The iMentor® Hints and Rants bLog (webLog) is a weekly journal. Rick Thues (the iMentor®) began writing the bLog in 2009. All of the past episodes are in the Archives. While this bLog began as hints and rants about Apple products and technology it has evolved into a technician's observations of the human condition.
Episode #923 October 10, 2026 When you use an app like ChatGPT, it is an application running on a server in a farm of computers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY&list=RD8UVNT4wvIGY&start_radio=1 The app applies computing to the task of an artificial intelligence collaborating with a user. The application software is a program that executes mathematical routines, with electrons following many miles of microscopic copper interconnects within a computer's processor, connecting transistors, logic gates, registers, caches, and arithmetic units. The term program described what programmers created to direct a computer through the step-by-step execution of a task. As programs evolved into tools that helped people...
Episode #922 October 3, 2026 There are two stages to every skill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN2BLHqkgSc&list=RDbN2BLHqkgSc&start_radio=1 The first is learning the rules. The second is allowing those rules to become spontaneous action. Muscle memory, instinct, and body-mind coordination express spontaneity. When learning how to surf, I was taught to paddle on my belly and ride the wave on my feet. I thought, “paddle under the swell, kneel on the board, one foot up, then the other, and stand up.” By the time I stood, the wave had passed me by. A friend who was teaching me said, “Just leap up...
Episode #921 September 26, 2026 “Dust in the wind All they are is dust in the wind” — Kansas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfS5hpkr_20&list=RDHfS5hpkr_20&start_radio=1 “I close my eyes Only for a moment and the moment's gone All my dreams Pass before my eyes with curiosity” — Kansas But what if I don’t close my eyes? What if I live my dreams and apply all the focus and pressure of my will on the dust of those dreams? I can apply enough force to make dust into diamonds. The shovel of intent can backfill the pits, voids and depressions of life with the...
Episode #920 September 19, 2026 My writer’s group’s monthly assignment was to write a 97-word story. Also, we were to write a short story about boulevard stops. I combined both challenges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=une981B7Q4Y&list=RDune981B7Q4Y&start_radio=1 Boulevard Stops I asked the president of our homeowner’s association why the board installed four-way stop signs on our rural dirt roads. “The ‘5 MPH WHEN HORSES OR PEDESTRIANS ARE PRESENT’ signs are ignored. And stop signs are treated like rolling boulevard stops, where, no matter what direction, the first person arriving at the intersection does not stop,” I said. She replied, “We hoped that an equestrian whose...
Episode #919 September 12, 2026 Think of AWEAR as a Fitbit for your brain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewtw_1lb7Z8&list=RDEwtw_1lb7Z8&start_radio=1 It uses electroencephalography (EEG)—brainwave activity—to provide real-time feedback, helping users recognize the early signs of stress. AWEAR was built by founder Antonio Forenza, an electrical engineer and inventor with more than two decades of experience in advanced communications technology. He developed the first prototype himself. The device is currently being tested, though a beta version is available for purchase. Forenza is working from a simple but persistent question: what if stress could be recognized at the moment it begins, rather than...
Episode #918 September 5, 2026 I used to tell my stories in the first person until a college buddy, Bill, questioned their truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYCcJZRtkXc “All those things could not have happened to you,” Bill said. The truth is that I have lived a varied and interesting life. I really did win medals in track, have my name on an achievement plaque in high school, survive a head-on collision, and learn to waterski at five years old. But Bill’s skepticism didn’t just challenge accuracy—it disrupted the effect of the telling. It pulled the listener out of the experience and...
