Shawn Hooper
shawnhooper.ca
Shawn Hooper
@shawnhooper.ca
He/Him. Web Developer, Conference and Workshop Speaker. Theatre kid who still gets to do sound and lighting on the side.

Small town Ontario, Canada

Blog: https://shawnhooper.ca
RSS: https://shawnhooper.ca/feed

#webdev #php #laravel #wordpress #appsec
Pinned
Pinned Bio:

Hi Bluesky! Really excited to see an apparent ramp up in people jumping over here, especially the tech communities I missed from Twitter/X.

I'm Shawn (he/him). I'm Director of Engineering and Security for a SaaS company. I've been a web developer since the late 90s.
Hmm, there's a "Vintage Computer Festival" happening in Montreal next month. Could be fun to check out.

vcfed.org/vcf-montreal/

#montreal
VCF Montreal – Vintage Computer Federation
vcfed.org
December 19, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Shawn Hooper
Currently in Calgary
December 17, 2025 at 6:51 PM
A breakthrough treatment for tinnitus could finally be on the way

Researchers in the UK may have discovered a treatment for the symptoms of tinnitus.

mixmag.net/read/breakth...
A breakthrough treatment for tinnitus could finally be on the way
Researchers believe they may have found a remedy to alleviate symptoms of the condition, which is thought to impact around seven million people in the UK
mixmag.net
December 17, 2025 at 5:43 PM
The new McDonalds on Rideau is celebrating their opening with a donation to a local raccoon rescue.

www.facebook.com/rideauvanier...

For those of you unfamiliar, there's famous incident of a fight in the old McDs where someone pulls out a raccoon:

www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

#ottawa #raccoon
December 16, 2025 at 3:46 PM
On our first Apple II computer at home, there was a program called "Applevision", that my brother and I just called "Dancing Man". It blew us away then, and fills me with nostalgia now.

Youtube Clip:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqPe...

#nostalgia #appleII
Applevision - (1978) - Apple II - DEMO HD
YouTube video by vghchannel
www.youtube.com
December 12, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Shawn Hooper
Quite breathtaking story - military grade drones at Dublin airport which flew on the path Zelensky's plane took. The drones reached the flight path of his plane exactly the time it should have been there, but just missed it because Zelensky arrived ahead of schedule:
Four unidentified military-style drones breached no-fly zone to target Zelenskyy's arrival in Dublin
Gardaí are investigating whether the drones took off from land in Dublin or from an undetected ship.
www.thejournal.ie
December 4, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Tonight’s math. Calculating speaker delay time. Ex:

To calculate the delay in milliseconds for a distance of 80 feet, divide the distance by the speed of sound (approximately 1126 feet per second) and then multiply by 1000.

This results in a delay of about 71 milliseconds.

#livesound #math #sound
November 29, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Tonight's dinner - home made gluten free chicken BBQ pizza.
November 26, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Doing my laundry. You can tell the show’s run just ended. Everything is black.

#heatre #stagecrew
November 25, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Just finished a two week run of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Had a blast. Great to back in community theatre.

#stagecrew #communitytheatre
November 23, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Shawn Hooper
The U.S. government has released a new crash test dummy design that advocates believe will help make cars safer for women.
A new crash test dummy that better resembles women gets key government endorsement
The U.S. government has released a new crash test dummy design that advocates believe will help make cars safer for women.
bit.ly
November 21, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Just the vibe I needed today. Listening to Fred Again's Tiny Desk Concert.

What a great set. From 2023, but holds up 100%.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iQm...

#music #tinydesk #dj
Fred again..: Tiny Desk Concert
YouTube video by NPR Music
www.youtube.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:53 PM
PHP 8.5 was released today.

Here's a great recap of what it includes:

stitcher.io/blog/new-in-...

#PHP
Stitcher.io
A blog about modern PHP, the web, and programming in general. Follow my newsletter and YouTube channel as well.
stitcher.io
November 20, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” Parts 1-9 Released as One Continuous Track

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd-q...

#music
Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-9, New Stereo Mix / Official Video)
YouTube video by Pink Floyd
www.youtube.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Today's blog post: filtering CloudWatch JSON data! (I've been reading a lot of logs today)

shawnhooper.ca/2025/11/18/f...

#aws #logging
Filtering JSON Log Data in CloudWatch using the jsonParse Function - Shawn Hooper
An example of filtering AWS CloudWatch log data by a JSON attribute using the jsonParse function.
shawnhooper.ca
November 18, 2025 at 10:44 PM
The videos from last month's WordCamp Canada 2025 have been posted on WordPress.tv:

wordpress.tv/event/wordca...

#wordpress #WCEH
November 18, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Saving this show’s lighting. To floppy.

#theatre
November 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Only two more nights until this production goes up!

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I’m on sound. S-O-U-N-D. Sound.

#theatre #musicals #stagecrew
November 12, 2025 at 11:29 PM
To all those who have served in the military, thank you for your service.
a painting of a field of red flowers with the sun shining through the clouds
Alt: a painting of a field of red flowers with the sun shining through the clouds
media.tenor.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Well, I didn't expect this. Alexisonfire covers the Tragically Hip's "Fully Completely".

#music #canada
November 10, 2025 at 10:28 PM
There’s a planned power outage staring early in the morning. It’s supposed to snow tomorrow. I have nowhere I need to be, and I’m about to go into a two week theatre run.

I’m definitely not setting my alarm clock.

Good night.
November 9, 2025 at 5:41 AM
After more than 200 years, the 2026 Farmers’ Almanac will be the last edition.

www.farmersalmanac.com/fond-farewel...
A Fond Farewell
After more than 200 years of sharing wit and wisdom, the 2026 Farmers' Almanac will be our last edition. But our story stays alive in you.
www.farmersalmanac.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Reposted by Shawn Hooper
I am adding this to my bioinformatics course immediately.

mtcars |>
yeet(mpg > 20) |>
vibe_check(mpg, cyl, hp) |>
glow_up(kpg = mpg * 1.6) |>
slay(desc(mpg))
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....

genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
GitHub - hadley/genzplyr: dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap
dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap. Contribute to hadley/genzplyr development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Wishing all my friends at #CloudfestUSA a great hackathon today. It looks like a great event.
November 4, 2025 at 2:59 PM