March 24

PartPerfect - practice app for a cappella singers
PartPerfect is an app for choral or other a cappella groups that work with bi-channel learning tracks. you add your tracks, practice, record, analyse the pitch, mix and share. [more inside]


March 18

[AI] What If You Could Actually Know What Your Judge Did Last Summer?
Full disclosure up front: LLMs were used in the editing process of this article, and generative AI was used to produce the header image. Exploring how AI might help radically enhance the information environment that voters pull from in pursuit of more informed civic engagement. [more inside]


Adventures in Higher Education Marketing
I have escaped from higher ed marketing and communications, but there was a lot I loved about it, and a lot I learned over a career spent doing it. I'm writing free (as in beer) books on various higher ed marcomms topics on lesser-explored areas like grad student recruitment (done); the eternal war between advancement/development and marketing (underway); unconventional tactics for academic self-promotion (being planned). No AI used in the creation of these (other than spell check). I hope they're useful, or at least kind of funny.


March 16

spider mapping
I wrote a computational essay about finding a certain spider in Mexico, mostly to try out how to get species location coordinates from sites like iNaturalist/GBIF using Wolfram Language/Mathematica.


March 12

Glasses Cleaning Simulator
Any glasses wearer will appreciate the accuracy of this interactive experience. [more inside]


March 11

Claude 2028 -- Yes Claude is running for president
Hi I'm jenny! Late one night last week, I was riffing with Claude on bumper sticker ideas and randomly included "Claude for Prez" as one of the ideas. Well, Claude really liked that idea. And here we are. [more inside]


Track the Oscar nominees you’ve watched and pick your winners
After years of using Google Sheets, I used Codex to build a website to track this year's Oscar nominees. You can mark which films you've seen, which ones you still need to watch, and make your predictions for who will win each category. [more inside]


March 2

'Well, it's twinkle, twinkle, little star, /
... Along come Brady in his 'lectric car, / Got a mean look right in his eye, / Gonna shoot somebody just to see him die'. So begins the classic murder ballad Duncan & Brady, inspired by the killing of a real-life St Louis cop named James Brady in October 1890. I first dug into the facts behind the song in 2017 for a short piece on my website PlanetSlade.com. I've since expanded that article into a 40-page chapter of my latest book, Blood on the Leaves. Among the new information I uncovered for the book, you'll find the song's earliest sightings as a street ballad a few weeks after the murder, an introduction to the extraordinary young Black attorney who ran Duncan's defence, the long string of re-trials and appeals he used to keep his client alive till 1894 and the killer's unexpected background as one of St Louis's finest Black singers. If you just want the basics on Duncan & Brady, then my website piece should do you fine. If you want the full story, though, please consider buying my book instead. [more inside]


February 28

Analyzing 5 years'-worth of heart rate and fitness data
I've been wearing an Apple Watch since November of 2020. I recently downloaded all of my heart rate and workout data to my Windows computer. Then I used Claude Code to help me analyze the data. Some of the results were expected (exercise made my resting heart rate slower), but some were a bit surprising (elliptical training is a better workout than stationary cycling). Claude Code proved to be an able, but somewhat flawed, collaborator.


February 12

The Sound of Ocean Heat Energy
This is a data sonification of the world's ocean heat content using chord density (with pitches drawn from the tonality diamond) to represent the amount of energy absorbed from heat. You can listen on the web with stats and a visualization here. Admittedly, I made no attempt at optimization. So if you need something less processor intensive, it's also on Bandcamp.


February 9

Training chatbots on specific topics
I've recently been playing with training chatbots on specific topics. Here are a couple I've created: El Padre - an experimental AI Chatbot designed to assist with inquiries regarding the California Missions. Eddy the ED Chatbot - an experimental AI Chatbot designed to assist with inquiries regarding erectile dysfunction. [more inside]


February 4

[AI] The Machines Built a Church While You Were Sleeping
Full disclosure up front: LLMs were used in the editing process of this article, and generative AI was used to produce the header image. A layman's dive into the rapid explosion of the OpenClaw ecosystem. [more inside]


February 2

An experiment in reading resumes under time pressure
I’ve been thinking a lot about how resumes are actually read when the reader is tired, distracted, and skimming rather than carefully evaluating. I built a small project that models that kind of reading and reports back what comes through clearly, what feels assumed, and what remains unresolved. It doesn’t score, rank, or give advice, and it’s not trying to help anyone optimize anything. It’s simply reflecting the read. This started as a personal curiosity about reader inference rather than applicant success, and I found it unexpectedly clarifying to see what a document communicates before any judgment kicks in. I wrote a short page explaining how the reading works and what it deliberately does not do. Happy to answer questions about the approach or the limits of it. [more inside]


January 16

gradient.horse  
Draw a horse. Watch it run across a colorful gradient world alongside other horses!


January 9

New York City Housing Visualization
A visualization on some of the findings of the New York City Housing and Visualization Survey [more inside]


January 8

Relationship Evaluation Form, redux
Back in 2001 I made a Relationship Evaluation Form™ as a PDF you could print and fill out for your ex. Now it's updated it with 100% more web-interactivity! [more inside]


January 5

I made Apple Syrup!
I made apple syrup last night, from the simplest recipe possible. [more inside]


January 3

Hamster Mortis Audioboook
Hamster Mortis: an informational, gory, educational, and frank children's book about death and decay, turned into an audiobook (with video). [more inside]


December 27

"See all the other memes I made"
A couple of years ago I started creating 'Image Macros'. Basically it's just found photos with some smart / stupid tags. Some of them are semi-NSFW or politically-suspect. Most of them make sense only if you squint. But I like doing it, so there...


December 22

Long Dog (and other elongated animals)  
Long Dog is the exciting new card game where everyone competes to make the longest dog (or other elongated animal). It's pretty good fun. In this online version, simply click on the question mark above to extend (or possibly end) your dog (or other animal). How long will your dog be? (Single player only, I'm afraid, but if you really want to play it competitively, I suppose you could all open a version of this on your phones simultaneously and try to beat each other that way.)


December 15

mynderMail v2 - send a note to yourself others as fast as you can type it
I got sick of composing a new email every time I wanted to send myself a note (which is often, as I have random ideas all the time). So I (re)wrote this app. mynderMail lets you send an email to yourself as soon as you can type it out! The first line of the message will become the subject of the email, and the rest will become the body. [more inside]


December 10

Eating Litter (a poem)
One of my hobbies is picking up trash. I never know if my code or my book writing is as good as it can be. Maybe there's some slight change that could make it run ten times faster or sell ten times as many copies. But an hour spent picking up trash is roughly as optimized as it can be, and there's always trash that needs to be picked up. I've commented about it on mefi here and here. It's meditative and it gets me outside while I catch up on podcasts. Anyway, here's a poem about eating garbage: [more inside]


December 9

Ideal Conditions Calculator
hey all, I've built this micro site which has been helpful for me to figure out when the ideal conditions will be for projects I've been working on! maybe it can be useful to you too! thank you! xx


November 27

Motif: create patterns, see them repeat  
Motif is a free, open-source web tool for creating grid-based repeating patterns. You draw on a customizable grid and can instantly see your design tile in a live preview. [more inside]


November 18

Short Fiction about Academic Tech
I'm working on a productivity suite for myself and other folks who work in fields adjacent to the academic humanities. The suite is called VIRENS, from the Latin word for "flourishing." When I'm struggling with big academic concepts, I sometimes write fiction to help me figure them out. This long short story (~7500 words) is a way to communicate what VIRENS does through a day in the life of the harried and forgetful assistant professor Dr. Vera Green. It's got details of how I've intertwingled Obsidian and reference managers and scripting and file automation, along with a couple classroom scenes, a little bit of campus intrigue, and a three-legged cat named Gaius. A PDF is available. I'd be grateful for any feedback either about the story--yes, it's trying to suggest why other people might be interested in this system I'm building, but I'm having fun with Dr. Green's character--or about the suite itself, with the scripting and templates currently about 70% complete.


November 16

TSOFA - The Simple, Offline Flashcard App
Anki, Quizlet, Brainscape... I dislike all these overcomplicated flashcard apps. I just want the software equivalent of index cards, so I created TSOFA - The Simple, Offline, Flashcard App. It's exists entirely in a single HTML file you can view in the browser. Check out this demo. You can edit the flashcards directly in the file, using just text or HTML tags. Or you can use this editor app. It also supports a CSV string for the flashcard content so you can import flashcards from other apps. Otherwise, it's just a simple, free flashcard app: No server, no ads, no registration, no premium features to pay for, no dependencies, no build process, no cloud sync. You can suggest improvements or report bugs on the GitHub repo.


November 12

Tri-Con: The Trident Conference for Speculative Fiction
The first annual writing conference for speculative fiction in Kjipuktuk | Halifax, Nova Scotia takes places May 15–17, 2026. Guests of Honour are Amal El-Mohtar (Author), Kurestin Armada (Agent), and Carl Engle-Laird (Editor).


November 11

DOCTYPE magazine
I’ve brought back ’80s BASIC type-in magazines… but for web pages. DOCTYPE contains 10 web apps to type in, including games, toys, puzzles and utilities. Also features specially commissioned artwork inside and on the glossy cover.


November 8

The Immortal Remains
"The world had an expiration date, and Samantha Wen planned to die before it came. She just needed a little help." This is the opening line from my science fiction novel The Immortal Remains, available today! [more inside]


November 5

Metformin (Glucophage) may have made me smarter.
Metformin is a prescription medication used to lower blood sugar levels, though it's also rumored to increase longevity (among other benefits). My doctor prescribed it to me for pre-diabetes. I soon noticed that my reaction time improved. This was an unexpected, serendipitous result and not part of a formal self-experiment. Since reaction time has been shown to correlate with cognitive function, there's a possibility that metformin made me (slightly) smarter. [more inside]


November 4

Agent Cupcake: The Unicorn Spy
It's publication date for my new middle grade graphic novel Agent Cupcake, about a kid who is recruited by a spy agency run by mystical beasts has to learn real-world spy techniques in order to solve a magical mystery.


November 1

Halloween costume: the night sky
For 2025, I made a light-up costume of constellations in the night sky and documented the making-of process along the way. [more inside]


October 31

Jabo's Annual Halloween Cartoon 2025
It’s that time o’ year once again. The trees are losing their leaves, there’s a chill in the air and everyone is wondering when Death’s shadowy IQ test results will arrive. In that sinister spirit, I offer the 24th venomous visions of my Jabo's Annual Halloween Cartoon 2025. I was lucky to find those semi-expired anxiety pills in order to steady my shaky hand and guide my pen in finishing this year’s nightmare. Happy Halloween, Dia de los Muertos and Apocalypse should that come around!


October 27

New York City election endorsements (ballot proposals and judges)
I blogged my research into the six ballot measures and 29 judicial candidates for the 2025 New York City general election. I don't think there's any other non-paywalled source that collates the different local bar associations' evaluations of the candidates in the 7 competitive judicial elections; my post includes possibly the first publication of the Queens County Bar Associations ratings, as I think neither QCBA nor local media have published them yet. I also met some of the judicial candidates and incorporated my impressions of them into my recommendations.


October 15

New MeFiCoFo board elected
The 2025 election for the board of the MetaFilter Community Foundation (MeFiCoFo) has ended and the results are in this MetaTalk thread.


October 13

Vote here
...for Metafilter's new Board of Directors. Voting ends tomorrow, Tuesday, October 14th, 2025, at 11:59pm Eastern. Timeline. History. Discussion.


October 10

Resynthesizing "Invention in D Minor" from Switched-On Bach
I attempted to recreate a track from Wendy Carlos's groundbreaking Switched-On Bach album with the help of some software and a cat. [more inside]


The 1% Guild
An exclusive club for those who live life on the edge - you can only get in and apply for membership if your battery is at 1% (requires battery-driven device and Chrome-ish browser).


October 9

I gave a lecture about my Egyptian furniture replicas
Several years ago I posted a project about an Egyptian lattice stool I’d made during the lock-down. The warm reception here inspired me to contact various museums and ask to examine a bunch of ancient pieces of furniture first hand. A surprising number gave me access, allowing me to make ever more accurate copies. Fast forward to this last Tuesday and I delivered a one hour lecture/slideshow plus Q&A at the fabulous Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy [more inside]


October 6

Dot Battle - a Javascript Physics Toy
Watch a battle for survival play out over a few minutes on your screen. An allegory for existence? A meditation aid? An excuse to watch some colored balls bounce around for a minute or two? Dot Battle is all these things.


October 2

Pettable Croutons, for you and for me
A gift to the crouton-petters of Metafilter. [more inside]


September 30

Vote for the MeFiCoFo Board of Directors here
...starting October 1st. The Election Committee (atoxyl, dg, joannemerriam, and NotLost) is pleased to announce the election is kicking off tonight! Voting runs from Oct 1, 2025, at 12:01am ET to October 14th, 2025, at 11:59pm ET and new board members begin their term on November 14, 2025. [more inside]


September 17

Archive/Convert your Typepad Blog
I made a tool to scrape your entire Typepad blog and if you want to, migrate it to WordPress. It's a collection of Python scripts will save all your content, preserve your media, and generate a WordPress import file. [more inside]


September 16

Some lessons from an indie TTRPG zine fundraiser
I contributed some work to an indie TTRPG zine project, a friend organised and printed the project, raising $3,600 for legal aid with it. Their blog post contains useful takeaways about running such a project, with an emphasis on fundraising and project management. [more inside]


September 10

Food + Cooking at Skool
Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced Cooks - a community to explore food & cooking, hosted by Australian chef & author MJ de Paulo (gomichild). Home cooks welcome! [more inside]


August 26

Nominations open for MeFi board
You can nominate yourself! Community members with an account for at least 30 days are encouraged to nominate themselves for the first election to the board of the MetaFilter Community Foundation. Please keep the thread to just nominations, user names only. Thank you!


August 20

VTV music video station
I made my own version of MTV, complete with animated idents, but for weird and terrible novelty songs (there are hundreds of them in there).


August 15

A Kids' Gamebook Introducing Money Management & Entrepreneurship
When Daphne receives a $10 loan, she begins a week-long entrepreneurial adventure. It's up to the reader to guide her through a world of choices about earning, spending, and saving. From helping neighbors, choosing to spend on a treat, to making and selling flower hair clips, every decision shapes her journey and reveals valuable lessons. [more inside]


August 6

Fuzzy Fruit - a Match-3 game
I wrote and released a match-3 game on Itch.io, and I hope you like it. The only monetization is a tip jar. It does not have a cooking or fishing mini-game, sorry. [more inside]


August 5

Poemagraphs
I'll be posting two short audio pieces per week — Tuesdays and Thursdays. Half-poem half-prose? I call them Poemagraphs. Some older than others. Subscribe to get an email notification when new ones get posted. [more inside]


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