Month: August 2017

Here in the States, I’m dealing with a company’s ERP class software, written in Basic, developed in 1970. At least a thousand people use this software. My friends tell me that, first, this is a common thing; second, there are specific companies that specialize in supporting anything old; third, there are special products that emulate terminal operation in response to user actions in a pleasant graphical interface. That is, you move a slider, and somewhere it simulates pressing keys on a keyboard.

An interesting experience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Business_Basic

Friends, I am planning to buy an old Sony STR-DE945 receiver, cheap, for 30 bucks. Maybe, I’ll upgrade it someday. I plan to connect two Yamaha NS-70T speakers (70-140W, 6 Ohm) and a ProSub 800 subwoofer to it. I’m still “green” in the field of sound. The speakers and subwoofer were found independently, I haven’t bought the receiver yet. Are there any risks that all this together won’t work?

Timofey Shikolenkov, do you happen to know?

By the way, now sole proprietors (IP) need to set up an online cash register and issue a receipt even when receiving payments from individuals through a bank (meaning really someone went all the way to something like “Sberbank” and paid something to your IP business account). If the receipt is not issued at the moment the funds are credited to the account, this is also a violation and subject to a fine.

It’s amusing that this can be done sneakily by sending just three rubles. Such a trick would be a nasty surprise for the IP owner. There’s no good way out of it, only the “hope for the best” option, since registering an online cash register at the moment money is received is already too late, and in 99% of cases it’s pointless anyway.

“The Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service have decided: cash registers must be used in non-cash transactions with individuals. Previously, the positions of these agencies differed on this issue, but now everything is clear: an online cash register must be used even when a citizen makes a payment via bank transfer (including through a bank). Now any such payment (in your favor) requires issuing a cash register receipt. Failure to comply with this directive will result in fines. Confirmation: Letter from the Russian Federal Tax Service No. ED–3–20/4592@ dated 07.06.2017”

Read Andrey Movchan, it’s very interestingly presented on currency control.

Friends, is there anyone here from the management of the RBC hosting center? I want to hand over some money, but the support service seems like robots who need neither money nor clients. Tomorrow, I plan to switch if I don’t find a solution. Briefly, as I see it: presumably, the Hosting Center won’t allow payments with American cards or a U.S. Paypal account due to anti-fraud settings. The Hosting Center does accept cards not through pp (Paypal), and in both cases, they refer me to PP. It’s because the call center girl follows a script.

In this case, I see the mistake not so much in the refusal to accept American cards, but in the inability of the support staff to provide a clear answer. I just remember that I managed to make a payment last August, and there was a solution. Either it was removed (then just say so), or they are unaware of it (then kindly reply and refer to the second-line support).

Yandex knows something 🙂

You might be aware that Microsoft decided to remove the Windows Movie Maker from its free software offerings, and since January 2017, it hasn’t been possible to download and install it on Windows 10. Eventually, I installed it, but it took me several hours to find the offline installer package, as the online installer no longer works.

But Movie Maker is quite limited and lacks many basic features. For instance, you can’t insert a slide into the middle of an already created video such that the sound continues uninterrupted, not to mention picture-in-picture. I’ve tried several different free packages, and so far, I’m very pleased with the VSDC Video Editor. I’m promoting it just because it’s a decent product, with many professional features and seems to be completely free. Second place goes to OpenShot video editor. It’s much simpler but still better than WMM. http://www.openshot.org/

http://www.videosoftdev.com/ru/free-video-editor

To become a strong chess player, I started doing push-ups. Using the “Brazilian system” (c) Yeralash

I am conducting an experiment “make yourself play better”. For several weeks now, Liza and I have been playing chess daily, around 2-4 games. Our strengths are about equal, and I wanted to add some excitement to the process.

Rule №1. If I lose, I do five times more push-ups than the last time I lost. If I win, nothing happens, we just start a new game (or not). Thus, the number of push-ups increases at a certain pace, but always grows.

Rule №2. If I don’t have enough strength for the next set of push-ups, I can stop, rest, and continue, but for each stop, there’s a penalty of +5 push-ups.

Rule №3. After some N, when it’s evident that I won’t be able to do so many push-ups even with breaks (and this moment will inevitably come), the number of push-ups is halved, but now for each of my wins, it can be reduced by some agreed number. By that time, we’ll realize what’s needed to keep up the thrill, to make it sporty, interesting, and beneficial.

We started with 10 push-ups, now I’ve “played down” to 30 (meaning, I’ve lost 4 times), the reserve until N still seems decent, but losing is already “painful”). If I “blow” the next game, it will be 35. Liza’s motivation to win is clear – to count out loud 🙂

Actually, on the video – my penultimate defeat)

Here’s who climbed out from the ocean depths onto the beach with four eyes (the swordtail, the most ancient of known species today, by the way)

Interesting:

“…If you’ve ever had any kind of vaccination, your life may well owe thanks to the North American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). An extract from the blood of this creature—known as ‘limulus amoebocyte lysate’, or LAL—is used in the pharmaceutical industry to test drugs, vaccines, and medical devices such as artificial kidneys, to ensure they are free of dangerous microbes. No other test works as simply and reliably. The horseshoe crab lives on the seabed in shallow waters, which are often polluted. A liter of seawater from such an area can contain over a trillion toxic bacteria. The horseshoe crab has no immune system and cannot produce antibodies to fight infections. Instead, its blood contains a miracle ingredient that blocks invasive viruses and bacteria by clotting around them. It is this property that is utilized in the production of LAL. To determine whether something intended for medical use is contaminated or not, it just needs to be exposed to LAL: if it does not clot, then all is well. Unlike human blood, horseshoe crab blood does not contain hemoglobin, where iron is the oxygen-carrying agent; instead, it has hemocyanin, which uses copper, making their blood blue. It sells for $15,000 per liter.”

One of the winners of the World Chess Championship — Ian Aleksandrovich Nepomniachtchi. I feel very sorry for American journalists.

Cool service. You can search for sharks near your beach and know their names and where they are coming from)

http://www.ocearch.org/#Home