Le Journal

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Fernando Mendoza bulldozed his way into the end zone and Indiana bullied its way into the history books Monday night, toppling Miami 27-21 to put the finishing touch on a rags-to-riches story, an undefeated season and the national title.The Heisman Trophy winner finished with 186 yards passing, but it was his tackle-breaking, sprawled-out 12-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-4 with 9:18 left that defined this game — and the Hoosiers' season.Indiana would not be denied.“I had to go airborne,” said Mendoza, who had his lip split and his arm bloodied by a ferocious Miami defense that sacked him three times and hit him many more. “I would die for my team.”Mendoza's TD gave turnaround artist Curt Cignetti’s team a 24-14 lead — barely enough breathing room to hold off a frenzied charge by the hard-hitting Hurricanes, who came to life in the second half behind 112 yards and two scores from Mark Fletcher but never took the lead.The College Football Playoff trophy now heads to the most unlikely of places: Bloomington, Indiana — a campus that endured a nation-leading 713 losses over 130-plus years of football before Cignetti arrived two years ago to embark on a revival for the ages.“Took some chances, found a way. Let me tell you: We won the national championship at Indiana University. It can be done,” Cignetti said.Indiana finished 16-0 — using the extra games afforded by the expanded 12-team playoff to match a perfect-season win total last compiled by Yale in 1894.In a fitting bit of symmetry, this undefeated title comes 50 years after Bob Knight’s basketball team went 32-0 to win it all in that state’s favorite sport.That hasn’t happened since, and there’s already some thought that college football — in its evolving, money-soaked era — might not see a team like this again, either.Players like Mendoza — a transfer from Cal who grew up just a few miles away from Miami’s campus, “The U” — certainly don’t come around often.Two fourth-down gambles by Cignetti in the fourth quarter, after Fletcher’s second touchdown carved the Hurricanes' deficit to three, put Mendoza in position to shine.The first was a 19-yard-completion to Charlie Becker on a back-shoulder fade those guys have been perfecting all season. Four plays later came a decision and play that wins championships.Cignetti sent his kicker out on fourth-and-4 from the 12, but quickly called his second timeout. The team huddled on the field and the coach drew up a quarterback draw, hoping the Hurricanes would be in a defense they had shown before.“We rolled the dice and said, ‘They’re going to be in it again and they were,’” Cignetti said. “We blocked it well, he broke a tackle or two and got in the end zone.”Not known as a run-first guy, Mendoza slipped one tackle, then took a hit and spun around. He kept his feet, then left them, going horizontal and stretching the ball out — a ready-made poster pic for a title run straight from the movies.Maybe they’ll call it “Hoosiers.” This was a program so bad that a coach once stopped the game early to take a picture of the scoreboard when it read “Indiana 7, Ohio State 6.” The Hoosiers lost 47-7.This year, though, they beat Ohio State in the Big Ten title game on their way to the top seed in the playoff.They won their first two games by a combined score of 94-25 and Mendoza threw more touchdown passes (eight) than incompletions (five).This one was nowhere near as easy.Fletcher was a one-man force, hitting triple digits for the third time in four playoff games and turning a moribund offense into something much more.It ended as a one-score game, and the ’Canes — the visiting team playing on their home field — moved into Indiana territory before Carson Beck’s heave got picked off by Jamari Sharpe, a Miami native who made sure the only miracle in this season would be Indiana's.“Did I think something like this was possible? Probably not,” Cignetti said. “But if you keep your nose down and keep working, anything is…

I have long since abandoned the Windows Start menu. It’s slow, it’s cluttered with recommended content I never asked for, and its web search integration with Bing is a feature I actively fight against. For a long time, PowerToys Run was my escape — a Spotlight-esque launcher that felt like a breath of fresh air. But then I found Flow Launcher, and I haven't looked back since. It is a keyboard-centric command center that integrates seamlessly with the Everything search engine, meaning I can locate a file buried six folders deep in milliseconds, not minutes. It supports a plugin ecosystem that puts even paid tools to shame, letting you control Spotify, manage Docker containers, or query color hex codes without lifting your hands from the home row.

In the last year, I have had to install Windows on a couple of devices, some due to work-related commitments, and others purely for experimental purposes. After the first few installs, I knew I had to devise a smarter strategy to set everything up, from installing my go-to apps to tweaking Windows settings that directly improve the experience. What followed next was hours of digging around online, looking for tools and scripts that would automate and streamline the process. By the end of it, I had three PowerShell scripts that would make every fresh Windows install not only usable, but aligned with how I like my PC set up.

It looks like it might be a lengthy wait for AMD's next generation of graphics cards.