The London Olympics 2012 Total Perspective Vortex (2012)

A project aimed at contextualising the cost to the UK taxpayer of the Olympics, and how the money could have been spent instead. During the Olympics it acts as a totaliser, counting up the cost so far and displaying progress meters for doctors, nurses, and the other alternative uses. There's no server code here – it's static HTML and JavaScript. It degrades gracefully for non-JavaScript browsers, uses responsive CSS to alter the layout for different-sized screens, and displays a summary of the overall cost at the end of the Olympics.

Stop Fucking Procrastinating (2012)

A foul-mouthed magic 8 ball to help you get unstuck, in the same pantheon as What the fuck is my social media strategy and How fucked is my database. It's a simple PHP app that also includes an RSS feed, seven different designs, and a bunch of good advice about getting things done. It's like having your own internet drill sergeant.

Last.fm (2007-2012)

I worked as a web developer at Last.fm for over four years, helping to take the service from 20 million users to 40 million. I focused mainly on the backend (participating in projects such as the giant 2008 redesign, XBox client preparation, and the new Discover app) but also occasionally worked on the frontend.

I enjoyed interacting with users and working on features that made the site better for everyone, whether large projects such as delveable charts or smaller interface tweaks.

The Pitchfork Effect (2011)

I built the bulk of this project for Music Hack Day, then refined & extended it over a couple of weeks. There are three broad parts: a spider that creates a database of Pitchfork reviews, backend code to generate the page & graphs, and some auto-generated code that serves as an AJAX endpoint for the interactive elements.

A Very Webdev Flat Hunt (2011)

Tired of the Gumtree circuit, I built this and sent it out into the world to help me find somewhere to live. It was also a chance to play with HTML5, font embedding, and some frontend interface creation.

It did help me find a flat.

The UK General Election Deposit Loss Totaliser (2010)

If you stand for election in the UK, you've got to put down a deposit of £500. If you don't get at least 5% of the vote, then you lose the deposit. How much did each party lose? How does that compare with the historical trend? I made a small website that answers that question.

If you're going to invest in a political party, I recommend avoiding UKIP.

Emorama (2009)

Another weekend experiment, this time in Amazon storefronts and AJAX. It's also a single-page website that feels like a multi-page website, which is an OK trick but probably a bad idea.