Month: January 2026

Building a Plotter from Scratch: My DIY Journey | January 30 2026, 05:43

I assembled a plotter from a kit. It’s practically a Lego set – you spill out the parts from the box and then read the manual. It worked right away. I have some ideas about what to do with this thing, I’ll tell you sometime.

Decoding Naval Terms: From “Eskadrenny Minonosets” to “Destroyer” | January 28 2026, 21:57

It turns out that a destroyer is an abbreviation of “squadron mine carrier” and that in English these ships are called destroyers.

Navigating the Confusion of Ergative Verbs in English | January 27 2026, 00:52

In English, ergative verbs cause me significant cognitive confusion. These are verbs that can be used in both directions: written, people change can be translated as “people change” and “people change themselves”.

For example, on the screenshot right now “illustrator will install next”. Somehow not will be installed next.

Or the sentence “she photographs well” is understood as “she is photogenic”.

“The book sold 1mln copies”, obviously not about the book’s ability to sell.

Tesla Model Y Conquers the Winter Wonderland: A Snowy Road Test | January 26 2026, 03:50

We tested our Tesla Model Y on a winter road in weather that almost one hundred percent of people here consider “unflyable.” I’m serious, on the way back, at 8-9 PM, we encountered the first private car on a four-lane highway after 45 kilometers of travel. Meanwhile, snowplows appeared literally every two minutes.

A lot of snow had built up, and then it started to rain. After a few hours of parking in a snowbank at a friend’s house, the car was covered with an inch-thick layer of ice. We even got a bit stuck on the exit, but together we managed to push the car out of the “snow pit”. The most challenging part is the last mile on small paths, which the machinery doesn’t clean quickly enough. Now, I’m writing at 10:30 PM, and right outside my window a tractor is clearing the driveways, while in most places, this is usually the homeowners’ responsibility, and of course, everyone prefers to wait it out. Actually, we didn’t even make it to the friend’s house because the last 100 meters were just knee-deep snowdrifts, and even walking through them was difficult, let alone driving.

Very pleased with the Tesla’s behavior on snowy roads and maneuvering in snowdrifts. Here, nobody uses winter tires (the snowy season is very short), and everyone has “all-season” tires on their wheels.

On the highway, there’s a lot of snow removal equipment, and overall the highways are in pretty good condition – the driving is very predictable, with no skidding. But as soon as you try to turn off onto a smaller road, that’s where the test for the all-wheel drive and clearance starts. Again, no surprises at all – it passes like a tank wherever needed. 627 “horses”, dynamically distributed across four wheels, apparently helps.

Tesla Ends Lifetime Autopilot: Subscription Models Rise | January 24 2026, 19:27

Tesla has stopped selling the lifetime autopilot option for $8,000, leaving only a subscription for $100 a month. I never understood people who pay these $80,000 instead of sticking with the subscription, because the subscription only equals these $8,000 after 7.5 years (considering 3% inflation), when probably it’s time to switch to a new car anyway.

But it’s interesting how much Tesla has increased the attractiveness of cars with low mileage, which have FSD, but are sold significantly below the MSRP due to being used. In fact, if you’re buying a car and seriously intend to pay for FSD, purchasing a used one could save you thousands of dollars in ownership costs.

Jet Trails as Weather Predictors: A Phenomenon of High Altitude Humidity | January 24 2026, 02:34

Walking with Yuki, I see across the sky a very distinct and narrow streak clearly (apparently, an airplane had passed by), and usually a contrail disappears quite quickly, but today it is unusually sharp and long.

I started to investigate and it turns out this is a reliable indicator of changing weather, specifically the arrival of snow or rain: as we are actually expecting a sudden knee-deep snowfall tomorrow. In short: the airplane trail acts as an indicator of humidity at high altitudes.

Here’s how it works:

For a contrail not to evaporate but to start “smearing”, the air at an altitude of 8–10 kilometers must be very humid (saturated with moisture). If the air is dry, the ice crystals from the engine quickly turn into invisible vapor (sublimate). If the air is moist, the crystals have nowhere to evaporate. Instead, they start attracting extra moisture from the surrounding environment and grow. High humidity at high altitudes is a sure sign of an approaching warm atmospheric front.

A Decade Later: Snow, Survival Shopping, and American Winter Woes | January 23 2026, 15:56

Exactly ten years ago, on this day, my family tried to enter the USA, but it started snowing. The day after a plus 12°C

snowfall came and blocked all the roads.

And now it’s all happening again. Waiting for snow. Nadia just sent a message that there are three times more people in the grocery store than usual. Americans, when a possible zombie apocalypse approaches, stock up on food and ammunition. Ten years ago, the roads were cleared the next day, but schools, universities, and almost all offices remained closed for another week. Grocery stores opened fairly quickly (but not immediately)

To me, it’s just a typical winter

My Ambitious 2026 Plan: From Galapagos Travel to Academic Achievements and Creative Pursuits | January 20 2026, 04:44

My plan for 2026:

– Travel to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador for a week (summer)

– Finish and release a book on Information Retrieval (also summer, progressing slowly, first couple of chapters are already written. Already spent about 50-100 hours on this, the easy part)

– Release at least one scientific paper, probably on Data Mining (spring). Ideally, submit it somewhere to a journal (challenging). Already spent about 30 hours on this topic, a lot left to do.

– Make a step towards a PhD. Find professors, visit universities, understand the cost and assess my capabilities and resources.

– Continue studying fundamental mathematics and not die (linear algebra, calculus, probability theory, statistics, classical ML). In 2025, I spent about 200-400 hours on this topic.

– Continue studying Deep Learning and reach the “can teach” level. In 2025, I spent about 100-200 hours on this topic.

– Continue studying Data Mining/NLP.

– Update my book on RecSys, releasing version 2.0 with updates and corrections (autumn 2026)

– Make noticeable progress in painting and playing the piano. Specifically, learn Schubert’s serenade (Ständchen, D 889) completely and create at least one canvas that I wouldn’t be ashamed to give as a gift.