Muraru Daniel, student at The Electrical Engineering College in Oradea (IETI) saw in the COVID-19 predicament an opportunity to focus his energy and time into developing new skills, in his case coding skills and fixing computers. Even when faced with grim situations, we can still find activities to get something positive out of it.
The start of the day shows the young IT enthusiast preparing to work on his projects. Because of COVID-19, he was in his house all day, and because he had no activity to do, the idea of learning, and writing code for games came into his mind.
Muraru Daniel also offers a solution for people like him that want to make games and would love to do it, but they don’t have the skills or the means of doing it on their own. He says: “If you don’t really want to code your own game mechanics, or even characters for that matter, you can always buy some really big packs of these things. If your wallet allows you, obviously.”
Here is where everything important is going on. Here is the building block of any game. The “coding room”:
“Yes, where the magic happens. It usually takes me a couple of hours to write a page of code, but if I make a mistake and the code doesn’t do what I want it to do, then it can take a full day too.”
Then again, the work is worth it as there is nothing more satisfying for him than getting a project done. By doing so, he feels that he accomplished something important and he has improved his skills. In his own words, he states that: “I can’t wait till my game is finally done. Oddly enough, COVID-19 provided me with a chance to create something positive out if this whole situation.”
Here it is one of his little “blobs”, as he calls them, which is a character in one of the games he is working on. To be noted that this character already exists as part of a different online game, but he works on it too as it is a good building block character:
But he is not only good at creating codes for games, he is also very talented in fixing broken computers. He says that: “I started thinking – what if when I am working on a code, my computer would simply stop and not work anymore? I thought to myself, maybe I should do something about that thought, so I started opening computers up and looking inside. And with the help of the internet, I can understand and fix any of its components as long as I have a few screwdrivers.”
When asked if anyone close to him, such as a friend or a family member has asked him to fix his or her computer, he replied by stating: “Of course! This is one right here!”
“This is the computer’s box. It’s an old one too. For this one I need to clean it first, which would take me a full day. After that, I need to see what’s broken and what’s not, so I can understand what pieces need to be replaced. All in all, if I get the pieces that I need in time, this should be done in two weeks.”
It’s also important to note that when fixing a computer, especially an old one, one must also understand if the computer is connected to a power source. Always make sure that your computer is turned off and unplugged from the power source. This may seem like a small deal, but it is very important when it comes to working on components of the hardware system. There should be no potential for electric shock once you power everything down. This also ensures that no unsaved work is lost as the computer will most likely prompt you to save everything before you shut down.
When asked about this small detail, Muraru Daniel said: “Oh, it is not a small detail at all! In fact, I believe it’s the most important thing as you don’t want to hurt yourself. Electricity is powerful and when working with technology, you should always keep that in mind!”
And lastly, when asked about his future plans, he had this to say: “Honestly, finishing college. But that doesn’t mean that these skills that I am working on are not useful. They are in fact and will be essential in my future work. Everyone should strive to have some practical skills in something, as this world requires them.”
Article photo by Marta Branco from Pexels
