Personal
I added two confluences to my list. Victor and I spent three days in the beginning of September in Northern Ontario and we logged two successful visits. You may read the full trip reports 50 N 85 W and 49 N 83 W. We are planning more confluence visits, some of them may involve quite a bit of snowshoeing.
On unrelated note, I'm starting to worry about future of some filesystems. Companies behind two brilliant filesystems - XFS and ReiserFS are going through hard times now. Hans Reiser - founder of Namesys and creator of namesake filesystem is arrested on suspicion of murder. SGI - sponsor of XFS - filed for bankruptcy.
Unfortunately, there is not much going in filesystem world lately. Subject area is actually extremely complex and very conservative (it is your data at stake after all). Microsoft took WinFS out of Vista and the only notable advancement I can think of is ZFS by Sun - not exactly new but it is getting a lot of traction lately.
One of the most interesting reads lately were answers of several famous programmers to a Polish student's questions, published on student's blog. Torvalds, Stroustrup, Norvig, Bray, Gosling and others share their thoughts on next big things, best books, most useful skills forprogrammers, and many other topics.
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Submitted by frolov on Sun, 2006-10-15 22:03.
ПоздравлÑ?ÑŽ вÑ?ех Ñ? Ð?овым Годом! ПуÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ 2006 год будет удачным и Ñ?чаÑ?тливым.
Конец 2005 года неожиданно Ñ?тал длÑ? менÑ? Ñ‚Ñ?желым и Ñ?корбным. Ð?о Ñ? Ñ?тараюÑ?ÑŒ быть оптимиÑ?том и возлагаю большие надежды на грÑ?дущий год.
Так получалоÑ?ÑŒ, что в Ñ?вой блог на английÑ?ком Ñ? пиÑ?ал очень редко, в руÑ?Ñ?кий - еще реже. Я подумываю над тем, чтобы завеÑ?ти Ñ?вой руÑ?Ñ?кий блог на livejournal.com - Ñ?иÑ?тема пользователей и друзей гораздо лучше приÑ?поÑ?облена длÑ? общениÑ?, чем отдельно взÑ?тый блог.
Мне очень понравилаÑ?ÑŒ легенда индейцев чероки, которую мой друг Виктор опубликовал на Ñ?воем Ñ?айте:
Старик раÑ?Ñ?казывал о жизни Ñ?воим внукам и Ñ?казал им: "Внутри менÑ? проиÑ?ходит поÑ?тоÑ?ннаÑ? борьба. ЖеÑ?токаÑ? Ñ?хватка между двумÑ? волками. Один волк олицетворÑ?ет Ñ?обой Ñ?трах, ненавиÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, гнев, завиÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, груÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, Ñ?ожаление, жадноÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, заноÑ?чивоÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, жалоÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ к Ñ?ебе, вину, обиду, жажду влаÑ?ти, ложь и гордыню. Другой волк - Ñ?то веÑ?елие, мир, любовь, надежда, добродетель, Ñ?покойÑ?твие, Ñ?кромноÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, доброжелательноÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, дружба, Ñ?очуÑ?твие, щедроÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, правдивоÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ, Ñ?оÑ?традание и вера. Борьба между Ñ?тими волками проиÑ?ходит и внутри ваÑ? и внутри любого человека."
Дети задумалиÑ?ÑŒ над Ñ?ловами Ñ?тарика и один из них Ñ?проÑ?ил:
"Дедушка, и какой же волк победит?", на что Ñ?тарец ответил: "Тот, которого Ñ? буду кормить".
Еще раз - Ñ? Ð?овым Годом!
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Submitted by frolov_ru on Sat, 2005-12-31 14:58.
I wish my readers all the best in the upcoming year.
So it happened that Russians do not celebrate Christmas that much, so New Year is THE main holiday of the year.
The end of this year was not easy for me for various reasons. However I have high hopes for 2006. Many things are to be done.
I'll quote here an old cherokee legend that I stole from the site of my friend Victor. I liked it very much.
An elder was teaching his grandchildren about life and he said to them: "A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf represent fear, hate, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, superiority, lies and pride. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other human."
The children thought about the elder's words and then one child asked: "Grandfather, which wolf will win?" The elder simply replied:
...
"The one I feed."
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Submitted by frolov on Sat, 2005-12-31 14:54.
Sometimes I find myself in an analysis paralysis situation. In short words: analysis paralysis is a state of mind when you spend too much time weighing all pros and cons of many alternatives instead of moving forward.
The problem gets worse in modern world where abundnace of choice dominates. It gets especially worse in the hight-tech domains. It becomes a total nightmare if you are an expert in alternatives under question (or so you think).
I always forcefully break myself out of this situation (OK, not always, but I try my best). Otherwise you get obsessed with some stupid choice and here lies the way to stress, time-wasting, procrastination and burnout. If you find yourself in that situation, here are some ways to stop it:
- Flipping the coin. The simplest and dumbest way to make a choice. I almost never do that. However, if choice is not very important, or further procrastination will cost you more than price of a wrong choice and other ways did not work out, that is the way to go.
- Visual impression. Or audial, or tactile, or even smell. Listen to your senses. For example, if you stuck between several gadgets that do pretty much the same, and features are more or less on par, try to choose the one that ... looks cooler, impresses you more, feels better in hand. That works especially well if alternatves differ only in features you do not really need or care about. You probably can live with a mobile handset that does not have ringtone DJ application, but you would certainly want a handset that looks and feels just right.
- Killer feature If this is not going to give you the winner right away, it will at least narrow down your alternatives. If you absolutely need one feature (or ability, or property), analyze only those alternatives that have it. Even if you cannot name that feature now, think about features you will need in near future.
- Pick up the leader. Very pragmatic strategy, it gets even more pragmatic in high-tech area. If you have to choose a table you do not care if it is not like any other table in your neighbourhood. In fact you do not want your table to be "standard, average table" (especially if you are a woman). Table (or dress, or curtains, whatnot) is dead simple stuff, it just exists and works. Not so with high-technology products or any other products of non-trivial complexity. Aftermarket customization, third-party add-ons are usually available for market leading stuff. You are more likely to get occasional techinical support from your friend if she has the same device or software. If you are in the market where there is no proven leader, choose gadget/software/technology with bigger community around it.
- Orientation on brand. I do not really like that one because it may be really misleading. However if differences between products are not very tangible, that is very popular strategy. More often than not people use that strategy in CMFG (consumer/medical/food goods). That's why CMFG companies were able to build such strong brands (Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble): once you are king of a mountain, your brand is more or less self-sustaining. Brand owner just needs to infuse much less marketing effort than follow-uppers.
-- AF
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Submitted by frolov on Sun, 2005-07-17 21:45.
This year is five years from my graduation from Moscow State Universiity and ten years from my graduation from Moscow State University Kolmogorov School. It is so sad I could not make it to both alumni meetings this year, Canada is just too far away from Russia.
My university and school mates. If you are reading this, I encourage you to stay in touch with me and each other. Recently, I started using LinkedIn to keep track of my past and present friends and colleagues. Join LinkedIn and connect to me, or just drop me a note with your e-mail and/or home site URL!
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Submitted by frolov on Tue, 2005-07-05 22:39.
I am back from a great vacation that I spent in my native city. During vacation, I managed to visit yet another confluence 53N, 39 E (report on confluence.org).
I was rather busy all days before vacation, so June was not a good month in terms of blog entries. I spent my vacation without Internet, so I had to spend almost the whole week to catch up on my work, work e-mail and bloglines roll.
Klocwork is going to release seventh version of its products soon, so I'll be pretty busy, though I'll try to find some time and energy for more posts.
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Submitted by frolov on Thu, 2005-06-30 18:29.
СоотечеÑ?твенники.
ПоздравлÑ?ÑŽ ВаÑ? Ñ? 60-летием Победы.
Так много политиков пытаютÑ?Ñ? интерпретировать результаты Второй Мировой Войны в Ñ?воих грÑ?зных интереÑ?ах.
Ðто так мелко и ничтожно по Ñ?равнению Ñ? Подвигом.
ВечнаÑ? памÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ героÑ?м.
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Submitted by frolov_ru on Sun, 2005-05-08 23:28.
Today, on the 9th of May, Russia celebrates 60th anniversary of Victory Day.
There are so many hot debates and speculation around very complicated history of World War II. So many politicians try to interpret its results in a way that suits their dirty goals.
This is so worthless and trifling compared to Heroic Feat.
May heroes' memory live on forever.
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Submitted by frolov on Sun, 2005-05-08 23:10.
