I’m a Manchester-based software developer. I enjoy making Javascript do mathematics and my favourite dinosaur is the stegosaurus. This website is mostly a collection of small toys and apps I’ve built.
Domino Computer
In 2012, I helped Matt Parker design and build a computer entirely out of dominoes.
The Thingometer 2017
I made the original Thingometer during a leaders’ debate in the run up to the 2015 UK election, to allow people to create a hybrid party leader who could truly represent their views, or to visualise polling data in the worst imaginable way.
Obviously nearly all of them have resigned at least once since then, so for the 2017 election I made a whole new version, with my own morphing engine based on Three.js.
Gravity
A physics-based space-blasting game for two players, in a fairly Worms In Space mould.
MegaMenger
In 2014, Matt Parker and Laura Taalman ran the the MegaMenger project, with the aim of building a giant Menger sponge from card.
I built some of the Manchester build, as well as the image gallery for the project, which may be the world’s first 2.7D website.
Maths
Somehow, over the years, I have become involved in a surprising number of silly mathematical projects. Some of them are listed on this page; the others are here.
Stupid Formulæ
I get frustrated by the stupid formulæ used by marketing companies to generate nonsense ‘news’ reports about their clients’ products. So I did some research.
Twitterbots
A look at the silly Twitter accounts I have programmed my Pi to run, and the logic behind them (such as it is).
Games
A selection of daft browser games I have made, including a 3D sudoku, a block-matching game for a wedding, and a wholly-original AR monster-catching game (which sadly only works in Chrome for Android).
Megapixel
In 2016, I helped Katie Steckles and Matt Parker build the Megapixel, a digital display made out of transparent plastic and red, green and blue OHP markers. This is my writeup and dive into the calibration maths.
Greater Manchester Skeptics Society
I am a long-time member of the Greater Manchester Skeptics Society, and I also built their website, based on the logo design by policial cartoonist Polyp.
Cycle Map of Manchester
TfGM’s online cycle maps of Manchester doesn’t support GPS and isn’t super easy to use, so I made my own wrapper around it.
Command-line Apps
A few command-line apps I built, mostly for myself.
Charm
Charm is a searchable version of the Unicode table. It is also available as an Android app.
Android Apps
I have a few apps in the Google Play store.
Matt Parker Speaks Binary
A conversation at Manchester MathsJam got badly out of hand, and so me, Will and Katie accidentally built this.