This Week I Learned - Week #161

This Week I Learned -

* Azure SQL Database allows you to store JSON in standard textual format, use standard SQL language for querying JSON data

* Azure Media Services now has a Video Summarization feature based on the Azure Video Thumbnails Media Processor which lets you create a short series of clips or “highlights” for a video.

* Azure Media Analytics has released Video OCR feature in Preview. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the conversion of visual text from video into editable, searchable digital text. Video OCR detects text content in video files and generates text files for your use - Microsoft DX India Blog

* If there is a legitimate reason you must have an account named Administrator in an Azure VM you can add the account within the VM post creation and it will function as normal. It is only during creation the use of Administrator as the account name is blocked.

* Certain license-included Oracle VMs on Azure will stop being available. You will need to obtain from Oracle, or one of its authorized resellers, the appropriate license(s) to the Oracle products on your deployed VMs before May 30, 2016 & inform Microsoft or else they may terminate your use of your deployed VMs on May 31, 2016, without further notice.

* Apple doesn’t let you change your default browser, so none of that matters. Whenever you click a link in your email or text messages, Safari and only Safari will launch. Apple says it helps maintain an integrated experience. Also, third-party iOS browsers including Chrome have to use Safari’s browsing engine - WSJ

* Office Lens trims, enhances and makes pictures of whiteboards and docs readable, and saves them to OneNote. You can use Office Lens to convert images to PDF, Word and PowerPoint files too. It is available for Windows 10 Mobile, Android & iOS

* Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the Government of India. The number serves as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in India. Aadhaar letter received via India Post and e-Aadhaar downloaded from UIDAI website are equally valid. Aadhaar API can be used for user authentication

* The expense ratio is the annual fee that all mutual funds charge their unit holders. This ratio is expressed as a percentage of the fund value. The expense ratio continuously impacts the NAV of a fund. Every day, the published NAV is net of the expense ratio, i.e., the expense is debited from the fund on a daily basis and the NAV is adjusted (decreased) to reflect this debit. It should be noted that by doing it this way, an investor would pay the cost of investing in a fund in proportion to the number of days she is invested in the fund. For instance, if an investor invests in a fund for six months, then the charges incurred will be half the annual expense ratio for the fund - Live Mint

* "in some of the IIMs, more than 95 percent are engineers."

* Camels don't store water in their humps; it's actually full of fat! Camels can go up to three weeks without food — using the fat storage as fuel. When the fat is depleted, the bump on their back is no more!

* An average person could live for about eight weeks on water alone, give or take about a week for an over- or underweight person, respectively. When the body is deprived of new fuel (i.e., food), it breaks into its energy reserves to keep going. The body stores energy in the form of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. After one day without food, the body will have used up its carbohydrates, which are stored as glycogen in liver and muscle cells. After that, it's on to the fat reserves. Your average Joe/Jane, weight-wise, has enough fat reserves to live for four to six weeks without food. After that, the body begins to use its protein reserves (basically, the body itself). Body proteins are used up at a much faster rate than fat, and you could really only get another two to three weeks out of protein. At that point, however, you can't really call it living since so much irreparable damage has been done to the body, including the brain - Go Ask Alice!

* The constitution of Bhutan specifies that 60% of the country must remain forested

* It is a myth that a mother bird abandon her young if touched by a human. Most birds have a poorly developed sense of smell.   One exception: vultures, who sniff out dead animals for dinner.

* In 2009, when I (Nandita Das) was on the Marrakech International Film Festival jury, our president, Abbas Kiarostami, the master filmmaker from Iran, gave a poignant speech at the opening ceremony. In essence he said, “I want to apologise to all the filmmakers whose films we will judge. I recognise the fact that our opinions are subjective and only the films that stand the test of time will be the true winners. But till then, we have been given the uncomfortable task of judging your films. For this, as the jury president, I am sorry.”

* "..responses to any work of art or literature are more often a reflection of one’s own conditioning—perceptions, experiences and exposures" - Nandita Das