March 20 2018, 08:35

I pondered, why are felt boots considered traditional village attire if sheep farming wasn’t really developed in villages, and the process of handmade production is complex and expensive? I read up on it – turned out to be true. They became popular 150 years ago with the advent of industrialization, before that, they were worn by the “elite”.

March 19 2018, 19:49

An idea was born, I’ll record it here so it doesn’t get forgotten. It doesn’t really have a serious application, probably. Just for fun, as they say.

A camera (a regular phone will do) is mounted over any chess board. Then players play chess. And the phone films and – recognizes and records the moves. Later, the players receive an analysis of the game. Where the first bad move was made, what would have been a better move, etc.

The twist here is that it doesn’t really matter to the mobile app what kind of chess is being played. It doesn’t recognize the pieces. It compares “screenshots” of the board before and after the move, from which it understands what was moved. Since the initial setup is by definition fixed, the rest is just a matter of technique. Recognizing the pieces can be added as an additional mechanism – mainly it is enough to recognize the color of the piece, if at all bothering with it.

Technically, it’s quite simple. Theoretically, you could even do dynamic recalibration if, by accident, you moved the phone or a nearby elephant ran by and shook everything.

That’s the idea.

On the useful side, theoretically, such developments could be used in parking lots to monitor available spaces.

UPDATE: I’m not the first (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxlLuyTXVQI

March 18 2018, 21:00

New article on my blog about hybris: exporting/importing catalog-dependent data, cloning a catalog with all elements (products, components, slots, images, properties, etc.). It’s a fairly common problem, and it’s not solved very well “out of the box”. Here’s a solution consisting of a couple of simple groovy scripts. The solution requires neither the installation of any software on your computer (besides hybris), nor does it require any interference with your project’s code: everything is done via the groovy console.

https://hybrismart.com/2018/03/18/cloning-catalogs-export-and-import-whole-catalogs/

March 14 2018, 19:33

A follow-up on Hawking. I read one of his books and was very interested in the topics he worked on – black holes, the Big Bang, and the like. The guy is extremely cool and smart.

However, almost one hundred percent of the people who have heard his name are unable to understand the essence of the issues he dealt with, and what he contributed to physics. “Unable” means that even if they spend about fifteen years studying all the areas of physics and mathematics he touched upon, they will still have more questions than answers about the theory itself. And I am among them.

Secondly, almost everything Hawking is valued for, such as the theory of black hole radiation, is a mathematical model that provides answers to some questions but raises a million others, with no answers in sight. It would probably be more accurate to say that this is not exactly physics yet, but rather more like 21st-century philosophy multiplied by 21st-century mathematics. No practical application for these findings has been found yet, nor is likely to be.

A good example here is another scientist, Leonard Susskind, one of the creators of String Theory, the author of the holographic Universe concept, and many other highly intricate consciousness-expanding ideas. He is also quite a solid figure in science, quite close to Hawking in terms of coolness. Interestingly, he is regarded as Hawking’s most worthy opponent. Susskind managed to prove Hawking wrong, and then wrote a book about it. It was really a clash of the titans. Yet all that they have come up with is just mathematical abstraction, explaining one thing but due to its far from perfect nature, confusing another even more.

In general, the thought is that you can’t really tell where the boundary between science and philosophy lies in cosmology.

In general, the best way to understand how little you know, having virtually any level of knowledge in physics and mathematics –

is to delve into the details of the discoveries of Hawking and Susskind. I really hope to live to see the days when I can write that I have finally understood at least at the level of principles, to which I have no questions. But, I am sure, it will require the birth of a few more Hawkings and Susskinds to resolve the inconsistencies and to devise a simpler model that reconciles things with each other. Most likely, half of what they have come up with will be deemed incorrect, while the other half will be a major breakthrough and a basis for the next steps, which we are currently unable to appreciate.

UPDATE: related interesting topic https://cosmos.d3.ru/chto-to-ne-tak-s-sovremennoi-fizikoi-971821/?sorting=rating

March 12 2018, 11:50

Many years ago, I conceived the idea of a special office that one could visit, say, in Moscow, San Francisco, Washington, and New York simultaneously, and hold a fully immersive, well-equipped meeting: numerous high-quality cameras behind an interactive 4K mirror/screen displaying the video feed from cameras on the other side with minimal distortion, a shared whiteboard, clear sound, microphones for everyone, high-speed internet, Microsoft Surface, the ability to send documents via express mail right away, easy parking and access, 24/7 availability, catering. Companies could “book” such rooms for important negotiations. Theoretically, a network of such centers could be established over time. Interestingly, what’s stopping this concept from being implemented?