This is why I pay for a search engine now.

Boston Globe mock front page from April 9, 2016. Date says April 9, 2017, with giant headline “DEPORTATIONS TO BEGIN” and “Markets sink as trade war looms.”

Ten years ago today, in April 2016, the Boston Globe printed a satirical front page imagining a future Trump administration. The page was called "alarmist," "hyperbolic," "dystopian." But we’ve put up with so much since then it now looks like . . . a slow Thursday?

Maybe not directly helpful, but I have used ElasticPress (and VIP's "Enterprise Search", same diff) for this purpose and it's way better than what I've been able to get out of plugins that do it via taxonomy queries alone. Then you can tweak the ES query directly, like what fields to include.

I wanted a way to explore Unicode by visual similarity, not just by name or codepoint, so I built Charcutrie.

It lets you browse characters that look alike, search across scripts and symbols, and even sketch a shape to find matching glyphs. (pretty badly for now :D)

charcuterie.elastiq.ch#U+221E

I feel sick to my stomach waiting around to see what atrocity Trump has in mind for the people of Iran this evening. It's hard to fathom our other elected leaders aren't able to check him in any meaningful way. It's an indictment not just of voters but of our whole system. We're ruled by a mad king.

In the age of AI, "information wants to be free" sounds less like a mantra and more like a warning.

solve the mystery hidden inside a 90’s operating system in Desktop Explorer

Yes, this. aramzs.xyz/thoughts/don...

Evol Johnson at the podium, the first slide reads "Cut the Algorithm: Why Your Newsroom Should Run Its Own Social Server"

I'm at the #ATproto talk at #ONA2026!

Jokes aside,

"it’s never been easier to stand out and assert yourself as an authority. When everyone is deferring to the big bullshitter in the cloud your original thoughts are invaluable"

Screenshot of the pretext demo site on mobile; the large title "PRETEXT" is overflowing off the right side of the screen.

I'm sure pretext is very impressive, but...

lol

I did speak to a student attending the conference and they had concerns about what genAI is doing to learning the craft. Maybe the kids are alright.

I am not even a journalist, I'm a web software developer working for publishers. I already see how genAI is eating my specialization; ceding the voice of the 4th estate to algorithms controlled by oligarchs is dangerous territory.

I sincerely hope so, but I have a bad feeling...

bsky.app/profile/cr0y...

I'm at a conference for journalists.

I just had to leave a talk to find a quiet place to sit after the presenter demonstrated, to an audience of writers, how to use a prompt generator to write a prompt to generate writing.

Felt physically unsettled.

The #ONA2026 keynote began with the number of journalists killed this year. Humbled to be here amongst actual heros.

Selfie of Cory in the Hilton Chicago's Grand ballroom.

At the #ONA2026 conference, any other #WordPress devs here?

I have hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

Hey figma, as a dev moving back and forth from my implementation to the design, freezing up and saying "loading" for 5+ seconds every time I LOOK AT FIGMA is the most frustrating part of my day bar none.

Choice Provisions: Site Editability Rebuild Rebuild of a static site in WordPress for maximum editability!

5 months later I managed to get a case study of the latest Choice Provisions website rebuild up on my portfolio:

cr0ybot.com/project/choi...

The FCC has banned all new foreign-made routers unless they get an exemption from the Pentagon or DHS

This is precisely how a government sets up the framework to install a backdoor, create a firewall, and switch off the internet when it's convenient for them.

Your options for placeholders:

- Make them yourself (difficult, takes time)

- Slop (monthly sub, kills the planet, enriches oligarchs, bad assets, everyone hates you and they're right)

- Incredibly made game assets by @kenney.nl ($19.95, one-time, supports give-aways to those who can't afford it)

Making use of Design Tokens in theme.json This one weird trick (putting design tokens into theme.json) makes pixel-perfect theme development easy*!

This is very applicable to the theme.json system for colors and other variables in #WordPress:

cr0ybot.com/2025/01/maki...

Oh No! UFO! Open World Demo Trailer YouTube video by Doing a Game Dev

Hey! I made a trailer for my demo that'll be going live in a few days!

You can watch the trailer here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjXx...

And you can wishlist the game here: store.steampowered.com/app/3314190/...

#GameDev #WishlistWednesday

I get too easily distracted by the next thing sometimes, and I also often end up learning more in the process of generalizing a particular solution into a blog post that discourages me from finishing. I need to get better at yeeting potentially unpolished thoughts into the void.

cr0ybot’s creations Cory Hughart: full-stack web & app developer, amateur cook & fermentation hobbyist, gardener, tinkerer, and general curious person.

Went through a backlog of draft posts on my site from the past few years and just pushed them past the finish line. A lot of it is #WordPress, the rest is #WebDev.

cr0ybot.com

Beef brisket in a vacuum bag with whole spices and Morton Tender Quick.

Corned beef braising with a bag of whole spices and an extra rib bone.

Corned beef, cooked and sliced on a wood cutting board dappled by sunlight from the window.

Corned beef is a day late but honestly St Patrick's day is just an excuse to corn some beef. I should make it more often.

BIG rib steak on a wood cutting board, medium rare via sous vide + sear (with the help of red rice shio koji), only half sliced up because there's no way we could eat all that. Sauteed shiitake mushrooms on the side.

Big wedge salad with homemade Bleu cheese dressing, sprinkled with bacon, cherry tomatoes, and green onions.

Big Steak + Big Salad dinner was a Big Success.

Jack and Cory selfie across a table at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

Happy Pi Day only to those who got married on 3/14/15...

Happy anniversary @jackwatson.design ;]

Idea: mandatory retirement age for Congress equivalent to the average U.S. life expectancy (79) so they actually care about improving it.