This Week I Learned - Week #4 2024

This Week I Learned - 

* Azure Migrate application and code assessment tool for .NET (or AppCAT for short) allows you to assess .NET source code, configurations, and binaries of your application to identify potential issues and opportunities when migrating an app to Azure. AppCAT is available in two “flavors” – as a Visual Studio extension and as a .NET CLI tool.  

* On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models - a 12 page report from the Center for Research on Foundation Models (CRFM) at Stanford University 

* The only way for paid subscribers to report an OpenAI issue is through their chatbot developed using GPT-3 at help.openai.com

* The expanding use of artificial intelligence could also influence how we book online, what happens when flights are canceled or delayed and even how much we pay for tickets.

* As of 2022, the number of developers on GitHub in India was more than eight million. More than 10 million software projects from around the world depend on packages created in India. Kovid Goyal, the Principal developer of calibre and kitty has over 80+ Github Sponsors.

* cURL is a command line tool and library for transferring data with URL syntax, supporting HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS. It is included in almost every modern device–smartphones, cars, TVs, laptops, servers, gaming consoles, printers, and beyond. 

* A Wikimedian, Mangus Manske made a "streaming service" type website full of freely licensed films on Wikimedia Commons - WikiFlix

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* U.S. drug prices are nearly double those in other well-off countries

* E.V. batteries struggle in very cold weather, leading to long lines and frustration at charging stations.

* A record 4.7 billion passengers are expected to fly globally in 2024, according to the International Air Transport Association.

* The grass pea is among the most drought and flood-tolerant legumes in the world. It is a particularly important crop in areas that are prone to drought and famine, and is thought of as an 'insurance crop' as it produces reliable yields when all other crops fail. The seeds contain a neurotoxin that causes lathyrism, a neurodegenerative disease, if eaten as a primary protein source for a prolonged period.

* Basically everything in our solar system orbits ONE thing. Earth orbits the Sun. The Moon orbits the Earth. Etc.  If you are a body in the solar system, you hula hoop one bigger thing. Something that orbits a star and a planet at once is called a quasi-moon. Earth has at least seven different quasi moons dancing around us right now. Quasi-moons can switch planets.  - From a thread by Latif Nasser 

* Khalil Gibran (1883 – 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced kah-LEEL ji-BRAHN), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist; he was also considered a philosopher, although he himself rejected the title. He is best known as the author of The Prophet, which was first published in the United States in 1923 and has since become one of the best-selling books of all time, having been translated into more than 100 languages. Born to a Maronite Christian family, young Gibran immigrated with his mother and siblings to the United States in 1895. In 1904, Gibran's drawings were displayed for the first time at Day's studio in Boston, and his first book in Arabic was published in 1905 in New York City. Gibran studied art in Paris from 1908 to 1910. While there, he came in contact with Syrian political thinkers promoting rebellion in Ottoman Syria after the Young Turk Revolution; some of Gibran's writings, voicing the same ideas as well as anti-clericalism, would eventually be banned by the Ottoman authorities. In 1911, Gibran settled in New York, where his first book in English, The Madman, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1918, with writing of The Prophet or The Earth Gods also underway. Gibran's life has been described as one "often caught between Nietzschean rebellion, Blakean pantheism and Sufi mysticism." Gibran "was not entirely in favour of socialism (which he believed tends to seek the lowest common denominator, rather than bringing out the best in people)"

Kahlil Gibran's drawing of Mary Haskell, his confidante and source of inspiration

* The best way to have something genuine and thoughtful to say is to do good research, to keep yourself invested in the flow of information, to seek perspectives you don't yet understand and may not always agree with, to do a fair amount of brutal introspection, to get after things that feel just a little over your head and to be willing to step down from the pedestal of authority and into the wilds of good conversation. Some people are naturally better at this than others, but you can always get better.  - Lauren Christiansen 

* The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer  hardware industry." - Henry Petroski

* Humor is like a slap on one cheek and a kiss on the other - Rohan Chakravarty

😉 MVP stands for Maximum Value Proposition - Sanjeev NC