Episode 561 November 2, 2019 Projects, tasks and procedures are dynamic. We are taught in school to follow step by step procedures to accomplish a goal or arrive at a conclusion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mpGsTORq5o This is OK if you memorize how to do everything all the time wherever you are. Maybe that is the point of Google. Prior to starting any project we can Google a YouTube and see how it is done… no memorization necessary. The trouble is that even in YouTube there is more than one way to proceed for every task. Playing a project flexibly by ear is the...
Episode 560 October 26, 2019 Some people fear technology. It is mysterious. Some people say that some technology is inscrutable and therefore cannot be learned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5U7b_E14cE i liken the fear of technology to when i walked into a Best Buy for the first time. i stood in the entrance. My mouth dropped open slightly. i actually sighed with trepidation. Sitting at the door was a Best Buy employee who greeted me cheerfully. That made me feel better. He was wearing a blue shirt. As i scanned the store i saw other people in blue shirts standing around. Good to know....
Episode 559 October 19, 2019 Every time Apple releases a new operating system i have advised my clients to wait. This used to be every two years, but now it is every year. This year Apple has released macOS 10.15 Catalina. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I7zMKptjRs It is a very major new version upgrade because Catalina no longer supports 32 bit applications. An operating system that only supports 64 bit applications means that some of your software might not work. You can see which of your software is 32 bit in: Apple menu > About This Mac > System Report… > Software > Applications...
Episode 558 October 12, 2019 Humans aggregate everything. We are pack rats for knowledge. Our computers have taken our propensity for hoarding and turned it into a guidebook for life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XLV8cBbG1o Social media aggregates community. Religion aggregates faith. Education teaches critical thinking so we can aggregate truth. Computers aggregate information. We have delegated aggregation to our machines. All our communications are aggregated by our phones. Email, text, voice, tweets, posts and social media are all located in one place. Our creative expression is aggregated in the computer. Gone are the days of paper and pen. i used to write poetry...
Episode 557 October 5, 2019 icon: ˈī-kän : a graphic symbol on a computer display screen that represents an app, an object (such as a file), or a function (such as the command to save).— Merriam-Webster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcpAfOZlMnk Virtually everything you see on your computer desktop is an icon. The pictorial symbols on your desktop and in Finder windows are icons which represent apps, documents, folders and aliases (short cuts). The words in a directory are icons that represent the files that they name. Menu items are icons that represent the commands that they name. The keyboard shortcuts next to...
Episode 556 September 28, 2019 Over the years my best consult has been: “Never trust a computer.” Computers are human machinations and therefore flawed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkbAx63e1wI There are things about a computer on which you can absolutely count. When a computer is working it will process a program (application) exactly as designed. Bits and bytes that enter the processor are processed as they are in the order that they occur. This loop of processing will continue reliably until the program ends, is interrupted, the power goes down or an error occurs. It is in the errors that trust is lost....