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Race, Ethnicity, and the Future of Identity
I’m taking a course to satisfy my cultural diversity requirement that has inspired me and caused me to think about identity in a way I haven’t before. Kudos to the instructor and the university as this happens far less than I’d like in most of…
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A Personal Analysis of Modern Utilitarian Ethics
Recently, I wrote an essay (and a related discussion post) in support of a kind of Utilitarianism I find interesting, including contrasting it with other common ethical frameworks. The flavor of Utilitarian ethics I supported is largely based on my interpretation of The Moral Landscape…
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Encryption Redux
In yet another exciting move for my blog, I’ve switched SSL providers from my previous provider to Let’s Encrypt. I’ve done so using a set of Docker containers, which also helped me move this WordPress blog to Docker as well. Now my blog is faster,…
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Distributing CLI Tools via Docker
Throughout my career, I’ve seen a couple recurring patterns related to the tools I write: I write a lot of small CLI tools and I like to share them with my coworkers (and whenever possible, the rest of the world). This has led to several…
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An Open Letter to President-Elect Trump
Dear Mr. Trump, Let me start out this letter by admitting a few things. First, it would be a tremendous understatement to claim that I am not your strongest supporter. While I have disagreed with much of what you have said and what you and…
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Check for locked out Active Directory user via Ruby
At work, I’ve been working on a lot of automation lately and I ran into a seemingly simple problem that ended up being a bit more complicated than I had first imagined. I have been collaborating on a project that we’re using for auditing Active…
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Quadratic Confusion
I have a horrible memory. I don’t mean just that I misplace things or forget names; it takes a lot of effort to commit arbitrary facts, figures, dates, etc., to my long-term memory. So throughout my school years, most of my studying was for things…
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Transport Layer Security FTW!
Thanks to the good people at SSls.com, my blog is now more secure than ever! And for only about $15… for a three-year cert! I’m not sure how they’re doing it, but I encourage anyone looking for an SSL certificate to check them out. Note…
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Checking In
I started a new job last week in San Diego! I’ve been really busy coordinating the move, learning what’s necessary to do my job, and struggling to keep up with my crazy life. I certainly haven’t forgotten about my blog, and I’m working on a…
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Reusable CloudFormation Snippets with ERB
Amazon’s CloudFormation is a wonderful and flexible tool for provisioning and managing resources in an EC2 VPC. It really takes the concept of infrastructure-as-code and helps make it a reality. For all its flexibility though, it sacrifices intuitiveness and ease. It is also limited by…
My musings on technology, science, math, and more