This Week I Learned - Week #28 2025

This Week I Learned - 

* AI can be used to reverse-engineer an application without having access to its source code. However, AI is an accelerator, not an automator. AI is a powerful force multiplier.

* If you're working with technical documentation, software development, or any field where visualizing processes and systems is important, Mermaid syntax can be a very powerful and efficient tool. It is a Markdown-inspired text-based language for generating diagrams and charts. Instead of dragging and dropping shapes in a visual editor, you describe your diagram using plain text, and Mermaid then renders that text into a professional-looking visual. Mermaid supports a wide range of common diagrams, including:

• Flowcharts: For processes, workflows, and decision trees.
• Sequence Diagrams: To show interactions between different components or participants over time.
• Class Diagrams: For object-oriented programming structures.
• Gantt Charts: For project planning and timelines.
• State Diagrams: To visualize how a system changes states based on events.
• Entity-Relationship (ER) Diagrams: For database design.
• User Journey Diagrams: To map out user experiences.
• Git Graphs: To visualize Git branching and merging.
• Pie Charts: For simple data visualization.
• Mindmaps: For brainstorming and organizing ideas.

* You can copy the Mermaid syntax to use in documentation platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or Notion that support Mermaid diagrams. You can try it out in the Mermaid Live Editor.

* "...the abundance of AI generated art also makes me so much more determined that I want to hire an excellent designer as soon as I can. People will always value well crafted products. AI might raise the bar for everybody all at once, but it's the act of careful deliberation and very intentional creation that sets you apart from everybody else." - Armin Ronacher, Austrian open source software programmer and the creator of the Flask web framework for Python

Orange is a visual drag-and-drop tool for 

• Data visualization
• Machine Learning
• Data mining

* Just a QR code allows you to create a  QR code in your browser without any server interaction

* QRSVG allows you to fully customise a QR code and is also available as a JavaScript library

* How to read QR codes without a computer.

* Smart glasses can be an accessibility aid for the non-sighted

* YouTube has a program known as Content ID to identify videos protected by copyright. It allows copyright holders to block the videos, share in advertising sales of the videos or receive data about who views the videos. Over the years, YouTube has paid billions of dollars to rights holders. YouTube reported flagging 2.2 billion videos last year and said rights holders permitted about 90 percent of those videos to stay on the platform. - NYT

* French IT services firm Capgemini, which has over half of its 3.4 lakh employees in India, is acquiring business process management pioneer WNS for $3.3bn. WNS was founded in 1996. Over 44,000 of WNS’ 65,000 employees are based in India. A decade ago, it had acquired Igate for $4 billion. 

* AnandTech was founded in April 1997 by then-l4-year-old Anand Lal Shimpi. It was an online computer hardware magazine that was dissolved in 2024.

* Capgemini currently has 175,000 employees in the country and is planning a gross addition of 45,000 in 2025.

* The southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, home to DeepSeek and Alibaba, has become the center of China's AI frenzy. Liangzhu, a quiet suburb of Hangzhou is a hot spot for entrepreneurs and tech talent lured by low rents and proximity to tech companies. Graduates from Hangzhou’s Zhejiang University have become sought-after employees at Chinese tech firms.

* Rock n’ roll barely registered for Gen Z in Apple Music’s Top 500 most-streamed songs of the last decade, with hip-hop, pop, and R&B dominating the list.

* There are two types of heat that influence how temperature is experienced: external or environmental heat and internal or metabolic heat. The intensity of the working class’ routines combined with exposure to the sun results in them experiencing drastically higher temperatures. The heat index indicates how much heat stress you’re suffering, not just the air temperature. When the air is hot, your body sweats, and the sweat cools the skin when it evaporates. If the air is also humid, sweat won’t evaporate well, so your body will cool more slowly. Thus you will experience more heat stress. The heat index combines temperature and humidity in a formula to estimate this stress-related temperature. When sweat evaporates, the water molecules enter the air, cooling the body in a process called evaporative cooling. But in coastal areas, the atmosphere is already saturated with evaporated seawater which leaves nowhere for these water molecules to go. This is what makes humidity discomfiting. - The Hindu

* Burning candles and incense is a common source of indoor PM2.5 pollution

* Six main pollutant concentrations used for calculating AQI are PM2.5; PM10; O3; CO; SO2; and NO2

* India in Numbers -

- India’s medical care inflation rate is estimated at 12-14%, the highest in Asia.

- June data for the mutual fund industry also showed that SIP assets under management (AUM) were 20.6% of the total MF industry AUM.

- With around 12,000 beds across 49 hospitals, Manipal Hospitals, backed by Ranjan Pai, stands as one of India’s largest healthcare networks.

- Medical treatment is six times costlier in the private sector compared to that in govt hospitals.

- Annual fees in UP govt medical colleges are Rs 40,000. In private colleges, the average is Rs 12 lakh. 

- South Central Railway (SCR) earned a staggering Rs 698 crore through cancellation charges between 2021 and 2025. The numbers suggest cancelled tickets contribute close to 3.5% of SCR’s annual passenger revenue.

- Guru Purnima holds special significance for Buddhists as it marks the day Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon at Sarnath. After attaining enlightenment, he reunited with his five former companions and shared the Dharmachakrapravartana Sutra, leading to their enlightenment and the formation of the first Buddhist monastic Sangha.