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 618 December 5, 2020 There are two ways to facilitate search: Table of Contents and Index. https://youtu.be/l_DhFA77xr4 A Table of Contents can be found in the beginning of many text books, manuals and catalogues. It lists chapters of major themes. Sometimes there are tabs in the Contents that lead to the Chapter in the book. Sometimes there are subtopics listed under each chapter for finer detail. The Table of Contents is organized hierarchically, like an English outline. In the back of some books, an Index is an alphabetical list of keywords that point to pages where that word is found....
Episode #617 November 28, 2020 Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) checks to see if you are human. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E0tcilfKZQ CAPTCHA is a kind of reverse Turing test. The Turing test used two humans and a computer. One of the humans asked questions of the computer and the other human. If the questioner could not tell whether an answer came from the computer or the human more than 50% of the time, the computer was said to have artificial intelligence. The CAPTCHA test is a computer checking to see if the user is a...
Episode #616 November 21, 2020 My garage is stocked with tools, fuels, wood, sheet stock, fabric, paint, solvents, electronics, plumbing, gardening and hardware. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWmkdJkQpLY Hardware is the glue that holds a project together. In fact, i think that glue is a kind of hardware and i use it all the time. Rubber bands are the most versatile of the hardwares, but they can also be used as a tool. i use rubber bands as a clamping tool to hold parts together until i can get a proper clamp or fastener in place. As hardware they bind a roll of fabric,...
Episode #615 November 14, 2020 This bLog (webLog) is located at any one of my domains: www.theimentor.com www.imentor.us www.imentor.biz www.imentor.it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmaMArokfpo The name of the bLog is iMentor® Hints and Rants. It is a weekly bLog that i have written for 12 years. This is episode #615. The topics of the bLog were heavily focused on Apple tech hints at first. Over the years the bLog has evolved into my musings on the human condition To read the bLog, open an Internet browser and navigate to one of my domains. Alternately, you can find the bLog with a Google search...
Episode #614 September 7, 2020 Are inanimate objects sentient? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TqIdff_DQ They do not seem to be aware. They do not observe, perceive, sense, recognize or understand. They are not attentive, informed or alert. Inanimates cannot feel or react. Or can they? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xos2MnVxe-c A non living thing will never respond to scolding. It simply cannot care. Yet, we scold our objects. Have you ever pounded the mouse on your desk? Did it help? The mouse cannot feel pain, so it won’t respond to you damaging it. The mouse can feel only certain MouseEvents: Mouseover, mousedown, mouseup, mouseclick, dblclick, mousewheel and mousemove....
Episode #613 October 31, 2020 A venerable animation and video technology is nearing End Of Life (EOL). The Adobe Flash software will cease to exist as of December 31, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vpntZxIr0Y Adobe announced its intention to discontinue Flash July 2017. They collaborated with Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others to end support for Flash. Flash is a technology originally developed by FutureWave as SmartSketch by Jonathan Gay to aid in building animation and video files on the Mac in 1993. The groundwork for SmartSketch was laid during Gay’s development of the popular 1986 Macintosh game, Dark Castle. This was a ground...
