
Simple things. Ideas sketched on the back of a napkin. Pragmatic. Useful. Fun, and frugal too.
What do I do? I write, I consult, I dream up simple graphic designs and build custom web sites, desktop applications, and server software.
I'm building an online volleyball clothing store for a client who designs her own products (right down to the high-tech materials). The shop is based on the new LemonStand shopping cart/store package, so themes and templates are built in PHP, HTML5, and CSS2/3.
This is a consulting and training gig. I'm teaching web marketing and consulting tactics, doing piecemeal visual and web design, and working directly with their clients on technical matters. I'm also helping them market their first book with a simplified web store, and re-launching it to Amazon using Lulu.com.
I work full time for Discovery Software as the software development manager and software architect. I am part of a team who have built a number of products for educators, including Principalm, LearnFaces, and Rubrix.
I also provide training to local technical colleges and user groups. One of my popular talks is an honest view of SEO and SEM, proposing an ethical approach to getting noticed online. I also teach software development and technical consulting.
This was a small menu site for Bob and Kevin at Nikko Sushi. The site was a frugal foray into the online world for this small sushi shop, as a way to get some exposure, and has been bringing in a steady stream of visitors and feedback for this excellent restaurant.
This was a small brochure for a local dentist, aimed at people looking for a new dentist in his area. It had a simple design, and provided his practice an ample number of new clients.
A technical weblog covering tools, techniques, and code. It's been online since the late '90s, and is currently in the top 100,000 weblogs according to Alexa.com.
A semi-regular weblog written in a forceful, imperative style. It's a stream of photos, quotes, and bits of wisdom, intended to motivate the hacker in all of us. Create, build, make, do something now!
A learning site for aggregating essays, books, papers, lectures, and tech talks.
Humour, in a dorky, Canadian style. It delivers a nerdy mash of graphs and charts, drawn using open standards and an open license.
This is my attempt to reveal the horrible overuse of hyphens in corporate writing. It acts as a thesaurus for commonly hyphenated words.
I'm also an avid photographer, and slightly less active artist. I focus on post-processing, textures, patterns, and character closeups.
This was a quick single page site I was using as a diversion from a longer work project. It's an ASCII art robot mascot for an online service. Why? Because I can!
An inspirational site aimed at an audience of 1 (my wife). A weekly photolog of interesting, happy shots.
This is my first web game, a labour of love. It aims to be a web2.0 interactive fiction tool, and is written primarily in JavaScript. Somehow this project keeps getting bumped by paying work.
Another one pager that erupted from a Twitter rant, making fun of the services frequent downtime.
A set of command line utilities for creating swatches of colour that I could never quite adapt to the web.
An unfortunate name for a TODO/bug tool I worked on a few years back. I am considering reviving this project under another name, with a slightly crisper focus.