Volodymyr Obrizan: personal website - 01

Business School × 2

2016-11-01T00:05:00+02:00

This year, on the recommendation of colleagues from the club of IT company directors, I went to the ABIS business school. It came at just the right time: after all, I’m an expert in IT technologies, because I spent five years studying at KhIRE, and then another three years in graduate school there. But the specifics and culture of our university were such that making money was sort of not the done thing there. Like in the joke: the wife thinks money comes from the nightstand, and a KhIRE scientist thinks it comes from the Ministry of Education’s cash office. So, leaving the university, I didn’t know how to earn even 100 UAH on the free market. It was easier for me to work for free than to force myself, blushing, to tell a potential client the cost of my services.

And at ABIS they have a philosophy of business, a management block, a marketing and sales block, and building a strong personal philosophy. I liked it so much, everything was so timely, that afterward I went to every course they offered: the advanced course “management of transformations and changes,” the master class “management by objectives,” financial training.

And in the fall I went around for a second lap.

— Vova, how are things?
— Well, I went to business school.
— A different one?
— The same one.
— A different course?
— The same one.
— Did the program change?
— No, the same program.
— ???

Nobody understood why I did it. I’ll be honest with you: I don’t understand 100% of what I’m told. I don’t remember everything I was able to understand. I can put into practice nowhere near everything I was able to remember. And I can’t apply correctly everything that I do apply. So the second time was very important for me, to polish up the knowledge I already had.

Also, the courses have very pleasant company, and I found new friends. (Guys, hello to you!)

Today at another lecture we were discussing that the motivation for change can be two things: crisis and inspiration. And I realized something for myself: the first time I was taking the course while going through a crisis, and the second time I was taking the course while going through inspiration. So I saw and heard completely different things.

Self-education is a great thing. I have a feeling I’ll go a third time, too.

Ukraine and 4G

2016-02-01T22:39:00+02:00

In 2015, quality internet finally appeared on city streets in the country: 3G. The mobile operators bought licenses to use the frequencies for crazy billions of hryvnias. The equipment, I think, costs no less.

On the one hand, that’s good: for 15 UAH a month I get several megabits of bandwidth on my smartphone. On the other hand — when are we going to get 4G? All the other countries already have 4G. Russia has had it since 2012, Kazakhstan since 2012, Poland since 2011. Even Africa already has 4G. And our mobile operators spent the money on 3G. Now the investments need to be recouped, so nobody is even bringing up installing 4G. Believe me, the technologies for this were invented long ago, and radio waves propagate through Russian, Polish, Kazakh, and Ukrainian air in exactly the same way.

Ukraine made a mistake: it should have skipped the 3G stage and invested straight into 4G. Now we won’t be seeing 4G on smartphone screens anytime soon.

Summary of the Second Meeting of the "Python at APVT" Club

2015-11-01T14:35:00+02:00

On October 31, the second meeting of the "Python at APVT" club took place. The meeting was held in room 318 of the APVT department from 11:15 to 12:50.

We discussed how the first week of the Coursera course had gone. It turned out that some of the guys had already completed the entire course during that week. We noted that the course lecturer explains everything in great detail, which is very useful for people who have only just started learning programming. The guys added that the motivation for such fast studying is to acquire knowledge more quickly and find a job in this field. Another interesting thing is that even an online course is sometimes taken not individually, but in groups of 2–3 people at one computer.

Translating Coursera Captions

Professor Rustinov proposed the idea of translating the subtitles for this course on Coursera. I started a discussion in our Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=ru#!topic/pythonapvt/y0ivscjTTgs I ask anyone interested to share their opinion.

The goal — we could expand the audience for this course to Russian-speaking users, thereby lowering the barrier to entry.

The ABBYY service, which is already involved in translating Coursera, was suggested: http://coursera.abbyy-ls.com/En#home But this course is not there yet. Nevertheless, we can do some good and translate other popular courses.

Checkio.org — a Collection of Python Puzzles

The most successful programmers are the ones who constantly solve more and more new puzzles, raising the difficulty bar each time. The course on Coursera gives an understanding of the language syntax, but you still have to learn how to apply the language to solving real problems.

The service http://www.checkio.org/ will help us with this — it is an online progression game with a hundred problems of varying difficulty.

So, everybody march off to sign up and knock out some puzzles! I’ll check on Saturday. ;)

Python Course at Pibursa

Professor Rustinov talked about how he went to study Python at Pibursa. He emphasized its distinctive feature: a sweatshop system, where a large amount of information is crammed into one week. And also the fact that the course is "blended" — online learning and in-person meetings for solving problems and discussion.

iPython

Vova Miz showed iPython — an environment for interactive programming in Python. You can combine Python code and visualization of results in tabular form or as diagrams and graphs on one page. This topic definitely needs to be brought up at a separate club meeting.

The meeting ended with a heated discussion of educational methods, which is already outside the scope of our club’s interests.

Agenda for the Next Meeting

Discussion of the agenda for the next meeting on November 7: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=ru#!topic/pythonapvt/7YDFcz6nGr4

Previous meetings:

No. 1 10/24/2015 The first meeting of the "Python at APVT" club took place. Summary

How to Get News About Meetings of the "Python at APVT" Club?

Subscription to news about meetings of the "Python at APVT" club: http://bit.ly/python-apvt-reg The mailing list will be the main channel for information about meetings.

VK and Facebook groups: https://vk.com/python.apvt and https://www.facebook.com/groups/python.apvt, respectively.

A Q&A site about Python and the club: http://bit.ly/python-apvt-qa

Questions? You can contact me personally: volodymyr.obrizan@gmail.com

Hewlett-Packard Is Shutting Down Its Public Cloud

2015-11-01T09:54:00+02:00

While Amazon is making $500 million in net profit a quarter from the cloud, Hewlett-Packard is shutting down its public cloud. The other day I got this email:

In short, on January 31, 2016, Hewlett-Packard will stop providing public cloud services — basically, shut down your servers and download your data, because after that you won’t have access to them.

It’s important to understand that this is specifically about HP’s public cloud. Judging by their site, HP’s Helion enterprise cloud is doing fine.

The Control Answer

2015-09-01T13:24:00+03:00

One of the tips for lecturers is to connect with the audience by asking questions. As a student, I found myself in situations where I gave a suitable answer, and the instructor would say “wrong” and wait for other answers. Back then I thought: “What an asshole, I answered correctly.” This often happens when a question doesn’t have a clear answer, for example: “What’s the single biggest difference between Android and iOS?”

When I became an instructor myself, I also started asking the audience questions, to get them moving, to make the students’ brains work. And after a wrong answer, I started catching looks that said: “What an asshole, I answered correctly.” That situation was uncomfortable.

Years later I arrived at the concept of the “control answer.” A control answer is the answer the teacher expects to hear. For example, according to the lecture plan, after the question “What’s the difference between programming mobile apps and desktop apps,” you need to talk about energy saving, so the control answer is: “On mobile, you need to conserve battery charge, which means using hardware resources efficiently.” So when students talk about user-interface paradigms or the use of cloud services, I say: “Good idea, but the control answer is different,” and we continue the discussion.

The Thesis Comes to a Student Twice

2014-11-01T01:29:00+02:00

The thesis comes to a student twice. The first time is in the fall, in a light, euphoric form, inspiring and bright, bringing joy and hope for the better.

In May, the thesis comes to a student in a heavy form, binding them in cold terror, leaving no choice and pushing them into hopelessness.

A Course on iPhones and Clouds

2014-09-01T22:37:00+03:00

Happy Knowledge Day, by the way. This season I’ll be teaching two courses at KhNURE for the third time already:

Mobile Platform Programming.
Cloud Computing, Systems, and Networks.

In the first one we discuss the Objective-C language, Foundation, Cocoa Touch, interfaces, working with the network, databases, testing. 28 hours of lectures and consultations, 20 hours of labs.

In the second one we discuss Google App Engine and Amazon Web Services from a programmer’s point of view: Python, boto, webapp2, EC2, SDB, S3, ELB. 24 hours of lectures and consultations, 16 hours of labs.

For people who want to get acquainted with the subjects and start studying them — just what they need!

Link to the schedule: http://cist.kture.kharkov.ua. Admission is free.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

2014-09-01T17:31:00+03:00

In August 2014, a flash mob appeared on the internet whose goal was to raise donations to fight the still-incurable disease ALS, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The flash mob works according to the following algorithm: one person accepts a challenge (passes the baton) from one person, nominates the next three, makes a donation, and pours a bucket of cold water over themselves.

Here’s Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, accepting the challenge from the governor of California and passing it on to Bill Gates:

And here’s Bill Gates accepting Zuckerberg’s challenge:

This unconventional approach, of course, went viral. Videos of people dousing themselves with cold water are racking up tens of millions of views.

Sunday evening was quiet and gave no sign of trouble. But then the iPhone made the push-notification sound. I open Instagram, and theere, and theeeere...

Kristina, I gladly accept your challenge and want to pass it on to three good friends of mine: Dima Melnik, Taras Filatov, and Olga Sinelnikova. You have 24 hours to accept my challenge! :)

And a brief FAQ:

— Is this mandatory?
— No, it’s not mandatory; it’s all voluntary.

— Where do I send the money?
— You can send it to ALS (http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html), or to any other organization for any other cause.

— Does it have to be 10 or 100 dollars?
— Any amount will be welcome anywhere.

He Said “Let’s Go!” and Waved His Hand

2011-01-01T19:06:00+02:00

This year the whole world is marking the 50th anniversary of the first human flight into space. On April 12, 1961, Soviet citizen Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin made a flight into space aboard the Vostok-1 spacecraft—he orbited the Earth in 108 minutes.

A long time ago, I found one very beautiful speech by Yuri Gagarin on Red Square in Moscow. Please have a listen:

A transcript for unhurried, thoughtful reading and reflection:

Our people, through their genius and their heroic labor, created the Vostok spacecraft, wonderful in the world, and its very intelligent, very reliable equipment. From launch right up to landing, I had no doubt whatsoever about the successful outcome of the spaceflight. I would like to sincerely thank our scientists, engineers, technicians, and all the Soviet workers who created such a spacecraft, on which one can confidently grasp the mysteries of outer space.

Allow me also to thank all the comrades and the entire team that prepared me for the spaceflight. I am convinced that all my friends, the pilot-cosmonauts, are likewise ready at any time to make a flight around our planet. It can be said with confidence that we will fly on our Soviet spacecraft along more distant routes as well. I am immeasurably glad that my beloved Fatherland was the first in the world to make this flight, the first in the world to enter Space. The first airplane, the first satellite, the first spacecraft, and the first spaceflight—these are the stages of my Motherland’s great path toward mastering the mysteries of nature.

By decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the year of the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight has been declared the Year of Space in Russia. Based on the results of 2010, Russia retained its absolute lead in space launches—31 out of the 74 carried out worldwide.

Glory to Gagarin! Glory to the scientists, engineers, technicians, and all the workers! Everyone had and will have a place in the common feat.

Article about Yuri Gagarin on Wikipedia Speeches by Yuri Gagarin on Wikiquote

Do You Even Watch Where You’re Stepping?

2010-11-01T21:54:00+02:00

Hey, you! Yes, I’m talking to you! Do you even watch where you’re stepping? What did you just step on?

A manhole cover. An ordinary sewer manhole cover. And how many kinds of manhole covers can you name? Two? Three?

Today a colleague from Wikipedia tossed me a link to Wikisource, where another colleague of ours uploaded photographs of the sewer and utility manholes of our beloved city.

Seen one like this, for example? Pre-revolutionary spelling — this manhole cover was made before 1918, presumably in the late 19th century. If you see one like this, know this: that cover is older than your grandfathers and grandmothers. Maybe even your great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers. The inscription on the cover reads: Kharkiv Machine-Building Plant, owned by Nikolai Fyodorovich von Ditmar — an industrialist; he built factories and a railroad.

And here’s a more modern one. GOST 61. So this manhole cover is less than half a century old.

And here’s a lightweight model made of plastic (1980s–1990s).

And here’s an interesting manhole cover, but not a sewer one — a utility one. When you see the little spider, know this: it’s a telephone manhole.

Well, and this is a manhole cover made quite recently. Already in Ukraine, not in the USSR. Made of reinforced concrete.

All images are taken from Wikisource. Author: Vizu. You can view these and other manhole covers at the links: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Manhole_covers_in_Kharkov http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Telephone_covers_in_Kharkov

Full-resolution originals: Ditmar cover, Barvinkove cover, Plastic cover, Concrete telephone cover. Photos: Victor Vizu, CC BY-SA 3.0. Files reproduced unchanged.

A Little About Suffixes

2009-06-01T20:28:00+03:00

One of the regular sections in Spectrum is about new technical terms in English. Every month the author gives 20-30 neologisms that have entered everyday use in the English-speaking world, and in the Russian-speaking one too. I’ll list some of the ones published in the June issue of this magazine.

-ware is one of the most commonly used suffixes. Originally it was used in words such as software — software, and hardware — hardware. The following terms have also become classics: freeware — free software, shareware — shareware (you can try how it works before buying it), and vaporware — announced software that hasn’t yet made it to market. A lot of new words have been formed with this suffix. For example, abandonware — the company that wrote the code went bankrupt, beerware — a program that costs a can of beer for the programmer who developed it, careware — the programmer asks every user of such a program to do something useful or donate something to a charity fund, coasterware — discs with such programs are usually used as coasters, crimeware — programs that steal personal information, phishing programs, or other programs that break the law, heroinware — computer games that are very easy to get hooked on, ransomware — a program encrypts files and extorts money for decrypting them, retroware — a program two or three versions older than the latest version, slideware — an announced program that exists only as PowerPoint slides, terrorware — programs used by terrorists.

The suffix -free is used to indicate the absence or lack of something. For example, fat-free — something fat-free; calorie-free, cholesterol-free, salt-free, and even peanut-free are also known. Among the new ones: content-free — lots of words, but no meaning, fact-free — a scientific paper that is not based on real-world data, office-free — an employee who works from home and uses the internet to communicate with the office.

To denote some strong habit, we use the suffix -aholic (-holic, -oholic). The term alcoholic gave rise to workaholic, foodaholic, chocoholic. In the modern world, people use webaholic, twitterholic (by the way, you can follow me here http://www.twitter.com/obrizan), gameaholics, and even Warcraft-aholic.

Various other suffixes, as well as their use, can be read about in the June issue of Spectrum, published by the IEEE. And what neologisms do you run into?

Update: someone pointed out another important term: peopleware — personnel support, i.e., employees. There is a book of the same name: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams.

Working Students

2009-05-01T07:50:00+03:00

If a student is earning money but at the same time doesn’t show up at the university, then he doesn’t need higher education. He can safely switch to correspondence study or just take his documents and leave altogether. There can be no mercy for such people during exams from the instructor.

If a student is earning money, while still making it to classes and passing everything on his own, then he needs higher education, possibly in order to improve his qualifications and earn even more money. Such students command respect.

If a student works for 100 US dollars, and not even in his field, while skipping classes at the university, then he is simply a fool, because he could be getting an increased scholarship, and with it the necessary knowledge to earn a lot of money.

I know there is a percentage of students who have no parents, or whose parents are not able to provide substantial financial support. There is hardly anything we can do here, because the grades we give them for free will not help them. Such students need to help themselves.