This Week I Learned - Week #30 2025
This Week I Learned -
* The Web Platform Status web site allows web developers to query and track features shipped in major browsers.
* Appwrite.io is an open-source, all-in-one development platform that provides built-in backend infrastructure and web hosting, all conveniently managed in one place.
* GitHub Apps are tools that extend GitHub's functionality. GitHub Apps can do things on GitHub like open issues, comment on pull requests, and manage projects. They can also do things outside of GitHub based on events that happen on GitHub. For example, a GitHub App can post on Slack when an issue is opened on GitHub. Once you authorize a GitHub App, the app can act on your behalf. The situations in which a GitHub App acts on your behalf vary according to the purpose of the GitHub App and the context in which it is being used. For example, an integrated development environment (IDE) may use a GitHub App to interact on your behalf in order to push changes you have authored through the IDE back to repositories on GitHub.
* Every subreddit has its own rules, which makes moderation a tricky task. In this competition, you’ll build models that predict whether a Reddit comment broke a rule, based on real data and rule types inspired by actual subreddit guidelines. The latest Kaggle challenge is about creating a binary classifier that can handle the quirks of different communities.
* Microsoft's AI Agents for Beginners Course has 11 lessons to get started with building AI Agents.
* VS Code now supports the complete Model Context Protocol specification. Try the GitHub MCP server with its new remote capabilities and VS Code authentication integration, explore servers that provide rich prompts and resources, or build your own server that takes advantage of the full specification.
* OpenRouter is the first LLM marketplace with over 400+ Models and 60+ Providers now. It provides a unified interface for LLMs. There are currently APIs for 56 models available for free.
* Vibe Kanban lets you orchestrate Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex, and other AI coding agents in parallel, all from a single unified dashboard.
* Deskgate offers commercial remote desktop, employee monitoring and PC tracking software.
* Marker is an open-source tool that converts documents like PDF, image, PPTX, DOCX, XLSX, HTML, EPUB files in all languages to Markdown, JSON, chunks, and HTML quickly and accurately. It's a combination of OCR and PDF parsing, with the ability to leverage LLMs for handling challenging cases.
* Amazon Textract is a managed machine learning service that automatically extracts text, handwriting, and data from any document or image. It goes beyond simple optical character recognition (OCR) to identify, understand, and extract specific data from documents.
* ASHABot is an AI-driven initiative launched to empower rural health Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers in India with diagnostic and support tools. Built by the nonprofit Khushi Baby using technology developed and open sourced by Microsoft Research, the bot has been transforming how some of the country’s ASHA workers do their jobs.
* CoinDCX confirmed a $44 million security breach tied to one of its internal operational accounts, making it the second-largest crypto hack publicly disclosed by an Indian exchange. To recover the funds and track down those responsible, the company announced a recovery bounty of up to $11 million. This marks the second significant crypto security breach for an Indian exchange, coming after WazirX's 2022 revelation of a $230 million exploit.
* Excerpts from the video - The Mercator map, designed by Flemish cartographer Mercator, dates back to 1569. It wasn't meant to show the word fairly. It was made for European sailors to navigate across the ocean using straight lines.
Africa is actually 14 times larger than Greenland but looks almost the same size.
In psychology there's a concept called the North South bias. Studies show that we associate up with strength, power and leadership and down with weakness and inferiority. So, putting Europe at the top wasn't just a design choice. That's just a human choice and specifically a euroentric one
The Mercer projection is still the default for Google Maps and many GPS systems because it keeps shapes and angles consistent which makes digital mapping easier.
Design isn't just about aesthetics. It shapes how we think, what we value and who we think matters.
* Even after submitting all necessary hospitalisation documents, honestly disclosing pre-existing conditions, and meticulously adhering to every policy guideline, insurance companies can still unearth startling, and often unimaginable, reasons to deny a mediclaim. A Silvassa resident recently received one such flimsy reason for rejection: his Google Maps Timeline did not reflect his presence at the hospital mentioned in his documents — a situation that has raised serious concerns about digital privacy. Go Digit General Insurance's investigators somehow examined Vallabh Motka’s Google Maps Timeline and inferred that the hospital location was not recorded during the stated dates. - ToI
* The members of the K-pop band Big Ocean are deaf or hard of hearing. They’ve found success with a mix of singing and signing. They use the latest audio technology to help make their music, coordinate their choreography with flashing metronomes and vibrating watches, and incorporate Korean Sign Language into videos and performances. - NYT
* "It is harder to obtain a decisive victory in today's conflicts. As a result, wars drag on and goes on to economic warfare targeting whole populations. Mass deaths and civilian suffering due to wars are thus a consequence." - The Shortest History of War by Gwynne Dyer
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