Zach Duda

Zach's Blog

What's up? That's what!



1 Month Ago
Is College in 2024 Worth It? Sorta...

In just over a month, I will have earned my degree. If this is such a big of an accomplishment as people make it out to be: Why do I not feel proud of myself? It has to do with a lot of factors, and the higher education "business model". Because, in the end: college is a business.

When we ask is college a "scam" we first have to define what college is supposed to accomplish. The goal of higher education is to do just that: elevate your education. This value created from education can be...

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2 Months Ago
Tech Layoffs are Sweeping 2024

Graduating college soon and ready to enter the job market? What has a warmer feeling than knowing that tech layoffs have hit record highs and we're not even 2 months into 2024 yet.

CNBC reports that big tech has laid of on average 15% of its workforce this year. Ouch!

Despite boasting record profits last year, these companies are laying off its IT and tech...

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4 Months Ago
Dangerous Online Misinformation

There's an increasingly worrisome trend I've noticed in the social media space: misinformation. But this isn't some classic "Oh but Zach, misinformation has been around for decades there's nothing different". That's where you're wrong. This misinformation is being fueled by something far more sinister: corporate dollars.

In 2020 during the height of the pandemic, Tiktok took a noticeable shift from funny cat videos and entertainment, to it's more recent stage of news, education, and...

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4 Months Ago
The FNAF Movie

There will be no spoilers in this review for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie yet.

On October 27th 2023, the FNAF movie debuted to the public. As of writing this review, the movie holds an extremely high 85% rating with the audience yet a low 26% with critics. (via RottenTomatoes) Honestly, I get it.

As someone who grew up with FNAF and has a deep rooted nostalgia associated with everything: I will be a...

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5 Months Ago
Genocide in Palestine

“All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.”
― John Steinbeck

I sob over Palestine. Mothers, fathers, and children: dead, or dying. 2.2 million people, as of this article, call Palestine their home. I've never been great with articulating my thoughts, but this will be my best attempt, in hopes to inform, and spread awareness with context to the relationship of Israel and Gaza over the last 50 years.

Palestine stands even before the...

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1 Year Ago
Releasing "Bite", my first big release.

When we think of music, we don't think of all the components that go into making it. Many popular songs today have several people working on a track. Lyricist, Producers, Mixers, Vocal Trainers, and the featured Artists themselves can all be separate people that contribute to any given track that you might hear on the radio today.

Saying this, I wish I had a co-producer or someone who I could work with to make awesome ideas come to life. But hey, it's just me, myself, and I, and I've...

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1 Year Ago
How End-to-End Encryption Works

You may have come across the phrase "End to End Encryption" once or twice when looking into more recent messaging services like WhatsApp.
Having encryption is ideal, but what makes end-to-end encryption different?

First, to understand end-to-end encryption we need to understand what we mean by encryption in general. Encryption is the process of taking a set of rules (a cipher) and using them to ensure that one or more computers can be confident that they are indeed communicating...

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1 Year Ago
The Cost of Halfassing

Coding can be frustrating. But it can also be one of the most rewarding hobbies. Creating something out of nothing? Sign me up!

However, there is one fatal flaw: Each mistake you make now will exponentially multiply as you continue building your application. The best way to avoid this snowball of errors for your future self? Learn how to code properly: Right now. These little "quick fixes" are your worst enemy, especially when you already know the code running is about as...

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1 Year Ago
OAuth2 In A Nutshell

OAuth2 is a set of rules for communicating sessions between two websites. Think of OAuth2 as the same rules we use daily when we drive to work. Similar to how we all understand red means stop, green means go, and when you see a person crossing the street, most times, you stop. OAuth2 is similar, as it sets a standard that 2 websites can comprehend.

Generating the OAuth URL
To start, b.com must generate a URL and redirect the browser...

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1 Year Ago
Misleading UI

Today, large corporations mostly control every aspect of their business. Every icon, step, action, and click is traced, calculated, tracked, saved, and placed inn ways that subconiciously trick your brain into doing what that company wants. It can be subtle, like major fast-food chains using red for their branding to "make you more hungry", but it can also be downright filthy. Leave it to a multi-billion dollar company to do what they do best: Continue scamming the middle class to fill their...

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