TWIL - Week #47

This Week I Learned:

Azure 

• Windows Azure Table service does not support wildcard queries
• For bulk inserting records into a Windows Azure Table through a CSV file, you can use Azure Management Studio or this open-source custom tool by Chris Woodill. The custom tool adds records from the CSV file in batches. Transaction costs are calculated per call, so adding records in a batch is considered one transaction from a billing perspective. A maximum of 100 entities can be added in a batch. All the entities in a batch must have the same partition key. Chris Woodill found that in comparison to his custom tool, Azure Management Studio is significantly slower.
• It can take up to 40 seconds for the actual delete to happen and if you try to create the table while its in progress of being deleted, you will receive a StorageException with a “409” error.
• The FedRAMP seal for Azure certifies that it can be used in U.S. government work. 
• Making a Classic ASP page work on Azure Website is just a matter of FTP-ing it.

Apps

• Messaging apps have become hot acquisition targets as more people use them instead of text messages, cannibalizing mobile phone companies' messaging revenue. Social media giant Facebook acquired messaging app WhatsApp in a $19-billion deal while Japan's Rakuten acquired calling and messaging app Viber for $900 million. 

Web

• Redirecting user from http://normal.bank.com to https://secure.bank.com makes it vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MiM) attack
• OpenID is a protocol for authentication while OAuth is for authorization. In OpenID, authentication is delegated to OpenID providers while in OAuth, authorization is outsourced.  Google APIs use OAuth 2.0 for authentication and authorization.

Science

• King cobras feed only on snakes. Gharial eats fish and is not dangerous to human beings. 
• The mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets" helped me remember the nine planets but now with Pluto gone, this is my new friend - My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles. Turn to the Internet when you need funny mnemonics like this one - Many Very Educated Men Just Screwed Up Nature. To remember "Milli, Micro, Nano, Pico, Femto, Atto, Zepto", xkcd has this mnemoic - Microsoft Made No Profit From Anyone's Zunes.
• Plasma TVs consume more energy than LED & LCD TVs

India

• Currently, India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of chillies. Source- Right Choice magazine
• Solar energy cost has gone down to $0.15 per kWh, making India among the lowest cost destinations for grid-collected solar photovoltaic power in the world. Source - Forbes
• Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular purchased 3G airwaves for Rs 67,710 crore in a government auction in 2010. Bharti Airtel, Aircel and Reliance Jio Infocomm purchased 4G airwaves for over Rs 38,000 crore. Source - ET
• Companies with at least Rs 5 crore net profit, or Rs 1000 crore turnover or Rs 500 crore net worth will need to spend 2% of their 3-year average annual net profit on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in each financial year, beginning the next fiscal, 2014-15
• The Indian Government spends Rs 3.65 to deliver foodgrain worth Re 1! The Independent Evaluation Office, a body launched by the Planning Commission has found that 57 per cent of the subsidised foodgrains distributed in Delhi, do not reach the target group with close to 36 per cent siphoned off the supply chain.
• Half of the Dalit families are still deprived of the government programmes meant for them though there are 68 welfare schemes for the scheduled castes. In Bihar, 23 dalit castes have been put in a separate category. Such sub-categories among Dalits have already been tried in states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar.
• Conservationists Salim Ali & the American-born naturalized Indian Romulus Whitaker are related. Zai Whitaker, the former wife of  Romulus & author of Snakeman: The Story of a Naturalist, is the daughter of Zafar and Laeeq Futehali. Laeeq Futehalli is the niece of Salim Ali.
• There are 237 sub-species of snakes in India, nearly all of them harmless and most of them beneficial to man in controlling the rodent population.
• 70% of Hyderabad's population are non-vegetarians according to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Commissioner.
• According to Amy Chua and husband Jed Rubenfeld, both Yale Law School professors, superiority complex, insecurity and impulse control make up the ‘Triple Package’ that allows some migrant groups in the US such as the Indians, Chinese, and Jews to be enormously successful.
• Rs 30 lakh is the threshold of net assets over which wealth tax is levied. First home is exempt from wealth tax. 1% is the wealth tax on the net value of assets exceeding Rs 30 lakh.
• 75 lakh people have not filed their IT returns in the past year. There is a minimum of 100% and maximum of 300% penalty for concealment of income. The following are considered high value transactions and fall under I-T radar:
  • Cash deposits of Rs 10 lakh or more in a year in a savings account
  • Credit card purchases of Rs 2 lakh or more in a year
  • Mutual funds investments of Rs 2 lakh or more
  • Purchase of bonds and debentures worth Rs 5 lakh or more in a year
  • Purchase of shares worth Rs 1 lakh or more in a year
  • Sale/purchase of property worth Rs 30 lakh or more
  • Purchase of RBI bonds worth Rs 5 lakh or more in a year