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In the Third Person

Mike Johnson is a Minneapolis based web designer and developer, with a strong background in web application development and standards based design.

Mike is the Lead Developer of the popular open-source photo gallery Plogger, and holds a full time position as a Web Programmer for Twin Cities based Startup Sierra Bravo.

About This Website

This website has served as my public facing development lab for the last few years. This website was once used as a business and marketing platform for my freelance web development services, but has since digressed into an occasionally interesting journal and personal portfolio.

The website is built on the Wordpress platform, with an aesthetically modified version of the Hemmingway theme.

About Mike

I think most people would describe me as amiable, intelligent, and strikingly handsome moderately well-behaved. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology, but find myself drifting slowly into design as my primary occupation. I am a strong language independent thinker with no fanatical loyalties towards any language, platform, or operating system. I am a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none type with an obsession for the bleeding edge. I become anxious at the thought of being washed over by new developments in technology. I am especially obsessed with eastern foods of any flavor, particularly Japanese and Thai. Besides all that, I get real excited about music — Hip-hop and electronic tend to catch my interest these days, but I am open to just about anything.

Noteworthy Articles I Have Written Here

• Adaptable Web Template Marketing for Franchises
• Best Music of 2004
• Detecting Multiple KeyPress Combos with Prototype
• Make Your Head Clickable
• Software for the Broke
• The Art of Freelancing
• The Submit Button Problem
• The Web Developer’s Toolbox
• Usability Analysis with EyeTracker
• Web Creativity for Code Geeks
• Web Standards - A Long Way to Go
• Yahoo Ads Extension for Vanilla
• Your Wireless Network Wears No Clothes

Some remarkable moments in my life:

• Winning a state problem solving competition when I was in 5th grade
• Getting the gold medal in a state downhilll skiing championship
• Studying ecotourism and falling in love with a girl in the Yucatan Peninsula
• Playing guitar live at a local steak joint in Dinkytown
• Getting lost in Honk Kong
• Studying computer graphic rendering techniques at Tsing-Hua in Beijing
• Swimming in the blue lagoon spa in Reykjavik, Iceland
• Helping to create a popular open-source gallery application.
• Discovering sushi
• Standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
• Sleeping on the beach where Rambo was filmed in Mexico
• Getting a degree in Computer Science
• Bungie-jumping from a 500ft high gondola in the Swiss Alps
• Meeting my wonderful girlfriend (of almost 5 years)