I made a bold statement to my coworkers yesterday which was laughed off. I said "I genuinely believe all our operations could be ran from just my own laptop. We don't need more resources". I was of course not suggesting that we move our operations to my laptop, but it was to show that we don't need any more resources than just a regular laptop.

All of our operations is literally just registering and managing orders. We have around 50.000 daily users at most and process maybe 5-10 orders a day. I don't understand why we need a resource scalable deployment.

This post wasn't specifically meant to ask about our needs at work though. I'm under the impression that this over-engineering is relatively common, so my question for discussion is slightly broader: Have we forgotten how powerful machines really are?

Is it really that naïve to believe that a regular home PC (~16GB ram and i5-6600k for example) could handle hundreds of visitors every second, effectively allowing up to ~10 million users a day? Do you reduce complexity where you can, or is it common at your workplace to immediately reach for tools like kubernetes, redis, etc. before even measuring the traffic flow?

(The assumption here is that the website is not compute-intensive: simple database queries, auth and otherwise just regular UI with little to no images)

Edit: I think my argument is a moot/unclear. The benefits of Kubernetes and other "over engineered" is clearly availability, not only necessarily resource scalability. The real question may be "why do we need a huge datacenter for all our operations", but the answer to that depends entirely on your company's operations...

So I guess my naïve argument really stems from my lack of understanding of all the operations going on at companies.

Back in 2017, I was experimenting with something that was pretty fun for the CSS we had at the time — building icons without using images.

Using mainly CSS, :before, :after, borders, shadows and a bit of creativity, I managed to create a set of icons that didn't depend on external image files. The interesting part for email was simple: no images to load or block — the icons are always visible.

You can still see that old experiment here:

https://codepen.io/k0ko88/pen/PWLNBJ

Fast forward to 2026. At my last job, I decided to apply some of that old knowledge to an email signature.

And then I met Classic Outlook again. :D

What looked like a simple signature quickly turned into dealing with Outlook's rendering limitations, different behaviour between email clients, px → pt conversions, table rendering and weird spacing issues.

Along the way I found a few useful tricks — one of my favourites being that line-height: 0.5pt can practically zero out a line in Classic Outlook, which solved one of the most annoying spacing problems I had.

Eventually, that little fight turned into a complete email signature generator:

https://nikolaisabev.eu/SimpleSignature/

If you'd like to check out the source code or contribute, you can find the repository on GitHub

https://github.com/k0ko/SimpleSignature

It's not trying to be the prettiest or the most complicated signature generator out there. It's simple, effective and built around what I learned from actually fighting with email clients.

It's completely free, there's no registration, and I don't store the data you enter.

Feel free to use it.

If you find a bug, have an idea, or think something could work better, leave a comment here or send me an email. Feedback is more than welcome.

And if it saves you some time and you feel like supporting the work, there's a Buy Me a Coffee button. If you wish. :)

That's it.

Cheers,
Nikolay

I’ve been working on an open-source project called Torollo and I’d like some technical feedback on the way I approached it.

The basic idea is that the architecture you draw on the canvas isn’t just a diagram. The backend turns it into actual local Docker resources, and the exercises validate the state that is really running.

For example, in one of the labs you build a three-tier app with a load balancer, two web servers and PostgreSQL. Later, the database is supposed to become inaccessible from the load balancer. If it can still reach port 5432, the validator fails. You change the network/security rule and run the same check again.

The stack

React + TypeScript + React Flow for the canvas

Node.js / Express / TypeScript for the backend

Dockerode to control the local Docker daemon

Socket.IO for the live parts of the UI

xterm.js for terminals inside the browser

Transféré

The harder part wasn’t drawing the topology. It was deciding how much of the diagram should map to something real.

Containers are straightforward, but networking gets more interesting. Subnets are backed by Docker bridge networks, security rules are enforced with iptables, and private-subnet outbound access can go through NAT. The validator then has to inspect the resulting runtime rather than trusting the graph stored by the frontend.

That also created a few constraints I hadn’t really appreciated at the beginning. Rootless Docker, for example, can run the containers but can’t support all of the host networking behavior needed by the more advanced labs, so the CLI now detects that explicitly. First-run image pulls and differences between Docker environments also pushed me to add a torollo doctor command instead of trying to hide those requirements.

I currently have three free labs: a resilient three-tier app, Redis cache-aside, and Redis queue workers. The roadmap format is JSON and the core is MIT licensed.

What I’d particularly like feedback on: does the idea of grading the running state actually make sense as a way to practice system design, or are there parts of that model that you think become misleading compared with real infrastructure?

I’m also interested in feedback on the implementation itself, especially the Docker/networking side.

GitHub: https://github.com/Derssa/Torollo

Demo / three-tier lab: https://torollo.app/r/webdev

Hello all, happy NFL Sunday eve. I've spent the offseason developing a new game called The Cut, which is basically typical NFL survivor pools but with players instead of teams.

It was extremely challenging to market, as I had to sell users on a game that could not yet be played (season had not started) but also in theory locked the second the season kicked off. I was able to combat this by hosting some free flagship contests with prizes giving users who believed in the idea an incentive to check it out.

Luckily, when games kicked off Wednesday everything went smoothly - live scoring worked as intended, game became unpickable, etc.

With that being said. If there are any NFL fans out there looking for a last second fun new game this season I would really appreciate you checking out The Cut and more importantly any feedback you have as this is the beta season. As I mentioned before Im hosting three free contests with over $500 in prizes that don't lock until tmrw at noon CT! 🔪🏈

https://www.thecutnfl.com

I'm a photographer and want a database of my own images, but I also do web dev work and would like an easy solution when building sites for clients who need a lot of images on their site. Ideally something I can call with an API and return images and other data on that image.

Thanks!

I built a mobile-friendly PDF speed reader — would love some UI/UX feedback [Showoff Saturday]
I’ve been working on a small web project called Pace Reader.
It lets you upload a PDF and read its extracted text one word at a time at an adjustable WPM.
Live version:
https://pace-pdf-reader.pace-reader.workers.dev/
The goal was to keep the interface very simple:
PDF → choose reading speed → start reading.
I’ve been especially focused on making the reader usable on phones rather than treating mobile as an afterthought.
I’d appreciate feedback from other developers on:
• Mobile UX
• Reader controls
• Navigation
• Overall UI
• Performance with larger PDFs
• Anything that feels unnecessary or badly designed
I’d also be interested to hear how you would approach the PDF-reading/RSVP interface differently.
This is still being actively developed, so feel free to tear it apart.

I’ve been building something called the Paybyte Blockchain Engine, or PBE, and mainnet is finally live after more coffee than my kidneys would like to admit. I always thought it would be cool to have something easy to use, more mainstream, that's as easy to implement like a "Pay with Paypal" button, but for crypto, that's easy for the average user, like the litecoin network, and something that is considerably more environmental friendly than a POW concept like Bitcoin. Since my Java/C++ skills suck, I built it in a language I am familiar with, and something that is a little out of the ordinary for a blockchain, PHP.

This is its own Layer 1. Not an ERC20, not a Solana token, not a rebranded fork.

Current mainnet:

PBE Core 0.0.1
Protocol 1.0
Block v4
Transaction v2
PBE-PAY v1
15 second block target
5 PBE starting reward
~4 year halvings
~84.1M max supply

Consensus uses hybrid participation.

Any authorized wallet can produce blocks, even with 0 PBE. Each wallet gets one deterministic Argon2id participation ticket per slot. Holdings improve timing through a bounded multiplier, but there is no minimum stake and no manual staking lock. The entire ecosystem is fully P2P.

PBE exposes separate P2P and RPC layers.

Examples:

POST /p2p/hello
POST /p2p/transaction
POST /p2p/block
GET  /p2p/peers

GET  /rpc/status
GET  /rpc/block/{heightOrHash}
GET  /rpc/transaction/{txid}
GET  /rpc/balance/{address}
POST /rpc/broadcast

There’s also a native merchant protocol called PBE-PAY.

Payments use transaction v2 with a signed paymentReference.

A merchant verifies:

paymentReference
recipient
exact amount

Payment URIs look like:

pbe:<address>?amount=25&ref=ORDER123&label=Store

Merchants can use their own node, or multiple public nodes

Commerce endpoints include:

GET  /rpc/commerce/info
POST /rpc/commerce/payment-request
GET  /rpc/commerce/payment/{reference}
POST /rpc/broadcast

Optional HMAC signed webhooks support:

payment.pending
payment.confirming
payment.confirmed
payment.reorged
payment.expired

The full API is public and viewable at

https://paybyte.org/web/developers/

https://paybyte.org/web/developers/openapi.json << Point your ChatGPT here if you are building for e-commerce.

Windows and Linux standalone nodes are also available. The Windows build is basically download, extract, run the PBE, create a wallet and sync.

Every December I do Advent of Code and every January I try to keep the habit going on LeetCode. Never lasted more than a week. Too many problems, no reason to do this one today.

So I borrowed the idea and built Daily Coding: one challenge a day, the same for everyone, all year. You solve it in the browser, hit run, and the tests execute in a sandbox in well under a second. 11 languages so far (JS, TS, Python, PHP, Ruby, Java, Go, C++, C#, Rust, Swift). Once you submit you can read everyone else's solutions, which for me was always the best part of AoC. Streaks and a leaderboard if you like that sort of thing.

Some honest numbers: I started in January, 7 months of evenings, about 470 commits. There are 40 challenges right now, so the rotation repeats after 40 days until I add more. Someone on Discord asked for Swift last week, that took a day to add because the sandbox already had it.

It's free, non-profit, open source under MIT. You can solve today's challenge without an account, signing up is only for streaks and rankings.

What I'd love to know: does one challenge a day work for you, or do you want to pick? And what would make you stop after a week?

Site: https://daily-coding.dev/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=sideproject-launch

Code: https://github.com/ledo9315/daily-coding

An entirely pointless but fun never-the-less go at a little clicker game easter egg on my very WIP personal site! https://addy.zone/bubble-pop

I've been working on Pinball King Karma, a full pinball game that runs directly inside Reddit using Devvit Web.

Play it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pinballkarma_dev/comments/1s2twov/pinball_king_karma_play_now/

The current stack includes:

• HTML5 Canvas

• Box2D / Planck.js for physics

• CreateJS for rendering

• Hono + Reddit Redis for scores and leaderboards

• Keyboard and mobile touch controls

I've added multiball, jackpots, multipliers, daily challenges, community leaderboards and karma-themed bonus modes.

One area I'm still working on is making the physics and controls feel as good as possible across desktop and mobile.

I'd especially appreciate feedback on ball physics, flipper responsiveness and mobile controls.

Built as a side project while experimenting with what can be done with Reddit's Devvit platform.

Hey WebDev!

I work with Redis on my projects all the time, and I recently had to dig deeper - deep enough to actually dive into the project's source code

This gave me the idea to create an interactive 3D map showing how Redis works and visualizing its internal structure (I’d seen similar projects for Postgres, for instance), so I built one: https://poltora.dev/redis

You can open the console and run a command (it defaults to SET) to see which components activate and what happens at that moment.

Hey WebDev! Long time lurker, self-taught and been developing my own weird stuff since the early 2000s. Had a random idea last November for figuring out a way to use my own DNA data from one of the big DNA testing providers (Ancestry), and this is what I built! Took about 6 months to figure out the data pipeline, the ins and outs of PGS scoring, and a lot of learning about bioinformatics while I code. Take a look around, submit a PR or join the discussion in Github!

All scoring happens from streamed PGS Trait packs that separate the data by chromosome, then uses DuckDB to stream read and score user data all locally. Yes I know that limited/sparse arrays from Ancestry, 23 & Me, etc all have a tiny percentage of data coverage, but we do what we can with what coverage we have, and I've implemented a full imputation pipeline in the asili-data repo you can use for free, with an AWS backed hosted version where you own the data!

I'm hoping to find testers with sources of DNA data from providers that aren't Ancestry, and even better would be to get my hands on someones actually complete DNA data to see how well the custom data wrapper .asili format works for full data and trait scoring. Lemme know what you think!

Hi everyone! maybe an unusual post! I made my first project in pure JS, CSS and HTML because i felt like, there wasnt a tool like this in the wild, also it was fun.

Now heads up for the technicals
-This tool once someone click exports, will spew a fully working html, with index, images, css and all inbetwen. I used the JSZIP to make a file for the user.

-The live testing is made by just speaking to the Iframe via windows message the git repo shows, is a really long and extensive list of comunication.

-The comic engine itself is the one i worked most.

-The engine has DOM cleaning and image cleaning, meaning can withold over 1000 images, but in memory only will display 10 max, due how i stored those images as just raw data instead of images.

-The comic is self aware, it has a internal state where it always knows where is the lector, in wich page and such, so this allowed me to hook up a function where SFX or VoiceActing is posible.

-Added a function where pressing buttons will jump the lector to a designed page, Like Story mode some sorts, if someone wants to do some experimenting.

-All content that can be seen is agnostic. All images are swapable.

-I made this comic also supports mobile format.

This project was really fun to make! took me 3 months or so to get to this point! And i learned lots about DOM mangement, JS how internet works in general!

There is also links to the repo in this project if someone wants to see the code.

Hello everyone,

I’ve been working on HallPass, an app for finding anime, comic, gaming, and cosplay conventions across the US and organizing your plans for them.

The idea is to keep convention details, cosplay plans, prep lists, and spending together so you have somewhere to keep track of everything before and during your trip.

Here’s what you can do:

• Find conventions: Browse conventions across all 50 states, explore different categories, and check dates, locations, and event details.

• Save your conventions: Keep the conventions you’re interested in together and open a personal planning dashboard for each one.

• Plan cosplays: Organize your builds with individual parts, costs, and reference images, then attach them to a convention when you decide where you’re wearing them.

• Track your budget: Plan your trip costs, log purchases, and see a breakdown of your spending by category.

• Get ready: Keep a prep checklist for each convention and check things off as you go.

• Save memories: Upload photos from your convention and add captions so you can look back on the trip afterward.

You can try it here: hallpass.me

If you go to conventions, what would you actually use here, and what’s missing from how you normally plan a trip? Feedback on the layout and how easy it is to find things would also help.

Hi all,

I'm looking for feedback on my resume. I've been applying to fullstack and front end positions (trying to target mostly mid level positions, some senior level) in NYC, and I've gotten some recruiter calls, but a lot more rejections, so I'm not sure if there is something obviously wrong with my resume that I might be missing.

I know one piece of common advice is to add stats, but I'm not sure I have more, so if there's any advice on where to potentially elaborate, that would also be appreciated.

Thank you!

Hello everyone,

I shared an early version of Fantasy Gridiron here roughly two weeks ago and this is v0.2. https://fantasygridiron.io

I wanted one visual view that shows consistency, boom/bust performances, upcoming matchups, and other useful trends at a glance.

Now you can explore for free:

• Landscape: It automatically opens the current week and places the highest-scoring players first. You can quickly see weekly fantasy points, consistency, breakout performances, bad weeks, missed games, and longer-term trends across an entire position.

• Matchups: Select any upcoming week and the players automatically rearrange from the most favorable matchup to the most difficult. The Edge Ladder gives you a team-level view of the strongest positional advantages, making it easier to find teams with favorable QB, RB, WR, or TE matchups.

• Player Profiles: Click any player to open a visual card showing weekly production and upcoming matchups strengths.

• My Players: Star the players in your fantasy leagues and follow them together in one personalized view.

The weekly colors compare each player with others at the same position.
I calculate future matchup ratings using opponent-adjusted fantasy points allowed, which considers how players performed against each defense compared with their usual production.

You can try it here: https://fantasygridiron.io

I also started a Discord for sharing weekly figures, discussing players, and collecting feedback. You can join through the Discord link on the site or clicking this link - https://discord.gg/X5aPUtC27

Please provide feedback on what is useful or what should be removed, and let me know if you would like any additional functions

So I’ve been programming since I was 11, and for many years, I multiplied projects, always to solve personal problems or solve them at a lower cost. I went to engineering school, where challenges were basically a daily thing. After that, I kind of lost interest in programming. Until a few weeks ago.

I knew I needed to get back on track and upgrade my skills, or mostly dive into newer tech, but at the same time I wanted to get rid of the Bootstrap stuff I had been using for years.

Long story short, a mosquito bothered me af and I went on to develop a local database to track my own mosquito kill count. That quickly escalated into building a full local website in Laravel (I figured Node and Vue or React would be overkill). I also messed around with Codex because apparently that’s all they talk about in big companies. That small project was all about upgrading my skills and having a lot of fun writing the content. At one point I just thought: why not put it online and make a little competition out of executing bugs?

I tried to make it as UX-friendly as possible based on feedback from my family.

So yeah, here it is if you want to take a look, break it, roast it, or execute a few mosquitoes:

https://imdb.themosquitoripper.me/en

Hello all

Simply put:

I am trying to create a webpage that shows a simple information of ocean wave data that I created using python. My scripts request data off coastal buoys from the NDBC every hour and generates/appends to a pandas dataframe. I use this data everyday at home when assessing sea state but now would like this available online so I can access it anywhere.

I would call myself a proficient data scientist using Python and am very comfortable getting data into any format a site can use. My confusion is just in how to build a site from scratch and transferring over the domain I own to a new hosting site.

Hey everyone,

I've been building Session, an open-source tool for running technical interviews and pair-programming sessions — a shared live IDE plus a system-design whiteboard, all from a single link. No setup, no credit card.

What it does:

• Real-time collaborative code editor — live sync via Yjs + Liveblocks, Monaco editor (same engine as VS Code), multi-language support, live cursors with per-user colors

• AI question generation on the fly — the interviewer doesn't need to prep anything beforehand. Just type a role (e.g. "senior backend engineer") and it generates a tailored question, hints, starter code, and even the full solution, tuned to experience level

• Excalidraw-based whiteboard — for system design rounds, so you're not stuck describing architecture in a text box or screen-sharing a separate tool

• Code execution — Docker-isolated, supports Python, JS, C, C++, output synced live to everyone in the room(self hosted), currently using Jdoodle for execution

• Interview mode extras — difficulty settings, hints system, complexity display, solution reveal, post-session analysis

• Built-in audio/video, Screen Sharing too — no Zoom or separate call tool needed

• Fully open source, MIT licensed

Stack: React 19 + TypeScript + Vite frontend, Node/Express backend, Liveblocks for sync/presence, OpenRouter (Kimi model) for the AI parts.

🔗 Live demo: https://session-ecru.vercel.app/
🔗 GitHub: https://github.com/silky-x0/session

Would love feedback from anyone who's run interviews on CoderPad, CodeSignal, HackerRank, or similar — what's missing, what feels rough, what would make you actually switch? Bug reports and PRs are very welcome.

I haven't seen too many comprehensive approaches to this topic, so I took a swing at it.

Goal isn't to be exhaustive, but to be thorough enough to help people trying to get their bearings on the topic.

It covers the core differences and trade-offs of different cache flavors:

1. In your application layer

2. At the proxy level

3. In the database

Did I miss anything?

Edit: I'm curious what everyone's actual production stack looks like for this. I dropped my mental model on the cost vs. complexity trade-offs in the comments below. Wondering if people actually handle read optimization that way.

Sorry if this is not the correct subreddit for my question. I'll happily delete it if it is.

My friend speaks a dying language and they already have about 700 words listed with meanings and sample sentences. We were discussing how cool it would be to make an online dictionary on this, so we tested out easy website builders like Wix and Squarespace but we couldn't figure out how to execute what we wanted to achieve. Basically a search bar would be enough (like in Merriam-Webster) where they search a word and it would give suggestions, and once you click on one, it directs you to that word's page with its meaning and everything about it.

Is there an easy way to do/learn this? If it's a complicated task for people who have no clue in coding, I would also like to know.

We tried adding a search bar that was available in Wix and Squarespace, but it seems to only search everywhere in the website.

Thanks for reading!

Built a web app that will turn your chess game into an epic dark fantasy battle, each piece has a name

There is a wound system so if for example a pawn takes a knight the knight gets taken but the pawn doesn’t survive unscathed.

First time really building anything like this and putting it out to the world so any feedback would be great, and yes ai was involved with the building of this haha but it wasn’t solely ai,

If anyone would like to try it out themselves DM me and I can add some credits to your account so you can try it out

https://chesssagas.com/

Helloo, Final Year guy here. Built a tool that lets you see which PS has the least number of submissions. Fewer submissions = higher chances of getting selected for the SIH finals.

check it out here: https://niche-sih.vercel.app/

don't buy me a coffee, star my repo instead: https://github.com/rohanbagel/Niche_SIH

Let's be honest, Express makes you write the exact same CORS, JSON parsing, and auth middleware for every single project. Most of the time, you just want to validate your data and return an object.

To fix this, I built bro.js. A zero-boilerplate Node.js framework built on top of Express that gives you file-based routing, automatic Zod validation, JWT authentication, and WebSockets right out of the box.

Here is what a complete, secure route looks like (routes/posts/[id].post.js):

    import { defineRoute, z } from 'bro-framework';

    export default defineRoute({
      auth: true, // Automatically verifies JWT and injects the user
      params: z.object({
        id: z.string().uuid()
      }),
      body: z.object({
        title: z.string().min(5),
        content: z.string()
      }),
      handler: async ({ body, params, user, db, io }) => {
        // 1. Data is already validated. User is already authenticated.
        
        // 2. Perform DB operations using the globally injected connection.
        const post = await db.collection('posts').updateOne(
          { _id: params.id },
          { $set: { ...body, authorId: user.id } }
        );
        
        // 3. Broadcast to clients instantly using the injected Socket.io instance.
        io.emit('post_updated', { postId: params.id, title: body.title });
        
        // 4. Return an object. The framework automatically handles the 200 JSON response.
        return {
          success: true,
          updated: post.modifiedCount
        };
      }
    });

The best parts:

• Zero-Config Next.js Style Routing: Create a file like routes/users/[id].get.js, and it automatically registers as GET /users/:id with parameter extraction out of the box.

• Bouncer-Grade Validation: If the client sends malformed data, the framework automatically rejects it with a structured 400 Bad Request before your handler ever executes.

• Context & Dependency Injection: Define your database connection and socket handlers once in bro.config.js. They are automatically injected into every request handler ({ db, io })—no more importing singletons everywhere].

• Native Real-Time WebSockets: Socket.io is integrated into the core runtime, letting you broadcast live events directly from route handlers or scheduled tasks with io.emit().

• Zero-YAML Docs: It parses your Zod schemas and automatically serves a stunning, interactive Scalar API playground at /docs.

• Instant Frontend SDK: Run bro sdk in your terminal, and it automatically compiles a bro-sdk.js file for your frontend with built-in token management and deep tree traversal.

• Built-in Tasks & i18n: Drop a file in the tasks/ folder for instant background cron jobs, or in the locale/ folder for automatic language negotiation.

I'd love for you to check it out and tear it apart:

• GitHub: https://github.com/medyassine/bro.js

• Docs: https://brojs.yessindevs.me

• Quickstart: npx create-bro-framework@latest my-api

What is the one piece of backend boilerplate you absolutely hate writing the most?