This Week I Learned - Week #104

This Week I Learned -

Azure Resource Explorer is a new web site where you can discover the Azure Resource Management APIs

* The majority of all functionality of the SQL Server is now available within Azure SQL Database v12. The list of unsupported functions and functionality are almost all directly related to stuff that is primarily about server and OS management, not things you worry about with PaaS (Platform as a Service).

The Heartbleed SSL vulnerability was a turning point for Linus's Law (Eric Raymond, in The Cathedral and the Bazaar, famously wrote "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.". The idea is that open source software, by virtue of allowing anyone and everyone to view the source code, is inherently less buggy than closed source software. He dubbed this "Linus's Law"), a catastrophic exploit based on a severe bug in open source software affected about 18% of all the HTTPS websites in the world, and allowed attackers to view all traffic to these websites, unencrypted... for two years - Coding Horror

* Google made their bug-bounty contest Pwnium, their Chrome specific variant of Pwn2Own, no longer a yearly event but all day, every day and increased the prize money to "infinite".

Amazon product reviews can be funny too & have comic strips about them

* The so-called 'Paypal Mafia' consisting of distinguished alumni of Paypal (Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Scott Banister, Max Levchin, Jeremy Stoppelman, Keith Rabois, Roelof Botha) backs start-ups like Uber, Airbnb, Palantir, SpaceX, Square, Pinterest, Stripe.

Digital Attack Map  displays DDoS attacks happening around the globe in real time. Google Ideas worked in partnership with Google's Big Picture Team to design and develop the Digital Attack Map. Google Ideas is a think/do tank at Google that explores how technology can enable people to confront threats in the face of conflict, instability or repression. The "Big Picture" team, a part of Google research, creates interactive visualizations by blending algorithmic, data-driven approaches with fluid design to make complex data more accessible.

McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc sold paper cups and milkshake mixers till he was 52 & John Pemberton invented Coca Cola at 55

* It takes Jeffrey Archer about 40 to 45 days to write the first draft of a book which is about 300 hours and 14 drafts or 1000 hours to complete a book - The Hindu

* At 1.8 million words, the Mahabharatha is one of the largest epics – roughly 10 times the size of the Iliad and Odyssey combined.  Using text analytics and text visualisation, Gramener's Mahabharatha browser provides a simple interface to browse the full text of the Mahabharatha and find where the characters appear - Gramener blog

* "It is believed that only 3 Lok Sabha MPs opposed 66A, the remaining 540 did not". Section 66A of the Information Technology Act 2000 which curbs the freedom of speech of Indians has been struck down by the Supreme Court of India after a 24-year old law student Shreya Singhal filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in 2012.

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