CS373 Spring 2021: Jack Raney (Week 13)
What did you do this past week?
This past week was definitely a more relaxed week. I would consider it to be the calm before the storm certainly. I spent most of the week catching up on some smaller tasks ands planning for the weeks ahead.
What’s in your way?
As of now, I have two heavy due dates coming up next Monday and Tuesday. Those are definitely in the way of working on Phase 4 for the near future. However, my group has created a plan for the final phase and we have a good idea of how to navigate the end of the semester.
What will you do this next week?
Monday and Tuesday are big deadline days for me. On both days I have essays due which are and will take a substantial amount of time to complete. After Tuesday, I will be switching focus to Phase 4 completely. I have a list of things to complete for the phase and I have a strong idea of how to go about those tasks. Additionally, I will be working on a lab for my Networks class which is due on Friday. This week should be my last big week for the semester!
If you read it, what did you think of the What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You?
Honestly, its a shame to read about some of the blatantly horrible things that some individuals do. I don’t really understand how one can behave with no filter at all, nor do I understand how one can be so willing to do a terrible thing that they know is terrible. Its always good to have a reminder of the unacceptable actions of the few so that we keep our eyes open and stay ready to respond to any incidents around us.
What was your experience of joins and refactoring? (this question will vary, week to week)
To be totally honest, while I understand joins conceptually, I definitely struggle when putting that knowledge into practice during the exercise. I’ve taken some additional time to go back over the lectures and reinforce some of that information for next time.
What made you happy this week?
My family got a puppy! This was kind of a crazy surprise that came out of nowhere. She’s a 5 1/2 week old Miniature Pinscher (See our website for more info: https://doggiedb.me/breeds/112) and she’s been a blast! I’ve learned that she basically has 2 modes. She’s either passed out, or she is trying her absolute hardest to tear your fingers off. There really is no in between. I’ve really been trying to steer her towards the chew toys, for my own sake!
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
I think I want to take this week to shout out the technology behind Cryptocurrency. Its hard not to have heard about Bitcoin and more recently Dogecoin at a surface level, but its really fascinating how these technologies work under the hood. Cryptocurrency is built upon a data structure known as a Blockchain which has some really cool properties. In the abstract, it looks like a linked list of blocks which each contain the hash of the previous block, and a hash of itself. This is useful because it means that a change in any block affects the hash of the final block. This makes it easy to take 2 blockchains and compare them for alterations. The last step to create a Cryptocurrency is to create a mechanism to share a trusted blockchain with thousands of other users. When a change is to be made to the blockchain, all users make that change, and they are easily able to verify that the other users made the correct change. As long as at least half of the users decide to play by the rules and properly update the chain, everything functions flawlessly. This allows for the existence of a decentralized trustworthy data structure which is really really useful. Right now we primarily see this technology used in finance, but there are all kinds of potential applications for future systems! I think its certainly worth delving into more. Also, Bitcoin itself is opensource. You can check out their GitHub https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin!
