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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Marketing

November 21, 2022 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode #721 November 26, 2022 The most effective marketing is word of mouth.   Advertising delivers the message. Amazon algorithms bring attention to the masses. But word of mouth convinces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGWtMl49-jU To all my readers who have bought “Technically Human” and/or “Skydivers Know Why Birds Sing,” thank you. It is the highest compliment you could have given to me. In the 14 years I have been writing this bLog I have never advertised. With the publication of my books, I broke that rule. I now advertise my two books at the end of each episode. The bLog has always been...
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The Road Not Taken

November 18, 2022 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Episode #720 November 19, 2022 In Frank Herbert’s Dune, the Guild Navigators were prescient. They could see all the possible routes through space. They guided their space ships on a route that did not end in disaster, such as crashing into a star. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D37POA11KY Choice is a skill that we all exercise every moment of our lives. Each action we take is based on a variety of choices. The course we choose is the one which most mitigates our risks while still achieving our goal. When walking on an uneven path our foot placements are those which are likely not...
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Skydivers Know Why Birds Sing

November 6, 2022 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode #719 November 12, 2022 35 years in the making and 3 years in the writing,  “Skydivers Know Why Birds Sing” is available in paperback and Kindle e-book.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwJGN-T4kaM Many of you know that my wife and are lifelong skydivers. People are always asking about the why and how of jumping out of an airplane. Those stories are in this book. Rick and Paula have been on a skydiving adventure for 35 years. They each have made more than 5000 jumps.  They entered the sport during its transition from a thing done by risk taking dare devils to...
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Form Follows Function

November 2, 2022 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode #718 November 5, 2022   The American architect Louis Henry Sullivan coined the phrase “form ever follows function.”    “It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human, and all things super-human, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law. “ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrSmvjGV-ls This law has been a guiding tenet of modern architects. Yet designers are human. My observations have revealed many designs which put art,...
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Good Luck, Bad Luck & Dumb Luck

October 28, 2022 Uncategorized 9 Comments
Episode #717 October 29, 2022 I bumped into George at the University of Notre Dame. We were moving into Grace Hall residence dorm. George needed a hand moving his gear up to his room, which was down the hall from mine.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiTmgxT1wUU “Need some help?” I asked. “Great. I’ve got some heavy duffels down in the car,” said George. Down at the car were four military duffel bags. “What are these?” “I’m ROTC Army. This is my military gear.” Back at George’s room I wondered aloud, “Have you been ROTC long?” “This is my fourth year. I came...
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A Good Story

October 16, 2022 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Episode #716 October 22, 2022 I have had an interesting life. It is fodder for interesting stories. In my experience, life is at once the most gripping and unbelievable thing we tell.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfCLt0kTd5E In college I was thrown together with people whom I did not know. They also did not know me. An effective tool for building friendship is to understand another’s story. I would tell my stories to my housemates. One housemate in particular, John, was skeptical of what I said. “I was driving my motorcycle in the rain,” I told. “The street was slippery. I took a...
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