How many buttons does it take to crash a rental car?

Breaking old habits: Delete your crusty old code

Lately, I’ve been trying to become a better programmer — not by learning new languages or new concepts, but by kicking old habits. One habit I’ve successfully kicked is code hoarding.

Code hoarding happens when you get into the malicious…

How important are bad first impressions of software?

The hopeless anatomy of an unsubscribe page.

The latest app refusing to let me out of their sticky-ass email campaigns is Yammer. Is it really that hard to remove my record? Come on, please, I’ve tried to lose you three times, I’m certain of it. I have a two year old with the SQL chops to handle…

The art of building and testing horrible software

We Are Mammoth builds horrible software. At least, the first time it’s released for testing. The second time around, we have our redeeming qualities. The third, fourth, and fifth time, we become masters of our domain (yeah, I said that)…

Does self-help software = self-help books = fast food = tobacco?

My monthly credit card statement has an eerie similarity to my book shelf. Recurring web-based software subscription charges for unused apps I gifted myself to better streamline my wildly out of control life.

The…

CMS reference guides: Simple, low-tech problem solving

Simple solutions can sometimes go a long way. Here’s one way we solved a few recurring issues in our development process with a simple solution.

Whenever we do client work, we typically build customized content management systems so…

Simple sells depending on who you’re selling it to

We love simple. That’s why people say “I just want things to be simple.” No one says, “I want things to be complicated.” I’ll prove it to you right now.

If you google the phrase “I want things to be simple”, you’ll get 954,000 matching…

Use what you design

The tea kettle at our office is very poorly designed.

There are two things wrong with it. First, you can’t lift the tea kettle and open the spout with one hand. You have to either flip the spout cap before you lift, or lift with one hand and flip the spout cap with the other hand. In the…