Winter'25

My Winter Commandments 2024 ➡️

Productivity Imperatives

Question Every Requirement - Question every requirement by finding who made it and then questioning them relentlessly to rationally eliminate the requirement or make it less dumb.
Delete Every Part Or Process You Can - Delete every part or process you can. If you don’t have to add at least 10% of the deleted items back then you didn’t delete enough!
Simplify And Optimize - Simplify and optimize after deleting. Never simplify what shouldn’t exist!
Accelerate Cycle Time - Accelerate cycle time after simplifying.
Automate - Automate after questioning requirements, deleting parts and processes, and having shaken out the bugs. Corollaries
Work Hands-On - Work Hands-On is required for all technical managers
Challenge Each Other’s Work - Challenge each other’s work to produce better and more
It’s OK To Be Wrong - It’s OK to be wrong but never OK to be wrong with smug confidence.
Be Willing - Be willing to do anything you ever ask your workers to do.
Meet Lower Level Workers - Meet lower level workers for problems rather than their managers.
Seek Right Attitudes - Seek right attitudes when employing workers - skills can be taught, attitude NOT.
Operate With Urgency - Operate with urgency, accuracy, and speed in getting your job done.
Recognize Physical Constraints - Recognize physical constraints with it’s rules, all else is just recommendations.
from: the book “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson

Causes Of Death & crude rate per 1000 USA 2023 (provisional) Population 333,287,557

1 Diseases of the heart 2.0 (Heart attacks, Congenital heart disease, …) 2 Malignant neoplasms or tumors 1.8 (lung/breast, prostate, colorectal, pancreas, liver, stomach, …) 3 Accidents (unintentional injuries) .67 (motor vehicle accidents, poisoning, falls, …) 4 Cerebrovascular diseases .49 (Strokes (TIA), Brain aneurysms, …) 5 Chronic lower respiratory diseases .44 (COPD: chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, …) 6 Alzheimer disease .34 7 Diabetes mellitus .29 8 Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis .17 (the kidneys become inflamed) 9 Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis .16 10 COVID-19 .15 11 Intentional self-harm (suicide) .15 (firearms >50%, suffocation 26%, poisoning 12%) 12 Influenza and pneumonia .14 13 Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal (kidney) disease .13 14 Septicemia .12 (an infection that occurs when bacteria, viruses, or fungi enter the bloodstream) 15 Parkinson disease .12
prostate pancreas liver stomach kidney from: the CDC https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D176;jsessionid=707C92B4C8121D6F818C45682212

NATO phonetic alphabet

CHARACTER MORSE CODE TELEPHONY PHONIC(PRONUNCIATION) A - Alfa (AL-fah) B -** Bravo (BRAH-voh) C -- Charlie (CHAR-lee) or (SHAR-lee) D -** Delta (DELL-tah) or (DEL-tah) E * Echo (ECK-oh) or (EKK-oh) F - Foxtrot (FOKS-trot) G – Golf (Golf) H **** Hotel (HOH-tel) or (HO-tel) I ** India (IN-dee-ah) J — Juliett or Juliet (JEW-lee-ett) K -- Kilo (KEY-loh) L -* Lima (LEE-mah) M – Mike (Mike) N -* November (NO-vem-ber) or (NOH-vem-ber) O — Oscar (OSS-cah) or (OSS-car) P – Papa (PAH-pah) Q –*- Quebec (keh-BECK) R - Romeo (ROW-me-oh) S *** Sierra (see-AIR-rah) or (see-AIR-ah) T - Tango (TANG-go) U - Uniform (YOU-nee-form)or(OO-nee-form) V - Victor (VIK-tah) or (VIK-ter) W *– Whiskey (WISS-key) X -- Xray (ECKS-ray) or (EKS-ray) Y -– Yankee (YANG-key) Z – Zulu (ZOO-loo) or (ZOO-luu) 1 —- One (WUN) 2 — Two (TOO) 3 – Three (TREE) 4 - Four (FOW-ER) 5 ***** Five (FIFE) 6 - Six (SIX) 7 – Seven (SEV-EN) 8 — Eight (AIT) 9 —- Nine (NIN-ER) 0 —– Zero (ZEE-RO)
from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

Useful Mnemonics

Physics - “We guarantee certainty, clearly referring to, this light mnemonic.” represents the speed of light c in meters per second through the number of letters in each word: 299,792,458 m/s (one Astronomical Unit, sun to earth distance, is ~150,000,000 km or 150 Gm), light travels at ~300,000 km/sec = 500 sec. for light to reach earth; one light year = 9.461e+12 km = 9.461 Pm). The average distance to the Moon is 384,400 kilometers or (1.28 seconds)*c
Physics - Radiowave micro-men In Vegas Use X-ray Gadgets. The electromagnetic spectrum: electromagnetic spectrum frequency range and wavelength range for radio waves with usage examples from lowest frequency to highest frequency devices what is the wavelength of a 10 EHz gamma ray radio waves (a few 3kHz to 300GHz, 100km to 1mm) - submarine communication, radio, television, satellite communication, mobile phone networks and radar microwaves (300MHz to 300GHz, 1m to 1mm) - microwave ovens, radar systems, satellite communications, and diathermy infrared light (300GHz to 400THz, 1mm to 780nm) - thermal imaging, remote controls, fiber optic, infrared astronomy, LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) uses near-infrared at ~905nm or ~1550nm visible light (430THz to 750THz, 700nm to 400nm) - seeing, photography, lighting, optical communication ultraviolet light (800THz and 30PHz, 400nm - 10nm) - sterilization, detecting, photolithography, vitamin D X-rays (30PHz - 30EHz, 10nm to 10pm) - medical x-ray, mammography, CT scans, industrial radiography gamma rays (exceeding 10 EHz, below 30pm) - Medical sterilization, Cancer treatment, industrial sterilization, NDT Non-Destructive Testing, Nuclear research c = λ * ν, where “c” m/s is the speed of light 300x10**6m/s , “λ” m is the wavelength, and “ν” Hz is the frequency.

The Seven SI Base Units

Unit of Time: Second s - The second is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the cesium frequency ∆νCs, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the cesium-133 atom, to be 9,192,631,770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s−1.
Unit of Length: Meter m - The meter is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the speed of light in vacuum c to be 299,792,458 when expressed in the unit m s−1, where the second is defined in terms of ∆νCs.
Unit of Mass: Kilogram kg - The kilogram is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Planck constant h to be 6.62607015 ×10−34 when expressed in the unit J s, which is equal to kg m2 s−1, where the meter and the second are defined in terms of c and ∆νCs.
Unit of Electric Current: Ampere A - The ampere is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the elementary charge e to be 1.602176634 × 10−19 when expressed in the unit C, which is equal to A s, where the second is defined in terms of ∆νCs.
Unit of Thermodynamic Temperature: Kelvin K - The kelvin is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the Boltzmann constant k to be 1.380 649 ×10−23 when expressed in the unit J K−1, which is equal to kg m2 s−2 K−1, where the kilogram, meter and second are defined in terms of h, c and ∆νCs.
Unit of Amount of Substance: Mole mol - One mole contains exactly 6.02214076 × 1023 elementary entities. This number is the fixed numerical value of the Avogadro constant, NA, when expressed in the unit mol−1 and is called the Avogadro number. The amount of substance, symbol n, of a system is a measure of the number of specified elementary entities. An elementary entity may be an atom, a molecule, an ion, an electron, any other particle or specified group of particles.
Unit of Luminous Intensity: Candela cd - The candela is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the luminous efficacy of monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 × 1012 Hz, Kcd, to be 683 when expressed in the unit lm W−1, which is equal to cd sr W−1, or cd sr kg−1 m−2 s3, where the kilogram, meter and second are defined in terms of h, c and ∆νCs.
from: https://www.nist.gov/si-redefinition/definitions-si-base-units

24 Metric SI Prefixes

List of common words starting with the SI prefixes in pairs starting deka- and deci- then hecto- and centi- etc. through to quetta- and quecto- along with each of their abbreviations and organized by frequency of usage for each prefix. Also give at least two common measurements at that scale - for examples . Please also give at least two examples such as one light year is 9.461 Pm and one angstrom is 3.93701 nm each one of the 24 standard SI prefixes. SI base units 0, meter, liter, gram, Give at least four common measurements at the SI prefix scale of deka da and deci d for megagrams Mg and micrograms ug, megameters Mm and micrometers um, etc. deka da+1 Dekameter dam is used in surveying and land measurement. Dekaliter (dal) is occasionally used in agriculture and chemistry. deci d-1 deciliter (dl) is commonly used in European food recipes and in medicine. Decibel for measuring ratios of powers. hecto h+2 hectometer (hm) Hectogram (hg) is sometimes used in scientific and technical fields. Hectoliter (hl) is occasionally used in agriculture and brewing. centi c-2 centimeter (cm) widely used in everyday measurements and scientific contexts. Centigram (cg) is sometimes used in precise measurements in chemistry and physics. kilo k+3 kilogram (kg) 70-80 kg avg. adult male, 2,700-6,000 kg elephant weight, 15 kilotons of TNT yield “Little Boy” (Hiroshima, August 6, 1945), 21 kilotons “Fat Man” (Nagasaki, August 9, 1945) milli m-3 millimeter (mm) 95 mg caffeine in coffee cup, 0.5-1 mm thick fingernail mega M+6 megabyte (MB) 50 megatons Soviet Tsar Bomba the largest nuclear weapon ever tested (1961); micro u-6 micrometer (um) 10 μm size of a fog, mist, or cloud water droplet, 50-120 μm human hair, 3–8 μm width of strand of spider web silk, 50 μg a single grain of sand, 10-100 μg a single grain of pollen, .01-1 μg a dust particle giga G+9 gigabyte (GB), 150 Gm is one Astronomical Unit AI, 32 GB RAM memory for gaming computer, nano n-9 nanometer (nm), 5 nm for M1 (3.2 GHz) M2 (3.5 GHz), 3 nm & 18 TOPS for M3 (4.05 GHz), 38 TOPS for M4 (2.89-4.464 GHz), tera T+12 terabyte (TB), 4.184 terajoules = 1,162,222 kWh = 1 kiloton TNT; ~28 Tw terawatts of power are consumed globally per year; pico p-12 picometer (pm), ~154 pm micometers for Carbon-carbon single bonds peta P+15 petameter (Pm) 9.461 Pm is one light year and 30.857 Pm is one Parsec (this is the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends an angle of one arcsecond). femto f-15 femtometer (fm) exa E+18 exameter(Em) ~5.1 Eg Exagrams the total mass of Earth’s atmosphere atto a-18 attometer (am) size of fundamental particles like electrons, quarks (up and down), and the nucleus zetta Z+21 zettameter (Zm) zepto z-21 zeptometer (zm) yotta Y+24 yottameter (Ym) yocto y-24 yoctometer (ym) ronna R+27 ronnameter (Rm) ronto r-27 rontometer (rm) quetta Q+30 quettameter (Qm) quecto q-30 quectometer (qm)
from: various

I Keep Six Honest Serving Men

(The Elephant’s Child)

I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. I send them over land and sea, I send them east and west; But after they have worked for me, I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five, For I am busy then, As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea, For they are hungry men. But different folk have different views; I know a person small— She keeps ten million serving-men, Who get no rest at all!

She sends ’em abroad on her own affairs, From the second she opens her eyes— One million Hows, two million Wheres, And seven million Whys!
from: Rudyard Kipling

see also→One Line Summaries