Linux

Improving performance on the Arch wiki has nice ideas. hdparm -t /dev/sdX to measure read speed.

I will later possibly go through the entire page methodically.

DNB and Typing

Typing

typing.com has nice lessons about typing numbers, which I like a bit more than EdClub’s. Next up their advanced symbols to finally learn using the right Shift.

DNB

d3b 21% Mon 11 Feb 2019 12:13:52 PM CET
d3b 43% Mon 11 Feb 2019 12:17:04 PM CET
d3b 57% Mon 11 Feb 2019 12:18:47 PM CET
d3b 71% Mon 11 Feb 2019 12:20:35 PM CET
d3b 21% Mon 11 Feb 2019 12:22:25 PM CET

Python

Decided to read Dive into Python to finally get a systematic understanding of all of the language.

The most important audience for your code is yourself, six month after writing it.

• Float is accurate to up to 15 decimal places. Why there are more on my system?
• Why is the “//” operator working like it does with positive/negative numbers?

Vim

Limelight.vim is a really cool plugin. Found it linked here

Interesting

Nasa’s 128 lessons of a project manager. Highlights:

None of these are original–It’s just that we don’t know where they were stolen from!

15. Wrong decisions made early can be salvaged, but “right” decisions made late cannot.
16. Never make excuses; instead, present plans of actions to be taken.
17. One of the advantages of NASA in the early days was the fact that everyone knew that the facts that we were absolutely sure of could be wrong
18. If you have a problem that requires the addition of people to solve, you should approach recruiting people like a cook who has under-salted, i.e., a little at a time. 25 Know the resources of your center and if possible other centers. Other centers, if they have the resources, are normally happy to help. It is always surprising how much good help one can get by just asking.
19. Redundancy in hardware can be a fiction. We are adept at building things to be identical so that if one fails, the other will also fail. Make sure all hardware is treated in a build as if it were one of a kind and needed for mission succes
20. It is mainly the incompetent that don’t like to show off their work.
21. Mistakes are all right, but failure is not. Failure is just a mistake you can’t recover from; therefore, try to create contingency plans and alternate approaches for the items or plans that have high risk.

• Here it’s quite interesting how you have two different attitudes to plan-B. I guess the more costly failure is, the more okay Plan-Bs are considered.

47. NASA Management Instructions (NMI’s) are written by another NASA employee like yourself; therefore, challenge them if they don’t make sense. It is possible another NASA employee will rewrite them or waive them for you.
48. A working meeting has about six people attending. Meetings larger than this are for information transfer.
49. All problems are solvable in time, so make sure you have enough schedule contingency– if you don’t, the next project manager that takes your place will.
50. Just because you give monthly reports, don’t think that you can abbreviate anything in a yearly report. If management understood the monthlies, they wouldn’t need a yearly.
51. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. It is also occasionally the best help you can give. Just listening is all that is needed on many occasions. You may be the boss but, if you constantly have to solve someone’s problems, you are working for him.
52. Remember, it is often easier to do foolish paperwork than to fight the need for it. Fight only if it is a global issue which will save much future work.
53. You cannot watch everything. What you can watch is the people. They have to know you will not accept a poor job.
54. The first sign of trouble comes from the schedule or the cost curve. Engineers are the last to know they are in trouble. Engineers are born optimists.
55. There is no greater motivation than giving a-good person his piece of the puzzle to control but a pat on the back or an award helps.
56. Don’t assume you know why senior management has done something. If you feel you need to know, ask. You get some amazing answers that will dumbfound you.
57. If you have someone who doesn’t look, ask, and analyze, ask them to transfer.
58. There are still some individuals who think important decisions are made in meetings. This is rarely the case. Normally, the decision-makers meet over lunch or have a brief meeting to decide the issue and than (at a meeting called to discuss the issue) make it appear that the decision is made as a result of this discussion.
59. In political decisions, do not look for logic – look for politics.
60. In dealing with international partners, the usual strategy is to go 1 day early, meet with your counterpart, discuss all issues to be brought up at a meeting, arrive at an agreeable response (or a decision to table the issue for later discussion), and agree not to take any firm positions on any new issues brought up at the meeting. This makes it appear to the rest of the world that you and your counterpart are of one mind and that the work is in good hands. All disputes are held behind closed doors with the minimum number of participants.
61. Too many people at Headquarters believe the myth that you can reduce the food to the horse every day till you get a horse that requires food. They try to do the same with projects which eventually end up as dead as the horse.

Although it’s not part of Jerry’s written Lessons Learned, he consistently told his people the following (unwritten lesson):

“Show up early for all meetings; they may be serving doughnuts”

Finally, Les Meredith (former Director of Space Sciences and Acting Center Director) had this remark to make about Jerry Madden’s 128 Project Managers’ Lessons Learned:

“God only gave us Ten Commandments. Jerry has listed over a hundred instructions for a Project Manager. It is evident a lot more is expected from a Project Manager”

Deutsch

sich mit etw.(Dat) befassen: undertake/concert/deal/occupy/dabble in/with/whatever

Places

https://foursquare.com/v/true-burger-bar/52b02c4211d241652e021bdf – True Burger Bar in Kyiv