The iMentor® Hints and Rants bLog (webLog) is a weekly journal. Rick Thues (the iMentor®) began writing the bLog in 2009. All of the past episodes are in the Archives. While this bLog began as hints and rants about Apple products and technology it has evolved into a technician's observations of the human condition.
Episode #775 December 9, 2023 I grew up with dials. Rotary phones, volume knobs, speedometers, analog clocks and wiz wheels were everywhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMinaeFzSNw A wheel for a dial was a natural evolution of sun dials, fibonacci moon phases and yoga Surya Namaskar (sun salutations). A sundial is a kind of analog dial with the only moving part being the spinning of the earth. The earth spinning is the wheel engine of a sundial. A fibonacci moon phase chart is a circle of the 28 moon phases. It includes paisley fibonacci shapes to calculate the rising, setting and the...
Episode #774 December 2, 2023 I have a tradition, started by a friend on my 50th birthday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-eWMYe-ss8 Carey sent me 50 postcards. They arrived in my mailbox, one or two a day finishing a couple days before my birthday. They were interesting art postcards which he collects from museum gift shops and antique stores. On each card was a single letter. Together the 50 cards spelled out a message. It was up to me to decode the anagram. Spaces between the words were not included. As the cards arrived I tried making words of them. Most of the...
Episode #773 November 25, 2023 Paula and I have had a living Christmas tree for the last 6 years. They are always fresh and fit nicely in our little house. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDnw7yrI1hY Each year we decorate our little tree with a few of our favorite ornaments. Some are mementos from our life. Others are gifts from friends. Many are made by Paula’s sister, her tradition. The small tree allows us to enjoy each decoration. It only requires one string of lights. The best part of having a living Christmas tree is enjoying it for years afterward. Six years ago, our...
Episode #772 November 18, 2023 For eons humans have used barter to trade what they have for what they want or need. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYBNoFcvcWI Cave men hunted by hand, banding together as a team (bartering their cooperation with each other). The team traded hides with the leather-smith for clothing. Some of the clothing was traded to the spear-maker to make hunting more efficient. Meat was also shared with women who gathered vegetables. The campfire was the grocery store. What was left over after eating was bartered with craftsmen to improve everyone’s life. Early services rendered were compensated with certificates of bartered...
Episode #771 November 11, 2023 Elara's life was a tapestry woven with threads of devotion, each strand representing a different aspect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LboNYB_oKTY Her life was not always the story that her tapestry told. Elara was careless about littering and wasting resources. One day, while driving through downtown, the filthy streets and smoggy skies depressed her. She vowed to embrace nature and venerate the environment. She devoted herself to tree-planting drives, reducing her carbon footprint and recycling diligently. The nearby forest was her canvas. She painted masterpieces of preserved beauty with her conservation. Her forest walks taught Elara the plein-air...
Episode #770 November 4, 2023 If you are hasty you might regret something you just did on the computer. Drat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MKVeHAXqCc Lucky for us, there are undos and redos available on most computers. On the Mac, hold down the Command key (⌘) and type a “z”. This will Undo the last thing you did. In the Finder, if you just threw a file in the Trash, ⌘-z will take it out of the Trash. Alternately, the Edit menu will list an Undo action right at the top (with ⌘-z shown as the keyboard shortcut). Some apps have multiple layers...
