Building a better rhyming dictionary

Back in 2007, I created a rhyming engine based on the public domain Moby pronouncing dictionary. It simply reads the dictionary and looks for rhyming words by comparing the suffix of the words' pronunciations. Since that time, I have made some improvements.

Usability Nightmare: Xfce Settings Manager

Rant: Why can't anyone make a good settings screen?

How wide should you make your web page?

Based on 22500 unique IP addresses over the past week.

Pitching to VCs (comic)

Zwibbler: A simple drawing program using Javascript and Canvas

Now it's a commercial product, but Zwibbler was once a fun side-project, and here's some details on its implementation.

Using the Acer Aspire One as a web server

A netbook can be ideal for a home web server. They are cheap, and use less power than a CFL light bulb.

When programmers design web sites (comic)

How QBASIC almost got me killed

The day arrived when my project was ready to be unleashed upon the world. I waited until the teacher was hovering nearby and then I started my application, running the FORMAT command on the network drive. Some classmates were watching the screen and she hurried over to see what all the fuss was about.

C++: A language for next generation web apps

On Monday, I was pleased to be an uninvited speaker at Waterloo Devhouse, hosted in Postrank's magnificent office. After making some surreptitious alterations to their agile development wall, I gave a tongue-in-cheek talk on how C++ can fit in to a web application.

Test Driven Development without Tears

Every company that I worked for has its own method of testing, and I've gained a lot of experience in what works and what doesn't. At last, that stack of conflicting confidentiality agreements that I got as a coop student have now all expired, so I can talk about it. (I never signed them anyway.)