Leaving Mozilla

I was laid off from Mozilla last week. It was a good excuse to write my story, which…

Determining whether users are logged into Twitter

In Detect if visitors are logged into Twitter, Facebook or Google+, Tom Anthony explains how to determine what social networks your users…

Gradually Reduce the Number of Eslint Problems in Your Codebase

How can one improve the quality of an existing JavaScript codebase when there is already a backlog of ESLint warnings and errors?

Using the Optimizely API to avoid flashes of unstyled content in A/B tests

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. We…

Less is more

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…

When a README accidentally becomes a manifesto

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.

Context menus and the design of design

I often recommend that software developers become familiar with the fundamentals of…