следующим подвигам. Все это крайне интересно, однако непонятно.

Постараюсь вернуться к этой тебе когда начну понимать. Не так чтобы я считал, что это не имеет право на жизнь. Что более важно - зачем это мне нужно? :)

Saturday, December 27, 2008

WaMu Built an Empire on Bad Loans

“We hope to do to this industry what Wal-Mart did to theirs, Starbucks did to theirs, Costco did to theirs and Lowe’s-Home Depot did to their industry. And I think if we’ve done our job, five years from now you’re not going to call us a bank.”
— Kerry K. Killinger, chief executive of Washington Mutual, 2003

...и к гадалке не ходить. :) Все-таки очень важно делать правильные прогнозы.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Case senstive SELECTs

While working with the legacy code and migration process to REST on Ruby on Rails (from the mix of shell scripts, C and other types of binaries), I've got into trouble debugging one part of the code that was ultimately going into loop.

What it worked out to, is that we had a number of case sensitive IDs, like JONHSMITH, JohnSmith and johnsmith, reflecting the different types of account information. I'm not going to guess you why did it happen, but it always does, if there is a possibility of human interaction with the naming process ;)

What was more important is how to make the code work and to stay away of any table alterations. While there a huge amount of discussion in the Internet about that, the easiest way that I found to be is just using BINARY operator for a SELECT clause.

For example, SELECT * FROM accounts WHERE BINARY user LIKE 'JohnSmith'; gives you exactly JohnSmith's record.

You can take your time and refactor the code and table structure later, after the things are working and nobody's trying to ask you the same question for many times per day ;)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Пиар кризису

Недавно затронули интересную тему кризиса и вообще, "наступившей" рецессии.

Во-первых, вспомним старую шутку экономистов, "а что же такое рецессия" ?
  • A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.
  • A depression is when you lose your job.
Если верить этой шутке, то у многих уже наступила депрессия (если, конечно же, они не уволены из Yahoo ;).

Но суть не в этом, поехали дальше. Я думаю каждый человек для себя начало "рецессии" охарактеризовал какими-то событиями в жизни: новости, "все об этом говорят", "все этого боятся", а у кого-то "это уже было".

Но реальный отклик многие люди заметили когда крупные компании начали массовые сокращения людей. Современный CEO крупной (и очень крупной) компаний "мало думает головой" (это метафора, которая не уменьшает значимость руководящего звена — просто многие вещи могут и должны быть автоматизированны). И во многом полагается на данные аналистов, статистов и того ПО бизнес управления и планирования, которым распологает.

Нажав кнопку "кризис", путь развития компаний повернул по стрелке "путь во время кризиса". А рекоммендации и есть сокращение расходов, выход из рискованных кредитных операций, увеличение доступной денежной массы. Сокращения персонала — это всего лишь один из методов ведения бизнес в период "кризиса".

Оглянитесь — большому числу компаний которые сокращают порой 15-20% персонала отнюдь не не хватает ресурса их содержать. Но есть опасения, что ситуация на рынке, в будущем изменится, и тогда будет тяжело. Поэтому давайте скинем баласт, тем более все уже и так поняли что "кризис" неизбежен (и наступил).

Ситуация в корпоративном мире очень похожа на ситуация в Silicon Valley после выпуска меморандума Sequoia о том "как нам дальше жить". Буквально с этого же момента люди начали терять уже практически завершенным сделки по инвестированию. Почему? Опять же, в большинстве своем не потому что "денех нету", а потому что "если Секвоя боится, то нам тоже не помешает трухануть".

Имеет ли место быть кризис? Очевидно. Все ли так хреново? Отнюдь, социальный аспект свое грязное дело делает не меньше законов экономики.

Массовый шухер. Большая очередь стоит? За чем стоят — не ясно, но постою пожалуй тоже. Ведь другие стоят, значит что-то нужное.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Jigsaw Puzzles @ eBay

Jigsaw Puzzle Of TransFormers

I recently purchased this one (and three more) jigsaw puzzles on eBay. Today I received four pieces of total crap. This is absolutely unacceptable products. Be aware and stay away, don't spoil your kid's happiness with this piece of junk.

I never ever saw such low quality. It looks like there is no quality at all (could it ever be so?). When you take the pieces out, the most of them are damaged and broken already, with teared off ends (connections). For those which are not (yet) — don't worry, they'll get soon.

They guy who sold me this shit could be a nice man. But he sells crap. Stay away.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Green King

За два дня прочитал "Зеленый король", правда, в русском переводе. Сначала думал взять на-английском, но так или иначе она идет как перевод с французского — смысла нет. Впечатление крайне двоякое. Читалась немного тяжело, не так сильно затягивала как "Покер лжецов". Вернее, затянуло уже на последних страницах. Изначально все время порывался бросить.

Многие называют книгу "откровением финансовых махинаций" и "подноготной капиталистического Запада". Ни того, ни другого я в ней не нашел. Только лишь хорошо просчитанную удачу, дальновидность и широкий взгляд на вещи. А, еще "умение пользоваться кредитными деньгами". :)

Книга все равно достаточно inspiring. Книга просто о жизни человека. И, если по-большому счету, я очень скептически отношусь к подобным проявлениям самоотдачи (как и вообще близости описанных событий к реальности :) — несмотря на это иногда стоит не искать от книги четких указаний. Их там может не быть.

Прочитать стоит, но несмотря на все, не оставила ощущения того что я хотел.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Easy way: Delivered to... nowhere!

Easy way: Delivered to... nowhere!


Yesterday I found a package near my front-door. It was pretty surprising, as it required my signature. Quick look at the tracking number showed me that the UPS delivery boy signed the delivery instead of me. Pretty nice, huh?

P.S. What does this post prove — is that every freaking delivery system broken now.

DHL сосет, что, в принципе, не ново

Я стараюсь принципиально не пользоваться DHL. Имел с этой удивительной службой несколько инцидентов, после которых решил держать от них в стороне. Они уверенно идут к тому чтобы обосрать имидж компании (если он еще есть), по-крайней мере в США. Самая обычная доставка USPS становится более надежной, чем DHL overnight.

Однако. Сегодня порадовал себя снова, ожидая посылку из Newegg. DHL в очередной раз продемонстрировала чудеса логистики. Идут третьи сутки доставки из La Puente, CA в Pasadena, CA. Расстояние между городами меньше 25 миль (40 км). Время в пути по Google во время трафика 1 час 10 минут.

По-моей оценки, и по тракингу доставки, логисты DHL накрутили уже больше 100 миль и третьи сутки. Делаю ставки. :)

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Dropbox

I gave up on using Google Docs today and replaced them with Dropbox. My brother insisted on trying them out and I did. What can I say, I like it so far. This was the best experience working with remote storage space that I ever had.

They give away 2 gigs for free, and this is more the enough for basic usage — my documents, contracts, some minor paperwork, like registrations, licenses, serials, etc were doing well enough on 256MB drive. 4x times like that would be just great.

One of the minor unhappiness was that shared folders eat up my space (as well as the document owner's). My brother shared with me some of his stuff and I got 20% less off the space. Not a big deal, though.

I try to stay away of advising some services, as far as the most of them tend to become worse within time. But the Dropbox is really cool thing to try.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Фото и прочее

В этот самый момент сижу и закачиваю фото из iPhoto в мой Flickr, за который я не пожалел двадцати с чем-то долларов в год.

Удовольствие в этом крайне сомнительное. Уже залил больше 5К фото, когда понял что осталось тоже больше 5К.

И это не считая нескольких дисков (пары-тройки DVD) которые раскиданы где не попадя, и имеют много исторических фото до 2006 года. Мак у меня появился только в с апреля 2006, до этого времени все фото аккуратненькими файлами складывались на CD-R.

Но самое неприятно даже не медлительность процесса, а я его проблемность. Заметил неприятную особенность. Когда начинаю заливать большие файлы (Flickr, YouTube, Rapidshare и прочее гавно), а также когда в принципе долго заливаю — у меня все сдыхается, и по 80 порту идут connection timeout. Однако же почту удивительным образом читать могу, большинство IM запущенных работает (остальные походу может никогда и не работали), даже P2P может самоотверженно продолжаться. 80-ый порт однако же предательски молчит.

Помогает в этих случаях рестарт WiFi роутера. Причем рестарт типа — ну-ка попроси снова IP у DSL роутера (соединение держится на DSL коробочке). У меня старенький Belkin F5D8230-4, хотя исключительным гавном такое не назвать — гораздо хуже в промышленных масштабах.

Вопрос — что за гавно имеет место быть? Пенять на глюкавость роутера, неправильный MTU или плохую погоду — как-то некошерно. Хотя Apple Airport Express в wishlist добавил. Буду искать подвох - поиграюсь с VPN и какими-нибудь левыми проксиками на чужих портах.

Monday, November 17, 2008

I've got a new MacBook Pro today

I've got a new MacBook Pro today. It's MB470LL/A model, pretty basic one. And I run Xbench test on it. It was interesting on is it better or still the same. Well, guess what.


I didn't expect it to be something super powerful, and actually it never was. ;)

I had a chance to compare it to my old MacBook Pro, one of the first models sold in March 2006. I also worked for a few days on MacBook Air, the first generation model (which doesn't make it less attractive, though. ;)

I got a really good deal on my MBP, so there is nothing I can complain about. Besides, having no SuperDrive, only USB Ethernet, only one USB and no Firewire on-board, could bring to my life less happiness than I got with MBP. However, the MBA was for me something really interesting and worth-while upgrading. The MBP became for me just a better thing to keep my things running on.

Seriously, if you're thinking about getting a new Mac, think about getting MBA (mean, MacBook Air).

P.S. Why, the hell, they changed Firewire port again? I've got buy a new set of cables now for my camcorder and external drive. This sucks.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

В субботу сходил с ребенком на второй Мадагаскар. Первый раз были в кинотеатре, Ваньке понравилось, хотя и под конец замерз (середина ноября, на улице 90F+, в залах работают станции по выработке льда :).

Мультик оказался относительно неплохой, хотя мне кажется потеряли основную нить, сделали совсем другой мультик, со старыми героями.

Народу было очень много, чему удивился, так как все друзья которые ходили на мультик (и на премьеру в том числе) жаловались на почти пустые залы. Одновременно с этим в машине постоянно слушаю по радио о нереальных сборах который сделал этот мультфильм.

Стоит идти? В моем случае хотел просто погулять с ребенком, не жалею. Хотя честно говоря не сильно понимаю удовольствие от мультфильма в кинотеатре.

Жутко натупили трейлеры детской продукции перед началом. Таких жутких мультфильмов я давно не видел. Некоторые вещи лучше вообще никогда не видеть. Непонятно в чем смысл их, однако я нашел большое количество аргументов зачем туда не идти. :)

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Considering new laptop

While considering new laptop, I run xbench on my almost 3 years old MacBook Pro against half a year old MacBook Air (the one that belongs to my wife). While a lot of people think that xbench can't be used as accurate comparison test for computers, something is better than nothing.

So here comes the data side-by-side.


As you can see, the overall score for MacBook Air is about 2 times less then for my MBP.

Going into details, the CPU scores are pretty close to each other. I don't know why but it could be that 1.6 Core2 Duo is running much alike 2.0 Core Duo. Memory test is also pretty much the same.

Graphics really sucks on MacBook Air. Especially, when it comes to OpenGL.

One of the biggest surprises was that disks are running pretty much the same, however, my MacBook Pro was supposed to be 5400rpm vs 4200rpm on MacBook Air.

Keeping in mind that market price for my MacBook Pro is about $1,000 off the craigslist, and one can grab a sealed first generation MacBook Air for as low as $1,150 (add taxes, AppleCare and other shit and it will grow upto $1,500), the price difference of $500 could be a good bargain for getting 3 years hassle-free laptop. However, you should be ready to depart with all-in-one laptop, loosing bigger 15.4" vs 13.3" screen (not a big issue for me though), Firewire port and integrated SuperDrive (that's basically all that I'm really using). The gain is lighter weight, slimmer and fancier toy. ;)

So does it really worth it? I don't know. I'm still looking for aftermarket few months old aluminium MacBook Pro's, which are priced around $1,800-1,900 off the craigslist (no taxes, but add extra $250 for AppleCare). The upgrade cost is raising two times up though.

I'm missing old good days having few more years on AppleCare and caring less about what I'm working on. ;)

Friday, November 14, 2008

Borders 40% off worth nothing (or taxes suck)

I just passed through the 40% off coupon for Borders.

Well, I know that they are posting it against the list price which is unbelievably and unreasonably higher then the normal one. But I was considering buying a new book from Amazon, so I gave it a try to see the best price that Borders will give to me. Wow, it was $35.97@Borders against $37.77@Amazon. Less then two bucks, but still worth trying so save.

However, when I went through the ordering process, I got taxes charged, which made the price more then $39. And this doesn't sound like a good deal to me anymore.

So what's the conclusion? Amazon is the only place that gives you the best price. (This sounds spoiled, I know. But I really am.) Have fun, keep reading and save your change, you may need it when the layoffs will grow higher.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Liar's Poker

Liar's Poker. Отличная книга занявшая пару последних дней. Прочитал на одном дыхании, очень понравилась.

Обычно я жалею времени на художественную литературу, так как как правило у меня всегда лежит стопка непрочитанных книг, которые несут реальный практический смысл, который нужно использовать уже вчера. Но не в этот раз. Правда нужно отдать должное, немногим больше 250 страниц, очень легкая в чтении (наверное сказывается журналисткий опыт автора), очень занятная — хочется понять что же будет завтра.

Очень рекоммендую.

К сожалению, эта книга была самым ярким впечатлением за последнее время. Довольно заторможенная ситуация по большинству проектов, нестабильность на рынке. Продолжаю встречаться с потенциальными партнерами, однако все больше передо мной возникают вопросы и проблемы монетизации того, что уже сделано.

Заметил что давно не писал сюда. :) Обычно это свидетельствует о двух причинах:
  1. Все слишком хорошо, или же
  2. Все достаточно плохо.
Оставлю выбор правильного ответа читателю.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

New book that can make a fortune....

New book that can make a fortune.

Recently I came up with a topic for a new book — How To Make Sales in Web 2.0: Selling Your Service, Product or Site. Gosh, it's going to be a best-seller.  It can even make a small fortune.  As soon as somebody manages to write it. ;)

Unfortunately, there is no such book on this topic, yet.  Nothing even close.  Last several years were so overbuzzed for business-model-less ventures (also known aas I-can-do-it-all-with-ads!) that Web services that actually dare to charge a customer fade out.  But in the eyes of global crisis that everyone is experiencing right now (and this is just the beginning!), paid models are going to rise again; they will become the only way to make money in the Web (at least, for a few years from now).

Everyone knows that there are companies that can charge money for the services in the Web, they can be profitable and successful.  But nobody has a good understanding of how they do that.  Well, you can sit down with a beer and chat with your buddies about such companies and them being lucky, but this is not about luck.  This is about following your passion and having a clear roadmap of milestones that guides you through.

The book should answer this question, step by step, from the first line of the code, finishing with the first paystub paid by the revenue generated from sales.

Am I good a good author for such a book?  Hell no, not yet.  But, God knows, I keep trying. ;)

(read more on Everytalks)

Monday, October 13, 2008

If you have an iPhone, you possib...

If you have an iPhone, you possible already had a problem with syncing.  One of the most popular one is iTunes could not sync mail accounts to the iPhone "..." because the iPhone cancelled the sync.  You can desperately try it again and again, but no miracle happens.

First of all, start looking for the change that could create the problem. In  my case, it was change in SMTP server setting for one of the accounts.  I was able to nail it down pretty fast.  So how can we fix it?

  1. Go ahead, and open iTunes, then open iSync, and in Preferences clear all sync history. 
  2. Restart iTunes.  In the Info tab you should see mail accounts sync checked on, but no accounts shown. 
  3. Restart iPhone, make sure mail application is not in the middle of something, hold Home button for several seconds, until it goes back to home screen. 
  4. Find the account that supposed to cause the problem on your iPhone and delete it.
  5. Click on sync in iTunes and make sure that it will replace mail account settings on iPhone.

If you're lucky enough, you're good to go. You may repeat sync process several times, if no error message shows up, but account doesn't get sync. It will, eventually.

Have fun!

(read more on Everytalks)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

On the edge of crisis, it might b...

On the edge of crisis, it might be a good idea to rely on the credit cards (if any), but stay away from insane rates and fees of cash advances. 

 

Speaking on this matter, it's interesting did anyone considered Paypal as an tool for getting cash?  For example, you can use your credit card to send money to yourself (having Premier account).  Once you've received money (pretty instant), you can withdraw them to your bank account, paying 2.9% + 30 cents for each chunk (under $3K). 

 

Keeping in mind that the major credit cards provide cashback or bonuses in at least of 1%, your real cost of getting cash is getting down to 1.9% + 30 cents, which is, I should say, pretty acceptable for the tough times when your only choice is credit card.

 

I gave it a quick look at Paypal's site and didn't find any notes that make this illegal to use.  Basically, why should it be?  They're getting they fees so they should be happy enough, right?  I never tried this myself though (frankly, I never had any reason to, and hopefully, I'll be able to run on some cash at all times).  However, it sounds like a good exit in a bad situation, what do you think?

(read more on Everytalks)

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Pretty busy week(s). My son turn...

Pretty busy week(s). My son turn 3 years old today, so I had a lot of things to prepare for his birthday, like getting presents, arranging party (we had a great time at Castaic Lake, CA), so on and so forth. Tomorrow is still a big day at his preschool, they're going to celebrate his birthday as well. As you can guess, this leaves for me pretty little of time for blogging.

On other note, let me tell you a little bit about my recent disappointment. While I'm happy with running Google Apps for my domains, I'm really concerned about Gmail fixing up Sender: header for messages that are being sent through their SMTPs. It sets Sender: to my original Gmail address which is not a good idea to reveal all the time. I've got few other email addresses (business, family, etc) which are forwarded to one place, and I really don't like the idea of ending up with only one of them (an actual Gmail one). It's also pretty confusing for people, whom I'm writing to. Giving it a few minutes digging the Google, I found no solution to this problem. But I'd be happy to have one. ;)

Basically, that's it for now. Hopefully, I'll be able to write more often, but the fall time looks pretty busy to me. (read more on Everytalks)

Thursday, September 25, 2008

I've recently finished reading "T...

I've recently finished reading "The Ten-Day MBA" by Steven Silbiger (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060799072/prokhorenkous-20). It's quite an interesting reading (for those, who likes such kind of a reading though ;).

You can easily get it done in 10 days (as the authors says) without investing more then an hour for reading. But you're not at your class, so why should you put more, right?

In my case, holding PMP certification, I discovered that my PMP program that I'd to be prepared for the exam, is covering more then half of the book, at lower level. It was nice to follow chapter by chapter already knowing what are all these things about. However, I wonder, is it really that much about management included into the full-time MBA program?

Overall, I liked the book, but I didn't find too much new for myself. Good reading for those who want to understand how are they about getting an MBA. ;) (read more on Everytalks)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Quick hint: A lot of people use t...

Quick hint: A lot of people use to complain about inability to launch FLIQLO (http://www.9031.com/downloads/screensavers.html) on their Mac OS X "Leopard". When you click on the FLIQLO.saver file nothing happens and it's not being added to your Screen Savers list. However, there is a quick workaround. Just open Terminal and copy your FLIQLO.saver into ~/Library/Screen Savers/ folder, and open System Preferences - Desktop & Screen Saver menu. You'll be able to find FLIQLO at the bottom of the page, under the Other section. That easy. And, yes, you can enjoy this great screen saver now. ;) (read more on Everytalks)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

My Bosch WFL2090UC washer arrived...

My Bosch WFL2090UC washer arrived today. First of all, I'm so happy to get European washer here, in US. American monsters can't ever beat Bosch ;) For the second, even that I'm living in a rather tiny apartment and have no washer and dryer hookups, I was able to install it in a minutes, plugging to the regular 110/120V power outlet and piping with few hoses and faucets from OSH (less the twenty bucks for all). Overall, I'm very satisfied and hopefully will post some pictures as soon as I'll get them. The only downside is the price. It's a pretty expensive equipment. ;) (read more on Everytalks)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Forex trading techniques for newbies

I am interested in trading, particularly in currency trading, that is Forex.

I'm pretty much newbie here and I never went far away from the demo account — first of all, I'm not comfortable with dropping few $$ grands for deposit. I also not sure that minimum deposits of few $$ hundreds would be enough for me to really do something. I used to play out of $300 on the demo account and it feels pretty much limited. And at least, but not last — I still have no solid technique to rely on.

Running out of the demo account I was pretty much comfortable with short term trading. Occasional medium term trading - swings, I've tried that, too, but I never had a plan for them — it was mainly like a game.

However, a lot of Forex traders advocate short term trading as inappropriate for newbies, and, basically, require pretty good intuition for them to succeed. But these types of trading - ranging from minutes ending with days - feels like the fastest indicators to your plan success in trading.

Interesting, are there any short-term techniques appropriate for newbies that can be successful and predictable (on a certain level, of course)? I'll keep looking for that and keep the blog updated.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Reverse FriendFeed and AtomKeep

Robot Monkeys :: Reverse FriendFeed and AtomKeep

Well, I don't think it worth trying that much, Jonathan. Calling something an ugly hack even before trying it — it's a pretty wrong point. I don't buy you with my concerns? Well, I never meant to.

Atomkeep is not an "open standard" like you're proposing (but it addresses pretty much the same problem, though). We just solve the problem. People tend to use something because it helps, but not because it's a nice written spec on the table.

I'd be happy to have this discussion one day, but it looks like Jonathan is pretty much looking for Holy Grail and I'm just trying to make the things work (even when they're not supposed to, fragile and hard to maintain). It doesn't mean there is no solution that can combine both his and mine vision. Just keep looking. ;)

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Test Your Awareness

YouTube - Test Your Awareness: Do The Test

Уже не новое, но все равно отличное видео. :) Я бы даже сказал inspiring.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Robot Monkeys: Reverse FriendFeed

Robot Monkeys :: Reverse FriendFeed

I wanted to leave a comment on the site, but didn't find any place for that, so I'm making up one more post for my own blog. ;)

This idea has got a rational seed and pretty much crosses with Atomkeep — people indeed have too many accounts and they need to manage them properly. Either you like it or not — the reality is that there are too many different sites with your personal information and profiles and, within time, this number is going to grow pretty fast. You've got to manage tons of repetitive and redundant data or you'll get down to the chaos.

Unfortunately, even if the problem exists, the idea like it was described, will never work. At least, not in the imperfect world like we're living in. Why is it so?
  1. First of all, something that does anything without confirmation from a user can be pretty scary. Personally, I would be afraid of such a thing. I don't know when the shit is happening to my data and this is not the way I want my life to be.
  2. Moving forward, something that needs to do anything on my behalf will need to know my user name and password. Even more: something will need to store this data somewhere. Keeping in mind #1 — and this becomes even more scary now.
  3. Getting back to #2 — something that have credentials to many different other sites is extremely attractive for hacker attacks. There is no such way like absolute security, you can't be 100% protected even when you aware and, basically, you don't want to be the one to get the responsibility if something is going out of control.
  4. Can you name many sites and networks that provide public API for changing someones information in it? I bet you can't. Trust my experience (Atomkeep ;) — you'll get "handcuffed" pretty soon with numerous limitations and policies. So now it's time for screenscrapping and this is the time when it fcuks up completely. Just a simple captcha will rip off any site transaction with no human interaction involved.
  5. What will make your site sticky, or, "how will you make money"? I don't think that you can make a fortune on paid membership that can't be more expensive then a few bucks — otherwise it doesn't worth it for the end user. But there is no way to get rich out of advertisement as well — nobody needs to go to your website, because your site can do everything automatically (just imagine that ;).
  6. Every single site wants to be the center of the world. Nobody will ever give up on this right, unless, it's only temporary and necessary to attract visitors at the beginning and get of the ground. At some point of time every single popular Web site will want to own the information, but not lease or rent it from other Web site. So, no central repository is possible ever. It's utopia, you know.
It's just the basic thoughts. I don't pretend them to be the only ones that are right and I'd be more then happy to enter the discussion. However, I've invested a significant part of my life into this problem, and I pretty much know what I'm talking about.

But let me also go all over these issues once again and tell you a little bit more about how Atomkeep works with them:
  1. We do not do anything without user interaction and explicit confirmation. Every single step that requires access to personal information or third-party site happens only after the user confirmed it.
  2. Atomkeep's policy is strict about storing usernames and password. We link accounts from other sites to the Atomkeep, but we never ever store passwords. At all. From the other side, keeping passwords was one of the major requests from many of our users, though. We're about to release a tool that will simplify the process of passwords management, but we're not storing any single bit out of someone's password and we're not going to do this in the nearest future.
  3. We can be attacked, nobody is perfect, but intruder can't get much out of our database. We just don't keep it.
  4. Every user is involved in every transaction. If some site will decide to introduce captchas for data updates, it will be passed directly to the user then. We're not playing dirty.
  5. Making site sticky could be an issue and nobody knows the only one right answer for it. Atomkeep is a great tool to manage your personal information, and you have to come to our site and to use it every time you need it. From the other side, this doesn't happen too often, so we will be running pretty low on advertisement profits. We're about to introduce the paid membership that is expected to be pretty profitable according to our polls and market reviews. But we're also working hard on introducing more tools and services, that will make Atomkeep something that you might visit few times a day, every single one.
  6. That's the exact problem that we're solving right now. Atomkeep is not the center of the world, but it's something that allows any single site to own the information directly.
I hope it helps.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

iPhone Web apps

I never wrote native iPhone applications through official SDK. But I played around with unlocked, jailbroken version with unofficial SDKs and frameworks.

While I still believe that there is a huge market for both official and unofficial apps (Cydia and Installer are doing pretty good even after AppStore launch), I'm more interested in the third area of developing for iPhone, that is iPhone Web applications.

Speaking of this, I wondering, how possible is to get an iPhone location (authorised by a user, of course ;) through the Safari call to the remote site? While there is an obvious security issue here, it still interesting to accomplish.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Metallica 2008 Death Magnetic

Metallica: Death Magnetic

The single from the new Metallica's "Death Magnetic" album, "The Day That Never Comes" is really cool. Can't wait September 12th, when the album is supposed to be on sale.

P.S. I don't care about people who can spend hours discussing how bad Metallica nowadays and how good it was years before. I like how it sounds and it doesn't make any difference if someone thinks it's pop now. I don't choose the music by style, I either like it or not. It's simple.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

HD3 Complication Bi-Axial Tourbillon

HD3 Complication Bi-Axial Tourbillon

Очень круто, $400K, всего 11 штук выпущено, все распроданы. Просто яд.

Все же есть для чего стремиться и зарабатывать большие деньги, хотя деньги сами по себе грязь и скукота, но открывают двери к чему-то интересному.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Ten Reasons to Reject the Idea of Buying a Replica Watch Watches Channel

Ten Reasons to Reject the Idea of Buying a Replica Watch

Interesting link for watch maniacs with good points uncovered. Unfortunately, this article is pretty useless. There is only one point ever exists — buying watches you're buying yourself a dream. If you're buying fake watches, you're faking your dream and it doesn't come true, you just postpone it for a while.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Тикетирование

Новости довольно дерьмовые.

Вчера таки добрался я до своего тикета за превышение скорости. Как бы, я и не виноват вовсе, получил тикет возвращаясь из Сан Франциско, ехал одиннаково быстро с двумя-тремя другими машинами, однако видать человеку в форме не нравятся русские пижоны. Совсем меня не порадовала сумма в почти $300, это не считаю судебных поборов и потенциальной traffic school. Которую я скорее всего и захочу взять.

Аргументов тому хватает. Во-первых, меня сняли на лазер, во-вторых, джентельмен в форме отказался переносить место рассмотрения дела по месту жительства, а оставил в месте Жопуйске, которое порядка 250 миль в одну сторону от моего дома.

Конечно советчиков хватает кто предлагает заняться мозгоебством и в письменной форме начать ебать себе и остальным голову. Но я а) достаточно ленив для этого, б) не владею достаточным багажем знаний, в) спросить не у кого, и г) нет у меня времени в срочно порядке изучать правовые ньюансы данной проблемы. На вопрос д) неужели я настолько богат? отвечу "Нет", поэтому и времени свободного тоже нет - все трачу на тернистый путь к достатку.
Ну это все лирика, просто вспомнился мне мой предыдущий тикет, за неправильный разворот, который мне обощелся в порядка $250. Суммы удручающие и все что остается это отгонять назойливую мысль о упущенных выгодах.

С другой стороны, в Штатах я вожу просто как паинька. Те кто ездили со мной в Украине знают, что водил только по приборам и по внутренним ощущениям, в различных состояниях. При таких штрафах и пресечениях, мне кажется я бы уже давно пользовался услугами такси.

Вот и закончим новости на мажорной ноте.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Правильный "календарь"

Идея на миллион, не новая, и я ей наврядли когда-нибудь займусь. Но с удовольствием воспользовался бы плодами.Календарь. :)

Тема старая и заезженная, уже до неприличия. Однако. Тонкая touchscreen панель, которая может работать по USB от компьютера или питания, на которой просто нарисован календарь и на котором можно писать как на любом бумажном. Которую просто повесить на холодильник, стенку, возле рабочего стола в комнате. Подставки это не то - нужно именно повесить на стенку. :)

Есть факт, что ни один онлайн календарь не есть достойная замена обычной бумажке на стене, где просто подошел, написал что-то, стер что-то, отметил насколько это важно. Без логинов, сайтов, клавиатур и прочего. Не говоря о том, что это всегда перед глазами, это и будильник, и подходит для совместного пользования (семья, фирма, отдел) также отлично как для личного, легко поменяет мировосприятия из классичного "месячного" вида, в agenda, недельник или дневник. А если бы это еще штука имела wireless и синкалась с онлайн календарям, Google, iCal, Yahoo или что там еще есть - это была бы, сука, бомба.

Я бы купил такую штуку. А я жадный очень, да и технологичен не в меру. Но купил бы, одним из первых. С другой стороны минус, я конечно не авторитетен в этом вопросе, но что-то подсказывает мне что себестоимость такой штуки в плане запчастей легко встанет в $200-300, а этот порядок далеко не радует. Я его не заплачу в принципе, даже если это будет пуль управления космическим спутником Земли. Конечно, оно может выхватить совместный рынок как телевидение, фоторамки и прочего, но это перебор, такие супер позиционирования они вредны для здоровья. В таких позиционированиях теряется острота и ценность конкретной проблемы и ее решения, таким образом портят самые лучше начинания.

Технология достаточно проста, и все уже освоено - и письмо распознают PDA, и touch экраны и вообще. Где ж ты простоя тонкая панелька, чтобы тебя повесить и получать удовольствие.

К сожалению вот этот опыт работы с календарем перенести онлайн нельзя никак. Я не могу представить себе замену. Вот у меня висит дома пару месяцев бумажка. Какая никакая, но бумажка. И я заметил что мой Google Calendar довольно пустует, хотя бумажка зачеркана вдоль и поперек. Нельзя в онлайн подойти, написать где тебе надо и что тебе надо и все. А на простой бумаже удобно очень.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1

Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for a $1

Вспоминается фраза из фильма, по-моему первый Robocop, "за доллар я бы это купил". :) Привет, жопа.

В плане цен, к сожалению, Detroit это не California. ;)

Friday, August 1, 2008

Greg Duffy's Blog: The real cost of starting a startup?

Greg Duffy's Blog: The real cost of starting a startup?

Pretty funny calculations. And I couldn't pass through them. However, do you need to ruin your life and give up on just everything? You live only once and your life should be fun.

I don't believe that maniac-driven startup could be a good place to stay with. Your company should be the part of your life, your second family or your inner-circle, but not a replacement or substitution for other life values.

Damn, when you look back, you better see that you had some life, but not going blindly for some goal, that may not be good enough at the end. The life is the balance, but not an absolute domination of one values against others.

Ray-Ban Warrior

I received my Ray-Ban Warrior sunglasses today. It was a tough purchase.

First of all, I'm pretty picky about the sunglasses. I constantly try something, but rarely like one. However, after two and a half years in California, I'm kind of tired of sun. ;)

So, my bro, insisted on me trying some of Ray-Ban sunglasses. I ended up with liking both Ray-Ban 3342 (Warrior) and 3343 ones. Pretty different styles though. ;)

When I finally made up my mind and decided to get Warrior's, I had to make a choice between the size (60 mm v. 63 mm), frame type (gunmetal v. black matte), color (Green v. Brown) and either polarization or not. The problem was that not much stores carry both sizes, as well as not much stores carry both colors. And I found no store that was carrying both polarized and not ones.

I'm kind of a person who wants to try both at the same time and make a decision. When I'm not given this possibility, the things are starting to kill my willingness to make a purchase at all. ;) Likely, it was pretty easy to make a decision about the size - while I thought that 63 mm ones (called "Large") would be too much for me, I was very wrong. Personally, I'd even prefer 64 mm ones (if they would exist). And it was kind of easy to choose between colors - Brown sucks a lot. ;)

Speaking about black matte, I had no chance to try it, but I didn't find it attractive while browsing online, so I decide to take gunmetal. And polarization was tough, however, I made it simple - originally polarized sunglasses were targeted to those, who're skiing, skating and doing any sport activity under the heavy sun. My lifestyle is pretty much different from this one, so an easy guess advised me not to mess with polarized sunglasses. ;)

Hopefully, I will like my new sunglasses not less then my new business card case. Surprisingly, both of my purchases tend to be the products from European market, incorporating the type and style of things in Europe.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Blomus

I haven't blogged anything for a while: it wasn't right time or right mood for that. A lot of things happening, however, not sure this is a good place to talk about them. The most of them are pretty personal.

Well, speaking about other things, I received my Blomus business card case today. I found it originally at Amazon, but end up ordering at other place. I wasn't very sure did I make the right choice, as it didn't look attractive enough on the Web. But I liked it European roots though.

It arrived today. It was a long story as well - the Fedex driver turned around while me watching at him, got back to his car and marked that he couldn't deliver the package. I called the Fedex, received the standard "Sorry", but was advised to wait for it until tomorrow. When I insisted that I want more then "Sorry", I've got connected with the local Fedex guy who finally instructed the driver to come back. No appologizes from the side of driver, except, "Didn't I call you and you never picked up the phone? Oh, maybe I called the other guy."

Anyway, now it's here. I paid for it barely $20 with shipping and handling costs included. I didn't expected too much, but the fancy design. But I was wrong. First of all, it was nice boxed.


When I opened it, it was looking great, well done and actually much thinner that it feels to be on the photo.



The Blomus logo has got a perfect placement as well. Very small, but very nice.


It opens and closes perfectly. And it fits about 12 pretty thick business cards.


Well, it might take more, but I'd better not do it. You can also check out my photoset at Flickr. This Blomus business card case worked out to be the best one I saw anywhere so far. It feels so solid and so nice that you want to have it with you all the time. ;)

My curiosity is killing me as I really want to see (and try) how the other one from Blomus looks like. You can find it at Amazon as well. I had many doubts about which one to choose. I don't have any concerns now, but I still pretty interested about the other one. ;)

So that's for now, still waiting a few more surprises to arrive, so I'll keep you updated.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Feedburner

I have switched all my feed traffic through the Feedburner... Hopefully, it wouldn't screw up everything. ;)

Friday, July 18, 2008

Interview with Olexiy and Alexander Prokhorenko, Atomkeep.com | socalTECH.com

Interview with Olexiy and Alexander Prokhorenko, Atomkeep.com | socalTECH.com

Thank you, Ben. ;)


However, my name is spelled wrong again because of that crazy spelling. My name is really Alexander, however, my international passport spells my name turned into Olexandr, because it first translates into Ukrainian (orig.: Александр - Олександр - Olexandr).

I was born in Soviet Union, everybody spoken Russian, my name is Alexander. However, when the Soviet Union crashed, I've appeared to be the citizen of independent Ukraine, and became Olexandr.

P.S. However, I'm lucky enough to name my son Ivan. His name is pretty universal ;) (orig.: Иван - Iван - Ivan).

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Atomkeep has a new release

We are trying to keep the Atomkeep's release frequency high and introducing new release with new systems, new features, new design elements and less bugs. ;) You're welcome!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Atomkeep meets Sarah Lacy at Drinks 2.0

Few nights ago me and my brother had chance to meet Sarah Lacy, the author of Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good at the Drinks 2.0. Thanks for Andrew Warner from Mixergy for arranging such a nice event. :)

Some pictures... although Sarah Lacy looks pretty scared, I'm not that bad, trust me...


Here's me and the book. I even had chance to read it before the event. Somehow, not much people there even knew about the book at all, so I was getting questions about the book pretty often.


We're pretty pressed in time on the event so I was a little bit afraid that I'll not be able to make it, but finally, I got the book signed. Sarah is a very nice person and I'd be happy to chat more, however, too much people were around who also demanded on her attention.

Hopefully, she'll be interviewing Atomkeep one day.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Good to Great - good book about great achievements

I've recently finished listening to Good to Great audio book by Jim Collins. I found it to be pretty nice, but no rocket science though. However, it's good collection of common sense statements in one jar.

Recommended if you have time for it (it'll take a lot).

Monday, July 7, 2008

Customer service

I had a pretty complex professional career way. And while I'm still at the beginning of it, I already took a lot of steps to get here. So it means that I've started my career from the very grounds and I saw it all. :)

One of my first steps in IT career was a position of Support Engineer on the phone in NOC (Network Operation Center) of one of the first ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in my city, Alkar Teleport. It was about 10 years ago and Alkar was a pretty "luxurious" employer those days for every IT person in our city. It was an established company with a pretty solid team and great people relations inside. It was kind of a community for those who worked there.

I wanted to get there so much, however, there were no job openings for my job position those days (System and Network Administrator). The most technical job was Support Engineer in the NOC. It was very little about solving technical problems and finding greal solutions, but more about routine DIYs or HOWTOs that everybody hates. But I took it with mostly no hesitations, as I wanted to get in, whatever it takes. I was very sure that I can get promoted to System Administrator position shortly, and I didn't want to waste any single minute.

Support Engineer position was a 24x7 job and had two shifts: the day and night one (yeah, that were cruel days ;). There were days when I was taking both shifts. Most of the time that happen because my colleagues were getting drunk on the parties and had no chances to say even "Hi". Well, I did that (drink and getting drunk), too, so we're pretty even. :)

It was a great school for me, 18 years old, ambitious, with pretty decent technical skills (I started early), but pretty modest personal and communication abilities (lets call it that way). However, the biggest lesson that I took from there was not how to communicate, but what is it all about. I mastered how to communicate pretty easy, the first days were terrible but I quickly found the way how I can enjoy the communication process, and it worked well. It's hard to remember, but I think I enjoyed the conversation itself.

You know, sometimes people were scared talking to technical person just because they're afraid that they can't explain what's wrong and they wouldn't get the problem solved. Someone thought that being aggressive is an excuse for being lame. Well, it's not and I did my best to explain that to several of such guys (and few gals :).

We had no cliches, no templates, no scenarios or scripts (fuck the outsourced customer support lines!). The only one thing we had to say is "Hello, this is Alkar Teleport and my name is ...". It's more then enough. Everything else had the only one goal: help the person on the other side. That's it. Simple to say, but hard to achieve. :)

As I said already, it was a great school. I found myself enjoying talking to other people (well, not all of them, but still nice :) and I got some grounds of how you can help, if you really can't. That was mostly the answer to what is it all about. And the answer was simple: you can be a winner even if you can't help. Just do your best to be helpful. Don't give up too soon. I had millions of opportunities to give up just because this is not something we supposed to help with. Well, as I said earlier, I was over skilled for the current position and I could help with much broader number of questions. However, the most thankful people who even took time to call next day to my boss and say that they're very happy with the service and me, personally, were those whom I really didn't help. But I really tried to.

You can't fake your willingness to help. You can either help or try to to pretend that. And if somebody thinks you can fake that feeling, you can't. It'd be a lame try that gives you even more negative points.

What's my post about? Well, first of all this is my history thing. What's more important though is to remember what the customer service center is all about. Customer Support is supposed to be a real live person, reading your email message, receiving your call and reading the mailed letter. The job is not to follow stupid, bureaucratic and corporate-envenomed script, but help the person. Whatever it takes.

Well, sometimes you don't need your skills just to be helpful. This doesn't mean you should take this chance as an excuse and forward the person to the answering machine or hang up on him: just help or quit the fucking job. Asshole-ish customer support can end up with more problems than the person really comes with.

Here, at Atomkeep, I want every our user to know that I'll personally do my best to help anyone who contacts us. We have no scripts, no scenarios, not even "Hello, my name is ..." (although, we'll have it someday ;). All we care about is are you happy or not. I want you also to understand that we might not be able to helpful all the time. There are some things that are behind our possibilities. However, what I can assure you about is that we'll certainly do our best.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Widgets, badges, ...

HOWTO and DIY on Atomkeep' widgets — an unofficial guide.

Let me tell you a little bit more about Atomkeep's widgets. This is the typical one, mine, taken few days ago (as a picture).


So what's that? First of all, it links to your Atomkeep profile, so everyone can see your most recent information, of course, if you allow them to. To allow people to see your Atomkeep profile you need to click on the checkbox I want to share my profile and make it visible to other users in Profile Settings tab.

Okay, so going back to the widget. The icons on the right of your name are direct links to your accounts on different networks and sites. You — are the only legitimate owner of your information, so why should we point them anywhere else? Besides, what if there is somebody trying to reach you, but doesn't know how? That's the way out — find the network's link and go through it.

The most interesting thing is on the right side, the vertical status name. We've got several of them. It indicates the number of networks and sites that you're linked within Atomkeep. The more connections — the better. It's also one of the privileges indicator in our system. The most connected people are the ones who are willing to experiment (most of the time). So why not let them do that? ;)

Try us, see who are you? at Atomkeep and let us know what you think.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Atomkeep on TheFunded

Some interesting stats...

As I discovered recently, Atomkeep takes the 4th place on TheFunded Connect by the number of supporters for it. The number of supporters sounds like a relative measurement of being an interesting project.

While the 4th place is not the 1st one (and easy guess, right?), it's still better than nothing for 14 days old Atomkeep. It makes even more sense especially when you'll consider that there are 15 different companies running live on TheFunded Connect (and potentially compete for number of supporters there) and 47 more that can't make to the list, yet.

More to come, first three spots are taken by the companies that generate some cash already and make $100-250K annually in revenue. The 1st place is breaking even and want to expand their business, the other two are still struggling, but making some cash. Atomkeep doesn't make any money, yet and we clearly state this.

Well, I might be wrong considering this as a competition, although, this is just the way I am — sometimes I feel to compete with anyone :). More likely it's just a nice measurement of what are you actually doing. I like what I do. And I happy to see that people like it, too.

We've got pretty much plans for Atomkeep. It's impossible to tell you everything in just few sentences of company introduction. We made a good judgment and don't stick to just one idea. There is no golden bullet, but the more times you fire, the more chances for you to get closer to the target (even occasionally and unintentionally ;).

Some of our ideas are already in development and hopefully will show up soon. Some of them are still waiting for more resources to come. We are receiving a lot of feedback these days. While we'd be happy to make everything that we've been asked for, sometimes we've got to make decisions and to pass on something. We don't remove anything from our tasks, though, we just save them for better days.

Some of your feedback really opens up a golden niche for us. I wish I can tell you more, but my partners would kill me and throw into the ocean within the few hours after posting that. ;) So I'd better keep silence. But, please, keep getting back in touch with us! ;)

P.S. My personally thanks for Adeo Ressi, the person who stands behind TheFunded. He's a pretty nice guy and I hope to meet him for a cup of coffee someday next week. ;)

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Успехи

Позавчера Atomkeep заключил первую (дебютную ;) партнерскую сделку с небольшой нишевой компанией занимающейся подбором персонала. Как показала практика, о нас говорят больше чем пишут.

Обо всем об этом будет официальная новость в блоге Atomkeep и, со временем, на самом сайте. Ждите новостей. :)

P.S. Новый релиз на носу. Вы просили - мы сделали.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Business the AOL way

I've recently finished reading (err, listening) the books Business the AOL way by David Stauffer.

Only a few words about it: too old, too bothering, more a time waste than something valuable, unless you'd like to know more about AOL history. And even for history reasons, you should better dig the Internet - much more information in a better and more objective form.

I didn't like at all. Sorry about wasted time.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Please, support us at Digg

Everyone!! We need your support at Digg!

Dear friends, please, vote and register on Atomkeep. It's free and I, personally, will appreciate this a lot.

http://digg.com/tech_news/Atomkeep_your_profile_everywhere

Thanks!

Достало!

В попытках записать ISO образ на DVD+R DL, уже просрал два диска (третий на подходе), пока безрезультатно. Вернее, если не называть убитые диски результатом.

Первый вообще не записался, хотя честно протрахал часок. Второй записался на 49%, после чего начал писать непонятную херню мне, при возможности выбрать а) послать все нахер б) спробуй ще раз. Пару раз попробовал, и сказал нахер. Третий диск вроде начал писаться, но куковать час желания не было - поехал домой, вот написать. Утречком заеду в офис, проверю диск, думаю и его выкину нахрен. Говорят диски гавно, хотя сейчас все диски гавно. Делать эксперименты на дисках в два раза дороже - вообще неприятно было бы. Хотя думаю прийдется.

P.S. Пытаюсь сделать "гибридный" образ навигационного DVD для Toyota/Lexus, пятого поколения, 7.1 карта с загрузчиком от 5.1, которой еще умел делать override. Вот гавно.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Свежий релиз Atomkeep

Только что освежевали большой релиз Atomkeep.

Несмотря на то, что прошло только девять дней с момента нашего первого публичного запуска, из которых три дня были выходные, мы подготовили новый релиз который поддерживает уже одиннадцать (!!) различных сайтов и систем. В них входят такие сети как LinkedIn, facebook, Twitter, Mixergy, Slide и Yelp, фото-сайт Flickr, а также сайты по поиску работы Monster, Jobster, JOBcentral, и, конечно же, популярная блог-платформа Blogger.

Конечно же это еще не охватывает даже трети всех популярных сетей и сайтов (Интернет - он большой). Однако это уже большой шаг вперед для нас и всей команды Atomkeep. Все работали очень усердно и всем большое спасибо.

P.S. Если мы выпустили семь сетей меньше чем за десять дней, представляете, что будет через месяц? :)

Monday, June 23, 2008

Screw it

Today I've finished reading, err, listening to the Richard Branson's book Screw It, Let's Do It: Lessons In Life. I know Mr. Branson is a cult person for some people, however, I didn't know much about him before I started reading the book, except that he's owner of Virgin "everything". I also knew that he doesn't own all Virgin companies anymore, as he had to sell some of them in late 90s.

Well, I found this book to be a nice supplement for your head when you're having a workout in the gym. It's something that you need to be concentrated on, it's not something that takes your attention, however, it's a nice narration that's following you and makes a feeling that you are not wasting your time, you getting to learn at least something. ;)

It's just a story. Nothing more, but nothing less. I can't say that I've absorb any lessons that he's trying to teach us over the book: all of them are common sense and, actually, he didn't say anything specific. However, his story is nice. Everyone's life is different and sometimes it is a good thing to listen about someone's and to think about yours.

Not highly recommended, but worth spending few hours on it.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Новые кулинарные эксперименты

Продолжаю эксперименты с продуктами.

Отсутствие жены и куча продуктов в морозилке заставляют меня злоупотреблять терпением желудка. Пока повезло, но кто его знает чем могут закончиться следущие эксперименты. :)

Началось...
...
... и закончилось.

Для любителей подробностей смотреть Фликр. Все-таки пришлось заапгрейдить аккаунт до Про. Во-первых, двадцать пять баксов за год это немного за неограниченные объемы. Во-вторых, мне нравится. В третьих, выдам немного инсайдерской информации, flickr.com в ближайшем релизе будет доступен в Atomkeep. Ну и в конце концов, фото где-то нужно же хранить? Пусть они отвечают за сохранность. :)

Готовить приходиться преимущественно ночью. Днем здесь (южная Калифорния) очень жарко, вчера в теньке машина сообщила 104F, это где-то 40C. Кондиционер нихера не помогает, мне иногда кажется что он сам готов уже отдать богу душу, только бы я его не терзал больше. Поэтому практикую ночью, часов после 10 вечера. Глубокой ночью, а вернее даже ближе к утру, здесь порядка 20C, так что терпимо.

Насчет финансовой целесообразности моих продуктовых терзаний. Вышеописанное блюдо обошлось до $10. Согласен, маловато, но думаю что порядка 3-4х кормлений получилось.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Эксперименты с курицей

Вчера ночью делал эксперименты с курицей. Все очень просто, готовить при 350-400F минут 40 или даже час, по ситуации. Вот краткое описание в картинках.

Началось:
В процессе:
Итог:
Для любителей деталей смотреть у меня на Фликре. В последнее время начал все больше и больше времени обращать на flickr. Пока что все нравится, есть опасение что они такие убедят меня на платный апгрейд. ;)

P.S. Для любителей деталей может быть на досуге напишу подробный рецепт, но вообще-то на Фликре вся суть запечатлена, остальное по желанию. :)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Новостей нет

Нет новостей и собственно времени писать. Мы находимся уже несколько суток подряд в непрерывном драйве, готовимся к чему-то очень важному и большому. Однако всегда находится что-то, в последнюю минуту, что совершенно меняет планы. Люди говорят "расскажи Богу о своих планах, посмеемся вместе". Это точно, жизнь показала, что смеха будет много. Я стараюсь не планировать ничего глобального, однако жить в хаосе тоже не получается (вернее, получается, но не хочется).

Сегодня пришел мой Jawbone (полнее Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset, первого поколения). Лучший наушник который у меня за все время, хотя я перепробовал множество. Очень мало какие я могу носить - очень быстро начинают болеть уши. Или они у меня нежные очень, либо гавно на ушах никому на пользу не идет.

Но тут другая ситуация. Во-первых, с 1 июля hands free устройства в машине в Калифорнии это закон, стало быть начнут штрафовать. Меня уже штрафовали местные, процесс очень быстрый, но крайне дорогой. Даже непонятно какая же у них стоимость одного часа работы получается, если меня обслужили минут за 5-7 на порядка $200. Во-вторых, у меня в машине это все встроенно (hands free), но я часто езжу на других машинах, часто не слышу звонка в кармане в офисе или на улице, еще не подменил диск навигации чтобы включался режим override, а так же часто забываю переключать hands free в машине с телефона жены, на мой, из-за чего все равно никакой пользы.

Какое-то время даже пользовался Nokia BH-900. Соблазнила необычная "дужка" для крепление на ухо, однако а) очень тихий и б) больше 20 минут - получаса на ухе выдержать не могу. Такое ощущение что ухо становится большим пульсирующим синяком. Особенность строения, стало быть (моего).

С Jawbone история другая. Очень комфортно, отлично слышно, качество передаваемого голоса тоже очень хорошее, громкость вообще на высоте, просто супер, даже в очень людных и шумных местах. Ухо слегка ноет после нескольких часов ношения, но терпимо, просто время от времени приходится поправлять, чтобы надавливало синяк в другой части уха :) Шучу конечно же, он (Jawbone) не надавливает. Просто такое своебровазное ощущение дискомфорта.

Очень понравилось как он (Jawbone) дружит со встроенным телефоном в машине. Получается переключаться между устройствами нажатием одной кнопки на ухе. Что более чем комфортно.

Пришли анализы крови и не только. Я вообще такими вещами голову не забиваю, но в этот раз почему-то решил почитать. Немного завышенный albumin (написано что это уровень протеинов в крови, но мне это ни о чем не говорит) на пару процентов и слегка высокий холестерол (процентов на 8%) (чем это отличается от hdl - хороший холестерол и от sdl - плохой холестерол даже не могу понять), а так здоров как бык, даже удивительно. Конечно понятия завышенности и заниженности это субъективные, так как у всех свои рамки. Но в общем-то пациент скорее жив, чем мертв, что не может не радовать.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Байкология

Выходные прошли продуктивно. В пятницу вечером 5 часов слушал курсы по программе CMSP, в последствии чего сдал письменный экзамен без ошибок, чему сам довольно удивился. Тренер оказался очень интересным парнем Мило, выглядевшим гораздо лучше своих лет, судя по всему, достаточно обеспеченный человек. Тем приятнее было у него заниматься - ибо занимался он этим от того что нравится, а не потому что курс стоит $250 с рыла, пардон, человека. Хотя есть предположение что он и владеет собственной всей этой конторкой OCMT (представитель CMSP в Orange County).

Все следущие субботу и воскресенье (по 5-6 часов каждый день) проездили на нехировой жаре. Из-за чего обгорело рыло (именно рыло, то-есть то, что не было спрятано под шлемом) и шея. Плюс: они действительно учат ездить с самого начала и сразу правильно. К тому же мы с братом умудрились сразу выхватить Kawasaki Ninja (правда, предыдущего поколения, до рестайлинга) и откатать на них эти два дня. Учитывая что человек на 25 было всего три таких спортбайка, мы довольно неплохо обернулись. Хотя брат поступил подловато и под конец второго дня таки бросил мотоцикл на землю, а сам отскочил в сторону, типа - на-те вам ваше хламье. Тем самым открыл сезон, так как до него падали только женщины и дети, после него начали падать все, причем с гораздо более плачевными результатами. Полеты были достойные реинкарнации фильма "Полет навигатора". Под конец второго дня, незадолго до начала тестирования driving skills, мотоциклы летали уже где и куда только можно, причем на ровном месте. К счастью, ни одим так и не перестал заводиться и все были в строе к сдаче экзамена.

Экзамен оказался легким и сложным одновременно. Для человек впервые севшего за руль мотоцикла, мне показались пируэты и требования довольно сложными, но резонными. Но тренера оказались достаточно лояльным к мелким ошибкам (хотя, даже к довольно грубым тоже, как например, врожденный идиотизм). Из 12 человек, например, на экзамене (после получаса тренировок!) пятеро умудрились проехать дорожку в поворот на 135 градусов по диагонали (а не внутри дорожки), а также наискось. Некоторые даже осозновали ошибку, просились пересдать, и снова ехали неправильно, что удваивало их идиотизм и обреченность их обучения. К сожалению, они тоже сдали экзамен, правда на предельных балах 18-20 при максимуме ошибок в 21 балл.

Чтобы не показалось страшно изначально, все что требовали на экзамене, по несколько раз каждый тренировался в разных вариантах, поэтому cовершить фатальную ошибку никто не умудрился. Хотя по статистике, таки 10% так и не сдают экзамен, и им дают право не пересдачу. В среднем группа из 25 человек, стало быть двое-трое таки редкие идиоты, от которых нужно уберечь дорогу и других людей.

В общем, мне очень понравилось, после того как соберусь и куплю себе свой первый спортбайк, а это я планирую Kawaski Ninja 250R 2008 года, откатаю пару-тройку месяцев, осилю фривейи и езду по сплит-лайнам, пойду на курс для продвинутых чуваков.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Baume and Mercier on iPhone


My brother has got new Baume & Mercier Riviera XXL watches. Please enjoy this combination of an amateur photo session and some free time.

(It might be the truth for watch addicts only though).

New Twitter?

Well, experiencing times of having Twitter more often offline then online, the question is: when the Twitter alternative is going to show up? This doesn't sound like a rocket science and there are too many Twitter-addicted people who are willing to make a swap.

(This is a typical Twitter post, however, Twitter is down again for it.)

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Новая тема

В дополнение к перепрошивке 7.1 DVD нафигации от Лексуса (для generation 5) скрестив его с 5.1, в котором еще не убрали override mode, у меня новая затея. Хочу себе в Приус HUD, то-есть Head-Up Display.

Что-то типа такого:


или такого:


Выглядит очень интересно :) Во что это мне обойдется пока не знаю, но выглядит очень впечатляюще. Хотя, по большому счету, время на скрещивания навигационного DVD еще не было совсем, так что это может затянуться на довольно долго. С другой стороны, на фоне того, что hands free за рулем it's a law в California начиная с 1-го июля, прийдется поторопиться, потому что во время езды эта сука не разрешает набирать телефоны, ну и короче много чего, без режима override, который убрали еще в 6.1.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

iTunes CyrFix: уточняю

Получил удивительно большое количество вопросов по iTunes CyrFix. На удивление, почти все вопросы одиннаковые и читаются приблизительно так:
..."попробовал(а) сегодня вашу версию iTunesCyrFix, но там нет .exe. Как запустить программу?"
Поэтому хотел бы уточнить. Да, эта программа исключительно под Mac.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Говнокамера и шлепбук

Решил испытать маленькую USB камеру от какого-то говнокитайского производителя. Так говно полное. Но видео получилось. На видео тестирую smackbook. Отличная вещь показать друзьям и заставить их обсыраться от зависти, но реально работать наврядли получиться.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Quick update

My laptop has came back home from AppleCare and, finally, I've got a chance to complete numerous things that were waiting for me. Not much to write about, just a boring routine.

Recently, I've found the good travel bag for car seat and decided to give it a try. My wife and my little son are going to have a trip shortly, so having a good travel bag would be a smart move, I thought.

While I'm completely satisfied with Amazon, I was not sure that they would be able to make it within the next few days. So I decided to try local stores for it. What a bummer. Some stores even don't have an idea what is that, and those who know, they don't carry any in stock and never did. Everything is sold exclusively online.

Well, as you know, some things can be pretty unpopular and it might not be wise to have them in retail stock, however, such a small thing like a travel bag should be a good enough choice to keep "just in case". Besides, travel accessories sometimes to be purchased in the last minute and Internet is pretty wrong choice for that.

P.S. Don't say a word about local shopping sites. I've tried them, no one really works. It looks like the most of them are trying to become yet another shopzilla.com, but decided to call themselves local.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Downgrade from Visa to XP on Sony VAIO

A friend of mine got stuck trying to downgrade his pretty new Sony VAIO VGN-TZ150N from Vista (it sucks!) to XP. While I was able to to find all drivers for him (they're available for free at esupport.sony.com), he couldn't get through the "blue screen of death" when trying to boot from the Windows XP Pro installation CD. Neither did I. Finally, it worked out to be impossible to install the WIndows XP Pro, unless you're using a bundled installation CD that comes with SP2 already.

It took a huge portion of the day, but finally, I got the CD and the installation went fine. Installing all drivers took the rest of the day, but now everything works flawlessly and much faster (Vista sucks!).

Alternatively, you can always order a Windows XP Recovery CD from Sony at https://www.qdirect.net/Sony/VistaDG.aspx (well, not actually always but before the 6/30/2008) and look for a free shipping promotional code at http://www.sony.com/business/downgrade (at the moment of writing this post it's Q93R7). However, a lot of customers report this to take a lot of time, if ever happens.

Monday, June 2, 2008

New personal finance startup idea

On the grounds of my last post about money management online, I came up with an idea of new personal finance Web application.

So here is the deal:
  1. Make a clone of popular desktop application. Either one would be okay. Rich features of the browsers allow you to do almost everything nowadays. Keep in mind, that the most of people have Checking, Savings, Credits and Loans, at least one, for the car. Don't give up on any of these just because you think people don't need it.
  2. Keep the style sticky, don't go far in the "ergonomics" and UI and UX design. The people are already stick to some specific ways of handling (and thinking!) of data. Let them stay with it.
  3. Use the Google Gears or anything of this kind to let your software work offline.
  4. Provide a number of communication tools to your software, like widgets, IM, SMS (text messaging from the cell phones), Web or good old e-mails. Make your software as easy as Twitter is for sending and receiving updates.
  5. Don't go far in reports, you're not developing an executive software. But be reasonable in your limits. There some things that everyone wants to know. Make sure you give them a tool for that.
  6. Give your site an iPhone application, both online and offline. Everybody wants iPhone nowadays. ;) Don't forget about other smartphones. However, it could be a simple e-mail and Web gateway.
  7. Start with the basic features, be very responsive, provide an ultimate feedback for feature requests and their status, let people know the exact day when they'll receive the feature that they want. You know, this is just numbers, it doesn't take more then a month to add some fancy splits or CSV import. Make your (prospective) clients feel that they are part of the process. Let them know that they will get what they want. (But don't be afraid to say Sorry, but not, yet for ridiculous and unreasonable requests).
  8. Make sure you have all features that let people the full visibility about their current financial situation. Don't make the wait for transactions clearance on the credit card, let them see the upcoming expenses, monitor the budget, let them stretch it for urgent needs by taking funds from other categories (for example, let people temporary save on restraunt expenses for the goal of buying a new laptop). Make this visual and straight forwarded. What you really need to deliver is a personal financial tool. People want to be in control and to be able to optimize their funds. Visual way of funds planning and optimization is the easiest way for the most of us.
  9. Charge not more then 10 dollars per month (but not much less), don't mess up with different plans. I don't want to count how many accounts do I need to handle, how many transactions would be in each, etc. Give me a choice: get it free or pay for it. But make sure you give it for free. No obligations.
  10. Once you're up and running, let the social networking to work. Let people give advices, mark events, whatever not. Develop content dependant advisory system. It'll pay off.
Yes, it'd be tough for a first three-five weeks to get the core up and running. After that you can become the next 37signals with a thousands of happy customers.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Online money management

I'm currently digging the Internet for a good, reliable money management online with full functionality on board. What do I need?
  1. Accounts for Savings, Checkings, Credit Cards, Loans (different types of, as well as giving and receiving).
  2. Ability to add transactions manually and sync them later through uploading any popular data format available by the Download function from the banks. Having system download the data automatically would require me to give up the passwords to it, so I am pretty concerned about sense for this function to me.
  3. Split transactions (one transaction split into several categories, like Household and Food, for example). Categories management as well (custom, etc).
  4. Schedule transactions and payments by loan, making sure that loan payments are also coming as a split transaction, separating the body of credit and interest.
  5. Reports, not much of them, mostly Where did I spend my money during period of time?
  6. Budgets, both monitoring and planning. Different budget templates are also a plus.
  7. Adding accounts manually, but not only those that's got Internet access.
  8. Notifications by e-mail and export to Calendar.
  9. Import Quicken data would be a huge plus, I'll be moving from Mac Quicken.
I'm not stuck to free solutions, I'd be happy to pay for a reliable one. However, it sounds like it's too much for online money management tools that are on the market today. ;)

As for now, I'm going to give a try to mint.com, moneycenter.yodlee.com, budgetpulse.com, budgettracker.com, clearcheckbook.com, buxfer.com and mvelopes.com. I liked the concept of helpful guidance and tips from wesabe.com, but it's too different from the application that I'm looking for. I'll also try to evaluate expensr.com against my req's. After my last quick look it seemed to be the only one possible solution.

Wondering, why is it so hard to replicate Quicken for Mac, iBank 3 or Moneydance online? Sounds like an easy thing that can become extremely sticky as soon as you provide million of ways to get connected to it. This is a kind of a thing that can be done in a new way, easier and friendlier, and can rock the market.

mint.com can't add transactions manually, so it's out of my list. But it was pretty nice though. It's bad that it misses this functionality and it's very basic for me. However, people say that mint.com still in beta, so there are chances that they finally will decide to deliver this function. I'd be happy to take a look at it then.

moneycenter.yodlee.com looks like it can do everything for me, however, I couldn't pass through linking accounts to it. I couldn't find Bank of America Credit Card there (well, it is in the list, but can't get linked), and I couldn't add an account manually (while it advises me to, it never allows me ;). So, it's out of the list also.

expensr.com has no split transactions, poor account management, no loan accounts, like for a car, or a student loans. No transaction schedule or I didn't find one. I liked it, but still no-go.

budgetpulse.com has no split transactions, account management is manual only, no differentiation on account types (either Checking, or Savings, or Credit card or whatever not), transactions management is pretty weird. It's mostly like an application to monitor your upcoming expenses and incomes and keep the balance. It gives you a bigger picture, but not your day-to-day tool. Not the one that I need.

budgettracker.com looks like the one that really can do everything I need. It's free for basic functionality and extra features cost $2.95/month. Pretty acceptable, however, the interface is very awkward to me. I'm coming from Mac Quicken, so I was looking for something similar, at least, in concepts. Well, budgettracker.com is close on concept, but very overloaded. Keeping in mind the Web application needs to have fewer steps them the desktop one (just because it's Web and every step doesn't have the same response time as on desktop application), the budgettracker.com is too much overcomplexified. But I think it'll become pretty useful as soon as you get used to it. Two things I do not like about it. First, it doesn't seems very reliable and I don't know what is the future of it (it looks like a very minor player on the market). Second, I didn't like to get to know that it's advertised on For Sale By Publisher here. This might be a business model, but doesn't sound like a very solid one.

mvelopes. This one is very expensive comparing to all other choices. It has got three plan.
  1. 2-Year Plan is $189.60, charged every two years and equals to $7.90/month,
  2. 1-Year Plan is $129.60, charged annually and equals to $10.80/month,
  3. Quarterly Plan is $39.60 and equals to $13.20/month.
All these options sound pretty expensive. But I decided still give it a try using the free 30-days trial. First thing that smelled bad was the termination policy.
Please note, due to security reasons, requests for cancellation can only be processed by chatting directly with a Customer Service Representative. As such, cancellation requests transmitted to us by any other means (e.g. email, voicemail, etc.) will not be honored.
This means that they will try to feed me to their sales people before they will let me go. I hate that. But let's go ahead. In overall picture, mvelopes looks like a pretty solid product with a lot of functionality.

However there is one thing that makes it pretty tough for me. Originally, it's not intuitive transaction-based budget system. They are starting from the side of spending categories, called envelopes there. They don't care about your transactions (actually, they do, but don't make it straight-forwarded), but they do care about how much did you spend on each category.

I should say that their budgeting system is pretty nice and one of the best that I saw ever (even in the desktop applications). However, I need to be able to easier see the direct connection between my every single transaction and spending categories. I want to apply budgets to my actual actions, but not to adjust my actions to the budget fields.

Well, you can get used to it though. Once their concept is in your head, you're cool. However, they don't have schedules (or I didn't find them). If there are schedules, they did the great job to hide them very well. Otherwise, it's even more surprising how they did such a solid system and have no schedules there. To my understanding, schedule of transactions is a very important tool to proper funds management.

Overall I liked the mvelopes the most, however, they miss the schedule and they are pretty expensive. They deliver a nice set of functionality though. I'll keep them in mind, however, their "envelope" concept is an awkward for me. I also need to see how easily they will let me go out of the trial. ;)

clearcheckbook.com looks nice and very simple. It has no loan type of accounts though. And interface is not very good. Its dashboard could be more effective and much more informative. Not that "linked", mostly manual tool. I liked it minimalism, but I hated it at the same time. Overall, it's a nice free tool, has Google and Mac OS dashboard widgets, some AJAX in a appropriate places, but can't make me stick to it.

Originally, Quicken Online sounded like a good choice, but it misses split transactions. A no-go for me, I have too many split transactions, to keep everything in order. They also miss budgets. Very important for me, almost no-go. The reports are very weak. Not a big deal for me, they have some other way for building charts, besides, this is not actually something that I'd really miss. One of the most important things is that there are too many complains in their forum for paying for incomplete product. Not a good sign.

buxfer makes me feel a little bit dumb with all its tags. It's also not very "automatic", so relies a lot of manual processing. The splitting of transactions is very weird process. It looks like it was done just check the box in the feature list, but nobody thought about people who'll be using it. As I already said, tags, words, groups: all these are very confusing jargon. I would prefer to stick to common sense ones or to be clear on the correct usage.

P.S. I'll try to keep my requirements list updated as soon as I'll recall more features that I depend on. ;)