Hello, my friends! It's been almost half a year since I published the last post, It was a very busy six months for me. I was sad to leave Steemit for so long, but as we know, somewhere out there, behind the wall of the Internet, the real life flows. The constant changes force you to make choices and prioritize.

I would not want to make a long-read post, don't see the point of multiplying your boredom. Therefore, I will share only the main conclusions, that have finally been confirmed by new life experience.

People Are Just People

Six months ago I was entrusted with the project to upgrade the IT infrastructure of the whole company (Telecommunication Company). A very responsible job for an ordinary IT engineer.

Being an ambitious guy, I decided to remake everything at once, guided by world standards. I used the developments of the TM Forum and plunged into the wonderful world of business processes, integrations, budgets, negotiation with suppliers and etc.

You won't believe, but no company in the world can offer you a single system that combines crm, billing and provision (oss/bss). This is the dream of any Telecom Operator. My goal was to combine the existing individual systems into a single whole. Hard, expensive, long and incredibly interesting! :)

TM Forum has created an amazing thing-a multi-level business process model (eTOM), which together with the SIP model will allow you to create a universal information system with all the necessary business processes not only for the Telecom Operator, but actually for any company that sells services.

As a result, I met people from different companies, top managers, technical directors, product directors, leading engineers from Netcracker, Orange, Telefonica. People who seem to be celestials to an ordinary engineer (for me).
After dozens of meetings and hours of negotiations, I became convinced that all these successful professionals are the same people as we are.

Before, I used to think that they were like Frank Underwood- serious, responsible, know everything and they have no time for anything except work and success. But they all turned out to be very open, inquisitive and generous people.

I know that for the West it is the norm when top managers behave informally and openly, but we work in Russia and here everything is a little different. For any employee of the lower or middle level to get into conversation with top management, it's like going to the principal's office in an elementary school. I don't know, maybe the oligarchic system has created such wrong stereotypes.

So, advice to all who have not previously communicated with the tops, guys relax. These are great people who will talk with you on an equal footing, if you are a really good specialist and you are not afraid to defend your decisions.
Ask questions, argue with people, share experiences- it generates wonderful things.

Fight the System

I think many of you have heard about the confrontation (link) between Telegram and the Russian Agency Roskomnadzor (RKN).

Maybe for the whole world this was not such a Grand event, but for the russian Internet, it was black days that will continue after 2018 FIFA world Cup.
Hundreds of companies and thousands of users lost access to foreign resources. RKN ignores any complaints about the restriction of Internet freedom, hiding behind the interests of national security... Hello, Big Brother!

Let me explain briefly how it works:

RKN creates a black list of resources that are prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation. The black list contains not only specific URLs, but also ip addresses, including entire subnets.

Each Internet provider, vpn and proxy server owner in the country is obliged to ensure the blocking of all resources from this list. RKN does not offer any technical solution for blocking, the Provider must create it himself or buy from a third party. RKN allows to use DNS spoofing for a successful blocking (but this is a violation of the laws).

If more than 1% of forbidden Ip addresses are available on the provider's network, the provider will receive a fine ($ 3,000 for each day of violation), and may lose the license in the future. In fact, the company will be closed.

RKN has developed a technical solution- auditor (revisor), which allows them to track how well the provider copes with the blocking.

This terrible censor-department (RKN) appeared long ago, in 2015. At first, users joked that this will not work. But over time, people began to understand that we are seeing the creation of a new Golden shield, as in China.

The most popular curse to RKN was «block your anus, RKN!”. Once RKN added 127.0.0.1 to the black list, is true :)

Being a Telecom Operator we communicate with victims directly. During the period of mass blocking, many customers asked us to help them. I was entrusted with the task of finding a technical solution to bypass the lock, without breaking the law.

Without going into details, with the help of mikrotiks, openvpn servers, and self-written parser, we were able to create a service that allows customers to add the blocked url in their personal account. As a result, the entire client office gets access to the blocked address without installing unnecessary programs on each PC separately.

We managed to find technical and legal loopholes in the laws at this stage. Sooner or later, the law will get even more severe, but I think we'll find a way out again.

I'm writing this to tell you:

Don't be afraid to confront the system, for the sake of helping each other.

For any action there is a counteraction. Objectively, it's easy for me to say it until there are serious consequences. But the feeling that you can defend your freedom with technology is priceless. Perhaps that's why cryptocurrencies have found supporters around the world.

People Continue to Believe in Cryptocurrencies

Several people (including me) from our company invested in two farms, it was a profitable entry into the game, taking into account the fall in the cost of equipment. $ 7,500 for two farms with 14x 1060, 1x 1070Ti and 1x1080. But even with this scenario, the payback at the current price of cryptocurrencies will be about a year.

I did not agitate these guys. They just wanted to invest some free money in the world of cryptocurrency and asked my advice. We chose the option with farms in order to sell the equipment in case of a complete failure and to return at least part of our money.

Visiting data centers (official and not very), I increasingly see farms and ASICs, their number is constantly growing. I. e., more and more people consider cryptocurrencies to be a more promising investment, even with the lowering of the hype. More and more common friends come to me with questions about the purchase of equipment and its configuration. This fact is insanely pleasing to me.

Don't Forget to Relax

After six months of such active and diverse work, I felt that I began to fade, first of all morally. You can't work forever, even if your work gives you pleasure. Still, work is work.

I decided to reboot my brain and 2 weeks ago me and my wife visited the wonderful city of Paphos (Cyprus). A quiet and beautiful place with a "living" sea, swimming lovers will appreciate. You can drive around the whole island by car (it is very compact), but we preferred bicycles, to pump up our asses. later I will create a separate post on this topic.

It is important to understand that your physical and moral resources are limited. If you feel that your enthusiasm fades and you start to work worse, immediately go to rest. Believe me, it will be better for all, if you take a break on time, slightly forgetting about responsibility.

Fresh look at Steemit

I just got back on Steemit, and it's difficult for me to determine all the changes that have occurred in six months, but they are.

• Six months ago, 1 sbd cost about $10, now its price is $1 again, and ratio to steem is 1:1. Good news in the long run. I've always been a supporter of the forecast of a steem price increase, not sbd.

• On the trends page, I noticed a new tag #esteem - great app for smartphones, many thanks to its creators. This post is too long for a full app test, but the next one will be published through esteem. If I'm not mistaken, there was already a mobile application for the platform, but it was regional. Those, users from some countries had to change their account geolocation to install the application. Now I am happy to see an international solution!

• I am also glad to see that the trending page has changed, I think it has become more diverse. Earlier, day after day, month after month there were posts from the same users with a high reputation (fair or not, it's not for me to judge). Now I see posts from new users with different reputation. Maybe in a couple of days I will understand that nothing has changed, except accounts, but so far I'm full of hope.

• Apparently, the number of vote-bots services has increased even more than before. Was not their supporter, but if this trend is flourishing, then most users approve of it. it's hard to say to what it will lead.

Anyway, Steemit is changing, like everything under the moon. Slowly, in different directions, with different consequences, but these changes are occurring. Yes, we have been sitting on the beta version for 2 years, and maybe this platform is doomed.

Maybe one day it will die out, but will be a great prototype and predecessor of other social platforms with rewards. Who knows!? only changes are constant and you have to accept them and go further, it depends on you where they will lead you.

I am glad to return to this familiar and at the same time changed place.