This Week I Learned - Week #24 2021
This Week I Learned -
* Microsoft Power Platform consists of Power Apps, Power Automate (formerly Flow), Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents
Microsoft Power Platform provides a suite of capabilities for Dynamics 365 applications via the Power Platform Admin Center.
* Azure Stack, AWS Outposts and Google Anthos aim to integrate on-premises resources with the public cloud services on Azure, AWS and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), respectively. Organizations can use the on-premises hardware they already own to build a hybrid cloud with Anthos, or they can purchase inexpensive commodity servers. Google offers the most flexibility with hardware choices, while AWS offers the least. Azure Stack and Outposts are not multi-cloud products. They only work with their respective clouds -- Azure or AWS -- and IT teams cannot integrate them with other public clouds.
* Microsoft bought Github in 2018. For hosting code repositories, nothing comes close to GitHub.
* With the new service Azure Resource Mover, customers now have a platform level capability that allows them to move to new regions across the globe and expand their resiliency options by moving their resources into Azure Availability Zones.
* Azure Security Center Enterprise Onboarding Guide
* Google, AWS, and Azure, have a software-defined approach in their data centers, with virtualized networking and storage, and no hardware dependency. Azure Stack which was announced in 2015 and launched in 2017 was not the first time that Microsoft ventured into bringing a copy of Azure down to your own data center. Their first attempt was in 2014 with CPS (Cloud Platform Systems), which was based on Azure Pack, System Center 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2012 R2, running on a converged platform provided by Dell. This previous effort had limited adoption. Microsoft chose the route of working with partners to produce certified Azure Stack appliances in order to meet its long and stringent list of requirements.
* Azure Stack comes in three flavors:
- Azure Stack Hub is the rebranded version of the original Azure Stack. This private cloud can be run, connected to, or semi-disconnected from the Azure public cloud. It provides the same interface as Azure with many of the same tools, enabling workloads to move back and forth as needed. Azure Stack Hub runs on Microsoft-approved hardware from integration partners -- such as Dell EMC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
- Azure Stack HCI is designed for enterprises that want to switch their on-premises assets into hyper-converged infrastructure. It's also used in remote branches.
- Azure Stack Edge is an appliance you manage in the cloud. It's designed for machine learning and other compute tasks at edge locations. It's also used for IoT and data transfers.
* Azure Arc is a management tool that treats all assets as cloud resources -- whether they're on Microsoft's public cloud or elsewhere. The core of this service is Azure Resource Manager. Azure Arc uses Azure Resource Manager as an extensible framework that works on premises, in other clouds or at edge locations. Through this centralized control plane, IT teams utilize the same configuration management, security, compliance, governance and policies across all assets -- this includes common CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) policies and role-based access management. Microsoft opted to use the Azure Resource Manager paradigms, but other control planes, like ServiceNow and VMware, can write down to Azure Arc as needed.
* There are three subsets of Azure Arc:
- Azure Arc enabled servers
- Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes
- Azure Data Services on Azure Arc
* While Azure Stack has its place for certain businesses, it doesn't address the many complexities IT teams face with today's hybrid and multi-cloud scenarios. There are architectural choices, such as VMs, containers and Kubernetes, serverless, databases, OSes and programming languages, to name a few. Then, there's the diversity of environments, including public clouds, private data centers, branch offices, and edge and IoT deployments. Azure Arc is a management tool that treats all assets as cloud resources -- whether they're on Microsoft's public cloud or elsewhere.
* I like how the Microsoft sponsored ebook "The Azure Cloud-Native Architecture Mapbook"[PDF] provides a sort of a multi-media experience. The code is on Github, images are available as a separate PDF and there is a YouTube playlist for the demos.
* BrowserStack has become the highest valued SaaS unicorn from India
* The Python Notes for Professionals [PDF] book is compiled from Stack Overflow Documentation
* The Rule of 72 is a mental math shortcut or a thumb rule that tells you approximately how many years it will take for your money to double at a given rate or return:
Years to double = 72 /Interest Rate or Return on an asset
For example, if an asset is compounding 6% annually, it will take approximately 12 years (72/6%) for that asset to double in value.
* Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel launched IAS with the stirring words: “You will not have a united India, unless you have a good All India service, which has the Independence to speak out its mind.” Induction into the IAS started in 1948. The two guiding leitmotifs were: Unity of India and independence of mind - members of the service must put across their points of views without fear or favour, and must be non-partisan in their approach.
* Dr Yellapragada Subbarow's elder brother and younger brother both died due to tropical sprue in the span of 8 days. He subsequently discovered folic acid as a cure for tropical sprue. He discovered methotrexate (in 1947), a chemotherapy drug still used today and also used for rheumatoid arthritis, and diethyl carbamazine (DEC), the only effective drug for treating filariasis. Aminopterin, “first-ever anticancer drug,” was marketed by Lederle Laboratory 1953 to 1964 for the indication of pediatric leukemia. For this discovery and contribution, Dr. Subbarao can be called the father of targeted cancer chemotherapy. Methotrexate, a compound closely related to Aminopterin, was synthesized by Dr. Subbarao. The drug was less toxic than aminopterin and began to replace it. It continues to be on the WHO’s list of Essential medicines.
* Anna Rajam Malhotra née George was the first woman Indian Administrative Service officer (1950). On average, women constitute over one-third of the strength of an IAS batch now.
* Shalini Santhosh Kumar is the founder of Early Foods along with her mother. The company manufactures porridges, cookies and teething sticks.
* Vicco Group of Companies (Vishnu Industrial Chemical Company) was founded by late Shri K.V. Pendharkar in 1952. Keshav Pendharkar, owned a grocery store in Nagpur, Maharashtra. At the age of 55, he decided to shut shop and move to Mumbai to start a “chemical-free” alternative to “cosmetic” brands. Today, Vicco exports to 45 countries. It has over 40 products in its portfolio and factories in Thane, Nagpur and Goa. In a ₹10,000 crore toothpaste market, Pendharkar estimates Vicco occupies only a 5% share. Vicco roped in actor Alia Bhatt as its brand ambassador, releasing a remix of its old toothpaste jingle in a “modern” setting. The company produced a weekly show, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, for Doordarshan in 1984.
* Rev. James Douglas Tytler, commonly referred to as J. D. Tytler was an Indian educationist of Scottish descent. He founded the Delhi Public School in New Delhi (in 1949), and several other schools like the Summer Fields School . The expansion of the DPS system, into what has become one of India's largest chains of private schools, began in his lifetime, in 1972. He acted in the Merchant-Ivory film Shakespeare Wallah. Jagdish Tytler, the politician and former Union minister, is his adopted son.
* Jagdish Tytler "very probably" had a hand in organising attacks on the Sikh community in Delhi after Sikh bodyguards assassinated the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. On 31 October 1984, Congress Party officials provided assailants with voter lists, school registration forms, and ration lists. 3-time MP Sajjan Kumar was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on 17 December 2018 for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
* In 1986, Rajiv Gandhi founded the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya System, which is a Central government-based education institution that provides rural populations with free residential education from grades six to twelve. JNVs are fully residential and co-educational schools affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). JNVs exist all over India (660+), with the exception of Tamil Nadu.
* The 32-month presence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka resulted in the deaths of 1100 Indian soldiers and over 5000 Sri Lankans. The cost for the Indian government was estimated at over ₹10.3 billion.
* The Shah Bano case (1985) triggered controversy about the extent of having different civil codes for different religions in India. The Supreme Court had invoked Section 125 of Code of Criminal Procedure, which applies to everyone regardless of caste, creed, or religion. It ruled that Shah Bano be given maintenance money, similar to alimony. The Court also regretted that article 44 of the Constitution of India in relation to bringing of Uniform Civil Code in India remained a dead letter and held that a common civil code will help the cause of national integration by removing disparate loyalties to laws which have conflicting ideologies. This case caused the Congress government, with its absolute majority, to pass the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 which diluted the judgment of the Supreme Court and restricted the right of Muslim divorcées to alimony from their former husbands for only 90 days after the divorce (the period of Iddah in Islamic law). Rajiv Gandhi's colleague Arif Mohammad Khan who was INC member and a minister in Gandhi's cabinet resigned from the post and party in protest.
* Between 20th March and 3rd April, the president and director of Franklin Templeton India, Mr. Vivek Kudva redeemed ₹ 40 cr. of investments in his and his family’s name, in the struggling debt funds of Franklin. Kudva asked the Franklin team for the liquidity profile and other non-public information about the debt funds. According to SEBI, this was not public information and clearly showed that Franklin needed to borrow to pay back for redemptions. Kudva and his wife, Roopa Kudva (ex-CEO of CRISIL and a senior exec at Omidyar networks) are fined ₹ 7 Crores. They must also transfer back about ₹ 22 crores back to an escrow account to SEBI. SEBI will release money back to them in the same proportion, when money is released from the underlying funds which are going through liquidations. - Capital Mind
* In India, about 25 districts account for half the wealth in the country, if you go by bank balances. There are 756 districts.
* One of the largest sellers on Amazon.in is a company called Cloudtail, a business indirectly 76 per cent -- owned by an investment firm controlled by the Murthy family. The remaining quarter of Cloudtail is owned by Amazon.
* With New York’s classic industries suffering mass collapse, the Amazon warehouse, called JFK8, absorbed hotel workers, actors, bartenders and dancers, paying nearly $18 an hour. Driven by a new sense of mission to serve customers afraid to shop in person, JFK8 helped Amazon smash shipping records, reach stratospheric sales, and book the equivalent of the previous three years’ profits rolled into one. That success, speed and agility were possible because Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, had pioneered new ways of mass-managing people through technology, relying on a maze of systems that minimized human contact to grow unconstrained. - New York Times
* Biomimicry is the imitation of natural biological designs or processes in engineering or invention.
* Calotropis gigantea is a poisonous plant. People use the bark and root bark for medicine. Given the potent bioactivity of calotropin, calotropis gigantea has been used as a folk medicine in India for many years, and has been reported to have a variety of uses. In Ayurveda, Indian practitioners have used the root and leaf of C. procera in asthma and also used in bacterial infection, swelling with redness, boils also and shortness of breath and the bark in liver and spleen diseases. The plant is reported as effective in treating skin, digestive, respiratory, circulatory and neurological disorders and was used to treat fevers, elephantiasis, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The milky juice of Calotropis procera was used against arthritis, cancer, and as an antidote for snake bite. At this time there is not enough scientific information to determine an appropriate range of doses for calotropis. Keep in mind that natural products are not always necessarily safe and dosages can be important. In Hindu mythology, it is considered the favourite flower of Lord Shiva and hence akada (arka) flowers are commonly offered to the deity.
* The arrival of the Pied Crested Cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus, also called Jacobin Cuckoo) in the Himalayan foothills has traditionally been seen as heralding the onset of the monsoon. Farmers have traditionally relied on the arrival of the pied cuckoo as a signal to sow seeds, as they know that the monsoon will be upon them soon. This signal is never wrong, because the pied cuckoo arrives in India riding the monsoon wind.
* "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" - Theodore Roosevelt
* "Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest." - Mark Twain
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