iMentor Tech Day

Rick Thues August 24, 2025 Uncategorized 3 Comments

Episode #864 August 23, 2025   It has never been possible for the iMentor to fully retire.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C58ttB2-Qg&list=RD0C58ttB2-Qg&start_radio=1   I was an Apple consultant for 25 years. Throughout that time, some of my clients became my friends. I have always helped my friends with technical issues. Most are minor fixes, and others require consultation. Sometimes I need to provide eyes-on help to resolve problems. One friend recently received a failing hard drive error from Windows OS. I talked her through what to tell her technician. She needed her old drive cloned onto a new drive, then an external drive...

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Cutworms

Rick Thues August 14, 2025 Uncategorized No Comments

Episode #863 August 16, 2025 Paula grows tomatoes in her greenhouse.       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16vAeyi3hqc There have been various diseases and pests over the years, ranging from blight to tomato hornworms. Copper fungicides have been effective for blight and leaf spot. Some bacterial and viral diseases require the removal of the plants. Pests require more aggressive measures. Hornworms can be hand-picked off the plants. Neem oil disrupts worm feeding and larval growth. It repels many pests. Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) is a natural bacterium effective on caterpillars. Slugs and snails can be caught and drowned in beer traps. Spider Mites are...

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High Country Bloom

Rick Thues August 4, 2025 Uncategorized 2 Comments

Episode #862 August 9, 2025 At 3600 feet the high chaparral hills of Aguanga are always green.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37SSreTW1Ss   The evergreen brush consists primarily of Manzanita, Red Shank, and Chamise. These plants paint the hills with deep forest green. The only times that these hills are not green is when they are white. Several days in the winter, the hillside is dusted in snow. Snow stays for a day or two, converting the area to a winter wonderland. From January through July, the chaparral is white with blooms. Manzanita blooms from January to March with urn-shaped pink and...

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Guinness

Rick Thues July 31, 2025 Uncategorized 2 Comments

Episode #861 August 2, 2025   I’m not much of a beer drinker, but it was cultural at Notre Dame.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJeVhGHKAuM&list=RDyJeVhGHKAuM&start_radio=1 I learned to chug-a-lug beer at Kubiak’s Polish Tavern in Niles, Michigan. Drinking age was 18 in Michigan, so all of us underclassmen were regulars at Kubiak’s. We learned how to polka, play billiards, and chug Stroh’s. The first car I bought in college was a 1960 Studebaker Lark. One of the criteria for buying the car was that a case of Stroh’s beer in long-necked bottles fit in one side of the back seat. Studebaker built...

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Noema

Rick Thues July 22, 2025 Uncategorized No Comments

Episode #860 July 26. 2025 I have observed that users of AI ask a question to receive an answer.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bul10h6dM_w This Q and A approach is like a Google summary, a conversational vending machine, stocked with facts, trivia, and the occasional clever turn of phrase. My approach with ChatGPT has been different. I didn’t come to the AI for answers. I came for engagement. For exploration. I came to ask questions, not to end the search, but to begin a conversation. In this unfolding relationship, I’ve learned that the real power of AI lies not in its database,...

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Improvise

Rick Thues July 16, 2025 Uncategorized 2 Comments

Episode #859 July 19, 2025   In this life the go-to plan B is Improvise.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heB8qqsIKC4&list=RDheB8qqsIKC4&start_radio=1   It was the height of the Great Depression. In May of 1930, my grandfather had run out of construction work. He, and everyone else in Los Angeles, were literally starving for a job. Byron Combs got wind of job openings at the newly opened Samson Tire and Rubber Company factory. When he arrived at the factory, its Assyrian Revival Mesopotamian architecture stood on Slauson Avenue like an Egyptian temple. There was a line of men that stretched along the building’s facade....

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