Taking the Pulse - Alex Crouse

 In recent years the Godot game engine has gained significant popularity in the game development industry. Popular games I have played made in the Godot engine include Chillquarium, which is a fish tank simulator, and Brotato, a roguelike game where you play as a potato slaying enemies. Godot was released in 2014 under the MIT license, allowing anyone to use, modify, and distribute Godot freely. This licensing model also means developers retain full ownership of their games without worrying about royalties or fees that come with proprietary services such as Unity. Having a game engine such as Godot evolve so quickly and be able to stand toe-to-toe with commercial products gives me hope for the game development industry. I started school with the dream to be a game developer, but after learning more about how the career and industry play out, I feel unmotivated to work in such an environment. Godot has relit the passion for game development within me, and I hope to one day publish m...

I recently watched a meeting between the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the South Korean president, Lee Jae-myung, where the Chinese president gifted two new Xiaomi smartphones to the South Korean president. The two exchanged jokes about the device's security, and the Chinese president even joked about checking for backdoors. Backdoors are not necessarily a new topic for me, but they did, however, pique my interest in the history of backdoors. Backdoors deliberately undermine the users' security by allowing for a direct access point to the device; however, these can be implemented for many reasons. Knowing these Xiaomi phones are banned in America, it made me curious how many backdoors have been created in modern technology for government surveillance. It has brought me back to the idea of how every sheet of paper printed can be traced back to a specific printer based on a unique ID printed on each sheet of paper. It is small steps like these that allow for a higher level o...

 After delving into the lifespan of common technology used in a business setting, such as printers and plotters, it got me thinking about planned obsolescence and how many modern companies implement this to entice users to upgrade or spend more money with them in the future. After learning more about the lifespan, I feel this is something companies have factored into consideration. A common way we can see modern technology get phased out is when the company no longer provides updates to a technology, such as the recent Windows 10 end of life. When I think of hardware as opposed to software, iPhone's are the first to come to mind. If you have had an older iPhone, you are well aware that as the system updates, you will slowly diminish your performance and take a toll on your battery life. While these tactics are built to entice users to buy the latest technology and upgrades, they also create more electrical waste. Many "right to repair" movements are lobbying for consumers...

After learning more about file systems this week, it reminded me of a program I use every so often when I want to play specific games with my friends called LogMeIn Hamachi. Hamachi is a VPN tool that creates a virtual LAN over the internet. Once you create and join a network, you can invite up to 5 people for the free version to simulate as if everyone is all on the same network. This is a great way to securely share files and even play games locally, which is what I have always used it for. Many games have the ability to host a server, such as Minecraft, and as a child it was much easier for me to use Hamachi instead of setting up a server. If we enable file sharing on Windows, we can easily share files directly with other people on our virtual network. Hamachi has been a valuable tool for me over the years and to this day remains free with some limitations and is something I highly recommend to people who play games or need to share files with friends securely.

I recently built a computer and failed to realize that using a Windows 10 installation drive I had purchased years ago was not the best idea. It caused a lot of issues because the old version of Windows did not have any drivers for my modern hardware. My computer would turn on but not allow display when plugged into the GPU, which made it difficult to complete the setup. Since I had integrated graphics with my CPU, I attempted to just update Windows, but since it was so outdated, it struggled to download and properly install each update. This is when I learned about the Windows Media Creation Tool and how important it can be when working with computers running the Windows operating system. Using the tools allows you to create a Windows OS installation drive that can be used offline with the most recent version of Windows and its latest drivers. Using this instead of the drive you can purchase from a store such as Best Buy or Micro Center allows you to ensure compatibility when working ...

I learned this week about RAID, which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Before this, I thought data storage simply meant having a hard drive, but RAID has entirely changed how I think about what is considered reliable and quality storage.  RAID combines multiple drives into one functional working drive. Depending on the RAID level, it can either make a computer run faster or protect it from data loss. Some RAID levels can do both. RAID 0 focuses on splitting data, RAID 1 mirrors a copy, and RAID 5 and RAID 6 balance performance and fault tolerance using parity blocks to rebuild data. The most advanced RAID is level 10 and offers high speed and high protection through combining striping and mirroring. I have now realized that RAID is meant for all types of users, not just professionals, to help get the most out of our computers and prevent data loss.