Continuum Six

State of the Blog

Lately, you’ll see, my posts have all been Instagram photos or short stories, and I kind of like that. I’m a huge fan of the “renaissance man” ideal of a well rounded person — a scholar, artist, athlete, etc. — and Continuum Six has come to represent the artistic side of my person (or at least of my online identity). I want to broadcast fair warning: more of the same is on the way! This spring I’m planning to take both art and poetry (as well as networking, one of the most intense CS classes at Brown), so I’ll be posting lots more of my creative work here. I’ll also be continuing to post short stories; mostly revised versions of those I wrote for my fiction class last semester and haven’t yet published here, and possibly new stories, should I have the time to write them. And, naturally, more Instagram pics.

I’m also working on lots of computer sciency stuff as well (and as usual), though these things usually end up on mattnichols.net and/or my GitHub.

The Briefest of Updates

Brie-fest proper noun. An annual festival held in Providence, RI, to celebrate the creamy excellence of Brie cheese in its many varieties.

Just kidding. But I wish.

I haven’t put anything up here all summer, in part due to business. I spent the summer interning at Microsoft as a PM in Windows Core, working on a new security feature of Windows 8. While this was definitely interesting and I learned a lot — about various Windows security stacks, the industry as a whole, etc. — I got somewhat lost in the immenseness of the corporation, and very much missed writing code (I was mostly working on documentation and testing). I spent a lot of time in Redmond though, and got a great taste of the real world… for better or worse. I’m currently doing a lot of soul searching as to where I want to end up in the next few years (the end of school seems way, way too close), but I’ll figure it all out eventually. I guess I’m only a junior. I’ll keep you posted, maybe.

This semester I’m doing two independent studies (TAing and an web dev project, which I’ll say more about eventually), and taking two classes: Graphics (lots of C++) and Fiction (lots of English). I think this blog will be a great place to put up things I write in Fiction — both the longer stories, and excerpts from my “writer’s journal” which I find especially interesting. So, this semester, my posts (should they exist) will consist mostly of my fiction writings and related material. You have been warned.

A quote to finish:

Nihilism, American cheese, and following orders are the three things I hate in this world. -Adam Frees

Nike+ GPS

Today I invested $2 in the Nike+ GPS app from the App Store, and I can tell already that it’s going to revolutionize my summer running. It’s incredibly well designed - starts with a home screen, upon which you can view your total miles recorded and associated stats (avg. mile time, calories burned, etc.), and can also challenge yourself to run farther, faster, and longer than you have before. While running, it gives you occasional updates on your distance and speed, and it keeps a record of all runs’ times, speeds, etc. In one of the coolest features (in my book), it utilizes the iPhone’s GPS to keep track of the path you’ve taken, and shows your speed (indicated by color) along your path in the run’s history. Pretty incredible.

My first run of the summer, today, was the first I recorded using the app, and I feel like this is the beginning of something big. I’m well aware that I’m very concerned with statistics and metrics as they relate to my personal accomplishments (the Ballsy download count, for example, is currently at 219), and I think this makes this the perfect app for me. Though I also enjoy running just for the way it makes me feel, I’m super excited to see my mile count rise throughout the summer, and challenge my performance from earlier workouts. For two dollars, that’s a lot to look forward to. (When I say $2, I am neglecting the inevitable purchase of an armband to make running with my phone a comfortable procedure… that’s a drawback I guess.)

Nike has obviously designed the app with motivation in mind. I’d be curious to see how many people would run more (as I may), just to improve their stats; Nike+ appears to be a fitness social network as well as just a tracking mechanism, so it’s easy to see friends’ accomplishments and use them for inspiration. I’m not a terribly competitive person in that way, but I like to be proud of what I do, and this makes it possible to showcase my miles for myself and others.

It’s a great idea - obviously a good commercial plan, but really doing something which will make people’s lives better as well. As a software developer in the making, I can’t help but think that I’d love to work on a project like this: a really fun concept with a smooth implementation, the likelihood of making bank for its creators, and a positive effect on the world (enhancing the fitness of the masses, in this case). Good stuff.

(Source: itunes.apple.com)

End of the Year

As of Friday, my sophomore year at Brown is officially over. Finals period wasn’t too bad this year, as I was only taking three classes, two of which were CS classes without exams. I limited myself to three because I got five course credits last semester (thanks to an extra TA-ing credit) and could thus afford to make a little more time for frisbee. Speaking of, BMo finished up the season a few weeks ago, losing to Midd and Vermont at regionals. But despite our lackluster finish, I personally felt good about my development as a player over the season, and definitely enjoyed balling with my teammates for a couple months.

The big news from the last few days, other than being half way through college (aargh!), is the release of Ballsy, the final project for one of my CS classes. It’s a 2D puzzle platformer in which the player must navigate a beachball through tricky levels using a grappling hook, and it also sports a fully featured level editor. My team of four poured many hours of design and coding into the project, ultimately surpassing 8,000 lines of code (the largest software project I’ve worked on). We wrote it using Java, with Processing for graphics and a port of the Box2D engine for physics. Since putting it up yesterday evening, we’ve gotten over 180 downloads and over 700 recorded runs of the game, which is super exciting. We plan to continue development over the summer and into the future, at least expanding the built in level set. Check it out: http://www.beballsy.com!

I’ve written all of this with the iPhone Tumblr app, and by this point I really wish it had a sideways keyboard option. Beyond that, it’s pretty nice.

Hello Tumblr

Ever in search of a greener grass in the wide, wide world of digital self-publishing, I have at last decided to explore Tumblr. I’m not the greatest of bloggers - my posts are few and far between - but I enjoy it, and this blog marks my migration from the great Posterous (my old blog here). I’m pretty sure there’s no sort of post-moving tool available, so redundancy in the interest of completeness will be lost, but that could be for the better. Fresh pages, you know… that’s what blogging is all about. (Is it?)

So, this site could very easily become the one and only continuumsix.com, which has, for the past year or so, been a portal to Matt Nichols (that’s me) online. I’m a student of computer science (at Brown), so much of what I’m involved in has something to do with computers or the internet, but I in no way limit myself to such things. That said, a lot of what I do involves creating digital things, and this site will also showcase these to some degree. See my Projects page for more info.

I also play Ultimate Frisbee, drink coffee, travel, read books, make music (on occasion), and do whatever else I fancy in my free time. Life is good.