Four articles I wrote for trade press between 1997 and 2008 that are interesting now in ways they weren’t at the time. The original full-text PDFs (or the live page, for the 1997 piece) are linked from each entry; the prefaces are the part I added when I rebuilt the site in 2026.
You Used JavaScript to Write WHAT?
CIO Magazine · 2008
A 2008 CIO Magazine piece on when JavaScript belongs in a web application and when it doesn't. The page-vs-program distinction it carefully draws has collapsed in ways the article didn't predict — which is what makes it interesting now.
Head First Behind the Scenes: Storyboarding
Head First Labs · 2008
A 2008 Head First Labs piece on how chapters of Head First books got storyboarded before any prose was written. The design-first content workflow described here has since become the dominant pattern across modern instructional design, AI tutoring, and product documentation.
Engineering Failure
Head First Labs · 2008
A 2008 Head First Labs piece on the case for deliberately engineering failure into learning material. The argument has only gotten more relevant in an era where AI delivers correct answers on tap.
Java Network Game Programming
Game Developer Magazine · 1997
A 1997 Game Developer Magazine piece walking through how to build a multiplayer Connect Four applet over raw Java sockets. The thesis (browsers as a host for networked multiplayer games) turned out to be right on a scale the article didn't predict, just via a stack nobody in 1997 could have named.