Alex Stetsenko

As Google Play store makes developer email available to anyone, it is expected to get a lot of spam. Occasionally it is something related to Android ecosystem itself. For example, like one from Aptoide which caught my attention as it reminded me about my experience with MySQL Webinars unsubscribe.

The title of this post reflects the name of the Android game my friend and former ACDSee Online teammate released not too long ago. Since I was among beta-testers of the game I wanted to help out spreading the word about this great app.

Numbers Fisher is a free brain puzzle that allows you to check and train your observation and memory skills. The goal of the game is to find the numbers (or letters) in order from least to greatest as quickly as possible.

Number Fisher is available on Google Play as well as has its own Facebook page.

Last month I learned about great opportunity to write for PHPMaster.com and contacted their managing editor.
It worked out very well and a blog post I had in mind for while turned into a great article. 🙂

Any feedback is welcomed: Scheduling with Zend Job Queue.

Update 08/17/13: Internet Made in Atlanta is now Tech in ATL.

Few days ago I started a new project of mine: Internet Made in Atlanta.

It is merely content driven web-site to list internet companies of Atlanta which are recognized and appreciated by thousands of users and\or visitors monthly.

The idea to create this project was hanging in the air for a while until I discovered a similar project by NY Tech meetup team. So Internet Made in NYC finally triggered the start of my own project.

As of November, 1 there are only ten companies listed. However I am looking forward to many more submissions!

Let’s proudly show what’s made in Atlanta!

In this short note I simply want to second Joel Spolsky’s post on backups: Let’s stop talking about “backups”.

For instance many IT related people are comfortable enough knowing that necessary backups are done. However not many are concerned about restoring from the backup or actually tried the whole backup restore process. Nonetheless there is always something unexpected happens during restore…

Thus the right question to ask is not “are you doing backups?” but “can you restore your backup?” or “are you doing restores?” is even better.

The minimum bar for a reliable service is not that you have done a backup, but that you have done a restore. If you’re running a web service, you need to be able to show me that you can build a reasonably recent copy of the entire site, in a reasonable amount of time, on a new server or servers without ever accessing anything that was in the original data center. The bar is that you’ve done a restore.

Occasionally I like making paper airplanes but I knew how to create only three or four models. The reference below which I’ve found recently shows how to make 12 (!) different types of paper airplanes. Should be fun to try other models and see which one flies faster. 🙂 And which one is your favorite?

‘Professors don’t read books, they write them!’

This was a favorite phrase of one of my university professors. It has its own deep meaning but also always made me want to write a book. 🙂

Recently I’ve run into another somewhat similar quote, ‘Harvard undergraduates believe that inventing a job is better than finding a job.’ This one actually came from the movie Social Network.

I think both phrases kind of hint that it is important to step out of the box and look at something from a different angle. Why does not one create something new instead of saying something is not good or suitable for him/her?

On a side note another saying I like to refer is ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’, actually to its implication. It’s easy to grow when everything else is growing but it is even more important to understand how to survive a low-tide.

Recently I’ve decided to work further on my writing skills and volunteered to review Bradley Holt’s new book Scaling CouchDB. Especially since I am working on scaling MySQL and playing with MongoDB, I figured it would be a great opportunity to take a look at CouchDB too.

What’s in the book.

• Good introduction on what scaling is and how it is different from high availability
• Extensive overview of major scaling blocks like replication, load balancing and clustering including load testing guide using Tsung.
• Comprehensive examples which actually could work as a CouchDB reference\cookbook. However if there are no plans for detailed review or trying the code, sometimes one may feel like it is not much to read once examples are skipped.
• Great insight on how CouchDB works internally in certain cases. The book does not say ‘just do this’, it also explains how CouchDB processes certain commands internally.
• Valuable warning and recommendation notes as great addition to examples.

Conclusion.

The book is short and really informative reference on scaling CouchDB. Also it is still a good reading with respect to scaling topic for those who are not working with CouchDB but interested in peeking at NoSQL world.

P.S.: I would like to thank Bradley Holt for letting me review his new book and providing an ebook version before the paper one was even printed.

Honestly I was really skeptic while seeing many excited reviews about “Rework” here an there. It all looked like another wave of hype around Ruby on Rails creators. Until a good friend of mine presented me this book.

Although it was collecting dust on my desk for a while, I am finally among those who read this book. 🙂 A-a-and going to join the the group of amazed and ignited readers too.

First of all it is very easy to read this book. Once you have started, you will be turning one page after another without any thoughts to postpone reading. Part of the reason is that the book consists of really small chapters (2-5 pages) and it is always exciting what next chapter brings.

Second, the book is very well supported by examples of real people and companies. Many examples fit great into the book and in certain cases may be even more inspiring than the main story.

Also it is worth pointing out that “Rework” is not 100% unique content. Some things are already known well enough and even becoming mainstream approaches for doing business rather than being sort of unusual (although that does mean that all big companies follow them yet).

However the uniqueness of “Rework” is that all those valuable recommendations, stories and examples gathered in one book and work perfectly not only for inspiration but as a reference book too.

So in my opinion it’s a kind of ‘must read’ book basically for anyone.

In the end a few quotes from the book (in addition to the provocative ones on the back cover).

“A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby.”
“Teach and you’ll form a bond you just don’t get from traditional marketing tactics.”
“If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know.”
“Easy is a word that’s used to describe other people’s jobs.”