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Author: Splatink

  • My Opinion On Modern Software & Tech Literacy

    This article starts out as a general presentation of software today, and continues into how that plays into potential future politics.

    It’s finally time I write about my opinions on modern software. As a computer nerd, I’ve been obsessed with installing and configuring computer software since I was young, although I’d have to say writing software isn’t my cup of coffee.

    Unfortunately, the last few years software quality has taken a steep decline. From the operating systems we use to the software that runs within like games and word processors, and even the UEFI firmware that executes before your computer even boots. If you’re here for the politics part click here.

    My first complaint? Windows. Always have to start there. Why? Because too many people still use it. Windows was never a particularly great piece of software to begin with, being proprietary meant it’s code could never be audited by third parties and individuals, and it has always been known for it’s instability.

    But that’s where the line was drawn. Windows was a somewhat unstable somewhat prone to exploits but very user friendly and versatile operating system, used everywhere from home desktops, servers to hospital equipment.

    I’d argue Windows peaked with Windows 7, the holy grail of operating systems accessible to everyone. It had gotten to the point where you could trust your computer if you yourself made sure to not mess it up by downloading every sketchy thing on the internet. It’s aero design and graphical user interface where eye-candy for the time.

    Surely it would only get better from here, right? Wrong. Windows took a steep decline with Windows 8, changing it’s gorgeous GUI into an ugly minimalist tablet eyesore. Windows 10 introduced spyware baked right in, sending all your data to Microsoft so you could be made into a product and sold. And with Windows 11, this has now been re-envisioned with Copilot AI, stealing more data than ever before!

    Unfortunately in the tech world, big names still use it on a daily bases in their content, and most for no apparent reason whatsoever, other than “I know how to use it and am afraid of anything else”

    I myself started using Linux about 3 or 4 years ago, periodically using Windows when required. Nowadays my Windows use is limited to running in a virtual machine and running very specific Windows programs that don’t play well with Linux.

    I do everything from gaming to media consumption, audio recording and server administration from Linux, and use Linux on all my servers. Yes, you are reading this article on a website hosted in a docker container on a Debian 13 machine, reverse proxied on a FreeBSD 15.0 machine, routed on a Mikrotik router based on Linux.

    And I’d argue that for 95% of people, Linux can do everything Windows does without the spyware, bloat, licensing, price and so on and so forth. Whenever I need to set up a new machine, I always go for a Linux install, usually Debian or Arch. Home theater PC? Simple Debian install running Kodi. Server? Debian running Docker. Desktop? Arch running KDE Plasma.

    Unfortunately these days people do not want to commit to becoming tech literate and learning proper use of an operating system and the command line, and thus never try Linux. Even so, efforts have been made to make Linux as user friendly as possible, and have in my opinion largely been successful. Linux Mint is the best example of this.

    But this is no excuse to be tech illiterate. Knowing how to use a phone and post on Instagram or turn on your computer to watch YouTube and write essays on Microsoft World does NOT make you tech literate. That’s like listening to guitar but not knowing how to play, or, better yet, driving a car without knowing how to service it and fix it.

    30-40 years ago a computer user was a person who was educated on the inner workings of a computer, knew how to write software and fix it, and understood how every bit of his computer worked. Web server program not working as you’d expect? He’d change the code and make it work.

    Do you know how to do that? Do you know what instructions your processor runs to instruct your graphics card to draw cats on your screen? No? Neither do I. But we should all try our best to learn as much as possible. Knowledge is power. We’re moving into a future were our rights are being taken away from us with our consent, and we are doing nothing about it.

    Think of it like this: In 100 years when me and you are gone and self-driving cars are everywhere, nobody will know how to drive. To them a self-driving car is all there is, and there is no reason to think beyond that. Hundreds of years ago if you needed a house, you’d build it. Now that’s it’s been given to you in a silver platter, you no longer know how to build one. It’s the same with software today. Why learn the command line and basics of Linux when Windows does everything I need it to? I don’t need to learn anything!

    But what if that self driving car doesn’t allow you to drive to another city because of protests against the government, presented of course as a “safety” feature. What if Windows decides to delete all of your personal pictures because the AI detected you were pictured in a controversial place, with controversial symbolism? You’d be powerless to do anything simply because you chose not to fill your mind with the knowledge needed to do so.

    To conclude, knowledge is the highest form of power there is. Above physical, above political and above all else. We as humans possess power above all the animals not because we are the strongest, but because we are the smartest. If you have the free time to learn Linux do it. It’s a form of rebellion against oppression and against surveillance. If that’s not your cup of tea then learn anything else. Learn electronics, cars, economics, anything.

    And to finish I want to say this article interested you then I highly recommend you read the book “1984”. If you’re not a reader then reading just the first chapter will truly show you what our future will hold if we continue to reject education and knowledge in favor of comfort.

  • EDGameMV

    Note: For this article, I will be writing about a game I wrote myself but from a third person perspective. All character names and areas will not be named for privacy reasons. Due to my memories of this game degrading, much of the information about it also lost, as the game itself is unplayable.

    EDGameMZ is an unreleased 2020/2021 horror/comedy video game made by Splatink in RPG Maker MV/MZ. Before being abandoned, the game was in late development phases, with at least 75% of the games features and story being completed.

    The only existing version of the game, filename: EDgameMZ v0.2dev.zip, is a developer debug version which includes a hidden cheat pad allowing for custom progression, items and other debugging features, as well as skipping the intro level.

    Unfortunately, the games archive is encrypted with a lost password, and, furthermore, the game itself is not able to be completed due to a hard-lock in the games second to last area (the tavern).

    The game is a story and dialogue focused RPG with all areas, characters and dialogue being inside jokes from the developer’s friend group.

    The game begins in an area presumed to be the developers home village, with a character known by the friend group as a teacher, running across the screen yelling an inside joke. The player is free to explore this area, and will find a statue that moves closer if not looked at, a reference to SCP-173. This area allows access to the world map, and the main city of the game.

    The world map is a fully featured Mario Bros 3-like map, allowing the player to move between unlocked areas.

    The main city of the game features homes and stores, and the player is able to interact with 4 characters. An old woman, who warns the player of a thief, the thief, who is a coward, and more importantly, located inside a store, an unnamed character who tells the player that in order to progress, they need a pass. Another character inside the store, known by the friend group as “the spy”, just says “…”.

    On the left side of the city the player reaches a highway (nighttime), with only a taxi and gas station present. This is inspired by many itch.io horror games. The taxi driver claims to be able to take the player to “the location”, but only if they have the pass.

    In order to obtain the pass, the player needs to travel to a village north of the main city, where they will find a tavern and super market. Entering the tavern allows the player to speak to a character who gives them the pass. The super market allows the player to stock up on items for combat.

    Returning to the ominous highway area and giving the taxi driver the pass will play a cut-scene and the taxi driver will take the player to the games final area, a cursed village. Upon arrival, however, the player is detained by secret agents and take back to the highway area.

    The player would then have to find a way around the agents and enter the cursed village, where they’d fight the games final boss, an old woman, able to cast dark magic, and the one who cursed the village itself. Unfortunately, this is where development of the main story-line stopped, and there is no way around the agents.

    Luckily, the player is able to fight the final boss in the development version by stepping on a pad on the world map. The final boss has many attacks, including a death ray, cursed bats and a “void” spell. The player at this point has access to a super-star, making them invincible for a specific amount of turns and gaining the upper hand in the fight. The player has access to 3 weapons, a shotgun, a knife and the infinity blade. Defeating the boss only displays some voice lines.

    Last but not least, the player is able to take a blimp in the world map, flying beyond the mountains and into a monastery/campsite area with tents, a campfire and boat present. Entering one of the tent allows the player to speak to a monk, who tells the player they are free to rest and save in a guest room. From here, the player is tasked to repair the boat, which could potentially be the way around the agents in the cursed village, or to another fantasy area.

    The game included many sound effects from Mario games (including the super-star itself, the blimp playing the flute sound from Mario Bros 3, etc), however, since the game was never meant to be released to the public, this wasn’t a concern.

    This is as far as the game was developed, with the developer running out of motivation to continue, and later losing access to the game all together, with only the mentioned version (which only contains the executable and not the RPG Maker Project) still existing, and encrypted with a lost password.