Month: April 2018

April 06 2018, 10:00

Just curious: are Russian public services like Mail.Ru or Yandex planning to support GDPR? From May 2018, the accountability for violating personal data processing rules will tighten for services that handle personal data of EU residents and citizens, regardless of location. Under GDPR, fines can reach 20 million euros (about 1.5 billion rubles) or 4% of the company’s annual global revenue. Essentially, large Russian services have two options: either tell EU citizens that they are no longer clients (which, probably, is painless, but must be done), or comply with the requirements. I think that public companies with ambitions should choose the latter. But somehow a search on the net shows no movements in this direction. Or am I searching poorly?

For example, under GDPR requirements, you must have the ability to download all the data that the service has accumulated about you. On Facebook, for instance, this has been possible for a long time (https://www.facebook.com/help/131112897028467). And on Google as well (https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout). And Microsoft (https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/activity-history)

Theoretically, Russian services might not comply with this at all, since they are not in the EU, but then existing and future EU customers must be left out. However, you can register on both Yandex and Mail with an American or European phone number from the US and Europe.

Many also make a show of compliance, which suits the EU. Like, they ask if I mind them using cookies, having already used them by that point 🙂 But what’s strange is I don’t see any effort from Russian services, from Telegram to Mail. Or am I searching poorly?

April 04 2018, 01:02

A bit of amateur futurology for the night. Recently, Arkady Moreynis was curious about the opinions of friends on what will replace books. He thinks books are slow media.

I believe that firstly, people will find a more information-dense language, both written and spoken, and all progressives will switch to it. A separation into a progressive minority and the rest, I think, is inevitable. Some future person might just need about 10 minutes with an “educational device” instead of a 500-page book.

Secondly, I think people will find a way to replace supercomputers with human brains trained from childhood to solve problems. Together with a supercomputer, it will be a powerful force. Likely, to cultivate the required profile of knowledge and skills, a helmet equipped with glasses will be worn on a child’s head, containing special software in which children spend their entire childhood. The glasses feed information into the brain, while the helmet collects feedback. Essentially, they are programmed for the rest of their lives, making maximum use of the time when the brain is malleable. It will be sad if this kills childhood, but I believe it is an inevitable fruit of progress.

Thirdly, I think that to deliver information from A to B, they will seek different communication channels and even use them simultaneously. For example, information in the form of “white noise” may penetrate through the eyes, carrying specific meanings to the people of the future. Introducing sensory channels as additional means could enrich the alternatives for information delivery.

April 02 2018, 17:09

Conducted an experiment. Gave away a 50-inch TV for free and tracked from which channels the “clients” came.

The TV is ancient, works poorly, overall, I barely used it. It was given to us by friends who hadn’t turned it on in years. It’s a Sony KF-50XBR800 projection TV. It weighs 50 kg, doesn’t fit in a sedan, and besides the fact it’s missing a remote (fixable), it has a significant RGB beam misalignment, causing a terribly blurry picture. Moreover, it needs a new lamp; the current one is weak. The TV is 15 (fifteen) years old. Basically, it’s junk.

Disposing of things here isn’t that simple. Well… that is, if the TV works, it won’t stay out on the street for long. There’s a practice here of leaving things under the open sky. But still, I decided to do a good deed and give it to someone who needs it more.

Posted the same ad in three places “No remote. Ghosting a bit” with a picture attached to this post. Ghosting is exactly the presence of a shadow next to the image, due to the above-mentioned issues. I deliberately didn’t describe all the details to gather more “applications”. Those who needed it would google and not write.

In the end, I gave it away in a day. During that time, I received:

– from craigslist – 3 emails and 5 calls

– from letgo – 15 messages.

– from Facebook Marketplace – 17 messages. Sold it to one of them.

Conclusion: Craigslist is not that great anymore. At least, in my experiment.

April 02 2018, 00:06

March compilation of interesting links on e-commerce and retail with a focus on development.

Hybris Deep Dive. Free e-book about microservices. Image similarity for filling attribution gaps. Deep learning in a nutshell. Product recommendation best practices. Examples of AI in retail and e-commerce. Better search. Checklist for improving e-commerce conversion.

https://hybrismart.com/2018/03/29/recommended-reading-for-e-commerce-gurus/

April 01 2018, 09:43

It might be a surprise for some friends from Russia, but 90 percent of Christians celebrate Easter today.

The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD decreed that all Christians should celebrate Easter, the Day of the Lord’s Resurrection, astronomically: on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the day of the spring equinox.

In 2018, the equinox (day equals night, 12 hours each) is on March 20.

The first full moon was on Saturday, March 31 (the same day that Jewish Passover begins).

Accordingly, today, on the first Sunday after March 31, Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Finns are celebrating Easter in 2018. According to the universal ecumenical rule.

However, the Orthodox calculate Easter based on the ancient and outdated Paschalion, which has long been mistaken in its astronomical dates. According to its tables, in 2018, the spring equinox supposedly falls on April 3 (which is March 21 in the Julian calendar), the first full moon (“Jewish Passover”) supposedly occurs the next day – April 4 (March 22 in the old style), and then Easter Sunday – the following Sunday, April 8 (March 26 in the Julian calendar).

Thus, the Orthodox will celebrate Easter next weekend, on April 8.

By the way, the week before Easter is marked by Palm Sunday – what in Russia is called “Pussy-Willow Sunday”. The palm was considered a sacred plant by the ancient Jews. But as palms don’t grow in Russia, willows are used instead 🙂 In Italy, olive trees are considered the symbol of the holiday. In France – rosemary.

Last year the dates coincided, and I didn’t find out. I just got curious; I am quite distant from all this.