Nicholas Fortune

Roots

2015 - 2019

In 2015 I’d watch YouTubers building cardboard constructions and I would copy them, creating geometries that mimicked the real world out of cut cardboard panels and duct tape. I created a few notable constructions—a static ridable tank we painted camo green and a ridable cardboard boat that sank on its maiden voyage in the bathtub. By 2016, I mimicked the YouTubers I liked once again by recording and editing funny videos with my family and friends and posting them to the platform. I would continue to do this until late 2022. Around this time, my father would purchase a low-power rocket kit and we’d assemble and launch it, sparking my interest in model rocketry. This process was documented in a janky 17-minute video I edited myself. In late 2016, I joined Roblox, where I would eventually fall in love with a game called “Build a Boat for Treasure”—a boat-building game turned communal engineering project where I’d build increasingly complex mechanical systems as I grew and new tools and materials were added. In 2018, I received a 3D printer for my seventh birthday—a knockoff of the Prusa i3 MK2, the “Monoprice Maker Select v2.” I began training my 3D designing ability in TinkerCAD on my 2007 OptiPlex’s web browser.

Pivot

2020 - 2023

Eventually, I began developing games on Roblox in the effort to obtain the platform’s virtual currency “Robux”—if your game was good enough, people would flood in and the Robux would follow. What started as building eventually became scripting—and soon enough I knew Lua well enough to create whole decent games that I enjoyed playing. I never finished a full game, but I got pretty darn close on three separate occasions, and by golly were they good. In 2022 my dad offered me a choice between a generic Lego robotics kit and an Arduino UNO R3 starter kit—I took one look at the UNO and noted how much more aesthetically pleasing it was. Two days later, the Arduino kit showed up at our door. I read a breadboard schematic, downloaded the Arduino IDE, and with some internet help I had a few blinking LEDs and a newfound interest in microcontrollers. In January of 2023 I developed my first 3D-printed mid-power model rocket using a modular, minimum-diameter design built around an Estes F15-4 black powder rocket motor. After a failure with the parachute being incinerated in the deployment phase, I pivoted to a much more economical, smaller yet similarly designed Estes C6-5-based model rocket to perfect the parachute deployment. Despite sticking the landing on the third launch of the new platform, I yearned for something more: I wanted to put a microcontroller in one of my rockets—an idea that would be put on hold as my interest in the project faded. In the meantime, I built three RC aircraft: a dense foam design that was overweight, and two Maker Foam designs that suffered from center-of-gravity issues. The second Maker Foam plane was an actively stabilized glider design with an UNO R3, an IMU, elevon servos and a 9V battery. The stabilization code was theoretically sound, but the cause of failure for the last two planes wasn’t determined for another year after the project was archived. Later, I’d get my own modern PC and turn my 2007 OptiPlex into a NAS with Ubuntu Server, Samba, and a 4TB HDD, ditching Google Photos and starting my self-hosting journey.

Expansion

2024 - present

In 2024, after being inspired by YouTube channels like BPS.space and Lafayette Systems, I decided I wanted to build my own guided model rocket. After nine months, the project was ultimately archived due to critical early design flaws and a lack of motivation and energy required to fix the issues. As the project was scrapped, I joined a local FRC team and adopted the role of sole programmer, writing all code from scratch in Java, a language I had never used before. I implemented projectile motion physics models to accurately throw foam balls into a hopper using position triangulation with Limelight vision. The turret was eventually scrapped in favor of a fixed, short-range solution due to hardware and time constraints. After FRC, I ditched Windows on my devices for good and got my first Linux desktop OS: Arch Linux. I love Arch, and I haven’t looked back since. In the early days of FRC, I began working on Neutron, a neural network library made entirely with the C++ std:: library for training on consumer systems and inference on microcontrollers. As of September 2026, this project is still in development. In May of 2026, I grew tired of my advanced android camera apps and decided I wanted an interchangeable lens camera to up my photography and cinematography game. I decided 10-bit 4k video was a requirement, as that was what my phone had to offer, but after seeing the price of a used Panasonic Lumix GH5 I decided to go the complete opposite route and go for an ultra-budget $100 CAD DSLR photography setup, but after contacting a few sellers I was always too late. My great aunt, hearing the news, generously lent me her 2009 Rebel T1i, and I could finally practice photography.

Future

Every major decision in my life has been the product of always doing what I love. I program because it makes me whole, I build because I love seeing my imagination come to life, I open source because I love my fellow humans and frankly, I owe everything to them. I publish everything I can under AGPLv3 because I believe the tools to create should be free and open to everyone—not rented, monitored, or requiring the permission of someone else. I will continue doing what I love every day of my life: creating without asking for permission, building tools that serve the user rather than the server, and leaving the instruction manual at the doorstep for whoever comes next.