18ICT with Imagination
“Language is a part of our organism and no less complicated than it.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
A VIRTUAL LANGUAGE
For me, what distinguishes the related fields of computing and of information and communication technology (ICT) from other areas of study is their extreme and sometimes quite baffling use of abbreviations and acronyms. Listening to an ICT expert explain a computer problem to me is often like trying to take in the random lists of letters sometimes used for memory challenges. While most of us know what RAM and ROM stand for (random-access memory and read-only memory, in case you didn’t) and some of us could even work out what an ISP is (internet service provider, in case you were wondering), when it comes to LANs, WANs, URLs and WIMPs, I personally start to get seriously lost. To succeed in these subjects, however, you’ve got to become fluent in the “virtual” language that describes the workings of this virtual world.
EXPANDING YOUR CAST OF CHARACTERS
To do this, you can draw on a range of the memory techniques you have learned in this book, all of them relying on imagination and association: number–shapes, the “people” of the DOMINIC System (see pages 98–106), and the creation of scenarios for your “people”.
Use the number–shapes that you devised on page 96 to represent the ten letters used in the DOMINIC System (see page 99) when standing on their own. For pairs of letters, refer to the DOMINIC System itself, which gives you a host of ready-made personalities queuing up to represent one hundred two-letter combinations (see pages 102–105) in your imagined scenes. You then have the potential to conjure up one thousand three-letter combinations.
If an acronym has letters that are not included in the DOMINIC System, I use the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, or international radiotelephony spelling alphabet, which was invented in the 1950s to make spellings intelligible to NATO’s allies. These words are well known and widely used, and memorable images can be formed from them.
The complete NATO alphabet is given opposite, for your reference. The ten letters that are already included in the DOMINIC System are shown in italic type.
| A | Alpha |
| B | Bravo |
| C | Charlie |
| D | Delta |
| E | Echo |
| F | Foxtrot |
| G | Golf |
| H | Hotel |
| I | India |
| J | Juliet |
| K | Kilo |
| L | Lima |
| M | Mike |
| N | November |
| O | Oscar |
| P | Papa |
| Q | Quebec |
| R | Romeo |
| S | Sierra |
| T | Tango |
| U | Uniform |
| V | Victor |
| W | Whisky |
| X | X-ray |
| Y | Yankee |
| Z | Zulu |
Of course, you may prefer to create your own imaginative associations for the letters not in the DOMINIC System – friends’ or relatives’ initials, names of places that are important to you, standard country abbreviations, names of bands or organisations. Include whatever will be the most memorable for you so that you can form an unchanging reference list that will always be at your disposal.
By using a combination of all these methods, you will find that any number of ICT-related acronyms and abbreviations can be made memorable, and can be linked both to their simple meaning and to their practical application.
LOOKING AT LETTERS
Here are some examples of abbreviated ICT terms made memorable by combinations of the techniques that have just been explained – acronyms have never been so visual:
•ADC
The Artful Dodger (AD), wearing handcuffs (number shape for 3; 3 = C) is busy changing variable quantities of air into digits. The handcuffs are hampering his efforts and the scene is chaotic as digits fly out of his hands while he does his best to be a human analogue-to-digital converter.
•DAC
Naturalist David Attenborough (DA), similarly handcuffed (number shape for 3; 3 = C), struggles to change the digits back to their natural state, as a digital-to-analogue converter.
•BACS
Ben Affleck (BA) is robotically paying Claudia Schiffer (CS) her wages in a human version of a bankers’ automated clearing service.
•CAD
Charlie’s Angels (CA) are clustered around a computer terminal, busy designing a flag (number shape for 4; 4 = D) in their own stylish effort at computer-aided design.
•URL
A uniformed (U) Romeo (R) is working as a tour guide in the Peruvian capital, Lima (L), pointing out tourist facilities all over the city as a universal resource locator.
•LAN
Also wandering around the Peruvian capital, Lima (L), scientist Alfred Nobel (AN) has found a new and unlikely job knotting fishing nets in order to make the city’s residents a local area network.
•WAN
Finding inspiration in a glass of whisky (W), Alfred Nobel (AN) manages to really knuckle down and work on his net to enlarge it into a wide area network.
•WIMP
This one’s easy – think of the weakest, wimpiest person you know and imagine them pointing feebly at a window with an icon of Mickey Mouse on it, making them a windows icon mouse pointer.
There are a great many more ICT and computing acronyms like this. They can all inspire memorable images into which you can incorporate not only the words themselves but also imaginative triggers to help you remember the definitions of the terms.