Writing archive

If this is too much to sift through, check out the greatest hits. For updates, grab the RSS feed. There's also a latest comments page.

2013

May 6: In defense of <canvas>
April 15: Boston.com's viral explosion videos
March 19: Remembering Malcolm Tredinnick
February 7: RIP EveryBlock

2012

November 26: Notes on Soundslice
August 15: Onto the next chapter
June 5: The connection between Google Street View and driverless cars
April 28: Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem

2011

November 28: Back in the Django saddle
October 16: Introducing the YouTube Insult Generator
July 14: Crash tags
July 6: Job opportunity: Web/mobile developer at EveryBlock
March 8: Wanted: EveryBlock general manager

2009

August 17: EveryBlock acquisition and me
May 21: The definitive, two-part answer to "is data journalism?"
May 18: Django tip: Caching and two-phased template rendering
January 29: Looking toward EveryBlock’s future
January 9: Announcing the Django Book, second edition

2008

December 4: Goodbye hyperlocal, hello microlocal
September 4: Django, still amazing me after all these years
June 30: New EveryBlock cities launched
May 2: Request: Headless HTML rendering engine?
April 4: Check out my Radiohead remix
February 18: EveryBlock hiring a Python screen-scraping expert
February 15: A couple of EveryBlock interviews
January 31: In memory of chicagocrime.org
January 23: EveryBlock launched
January 1: Interview at akitaonrails.com

2007

December 12: Django Book has shipped -- and, thoughts on the next book
August 23: Me at the Green Mill
July 6: Introducing templatemaker
June 9: Some of my recent YouTube videos
May 23: A new journo-programmer scholarship
May 23: Knight Foundation grant
May 1: New at work: Presidential candidate tracker
April 30: Lead video on YouTube
March 8: Work with me at washingtonpost.com
March 7: MediaShift covers newspaper developers
February 23: New at work: Bill Clinton's paid speeches
January 28: Profiled in American Journalism Review
January 26: "MacGyver" theme song, solo acoustic guitar

2006

October 2: J-schools, computer science and the bigger picture
September 6: A fundamental way newspaper sites need to change
August 11: New at work: Mixed Messages
June 6: Interview at OJR
May 19: Wanted: Web developer for project
May 17: 'Dynamic News Stories' article at XML.com
May 15: Missouri j-school commencement speech
May 2: Wanted: Movable Type expert for washingtonpost.com project
April 13: New at washingtonpost.com: Faces of the Fallen 2.0
April 7: How I'm using Amazon S3 to serve media files
March 22: Blotters on chicagocrime.org
March 14: Video profile at NetSquared
February 10: Python interface to Microsoft Outlook Web Access
January 31: Chicagocrime.org covered in El Pais
January 22: Gypsy jazz version of Super Mario Bros 2 song
January 6: Newest projects at work

2005

December 11: NYT names chicagocrime.org 'influential'
December 5: Announcing washingtonpost.com's U.S. Congress Votes Database
November 22: Post Remix: The Washington Post's official mashup center
November 21: 39 smart businesspeople ... and me
November 9: On the inevitable ads in Google Maps
October 13: The perfect information delivery system
October 13: Future 10
October 12: Wanted: Mashup makers
September 29: Interview at Editor and Publisher
September 26: I've been podcasted
September 20: Victory in search for Auto Wreckers
September 12: Batten winner!
September 1: I've got something for you
August 16: New chicagocrime.org feature: Crimes along a route
August 14: In D.C.? Come to Batten Symposium
August 8: Google Maps within news stories
August 3: Job change
July 23: Compiled Greasemonkey scripts are safe
June 30: Need custom Google Maps development?
June 21: On hacking and 'money-grubbing evil things'
May 31: Drawing arbitrary GIS data on Google Maps
May 18: Announcing chicagocrime.org
April 24: Greasemonkey compiler
April 22: Lawrence.com: iPod edition
April 19: Chicago Transit Authority map on Google Maps
April 13: Lawrence Web news operation on NPR
April 12: Why Greasemonkey is good for publishers
March 19: Greasemonkey script: Google Suggest
March 18: Microformats could describe online news intelligently
March 16: It's tournament bracket time again
March 10: March travels
March 8: Romenesko has RSS
March 6: More on EmPRINT
March 2: Again, a newspaper PDF experiment is fatally flawed
February 11: Job opportunity: Web developer at Florida news site
February 8: Lawrence.com relaunched
February 8: A few ideas for Google Maps
January 25: Another reason to open story archives
January 19: Following the leader

2004

December 5: 'Links via Feedster' on Washington Post and New York Times sites
November 20: Grokking Googlezon
November 18: Registering a complaint about Web news polls
November 15: Job opportunity: Web editor in Florida
October 19: BusinessWeek interview transcript: Registration and BugMeNot
July 21: Extension questions
July 19: Site-specific browser extension: All Music Guide
July 16: Required-user-registration debate continues
June 29: Job: Web developer for World Online in Lawrence, Kansas
June 20: Accessing your Gmail contact list with Python
June 18: Accessing your Gmail inbox with Python
June 15: Required reading from Barry Parr
June 15: New Media Journalism.com: A promising new resource
June 14: Seen the BugMeNot bookmarklet yet?
June 13: Unsuckifying All Music Guide links
June 11: 'Game': Fun with databases
June 2: Purple numbers: Useful but unrealistic
May 29: Enabling MP3 support in Fedora Core 2 Linux
May 28: Photo expansion on mouseover could get disruptive
May 28: Return to writing
April 15: Google News deserves finalist status in journalism awards
April 4: Topix.net redux
April 1: Newsmap idea could be worth stealing
March 12: RSS at Poynter E-Media Tidbits
March 10: Web site shows your page's metadata
March 9: IE hack could benefit from centralization
February 23: How not to solicit redesign comments
February 13: Wire-story disclaimer at cbs2.com
February 11: Topix.net service policy: Hypocrisy in action
February 11: A one-fingered salute from the Firefox folks
February 4: Participatory journalism in an unlikely -- or likely? -- place
January 12: Persistent pop-ups? Not a good idea
January 5: Give online news stories a relative importance rank

2003

December 21: XFN: Something about personal relationships
December 12: Job opportunity: Online producer in Florida
December 11: An interesting navigation idea
December 5: Bad news art at CNN.com
December 1: Tagging quotes in a news story
November 18: Travels
October 30: Job opportunity: Web programmer/editor in Florida
October 26: Wanted: Browser filter features
October 22: Gray day
October 18: More ESPN Flash mischief
October 18: Calling all Kansas City-area Web developers
October 18: ESPN baseball site: Flash for Flash's sake
October 14: Mailinator changing '1 e-mail per person' mentality
October 10: Verve Hosting Web-host problems
September 18: Transcripts add to a story if handled fairly
September 17: New additions to the 'Recommended' list
September 16: OJR interview transcript: Linking policies
September 10: 'AIM this story' on FOXSports.com
September 3: Die, comment spammers
August 31: SMS sports alerts on KUsports.com
August 21: OJR interview transcript: Correction policies
August 19: Miami Dolphins get big promo on KansasCity.com
August 14: CNN and Chicago Trib display sitewide breaking-news alerts
July 28: Separating ads from content in all browsers
July 23: New weblog feature: Reserved comment names
July 17: On hiring young Web developers
July 15: More weather site questions and answers
July 13: Lawrence weather site in all CSS
July 2: Best practice: Edmunds.com zip-code prompt
June 30: Targeted ads way off the mark
June 24: PHP/MySQL at washingtonpost.com
June 24: Official BBC News RSS feeds are up
June 23: Hacks, hacks, hacks...
June 21: Server switch
June 17: Why news sites don't need specialized blog systems
June 14: Survey: Text-messaging increasingly popular
June 13: Innovative online ad is not necessarily accurate
June 9: Wrapping up Find The Web Editor's Name And E-Mail Address Week
June 7: Finding the Web editor at NYTimes.com
June 6: Finding the Web editor at MSNBC.com
June 5: Finding the Web editor at sacbee.com
June 4: Finding the Web editor at FortWayne.com
June 3: Finding the Web editor at ABCNEWS.com
June 2: Finding the Web editor at latimes.com
May 31: Job opportunity: Web programmer/developer
April 23: Lining up the reasons against Gazette.com's dots
April 17: CJOnline redesigns
April 17: NYTimes.com article pages lose left rail
April 10: Boston.com sells out
April 4: Bumbling news sites display incorrect Baghdad time
April 3: Web standards improve 2theadvocate.com navigation
April 1: April Fool's Day
March 27: Guidelines for fair, accurate online candidate chats
March 25: Registration forms make it too easy to cheat
March 21: Miniblog: Stuff I've done lately
March 17: A review of Web NCAA bracket interfaces
March 14: Dallasnews.com: Caught red-handed
March 10: Interview with Web optimization expert Andy King
March 10: Standing up for standards
February 27: Dynamically displaying acronyms and abbreviations
February 24: Covering elections on LJWorld.com
February 23: A very large screen
February 19: Recommended reading
February 18: ESPN home page now has tableless layout (almost)
February 11: Recommended reading
February 11: Read our lead story: We dare you
February 8: ESPN.com to redesign
February 6: Recommended reading
February 5: FOXNews.com advertising should be labeled in all browsers
January 30: Post-Connections notes: Chron.com
January 29: Post-Connections notes: Northbay.com
January 26: Orlando, here I come
January 22: Busy, busy, busy
January 9: Recommended reading
January 9: Blocking stylesheet rules from Safari
January 6: On bookmarking entertainment listings
January 2: The need for archives by citation
January 2: Back in business

2002

December 21: Happy holidays
December 20: Dynamically labeling blockquotes with CSS
December 20: Using 'smart' dates, today
December 18: Online chat tool on kusports.com
December 17: How HTML acronyms and abbreviations can help online journalism
December 9: Trade it on Trodo
December 1: Holovaty.com code improvements
November 28: The Case of the Mysterious Date
November 25: A career move
November 22: Recommended reading
November 21: 'Intelligent' design personalization at bbc.co.uk
November 19: One thing wrong with the Reuters redesign
November 18: Recommended reading
November 18: Poynter.org redesign woes
November 14: GetContentSize changed slightly
November 13: Two DOM ideas
November 12: Content-to-code ratio statistics
November 7: The content-to-code ratio
November 6: Unfriendly Web design 'may be just fine'?
November 5: Study links Web design with credibility
November 5: An announcement for RSS readers
November 4: Drop caps at NYTimes.com
November 1: Separating photos and captions at ABCNEWS.com
October 31: Pull-quotes on Web pages
October 30: Link abundance gives false illusion of completeness
October 28: csmonitor.com offers syndication feeds
October 28: Oops: 'Blocked' parts of PDF file still accessible
October 26: Searching for the 5 W's
October 25: Page titles on news article pages
October 24: A follow-up on nytimes.com ad placement
October 24: Thursday's recommended reading
October 24: Advertising placement at nytimes.com
October 22: Tuesday's recommended reading
October 21: The Google user-interface perspective
October 21: While I was gone...
October 20: Back from New York
October 16: No updates for a few days
October 16: Wednesday's recommended reading
October 14: Discussion about Wired News redesign
October 11: Why don't big-company sites use valid code?
October 11: Who says we're making progress?
October 11: Wired News redesigns in all CSS
October 10: Thursday's recommended reading
October 9: Link directly to articles. Please.
October 8: Site review: suntimes.com's 'online partners'
October 7: Monday's recommended reading
October 7: Accessibility court cases worth thinking about
October 3: Thursday's recommended reading
October 2: Wednesday's recommended reading
October 1: A clear path to better navigation
September 30: There will be a quiz
September 30: Lumping unrelated content together at sunspot.net
September 28: CSS in the real world: ajc.com's 'News Break'
September 28: New feature: Blogroll on home page
September 27: Making forms more usable (?)
September 26: 'Smart' URLs are navigation tools
September 26: Yahoo offers RSS feeds of business info
September 26: Short thoughts on providencephoenix.com and brownsvilleherald.com
September 25: Wednesday's recommended links, and thoughts on Google News
September 24: Tuesday's recommended links
September 23: Emulate really old browsers
September 23: Monday's recommended links
September 23: Holovaty.com site improvements
September 20: Friday's recommended links
September 19: Thursday's recommended links
September 19: Google News smarter than ever
September 18: Site review: newstimes.com
September 18: Design lessons from the retail industry
September 17: Tuesday's recommended links
September 16: Monday's recommended links
September 16: Presenting important messages 'to our readers'
September 13: The Florida terrorism threat, from three perspectives
September 12: Thursday's recommended links
September 11: Site review: namibian.com.na
September 10: Tips for designing bare-bones pages
September 9: Site review: ocregister.com
September 9: Extra BBC syndication feeds won't work
September 9: Monday's recommended links
September 6: Friday's recommended links
September 6: The horror of rewritten home-page URLs
September 5: Thursday's recommended links
September 5: Site review: edinburghnews.com
September 4: Wednesday's lunchtime links
September 3: Tuesday's lunchtime links
September 3: BBC News site offers syndication feeds
September 2: Site review: jamaica-gleaner.com
August 30: Confusing breadcrumb navigation
August 30: URLs and breadcrumb navigation working together
August 30: Friday's links, and thoughts on table-based layouts
August 29: Thursday's lunchtime links, and ideas on highlighting content
August 28: No site review tonight
August 28: Wednesday's lunchtime links
August 27: A blind computer user's thoughts on news Web sites
August 26: News on the Semantic Web
August 26: Site news: Permalink URLs changed
August 26: Monday's lunchtime links
August 23: Chicagotribune.com strike countdown
August 23: A glimpse into everyday life
August 22: Coloring off-site links vs. in-site links
August 22: Thursday's lunchtime links
August 21: Site review: indian-express.com
August 21: Wednesday's lunchtime links
August 20: How news sites keep robots away
August 20: Tuesday's lunchtime links
August 19: Site review: thetriangle.org
August 19: Automated technology gone wrong
August 19: Monday's lunchtime links
August 16: Screenshot: NewsChannel2000.com icons
August 16: Friday's lunchtime links
August 15: Thursday's lunchtime links
August 14: Site review: ljworld.com
August 14: Wednesday's lunchtime links
August 13: Redesign at NewsChannel2000.com
August 13: Tuesday's lunchtime links
August 13: Smarter search results
August 12: Attempting an all-CSS layout at hollandsentinel.com
August 12: Monday's lunchtime links
August 10: A new online news approach
August 10: Are 99 Percent of all Web sites obsolete?
August 9: Lunchtime links
August 8: How empirical is Web design?
August 7: Site review: Nzherald.co.nz
August 7: Lunchtime links
August 7: Washingtonpost.com to ask for personal information
August 6: Syndicate this site
August 6: News site correction pages
August 5: Site review: HarkTheHerald.com
August 2: Site review: gazette.com
August 2: MSNBC in early stages of redesign
August 1: Why news sites don't use XHTML and CSS
July 31: Site review: Omaha.com
July 29: Site review: wlbz2.com
July 28: Study finds breadcrumb navigation useful
July 28: Boosting Web site credibility
July 26: Site review: honoluluadvertiser.com
July 26: Redesign at canoe.ca
July 25: A not-so-subtle design hint
July 25: Inaccessible multimedia at nytimes.com
July 24: Usability study compares online news presentations
July 24: Site review: EcoLatino.com beta site
July 24: A new feature: news site reviews
July 22: Holovaty.com site improvements
July 22: Keeping popup blockers in mind
July 18: Knight Ridder sites regain some design control
July 18: Search engine lets users control its design
July 18: Redesign at nydailynews.com
July 17: Using HTML headings for headlines
July 15: NAA awards announced
July 15: Online credibility survey
July 14: Design copycats
July 12: Strange section titles
July 12: Helping the uninitiated 'get it'
July 12: USATODAY.com hacked
July 11: At Economist.com, compliance is in the works
July 11: Auto-refresh on news home pages
July 10: An important day in accessibility
July 9: And the survey says
July 9: List-mania
July 8: Redoing your old pages in CSS, step by step
July 8: Bowing down to Microsoft
July 8: Spacer GIFs and ALT attributes
July 5: Web news awards overseas
July 5: A hard day's work
July 3: Smart code words vs. long, annoying numbers
July 2: 17 days down, 13 to go
July 2: Online news audience is stagnant
July 2: A worthwhile wireless world
July 1: More on user registration
June 30: 'The scourge of Arial'
June 30: Comment system is up and running
June 28: OJR article on user registration
June 27: Web accessibility case studies
June 27: Pledging allegiance to e-mail forums
June 26: A Flash of non-brilliance
June 26: The best (and worst) online ad types
June 25: A note about standards-compliance
June 25: We have liftoff