IT Insights Blog

There's an old inspirational maxim that goes something like this: "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." Such is the power of assonance ... to cause pithy inspirational adages to linger in memory. The power of the mind to believe things into existence is, well, less readily demonstrable. Science fiction authors and others have been conceiving technologies beyond the grasp of modern engineering for generations, after all.

As explained by Starfleet captain and occasional rock climber James T. Kirk at the beginning of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the "most important reason to climb any mountain" is the root motivation for many, if not most, feats of human adventure and daring: "Because it's there." (Kirk is busy attempting to climb Yosemite's El Capitan.) A challenge exists, ergo I must overcome it. The impulse to prove ... something has inspired many a mountaineer to attempt the insurmountable.

There's a long tradition in the annals of humanity of resolving to improve oneself in various ways at the start of each year. Many centuries ago, the inhabitants of Babylon would make a religious vow at the start of each year to return borrowed objects and pay debts. In ancient Rome, many citizens of the empire would begin the first month of the year by making promises to Janus, the god of (among several other things) beginnings.

It's been a wonderful 2018 here at the IT Insights Blog, and we're grateful to everyone who has shared it with us. We hope to see you all again in 2019!

Greetings, faithful readers. How is everyone's holiday shopping going? There are still few days to hustle and bustle before the gift-giving zero hour, but you'd better get over to the mall, or put that Amazon Prime membership to work, pronto. Oh, and by the way, we got something for you! With 2019 nearly here, we've combed through the archives and identified the 10 Most Popular Posts to the IT Insight Blog of the past 12 months.