Cold War on Ice

Cold War on Ice is an excellent documentary about the USSR vs. Canada ice hockey Summit Series 1972 games.  I find it to be quite balanced, showing the perception from both sides, featuring the interviews with the same people back in the day and their take on it now, and plenty of great footage.

It’s a must see for any ice hockey fan and history nerd.

Why So Many Top Hackers Hail from Russia

Brian Krebs has an interesting post on “Why so many top hackers hail from Russia“:

Conventional wisdom says one reason so many hackers seem to hail from Russia and parts of the former Soviet Union is that these countries have traditionally placed a much greater emphasis than educational institutions in the West on teaching information technology in middle and high schools, and yet they lack a Silicon Valley-like pipeline to help talented IT experts channel their skills into high-paying jobs. This post explores the first part of that assumption by examining a breadth of open-source data.

Overall, not very surprising, but the details and references are interesting.  It seems a lot has changed since I graduated (back in 1995).

Via Slashdot, which also has some insightful comments.

Togliatti, Russia – home sweet home

I came across this awesome collection of photographs of my home town – Togliatti, Russia (June 2017).  By a lucky coincidence, even the house that I grew up until I moved to Cyprus got into one of the pictures.  It’s the building to the right of the tall building in the center-right of the above image.  Second floor, left window is the kitchen of the apartment where I spent almost 18 years.

The building in the center-bottom is the kindergarden, which I went to.  And the large building on the left is the school, where I studied for the first three years.

Things look quite different from how I remember them, cause it’s been years since I’ve been there (last time in 2006).  The neighborhood changed, memories faded, and the high altitude perspective is not how I’ve used to look at it.

Non-Electronic Document Management System

ITAR-TASS: MOSCOW, RUSSIA. SEPTEMBER 30, 2014. Russia's State Courier Service officials deliver documents for draft federal budgets for 2015, 2016, and 2017 which are to be delivered in the State Duma. (Photo ITAR-TASS/ Sergei Fadeichev) Россия. Москва. 30 сентября. Сотрудники Государственной фельдъегерской службы России во время доставки документов проекта закона "О федеральном бюджете на 2015 год и на плановый период 2016 и 2017 годов" в Государственную Думу РФ. Фото ИТАР-ТАСС/ Сергей Фадеичев
ITAR-TASS: MOSCOW, RUSSIA. SEPTEMBER 30, 2014. Russia’s State Courier Service officials deliver documents for draft federal budgets for 2015, 2016, and 2017 which are to be delivered in the State Duma. (Photo ITAR-TASS/ Sergei Fadeichev)
Россия. Москва. 30 сентября. Сотрудники Государственной фельдъегерской службы России во время доставки документов проекта закона “О федеральном бюджете на 2015 год и на плановый период 2016 и 2017 годов” в Государственную Думу РФ. Фото ИТАР-ТАСС/ Сергей Фадеичев

With all the hype around Electronic (or Digital) Document Management Systems, I thought I’d share this photo, from this article (in Russian).  Nanotechnology…