The iMentor® Hints and Rants bLog (webLog) is a weekly journal of Apple centric tech hints and personal rants.
Rick Thues (the iMentor®) began writing the bLog in 2009.
All of the past episodes are in the Archives.
For anything having to do with the Internet or computing you might find the answer or a question here.
Enjoy.
Episode #659 September 18, 2021 My entire life i have been drawing a map in my brain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMw9_ZMGvAQ It started when i was a small child. My father had me lie in the back of the station wagon and close my eyes. As he entered our neighborhood he said, “We are headed north. Each turn we make tell me what direction we are going.” When we turned left i yelled out “WEST.” Then left again, “SOUTH.” And so on zig zagging through the neighborhood streets. It did not take long before i had a mental map of my neighborhood,...
Episode #658 September 11, 2021 Misunderstanding is easy to achieve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXn1TonSmFc Sometimes conversation should be without nuance. Plain spoken, succinct comments often communicate most clearly. When communication is too subtle, misunderstanding occurs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSjDDAucIj4 However, clarity is the vehicle of understanding. When forming a sentence more is often better than less. Sentences should, at a minimum, have a noun and a verb. Something is acting in some way. “He ran.” ...a perfectly correct sentence. But this sentence begs the questions: Who is “he”? How did he run? Where did he run to? Where did he run from? Why did he run...
Episode #657 September 4, 2021 The Book Of Counted Sorrows On the road that I have taken, one day, walking, I awaken, amazed to see where I have come, where I'm going, where I'm from. — from Dark Rivers of the Heart -- Dean Koontz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7545WDwJWjg Now The Present is now. It is NOW, right now. Now it is the future and now it is past, right now. Now is the tip of an arrow aimed at a target that never arrives. The present does not wait for the end of my sentence. i thought that sleep would...
Episode #656 August 28, 2021 My troubleshooting skills have been automotive instead of computing lately. But the same methods seem to apply. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYTtak15T-Y My wife and i were driving to Wyoming in my 1999 Toyota Tacoma. We stopped for gas outside Provo, Utah, where i filled up. OK… i kind of overfilled the tank. Five minutes later the check engine light came on. i did everything i knew to do: Paula pulled out the manual. The list of things that could evoke the check engine light included a loose gas cap. For all other causes the manual advised to...
Episode #655 August 21, 2021 We have all heard that, “It is not what you know, but who you know that counts.” i suggest that it is both. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3chGVpR9NzA WHAT i KNEW: Driving home from Wyoming i noticed a sluggishness in the steering of my 1999 Toyota Tacoma. WHO i KNEW: i thought to ask my mechanic about it when i returned home. WHAT i KNEW: In south Las Vegas, heading south on Interstate 15, just before the miles long expanse of desert, i needed to fill up with gas. WHO i KNEW: Chevron is my go-to gas station...
Episode #654 August 14, 2021 When i was a cabinet maker in an architectural mill my foreman was also a politician. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLvrVnDvBA i had been taught to detail the insides of the cabinets before assembling them. The routine of installing shelf columns, lazy susans and drawer guides onto the unassembled cabinet parts was more efficient than crawling inside the cabinet after it was assembled. One day, i was detailing cabinet parts on my bench when the foreman came over. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked. “Detailing the cabinet,” i replied. “You are making me look bad to the supervisor,”...
