Do social media platforms and news websites really need comments sections? I don’t think so. Thoughtful, reflective discussion is always interesting, but comments sections don’t select for that. Ask yourself: How much effort is required to comment? How long after reading an article or post must one wait before commenting? …

Not long ago, an acquaintance had their identity stolen. The case was rather serious, with the perpetrators attempting to drain thousands of dollars from the victim’s bank accounts. At that time, I began to refine a list of ten common-sense security guidelines that the victim could observe to avoid a…

Recipe This recipe is adapted from a recipe on the blog Merry Merzville, which is in turn adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. My modifications are pretty minor. This recipe would not exist without theirs. Beyond that, let’s not bury the lede. The story behind these muffins…

Last week, I read the bizarre story of Governor Mike Parson of Missouri vowing to prosecute local journalists who notified his office of a data leak in a state website. In a press conference, he claimed that the reporters “decoded” the site’s HTML in a “multi-step process,” struggling to pronounce…

I was laid off last week. Officially, I was impacted by “significant restructuring.” I never expected to become so conversant with corporate lingo. It’s one of the lesser skills I acquired during my 8 years at Mozilla, mostly after Firefox OS was announced as a priority. Another lesson: companies change. …

I have come to appreciate ESLint very much in recent years. A robust and reliable JavaScript linter, ESLint can be used not only to detect common programming mistakes, but also to enforce a consistent code style. Its utility cannot be overstated. …

I recently started work on a project I’m calling Ensemble. Ensemble will be a minimalist data-sharing platform. It will allow data scientists to quickly and easily create public dashboards with no web development experience. In the process of writing a project README, I realized I had accidentally written my software…

When writing software, we should approach our own ideas with skepticism. We have more ideas than users have needs. Features do not guarantee success. If they did, we would line up to trade smartphones for punch cards. Myspace would acquire Twitter. Picasa would be the new Instagram. This doesn’t happen…

We use Optimizely on the Mozilla Developer Network to build and analyze split experiments. We find that the tool helps us move forward with confidence, understanding how changes affect user behavior. …