TWIL - Week #3

This Week I Learned:

• New Azure VM Image Templates include SQL Server, BizTalk Server, and SharePoint Server (2013?) images. This can be handy when you don't have time to build the environment to try one of those server technologies
• It is possible to run a ASP.NET web page on a Raspberry Pi
• Code School has a nice set of video tutorials on learning about Chrome DevTools. The videos are downloadable for offline viewing.
• If you want to show someone how your responsive website looks in just a single image, here's a nice tip
• Download progress indicator is shown next to the address bar in Firefox version 20 & upwards
• You can use the Alt-click combination on a link in Chrome to download a page as HTML. There are also a bunch of other time-saving shortcuts mostly specific to Chrome
• The Calculator program in Windows 8 can be used to calculate the difference between two dates in years,months,weeks and days
• A handy guide to severing your ties with social networks 
• Going a step beyond identifying objects by images and color, WolframAlpha has search filters for color blindness, dog vision, comic book effects

  

  
  Comic book effect applied to an image of Mahatma Gandhi, using WolframAlpha

• ..in New York City, many of the more than 4,000 surveillance cameras include advanced technology that can read license plates, and sensors detect elevated levels of chemical and radiological material - a real life application of computer vision.
• If you're an Indian who has studied in a English medium school and lag in Indian regional languages, you have the same woes as Britishers when they landed here in the 1800's. Some enterprising authors of those times have written dictionaries and language reference books for those proficient in English and keen to pick up the local tongue using English as the learning medium. You can search for such books which are now out of copyright and free to download from the Google Books collection using a little app I wrote. Just type an Indian language (like "Telugu" or "Tamil") as a keyword to search. I discovered a fascinating book on Telugu proverbs from the year 1868
• The web comic XKCD has fans who maintain a wiki where they discuss each comic that Randall Munroe publishes (under a Creative Commons copyright licence that allows reuse for non-commercial purposes so long as the work is attributed.).
• If you're weight watching, say this to yourself the next time you're tempted to eat something sinful - "A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips" (via Big Bang theory)
• In order to believe in a new identity, we have to prove it to ourselves (by starting with small wins).