This Week I Learned - Week #9 2023

This Week I Learned - 

* “The Good and the Bad” series on the Altexsoft blog details the pros and cons of the popular technologies.

* Outlook uses OST (Offline Storage Table) and PST (Personal Storage Table) file formats to store the mailbox data on the local storage. OST allows offline access to the mailbox data, and thus, users can compose, draft or send new messages even when the system is offline or disconnected from the Exchange server. The changes made, while offline, are synchronized with the mailbox on the server, and messages (if sent while offline) are delivered to the recipients. However, PST doesn't allow access or changes to the mailbox items while the system is offline. OST files are encrypted by default with MAPIEntryID GUID key while PST files are not encrypted. Unlike the PST file, OST files cannot be imported or accessed through any Outlook account other than the original MAPI profile. However, you can access the OST file and convert it to Outlook-supported PST format or export it to live Exchange or Office 365 by using an OST to PST converter software. The offline Outlook Data File (.ost) is also saved at drive:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook whereas the default location of PST file in Windows 10 is drive:\Users\YourProfileName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\ or drive:\Users\username\Roaming\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

* Azure Load Testing is a fully managed load-testing service that enables you to generate high-scale load, gain-actionable insights, and ensure the resiliency of your applications and services regardless of where they're hosted.

* According to the Dynatrace Kubernetes in the wild report 2023, 73 percent of Kubernetes workloads in the cloud are run on commercial platforms that simplify the orchestrator adoption and maintenance.

* Kubernetes is becoming the platform for running almost anything; not just containerized microservices but also non-application (auxiliary) workloads like security controls, service meshes, messaging systems, and observability tools. As such, Kubernetes is emerging as the “operating system” of the cloud.

* Kubernetes was designed to make it simpler for a small group of people to manage a large constellation of applications by abstracting the underlying hardware. Barring a setup that confines your system to a scarce resource, it offers a level of resilience that customers ten years ago turned to public cloud providers for. Along with allowing users to update systems without going offline, it also offers capabilities for monitoring of services up and downstream, something that many microservice heavy organizations are now turning to third-party observability providers for. 

* Public cloud providers now offer physical server racks to clients who have jobs that are more efficient on-prem, or need to remain in-house for security and compliance reasons. Companies that once helped to migrate companies off local hardware now offer server-racks-as-a-service bundled with your public cloud offering, a truly full circle moment for the evolution of compute.

* In the world of hybrid cloud, middleware is like “mega clouds that provide infrastructure as a service (IaaS)-enabled middleware capabilities via APIs, which have become the new DLLs. So, for example, message queues, storage and security policies are open for developers to consume in applications running on the IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service).”

* Software architecture tools can be categorized into three groups: modelling tools, diagrams as code and diagramming tools. Modelling and diagrams as code tools are better suited for long-term documentation, while diagramming tools are better for quick one-off sketches. Modelling and diagrams as code have more structure and require more setup, while diagramming tools are more generic but require less thinking.

* IcePanel is a graphical web-based SaaS tool for collaboratively modelling software architectures using the C4 model.

* Structurizr builds upon “diagrams as code”, allowing you to create multiple diagrams from a single model using a number of tools and programming languages.

* Diagrams.net is a popular free diagramming tool with high levels of flexibility to draw anything from flow diagrams to blueprints of a house; with options to store data in locations of your choice.

* Lucidchart is a collaborative diagramming tool with templating and shape types to create many diagram types, such as flow charts, process flows, mind maps and more.

* The C4 model is an "abstraction-first" approach to diagramming software architecture, based upon abstractions that reflect how software architects and developers think about and build software.

* Spotify launched in Europe in 2008 and in the US in 2011. It paid the major record companies and used P2P technology to save on bandwidth costs. Instead of downloading a single song file from its own server to the user, Spotify in its initial years would search for copies of the song wherever it could find them, including the computers of other Spotify users.  P2P, a well-established Internet distribution system, served as an alternative that reduced Spotify's server resources and costs. Spotify shut down its peer-to-peer network that powered a significant part of the service in the desktop app in 2014 as it began to have enough servers spread around the world.

* Imperfect on purpose - While User Datagram Protocol or UDP is the most common transport protocol in streaming applications, Spotify instead uses TCP to take advantage of TCP's congestion controls and ability to re-send lost packets. To increase content delivery speed, Spotify built custom protocols that were much more efficient compared to HTTPS and TCP which had start delays. Spotify's desktop protocol codes in the client and backend were designed to keep the latency down giving it control over audiences' listening experience.

* Numerous key Internet applications use UDP, including: the Domain Name System (DNS), the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) and the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Voice and video traffic is generally transmitted using UDP.

* Ogg Vorbis is a fully open, non-proprietary, patent-and-royalty-free, general-purpose compressed audio format for mid to high quality audio and music at fixed and variable bitrates from 16 to 128 kbps/channel. This places Vorbis in the same competitive class as audio representations such as MPEG-4 (AAC). The Vorbis format has proven popular among supporters of free software. They argue that its higher fidelity and completely free nature, unencumbered by patents, make it a well-suited replacement for patented and restricted formats. Spotify initially used Vorbis lossy audio compression for its audio streams, but now uses AAC. 

* Spotify: A Product Story is a miniseries about product strategy, offering on a weekly basis, a glimpse into the decisions that have guided Spotify’s product evolution. Hosted by Gustav Söderström, Spotify's Chief R&D Officer, each episode tells the story of a pivotal product development or business decision. 

* Netflix has a fictionalized account of the development of Spotify called "The Playlist". The story is told through the eyes of different stake holders: the Founders, the Music Industry, Lawyer, Coder, Partner and Artist. 

* The co-founders of Spotify, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon became friends & got together to build Spotify after finding that they had common experiences of depression because of unexpected wealth and a lack of purpose.

* Spotify operates under a freemium business model (basic services are free, while additional features are offered via paid subscriptions). In December 2013, the company launched a new website, "Spotify for Artists, " explaining its business model and revenue data. Spotify gets its content from major record labels as well as independent artists and pays copyright holders royalties for streaming music. The company pays 70% of its total revenue to rights holders. Spotify for Artists states that the company does not have a fixed per-play rate; instead, it considers factors such as the user's home country and the individual artist's royalty rate. Spotify pays royalties based on their "market share": the number of streams for their songs as a proportion of total songs streamed on the service. Rights holders received an average per-play payout between $.000029 and $.0084. 

* SEBI is going after the finfluencer economy involved in manipulating the stock market starting with four YouTube Channels, viz., Midcap Calls, Profit Yatra, The Advisor, and Moneywise. SEBI has been able to establish the collusion and manipulation by 24 entities in the case of Sharpline and 31 entities in the case of Sadhna after a thorough investigation that revealed Rs 7 crores was spent on AdSense alone. To figure out the channel creators, SEBI sought information from Google, the holding company of YouTube. Google shared information regarding the accounts, including phone numbers, email ids, date of upload of the videos, and viewership numbers. SEBI identified three sets of people who made the stock manipulation possible: 

• MMDs or Misleading Message Disseminators—refers to the creators of YouTube channels. 
• NSs or Net Sellers—denote persons who held shares prior to the period under SEBI scrutiny and who traded in the shares during the period. 
• VCs or Volume Creators—signifying persons who bought or sold shares during the period.

- BQ Prime

* The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) barred 45 entities, including actor Arshad Warsi and his wife Maria Goretti, from the securities market in cases related to the manipulation of share prices of Sadhna Broadcast Ltd and Sharpline Broadcast Ltd. Arshad Warsi and his wife come in the category of Volume Creators. In the case of Sadhna Broadcast, Sebi said that actor Arshad Warsi made a profit of Rs 29.43 lakh, while his wife made gains of Rs 37.56 lakh. SEBI has impounded illegal gains to the tune of Rs 54 crore made by the entities, as per two separate interim orders. - ET

* Telangana Government has made datasets of several of its departments open

* Some forms of neurodivergence might lend themselves to certain careers. Neurodiverse people can contribute unique problem-solving approaches, an affinity for hard skills like data analysis, and a tendency toward perfectionism that can elevate overall quality. Many developers with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) feel their job is a perfect fit for how they think and approach problems. But for every quality that makes coding perfect for people with ADHD (or vice versa), there’s another that could represent a particular hurdle. For instance, ADHD can make people more vulnerable to inattentive mistakes, missed deadlines, or unfinished projects.

* ...insects have lasted so long – and in a manner more stable and sustainable than humans appear able to muster – precisely because they aren't encumbered with "thought".

* The Dunning-Kruger effect is a psychological paradox that we all often face in life: less competent people see themselves as professionals, while more competent people tend to doubt themselves and their abilities. The lower the skill level, the higher the self-confidence.

* "Ignorance breeds confidence more often than knowledge" - Charles Darwin