This Week I Learned - Week #42 2022

This Week I Learned - 

* Azure Container Apps (ACA) vs Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

* AWS Global Accelerator (AGA) relies on ELB to provide the traditional load balancing features such as support for internal and non-AWS endpoints, pre-warming, and Layer 7 routing. However, while ELB provides load balancing within one Region, AWS Global Accelerator provides traffic management across multiple Regions. AWS Global Accelerator is a network layer service that combines advanced networking features with the dedicated AWS Global Network to improve your application network performance by up to 60%. Global Accelerator enables you to scale your network up or down.

* At the Ignite conference, Microsoft announced a new Kubernetes distribution branded AKS Lite targeting the IoT and edge workloads. AKS Lite shouldn't be mistaken as a lightweight version of AKS running in the cloud. It’s a platform built from the ground up to simplify the management of edge infrastructure. One of the key components of AKS Lite is a CNCF-conformant distribution based on upstream Kubernetes or K3S. The platform can run on an AMD, or Intel CPU enabled for virtualization with at least 8GB RAM. The operating system powering AKS Lite is an enterprise or pro version of Windows 10/11. Microsoft maintains the base OS images running Kubernetes. Linux VM images are based on CBL-Mariner, Microsoft’s own Linux distribution, while Windows VM images are based on Windows IoT. Providing lifecycle management of VMs based on CBL-Mariner and Windows IoT is another smart move that uniquely differentiates Microsoft’s edge story from the competition. AKS Lite is an alternative to enterprise customers considering Amazon’s EKS Anywhere, Google Distributed Cloud Edge, Red Hat OpenShift, and VMware Tanzu.

* To provide an inclusive experience for all users, YouTube set out to improve performance metrics such as Core Web Vitals through lazy-loading and code modernization. Web Vitals is an initiative by Google to provide unified guidance for quality signals that are essential to delivering a great user experience on the web. The Chrome User Experience Report collects anonymized, real user measurement data for each Core Web Vital. This data enables site owners to quickly assess their performance without requiring them to manually instrument analytics on their pages, and powers tools like PageSpeed Insights, and Search Console's Core Web Vitals report.

* Google offers a range of free learning content in areas Digital Marketing, Career Development & Data as part of its Digital Unlocked program.

* Google has attracted its largest fine, Rs 1,338 crore, from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for violating the Competition Act on 20 October. The fine was leveled for abusing its dominant position in multiple markets with its Android mobile operating system and was based on information provided by three young digital economy enthusiasts, all lawyers. In July 2018, the European Commission [the EU’s competition watchdog] imposed one of its largest fines on Google of 4.34 billion Euros for violating EU antitrust rules. - The Print

* It's amazing that Github directly shows GeoJSON data on a Bing Map making it easy to visualize. CSV files uploaded to Github are shown as a table - searchable & sortable online.

* GeoJSON is an extension of the JSON data format and represents geographical data. Using this utility, you can store geographical features in GeoJSON format and render them as a layer on top of the map. 

* Whether you like the portability of GeoJSON or the feed-interactivity of GeoRSS, you can easily add them as a visualization layer to your Google Maps. 

* QGIS (Quantum Geographic Information System) is a free, open-source software that allows users to create, edit, visualize, analyze, and publish geospatial information.

* Google Maps' map data format of choice is KML, but they do support many other formats including GPX. GPX, also commonly referred to as GPS eXchange format, is an open standard XML type that contains Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates such as waypoints, tracks, and routes on top of additional map data.

* The alloy stainless steel is made of 3 parts: iron, carbon & chromium. Chromium at 10.5% or higher gives stainless steel its shine. Stainless steel has small variations in other metals like nickel, manganese or molybdenum added to highlight some of its properties. For example, the stainless steel used in knives is slightly different from stainless steel used in shaving razors vs what is used in surgical instruments and so on. You will see 200, 300 or 400 series. The SS 200 series is made by replacing Nickel with manganese as a cost cutting measure. The SS 300 series is considered the best of the food grade, esp 304 and 316. Both 200 and 300 series are not induction compatible, but SS 400 is.  SS 400 is however not used for all cookware because it is less corrosion resistant - which if you think about it is the super power for stainless steel - you can cook acidic foods without worry of leaching when compared to cast iron or aluminium. An easy way to detect induction-compatibility instead of worrying about all these numbers is just see if a magnet sticks. 

* Induction cooktops heat your pan directly with an alternating magnetic current. China is the largest production market of induction cooktops with market share more than 70%

* How many continents are there? The answer depends on whom you ask and where you live. Ultimately though, there’s no authority on this matter. Continents are not something scientific, and there is no standard as to what exactly, the continents of the earth are. According to National Geographic, a continent is one of Earth's seven main divisions of land. The continents are, from largest to smallest: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Many geographers and scientists now refer to six continents, in which Europe and Asia are combined (because they're one solid landmass). In the United States, students learn that there are seven continents while in Europe, they are taught that there are actually only six continents - Africa, America, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania and Europe. In still other parts of the world, students are taught a five-continent model, which lists Africa, Europe, Asia, America and Oceania/Australia. This model includes North America, South America and Antarctica as part of America. Politically, Hawaii is part of the U.S. but is in Oceania rather than North America; Greenland is controlled by Denmark (for now) but is considered part of the North American continent. The Russian Federation has territory in both Asia and Europe. However, due to the country's historical, cultural and political ties, it is typically considered a European country rather than an Asian one. The Ural Mountains are taken to separate Asia and Europe. The interlocking rings of the Olympic flag was created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the co-founder of the modern Olympic games. The five rings represented the five participating continents of the time: Africa, Asia, America, Europe, and Oceania. The United Nations Geoscheme classification identifies 6 regions: Asia, Africa, Europe (includes Russia), Latin America and the Caribbean (which includes South America, Central America, and the Caribbean), Northern America, and Oceania.

* According to the continental drift theory, moving tectonic plates may rearrange the pieces of the puzzle that are the Earth’s continents. What used to be one super continent, known as Pangaea has now been broken into 4, 5, 6, or 7 continents – depending on which side you’re more comfortable with. The continents are drifting at a rate of about an inch (2.5 centimeters) per year.

The Seven-Continent Model

* Ramsar Sites are wetlands of international importance that have been designated under the criteria of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands for containing representative, rare or unique wetland types or for their importance in conserving biological diversity. The Ramsar Convention, signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, is the only global treaty that focuses specifically on wetlands. Today 170 nations are signatories to the Ramsar Convention. Sundarban Wetland is located within the largest mangrove forest in the world. It is the largest Ramsar Site in India. 

* America is named after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed around the tip of South America in 1501. In doing so, he realized that North and South America were separate landmasses and not connected to Asia, as many people believed.

* A highly polarizing figure, Charles de Gaulle, is probably the only political/military leader of the 20th century to have survived as many as 30 assassination attempts. He was a French Soldier, statesman, and a key architect of the Fifth Republic who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II. He rewrote the Constitution of France. 

* In 1914, more than 1 million Indian soldiers served in World War I for Great Britain, more than 75000 died

* Hinduism does not prohibit a non-vegetarian diet. While Hindu scripture doesn't make a particular ruling between non-vegetarianism and vegetarianism, some of the scriptures deem a vegetarian diet to be ideal based on the concept of ahimsa, non-violence and compassion towards all beings.

* The earliest Vedas, the Hindu sacred texts from the Second Millennium B.C., do not prohibit the slaughter of cattle. By 200 A.D. the status of Indian cattle had undergone a transformation. The Brahman priesthood exhorted the population to venerate the cow and forbade them to abuse it or to feed on it. By 1000 A.D., all Hindus were forbidden to eat beef. - India's Sacred Cow [PDF]

* Jambudvīpa or the Continent of the Jamun Trees, is a name often used to describe the territory of Greater India in Ancient Indian sources. The term is based on the concept of dvīpa, meaning "island" or "continent" in Ancient Indian cosmogony. The term Jambudvipa was used by Ashoka to represent his realm in the third century BCE.

* António Costa, prime minister of Portugal is of Indian descent. As with Rishi Sunak, Costa rose to power not because of his ethnic background and political capital, but despite of it. 

* Like 16 of Britain’s 17 university-educated postwar prime ministers, Rishi Sunak went to Oxford. He is the first British prime minister of color; the first who is openly and proudly not a Christian; the first child of two immigrants, an NHS doctor and a pharmacist; his grandmother sold her wedding jewelry to pay for her journey to England in the 1960s. When India was an imperial possession, two Parsis were elected to Parliament. But it was not until 1987 that another person of color entered the House of Commons.