Hey there, my name's Zach! I'm a Computer Science major at the University of Maryland who's passionate about learning new technology and building cool stuff. I enjoy occasionally writing about my experiences and projects here on this site.
I’m no stranger to trying out different search engines, and I’m quite fond of switching out the technology I use for new ones to see what sticks. In the past, every time I’ve tried switching to DuckDuckGo, the inevitable would happen. One too many times, I wouldn’t be able to...
Most major software projects require some sort of database to persist data for users to access. At least that’s how we usually think. The problem is that databases introduce a lot of complexity to our software and infrastructure which is often unnecessary. Put in other terms, they also just cost...
When [Cities: Skylines II](https://store.steampowered.com/app/949230/Cities_Skylines_II/) was released last October, I was thrilled to be able to play the successor to one of my favorite games of all time. But looking at the platforms that this sequel was available on, I was less thrilled to find that I could only play it...
After recently recreating my personal website from the ground up, I've been reflecting a bit more on blogs and the internet more broadly. As someone born after 2000, I never really got to experience the internet in the same way that many talk about what "used to be". I never...
I have been using Windows as my main operating system for just about my entire life. From a laptop running Windows 7 to a Surface Tablet running Windows 8 (gross, I know) to a few other devices running Windows 10, I’ve been through all of the recent iterations of Microsoft’s...
As more of our lives move into the digital world, we must keep our online accounts secure. Weak security will inevitably lead to real-world consequences. Almost all banks have some form of online banking, and an insecure password could allow thousands of your dollars to be in a hacker’s hands....
> This was a draft post I found when upgrading my site from Hugo, and it may be a bit verbose. I figured I'd make it public because what I talked about here was still pretty interesting.
As I’ve talked about in other posts, Docker is an amazing tool to virtualize...
It’s safe to say that humans have done a lot of cool stuff in the times we’ve been around. From the wheel to electricity to the Internet, people have created inventions that have revolutionized our daily lives. But one invention – an invention we can’t contribute to a single person,...
In the year 2022, the average technology consumer has many different computing devices. One person, assuming they have the means to afford such devices, may own a Phone, Tablet, Laptop, and Desktop Computer, just to name a few of the devices many use in their daily lives. But as the...
A few months ago, I made a post outlining some of the things I did with docker on an old desktop computer running Linux on it. While that was more of a high-level overview of the process, this will be a more detailed tutorial of the process of creating your...
If you’ve spent any time on the Internet, you might have heard of an “IP address” before. Maybe you even have a vague idea of what they are, like how every computer on the Internet has one to communicate. My goal is to provide you – an average person –...
> This post was adapted from an assignment for my Honors Cisco Academy class during my junior year of high school.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or DHCP for short, is one of the most useful protocols for a network admin. For large networks with hundreds or thousands of end devices, configuring...
> This post was adapted from a project for my Honors World History class during my junior year of high school.
07:56 AM, September 5, 1977. Shortly before Voyager 1’s launch, a few strips of aluminum foil were just added for extra radiation shielding – the same stuff you’d use in...
> This post was adapted from a project for my AP Lang class during my junior year of high school.
The Internet is the way of the future. We use it for everything: chatting with friends, completing assignments at school, and watching our favorite TV shows at the end of the...
Hi Internet, this is my first blog post about some of the cool things I have recently been experimenting with. I wanted to have a record of the projects I'm doing in my free time, and to be able to show it to others. Without further ado, let's get right...