Corey Snipes

Many people (like me) who grew up with the farenheit temperature scale have trouble thinking about celsius temperatures, and either resort to looking it up as needed or just throw up their hands. Knowing the conversion equation isn't helpful. These are the mental anchors I use, to help me relate to the celsius scale. Superhuman above this 40c Extreme high end for outdoor activity (104 f) 30c Feels hot (86 f) 20c Feels comfy (68 f) 10c Sweater weather (50…

Six years ago we adopted my mother's old GE dryer temporarily when she moved to independent living. Not long after, the motor gave out so we had a small shop repair guy out for a look. Surprisingly, he was still able to get a new replacement motor (not cheap, but available) and belt. After telling us that a new dryer would be cheaper, and giving us a few raised eyebrows, we convinced him to repair it so he took it…

I had a go at figuring out the sewing machine this afternoon, and made some re-usable gift bags out of scrap material. They're incredibly simple, just basic seams along the sides and bottom, and a bit folded over at the top for the yarn cinch. We used bags made by my grandmother every Christmas when I was a kid. I'm not sure where they ended up. Probably a casualty of my parents' house cleanout. I wish I had them now,…

I spent some quality time with the Craftsman table saw today, making these wood blocks for Susan. They'll eventually be sanded and painted as stands for jewelry and small art pieces in her studio. Because I have no tools to deal with 4" wood directly, I made rough cuts with a circular saw to get them to the right general size, then used the table saw to make straighter and more properly aligned cuts. The faces aren't perfectly straight, but…

I picked this up at the thrift shop this summer. I was eyeing it for a while, but what pushed me over the edge was my daughter's observation. "You should get it." It's such a delight. The intentionality involved in using it, the mechanical-ness, the maintainability, fact that it still works as well as it did in 1971. I just love it. There's more information on this model here. Fortunately, there's a small but robust community of typewriter enthusiasts like…

My company offered an experimental bug bounty program for a few months during 2024 as a trial with three goals: A) engage with the infosec community, B) assess the effort and cost required to support a bug bounty program, and C) improve the security of our systems. Twomile is a small company with a small staff, funded 100% by customers. We do not have venture capital money or Big Company money to devote to experimental programs. While the bug bounty…

My yardstick for personal tech (laptops, phones, operating systems, software, and apps) is to be like a light switch: Do what I need, when I need it, with zero fiddling or thought required. Aluminum or copper wire? Push connectors or screws? Doesn't matter. I can think about those things occasionally if I want, but I can *use* a switch on autopilot. Technology should efficiently and unobtrusively extend my abilities.

On a recent family zoom call, my sister in law shared how she's been on a "news diet" for about a week (shielding herself from any reports of the concurrent national and global crises), inspired by a Buddhist friend. She said her mood and outlook have been MUCH better, as a result. She has been more productive, and generally more focused on her immediate life. Sounds pretty good, right? Inspired by this, I decided to take similar steps. For me,…