Hello World
My name is Jonas and I'm a junior at The Pennsylvania State University, pursuing my B.S. in Information Sciences & Technology: Design and Development. This degree involves designing software and integrating information technologies to meet users’ specific needs, as well as working with unfamiliar software programs and computer languages, developing applications, troubleshooting problems, and thinking logically to solve complex problems. Beyond the classroom, I am involved with multiple clubs and organizations, most of which relate to STEM.
Okay, so what?
Well, I thought it would be nice to introduce myself so you can know a little more about the guy behind the tutorials I'm making. To start off, I recorded an explanation as to why the notorious "turn it off and on again" method works.
Alright, tell me more 🤔
Whenever our computers, smartphones, or [insert pretty much any device] freezes, oftentimes one of the many apps we have running is the culprit. Due to faulty programming, some apps get stuck in a dead-end. Though a series of logical twists and turns, if the user finds themselves in a situation that was unaccounted for during the programming phase, they might get stuck.
Can you put that into normal people speak, please?
The example I used in my video was as follows:
Imagine that you're hiking along a trail through the woods and you come across a fallen tree. No big deal, you can just climb over it or walk around it.
Now, imagine that path leads to a bridge, stretching over a raging river. Just one thing… the bridge has collapsed. If that bridge was the only way to cross the river for 50 miles on either side, then you’ll just have to turn around, head back the way you came from, and start over.
This is similar to how computers work in the event of errors. If the problem is small enough, like our fallen tree example, there might be another way for the program to “get around” the issue and execute the desired operation.
However, when it comes to our bridge example, and the program encounters a very large problem, we’re then stuck in a never-ending loop left with no other choice but to start from the very beginning.
Example
Let's say you're watching a YouTube video on your phone of somebody explaining this whole concept (linked below). Your phone is connected to Wi-Fi, but all of a sudden the signal fades. Instead of just stopping in place, your phone is "smart" enough to switch over to mobile data. You are able to watch your video fairly seamlessly. This is an example of a small "hiccup" like our fallen tree.
However, in the event of a much more severe incident (a collapsed bridge), our device just cannot find a way through or around the problem and simply has to start back at square 1.
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