Shorin—Excellent!

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Shorin—excellent!

While I was involuntarily away from LinkedIn, something fairly significant happened in my life: I successfully defended my diploma thesis (now called a master’s dissertation) on my RANEPA master’s programme.

The defence was held online, so it seemed that everything should be quick and easy: familiar surroundings, no distractions—just connect and give the presentation.

As usual, nothing went according to plan. When I connected, the application automatically updated itself to the latest version, then displayed a critical-error message. I had to force it to close and try connecting again. I think I finally got in on the third attempt, but the application kept complaining: the computer did not have enough resources, the connection was unstable, or too many people were present (the peak was only 23). My laptop fans roared like an aircraft taking off. The application constantly told me to turn off the background blur—or, better still, the camera altogether.

Under RANEPA’s rules:

  • The camera must remain on.
  • The virtual background must feature something related to the academy.
  • Before the defence, you must show your passport to the camera, with your photograph and full name clearly visible.

Now imagine how I felt: I was not allowed to turn off the camera or the background, while the application kept telling me to turn off the camera or at least the background. At the same time, I was trying to show my passport, but the virtual-background algorithm blurred everything in it.

Eventually, I turned off the background, showed my passport to the panel, turned the background back on and received a barrage of complaints from the application about every one of those actions. Frantically trying to close all the pop-ups without shutting down the application itself, I began my presentation.

It was an absolute nightmare!!! As the saying goes, five minutes of shame and a week of drinking. The five minutes of shame were spot on; the week of drinking, not so much.

It would have been far better to hold the defence in person and avoid all this trouble with the application.

In any case, it is all behind me now: another honours diploma is almost in the bag—all that remains is to wait until 23 May, when they will be formally presented to us.