This Week I Learned - Week #156

This Week I Learned -

* Google Search uses Base64-encoded images. Base64 encoding will produce large output. The trade off with using Base64-encoded images in a web page is that you get instant image loading in exchange for inflating your page size slightly. What you don't want to be doing is using this for massive detailed images. Where it does shine is if your Web server is compressing output before delivering it. Because of the nature of Base64, it compresses exceptionally efficiently, so a dense amount of data like that will squash down to a very small size.

*  With HTTPS the hostname (api.somewebsite.com) is passed in the clear but the full URL is not (so it will not be susceptible to casual traffic sniffing attacks). In HTTPS, the actual URL is sent only after the SSL handshake has been performed. HTTPS uses TLS, which is Transport Layer Security. HTTP as a protocol, runs above the transport layer.

* A URL like "https://api.somewebsite.com/v1/something&key=YOUR-API-KEY" is commonly known as capability / secret URL. Capability URLs are a lot more secure than people give them credit for.

* Documents newly shared on Google Drive with links to third-party HTTPS websites, will no longer relay the original document’s URL

* In the age of Machine Learning it's important to treat all data as secure. It's just too easy to reveal minor details (like sleep schedules) from API emissions and other items traditionally thought of as "low risk."

* Before J K Rowling 's Harry Potter series was a commercial and critical hit, Rowling was struggling to make Potter's story come to fruition. Her manuscript was rejected by 12 different publishing houses before she finally found a publisher.

* Amazon Asia and Catamaran Ventures have jointly formed an entity called Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd to sell items such as books, phones and exclusive Amazon merchandise on Amazon.in under the seller name Cloudtail, according to documents available with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Cloudtail India is a fully owned unit of Prione Business Services Pvt. Ltd, the documents show. Prione, in turn, is owned by Catamaran Management Services Pvt. Ltd, the acting trustee of Hober Mallow Trust (51%), Amazon Asia Pacific Resources Pvt. Ltd (48%) and Amazon Eurasia Holdings (1%). Catamaran is the family-owned fund of Infosys Ltd co-founder Murthy. Amazon ..,Flipkart have...created a complex structure to try and comply with laws. WS Retail, a seller on Flipkart, was owned by Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (unrelated) until September 2012 - Live Mint

* Since the start of 2016, oil prices have swung between $27 and $42 per barrel, about a quarter of the 2008 peak crude oil price of $145.  India’s fiscal deficit has improved since the country saved nearly $70 billion on importing crude and other petroleum products in 2015.