TWIL - Week #10

This Week I Learned:

• Google has killed Quick View & Instant Preview features in Search. Instant Previews are page snapshots that allow users to get a glimpse of the layout of the web pages behind each search result, in order to help them decide whether or not to click a link. Low usage has been suggested as the reason for abandoning Instant Preview. Some detractors complain the low usage may have been because the button was almost hidden.
• Foursquare founders, Naveen Selvadurai and Dennis Crowley always tried to pitch Foursquare less as a check-in app and more as a “a data-driven recommendations engine which analyzes and rewards real-world behavior.”
• ..articles that get a lot of tweets don’t necessarily get read very deeply. Articles that get read deeply aren’t necessarily generating a lot of tweets.  
• A 20-year-old Indian student from Cornell broke into the  Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE)  database so that his friends could know their results a day earlier. The ethical thing to do would have been to report but that wouldn't get him media coverage or admirers. It doesn't pay to be good. On a related note - Indian Govt websites have been hacked over 1,000 times in past three years.
• National Technical Reasearch Organisation (NTRO) is mandated to collect intelligence on foreign subjects and its operations are meant to be offshore.It reports directly to the National Security Advisor (NSA).Only nine agencies the Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation, Economic Intelligence Bureau, Directorate of Revenue, IncomeTax Department, Defence Intelligence Agency, Narcotics Control Bureau and the National Investigation Agency are permitted by law under the Telegraph Act, 1885, and the Information Technology Act, 2008, to covertly perform electronic surveillance, including telephone tapping, over their targets. Source: Times of India
• The new National Food Security Bill (NFSB), that aims to step up subsidized cereal supply (five kilos per month of wheat or rice) to 67% of the population (Source: Swaminomics). If a whooping 67% of the Indian population can't afford food at market prices that should be something to worry about.
• For people already at risk for heat disease, eating three or more egg yolks per week could be as damaging to arteries as smoking.