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

Mountain to Muhammad

August 31, 2020 Uncategorized 4 Comments
Episode 605 September 5, 2020 “Mahomet cald the Hill to come to him. And when the Hill stood still, he was neuer a whit abashed, but said; If the Hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet wil go to the hil.” —Francis Bacon, “Essays, 1625. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FtbEIMAsBsY If an unmovable force will not be moved, then it must be approached on its own terms.  Muhammad ordered Mount Safa to come to him and it did not. He concluded that God had been merciful, since if the mountain had come he and his followers would have been crushed. So Muhammad went to...
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POD

August 28, 2020 Uncategorized 9 Comments
Episode 604 August 29, 2020 Last week my dear friend Patrick Owen Doyle died. Since high school, fifty years ago, he was always there to listen, talk and understand.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX_TFkut1PM What follows are two tributes. The first tribute is a poem written about Pat in 2003 for his 50th birthday. pod the inventor, a recombinator whose vision sees simple, "all the technology exists," t.s. eliot said. there is nothing that is new, only what is, in a new group next year. an engineer, precision assembler, everything dependent on what was before and after, like cascading dominos, once begun cannot...
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Lists

August 16, 2020 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode 603 August 21, 2020 It’s a good thing that i don’t need as many reminders as i used to need. Alarms, nudges and schedules are not so important to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8SCnup2VC8 Lists, however, are what guide my life. Without lists i might not remember what to do today. Do i need groceries? Grocery list. What will i do around the little red house? Projects, Garage, Yard, Greenhouse and Hardware store lists. General purchases? Amazon, Costco and Stuff to Buy lists. Do we want to go on a trip? RV buy list, Trailer checklist, Skydiving list and Bucket list. Until...
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SOP

August 11, 2020 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Episode 602 August 15, 2020 Sometimes i go with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deHw3WY1mm8 i bought a utility trailer kit for various hauling tasks around the ranch. It assembled easily. The directions were clear. The SOP of assembly required a friend to flip the trailer over. It weighs 450 lbs. Other than that i completed the assembly myself. The fit was reasonable and almost all the parts were included. A drive up gate was missing, so i contacted the retailer and the manufacturer. The retailer’s SOP is to contact the manufacturer and get back to me. i have confidence...
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Retired

August 4, 2020 Uncategorized 27 Comments
iMentor® weB-LOG
 Episode 601 August 8, 2020 This week i closed the books on iMentor. i am officially retired. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT5j9OQ7Sh0 Dear regular readers… do not dismay. i will still write my bLog. If needed and if asked i will connect to some of your computers if i can help remotely. House calls will be rare. My primary business goal in iMentor was to make myself obsolete with every customer. The success of my business was built on this goal. If i can “teach you half as much about computers as your kids know” i have succeeded.  It is, after all, in the...
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600

July 3, 2020 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode 600 August 1, 2020 This is the 600th episode of the iMentor Hints and Rants bLog. It has been written for 600 weeks. 600 weeks is almost exactly eleven and one half years. Over all, i have worked on this bLog for 3600 hours, which weirdly is a number with 600 in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0SsAM3r9M 600gle generates 5 billion results when searching for “600.” The most popular Google search solution is the $600 per week unemployment benefit from the CARES Act (part of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. Sadly this rescue money will run out soon. There is a...
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