This Week I Learned - Week #24 2023

This Week I Learned - 

* Oracle is offering free access to the OCI and Cloud Applications Business Process training and certifications, and two free certification exam attempts valid through Aug 31, 2023.

* Model is a fancy word for recipe - Making Friends with Machine Learning: The Entire Course (6h:22m), Cassie Kozyrkov

* Prompt engineering...differs from ChatGPT-style prompting because the prompts generated through prompt engineering are usually meant to be used repeatedly in high-volume, diverse situations in order to solve a specific problem reliably for an application.

* There is also a lot of skepticism about whether prompt engineering can truly be described as "engineering" or if it's just "witchcraft" spouted by hype-chasers. - Mitchell Hashimoto, co-founder HashiCorp

* "GPT-4 is a tool, not a creature. It's easy to get confused. ... GPT-4 and systems like it are good at doing tasks, not jobs." - Sam Altman

* Sample code and notebooks for Generative AI on Google Cloud

* Microsoft calls its Seeing AI app, Talking Camera for the Blind. Designed with and for the blind and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world by describing nearby people, text and objects. It is available for iPhone and iPad

* Levels.fyi is a platform which helps professionals make better career decisions. The site provides insights into salaries, career ladders, and allows searching for jobs by compensation data and benefits. When the founders were initially building Levels.fyi, they were not sure whether the site will be loved by users. They did not want to invest too much into technology to test their ideas and so they gravitated to Google Sheets and Google Forms. Google Sheets was used as the website's data back-end. Google Forms user interface was used to create the initial version of the site. Since Google Sheets has a powerful API, it was used to query data. JSON files were then built to display the data back to users. These tools offered the following advantages:

• Easy to use
• Integrated into Google Workspace
• Access control & exclusive file sharing
• Ability to build rapid prototypes
• Save time and money 

* Monkey patching is a technique used to dynamically update the behavior of a piece of code at run-time. A monkey patch is a way to extend or modify the runtime code of dynamic languages without altering the original source code. 

* The "PayPal Mafia" is a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and/or developed additional technology companies such as Tesla, Inc., LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, Affirm, Slide, Kiva, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer. PayPal's founders encouraged tight social bonds among its employees, and many of them continued to trust and support one another after leaving PayPal. An intensely competitive environment and a shared struggle to keep the company solvent despite many setbacks also contributed to a strong and lasting camaraderie among former employees. The PayPal Mafia phenomenon has been compared to the founding of Intel in the late 1960s by engineers who had earlier founded Fairchild Semiconductor after leaving Shockley Semiconductor. 

* YouTube founders Chad, Steve, & Jawed are part of the PayPal Mafia a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and/or developed technology companies. They launched YouTube in early 2005. In late 2005, Sequoia invested $3.5M into the company's Series A. In late 2006, only a year and a half after the company was started, the company was quickly acquired by Google for a whopping $1.65 billion dollars. In 2022, YouTube's revenue accounted for 11% of Google's total revenue. YouTube did $29.2 billion in revenue.

* UBS has bought Credit Suisse & this leads to just one dominant Swiss manager of money for the global elite. UBS initially will operate Credit Suisse as a separate bank. 

* Apps banned in China and their Chinese alternatives:

• Facebook  - WeChat 
• Instagram - DragonSocial 
• WhatsApp - QQ, owned by Tencent.
• Google - Baidu controls over 70% market share in the country.
• Amazon - Taobao and Tmall 
• YouTube - Youku and Tudou
• Twitter - Weibo 
• Quora - Zhihu 
• Google Maps - Baidu Maps

* Citizen science is public participation in scientific research. Use SciStarter.org, CitizenScience.gov, Zooniverse.org, or other sites and search engines to find projects

* The idea that non-scientists have a role to play isn’t new. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin gathered the observations of amateur naturalists around the world, often in the form of handwritten letters.1 This “crowdsourced” data-collection effort supported his work on evolution. Technological advances, however, have seen the scientific input of ordinary people boom in the past decade or so. Motivated volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are making a vital contribution to science by collecting, sharing, and analysing information about the natural world. Being a citizen scientist is an accessible, powerful and often enjoyable way to support a greener future. - BBC

* Merck, one of the world’s largest drug makers, has sued the US government over a new policy that seeks to cut medicine prices in the country.

* Millets are important crops in the semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa (especially in South India, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger). Millets may have been consumed by humans for about 7,000 years.  

* Finger millet or ragi originated in East Africa (Ethiopian and Ugandan highlands).

* India has over 100 million patients with diabetes.  Over 136 million Indians may be prediabetic. - ET

* Tater tots are grated potatoes formed into small cylinders and deep-fried, often served as a side dish. The name "tater tot" is a registered trademark of the American frozen food company Ore-Ida, but is often used as a generic term. "Tater" is short for potato.

* For Indian IT firms, age does matter: Only 1-2.5% employees in 50+ age group. The situation is different in the US or Europe. - Financial Express

* Rajesh Mehra along with brothers Ajay Mehra and Krishan Mehra launched the Jaquar brand famous for its bath fittings. It is named after Jai Kaur, the grandmother of the Mehra brothers.

* A. H. Wheeler & Co. Pvt. Ltd., commonly known as A. H. Wheeler or simply Wheeler, is an Indian-owned company that owns a bookstore chain. Co-founded by Émile Moreau, a French businessman, T. K. Banerjee, an Indian businessman, and others, in Prayagraj in 1877, it mainly operates from railway stations. A. H. Wheeler borrowed its name from the then-successful London bookstore and its owner, "Arthur Henry Wheelers", who was also a friend of Emile Moreau and helped him financially.

* Dr. Abdul Kalam Island, formerly known as Wheeler Island, is an island off the coast of Odisha, India, approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) east of the state capital Bhubaneswar.  The island was originally named after English commandant Lieutenant Hugh Wheeler. The Integrated Test Range missile testing facility is located on the island, and serves as the test facility for most of India's missiles. It is one among a group of five islands located in the Bay of Bengal, about 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of Chandipur in Balasore district, Odisha. The Odisha government leased the islands to DRDO for 99 years. Since the construction of the Integrated Test Range, entry to Abdul Kalam Island is restricted for the general public, and only DRDO personnel and Defence Ministry officials are permitted to travel to the island. Abdul Kalam Island is located close to the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, the world's largest rookery of the endangered olive ridley sea turtle. To protect the turtles, all lights at the facility are dimmed or masked during nesting season, and missile testing is restrained during the turtles' nesting and breeding season. Since the island is technically a shoal, seawater frequently causes sand-shifting. 

* Creativity is a function of "the library in your head". - Tinker Hatfield

* In real life, there are no right answers. The best we can do is make decisions in a way that feels reasonable. - Cassie Kozyrkov

* Goals rely on extrinsic motivation. But habits, once formed, operate automatically. Habits put our brains on autopilot. According to Charles Duhigg’s research, habits make up 40 percent of our waking hours. These actions add up and make us who we are. Habits form the foundation of productivity. - The Joys of Compounding, Goutam Baid

* Exercise is not an endgame.