March 28 2018, 09:10

Hmm. Coffee can still surprise. On the box – a recipe for making “a large thermos of one liter”: boil one and a half liters of water, add ten teaspoons of coffee with cardamom, boil for 3-4 minutes, turn off the heat and wait at least an hour, filter, reheat to a boil, add more cardamom

March 26 2018, 01:00

I am sharing my experience in developing a screenshot testing system for a large website. There are hundreds of pages, in different languages and domains, containing a final set of functional components (like news or banners). All this was managed by a network of distributed administrators, who were not easy to control, as Hybris is not great with auditing, plus people make mistakes. Controlling the changes of these pages was crucial because at the crucial moment the website is launched, and it is essential to be sure everything is under control. This solution helped to identify problems earlier than the client found them or before they started to have consequences.

Although all of this was implemented on Hybris and in Java, the approach is not tied to any specific technology.

March 23 2018, 16:05

And why don’t manufacturers create Wikipedia pages for their products? For instance, there are headphones lying next to me – why can’t I find them on Wikipedia? Does anybody know? Does it really not help manufacturers to sell? This applies to almost all products. As a good example, I’ll mention Yamaha – but that’s only because I stumbled upon it there. Many products have their own page. Everything is systematic. Here, for instance, is my instrument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_P-120

And everything else around me is missing.

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

March 23 2018, 11:54

Here’s some more music for your Friday. A wonderful jazz album (although it seems there is nothing jazzy about it) and a suite for a variety orchestra. Starting at 33:24, there is a waltz that became the theme in Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDSeqqEN9Rg Here’s something to read for those interested, the whole history with these jazz albums is quite murky http://www.cogita.ru/a.n.-alekseev/andrei-alekseev-1/o-abvalse-no-2bb-d-shostakovicha-i-ne-tolko

March 23 2018, 11:14

I adore playing Tiersen – 80% of his repertoire seems fairly easy for my level, but it actually isn’t, and that slightly infuriates me (which adds an interesting twist to the practice). Tiersen’s pieces are structurally quite similar – a fragment is repeated with slight changes, and technically, they are somewhat like studies that require getting your fingers accustomed because they tend to grow a bit tired over time. There are many places where rhythm and dynamics are crucial and it’s easy to make mistakes. Overall, I’d recommend it to beginners)

Link to the post – a collection of simple pieces performed by

daigoro789. He has a bunch of tracks for sale on Amazon under this name, quite unassuming) The first five are from “Amelie”, the others are from the film “Good Bye Lenin!” and the last one is also from Amelie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkpS7rgk5o