Jacob Filipp

Category: Writing

  • ArVid: how Russians squeezed 4 hard drives into one VHS tape in the 90s

    ArVid: how Russians squeezed 4 hard drives into one VHS tape in the 90s

    Storing massive data, as cheap as possible

    The year is 1995 and you live in post-Soviet Russia.

    It’s a hellish time: prices for basic consumer goods are triple what they were last year. Your employer just paid your salary in eggs instead of money. There are daily shootouts between rival gangs. 🎵Your love life’s DOA…🎵

    It’s a wonderful time: Russia is awash in Western computers, TVs, VCRs, cassette players and dialup modems. Technology that was strictly off-limits in 1989 is suddenly within reach.

    As one of the lucky Russians to have a computer at home, you are facing a challenge: your 500MB hard drive is overflowing with software, games, and documents. You must find an affordable way to get more digital storage.

    Floppy disks (30Pin Pictures on Flickr)

    You could store files on cheap and plentiful floppy disks. But each floppy only stores 1.44MB and is known to randomly lose data. Your second option is to buy another hard drive. But that costs about $200 USD – as much as a Russian’s entire monthly salary…

    You head over to the local computer store in a gray mood. The store is cramped with bootlegged computer games, peripherals and hardware. Inside, you ask Yevgeni the proprietor whether there might be a cheap solution to your storage problem.

    This is Yevgeni:

    Click here for more footage of Yevgeni from 1995.

    Fortunately, Yevgeni does have a 3rd option for you! It’s a truly innovative Russian-made product called the “ArVid” card. It comes in a package like this:

    It is an ISA expansion card for your computer and will allow you to use your home-VCR to store 4 hard-drives’ worth of data on a single VHS tape. The same tape you use to watch movies at home.

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  • Is Adobe’s Marketo truly “the worst” at getting emails delivered?

    Blob people representing Pardot, Act-On and MailChimp are celebrating. In the corner, blob people representing Eloqua, Hubspot and Marketo are sulking. A blob person representing Campaign Monitor is kicking a rock in frustration.

    For 60 days, I monitored the top 7 Email Automation vendors to learn how well they manage the mailer reputation of their systems.

    Come along as I spend $340 of my own money to monitor 3,735 IP addresses and rank the vendors. Discover Pardot and MailChimp‘s tricks for staying off email spam lists, Eloqua’s surprising spot in the rankings (not at the top!) and learn whether Adobe’s Marketo is actually The Worst™ at avoiding blocklists. Oh, and HubSpot, Act-On and Campaign Monitor are also here.

    Read on for the full story, listen to it on Mike MacFarlane’s podcast (archive link) or go straight to the vendor rankings!

    Backstory

    I am a Marketing Operations Manager who’s been in Marketing Ops since 2013. In late November 2022, I was having a normal day at Auvik when an urgent message popped up on my screen.

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  • Jacob Eats: Unusual Drinks

    Jacob Eats: Unusual Drinks

    Kwangdong Jerusalem Artichoke Tea Drink

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Kwangdong-Jerusalem-Artichoke-Tea-Drink-768x1024.jpg

    Dear Reader (hi Mom!),
    I admit that I’m a fan of Jerusalem Artichokes. They are the roots of a type of sunflower. Here in Toronto, they’re pretty expensive and rare to find in grocery stores. I don’t eat them often.

    When I saw a drink made with them I jumped at the chance to try it out.

    This drink smells like an old twig. The flavour is a bit like burdock and dry fall leaves. At the same time, the mouthfeel is smooth like water and the flavour itself is too weak to leave any sort of impression. Strangely, this drink would’ve been better if it had a stronger flavour and a thicker texture. This drink is just bad. The only good thing about it is that it doesn’t leave a lingering taste.

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  • Fuben-Eki: the benefits of inconvenience

    “Fuben-Eki” is a Japanese acronym that stands for “Further benefits of a kind of inconvenience”.

    It is a design concept that introduces inconvenience into processes, where the inconvenience would actually be beneficial (forcing you to improve hand-eye coordination, to slow down and notice something, or to improve your memory skills).

    Here is a freely accessible video from Japan’s NHK show “Design Talks Plus” about different applications of this unusual concept:

    https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2046153/

    Only if the video above is inaccessible, you can watch my own archive copy of the show here:

    Professor Kawakami Hiroshi from the video runs this site http://fuben-eki.jp/en/ . It appears that the fuben-eki Facebook page has the latest interviews and writing from his team.

    And here is a link to an academic paper introducing the Benefits of Inconvenience [archive PDF link].

    Here are some applications of fuben-eki I can think of:

    • Slowing down our response to others’ emails. By introducing a delay, we’re giving others an opportunity to solve their own problem. We are also giving ourselves more breathing room. [Time consumption → Encouraging Initiative]
    • In a factory: cross-training people, and rotating them through different duties in a day. [Increasing number of operations → System comprehension]
    • Reducing credit-card spending using the trick where you freeze the card in a block of ice, and have to wait for it to thaw in order to make an online purchase. [Time consumption → Enhancing awareness]
    • Traffic calming techniques like the ones listed here (additionally, there is a technique where you force drivers to be vigilant by intermixing pedestrian & vehicle traffic together without a curb)
      [Danger → Enhancing awareness]
    • Adding obstacles to your workspace in order to increase the amount of physical activity you have in a day. Inspired by Craig Mod’s posting about an 86-year-old cafe proprietor in Japan, who has to squat through a hole in the bar in order to deliver customers’ orders. This means that he squats several dozen times a day and maintains muscle mass. [Increasing amount of operations → Preventing loss of skill]
  • The Time My Tiny Broccoli Went Viral on Linkedin

    The Time My Tiny Broccoli Went Viral on Linkedin

    The original post on Linkedin

    2023-08-07-Post-Feed-LinkedIn-2.PDFDownload

    I exported the entire Linkedin conversation thread using this bookmarklet that I created. You can use it to save your own threads for free just by bookmarking it’s special URL!

  • Jacob Eats: Chick Boy

    Jacob Eats: Chick Boy

    In their latest bid to tear the USA apart, evil American oligarchs have decided to make the existence of transgender people the question du jour. (I presume the actual question they’re asking is “should we permit them to exist, or should we start building mobile gas shower units now?”)

    Today I’m going to wade into this morass by eating everyone’s favourite genderfluid snack: Chick Boy.

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  • Jacob Eats: a Ding Dong

    Jacob Eats: a Ding Dong

    Put it in your mouth.

    “What?!”
    I was rudely awakened from my sleep. Something like a measly 6 hours, which is definitely not enou…

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  • Toronto attractions for visitors

    This is my list of unique Toronto attractions for visitors. I’ve lived in Toronto for 25 years and have explored many parts of it – so this list is a little different from what you’d find on Travelocity.

    Tibetan restaurants

    Toronto is unique in that you can find almost any cuisine in this city. One of the more unusual (and tastiest!) cuisines you can try is Tibetan.

    Below is a set of Tibetan restaurants that are all located near each other. I used to live nearby, and remember that Himalayan Kitchen was good. But that was many years ago so take a look at current reviews. Things to try: momos (either fried or steamed large dumplings), blood sausage (very spicy, you might also know this dish as “black pudding”), tripe (also very spicy).

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  • Jacob Eats: Pocari Sweat

    The Pocari is a rare Polynesian bird who’s sweat was a prized elixir in the 1600s.

    In our day we’re lucky that we no longer have to chase the bird, cage the bird, run the bird ragged to make it sweat. We can get Pocari Sweat right at the international grocery store!

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  • Best Work-Tips from Linkedin

    This is a collection of great tips I came across on Linkedin, together with the insightful discussion they sparked. I downloaded the full posts and comments using the linkedin post and comment downloader bookmarklet.

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