This Week I Learned - Week #144

This Week I Learned -

* Visual Studio Team Services Features Timeline lists significant features delivered to Visual Studio Team Services and the corresponding version of Team Foundation Server.

* Azure Resource Manager templates can be used to deploy your application by using either Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, REST API, or the Azure portal.

* Between 2008 and April 2014, Amazon lowered its prices an unprecedented 42 times.

* Even as Freshdesk directly competes with New York Stock Exchange-listed entities Zendesk and Salesforce.com, investors are betting big on the company’s feature-rich software products that are available at affordable prices. The five-year-old company recently launched its second software product Freshservice, an internal IT help desk for employees.

* Microsoft will stop supporting  Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 next week, making them vulnerable to hackers. Users can still upgrade to version 11.

* There are more than 180,000 Drone Users Registered in F.A.A. Database

* In 1989, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed became India's first Muslim home minister in the VP Singh government. It was during his tenure that the controversial Armed Forces Special power Act was enforced in Jammu and Kashmir.  The revocation of this Act is one of the key slogans of his Jammu and KAshmir People's Democratic Party, which he formed along with daughter Mehbooba Mufti in 1999 - NDTV

* Netflix went live with its streaming television service in nearly every country across the world ...except China, home to nearly a quarter of the world’s broadband households.

* China’s state-run news agency Xinhua said that Microsoft was suspected in 2014 of causing computer compatibility problems by not fully disclosing information about its Windows operating system and Microsoft Office suite of applications. “According to Chinese law,” the article said, “incompatibility without advance warning to customers could be regarded” as being anticompetitive - NY Times

* Kids' playgrounds across Germany are notable for the lack of noisy children as parents and teachers fear neighbours' reprisals.

* About 85% of the world's Muslims are Sunnis - differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims

* Models suggest that both a neutral year and La Niña are equally likely in the second half of 2016, with a repeat of El Nino the least likely outcome. Even a ‘neutral year’ (neither El Nino nor La Niña) could likely ensure safe passage of the monsoon, which was a disaster in the year just past after being hit hard by one of the strongest El Nino events in the past 50 years.

* “The budget of a film is almost the same as its marketing expense, these days" - Madhavan

* “The phone’s home screen is the most valuable real estate on the planet on a per square millimetre basis” - Ravi Gururaj, entrepreneur, angel investor, chairman, Nasscom Product Council.

* India is expected to be the largest smartphone market phone after China and ahead of the US by 2017

* Experts point out that the app-only strategy has worked well for services-led businesses such as transport (taxi-hailing services Ola and Uber), personal finance (MoneyView, Chillr), news (Inshorts, Dailyhunt) and fitness (HealthifyMe, Orobind) because the use of such apps is high in metro cities.

* Kindle Word Wise helps build a child's vocabulary by defining difficult words right above the text, so children can keep reading with fewer interruptions. Word Wise easily adjusts to match the number of hints to each child's reading ability. Not just children, it also makes it easier for non-native English language readers to understand challenging books more quickly when they are available in Kindle format

Oil price fluctuations and petrol prices in India