damn, and I used to find this convenient (and the laptop liked it too)
Nostalgic Business: Selling Websites on CDs in the Early 2000s | August 18 2026, 16:31
In the early 2000s, I had a “business” selling the internet at retail – on CDs. I would make agreements with content providers – websites like algolist, openbsd, and cooking recipes to place a “buy this site on CD” banner on every page, and in return I invested time in creating a static version with search functionality and recording it onto discs. Links from the pages led to .nadiske.ru, where there was a large order button and upsells from other projects, related and not. A percentage from each disc went to the content owner. Delivery was done by cash on delivery through the Russian Post (meaning, I sent the discs without prior payment), and I collected the money at the post office. The site effectively had two pages – a product list with checkboxes and an order form. However, there were as many sub-sites as there were partners – on each of them, the main product was listed first, and the rest were upsells. The idea was that since we’re already ordering, let’s get something else too”.
So, several interesting problems arose back then. How to match the money received with the orders posted? For each order, I dynamically formed a price – adding pennies so the price was unique. For the end customer, it made no difference whether they agreed to a price of 150 rubles or 150 rubles and 12 kopecks, but for me, it was convenient for matching. Together with the date, it was quite reliable.
The second problem was where to manage orders with statuses and the like. In the end, I chose Microsoft Access. It pulled XML with new orders from the website. I developed the whole system on Access in a couple of hours. It was ideal. By the way, has Access died out yet?
Interestingly, the top sellers were discs that I had produced just to expand the selection – Unixes and Linux. Understandably, there weren’t any links from partner websites to these, but they were bought as add-ons, and ultimately they topped the sales and were the easiest and cheapest to produce.
Also, I developed a search engine for the CD to search through this content. I don’t remember how, but back then it was possible to embed executable code in the browser that opened index.html from the disc. Either there were ASP inserts and DLLs, or something of that nature.
I closed the project when it became clear that decent internet would eventually reach the regions, and the demand for discs would someday wane. Plus, everything was heading in that direction. Additionally, the disks required updates, and it was a pity to invest more effort and time, especially considering the first point.
Walking with Yuki: Capturing the Sky | August 18 2026, 00:16
Walking with Yuki, filming the sky
Challenging the Limits of AI with ARC-AGI-3 Tests | August 17 2026, 04:51
Today I came across ARC-AGI-3 tests for AI models. That is, if you think that AI can do anything for you, consider that you have already earned a large part of the $850,000 prize fund – just submit your beautiful code, and let it be the best. But it doesn’t work that way. Humans handle 100% of tasks, while programs have not yet surpassed the 2.5-3% mark. What are those tasks?
The program is given not a textual task but a mini-game. There are no instructions or descriptions of the rules. At each step, the program receives a “frame” — a JSON object with the current state of the field. It is a grid of up to 64×64 cells, where the cells are encoded with numbers from 0 to 15 (representing different colors or types of blocks). The agent has a standardized interface (actions 1–7), including basic steps and the ability to specify specific coordinates (X, Y). But AI does not know beforehand what these actions do! In one task “Action 1” might shift a block to the right, in another repaint it, in a third turn on gravity. To understand the logic, AI must actively “poke with a stick” at the environment. It performs an experimental action, the environment reacts and returns a new frame. The agent must analyze the changes, update its theory about the physics of this particular world, and make the next deliberate step. The game can end with the status WIN, GAME_OVER, or continue further.
Again – humans score 100%, machines – 2-3%. You can try it at the ARC PRIZE website, there are sample tasks available.
Exploring Unpublished Social Sharing Previews: Solutions and Simulations | August 14 2026, 14:49
It’s interesting that there seem to be no tools available to check how Social Sharing Previews for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter work for a site that is not yet public. I can think of two solutions for this: simulating social network behavior and creating a page with stripped content but correct headers, which is opened to the public for a minute, then preview generation is performed through the actual tools of FB, LI, Twitter, conclusions are drawn on what to adjust, and the page disappears. The simulation could also be done, seems not too complicated.
Exploring the Booming Business of Pet Waste Removal Services | August 13 2026, 02:05
By the way, a car with the logo Pet Waste Removal periodically drives up to our neighbor’s place. It was a revelation to discover that in the USA there is an entire niche—special services that clean up lawns from dog poop so that little children can more safely run around the same lawn. There are dozens of such companies around me. I never imagined such a thing existed.
(But the funny thing is that the neighbor has a cat. And here my imagination really took a hit. I don’t know, maybe he just has a friend working there, but there are litter box services. They come once or twice a week, completely change the filler, disinfect the litter box, and take away the waste)
So, Pet Waste Removal is indeed a huge industry with a rich internal culture. They have their own professional association — aPaws (Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists), which holds an annual International Pooper Scooper Week” in April. Some franchises cost tens of thousands of dollars to join, and the market is estimated at hundreds of millions. The logic is simple: the average dog produces about 100 kg of waste per year, there are nearly 90 million dogs in the US, and most owners genuinely hate this part of dog ownership.
There’s even a surreal branch—PooPrints service. Residential complexes and HOAs require residents to submit their dogs’ DNA to a database, and when an “unidentified” pile is found on the lawn, it’s sent for genetic testing to identify the offending owner. Fines range from $150 to $500.
Our Yuki has never (or seems like once in five years) done his business in the yard. Well, never at home, even as a puppy, and never once made a puddle. So he, too, looks at all this with puzzlement. And in the US, dogs are let out through a door, they do their thing, run around— and back inside. Many dogs in the suburbs for years do not know what it’s like to walk on a leash in the usual sense familiar to us.
Understanding the Fear of Leaving Appliances On | August 13 2026, 00:51
I recently started wondering, why are we so afraid of leaving the gas or the iron on? I’m afraid too, but I’ve been thinking about why. Because look, nothing happens on its own – the gas would burn for a month, and the iron would heat the air for the same month and use electricity. Until what? The iron theoretically could burn out as its lifespan is exhausted. Then it would just switch off. It cannot explode or burst into open flames – irons are not like that anymore. Gas – what could happen with it? The flame won’t just blow out by itself. Draughts are not typical in our enclosed spaces, but even if they were, it would take a very strong gust of wind to completely extinguish the flame.
Gas burns, producing carbon dioxide and water vapor — that is if combustion is complete. Well, let’s assume it’s not complete, but in the worst case, a small amount of carbon monoxide will accumulate. That’s not good, but remember, we left the gas on at home and went out.
The only scary scenario is if we forgot a pot of soup on the stove, which theoretically could spill over and then there would be methane release and a potential explosion (Interestingly, in Europe many gas stoves are equipped with a thermocouple flame failure device and turn off the gas if there’s no heat (i.e., spillover). That’s not yet common practice here.)
The alarm here is not an irrational failure but a perfectly rational reaction to the risk structure: the probability is low, but the outcome could be catastrophic and irreversible (fire, explosion, risking lives in neighboring apartments). When the expected damage is enormous even with a low probability, it is evolutionarily and culturally advantageous to be overcautious. But technically (ideally) leaving the iron or gas on shouldn’t result in any mishaps for those hours until you remember about them. And we worry not about the iron that’s left on, but about not being able to check whether it was turned off. The brain honestly signals no data and the stakes are high” — and with the cost of checking it taking thirty seconds versus the cost of a mistake costing an apartment, this is a mathematically flawless alarm
Redefining Recruitment: AI Agents as the Future of Resumes | August 11 2026, 20:19
I have published a new article about how the interaction between companies and candidates for positions within these companies may look. The main thesis is that we’ve sat too long with these PDF resumes. It feels like a greeting from the last century. There is an interesting trend – essentially, interactive resumes in the form of AI agents for candidates and AI agents for companies, communicating with each other 24/7. Agents in the sense that celebrities and athletes have them. I was quite surprised that there is no movement in this direction, even though technologically, it seems, the required level has been reached.
Mapping the Minds of Search & RecSys: A Comprehensive Directory | August 10 2026, 03:56
84 researchers, 40+ laboratories — who’s who in Search & RecSys, all on one page.
https://www.testmysearch.com/who-is-who.html
Google, Meta, Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, CMU, UMass, UCSD, and others — for each person links to their website, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, key papers. Plus the h-index and number of citations from Semantic Scholar.
Made it for myself, because it’s more convenient to quickly see who publishes what. Couldn’t find anything ready-made — had to compile it myself. Seems useful, I hope not only to me.
Navigating Medical Titles: Why Dentists Aren’t Just Doctors | August 09 2026, 12:44
Interestingly, a dentist and a therapist are not covered by the same term ‘doctor’; that is, you would not say ‘doctor appointment’ for a dentist, but rather ‘dentist appointment’, and in various documents, it’s listed as ‘doctor or dentist’. They also hold different degrees (MD/DO and DDS/DMD). And of course, they have different insurances. Perhaps the reasons are historical – barbers used to deal with teeth, meaning they were distinct trades.
Adding to this are optometrists as yet another separate category, but this is understandable and justified.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 