A Student's Perspective

 What if I told you that time-travel exists? You may think I'm crazy, but actually, I'm being serious. Now, before you start plotting your trip back in time, there's something you should know. When I say time-travel, it's not quite what you think. It's completely possible to travel into the future, but it is unclear as of today whether it is possible to travel back in time. Lots of scientists believe that it won't be possible to travel back in time, but there is a way that it may still be possible. The reason I can make these statements is because of one guy. An absolute legend. A person who single-handedly changed the course of history by discovering one of the most mind-boggling theories of all time. And that man is none other than Albert Einstein. Let's get the basics out of the way. At it's heart special relativity, the topic of today's article, hinges on one simple fact: the speed of light in a vacuum is constant for all observers, regardless...

 Initially, when I created this blog, I stated that only opinions would be contained here. However, it has become very clear to me that I am obviously better at explaining things than I am at expressing complex opinions. And beyond that, the articles I enjoyed writing the most were the explanations about topics in computer science. That brings us to now. Moving forward, I'd like to shift my focus toward explaining topics I am interested in as well as continuing to express my concerns and opinions. I am, however, going to try to move more toward opinion articles that require some explanation as to the principles at work. On to the Maths!  Note: If, at this point, you haven't read my article on public-key cryptography, I would highly suggest that you read it before continuing. You can find it here . In this article, I will be explaining the mathematics of RSA. RSA is but one example of public-key cryptography and there are many out there, but today we'll only be looking a...

 If you've not been living under a rock these past few months, you will have heard about the (now postponed) changes to WhatsApp's privacy policy. There are some problematic things about their privacy policy already, but I'll not be spending your precious time discussing legal and bureaucratic nonsense. Instead, I want to talk about and highlight some things that may or may not allow you to come to the (obviously correct) conclusion that you should be using an open-source messaging app like Telegram or Signal. Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by, nor was this article commissioned by, Telegram, LLC or any other company. I just happen to really like open-source software and think that Telegram is a great app. Now, as for why you shouldn't be using WhatsApp. Proprietary software is hazardous at best. In general, there are two types of software: proprietary and open-source. Proprietary being software where the underlying source code is not available to the end-user. Open-sour...

  Case file #3 The patient is terrified of heights following a "harrowing experience" in the air. The patient claims to "know something about the missing one." Strong antipsychotics will be prescribed. Excerpt from the patient's diary: It wasn't on the 7th one. The pilot was right. They won't find the missing one. I knew I shouldn't have done what I did, but I had no choice. I hated working the railroads. YOU NEED TO FIND IT!  UP BPZMM AMDMV HMZW The patient appears to be talking to someone. An alternate personality, perhaps. More investigation is needed. Age: 92 (89) Weight: 74 kg Height: 180cm BMI: 23 Current medication: Experimental antipsychotics

 Case File #2 Staff Update:  All patients are now required to write a diary. The patient is hallucinating. He keeps mentioning writing about having "figured it out." I am recommending a strong regimen of Haldol, (10mg per day). This should keep the patient calm and cooperative. Excerpt from the patient's diary: "I've figured it out. I've fgured it out. I've figured it out. I've figured it out. I've figured it out. I've figured it out. I've figured it out. I've figured it out. I've figured it out. I've figured it out. I've figured it out. It's missing. They left the key. It's missing. It's missing." The above entry shows the patient's deteriorating mental status. Weekly psychiatric evaluations will be scheduled to remedy the situation. Age: 71 Weight: 45kg Height: 172cm BMI: 15.2 (Severe) Current medication: Haldol (10mg/day)

Most people have come across cryptography in some way, shape or form. To most people, it's just a way of encrypting a message in such a way that only the intended receiver can decrypt it. In this article, I will be exploring the benefits of public-key cryptography, most notably RSA, as well as explaining the basic concept behind computer cryptography for the uninitiated. Cryptography (intro) So, if this is the first time you've heard of cryptography, this section is meant for you! The basic concept of cryptography is relatively simple: You take a message and, combining it with some type of secret shared between sender and recipient, turn the message into something that cannot be understood without said secret. If you've ever come up with some sort of secret code in your childhood (or early adult life, no judgement here), you've probably done cryptography, even if you didn't know it. The simplest form of symmetric-key cryptography is the Cesar Cipher. The way it work...

Case file #1: The patient seems to be struggling with many issues. As agreed to, the patient has been writing diaries. A very human thing to do... Excerpt from patient's diary: "Notes: Purest motivation, concentration? Muscular strength and functionality reduced. What is happening?" As is evident from the above entry, the patient is still in the early stages of the disease, he displays only minor symptoms and, as such, will be placed under mild sedation. Age: 53 Weight: 66kg Height: 185+ cm BMI: 17.9 (too low) Current medication: --Classified--

 Welcome back! This is the second and final part in a series of articles about why unmanaged programming languages are the best. In this article, I will be covering the ways in which unmanaged programming languages, such as C++, are far superior to managed languages when it comes to data management and manipulation. Pointers Pointers are literally the best thing since sliced bread...  They seem like such a simple concept, but oh man are they powerful! Basically, a pointer is a variable that holds a memory address. It's actually a little more simple than that. A pointer, at it's lowest level, just holds an integer. This means you can do integer arithmetic with it. It might not be immediately obvious why this is useful, but I'll get to that in a minute. The first thing pointers allow you to do that is pretty neat is to change the data type of a variable very easily. Now, this isn't strictly speaking converting the data to another ty...

In this article, I aim to discuss the benefits of unmanaged programming languages, such as C++. As a currently enrolled Computer Science student and a programmer with at least six years of programming experience, I have come across my fair share of programming languages, from the ubiquitous commercial languages like Java to the extremely specialized and mostly unheard of ones, like Prolog. The point being, in six years of programming, the most useful languages I come across are almost always unmanaged languages. With a couple of exceptions that I will also discuss, such as Python. But wait! I'm not even a programmer! That's okay! (Jeez, stop shouting...) I will be explaining the concepts necessary for understanding my argument in full. So just hold on tight, maybe grab a coffee, and enjoy the ride. Data allocation: Variables If you've never programmed before, you must understand the concept of variables. Specifically, how the underlying memory they are con...

Here's a fun fact you probably didn't know: Every computer I own runs on Linux. For the most part, this has been a taste and practicality issue, but as the years go by, Linux is getting more and more accessible to everyone. In this article, I aim to highlight a few reasons why you, the reader, should use Linux. To most people, the idea that there are multiple options for choosing an operating system seems foreign, and that's completely understandable. Some people (my parents included) don't even know what an operating system is. For that reason, I am going to try not to get too technical in this article. I'm also going to be comparing Linux to Windows pretty extensively, so, Windows users, feel free to shout at me. Money This might come as a surprise to most people, but Linux is completely free. I'm serious! So many times people have asked me to get them Windows for free since it costs about $200 (The exact price as I'm writing this is $199 for Windows 10 Pr...

So, you've heard some of your friends talking about how the price of some stock fell 30% in one day and how it's the end of the world. You don't tell them this, but you have no idea what the stock market is, or why anyone cares about it. Well, then, this article is for you. DISCLAIMER:  This article does not constitute financial advice. It is purely meant for educational purposes. Anything stated in this article, fact or not, is the author's opinion. The author disclaims any and all responsibility for damage or loss incurred as a result of this article. What are stocks? The first thing one might ask is, what exactly are they? Well, essentially, owning a stock means owning a fraction of a business. Company owners will split up the ownership of a company into parts. In most cases, several million parts. These parts or, "shares", are then traded on the stock market. You might ask, "why would companies sell parts of their company to the public?" The answ...

Okay, so... Here's something that really  grinds my gears. I find myself debating with people quite a lot in general. It usually leads to an argument of sorts since I try to get my point across in a formal way, yet whomever I'm arguing with doesn't respect the rules of debate. In this article, I aim to lay the foundations of what I consider to be good practice for a casual debate. Note that I will be using the words "debate" and "argument" interchangeably in this article to refer to debate. Problem #1: Logical fallacies This is a universal problem in debating and does not only hold true when arguing among friends or peers. It is extremely important for a debater to know and acknowledge the rules of Formal Logic. If not fully applied, it is at least advisable to know the common pitfalls of logical arguments. First, let me define what I mean by a logical argument: A logical argument is a set of logical statements that are grouped together and use...

Hi! My name is Jaco. I am a student, currently studying Computer Science, at a generic University in South Africa. At this moment, I am choosing not to say which one, partly for selfish reasons and partly because I might say something that I don't want my University's name attached to. Now, let's get into the meat of things... This blog is going to be, completely, 100% my opinion. I will be discussing some, maybe, controversial topics that I am interested in and think there is a lot of misconception about. Now, if you don't agree with something I say and would like to shout at me, or if you just want to tell me about that movie you watched and you really want me to tell the world about it, you are welcome to email me. I am going to try and post at least once a month, but in times that I am busy or writing exams, I might "forget" to write an article. If this is the case, don't shout at me unless you know for   sure I am just being lazy (in which ca...