Matt's Page

Really old news

Your journey into the murky past of my web page. Note that dates are in the U.S. format (month/day), sorry if you're reading this from the U.K.

Watch out for broken links...

2002

10/15 - Has it really been that long since I've updated? Stuff's being going on in my life, as always... the new computer came (old computer is being turned into a jukebox/file server for my apartment - anyone who wants to help me and my roommates rip 300+ CDs is welcome to come over). I went hiking and camping on Mount Katahdin, at Baxter State Park (pictures available in the not-so-distant future, I hope). I've been taking rowing lessons on the Charles River (water was frozen on the dock this morning!) -- first time I've rowed since high school.

I updated my aunt's web site (more updates on that to come), and I'll be rolling out a new design for this site before the new year. I won't say much now, except the words 'tabloid chic' keep running through my mind when I think about the redesign. Also added my 5k entry and Denzel Reader (don't ask) to the fun stuff page as well as the code page. Added the where places are map to the art section, as well as a monkey driving a moving van (hooray for the windows paint program).

8/24 - with luck, my new Dell desktop will be arriving this week. At 2.2 GHz, it's nearly an order of magnitude faster than the Pentium II that I've been using since senior year of high school. Crazy.

The little rant I had up here before got posted on the prose page.

8/18 - so the 5k is over, and I made the top 10 list for concept and originality. next year, I hope to win at least a first place for one of the category prizes if not the whole ball of wax...

also updated my resume, which continues to be available in both html and pdf formats. it's not that I'm job-hunting, I just figured that it should reflect things like my employment status and graduation.

8/01 - you've probably noticed that I'm not being hosted at vassar.edu anymore. so yeah, this is my new domain. maybe I'll get a real 'blog set up here to replace the HTML editing that I've been doing for so long.

in any event, please update your bookmarks to point to http://www.robo-murito.net/, cause I don't know how long vassar would be willing to host me. expect a few more updates as I get settled into my new home in Cambridge, MA (yep, I'm now working full time as a software engineer at Bluefin Robotics).

in other news, the 5k results are still not in -- tho my position in the standings looks ok. these folks are over 2 weeks late judging by now!

6/24 - been a while since the last update... my apologies. at any rate, I submitted an entry to the 5k contest, which is a competition to make neat but tiny webpages (under 5 kilobytes, in fact). you can see my entry at their site or mirrored locally.

3/3 - re-added an old story to the prose page.

2/25 - ever wonder where places are?

2/20 - an old friend returns. (if you have to ask, don't.)

2/7 - my resume is now available in both click-friendly html and print-friendly pdf formats.

2/4 - check out the gears demo I put together in Java. What's it good for? I don't know. But it looks sort of cool...

1/25 - new colors for the page cause I got bored. if you're bored, you can check out my current desktop wallpaper: (bmp) (gif)

2001

12/30 - nothing much to put up lately, but that should change soon... meanwhile, enjoying my winter vacation.

11/2 - put my java skeels to good use today writing a simulator for differential drive robots that happens to run NQC programs. check it out here, or if that link is broken (my web server is not on all the time), here (slightly less cool version). oh my god, did I just say "java skeels"? ack. I have to go de-nerd. anyways, the simulator will be used in my thesis.

10/26 - I made a crazy little java applet while figuring out how to do some graphics stuff in java

10/13 - new picture on the photos page of Alexandra and me playing with my new Lego cam.

10/8 - started a proof of concept for my thesis, which right now seems as if it will involve me teaching robots to behave like ants.

9/3 - back at Vassar, and I fully intend to abuse use the add/drop period for all it's worth. Which moron signed me up for Early Chinese Philosophy? Oh, wait, I was that moron. Anyways, lots of minor updates to various pages on this site.

7/11 - new photos added, some from home, some from Vassar circa last fall. also added a new image to the art selection.

5/14 - more cheesy java demo fx on the code page.

4/30 - just for what we in the software industry call "shits and giggles", I'm beginning to try coding old-school demo effects in Java. Check it out.

4/28 - posted a new mass email on the prose page.

4/2 - Posted a new mass email on the prose page.

2/26 - Well, I'm on break right now (take a peek at my itinerary if you want to see where I've been and where I'm going. I'll be checking email more or less every day until I go to Italy on the 19th of April for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament.

2/22 - Posted a mass email from the 16th on the prose page.

Also, I've been reading the affidavit against Robert Philip Hanssen, the FBI agent recently arrested under suspicion of spying for the Russians. It's interesting for a couple of reasons:

• Drama: it reads like a spy thriller, seriously.

• Mystery: the agent who wrote the affidavit appears to have had access to the KGB / SVR files on agent "B" (Hanssen's alleged alias), but there is no citation of where the evidence originates. Did a double agent in the Russian government tattle on "B"?

• Personal relavance: "LEWIS", a "dead drop" and "signal site" used by "B" and agents of the SVR, was in a park I played at as a kid -- under 3 miles from my house. Look at the FBI's photos.

Now I understand that this is a matter of national security and not a drama set out for the entertainment of the general public -- but still, it makes for quite a spectacular story. The national news page of today's New York Times has quite a few in-depth articles on the case.

2/11 - Minor changes to the programs on the code page.

2/8 - I was gonna update the site on the 2nd, but then I got into a storm of documentation-writing, and before I knew it, nearly a week had past. So anyways, better late than never, right?

2/2 - It's groundhog day! I don't know if Mr. Grounhog saw his shadow this morning, but I sure didn't. On the bright side, I did manage to wake up on time for my NLP seminar, so I suppose that's enough good news for the day. February is the best time of the year to round up all of the people who actually pronounce the R in "February" and slap them silly.

I think I've found a color scheme for the site that I'm happy with, so I'll leave it for a while. If you don't behave, I may be forced to return to the salmon/cyan color scheme that I had up for about a half hour a couple weeks ago.

Finally, I've been programming like mad, so you can find a new demo on the code page.

1/21 - I added a new section to the site, code, for programs that I've written, and added a robotic arm demo to it. If you're running windows, download it and give it a try.

1/19 - I'm toying with the look of the site, so you may see some cosmetic changes.

1/15 There's a new mass email posted. Also you voyeurs can take a peek at my schedule if you want to see what courses I have, when.

2000

12/15 - I posted two (count 'em, two!) new mass emails on the prose page, check it. The gist of the first one is that I'm coming home for New Year's, and the second is a look back on the events of this term.

I'm leaving for break tomorrow, so happy holidays and a merry new year!

11/28 - I finally got my resume into HTML format so you can look at it right in your browser.

11/18 - posted another mass email on the prose page.

11/15 - added Houtan's page, Alex's page, and Julia's page to my links page, and fiddled with the layout.

11/3 - Updated a bunch of nitty-gritty little details all over the site, and tuned the HTML so everything looks a bit nicer and more standardized.

11/31 - You can now find some writing about my time here in the UK on the prose page. Happy halloween!

8/29 - The rennovations continue. I'm back from Cambridge, and my month at home before going to Sussex is giving me some time to put into my page. Look for new photos and links.

5/23 - Completely redoing the page in patented eyestrain-o-vision^®. Pardon the broken links and incomplete content while I'm renovating.

2/28 - Ribbit McTweed, smarmy frog, answers your questions!

2/27 - Long time, no update. Apologies. In the meantime, Erin has added quite a bit to her page. Look at it. For now, here's a picture I drew. Spring break is in a week. I will make it. I will make it.

2/6 - A photo of the Tray of Bison.

1/31 - Erin is looking over my shoulder as I update this. I took a photo of my bedside table that I painted last semester with Erin's digital camera. Coolness.

1/19 - Busy, busy, busy. It's the third day of school and I'm just getting into my classes, which look like they'll be interesting enough. I just finished working on a new picture I did in illustrator (and also reordered some of the drawings). It's well worth printing it out to get all of the fine lines, especially if you have a decent printer (you may have to do 'shrink to fit' in acrobat to get it to print).

Also created a link to the bookmarklets page on the fun stuff page, and added my friend Gwen's page to the links page. You can find some unflattering photos of me on her site.

1/5 - Working at NIST these days after a truly excellent New Years spent in Connecticut with friends at my grandparents home. On Friday, I depart for the Grand Cayman Island with my dad to go scuba diving. More updates when I get back to school (sometime before the 17th), but for now, you can look at my bookmarklets page.

1999

12/22 - School's been out for a week or so, and life is good. I've been working at NIST and just hanging out. Saw 'Being John Malkovitch' last night, which was excellent. Will be in NYC in a couple days to visit my family for the holidays.

12/8 - Considering that I have roughly 30 pages of Cognitive Science work due by this Monday, I decided that it was time to put little christmas lights on my homepage. It's important not to forget the little things. Procrastination is also important. I spent all afternoon teaching my computer how to play tic-tac-toe, and that was enough thinking for me today.

If you're reading this, Professor Livingston, please cancel our final paper. Just picture all of the sleep you could get while not grading our final. MMMmmmmmm, sweet slumber. Give it some thought.

11/19 - Well, I'm home in a week, which is good. In the meantime, I've got plenty of acheviements to be proud of, for instance:

• Finishing work on the Vassar sociology webpage
• Finally breaking 10,000 points in Galaxian for the Atari -- my high score: 11,130.
• Mispelling 'achievements' above.

11/7 - Posted a few pictures from my cognitive science midterm, also another algorithmic art picture in the sketchbook. Hoping to get plenty of work done on the in-progress Vassar Sociology page this week.

11/1 - Whew, it's been like a month since I updated the page. I'm posting a short story that I wrote for no particular reason. You can read more about it in the prose section. Email me with feedback, it'll make me happy. I'm expecting to update the page more as I get time, cause I've been working on some neat stuff.

9/29 - I finished the new Vassar departments page. For a limited time, the old version will be kept here, so you can see the difference. Juggling still goes well, and once again I'm having a really busy week.

9/16 - Ok, my cognitive science class is just plain cool. 2 weeks ago, our lab involved playing video games, last week we played with robots, and this week we learned how to juggle. That kicks butt. Also, I'm in a good mood because I just finished the ultra-busy, patented Week From Hell^® -- it's been sort of psychotic. So the weekend is in sight, I can almost juggle, and I'm happy.

9/14 - Well, for now at least, it looks like I'll be taking six classes this semester. Which is crazy. But we all knew I'm crazy. So basically, my life consists of craploads of work with mediocre meals and bouts of sleep in between. You can see what I'm working on these days, tho:

• A new Vassar department listings page to replace the old one
• A web interface to a College Relations organizational calendar
• Algorithmic art -- more on this later

I'll put more up about all that as I finish it. Meanwhile, some work of mine has been published on the web recently. Check out the new Vassar College Counseling Service page that I did at the end of last year, and the Elemental Data Index at NIST, both of which just went online this summer. They're neither of them general-interest types of pages, but you might find them sort of interesting.

Also, Erin has some new pictures up, which I will steal, scan, and put up at some point myself.

8/30 - I just got to school yesterday with less than 24 hours to get ready for classes. Basically, I've been running all over trying to get prepared for school. Had my first classes today - Artificial Intelligence and Multivariable Calculus (which I'm not sure I'm actually going to be taking). Now I'm off to another class I'm not sure I'll be taking. To improve matters greatly, the Vassar web server has been down since I got here. Can you tell I'm glad to be back?

Also, cleaned up the links page, and since I'm back at school mazucker.vassar.edu should be up most of the time. Of course, you can always get to this page at students.vassar.edu/mazucker/

8/3 - Got back from Boston yestarday, had a really good time there. Added a drawing of a blue poison arrow frog that I did from a photo that I found at the National Zoo site.

6/28 - Cleaned up a few of the photos in photoshop.

I'm about to drive to Boston tomorrow, where I'll be for a month. I'll be staying with some friends of the family there and starting a job with the same company my brother works for.

6/14 - Vacation is going along nicely. Right now I'm working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in the Office of ECSED. ...and yes, it is as fun as it looks. In 2 weeks, I'm leaving to go work in Boston - should be fun to be on my own in the city.

Anyways, I put up a new picture in the art section - of a bengal tiger that I drew from a photo that I found at the National Zoo site. Take a look.

5/27 - I got rid of all the stuff in the sketchbook pages and replaced it with more recent work that I've been doing on the computer since I got home. Check out the new stuff.

5/24 - Erin sent me a couple pictures, check them out. So I finally saw Star Wars Episode I. Very enjoyable, but I have to say that it didn't quite compare to the first (last?) three. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying my summer break, sleeping a bunch, and eating plenty. Finally, feel free to send me email - I'm still checking my Vassar account throughout the summer.

5/17 - It's all over: I have a final tomorrow at 9:00, and I'll be on the road at 2. I don't know if I'll be updating the page over the summer. In any event, have a wonderful summer, everyone! I'll be back in August.

4/28 - Having scanned more pictures in, I moved Ashley's contact sheet to the photos section and turned it into a clickable map - now you can click on some of the photos to go to larger versions.

4/27 - Been a while since I did an update... Anyways - my friend Ashley took some pictures of some of her friends and me the other day. We've got a transparency scanner in the lab at the College Relations office, so I scanned most of the roll in as a contact sheet. The photos feature quite a few people that I've been wanting to have photos of but didn't -- go to Ashley's page to find out more about them.

4/11 - My friend Daniel was kind enough to send me a few more photos from home, which hopefully will be the first installment of many. Anyway, my thanks to Daniel, who appears in this set of pictures seated in the Oscer Meyer Weinermobile!!! Cool, huh?

4/9 - Happy birthday, Rachel!

Added Where's Waldo (for text-only browsers) to the fun stuff page.

4/7 - Updated the links page with Squirrel Fishing - a "new approach to rodent performance evaluation" (their words, not mine). Also, I moved that self-portrait to the beginning of the sketchbook pages.

4/5 - Exhaustively redesigned the site. Waste of time, you say? Probably. But I like my little rubber duckie icon for the fun stuff page... The site info section has been updated accordingly.

4/4 - Happy birthday, mom and dad!

I've been playing with the new toy that I got -- a Wacom PenPartner. It's a touch sensitive pad with a stylus that lets you draw on your computer. Check out the self-portrait that I drew with it in Illustrator yestarday.

Also, my friend and next door neighbor Erin finally put up her web page. Go there to find a couple more Vassar pictures, random quips about life, and much more about Shoelaces Associated With God. If some of her photos from school resemble my photos from school, it's only because I've been shamelessly plundering her photography all along.

3/21 - The last day of spring break is the first day of Spring. Does that make sense to anyone? Anyway, I'm back, and had a pretty good break. I started out in Connecticut for the first weekend (where we got 5 inches of snow), then headed home after an afternoon in New York City. Of course, it being spring break, we got 9 inches of snow while I was at home. Neat, huh? Last Wednesday, I went to Boston to hang out with my brother for his birthday. Also saw my friend Alex from MIT. All in all, an enjoyable (albeit long and cold) break.

There are some new photos up that Erin sent me over the break. Other than that, just getting ready for school again tomorrow. Ugh. School.

3/5 - Spring break!!! I get back Monday, 3/23. I will be checking Vassar email over the break.

3/3 - Took away the site counter. It kept resetting for mysterious reasons. A failed first attempt, I suppose.

2/26 - Check out the CIA Homepage for Kids. I find this vaguely disturbing. "Start 'em young, I say, and they'll be good little spooks when they grow up!"

2/24 - Added a site counter in the site information section. Now all you have to do is hit reload repeatedly to boost my self esteem.

2/23 - Busy, busy busy. Added my brother's home page to the links page. This weekend I went to the first showing of the Vassar Anime Club. We saw "Ghost in the Shell", which was pretty spectacular. Meanwhile I just got a job (after some difficulty concerning identification) with the Vassar Office of College Relations doing web development, which officially gives me a full schedule. (5 classes + school newspaper + web development + anime + countless toiling hours of video games) Yes, mother, I'm still keeping up with my classwork...

2/19 - I found a site where you can play Zork online. This is what the internet was made for. Check out the links page for more info.

2/13 - Added a links page. Cleaned my room today, which is remarkable only in that I discovered that the original color of my throw rug is blue, and not gray. It actually brightens up my room quite a lot without the mounds of dust bunnies.

2/7 - Added the early modern english translator to the fun stuff section. Also added some mirroring information in the site information section.

1/25 - Added a fun stuff area. (everyone likes to have fun, right?) Also, since this page is getting huge, I subdivided it into sections, including an old news and history section and a new site information section, plus a convenient little table of contents.

1/22 - I'm back from break and I've finally taken down the "virtual christmas lights" on the site (a full 3 weeks after new years... I guess that makes me "virtually lazy"). Also, changed a lot of stuff:

• new look for the site - also made it easier to add pictures and change the look in general, so I might add updates more often.
• added a home photos section.
• added more photos to the school photos section.

1998

12/17 - I'll be on vacation from today to 1/18. Expect lots of new photos when I return.

12/7 - new photos added.