the iMentor

Hints & rants

This weB-LOG contains helpful hints and rants about your Macintosh, Apple products and your electronic life.

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Category: Uncategorized

Loathing

April 12, 2021 Uncategorized No Comments
Episode #637 April 17, 2021 Loathing is an emotion that some of us have felt, but have not fully realized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP4TP_YtAFA Loathing is an aversion to something, but is is more than that… it is disgust. When this distaste becomes horror the awfulness of how atrocious this dread feels is frightful. The grisly ghastliness is gruesome. The feeling is hideous, horrid and horrendous. The nausea, qualmishness and queasiness is a sickness. Loathing is so queer as to evoke repugnance, repulsion and revulsion. All these synonyms convince me that i have never truly felt Loathing. i am thankful for that.   Let’s consider...
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Fear

April 7, 2021 Uncategorized 6 Comments
Episode #636 April 10, 2021 “… the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f8wAXDZ9D0 In my years of consulting the most common reaction to computers is fear. Fearful users do not understand the operating system interface. Application controls are unfamiliar and therefore frightening. Instruction helps. When the computer is explained as a metaphor for an office users relax from their fear. Most people know what a desk, paper and pencil, address book, calendar, copy machine and encyclopedia do. They are...
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Inscrutable

April 2, 2021 Uncategorized 5 Comments
Episode #635 April, 3, 2021 Computers are inscrutable. They are so complex. They cannot be known in whole. Yet we interact with them in nearly every aspect of our lives. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebst8wY_320 With computer hardware there are certain scrutinies that assure that it is functioning as manufactured. Most of the time the hardware has not failed. Almost always a computer malfunctions due to software. Software malfunctions can be scrutinized for the following: Misconfigured settings. Damaged preference files. Incompatible applications. Demands of a too advanced operation system. Damaged source code. Incorrect permissions. Inscrutable problem Scrutinies of software are: Misconfigured settings. The settings...
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Vis Viva

March 23, 2021 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Episode #634 March 27, 2021 The total energy of an isolated system remains constant over time. — The Law of Conservation of energy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbg6CF4kJU8 This idea was described by Galileo in observations of the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy, such as in the motion of a pendulum. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz refined this idea of conservation calling it “vis viva” (living force). Emilie du Châtelet expanded on Galileo and Leibniz’s ideas in the notes of her Latin to French translation of Newton’s “Principia.” She suggests that there can be no perpetual motion machine because a system requires energy input...
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Upside Down

March 15, 2021 Uncategorized No Comments
Episode #633 March 20, 2021 My skydiving guru told me, “There is no up in skydiving.” This double entendre observes that during free fall you are always going down with gravity.  It also speaks to the fact that every body position is correct. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq8k-ZbsXDI Belly to earth, back to earth, standing or head down there is no up and no down, only stability. Relative to each other, skydivers are hovering. Position is always assessed relative to the observer in free fall.  If a diver flies past a formation he is said to be sinking. If a fellow skydiver observes you...
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Forgiveness

March 8, 2021 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode #632 March 13, 2021 “You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” — Jesus Christ, Bible (Matthew 5:38) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCra2GifbcY Difficult advice. How can you bring yourself to forgive another? i have four ways: Love someone anyway. Agree to disagree. Walk away. Listen and engage with added fervor. In computing i have employed all of the above. Sometimes Apple “improves” an operating...
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