the iMentor

Hints & rants

This weB-LOG is about the musing of a technical consultant. It is the iMentor's thoughts on technology and the human condition.

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Author: Rick Thues

CAPTCHA

November 23, 2020 Uncategorized 4 Comments
Episode #617 November 28, 2020   Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) checks to see if you are human. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E0tcilfKZQ CAPTCHA is a kind of reverse Turing test.  The Turing test used two humans and a computer. One of the humans asked questions of the computer and the other human. If the questioner could not tell whether an answer came from the computer or the human more than 50% of the time, the computer was said to have artificial intelligence. The CAPTCHA test is a computer checking to see if the user is a...
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Common Hardware

November 16, 2020 Uncategorized 4 Comments
Episode #616 November 21, 2020 My garage is stocked with tools, fuels, wood, sheet stock, fabric, paint, solvents, electronics, plumbing, gardening and hardware. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWmkdJkQpLY Hardware is the glue that holds a project together. In fact, i think that glue is a kind of hardware and i use it all the time. Rubber bands are the most versatile of the hardwares, but they can also be used as a tool. i use rubber bands as a clamping tool to hold parts together until i can get a proper clamp or fastener in place. As hardware they bind a roll of fabric,...
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How to use my bLog

November 11, 2020 Uncategorized No Comments
iMentor® weB-LOG
 Episode #615 November 14, 2020 This bLog (webLog) is located at any one of my domains: www.theimentor.com www.imentor.us www.imentor.biz www.imentor.it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmaMArokfpo The name of the bLog is iMentor® Hints and Rants. It is a weekly bLog that i have written for 12 years. This is episode #615. The topics of the bLog were heavily focused on Apple tech hints at first. Over the years the bLog has evolved into my musings on the human condition To read the bLog, open an Internet browser and navigate to one of my domains. Alternately, you can find the bLog with a Google search...
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Sentient

November 2, 2020 Uncategorized No Comments
Episode #614 September 7, 2020 Are inanimate objects sentient? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TqIdff_DQ They do not seem to be aware. They do not observe, perceive, sense, recognize or understand. They are not attentive, informed or alert. Inanimates cannot feel or react. Or can they? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xos2MnVxe-c A non living thing will never respond to scolding. It simply cannot care. Yet, we scold our objects. Have you ever pounded the mouse on your desk? Did it help? The mouse cannot feel pain, so it won’t respond to you damaging it. The mouse can feel only certain MouseEvents: Mouseover, mousedown, mouseup, mouseclick, dblclick, mousewheel and mousemove....
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Gone in a Flash

October 27, 2020 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode #613 October 31, 2020 A venerable animation and video technology is nearing End Of Life (EOL). The Adobe Flash software will cease to exist as of December 31, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vpntZxIr0Y Adobe announced its intention to discontinue Flash July 2017. They collaborated with Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others to end support for Flash. Flash is a technology originally developed by FutureWave as SmartSketch by Jonathan Gay to aid in building animation and video files on the Mac in 1993. The groundwork for SmartSketch was laid during Gay’s development of the popular 1986 Macintosh game, Dark Castle. This was a ground...
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On Bored

October 19, 2020 Uncategorized 3 Comments
Episode #612 October 24, 2020 There are nine trillion bits of information on my computer, yet i find myself in the same small loop every morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2WcdaF8uL8 i wake up and walk downstairs, pour a cup of coffee and walk to my office. Check email and deal with new messages. Some email gets replies, some get filed, some have links that i pursue and others (most) are deleted. Open Safari and click to Google news. Scan the headlines. Read some of the articles. Repeat until bored. Play some dumb game until bored. Write the text for my next bLog. Repeat,...
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