Matthew Russell

The Tenacious Technologist

Areas of Expertise:

Web Development
the LAMP stack
Machine Learning
Amazon Web Services
consulting

speaking
programming
training
writing

Biography

Matthew Russell is a tenacious technologist with entrepreneurial zeal. He has completed nearly 50 publications on technology, including work that has appeared in scientific conferences, Linux Journal, and Make: Magazine. His most recent publication, Dojo: The Definitive Guide, is a 500-page tome dedicated to an industrial strength JavaScript toolkit.

Matthew currently resides in Franklin, TN and serves Digital Reasoning Systems as Vice President of Engineering. Matthew is also a Principal at Zaffra, a firm focused on agile web development.

Books

Dojo: The Definitive Guide
by Matthew Russell
June 2008
Print: $39.99
Ebook: $31.99

(4)
(Read Reviews)

Dojo Fundamentals: Creating Object-Oriented Widgets
by Matthew Russell
October 2007
Print: $9.99
(3)
(Read Reviews)

Articles

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The Mojo of Dojo
Publish Date: Nov. 1, 2007Few use raw JavaScript anymore if they can possibly avoid it, in the same way that few people code in assembly language. Dojo is one of a group of powerful JavaScript toolkits that can do a lot of the work for you, and Matthew Russell has put together this introduction. Building a Game Engine with Cocoa, Part 3
Publish Date: Feb. 2, 2007In this third and final installment of Matthew Russell's series on building a game engine with Cocoa, we learn how to implement a game tree search called negamax--a variant of minimax that uses alpha-beta pruning to reduce the search space. Building a Game Engine with Cocoa, Part 2
Publish Date: Jan. 5, 2007In this second part of Matthew Russell's series on building a game engine with Cocoa, we learn how to program the logic for generating valid moves and improve the overall usability of our board game by highlighting squares on the board that correspond to valid move locations. Building a Game Engine with Cocoa
Publish Date: Dec. 19, 2006Matthew Russell shows how to use Xcode and a little artificial intelligence to build a small game engine for playing board games like Checkers and Lines of Action. This first article describes how to build a generic, minimalist framework for setting up a board and moving pieces around using a standard Cocoa design. Making a Smooth Move from .Mac to Google
Publish Date: Nov. 1, 2006Matthew Russell presents a practical approach for a smooth move from .Mac to a Google-centric web experience. Getting your email, address book, calendar, online storage, online photos, and blog squared away are all covered in this detailed transition plan. Miglia TVMicro and EyeTV: Easy TV on Your Mac
Publish Date: Sep. 12, 2006The Miglia TVMicro is a small USB device and comes bundled with a remote control and the renowned EyeTV app, which makes it trivial to pull up program listings, schedule recordings, and more. Costing roughly $100, this is a purchase that might just pay for itself sooner than you think. Matthew Russell reviews. Unify and Synchronize Your iTunes Libraries
Publish Date: Aug. 22, 2006Last June, David Miller published an article that explained how to synchronize playlists on iTunes. Today, Matthew Russell extends this idea by investigating and presenting three different ways to synchronize the actual contents of your iTunes music libraries when they are scattered across multiple machines. Then in the second half of the article, Matthew lays the foundation for a custom Python script that you can extend across multiple platforms and in various other ways. How Does Open Source Software Stack Up on the Mac?
Publish Date: Jul. 25, 2006Apple does a great job of providing elegant software for its platform. But there are plenty of good offerings beyond the fruits of Cupertino. In this amazing survey of proprietary and open source software, Matthew Russell attempts to organize what's available on both fronts and even dares to assign grades. Has he missed anything? What Is Vim (It's Easier than You Think)
Publish Date: Jul. 11, 2006If you've had a less-than-agreeable experience with Vim in the past and are willing to give it another shot, please ponder these points: 1) there's generally a learning curve involved with any powerful tool, 2) Vim is much more than just your run-of-the-mill text editor, and 3) the effort required to become a proficient Vimmer isn't as much as you'd think: it's comparable to that of learning to touch type. Matthew Russell explains. Digital Bookmark Mods
Publish Date: Mar. 15, 2006Matthew Russell shows you how to add better bookmarks to your audio books, add slideshows to your music files, create enhanced podcasts, and share your favorite mods with others--even if they're on protected audio. What Is TurboGears (Hint: Python-Based Framework for Rapid Web Development)
Publish Date: Nov. 8, 2005TurboGears is a Python-based framework that enables you to quickly build database-driven, ready-to-extend web applications. In this article, Matthew Russell takes you inside this framework for a look at its internal mechanisms, then introduces you to its creator, Kevin Dangoor. An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Publish Date: Oct. 21, 2005Have you ever thought about using an iSight to take and classify images, such as those of a user sitting at the iMac? (Face-sensing engines have been in the news lately.) We have. And while we're working on that tutorial, we thought it might be a good idea to first publish a background piece on artificial intelligence. Check it out. What Is Quartz (or Why Can't Windows Do That)
Publish Date: Oct. 11, 2005Quartz is the heart and soul of Mac OS X's graphics layer, which directly supports the defining features of the Aqua desktop experience. In this article, Matthew Russell gives you a short history lesson on Quartz, then shows you how it's implemented in Mac OS X. What Is Darwin (and How It Powers Mac OS X)
Publish Date: Sep. 27, 2005Darwin provides the underlying foundation for Mac OS X. In this article, Matthew Russell takes you to the core of Apple's OS and explains how it powers your Mac. What Is Automator (and Can It Make Your Life Easier)
Publish Date: Sep. 6, 2005Automator provides an intuitive drag-and-drop workbench for quickly streamlining repetitive tasks. Here's a look at creating workflows and working around Automator's inherent limitations.

Blog

Recent Posts | All Posts

Dojo Tips and Tricks

June 17 2009

This article provides 10 tips and best practices (in no particular order) for maximizing the benefits that Dojo can bring to your next project. For a more thorough introduction to Dojo, see the article Dojo: The JavaScript Toolkit with Industrial Strength Mojo or pick up a copy of Dojo: The… read more

Life360 Is Getting Its Shindig On

February 09 2009

My consulting firm, Zaffra, has the pleasure of working alongside of a really interesting startup based out of Berkeley called Life360. One of their bylines is "taking care of your family's what-ifs" but instead of just developing yet another web... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 10 (It's time for a dojo.date!)

August 04 2008

Although I have forthcoming posts that involve 2D drawing with dojox.gfx and rendering editable data with the really awesome dojox.grid enhancements that are landing in version 1.2 of the toolkit coming up later in the month, I just rediscovered a "note to... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 9 (gfx foo with fx)

June 06 2008

In preparation for my OSCON talk, I've been unearthing some of the fx enhancements that were added to Dojo's gfx module back when version 1.1 landed. Some of these enhancements are pretty neat, and I thought they might make for a good... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 8 (JSONified Cookies)

May 27 2008

Although cookies almost seem like a prehistoric concept in web development, they're a well understood commodity that still serve useful purposes. As such, I wanted to write up a quick column that demonstrates a common pattern involving cookies and JSON that you... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 7 (Book Preview)

May 22 2008

As I put the final touches on my upcoming book, Dojo: The Definitive Guide, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to go ahead and post an unofficial table of contents preview for those of you who are... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 7 (Injecting Dojo After Page Load)

May 13 2008

On a recent consulting gig, a client had the requirement that a JavaScript deliverable needed to run in a self-enclosed script tag that would be arbitrarily placed within the body of a page. In other words, I needed to deliver a JavaScript... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 6 (A Million Records in the Grid)

April 23 2008

This column provides a lightweight demo of Dojo's increasingly popular data grid and demonstrates it serving up a million records. The intent of this little demo is to demonstrate the basic pattern for putting the grid to work and save you from... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 5 (Simple Network I/O)

April 11 2008

The last column introduced some of Dojo's AJAX machinery where we fetched content from a server using the dojo.xhrGet function. One thing that wasn't mentioned, however, is that there is an underlying abstraction called a Deferred at play. Since the entire Dojo... read more

Dojo Version 1.1 Landed

March 29 2008

Whether you're a Dojo veteran or a developer who is just starting to kick the tires, you should be excited about Dojo 1.1! I'll leave you to the announcement and the release notes for now, but rest assured that we'll be all... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 4 (Easy AJAX)

March 27 2008

This week's installment of Dojo Goodness demonstrates dojo.xhrGet, an easy way to sprinkle some AJAX into your application and one of the biggest staples in Dojo. (In case the "xhr" part of that API call is a curve ball, it simply refers... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 3 (Animation Station)

March 18 2008

A dose of animation can give your app that extra bit of pizzazz that it sometimes needs to impress the customer/ladies/gentlemen/whatever-floats-your-boat, so I thought it might be a good idea to quickly showcase some of Dojo's animation facilities. If you're just now... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 2

March 10 2008

In my last post, I ran through the fundamentals of getting Dojo loaded into the page via AOL's Content Delivery Network and showed just how easy it is to query the DOM with dojo.query. In this post, I wanted to briefly show... read more

Dojo Goodness, Part 1

February 29 2008

Since I'll suddenly have copious free time on my hands once I turn in my final book manuscript this weekend, I decided that it might be helpful to start a short column on some of the fundamental Dojo building blocks. Although I... read more

Dojo on Adobe AIR

February 25 2008

Dojo is now compatible to run on Adobe AIR, which shipped as of today. The press release does a great job of summarizing, but this excerpt is worth repeating: The updates to the Dojo Toolkit make it even easier for Ajax developers... read more

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