The world is watching. Don’t waste your second chance. read more

A day at the office. Today, I had a meeting with my client’s external IT resources. One of them had a strange name, hard to pronounce. While waiting for everyone to join the meeting, wanting to fill in the silence, I asked where he was from. He responded, “Russia.” I said, “Oh.” 😱 This was followed by a big silence while I could see in mack back my Tidbyt display showing a prominent Ukrainian flag. 🇺🇦👊🏻We moved on to the meeting’s first subject. 😏😂

A colleague of mine told me after the meeting that not all Russians are ok with this war in Ukraine. Yeah, right. I guess. This is not a valuable excuse in my book. Where are the diaspora demonstrations, in Canada? In the US?

Women in Iran have more courage to defend democratic values than those men in Russia to defend what is blatantly right from what is wrong. This is utterly frustrating.

Glory to Ukraine. 🇺🇦🇺🇦

Found on Reddit: NATO has always pandered to Putin, says former officer Samantha de Bendern. “If we’re gonna help Ukraine, we have to go in and help them with as much as we can as fast as we can. Drip feeding weapons is what’s prolonging the war” Indeed. I cannot see how, … read more

I updated my main website to add a banner at the top, using Ghost’s new “Special Announcement” feature. 🇺🇦👀

How Amazon put Ukraine’s ‘government in a box’ — and saved its economy from Russia

Since the day Russia launched its invasion Feb. 24, Amazon has been working closely with the Ukrainian government to download essential data and ferry it out of the country in suitcase-sized solid-state computer storage units called Snowball Edge, then funnelling the data into Amazon’s cloud computing system.

As a guy working in IT for nearly 30 years, I can imagine how complex and critical this project was for Ukraine. Transferring a vast amount of data doesn’t happen overnight. Preparing a landing zone in a cloud provider is a complex project. AWS’s (Amazon) contribution is essential, and I wonder if their contribution covers the subscription fees too. I wish I could work on this kind of project myself.

I’ve been following the war in Ukraine on a daily basis since the very beginning. It’s an enduring journey, to say the least. Imanyo has many sad and ugly stories and so many images from this conflict. Some of them are powerful symbols of any war’s ugly side. What I should have done was to … read more

As reported by The Kyiv Independent, Brazil’s proposal to get a peaceful resolution between Russia and Ukraine: “Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva suggested that Ukraine should be open to the idea of giving up Crimea in exchange for peace with Russia.” — Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Wow. … read more

These are the trees of death. This is what I call them. This scene was taken from a video in a combat zone near Bakmut. They all look the same; only the base trunk is standing, and the rest is pulverized with repetitive bombing and shelling. These skeletons of what used to be trees with thinner … read more

After reading Gruber’s article about Wavelength, I decided to try it. I’m not sure I require another messaging solution. Besides using Apple’s iMessage and Telegram to get news from Ukraine, the rest of my messaging app usage is anecdotic. So, what are my thoughts about this? The initial few moments … read more

Apple pays $12.1 mln fine for alleged app market abuse in Russia - Antimonopoly Service

U.S. tech giant Apple has paid a 906 million rouble ($12.12 million) fine in a Russian antitrust case alleging abuse of its dominance in the mobile apps market, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said on Monday.

First, where is the money going once paid by Apple? The current situation in Ukraine mandates more scrutiny. Personally, I would have shut down the App Store altogether in this market. Plain and simple as well as give a middle finger instead of paying the fine. But that’s me.

365 days of destruction. 365 days of murdering. 365 days of looting. 365 days of terror. 365 days of raping. 365 days of horror. 365 days of lies. 365 days of absolute nonsense because of one man’s ego. read more

Attorney General Ashley Moody:

“We must ensure that consumers have the information needed to make informed decisions about their data privacy and security. The existing lack of transparency in app stores can create a significant risk for American citizens, and could cause their personal information to be exploited by foreign entities of concern. That is why I am calling on Apple and Google to bring more transparency to their app stores—so consumers know what products are owned or developed by nations that may pose a national security risk.”

I think this is a great idea. In challenging times, I want to know if an app is created or owned by someone who brings money into bad actor pockets. I do have internal debate about this issue from time to time, having such labeling in the App Store would certainly help in my buying or subscription decisions.

I walked today with my dear wife and quickly chatted about the Ukraine war. My wife asked me a question I didn’t expect: what if Western countries who had already sent armaments to Ukraine were sending soldiers with a promise not to attack Russia on their territory? Is this what should happen after … read more

I don’t know if it is a popular opinion or not, but Telegram is such a well-designed messaging app. It looks cool, and it has the right amount of gamification. Telegram.app feels native on all Apple platforms.

I use Telegram passively to subscribe to channels that publish news and information about the war in Ukraine essentially. Many of the publishers were on Twitter too, but I left this shitty platform. I don’t use Telegram for chatting with others.

I’m pondering about subscribing. there are things that I don’t like about Telegram (like insisting on getting access to my contacts and being owned by Pavel Durov). I don’t like the owner’s attitude toward Apple’s App store rules in general. He’s Russian with Ukrainian origins. Thankfully, is fled Moscow a long time ago to live in Dubai, a safe haven for many Russians these days. The fun fact is that Telegram is hugely popular in Ukraine and serves both sides in good and bad ways.

Are there any Telegram users here? Do you share my sentiment? Are you subscribing to the Premium tier?

Should Russians be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games in Paris, France, next year? The question is out, and the debate is already raging. For me, the answer is simple and unequivocal: no. My reasons are multiple. Here are a few of them. First of all, we cannot pretend that Olympic Games are … read more

Some telling excerpt from a recent story in the Globe and Mail about a Canadian helping Ukraine:

“There’s a couple of shots I made that day that will be with me,” he said. One was a Russian in a T-shirt who was carrying a box of ammunition more than 1,800 metres behind the front line – a distance Teflon says was the longest shot he’s ever made. “He saw no threat, he thought he was safe. But it’s my job to ensure that they know that they’re not safe anywhere,” Teflon said. “The role of a sniper is to ultimately push into the minds of the enemy and make them question everything.”

And

“There’s allegations that all these Russians must be drugged. There’s no way. I think it’s just lack of training. Because they still act like human beings. I’ve watched guys cry and I’ve watched guys scream and I’ve watched guys try to pull their friends back when they get killed. They’re humans but they don’t have an ounce of training when it comes to fighting a war.”

And

“Sadly, it’s working. That’s why they’re doing it. We’re defending until we can’t defend that spot any more because they just destroy it with tanks. And they just keep sending another wave. It’s just relentless,” Teflon said. “So, they’ve gained 500 metres of dirt, but they just took over a completely destroyed position and lost hundreds of guys to do so.”

Finally

“The world deserves to hear the truth and after losing Joe and Greg, they need to understand we’re not stopping this work,” he said. “There’s no point me dying without telling my story.”

This a poignant story about a Canadian snipper “working” on the front line in Ukraine.

I’m super happy to see so many countries contributing to the war efforts. Kyiv has been asking for tanks for a long time. Finally, the last roadblock to a significant contribution has been lifted thanks to the German government, who seemingly found the light and made the right decision. Now for … read more

Here are a few questions that pop up in my mind when reading the news about the war in Ukraine. How do they estimate Russian casualties? They are around 500-800 KIA per day. That’s a lot. Is this number inflated for propaganda purposes? Why is Putin not saying, “Any country sending arms to help … read more

After I told my wife that the second-biggest jackpot had been won, she asked me what I would do with all that money. So here’s what I would do. First, after the usual and probably mandatory press conference, I would get home and patiently wait for the deposit. Once received, I would call my bank to … read more

🇺🇦 There is one thing that I’m finding hard to replace from Twitter: all Twitter accounts I was following reporting about the war in Ukraine, from people on the front or close to it. This is critical information that goes beyond what the general media is saying. But things are starting to move in the right direction, as I have found many tweeps who are now on Mastodon. Yeah! 🙂