This Week I Learned - Week #167

This Week I Learned -

* A web page I built with StupidTable jQuery plugin to sort a table was about three times lighter than the more feature-rich DataTables jQuery plugin

* Nice code sample of an Azure Function that uses a blob trigger, sends the uploaded object to be analysed by Cortana Intelligence and stores the results in a DocumentDB collection.

* It is possible to get data (from a relational database) into and out of a Google Sheet programmatically

* Windows App Studio which makes is easy to build a Windows Phone app without coding now provides a REST API Data Source feature that allows users to integrate apps with third party APIs.

* Power BI is an evolution of the add-ins previously available in Excel: Power Pivot, Power Query, and Power View. You can use Power BI with or without Excel—you no longer are dependent on the version of Microsoft Office installed at your company. Power BI is not just a tool: it is an ecosystem that can integrate existing corporate BI with Self-Service BI - from the Intro of the free ebook Introducing Microsoft Power BI [PDF]

* Downloading MeasureUp practice tests to virtual machines is prohibited.

* Microsoft beat Apple to buy PowerPoint for $14 million (in cash) in 1987, its first significant acquisition. Robert Gaskins helped invent PowerPoint at Forethought Inc. in 1984. After the sale Robert reported directly to Bill Gates, heading up Microsoft’s business unit in Silicon Valley. He managed the growth of PowerPoint to $100 million in annual sales before his retirement in 1993.

* Kaggle hosts competitions provided by industry and academia to find machine learning solutions on different data sets. It also hosts publicly available datasets like the Enron email dataset (354.72 MB) which contains approximately 500,000 emails generated by employees of the Enron Corporation. It was obtained by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission during its investigation of Enron's collapse.

* Active noise canceling actually uses a mic to listen to ambient noise and then plays the inverse sound wave into the headset, "canceling" the ambient noise

* How drivers of cab aggregation services game the system to create artificial scarcity and trigger surge pricing - drivers concentrate in one location, switch off their app, and create artificial scarcity. They use the second phones to keep track on the rising prices. Once the surge begins, they log back again.

* Locally grown food products are becoming more desirable than products sourced from far away...free-range livestock that are fed natural foods may be more desirable than cage-raised livestock that are fed a processed food

* Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Chief Executive Officer Pawan Agarwal is tasked with improving food testing facilities and working with food businesses to improve manufacturing practices and hygiene standards. He feels it is wrong for Indians to expect international food safety standards as it is impractical

* If you file your return on time, losses of this year can be set-off against gain of forthcoming years. Supreme Court of India rejected a petition of Ms. J Jayalalitha, Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu against Madras High Court order to prosecute her for non filing of return of a firm in which she was a partner.

* A total of 28.7 million individuals filed income tax returns, of which 16.2 million did not pay any tax, leaving only about 12.5 million tax-paying individuals, which is just about 1 percent of the 1.23 billion population of India in the year 2013.  The Prime Minister of India urged tax officials — who are responsible for providing Rs 17 lakh crore to the government — to double the number of taxpayers to 10 crore from 5.43 crore (54.3 million) now. Google throws up 7 crore search results in response to the question 'How to pay tax in India' and 12 crore answers for 'How not to pay tax in India'.

* Labrador retriever is the most popular dog according to American Kennel Club which publishes an annual list of the most popular dog breeds in the United States, based on registration data for the nearly 200 breeds they officially recognize - WSJ