Good/Funny/Useful mnemonic devices? [closed]

Question

In order to keep the OSI model straight in my head, I dreamt up the silly mnemonic:

P. Diddy Never Takes Shit, Punk Ass!
(Physical, Data, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application)

Similarly I was first learning Perl, I rearranged (some of) the regex modifiers to:

SIXMOP GC
(as in 6 of the things you use to clean the floor, and floor cleaning goes hand-in-hand with garbage collection)

Perhaps this might seem a bit off-topic, but rookie programmers flock to this site for help and mnemonic devices are a great tool for someone just learning a new technology.

Does anyone else have any handy mnemonics that have helped them throughout the years (or are at least worth a laugh)?

Answer 1

Probably not as witty as the other answers but something that I use probably once a day.

I could never remember the redirect standard error to standard out syntax in UNIX until I started thinking 2 Grand Theft Auto. GT is for greater than and A is for ampersand.

    ls -lt 2>&1 > /dev/null

Answer 2

A sudden flashback from undergrad, minutes after writing the question:

A professor's very memorable explanation of private vs. protected:

"Your children are not allowed to play with your privates."

Answer 3

People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms

Personal Computer Memory Card International Association ... did alot of interfacing with those cards at one time.

Answer 4

The mnemonic for resistors color codes is quite memorable, due to it being somewhat shocking. I didn't create this, this (or minor variations on it) is the standard mnemonic:

Bad boys rape our young girls, but Violet gives willingly

Black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, grey, white (which represent the digits 0-9, in that order).

I have not soldered a circuit in probably 10 years, and only ever dabbled in it, but I still remember that one.

Don't forget the tolerance bands: Get Some Now Gold (1%), Silver(5%), none (10%)

Answer 5

Another resistor colour codes mnemonic:

Betty Brown ran over your garden, but Violey Grey won't.

(Obligatory xkcd link).

Answer 6

The guy in charge of reviewing us taught us these:

Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizzas Away
(Physical, Data, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, Application)

All People Sex Together Night and Day Physically
(Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data, Physical)

Answer 7

the regular expression's ^ and $... which is beginning of line and which one is the end of line?

it is just the opposite on the keyboard... $ is before ^ on the keyboard and so the proper order is

/^some_pattern$/

Update: or another way: think of it as an animal -- the front has a horn "^". The back has a tail "$" (the "S" is the tail).

Answer 8

Learning the electromagnetic spectrum, my teacher told us this for us to remember

R andy M en I n V ersace U nderpants e X cite G irls

which is for Radiowaves, Microwaves, Infrared, Visible light, Ultraviolet, X-rays and Gamma rays. Feel free to change the 'M' and 'G' to people's names :P

Answer 9

In Scouts when learning how to read maps etc. you had to know how to convert a direction on a map to one you can follow on a compass. You need to add or subtract a particular value which represents the current difference between grid North and Magnetic North.

Grand ma Sucks. My Great Arse.

Grid -> Magnetic Subtract

Magnetic -> Grid Add

Edit: possible outdated in the world of GPS etc. :P

Answer 10

Big elephants can't always understand small elephants. For small kids and "because."