Volodymyr Obrizan: personal website - 26

The Biggest Stupidity in Domestic Retail and Service

2018-07-26T08:54:00+03:00

The biggest stupidity in domestic retail and service is that everything starts working at 10:00. A couple of stores that managed to overcome themselves, step outside the box, do some work on themselves — they open at 9:00. But not a single store or service will open at 8:00.

Because of this, you can often see a line of people outside a store 15 minutes before it opens. The poor people came early so they could be the first to buy, because, like, it’s ten in the morning, and they still have to make it to work.

This is a clear sign of our provincialism — the inability to go and buy, say, a kettle at seven in the morning.

P. S. When it comes to getting something to eat, thank God, we’re fine: ATB is open 24/7.

School Starts December 2, 2016

2016-11-26T16:02:00+02:00

Starting December 2, I’ll give 11 lectures on advanced iOS development topics. Admission is free for students and staff of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics. Space is limited; registration is required.

Information and registration: http://mass.education

The shortcoming of existing programming courses for the Apple iOS operating system is that they teach the syntax of Objective-C or Swift, and small fragments of the Cocoa Touch library. These courses don’t teach how to solve real-world problems.

The mission of Obrizan’s IT School is to pass on practical experience in application development. Metaphorically, to build a bridge over the chasm between knowing a language’s syntax and solving practical problems.

The school is being held at the Department of Computer-Aided Design of Computer Engineering of Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, with the support of the head of the Department of CADCE, Svitlana Viktorivna Chumachenko, and the rector of KhNURE, Eduard Yefimovich Rubin.

Students Don’t Understand the Language

2016-01-26T22:13:00+02:00

As part of the student success trainings, I’m studying the reasons why students do poorly in their studies. One such reason, which isn’t obvious and which students don’t talk about, is that students don’t understand the language.

I’m not talking about Russian, which all our university lectures are given in. I’m talking about the specialized terminology used in lectures and lab work.

An example from personal experience. In cloud technologies labs, a lot of actions have to be done in the command line and the Python interpreter. When I ask them to add the path to Python in the environment variables, change the working directory, specify command-line arguments, then in a group of 20 students only one understands what I’m talking about. The others sit there staring at the monitor as if they’re seeing a computer for the first time in their lives.

Another example. Students may show a compilation error, and I can suggest a solution: "Implement such-and-such protocol method in this class."

Students hear it as: "blah blah blah method blah blah blah class," like the cat in the Whiskas commercial:

On the other hand, this turns into students being unable to give normal definitions of basic terms, and in one-on-one conversations and during lab defenses they use little words like: "thingamajig," "crap," "whatchamacallit," "thing," "well, you know, what’s-it-called," and so on. Obviously, without precise definitions at a lab defense, a student cannot expect an "excellent" grade. Some students end up dissatisfied: "But I did do it, I know it, I just couldn’t say it."

As a result, there is no dialogue at all. Students are ashamed to admit that they don’t understand; they don’t ask any follow-up questions, and the lab work doesn’t move forward.

And what happens in a lecture when a student runs into an unknown term? If a student doesn’t understand some term, then that lecture is over for them. They won’t understand anything after that. First, the context of the narrative is lost, and without context, information that isn’t connected to anything doesn’t stick. Second, the brain spends fuel and time trying to understand that term, to remember it; the student gets distracted and also loses the thread of the lecturer’s narrative.

Recommendations for instructors:

At the beginning of each lecture, spend a few minutes on definitions of the most important terms used in the lecture.
Strictly monitor the terminology students use in their speech.

Recommendations for students:

Work through professional terminology in advance.
Keep glossaries of terms; these glossaries should always be at hand so that, even in a lecture when time is short, you can quickly peek at them.
Don’t be shy about asking the instructor or classmates to clarify terms, if time allows. For example, in labs.
At home, independently work through the terms and the parts of the lecture that fell out of the narrative.
In oral and written speech, give precise definitions of concepts; get rid of abstract definitions: "crap," "thingamajig," "thing," and so on.

In 2000, at the first physics lecture, Anatoly Ivanovich Kozar said: "You don’t yet have anything to understand with." What he meant was precisely that before studying physics, you need to learn the terminology so that there is "something to understand with."

A New Profession: Student Success Coach

2015-11-26T23:34:00+02:00

Ladies and gentlemen, you are witnessing a great discovery in education. Yesterday I invented a new profession, became the first practicing professional in this profession, and today found my first client. This profession is student success coach. My last name will be written into pedagogy textbooks on the same page as Makarenko. This happens once every hundred years, and yesterday, November 25, 2015, a new cycle began.

I was a student for five years. I studied in graduate school for three years. I have been teaching for ten years. I have met student geniuses, bright, diamond-like ones. But I have met even more mediocre students and complete, outright zeros. I talked to everyone indiscriminately. I took an interest in their successes and failures, asked questions, reasoned.

About 1.5 thousand students study at the Faculty of Computer Engineering and Management of KhNURE. These are young people who are physically and mentally healthy. In terms of numbers, this could be a very large company of professionals that could move mountains.

But why isn’t this happening? Where are the hundreds of successful graduates inside companies, and not some soured jelly in a pot? None of that exists. Every student will find a reason why he, specifically, did not become an indigo student.

After ten years of reflection, I, Volodymyr Obrizan, assert that all your reasons that kept you from becoming a successful student at university are not worth a damn, and I can pick apart any reason, find a counterexample, and offer you a solution.

Five reasons is good, but you had better make the effort and come up with as many as 10 reasons why you are an unsuccessful student. Then I really will have to make an effort to offer you a plan for getting out of the dead end and paving the road to success.

I am already working with one student. If you think I should work with you as well, write to me at volodymyr.obrizan@gmail.com.

For 10 years I was getting smarter inside myself. The pendulum has swung the other way. It is time to shed light through learning and drive the darkness out of your life.

Books About Computers and Programming for Kids

2015-07-26T14:18:00+03:00

It was late evening in the early ’90s. My dad, as usual, was sitting in the corner of the room at the table that served as his workshop, and by the light of a desk lamp he was soldering a board. I peered over his shoulder and got interested: the board was big, and he wasn’t soldering ordinary transistors, resistors, and capacitors into it, but small rectangular black many-legged “bugs.”

— Dad, what are you soldering?
— It’s a computer, son.
— Are we going to have a computer?
— No, I’m soldering this for another uncle, and I’ll solder one for us later.

A week later I learned that some uncle had backed out of the computer. Thus, the legendary ZX Spectrum clone in the “Krasnodar 1” implementation appeared in our home. Or maybe “Krasnodar 2.” Or “Leningrad 1.” I don’t remember anymore. Anyway, the post isn’t about that, so I’ll write about the magical ’90s and the “Spectrum” when I turn 80, so please hang in there for another 50 years or so.

A personal computer appeared at home. The question of learning what it was and how to work with it suddenly became pressing. There was no internet yet back then. But the internet was quite successfully replaced by my mom, who worked at the bookstore on Ordzhonikidze Ave. It’s a pity the store has already been closed, and the avenue will soon be renamed. Anyway, the post isn’t about that, so I’ll write about the Ukrainian government’s policy of destroying culture when I turn 80, so please hang in there for another 50 years or so.

My experience of learning programming on my own from books began with a fiasco. I entered a program that asked my name and printed “Hello, Vova!” on the screen, and nothing happened. I was either 7 or 8, and I thought the computer would understand on its own when the program was ready and run it on its own. I sat there, looking at the code on the screen, but nothing happened. I had to reread the chapter once more to understand: you had to write the RUN command. I wrote the command, and the program worked. That was when I realized I would become a programmer. Anyway, the post isn’t about that, so I’ll write about the programs I wrote in school (hi, Kolya! Hi, Dima!) when I turn 80, so please hang in there for another 50 years or so.

I can no longer find that Basic book for kids itself, but I clearly remember that it was either Romanian or Latvian, and there was this flat character in it who looked like a squashed oval. If anyone remembers, please write in the comments.

It’s very important for a child to start reading the right books. If you slip them Bjarne Stroustrup, then of course the child won’t learn anything. His students can’t learn it, never mind an 8-year-old.

I’ve already written about the most important book about computers: “Meet the Computer”. Now let’s look at a couple more interesting old books.

The first is “Mastering the Microcomputer” (a two-volume set). The main characters are small robots who explain how a computer is organized and talk about programming.

A chapter about computer organization:

A chapter about the basics of programming:

Lots of pictures, everything explained in simple terms, and, well, lovely robots. What child doesn’t like robots? I also remember that in this book the version of Basic differed a bit from the version in the ZX Spectrum clone, so not all the programs worked for me. Alas, there was no one to explain the differences, so I simply read these programs and ran them in my head, trying to understand how they worked.

Another two-volume set is “The World of Computers in Questions and Answers.” It was written by a Japanese author and illustrated by Japanese artists, so everything is in an anime style. :)

A chapter about the programmer misunderstanding the assignment. I’ll run into that when I get older, but for now I just read it.

How adorable — the computer accepted the data, understood everything, and is smiling. So cute! :)

These books are very good, and despite the fact that decades have passed since they were published, I would still recommend that children read them. Unfortunately, they can no longer run all these programs from the books, because Basic is no longer popular, but they can still learn some basics of computer organization.

Recently, while browsing programming books on Balka Book, I saw an amazing book: “Programming for Kids. An Illustrated Guide to Scratch and Python”. Python! Python, Guido!

The book presents the basics of programming in modern language. And it’s all in colorful pictures, with characters, for kids. A chapter about arithmetic calculations:

A chapter about what loops are.

The examples use the so-called “turtle” — an imaginary animal that can be controlled with simple commands like “forward,” “turn,” and so on. Here’s what it looks like if you enter the instructions into a computer:

Besides teaching programming, the book also touches on other topics so that children understand where to go next.

The book’s drawback is that it costs 490 UAH ($22) — that’s more than half my salary as a senior lecturer on a 0.25 appointment at the university.

Thanks to the Mann, Ivanov and Ferber publishing house for translating and publishing such a useful book for children.

On Having One’s Own Opinion

2014-03-26T10:19:00+02:00

For some reason, many people mistakenly think they have their own opinion about what’s going on. Though it’s unclear where a person who watches nothing but TV could get an opinion of their own, one different from the opinion on TV.

It may, of course, seem that the person has generalized the facts, analyzed the reports, and drawn their own conclusion. But it only seems that way. Let’s consider an algebraic metaphor.

— Good afternoon, dear viewers! Today in our city there occurred a brazen 2y - x = 0. Eyewitnesses to the events reported that a car fled the crime scene, and behind its wheel was y + x = 6. The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case under the article "Solving Systems of Linear Algebraic Equations by Substitution," part 2, "committed by prior conspiracy by a group of two or more unknowns."

Our expert analyst, having compared all the facts from the TV, immediately concludes that y = 2 and x = 4, and is very proud of himself, because he has his own opinion! But from the outside it’s obvious that this opinion was programmed by the TV.

Oh, right — and there’s no need to tell me you don’t watch TV. The Internet is the same kind of TV; it’s just that the Internet has made it cheaper to program the audience’s opinion. Internet analysts have opinions from the “Everything for Three Hryvnias” store.

For a bright, unconventional personality with a deep inner world, admitting the absence of one’s own personal opinion means completely destroying one’s cheap reputation among one’s own kind.

Postcard Collection

2011-02-26T23:51:00+02:00

The rules are very simple. You have to come to any city. Buy stamps and a postcard with an image of that city. On the back, write under what circumstances you ended up in that city. Then put down your home address and drop the postcard in a mailbox.

Axiom. Postcards always arrive.

Countries and cities:

Armenia: Yerevan
Latvia: Riga
UAE: Dubai, Al Fujairah
Poland: Bielsko-Biała, Warsaw, Wieliczka, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Gliwice, Katowice, Kraków, Oświęcim, Przemyśl, Sopot, Tatras, Szczyrk
Russia: Saint Petersburg, Sochi, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod
Ukraine: Balaklava, Yevpatoria, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv, Myrhorod, Odesa, Sevastopol
France: Grenoble, Paris
Croatia: Dubrovnik
Montenegro: Budva, Kotor, Perast, Tivat

Ukrainian Patriots in Action

2011-02-26T11:35:00+02:00

Anna Herman reported on the workaday life of Ukrainian patriots:

“Three very nice women came to see me from Lviv. And they said, Ms. Anna, let’s talk it over, what are we going to do, since a very good Lviv woman, a patriot, has been arrested, and we need to think about how to help her.”

When A. HERMAN asked why this woman had been arrested, she was told, “she didn’t do anything like that, she was just issuing fake certificates when disability status was being processed, but she’s a patriot, she needs help. This is going to be political persecution, after all.”

“Two days ago, a BYuT deputy came to see me. If necessary, if the case goes to court, I’ll name him. And he says: ‘Ms. Anna, let’s talk it over, what to do. You know, there’s going to be political persecution.’ I ask, what happened? You see, my son worked at customs, he let contraband goods through, it’s in the computer, he was caught and may be arrested on Monday. This is political persecution, since I’m a Verkhovna Rada deputy from BYuT.”

http://www.unian.net/rus/news/news-423232.html

They didn’t do anything like that, they were simply committing criminally punishable offenses.

Where Should You Go to Study?

2009-06-26T08:54:00+03:00

They’ve already posted the admission rules for KhNURE. Many people may be asking themselves: “Where should I go to study?” I recommend choosing the Faculty of Computer Engineering and Control at KhNURE, and the corresponding field “computer engineering”. Besides common sense, the need for this specialty is confirmed by the largest state-funded quota for such specialists among the others at KhNURE: 110 state-funded places. For those who don’t get a state-funded place, there are still 190 contract places with tuition of only UAH 7,200 per year.

As proof of how interesting, unusual, fun, and just plain awesome it is to study with us, you can read a student’s review from someone who has just finished his first year.

If you’re a smart young man and want to learn a lot about computers — come to us!