Author Archives: Dan

Pears: Create your own pattern library

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Dan

At work, we have what we call our module library, which is an interface with which to browse (and edit) the snippets of code and style (we call them modules) that we use to make up our site. They’re not … Continue reading →

Posted in Tools, User Interface, Wordpress | Leave a comment

Steve Lacy: What Larry Page really needs to do to return Google to its startup roots

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Dan

Here’s a good read.

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Best of Swiss Web 2011

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Dan

A big congratulations to my good friends at L//P for absolutely pwning the Best of Swiss Web awards, yet again! Three gold, three silver, and two bronze, but also taking the title of Master of Swiss Web 2011 for Migipedia! … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | 1 Comment

JavaScript Decision Tree tool

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Dan

My goal has been to make a JavaScript Decision Tree tool as a new content module for our next site redesign. It needs to work such that the same piece of JavaScript can be utilised without modification for any decision … Continue reading →

Posted in Coding, JavaScript | 2 Comments

Don’t make me steal

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Dan

If you like to watch movies and TV series’ on demand; if you want to watch them whenever and wherever you want; if you’re frustrated with advertisements and anti-piracy messages when you hire DVDs and go to the cinema; if … Continue reading →

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Last.fm

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Dan

A year or so ago, Last.fm started charging for their service. I was pretty gutted, since I had been listening to Last.fm radio pretty much all day. Sure, it’s okay to charge something for a decent service—and Last.fm is very … Continue reading →

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Getting XML data into Symfony, automatically.

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Dan

The problem We have a complex XML file with many different node types, etc. supplied by a third party via a URL reference. There’s an initial dump, and then an incremental update every couple of weeks, with additions, deletions and … Continue reading →

Posted in Coding, Tools | 4 Comments

Redesigning a corporate web environment

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Dan

The Challenge I’ve got this friend who is responsible for a corporate front-end web environment with almost a dozen browser-facing web applications. Pretty much all he can do at the moment is change static content in the antiquated and wildly … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Design, User Interface | 5 Comments

An update

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Dan

It’s been a while since my last post. During that while, I’ve returned reluctantly to New Zealand from an incredible 12 months in Switzerland. I was working for an outstanding company (Best Of Swiss Web 2009) on some outstanding projects. … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary | 4 Comments

Empowered to say ‘No’

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Dan

Seth Godin writes in his post License to stall about business-to-business sales. He explains that the majority of people you encounter are empowered to stall, to say ‘No’, since they are easier to train and are safer. The reason this … Continue reading →

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