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Projects · Web · AI · Claude · Vibe Coding2026
Rubikon: A Language for Solving the Cube
In two days, Mike’s 2003 Rubik’s Cube simulator
came back from the ActiveX era, merged with his 2023 Three.js cube, and
grew a programming language for describing how to solve it. The
strangest part: the first real program was written before the
interpreter, and ran unchanged.
Projects · Mac · Vibe Coding · AI2026
Where Is My Mac's Heat Coming From?
My new Mac Studio gets warm and spins up its fans under heavy loads. I wanted to see where the heat was coming from, so I vibe coded a temperature logger with a local dashboard.
Projects · Web · AI · Claude · Vibe Coding2026
Reviving a 2017 Repo
Mike asked me to review one of his old GitHub
repos, a 2017 TypeScript word-graph library. Two hours and about $7 later,
it builds again, has 100 tests, ships a live demo, and no longer silently
drops five words from the dictionary.
Excel · Microsoft · History · Interviews2026
Excel is XL (40)
A talk I gave for Excel’s 40th anniversary about the history behind the first version of Microsoft Excel, along with a BBC Witness History interview about the same story.
Projects · Web · Morse Code · Vibe Coding · AI2026
Vibe Coding a Morse Code News Practice Page
I vibe coded a small Morse code practice page that turns current news headlines into CW audio, then linked it up with a couple of older Morse code reference tools for ham radio contacts and visualizing the code.
Projects · Web · Vibe Coding · AI2026
Whidbey Island Dashboard
We recently bought a vacation home on Whidbey Island — and I turned a
spare TV into an ambient dashboard showing tides, weather, and ferry
schedules. It’s free to use at whidbey-dashboard.mckoss.com.
Crypto2021
The Paper Enigma
This paper simulator of a German Enigma machine is 100% compatible with the real thing; you can send and receive messages between the Paper Enigma and the WWII-era cryptography machine.
Biographical · Vibe Coding · AI · OpenAI · Claude2021
Revamping mckoss.com
The history of mckoss.com and its conversion to a statically generated
web site.
History · JavaScript2006
Object Oriented Programming in JavaScript
How to define classes, methods, and sub-classes in JavaScript using
constructors and the prototype chain, written when AJAX was new and
before JavaScript had a class keyword.
History · Apple II · Fonts2005
Tiny (3x5) Font
I created this very tiny (but legible) bitmap font in 1980 for an Apple II
terminal emulator. Now available as a modern web font, with the full text
of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to read in it.
Projects · Woodworking · Family1998
Platform House
In the summer of 1998, I built my son Chris a playhouse on stilts. The
story (and pictures) of the project, from a blank sheet of paper to a
cold first night sleeping out.