Corey Snipes

Software/Systems Engineer, and all-around Good Chap 

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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Day After the Election

A long winter lies ahead. Trump has won the US presidency, in what appears to be a fair and mostly by-the-books election. It's a mess. I fear the foundations of the country are so rotted that our long-held institutions will not recover. I have a lot of thoughts, but they're not well organized this morning. For now, Terry Pratchett sums it up pretty well: "People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found…

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Help Somebody Vote

If you could stop fascism in three hours, would you do it? There are kind, smart people in every community who want to vote, but are having challenges right now. Maybe they have to work on Tuesday and are unsure how to navigate early voting. Maybe they put off the mail-in ballot too long. Maybe they have mobility issues, or no car. Many people will get it done if someone reaches out to help. Check with your people. Try to…

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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. Wordpress export Posts and page content using default WP Tools / Export Download media library using plugin Export Media Library plugin by Mass Edge Inc Ignore warnings…

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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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