Corey Snipes

Software/Systems Engineer, and all-around Good Chap 

Never Eaten Vegetables

I've been enjoying the short stories on the @clarkesworld@mastodon.online podcast. The story "Never Eaten Vegetables" by H.H. Pak from January 2025 was especially engaging. It hits a whole bunch of standard themes that I really like (biology, space colonization, advanced technology, corporate malfeasance) in a story that's super original, interesting, and well crafted. Plus, Kate Baker is always a great reader. If you're into such things, give it a listen. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_01_25b/

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Mastodon and Bluesky

Just did a quick scan of my local Cleveland area Mastodon connections, and quite a few haven't posted since 2024. Many of those are active on Bluesky. Based on their posts and shares there, it looks like there's a pretty decent Cleveland local scene, at least for the material I sought on twitter (urbanism, community organizations, local journalism, local politics, sports). I have resisted creating an account there, because at it's core Bluesky just another Silicon Valley startup play (created…

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Snow Day

I had no meetings this afternoon and we've had some good snow the last few days, so I decided to bug out early and check out the nordoc ski trails at Chapin Forest Reservation, out east of the city. The trails were wide open and there was plenty of fresh new snow. There were a few people out, a mix of hikers with dogs, skis, and snowshoes. Most of the time there was nobody around, though. Very quiet and peaceful,…

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1828 Penny

This is a US penny from 1828. It lives in my right front pocket along with my keys and a small amount of cash, and periodically reminds me to keep things in perspective. When this penny was created people traveled by horse and carriage over rutted roads. the United States was on its sixth president, John Q. Adams. This penny was created: This is just a simple penny, cash value US $0.01 It has endured for 195 years. How old…

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Wordpress to Publii

I am migrated my personal website from Wordpress to Publii. Here are a few observations on Publii, from my experiences to date. I also wrote some more general thoughts about moving to static HTML. At a high level, this is the process I am using to move this website from Wordpress to Publii. When I switched my main working laptop to a Linux system, I had to set up a new clean installation of Publii (on linux) and move my…

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Migrating to Static HTML

One this year's projects has been moving the (eight) websites I shepherd for various projects and community organizations from Wordpress to static HTML. I tried a bunch and settled on Hugo and Publii.  I used Hugo for several simple sites. It's good for some things but it's really only suitable for coders and the image handling is a massive headache.  Publii is extremely easy to use and works very well.  Using software that is both mature and completely free of…

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Windows or Linux?

Every time I set up a new laptop for myself or an employee, I go through a brief "Windows or Linux?" tradeoff analysis. It's never an easy choice. All of our development work is platform-independent, using broadly available open-source tools like java, node, postgresql, QGIS. Everything that's deployed to a server is Linux (usually Ubunutu). On the other hand, the US business world runs almost exclusively on Microsoft. For compatibility sake, Windows is my daily driver so that I can…

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Market Wagon is Great

I really appreciate Market Wagon for being a simple, great (non-enshittified) platform that connects midwest urbanites like me to local family farms. This week we ordered naturally raised ground beef and pork shoulder, local honey, microgreens, fresh salsa, apple cider donuts, and more. Everything will be delivered to our porch on Thursday. The prices are reasonable for locally-grown and produced foods. There is a reasonable flat-rate delivery fee added to the order, and we always tip the driver. Market Wagon…

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