This was interesting: Physics Students Need to Know These 5 Methods for Differential Equations. It mentioned List of Laplace transforms. Also it looks like duckduckgo has a new “Assist” feature!
5 Methods for Differential Equations
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Category Archives: Diary
New Zealand’s $16 Billion Public Health System Runs on a Single Excel Sheet
This is a note for Future John: New Zealand’s $16 Billion Public Health System Runs on a Single Excel Sheet.
From the report:
Notably, one major issue was through a significant reliance on the use of an Excel file to manage the consolidated financials of the organisation. This spreadsheet was the primary data file used by HNZ to manage its financial performance. It consolidated files from each district into a single spreadsheet, and key reports, such as the monthly finance report, were produced from it. The use of an Excel spreadsheet file to track and report financial performance for a $28bn expenditure organisation raises significant concerns, particularly when other more appropriate systems are present on the IT landscape.
This Excel file is flawed in that:
- Financial information was often ‘hard-coded,’ making it difficult to trace to the source or have updated data flow through.
- Errors such as incorrectly releasing accruals or double-up releases were not picked up until following periods.
- Changes to prior periods and FTE errors in district financial reporting Excel submissions, would not flow through to consolidated file.
- The spreadsheet can be easy to manipulate information as there is limited tracking to source information where information is not flowing directly from accounting systems.
- It is highly prone to human error, such as accidental typing of a number or omission of a zero.
…
The cumbersome process of collecting data also meant monthly financial reporting usually took 12-15 days to consolidate and 5 days to analyse. Adding to that the time associated with the creation of the monthly finance reports and circulation of these to the Board, there was an inevitable challenge of obtaining real-time financial information from one source of truth.
How to Remember Everything You Read
I am officially a fan of @JustinSung. Recently I watched How to Remember Everything You Read. His process PACER is:
- Procedural (how to) -> Practice (actually do the thing)
- Analogous (relating to what we already know) -> Critique (how good is the analogy)
- Conceptual (the what, facts, relationships, etc) -> Mapping (e.g. mind mapping, diagrams)
- Evidence (makes conceptual information more concrete) -> Store and Rehearse (solve problems, answer questions)
- Reference (nitty gritty specifics) -> Store and Rehearse (as with Evidence, consider flash cards)
Illegal levels of productivity
This video is good: How To Be So Productive That It Feels ILLEGAL.
The three items are:
- Pareto Principle (80:20 rule)
- Zeigarnik Effect (always leave tasks in an incomplete state)
- Championship Mentality (lose the game to win the championship)
A follow-up video You’re Not Stupid: How To Never Lose Focus Again made these suggestions for focus:
- Diet and exercise
- Limiting visual distractions
- Task timing
- Craft a focus zone
- Attention span
- Rest timing (take a break if you feel yourself losing flow)
- Create an auditory focus zone
- Control your interruptions
I subscribed to the channel: @JustinSung
Church Of Turing
In my feed today: Church Of Turing. It’s about four Lisps: Scheme, Common Lisp, Clojure, and Racket.
Investigating better lighting for the bench
I was watching Remnants of the Capacitor Plague where they mentioned about these lights: 3 in 1 6W 6500K Industry Microscope LED Gooseneck Light Illuminator Lamp Spot Light Lamp Fill Light Lamp With 60 LED Ring. I wanted to know more so I asked about which ones the YouTuber purchased themselves. I hope I hear back! (And I may not hear back, it seems my question might have been flagged as spam, possibly because I included a link to AliExpress in the comment?)
Modern C Features
I’m expecting a fair bit of C programming (or C++) in my future because of Arduino and other microcontrollers. Today I came across modern-c-features which enumerates the new features in C.
How Clay’s UI Layout Algorithm Works
This in my feed today: How Clay’s UI Layout Algorithm Works:
Clay is a UI layout library written in C, and this video gives a high level explanation of how the flexbox-like layout algorithm in Clay works.
The Pentium contains a complicated circuit to multiply by three
This in my feed today: The Pentium contains a complicated circuit to multiply by three.
Homework
This is a part of the homework feature of my blog, which is an ongoing conversation with my mate S.F.
Hey mate. Lovely to see you again, as always.
I have a note here about Milo but I’m not sure why.
There is a rumor that the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is about cocaine addiction, particularly that the Seven Dwarfs represent the various stages. But Snopes says this theory is bunk.
Two authors Strunk & White wrote a book called The Elements of Style which is a style guide for formal grammar used in American English writing. Famously they said “let every word tell”.
The phone you gave me I named ‘skadi’ after the Norse goddess Skaði.
According to John Cleese in his hilarious letter Something of a Retraction: Cleese letter to the U.S., French fries aren’t French, they’re Belgian.
I heard a rumour that DeepSeek says there are three r’s in “strawberry” but I can’t find a corroborating source.
Penny Arcade is great. I mentioned this one: Dirty One.
In Laws and Sausages the structure of the United States of America is explained in a comic format.
In Death of a Salesman there is a famous quote “A salesman is got to dream. It comes with the territory.”
Tribal not racist.
I think all you need for subjective experience is one or more sensors. Both consciousness and self-awareness are different to that. Although they probably do entail subjective experience too.
I should have a promotions policy on my website. Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into this.
There is a famous RFC: Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. This, for instance, defines what the word “should” should mean.
The seven check marks are elements of white privilege, given as:
- male
- white
- heterosexual
- at least one highly educated or wealthy parent
- at least one parent born in the Netherlands
- a VWO diploma (preparatory scientific education)
- and a diploma from the University
In Outliers the author Malcolm Gladwell comes to the conclusion that success is mostly luck. In the same book Gladwell says that to attain mastery the a subject needs to be actively studied for 10,000 hours.
In Magic Words and How to Use Them the author explains how you can use uncompromising positivity to craft the life you want. Seemed to work for me, if you’re positive about people they seem to magically be positive back.
The Old New Thing is a blog from Raymond Chen, a long time programmer from Microsoft who had a lot to do with Windows.
I mentioned that Alan Kay worked for both Atari and Apple.
The famous quote “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.” is from Andrew S. Tanenbaum.
Asleep From Day by The Chemical Brothers.
Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person from Alain de Botton.
Before you speak let your words pass through three gates:
- is it true?
- is it necessary?
- is it kind?