I will be speaking in MSU (Moscow State University) tomorrow, saying something very stupid about Artificial Intelligence. If you want to attent, just send me your name today until 6pm, I have to add it to the list of attendees. The event is free, I'm not sure about food and/or drinks though.

9-го декабря в 18:00 в Москве попробую закрыть конференцию ProductFest докладом о том, как правильно демотивировать инженеров программистов, чтобы они увольнялись и теряли всякий интерес к профессии. Будут предложены как новейшие так и проверенные временем методики. Доклад будет доступен в видео версии через несколько недель после конференции.

I was speaking in Moscow State University two days ago, about Artificial Intelligence. I was trying to explain what it is and whether it's applicable to software development processes. Watch it (40 minutes).

There is a Russian version of my talk about Artificial Intelligence, at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Смотрите (54 минут).

Hey, a new Sunday Twitter poll. The result of the it will illustrate the blog post I published recently: Revolutionary Evolution. Please, vote before reading the article.

We still have 13 seats left at our Object Thinking meetup in three weeks in Moscow. You still have a chance to join. It's free. Dinner and drinks included. Two speakers: Sergey Kapralov and me.

When you review a pull/merge request from someone, do you check out the branch and run the build? I usually don’t, but some people do. Their obvious reason is: running a build, or even testing the product manually, helps find more important errors. Just looking at the source code may not reveal all visual defects recently introduced to the HTML/CSS, for example. It’s better to check out the branch, start Apache, open the site in Chrome, and see what’s broken. Then, make a screenshot, attach it to the pull request, and return it back to the author. But I disagree with this, and here is why. Here is a new blog post about this: Does Code Review Involve Testing?

Don't forget, there will be a live webinar today, in about two hours. We will talk about static literals in object-oriented programming. Should take about 45-50 minutes and you will be able to ask questions in a live chat.

A new episode no.42 of Shift-M podcast was published just a few minutes ago, this time a talk with Venkat Subramaniam, who you most probably know. He is famous software expert, a regular speaker at software conferences, a book writer, and a software architect/programmer. You may want to listen to our one-hour conversation.

Let me remind you that I'm still hiring full-time Java developers to join my team in Moscow. If you are great in OOP design and Java coding, you absolutely must text me to @yegor256, we will discuss. The detailed offer is here.

Hey, a new Sunday Twitter poll for you. Please, vote honestly and then read this blog post: Microvesting.

Только что в Киеве в кафе Царское Село. Приносят мне меню на украинском языке. Я плохо понимаю и спрашиваю, а нет ли меню на русском? "Нет," — отвечает официантка, — "на русском нет, но есть на английском, принести?" Спрашиваю, а почему нет на русском, у вас что, больше посетителей англоговорящих, чем русскоговорящих? Она отвечает, без тени улыбки и сомнения: "Клиентам-националистам может не понравиться, что у нас есть меню на русском." Вот поэтому я и не живу в Украине. #политика

A journalist from Cointelegraph asked me last week what I thought about cryptocurrency situation in Russia. I gave an answer and they published it ... taking the most interesting part out. This is the full version:

There is no official status of Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) in Russia at the moment. This literally means that the government has nothing against anyone selling, buying, or exchanging any crypto money. However, if you try to convert your $100 to a few crypto coins, you will have to answer a very important security question: how can you trust the person or the company that is taking your cash and promises to send Bitcoins to your digital address? What happens if you pay them and they disappear? Will Russian police be able to help you, if the business of crypto trading is not regulated anyhow? This is the first problem we have to deal with: people lose money when trying to buy or sell crypto coins. LocalBitcoins.com and BestChange.com are two online marketplaces that are trying to regulate the market now and filter out fraud. Large banks also make attempts by blocking suspicious transactions. However, this is far from sufficient. The market definitely needs certain regulatory in order to protect honest buyers and sellers of crypto assets.

The second problem is the nature of crypto transactions: most of them happen between people committing certain crimes. This can either be illegal drugs, weapons, bribery, ransom money and so on. When you find out, God forbid, that your daughter is using methamphetamine, your first question will be: where did she buy it? If the answer will be "I bought it online and paid for it with Bitcoins," you will demand the police to do something about this new and very dangerous cryptomarket. However, the very idea of crypto money is that they can't and mustn't be regulated. What can the Russian government do in order to protect its citizens against illegal drugs, which are sold at the moment solely via Bitcoins? In my opinion, the prohibition won't help, just like it has never helped to minimize alcohol usage and doesn't help now with drugs. There have to be other mechanisms, which are based on education.

The video of my keynote speech at QAFest in Kyiv, Ukraine was published on YouTube just yesterday. You may want to watch it in order to understand what I think about QA and Testing and why they are two very different things.

A new Sunday Twitter poll for you, this time about project architect and the power they have. Please vote and then read this blog post: Convince Me!

I was interviewing one programmer yesterday and asked him, whether he's made any open source products. The answer was: "I've got a child and a wife."

A new post on my blog, just published: Altruism Kills!

Don't forget about Object Thinkig meetup today in Moscow. If you haven't registered yet, you can do it now (most probably you will join the waiting list, but still). If you've registered before but can't attend, please update your RSVP (unregister, to let someone else to join). See all of you tonight!

Good news, Object Thinking meetup will be streamed today (it will be all in Russian), here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BULsJ3MswJc

Hey, if you want to present your object-oriented ideas OR your open source project, which is designed with object-oriented ideas in mind, at our Object Thinking meetup in Moscow, shoot me a message at @yegor256. It doesn't matter where you live, we will pay for the travel to Moscow and for your stay in a hotel. Your presentation will be heard by 100+ people and will be video-recorded and published on YouTube. Be brave!