2022: The Year Gone By

After the horrors of 2020 & 2021, Covid-19 was finally off the main headlines in 2022. It’s still not over though with the year bookended by the Omicron wave at the beginning and apprehensions of a new wave emerging from China (where else) at the end. The war maybe be under control but battles are still raging on. While we wait and watch, hopefully much better prepared, here is a recap of some major (and not major) events to look back upon (or maybe not)

1. News Event of the Year: Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 24th Feb ’22, Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s been 10 months, but the battle rages on with territories gained, wrested back and lost again. Apart from the actual battle on the field, there was another one being fought online between two propaganda machines. After a while, no one was quite sure of what was happening on the ground. Only one thing was clear - the human cost was huge and so has been the military spend. There have been economic sanctions and sports bans imposed. Yet the war keeps going on and on. And as a collateral damage, it has spawned arm-chair geopolitical experts, with most having a minor expertise in petroleum economics as well.

2. Designation of the Year: Chief Twit

Elon Musk acquired Twitter (rather was forced to buy after having announced his intent to buy), announced himself as Chief Twit and turned Twitter into a dark comedy channel. Proclaiming free speech, then banning accounts which he did not like, changing policy, firing people and then trying to rehire them, restoring banned accounts, finding himself being voted out as CEO on a poll he conducted! More than the company – he has become a non-stop source of amusement!

3. Work Jargon of the Year

Be “Extremely Hardcore” – the ultimatum given by the “Chief Twit” to the remaining Twitter staff. The deadline passed and far less people remained (What A Surprise!).

On the other end of the spectrum was trend of “Quiet Quitting” – where workers did only what was supposed to be done and not more (Again, What a surprise!).

4. Management Course of the Year: The Football World Cup

From being the “beautiful game” football evolved into a full course in management, with every match, every play, every goal scored, every shot saved, the actions of players, coaches, the watching dignitaries being dissected and ending up as a “what life lessons you can draw from them”? post on LinkedIn.

5. The fall & fall of Big Tech

There were the antics of Musk, the single day drop of $ 230 Billion in valuation of Meta, large layoffs at Amazon & Meta, Elizabeth Theranos (once touted at the next Steve Jobs) sentenced to 11 years jail and finally Sam Bankman-Fried – from appearing on Fortune magazine as the next Warren Buffett to be arrested a few weeks later for what could potentially be the biggest financial fraud! Tech industry was in turmoil to say the least!

And then there was the bizarre case of Chitra Ramkrishna who was running NSE based on advise of a “Himalayan Yogi” who communicated with her via email! 

6. The Eyjafjallajökull of the Year

Remember the volcano with the most exotically unpronounceable name which disrupted European airline traffic in 2010. It found its successor in 2022. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic eruption which cut off Tonga from the rest off the world and caused damages worth ~$ 90 Million in a country whose total GDP is less than $ 500 Million

7. The New Fad of the Year - Wordle

There was Wordle, a fun game. You play it and then spam the whole world with your grid of grey, yellow & green! It also spawned variants, more numerous than even the covid variants! It may be off the headlines as the year progressed but remains fun!

8. Lost & Found of the Year: Endurance

1915 - Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance sinks off Antarctica.

2022 - 107 Years later, it is found again, resting in the depths of the ocean

9. Book of the Year: Ret Samadhi

Geetanjali Shree’s novel became the first Hindi novel to win the International Booker Prize. Now for a twist in the tale. On Amazon, the original Ret Samadhi is available cheaper than its translation Tomb of Sand!

10. Vegetable of the Year: The Lettuce

Why not, after all it outlasted a Prime Minister. So short was Liz Truss's term, that her biography had to be updated before it could be published! But she did oversee a regime change during her brief stint.

11. Quote of the Year: “I am Mr. McAdams”

So this was a bit of 2022. Wishing all readers a Very Happy 2023!

2022 - TYIL

The more I learn, the more I realize that I know nothing.

This Year I Learnt (#TYIL)

Another year draws to a close. And as has become a tradition, made a list of random factoids learnt during the year. Mostly encountered while trawling the interwebs, others via TV, movies & books and some through various Quizzing platforms/leagues.

1. Creatcoeus Period in the Geological Time Scale comes from Creta, Latin for Chalk (the softest stone) (The Guardian). 
2. Erdos-Bacon Number: sum of one's Erdős numbe, which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, and one's Bacon number, which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. (Wikipedia) Why the need for such a number combining disparate fields is a mystery though! 
3. Graham Number: measures a stock’s fundamental value as {22.5*(Earnings Per Share)*(Book Value Per Share)}^(1/2). Any stock trading below the Graham number is considered undervalued. (Investopedia) A good rule of thumb for investors but need to consider in many more factors.
4. Harshad Number: A number which is divisible by the sum of its digits e.g. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,18,20,21 and so on. (Wikipedia)
5. Lindy Effect: the idea that the older something is, the longer it is likely to be around (Wealest). A decent measure for judging works of arts, books, popularity of movies etc.
6. Cantillion Effect: the change in relative prices resulting from a change in money supply (SWFI)
7. Weismann Score: Performance Metric for lossless compression applications. Fun part - its a fiction metric developed by a Stanford University professor for the show Silicon Valley (from which I learnt about it) (Wikipedia) 
8. Allen Curve: represents the exponential drop in frequency of communication between engineers as the physical distance between them increases. (Wikipedia) Wonder how this holds with increased WFH!
9. Virtual Water Content: volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced. (Water Calculator)
10. Argentina and Uruguay’s first sporting encounter was a game of cricket (not football), in 1868 predating the Ashes by 9 years! (Cricinfo)
11. Geomythology: study of etiological oral traditions created by pre-scientific cultures to explain—in poetic metaphor and mythological imagery—geological phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, fossils, and other natural features of the landscape (BBC) at times the entire subject of geology seems a myth and not a science!
12. Stendhal Syndrome: visitors to Florence suffer psychological breakdowns after being overwhelmed by the city's abundance of great art! (BBC) I guess another of first world problems.
13. Stephen Wilhite invented the gif in 1987. The first gif was a flying airplane. (The Guardian) 
14. Palm Oil is known as Red Gold. (The Conversation).
15. Jennifer Joseph: model for the Columbia Pictures logo. A real person whose image is familiar across the world but name is not (Link) 
16. Enigmatology: the study of puzzles; Will Shortz is the only known person to hold a college degree in this subject (Wikipedia) 
17. There are more Indians than Qatari citizens living in Qatar! Qatar’s demographics are quite interesting (Wikipedia) 
18. Hofstadter’s Law: It takes always longer than you expect. Named from Dr. Richard Hofstater who also lends his name to Leonard’s character in The Big Bang Theory. (Techtarget) 
19. Overshoot Day: the date when humanity has used all the biological resources that Earth regenerates during the entire year. In 2022, it fell on July 28th. (Overshoot Day)
20. MCC (Marylebourne Cricket Club) were the custodians of the rules of Tennis in the 19th century! (Britannica) Wondering if there is "spirit of tennis" also?
21. The world’s loneliest tree – an isolated spruce on an island in New Zealand (The Guardian)
22. The Ghan: longest passenger train in regular service, runs from Darwin to Adelaide, in Australia (Link) 
23. Operation London Bridge: The funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II, with the phrase “London Bridge is Down” announcing her passing. The plan was first prepared in 1960s with constant updates as the years went by (Wikipedia)
24. Nora Polley: 1st Indian woman to participate in the Summer Olympics (Tennis, 1924) (Link)
25. One Piece by Ilan Manouach: the longest single volume book (21,450 pages) and also physically impossible to read and hence is sold as a sculpture rather than a book! (The Guardian) 
26. Streisand Effect: the attempt to suppress something only brings more attention or notoriety to it (Webster)
27. Stone House, the meaning of Zimbabwe in the local Shona language. (BBC) 
28. The Smiley Company owns the trademark for the smiley image, which was created by Harvey Ball. And it is currently a $ 500 Million business. (The Guardian)
29. Meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene” by shortening the Greek word mimeme. (BBC)
30. The Great Emu War: In 1932, over a 6-week period, Australia waged a war against the emus and lost. The emu population survived the battle against Australian artillery and continued with its crop destructive ways! (Wikipedia) 
31. And the Chinese fought a battle against Sparrows (1958-62), seemingly won and realized that not having sparrows was more harmful to the crops (due to increased insect population) and ended up importing 250,000 sparrows from Soviet Union! (Wikipedia)
32. The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and The Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” were recorded on the same piano (Link) 
33. Enheduanna: the world’s first known named author, who lived around 5,000 years ago (BBC)
34. Bihar was the first state formed in India, in 1912! Maps changed later with first Odisha and later Jharkhand being carved out of it though (Wikipedia) 
35. The “Iron Law of Megaprojects” - Over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over again. (Link) 
36. Khaki colour originated in the British Indian Army. The word Khaki originated from Urdu and means soil-coloured. (Link) 
37. Dora the Explorer is a 7 year old girl and 5 feet 2 inches tall! I know it’s a fictional character but still that's one tall kid! (Comicbook) 

This was 2022. Hoping to build on in 2023.

P.S. Lists from 2019, 2020 & 2021

2022 – Top Ten Moments from the Indian Sports Arena

As we enter the last week of the year 2022 AD, it is time to make a list of things to remember the year going by. Presenting the Top 10 moments from the Indian sporting field (rated by yours truly).

1. Thomas Cup win: Stirring performances from Lakshya, Srikanth, Prannoy and Satwik-Chirag lead India to become just the 6th country to win the Thomas Cup. It was a culmination of a long journey to becoming a badminton powerhouse.
2. Neeraj Chopra becoming the Diamond League champion. Such is the amazing consistency of India’s first ever track & field Olympics champion that a silver in the World Athletics Championships (the first ever Indian to do so) is not his biggest moment of the year!
3. Avinash Sable winning the silver medal in 3000m Steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games and breaking Kenya’s dominance of the event. This is the first time since 1998 that Kenya did not have a clean sweep in this event!
4. MCG, Men's T20 World Cup, India vs Pakistan, Over 18.5 – Haris Rauf to Virat Kohli, lands for 6 behind the bowler off one of the most stunning shots seen in cricket – a straight punched loft over the bowler’s head! And somehow India sneak in a win out of nowhere after a dramatic last over.
5. Lawn Bowls Gold at Birmingham Commonwealth Games. An afternoon spent plonked in front of the TV watching Lawn Bowls 4s Final wasn’t a part of any plans. But Rupa Rani Tirkey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Lovely Choubey & Pinki Singh combined to bring a new sport to the collective Indian sporting minds. After all, we are fast learners (at least in learning the rules of a new game).
6. The Women’s Hockey team won the inaugural Nations Cup, getting their rightful place in the next season of Pro Hockey League. They should not have had to play this round given that as alternates the team finished 3rd in the previous edition of the League. But they proved once again that they belong in the top tier of World Hockey.
7. Deepti Sharma runs out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers end to seal a whitewash for India over England. A non-striker run-out (formerly known as Mankading) and that too at Lords! As expected, all hell broke loose on cricketing social media with the defenders of the so called “spirit of cricket” marching in on full battle mode! The debate kept going on and on for seemingly ages! Don’t remember so much attention to an incident in women’s game before!
8. Nikhat Zareen became the Boxing World Champion, India’s 5th ever female boxer! She also added a Commonwealth Games gold confirming that Mary Kom’s legacy is in good hands.
9. Mirabai Chanu lifting the silver at the World Championships with a sprained wrist!
10. Achanta Sharath Kamal, at the age of, 40 won 3 Golds and a Silver at the Commonwealth Games!

Other honorable mentions: Manika Batra winning the Bronze at Asian Cup; Rudrankksh Patil winning a World Cup Gold to qualify for the next Olympics Shooting; Bajrang Punia adding a 4th Wrestling World Championships medal and Vinesh Phogat getting her 2nd medal.

Finally for an announcement off the field of play. In a major step towards gender parity, BCCI announced that the women players will be given the same match fees as the men for internationals. A great initiative, but just the first step in a long journey to parity. And this is something basic to be done for all sports.

Now looking forward to the sporting year 2023, which has Hockey & Cricket World Cups, the postponed Asian Games (fingers crossed given the re-emergence of the Covid situation) and many Paris Olympics qualifiers scheduled!

Learn N Blog #20: Off 15th December

Came across one of the weird connects from history

15 Dec 1944, Imphal

Two officers of the then British Indian Army are decorated with the Military Cross by the Viceroy Lord Wavell for their services in 2nd World War. Their names

• Major Sam Manekshaw, 12th Frontier Force Regiment
• Lt. AAK Niazi, 14th Army

Fast forward 27 years to same date

15 Dec 1971

Lt. Gen Niazi conveys the decision to surrender the Pakistani Eastern Command to General Manekshaw and signs the Instrument of Surrender the following day.

Same two officers, now lead protagonists in another war, this time against each other!

Links:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._A._K._Niazi#World_War_II_and_Burma_campaigns
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971

Previously on Learn N Blog: The Hydrogen Rainbow

BookMarks #108: Dying To Meet You

Title: Dying To Meet You

Author: Rich Amooi

Genre: Fiction

Published: 2019

BookMarks

The book presents an interesting premise, showing all the crests and troughs that life can present in one go. Liz wins a huge lottery, and a few days later is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease with minimal survival chances. While waiting for a donor, she decides to knock a few places off her bucket list, all in private charter flight. The journey takes her from Peru to Kenya to France while also meeting the new love of her life. Then things go astray, but everything ends up well. And they all lived happily ever after.

After an interesting beginning, the story becomes contrived, and especially the ending which is abrupt and is too contrived even for a pure work of fiction!

Does give a glimpse of some of the challenges faced, when you suddenly have more money than what you know what to do with it. And a peep into the super-luxurious life which only the uber-rich can afford! 

Previously on BookMarks: How To Win Friends & Influence People 

BookMarks #107: How To Win Friends And Influence People

Title: How To Win Friends And Influence People

Author: Dale Carnegie

Genre: Non-fiction, Self-help

Published: 1936

BookMarks

One of the most successful books in history and reading through it gives the answer why. After all who doesn’t want to be an influencer! And to be successful in that, one needs to understand people and why they would want to help you.

An important line from the book “Every man I meet is my superior in some way.” Always keeping this in mind!

Following are some of the major points from the book.

Techniques to handling people

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain. Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person’s precious pride, and his sense of importance, and arouses resentment. As much as we thirst for approval, we dread condemnation. It takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want - get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own

Six Ways To Make People Like You

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile – It is a messenger of your good will.
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important-and do it sincerely.

How To Win People To Your Way Of Thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it - When one yells, the other should listen-because when two people yell, there is no communication, just noise and bad vibrations.”
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives - people are honest and want to discharge their obligations. The exceptions to that rule are comparatively few
11. Dramatize your ideas – presentation is the key
12. Throw down a challenge – everyone has a desire to excel

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face – Don’t hurt the dignity
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.” But nobody wants insincerity. Nobody wants flattery.
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Overall, simple guidelines which are easy to implement. All it takes is a little conscious effort to start following them, However, do wonder what people who have been played at by these principles feel on reading this book!

Previously on BookMarks: My Journey 

Also by Dale Carnegie & Associates: The Leader In You 

Road To Paris: Episode 4

Our first Qualifiers are here for Paris, with 3 Quota places earned in Shooting. There has been a slight lull in the overall action post the Commonwealth Games completion and the Asian Games sized hole in the sporting calendar. Here is a summary of the major events in the past couple of months

Quota Places Won

• 
  Shooting: Men’s Trap – Bhowneesh Mendiratta claimed the first Quota place for India at the World Shotgun championships. Good to see a comeback in Trap shooting for India.
• Shooting: Men’s 10m Air Rifle – Rudrankksh Patil secured a Quota Place by winning the Gold medal at World Rifle/Pistol Championships.
• Shooting: Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions – Swapnil Kusale secured a Quote place by finishing 4th at the World Rifle/Pistol Championships

There were a couple of near misses as well in the women’s section. But still a long way to go in the Qualifiers.

In other action

• Neeraj Chopra becomes the first Indian to win the Diamond League Champions Trophy – the man continues to be trailblazer!
• Wrestling: At the World Championships, India returned with 2 Bronze medals – Vinesh Phogat becoming the first female multiple medalist from India while Bajrang Punia claimed his 4th World Championships medal. Overall, the campaign was mixed, with some youngsters showing promise, while some favored ones getting knocked out early. Also a few of Commonwealth medalists were missing from the lineup. Begs the question – are we prioritizing an event like Commonwealth Games (with a better probability of medal) over World Championships (which are far more prestigious)
• Table Tennis: World Team Championships. Sharath Kamal was missing. Indian men upset the 2nd seeded Germans in the group stage but couldn’t make much headway in the knock-outs. Same was the story for the women’s team also.
• National Games have been held after a gap of 7 years!

Doping Menace: Two Tokyo Olympians have been given bans for doping - Shivpal Singh (Men’s Javelin Throw) suspended for 4 years and Kamalpreet Kaur (Women’s Discus Throw), banned for 3 years.

Qualification Summary: Sports: 1, Events 3, Entries:3, Athletes: 3

That’s it for this episode. The qualification action will be picking up in the coming weeks

Till next time!

Links: Road To Paris – Episode 3

More the Corners, More the Cobwebs

Diwali is around the corner. The biggest celebration of the season - the festival of lights, crackers, sweets, and savories. But before the main event comes its precursor - the Diwali cleaning!

Apart from being a health & hygiene activity, Diwali cleaning is also a practical demo in the subjects of archaeology, history, and mining.

You might not spot a single spider in the house the whole year but there is a cobweb, in every possible place, the corners, the beams, the pillars, the doors, the window ledge, curtains, wall hangings and showpieces. In fact, any place with a corner, there is a cobweb! How it got there is a mystery unresolved, but it is there.

The house itself seems to be generating dust – under the beds, behind and on top of the almirah, the table, on top of the shelfs, everywhere there is a thick accumulation of dust hiding, just beyond the reach of the daily jhaadu. Only excavated during deep cleaning.

There is an old English saying – “a rolling stone gather no moss”. Might be true for a stone but a rotating fan gathers dust, lots of it. The thickness of the layer of dust on its blades is the best indicator of the usage of a particular fan!

From the deepest recesses of the drawers, come out the chronicles of our shopping history - the bills. Many with the ink completely faded and some whose products may have been used and disposed of, but the bill has been retained, for what purpose, no one can say!

Of course, add to this our tendency of squirrelling away stuff for a later day. And that’s how we end up with lots of disposable cutlery (courtesy Swiggy & Zomato), a big plastic bag filled with smaller bags, old clothes which have lived their full life but still hoarded away as they await nirvana by becoming a pochhaa! Our deep entrenched habit of not wasting/reusing/recycling just ends with lot of unwanted stuff occupying all sorts of nooks and crannies in the house!

Diwali cleaning – the only time in the year when your apartment starts giving the vibes of being a bungalow in size. And during the course of it, we also decide to do the clearing more often, but as is wont with such pledges, doesn’t really happen. It is back breaking stuff, especially when at times you take a pause to catch your breath, look around and realize that somehow the house seems messier than before you started. But at the end of the day, also an oddly satisfying one!

Wishing all readers, a Very Happy Diwali! 

P.S. Expect to see a lot of LinkedIn gyaan on the subject of cleaning in the coming days!

BookMarks #106: My Journey

Title: My Journey: Transforming Dreams into Actions

Author: APJ Abdul Kalam

Genre: Non-fiction, Autobiography

Published: 2013

BookMarks

Dr. Abdul Kalam’s life story in his own words, covering key moments/incidents in his life from his childhood in Rameswaram, to his scientific work and onto becoming the President of India. In simple words he has narrated his life experiences, his influences and the lessons which we as readers could draw from them.

Here are the passages which I bookmarked from his journey

• On Dreams - Dreams are not those that we see in our sleep; they should be the ones that never let us sleep.
• A summary of his life - love poured to the child…struggle…more struggle…bitter tears… then sweet tears…and finally a life as beautiful and fulfilling as seeing the birth of the full moon.'
• On basic human nature - Whenever human beings find themselves alone, as a natural reaction, they start looking for company. Whenever they are in trouble, they look for someone to help them… Every recurrent anguish, longing and desire finds it own special helper.
• The survival instinct - the only way to survive is to face your troubles and rebuild your life.
• On happiness - Joy is fleeting, whereas true happiness and calm can come to us only after intense pain, when we have confronted ourselves in the mirror of our souls and understood the self.
• On success - The best way to win is not to cover a win but to keep a calm and open mind to new challenges
• On the importance of space studies in a developing country like India - on the relevance of such a programme when a vast majority in the country was battling the demons of hunger and poverty….India could only play a meaningful role in the affairs of the world if the country was self-reliant in every manner, and should be able to apply advanced technologies to alleviate real-life problems. Thus our space programme was never simply a desire to be one among an elite group of nations, neither was it a matter of playing catch-up with other countries. Rather, it was an expression of the need for developing indigenous capabilities in telecommunications, meteorology and education.
• On what brings out the best in people - People like me, who are intrinsically shy, with the added quality of coming from a different background than my city-bred colleagues, tend to remain hidden in the shadows unless something or someone pushes us centre stage.
• On things beyond our control - often there are powers greater than yours who dictate the consequences of your work.
• On success & failure - we don't just build on successes, we also build on failures.
• On Work Ethics - Total commitment is not just hard work, it is total involvement. It is also about setting a goal. It is having a goal in front of you that makes a difference to the final outcome of your hard work.
• Life Mantra - That humaneness, generosity and understanding can never let you down.

Fairly simple but thoughts worth their weight in gold from a fascinating human being! Really liked the simplicity of words, the preciseness in thought and the flow of the narrative. This book is great example of the adage "Write to express and not to impress"

Previously on BookMarks: The Great Gatsby 

Engineer's Day

September 15 - celebrated as Engineer’s Day in India as a tribute to Bharat Ratna Sir M Viswesvaraya – India’s first ever civil engineer and instrumental in developing many projects across the country.

From one in 1884 to more than 15 Lakh engineering graduates every year, it has been quite a journey for the Indian engineering education. However, that has also given rise to another facet - more and more students are acquiring an engineering degree and then deciding their vocation – be it Marketing, Finance, HR, Software, Various Arts fields, Politics – almost every sphere has people with engineering backgrounds in it.

Now on Engineer’s Day, floated in on WhatsApp, a few greetings, and a question about best engineering solutions to problems. While detailed solutions and SOPs are plenty and specific to the instrument/system, there are two basic steps which are almost universal (and they work, most times)

1. Restart/Reset – Off karke On karo, a favorite of the IT world. There may also be an added step off letting the device rest for a while!
2. Percussive Maintenance – any malfunctioning machine can be fixed by smacking it a few times. Often also followed by a restart.

And lo and behold the device is no longer malfunctioning!

Happy Engineer’s Day to all engineers!

P.S. A post on the subject from 2010