This Week I Learned - Week #17 2021

This Week I Learned - 

Azure landing zones are the output of a multi-subscription Azure environment that accounts for scale, security, governance, networking, and identity. Azure landing zones enable application migrations and greenfield development at enterprise-scale in Azure. 

* Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) is a key component in enabling enterprise Java workloads on Azure. The WLS solutions built in partnership between Oracle and Microsoft simplify migration by automating boilerplate provisioning of virtual networks and storage, installing OS/Java resources, setting up WLS, and configuring integration with key Azure services. The partnership between Oracle and Microsoft was announced in June of 2019. 

* Google Cloud VMware Engine is a fully managed service that lets you run the VMware platform in Google Cloud. VMware Engine provides you with VMware operational continuity so you can benefit from a cloud consumption model and lower your total cost of ownership. Your VMware environment runs natively on Google Cloud bare metal infrastructure in Google Cloud locations and fully integrates with the rest of Google Cloud. Google manages the infrastructure and all the necessary networking and management services so you can consume the VMware platform efficiently and securely. VMware Engine includes vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, NSX-T, HCX, and corresponding tools, so it's fully compatible with your existing VMware tools, processes, and skills training.

I liked the nifty search interface in this article mapping Google Cloud services to similar offerings in AWS & Azure

* Amazon announced the General Availability of Red Hat Openshift services on AWS (ROSA), joining Microsoft and IBM in adding native OpenShift Managed Services on their platforms. This announcement validates OpenShift as the leading cloud native application platform for the open hybrid cloud.

Technical support is also known as IT support, help desk, or service desk.  Popular third-party tools for help desk support include Zendesk, Salesforce, and BMC Helix. One way to think about “support levels” and “support tiers” is as a timeline: the higher the tier a problem is escalated, the more time (and perhaps resources) it will take to solve. For instance, if a Tier 1/Level 1/L1 problem takes more than 15 minutes, it is automatically elevated to Tier 2.

* Following periods of massive non-financial disruption such as wars and pandemics, GDP does tend to bounce back. While people are keen to get out and spend, uncertainty lingers for some time. The pandemic encourages people and businesses to try new ways of doing things, upending the structure of the economy. Political upheaval often follows, with unpredictable economic consequences. Pandemic events accelerate robot adoption, especially when the health impact is severe and is associated with a significant economic downturn. - Economist

* Capgemini acquisition of iGate for $4 billion makes it the largest merger and acquisition of any IT company founded by Indians. Globally, this is the largest acquisition of any IT Services based company. 

* iGATE , a much smaller peer of Patni Computer acquired it in January 2011 for $1.22 billion and dropped the brand Patni - named after the founding family —from the combined entity.

* As per the Income Tax Department norms, a married lady can posses up to 500 gm gold without invoice while in the case of unmarried lady and male this limit is 250 gms and 100 gms respectively. The law was made in December 2016 as there was a myth among Indians that they can hold unlimited quantity of gold without invoice.

* The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, was a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II. It was enacted in 1948 and provided more than $15 billion to help finance rebuilding efforts on the continent.

* A pictogram is a simple drawing that represents something. The DOT pictograms are a set of fifty pictograms used to convey information useful to travelers without using words. Such images are often used in airports, train stations, hotels, and other public places for foreign tourists, as well as being easier to identify than strings of text. As works of the United States government, the images are in the public domain and thus can be used by anyone for any purpose, without licensing issues. In 1974, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) recognized the shortcomings of pictograms drawn on an ad hoc basis across the United States Interstate Highway System and commissioned the American Institute of Graphic Arts to produce a comprehensive set of pictograms.

*  Credits in Mira Nair's movies are often set in an unusual typeface. End credits often feature pictograms, with the credit reel ending on a pictogram, as in Mississippi Masala

Since the first seeds of life arose around 3.7 billion years ago, almost every crevice on Earth has filled with different organisms. Life’s chemical tools – proteins – have been optimised, changed and renewed, creating incredible diversity. Enzymes are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions. Enzymes produced through directed evolution are used to manufacture everything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals.  Antibodies evolved using a method called phage display can combat autoimmune diseases and in some cases cure metastatic cancer. Phage display, is a method where a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria – can be used to evolve new proteins.

Nutritionally, 1 tablespoon of honey (21 grams) contains 64 calories and 17 grams of sugar, including fructose, glucose, maltose and sucrose. Where honey shines is in its content of bioactive plant compounds and antioxidants. one study comparing honey and sugar found 11–19% lower triglyceride levels in the honey group. Honey is simply a “less bad” sweetener than sugar. The American Heart Association recommends that women get no more than 100 calories a day from added sugars; men no more than 150 calories a day. This is a little over two tablespoons for women and three tablespoons for men.

* Goldfish grow around one inch per year, growing most rapidly during their first few months of life. Unlike most other common pets, goldies keep growing throughout their lives. A high-protein diet is generally thought to increase the body weight of a goldfish, as is being fed more food, more often. Warm water also increases a goldfish’s size. They are one of the most studied animals in the field of visual perception and cognition. They can perceive the same colours we do, which not even all primates can do, making them an ideal study animal. Juvenile goldfish are even bad at seeing the colour blue, but improve as they age, a pattern repeated in human infants. In one respect they are unlike us: whereas humans have three types of colour-sensing cells in our eyes, goldfish also have a fourth type of colour receptor that allows them to perceive ultraviolet light. But despite this, their other three colour sensors are an excellent analogue for our own.

* According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. But they do fly back to the hive with almost their own bodyweight in nectar on board. The key is the speed at which bees (and other insects, such as flies) are able to move their wings. Bees are able to beat their wings extremely fast – around 200 times a second! This rapid wing movement and resulting aerodynamic trickery explains why insects with such small wings can fly so well.

The Nifty replaces stocks every 6 months.

* In metropolitan cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai Hyderabad, etc. if the price of the housing unit is ₹45 lakh or below and the carpet area of the unit is 60 sq meter or below. In non-metro cities, price of an affordable housing will be ₹45 lakh or below but the carpet area can be 90 sq meter or below. The GST applicable on an affordable house is currently 1 per cent while in the case of other than affordable housing unit, applicable rate of GST is 5 per cent. - Mint

* Soli Sorabjee worked as a junior in Nani Palkhivala's chamber and was mentored by him. Over time he came to be recognised as a leading jurist himself, served as Attorney General of India twice and was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2002.

* A memoir is a person's own account of his or her life. Memoirs allow for a bit more literary freedom than autobiographies as they involve introspection and a creative view of your past.

Preferred gender pronouns or personal gender pronouns (often abbreviated as PGP) refer to the set of pronouns (in English, third-person pronouns) that an individual prefers that others use in order to reflect that person's gender identity. PGPs have come into use as a way of promoting equity and inclusion for transgender and genderqueer people. Pronouns have become a contentious issue of late, with it being used as a marker for 'snowflakes' and a woke generation gone mad - the argument that I hear a lot (mostly on Twitter) is that it's "all got too complicated, you can't say anything anymore". A cisgender person (sometimes cissexual, informally abbreviated cis) is a person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. For example, someone who identifies as a woman and was identified as female at birth is a cisgender woman. The word cisgender, added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, is the antonym of transgender. In February 2014, Facebook began offering "custom" gender options, allowing users to identify with one or more gender-related terms from a selected list, including cis, cisgender, and others. 

Most theories agree that one condition is essential: there must be some kind of incongruity between two elements within the joke, which can be resolved in a playful or unexpected way.

* The Tax Poem

* "Self-preservation is the first law of nature." - Samuel Butler 

* “Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old” - George RR Martin

*  ″Difficulties break some men but make others.″ - Nelson Mandela

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