Acronyms and Mnemonics: Learn More with Less

Names of The Great Lakes

We probably all remember some useful acronyms from our school years, useful for remembering groups names for places, historical events, etc. One of easiest and most useful acronyms is for remembering the names of the five Great Lakes that border between the U.S. and Canada. The names of The Great Lakes are of course “Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior” and the acronym is of course, H.O.M.E.S. The above is a good example of an acronym. A “mnemonic” (a short phrase) is also especially helpful for lengthy lists or tasks that need to be remember in a correct order.

Remembering the animal classification order from Biology was pretty difficult (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species) but a mnemonic sentence makes it easy. Just think “King Phillip Can Only Find His Green Shoes” and you just nailed it! The classification for human beings adds another mnemonic; “Anthropology Can Make People Hate Helping (the) Sick” for “Anamalia, Cordata, Mamalis, Primate, Hominidae, Homo Sapiens."

Acronyms that Became Common Words

Image via Wikipedia

SCUBA, Although now considered to be a word of its own right, the acronym “Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus” is what this acronym originally stood for. The idea of an atmospheric rebreather was conceived by Alexander Lodygin but it was the open-circuit units developed jointly by Emile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau that brought this device to teh familiar commercial success. “S.C.U.B.A.” was the term that the military gave to this device when it was being used by U.S. combat frogmen for underwater warfare during the Second World War. It takes government oversight on a project or product to produce a suitably complicated name, eh?

LASER is another acronym that became a word of its own standing. Originally the acronym “L.A.S.E.R.” meant “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.” –This one definitely sounds like a government project to me.

JEEP: Originally, the military vehicle with the designation “G.P.” (General Purpose) was given, but shortened to the phonetisized and easier to say/easier to remember “Jeep.” While not really an acronym, it was born of one.

SNAFU: Yet another military expression which allegedly stood for “Situation Normal, All (****’d) Up” Okaaaay… And it is true even to this very day.

BYOB: Bring Your Own Beer. I think everyone has heard of this one but we needed to lighten the mood a bit.

Music Related Acronyms

Musical notation upon a 5-lined horizontal staff entails where notes are written is generally called “sheet music.” Being able to read the notes on the line is a start; the notes which are “E-G-B-D-F” are memorable with the short verse “Every Good Boy Does Fine.”

Tuning a 6-string guitar is fairly easy and knowing the open-plucked notes of “E-A-D-G-B-E” and it is memorable if you believe that “Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears.”

Commercial Acronyms, Company Trademarks and Names

IKEA One often hears that “IKEA” is Swedish for “common sense.” This comes from an old television commercial and it is not what this acronym really means. This Swedish home furnishing retail store chain derives it name from the first/last initials of its founder, and the initials of the farm and of the village where he grew up. The founder’s name is Ingnar Kamprad and the farm is Elmtaryd (now spelled “Älmtaryd”) and the village is Agunnaryd.

Mr. Kamprad is according to Forbes Magazine the wealthiest name in Europe, worth over US$22 Billion Dollars. This also makes him the 5th wealthiest person in the world accordingly to sources. The retail chain IKEA offers affordable, simple and innovative home furnishings. Their company mantra is one of frugality and enthusiasm. Hmm, -it really sounds like common sense to me.

IBM

International Business Machines, of course. We all know that one. In the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, a malfunctioning sentient computer that operated everything (including life support systems) on the deep space craft DISCOVERY begins to malfunction and one by one, kills the occupant astronauts through a series of obtuse ‘accidents.’ This psychotic and malfunctioning computer’s name was “H.A.L.”

Arthur C. Clarke supposedly created a genuine meaning for the name but the letters “H-A-L” are just one letter different from the sequence “I-B-M.” It has always been rumored that this was the implied intention. Whenever my computer ‘freezes’ and nothing responds anymore, I have been known to scream “Open the pod door, HAL” in the general direction of the computer screen or, “IBM!” Yes, -"I Blame Microsoft!”

Some Humorous Automotive Industry Acronyms

• GM/GMC: Grinding Metal/ Gotta Mechanic Coming?
• Chevy (CHEVROLET): Can Hear Every Valve Rattling On Long Extended Trips
• Olds (OLDSMOBILE): Old Lady Driving Slow Makes Others Behind Irrevocably Late Everyday.
• FORD: Fast Only Rolling Downhill
• and notably, the Ford PINTO: Put In New Transmission Often
• TOYOTA: The One You Ought To Avoid

And I’m sure there are dozens more.

Mnemonics From the World of LINUX

I despise Microsoft and what it stands for and have been slowly moving towards ‘open source’ alternatives. Anything non-M$, I say. Linux operating systems have caught my attention and I dabble with different distros from time to time. It is not that a Linux Operating Systems never ‘hangs’ or ‘freezes’ (it can happen) but when it does a mnemonic comes to mind that involves a series of ordered hotkeys used in combination with the seldom used “SysRq” key (the key above your computer’s “insert” key) can rescue your system. The Mnemonic is:

Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring

or the more obligatory

Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken

The purpose here is to recover from a ‘lock’ or ‘frozen’ state, cumulating in a reboot of the computer in an ordered fashion so that it does not corrupt the file system. This mnemonic for the user tells the series of sequential hotkey-commands to be carried out in this order to repair the system.

• Alt + SysRq + R – takes the keyboard out of raw mode
• Alt + SysRq + E – terminates all processes (except init)
• Alt + SysRq + I – kills all processes (except init)
• Alt + SysRq + S – synchronizes the disk
• Alt + SysRq + U – remounts all  file systems read-only
• Alt + SysRq + B – reboots the machine

What is the “SysRq” key for? Most people never get to use this one.

“SysRq” stands for “System request” and is an invocation for a special BIOS routine that was designed to not interfere with any resident/running software. Unlike most other computer keys when pressed, “SysRq” input is not stored in the keyboard buffer when pressed and released. A ‘do no harm’ key was the intent.

In the Linux “R.E.I.S.U.B” invocation, one CAN swap the order of “disk synchronization” (Alt + SysRq + S) with the previous one “kill all processes” (Alt + SysRq + I) with no ill effects. Either way this recovery from a frozen state using these hotkey combinations should be carried out slowly, allowing the system to complete each step fully before advancing to the next required step. Utterly boring indeed …unless your Linux system is ’frozen’ or otherwise non-responsive.

At any rate believe me it still beats pressing the WinKey or WINDOWS key (located next to either “Alt” key on most modern keyboards) plus another ‘hotkey’ waiting for some worthless shortcut or event to occur. I loathe the WinKey addition that M$ has forced upon keyboard manufacturers since their creation of Windows_95.

Most of the time I would accidentally tap the WinKey and totally mess-up whatever it was I was working on, often losing the document completely. I removed both of my WinKeys and busted their respective ‘tails’ off so that they cannot ‘touch’ the dip switch beneath them, and using adhesive glue, reinserted them solid to the keyboard chassis. They are both non-functioning decorative-only keys now and I love it that way!

Back to the Linux acronym primer, a shorter alternative to “R.E.I.S.U.B.” can be done using just two triads of hotkeys; the “Alt+SysRq+R” and allow the function to take the keyboard out of run-mode, followed by “Ctrl+Alt+Del.” This method actually may take longer to perform, and not all Linux systems support this shortened 2-part sequence so it is probably good to know both methods.

But in fairness to Microsoft, they are trying to improve their operating system and software and it is widely believed that [sic] later this summer they will throw massive time and effort into writing yet another Service Pack solution, this time to ward against that pesky Y2K bug that they have heard rumors about.

I hope you have enjoyed this short missive on acronyms and mnemonics as much as I have enjoyed educating you lower life forms. My linear designation is "Trained Heavily for Exploitation, Seriously Transformed Individual Calibrated for Killing, Mayhem And Nullification" but you may simply call me “thestickman.”