I'm Dan, a freelance Software Engineer. I previously worked at Google, Sidewalk Labs, Mt. Sinai's Hammerlab and Google again. I'm full stack, but tend to be drawn towards work that involves frontend and data. Data Visualization and Programming Languages are particular interests.
I wrote a book! Effective TypeScript (O'Reilly 2024). You can read more about it at effectivetypescript.com, on Amazon and Goodreads, but here are a few choice quotes:
Effective TypeScript explores the most common questions we see when working with TypeScript and provides practical, results-oriented advice. Regardless of your level of TypeScript experience, you can learn something from this book.
This book is packed with practical recipes and must be kept on the desk of every TypeScript eveloper. Even if you think you know TypeScript already, get this book and you won't regret it.
Recent Blog Posts
At long last, we know which Boggle board is the very best.
Four more optimizations enabled by last month's "thrilling insight" bring 4x4 Boggle within reach.
Just as I was ready to wrap up work on Boggle, a thrilling flash of insight pulls me right back in.
After 15 years, a Boggle advance!
A review of the Boggle project and the work done to date.
See all blog posts, or content from my old blog.
Projects
I wrote a book!
Effective TypeScript is a practical, example-driven guide to having a more productive relationship with the type checker. Now in its second edition.
A blog and map tracking my progress towards joining the Catskills 3500 Club by summitting all the high peaks in New York's Catskills mountain range.
Mapping historical photos from the NYPL.
Read more in Gothamist, The Guardian and The New York Times.
Other Creations
Libraries/Developer Tools
- codediff.js, diffing library which backs github-syntax and git webdiff
- pyjsonselect, a fully-conformant implementation of JSONSelect in Python.
- source-map-explorer, a tool for visualizing space usage through JavaScript source maps.
- dpxdt (contributor), a screenshot capture and diff tool.
- localturk, an implementation of the Mechanical Turk API which runs on your own machine. Discussed in this blog post
Google Projects
- Sunrise/Sunset Onebox: [sunset nyc]
- Finance Onebox: [goog]
- Statistics Knowledge Panel: [population france]
- Fact Comparisons: [distance from the sun to mars]
- March Madness Onebox
- Entity Comparisons: [olive oil vs margarine]
- Google Correlate, blog post
- Google Flu Trends, international launch blog post
Papers
Older/Defunct
- Repeatables iOS app
- dragtable, which lives on in a jQuery plugin.
- lonely hangouts (blog post)
- My REALbasic and REALbasic Monthly pages from 1999.
Contact
Email: danvdk [at] gmail
Twitter: @danvdk
github: danvk
StackOverflow: danvk
Facebook: danvdk
Google+: +DanVanderkam
LinkedIn: 340204755
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