Overselling happens when you have a server which can handle 10 users, but you’re selling it to 15, because you assume they’ll not utilize all resources assigned to them. Or that you’ll manage to add more resources before users would start using them fully. It’s the most broken assumption in tech industry which almost never works, drives customers mad and ruins your brand. And that’s exactly what’s happened to me recently.

I’m currently using JekyllRB for my blog which maybe isn’t bad, but I don’t like it much just because I don’t like Ruby. I’m running site generation form Docker container, because I’m not allowing Ruby anywhere on my box. So I wanted to try Hugo. It’s written in Go which I know and kind of like, and it’s much faster. Speed isn’t maybe main factor for me as Jekyll is fast enough for my needs, but Hugo just feels better.

That’s the title of great essay written by Neal Stephenson, so I’m lending it for my post. I was always the kind of guy who wanted the newest hardware, the latest software, the shinier GUI the better. Then I’ve started to do some proper engineering, and it’s changed my mind.

I like the Chrome’s download manager, but whenever I need to download something heavy from unstable source or to quickly check what’s in the header I resolve to curl.

I work a lot with memoQ Server, great translation tool. It has awesome Web Service API which covers almost all aspects of the server. It lacks CAL license management which is annoying. But on the other hand, it extends some functionality (for instance pre-translation), so you can do more than with memoQ Client. And it’s API, so you can automate a lot with it. To make life easier for myself I’ve created series of Python packages which serve as a client to this API.

Working in localization industry involves a lot of searches in the TM (Translation Memory), or TMs even. I was saying many times that memoQ is great tool, both client and server products. But what I find limiting is ability to search through TMs. You have an app for that, but it’s not very pleasant to use. Fortunately memoQ provides Resources API. Unfortunately its basic functions allow you to search TMs with the same limitations as their client app. But as it’s API you can adjust it to your needs, so I’ve done exactly that.

I’m a big fan of learning. Can’t stand a day without learning new thing, and can’t stand people who are not learning either. Recently I was reading Black Hat Python, it’s a great book, I truly recommend it. Even such noob like myself could figure out the stuff described there, it’s just brilliant. Anyways. I was reading it for fun, and maybe to use it for my private projects sometime. Never really though that I could use it in my work. Sure it would help me to develop my skills in general, but nothing to apply directly. So I thought. And I was wrong.

Recently I was posed with the task of backing up Translation Memories (TMs) from memoQ server into TMX format. You can of course do it from memoQ desktop client, however taking into account number of TMs we have it would mean at least 400 clicks every time backup is needed. It would be quite a dull task and as a human being you can always miss one or two TMs in the process, and you don’t want that.

I know that guys who say that book was better than the movie are annoying, but today I’ll be such guy. I’ve seen Godfather some time ago, and I didn’t like it. Because of that I had no interest in the book. But recently one of my favorite actors recorded audiobook where he’s reading this novel, so I’ve decided to give it a try. And I was amazed.

From time to time on various groups/forums which I follow appears the post like “Learn how to convert format x to y”. Usually it’s coming from some guy (or company) who’s trying to sell his converter, or at least training around it, to you. There’s nothing wrong with it, people need to earn money. Plus there’s definitely market for it. If you’re freelance translator working from home you probably don’t have much of support from engineers, if any at all. But you need to deliver the project, so why not to use such helpful tool.

I’ve bought OnePlus One over a year ago. I must admit that I was aiming for Nexus 6 at the time, but as I’m cheap the price prevailed. I was lucky as by then they’ve introduced invitation less Tuesdays or something like that. Enough to say that I was able to buy the phone without the need of invitation which was nice.

I haven’t expected much as it was almost half the price of my beloved Nexus, but I was positively surprised. Device was solid, performance amazing (I’ve switched from LG G2) and it even came in beautiful package (not exactly like iPhone, but close enough). It had this feel of more expensive phone. And it had Cyanogen Mod preinstalled which I’ve always wanted, but was too lazy, too scared, or both, to ever try. By all means my experience was positive.