Today I learned that Larry Ellison's girlfriend was born in former USSR and grew up in Ukraine.
https://starsinformer.com/nikita-kahn/
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Real Name: Iryna Osipova
Date of Birth: Year - 1991
College/University: Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, Kiev, Ukraine
~~~~


Larry not only hired a lot of his developers from xUSSR, but he found a girlfriend from xUSSR too.

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/178718.html

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https://boingboing.net/2016/02/12/nigerian-astronaut-lost-in-spa.html
He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

In the 14-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000 American Dollars.
~~~~~~~~~~

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/178599.html

I just realized that I learned English concept "resentment" -- independently from Russian concept "обида".
Until today I was not able to translate "resentment" to "обида" or translate "обида" to "resentment".

Were you able to translate "resentment" and "обида" to each other?

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/178335.html

Our geocoding loop detector -- found Google Maps bug.

Google Maps search for "quweisna,menofia governorate,egypt"
points to "quwaysna,menofia governorate,egypt".

Searching for "quwaysna,menofia governorate,egypt" points back to "quweisna,menofia governorate,egypt".

Quwaysna is about 1 mile away from Queisna:


Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/178005.html

Vicky: I've just been thrown up on.
Lizzy was in the car and threw up on me.
Dennis: What would you prefer -- throw up yourself or being thrown up on?
Vicky: ... [unsure] Being thrown up on ... [tears in the eyes].
Dennis: Does it make you feel better?
Vicky: ... [leaving the conversation].

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/177755.html

We use 2 geocoding providers: Mapbox (primary) and Google Maps (as a backup when Mapbox produces weird results).

Using 2 geocoding providers, occasionally, causes weird data collisions.
For example:
Mapbox API geocodes "north beach, MD,20714" as "west beach, MD,20714", but Google Maps API geocodes "west beach, MD,20714" as "north beach, MD,20714".
That, effectively, forms geocoding loop:
~~~~~~~
west beach, MD,20714
north beach, MD,20714
west beach, MD,20714
north beach, MD,20714
west beach, MD,20714
...
~~~~~~~

This geocoding loop may cause infinite redirect between job list web pages:
-----
"West beach" jobs page redirects to "North beach" jobs page.
"North beach" jobs page redirects to "West beach" jobs page.
...
-----

Yesterday we launched Geocoding loop detection code, and found over 50 geocoding loops in our 901,016 records GeocodedLocation table.

Some other geocoding loops examples:
=======
san francisco,ca,94105 <-> south beach,ca,94105
northeast washington,dc,20018 <-> washington,dc,20018
miami,fl,33132 <-> downtown,fl,33132
far rockaway,ny,11691 <-> queens,ny,11691

kankan,guinea <-> kankan region,guinea
amhara,ethiopia <-> amhara region,ethiopia
jigawa,nigeria <-> jigawa state,nigeria
manzini district,swaziland <-> manzini,swaziland
=======

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/177629.html

Вот еще один мой "ровесник" (дожил до 44 лет).
~~~~~~~~~~~
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Паукер,_Карл_Викторович
руководящий сотрудник советских спецслужб; начальник охраны Сталина.
...
20 декабря 1936 г.:
Сталин дал торжественный обед для узкого круга руководитилей НКВД в связи с годовщиной основания органов безопасности… Когда все основательно напились, Паукер на потеху Сталину стал изображать, как вёл себя Зиновьев, когда его тащили на казнь. Два офицера НКВД исполняли роль надзирателей, а Паукер играл Зиновьева. Он упирался, повисал на руках у офицеров, стонал и гримасничал, затем упал на колени и, хватая офицеров за сапоги, выкрикивал: «Ради Бога, товарищи, позовите Иосифа Виссарионовича!» Сталин громко хохотал…

Сталин ценил Паукера и даже подарил ему два автомобиля — «кадиллак» и «линкольн».
...
15 апреля 1937 был исключён из партии и уволен из НКВД, а 19 апреля арестован по обвинению в подготовке покушения на И. В. Сталина. Военной коллегией Верховного Суда СССР 14 августа 1937 года приговорён к смертной казни. В тот же день был расстрелян на полигоне «Коммунарка» Московской области.

Реабилитирован не был.
~~~~~~~~~~~

И еще о карме.

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/177153.html

Google Ads team from Gurugram, New Delhi, India keep calling me.

I have $57/day spending limit on my Google ads account. Apparently, that budget is an attractive target for them.
Currently my Google Ads account spends ~$53/week (13% of budget limit).
So this Google Ads Gurugram telemarketing crew asks me to setup various experiments in order to trick me to spend more.

Gurugram crew does not care about my business (job boards) and talks about hypothetical example of selling shoes.

Gurugram crew does not care about my goal to keep CPA (cost per action/acquisition) low. They just go through their script again and again ("try ad extensions, then try more search keywords, then try display ad campaign").

I asked Akansha(?) -- a "supervisor" on that Google Ads Gurugram crew about their team success metrics.
She refused to tell me what goals their team is trying to accomplish and how her superiors evaluate the quality of her work.
Here's the end part of our conversation:
~~~~~~~~
Dennis: ... I am not asking about how it [sitelink ad extension] works. I know how it works.
My question is how it is important for your team success metric. What, specifically, will it improve?

Akansha: I'm sorry, you are asking how it would be successful for me. I'm sorry, Dennis, it's not going to be successful for me, it's gonna be successful for you. Not for me.
And I am not running this Google Ads account. You are running this Google Ads account. You are spending a huge amount. So 50 dollars a day on one campaign, another campaign 7 dollars a day. 57 dollars a day you are spending [here Akansha confused "actual spending" vs "daily spending limit"] each day on your Google Ads account.
I've been assigned ...
I am not doing anything for my success -- I am already successful. I do not need success through your Google Ads account. So, thank you so much for asking this question, but I think it is irrelevant a little bit for me to answer that, because it's not going to be successful for me."

Dennis: You are saying your own success is irrelevant for you?

Akansha: How would it be successful for me if you add Google Site extension link to your Google Ads account?

Dennis: I don't know. That's exactly my question: why are you asking me to do this [add sitelink] if it is not going to make you successful?

Akansha: It's not going to... I am already successful like I said. I am the supervisor. I am already successful. Thank you so much for your question.

Dennis: Why are you asking to do it if it does not make you successful?

Akansha: [Interrupts] ... I'm not asking you to do it forcefully. I am asking you ... in fact, I'm not even ask you. I just said that this extension is going to help you.
I am not saying I will be successful by adding this.
I am sorry, Dennis, I think the question was really irrelevant. I think I should be hanging up now, because this is something that is related to my profession. And I cannot be ... I should not be answerable to you regarding my profession "how it is going to be successful for me".
It's not going to be successful for me.
I was helping my colleague Jebron. He said that you require a supervisor.

Dennis: No, I did not. So he lied then.
I did not say that I require a supervisor. He said that he wants to invite supervisor. And asked me if I want to. I did not say that I need supervisor.

Akansha: No issues. Even if he did not say that -- I still was here to help you.
But if you are asking questions about my profession, I am very sorry, I am restricted to that. I am not going to share that information.

Dennis: OK.

Akansha: Thank you so much for your time and I wish you the lovely day ahead.
~~~~~~~~

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/177058.html

I just spent 4 hours on the phone talking with a scammer.

He started with telling me his fake business story: petroleum drilling operations and hiring security guards to protect these drilling operations.
He explained that they are only hiring Americans, even for work overseas, because he is a big American patriot.

Then he told me his life story (he's 69 now), and, eventually, his true business story.

He sells background checks to "security guard" job seekers for $198 per report.

He promises to job seekers that these background checks go directly to the prospective employer that may hire them for $71,000 - $100,000 per year (too good to be true).

He ran his "Internet business" for about 20 years and changes about 20-30 identities (personal names, corporations, bank accounts, websites) over these years.

He likes President Trump, because Trump is selling hope and is successful at that.
His business somewhat declined since Trump become a President, because more people have jobs now, so the demand for hope is not as high.
His business at the times when "Black President" was at power was more successful (thanks to high unemployment) and he sometimes was making more than $1,000 per day.

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/176785.html

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https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-signs-that-you-have-become-a-better-software-engineer/answer/Ben-Podgursky
When you start out, you’re confident “bah, any decent answer on StackOverflow has at least 1,000 upvotes”
.....
A few months in, you realize that mostly only the the “help how i code” questions have thousands of upvotes. There are tons of useful answers in the hundreds range
.....
Until you finally become a “senior” engineer. You try to drag one last sip from the StackOverflow Slurpee, and you get nothing but ice and disappointment
~~~~~

Originally posted at: https://dennisgorelik.dreamwidth.org/176624.html