Engineer at Mapbox, creator of Leaflet, open source enthusiast, algorithms geek, speaker, musician (Obiymy Doschu), baker, father of twin girls, Ukrainian. agafonkin.com
For me as a non-native speaker who had this problem too, reading on Kindle helped learn the language immensely. You can long-press any word and it will show results from a high-quality dictionary (there are few to choose from, including the Oxford dictionary) — offline, and without putting the book away, which would be a deal breaker for me. It will also remember all the words you look up so that you can practice later.
Oh, nothing wrong with going with your gut and paying attention to the warning signs. But, "I briefly looked at these people from afar and immediately concluded they all only pretend to work and never accomplish anything" is just ridiculously arrogant.
At this point you're just parroting Russian propaganda without any clue of what you're talking about, so I don't think there's any point in further discussion.
"Hitler wins this war no matter what, just let him kill all the Jews and enslave non-Aryans so that we could avoid needless deaths and suffering" — does that sound right to you? This is exactly how this ignorant nonsense sounds to a Ukrainian.
This is genocide. Not resisting means millions killed and tens of millions brutally oppressed, a whole nation and its culture erased from existence, and an invitation for further imperialistic wars and atrocities, because evil unpunished only leads to more evil on a larger scale.
Hello from a fellow musician! I have a very similar setup, but using Studio One DAW which allows seamlessly converting any recorded WAV files in the project to FLAC — wondering if Reaper could do the same. Reduces the amount to sync by 2-3 times, which is very significant.
A hobby rather than a field of study, but Open Crumb Mastery by Trevor Wilson made me fall in love with sourdough baking, it's amazing. I'm baking regularly for 2 years now since reading it and has gotten pretty good, even with difficult pastry like croissants and panettone.
It’s important, although hard. Ordinary people have to realize that it’s an actual bloody war happening with thousands killed on both side senselessly, and not just “military operation to defend Donbas”. Personally I’ve been sending Telegram channels with footage to my Russian relatives and friends, because Telegram is notoriously hard to block in Russia. Most non-state media are blocked, so are Facebook and Twitter.
Always funny to read these incredibly dumb & crazy conspiracy theories, and not surprising given how much shit Trump & Putin's propaganda put into your heads.
I accept the possibility that I could return to a bunch of rubble, but I would very much like to return home if/after the war stops and Putin's regime collapses, and rebuild and create with renewed vigor. Most of the things we left behind aren't critical and could be reacquired elsewhere. The most important thing is that my wife and kids are safe and by my side.
No, Mapbox has been very supportive, trying to help however they can and obviously not expecting me (or anyone else in Ukraine) to work any time soon.
Same for colleagues from Belarus and even Russia — they are strongly pro-Ukraine and anti-war, although stating this publicly can easily get them in jail (already happened multiple times).
As for political support — pushing the government to increase sanction pressure, seizing Russian corrupt assets, increasing Ukrainian support, pushing for NATO no-fly zone all helps.
We're trying to be honest but optimistic at the same time. E.g. there's this crazy villain Putin who's trying to destroy Ukraine, that's why we had to move to a safer place, but there's a very strong Ukrainian Army that heroically defends against the bad guys, and we will eventually win and come back. My girls are pretty strong-willed and aren't easily scared, so they've been doing pretty well through this ordeal.
Not translatable at the moment. Military command is obviously behind a closed curtain. Any public mapping efforts may help the enemy as much as Ukrainians, so so far they've been semi-private — e.g. official one-way sites / messenger bots to report enemy sightings / positions.
It's miraculous transformation — I was against the current government, like many of my friends, it did its share of mistakes in recent years, but this huge existential threat seems to have propelled them to rise up to the occasion with intense focus and do the right thing. I'm now quite proud of the Ukrainian government.
Donate here https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/donate, stop supporting the Russian economy and reject their products, rally local leaders to strengthen economic sanctions and increase Ukrainian support.
I heard some reports of limited offensives, notably in Horlivka and near the border around Sumy, although they still seem to serve defensive purposes. Ukrainian Army avoids offensives because the Russians often set up positions in densely populated civilian areas.
Those are official stats from Ukrainian Armed Forces, and they are absolutely realistic, even if approximate. If you're in doubt, follow Bellingcat, OSINTtechnical and people like Christo Grozev who coordinate open source intelligence / confirmation based on available photos / videos. They mostly confirm those numbers.
We left most of our stuff behind and are now staying with wife and kids in a tiny hotel room, mostly glued to the terrible news, calling to our friends and family and seeing where we can help. Running to the bomb shelter during an air raid siren about 3–4 times a day, sitting in the basement for 10–60 min at a time. But we're glad to have a roof, a place to sleep and shower, power for devices, an Internet connection and food and water — many in Ukraine including some of our extended family don't have those luxuries.
There was a Russian troll here asking why I didn't leave earlier even though I knew this would happen, and whether I'm planning on bribing officials to avoid conscription. I already wrote the answers but the parent comment was flagged, so posting here:
1. Most people I know didn't believe Putin would suicidally start a large-scale invasion, despite potentially severe losses (~10k Russian soldiers killed so far in a week) and the complete destruction of Russian economy. Many thought US intelligence' warnings were a part of the information warfare for deterrence. We were wrong. Putin is actually this insane.
2. I registered where I'm staying locally and the military have my number / temp address if they need me. But the number of volunteers to fight WAY exceeds military capacity, so for now I'm staying in the rear and helping where I can make the most impact — by rallying donations, consulting IT volunteers on local map projects, and spreading the truth. I'm contemplating getting my wife and kids through the border but will stay in Ukraine myself, like other Ukrainian men.
Vladimir Agafonkin here. Thanks for posting this! I'll be happy to answer any questions about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and current Ukrainian reality here whenever I get the chance.