Corey Snipes

Software/Systems Engineer, and all-around Good Chap 

Canal Road Warehouse

I love this building on Canal Road, below the Carnegie bridge and the Guardians of Transportation. Four floors of gently curved industrial brick facing the tracks. A long-disused loading dock hints at a bustle of warehouse activity and freight logistics. The building is just steps from Tower City, Progressive Field, and Collision Bend on the Cuyahoga River, but hardly a car to be seen and no foot traffic at all. (Cleveland, OH, USA - December 2020)

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If You Like Dreamland (Utopia)

One of my all-time favorite TV shows is an Australian series called "Utopia" (in the US: "Dreamland" on Netflix). It's a comedy centered around a government infrastructure planning and development office (the Nation Building Authority), and the frustrations of bureaucracy and incompetent colleagues. Even if that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, I promise you the scenarios and characters are spot on, and the humor is quick, deadpan, hilarious. I am making my way through the recommendations, and here's…

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Green Burial

I am interested in green burial (aka natural burial). Traditional cemeteries are arranged for the living. Traditional burial is expensive, wasteful, and weirdly permanent. Green burial (as defined by the Green Burial Council), is a way of "caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat." That resonates strongly with me. Green burial uses non-toxic and biodegradable materials,…

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Political Compass

The Political Compass has been around on the internet since 2001. Their essential point is that Right and Left politically are mostly a measure of economics, and that people's politics is better measured by adding a second dimension (Authoritarian vs. Libertarian). https://www.politicalcompass.org One of my friends from college nudged me to do this via Facebook message. Distinct from the garbage heap of "how do you score on this quiz" that swirls around Facebook, this is well-crafted, timeless, and supported by…

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Blockchain Skepticism in Cleveland

Cleveland civic leaders are gaga for blockchain right now. Organizations are pulling together in an uncharacteristic way, in support of Bernie Moreno's moonshot "Blockland". This week, Noriel Roubini's delivered well-researched statements for the Senate banking committee, on why cryptocurrency is a scam ("the mother or father of all scams and bubbles"), and blockchain is massively overhyped ("In practice it is nothing better than a glorified spreadsheet or database"). Roubini is a professor at NYU, studies asset and credit bubbles, and…

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RadioLab Shows About Plants and Trees

I love WNYC's RadioLab. The hosts are great, the topics are compelling, and the production of the show is just great. I really like the way they use sound and incorporate off-script words and phrases throughout the show and credits. Here are three RadioLab shows about plants doing unexpected things (communicating, learning, sharing, etc). As with every RadioLab show, they're fascinating.

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How to Market Yourself as a New Software Developer

You're fresh out of college or code school, and you want to market your tech skills. How exactly do you get those first gigs? Here are some tips based on my experience in the field. Be honest about your capabilities. Some people will say "fake it till you make it" but that doesn't work for me and I'm no good at it anyway. I'd rather work with someone who knows their limitations than someone who thinks they know everything, and…

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Spice Up Your Next Web Demo with Bats

I decided to add a little spice to a web demo that happens to fall on Halloween. Thanks to Eric Grange over at DelphiTools, it was super easy. I updated his script slightly, to allow control over when the bats appear (and how many there are). You can include my js file directly, or download here, or clone from the github repo. To use it, follow these steps: First - Include the script in your header. This line uses my…

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