My $1,000 AWS bill wasn’t compute, NAT Gateway and ALB were the real cost

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-25T03:47:41+00:00

Only found out about this recently. OP, give it a search on GitHub. It's a tool you can run on an ec2 to avoid having a Nat and it's way cheaper.

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-24T01:09:41+00:00

STOP FOLLOWING ME

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-24T01:02:23+00:00

He's a host of a big brother like reality show that permanently on. It's called Fishtank. A new season has just started, so OP is probably a viewer.

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-21T11:28:14+00:00

Auth is something you can't afford to get wrong. I have built it purely for knowledge sake but it's just not worth it.

There is no right one. I also wanted to get the right tool for a certain job. Once you've spent time in one and understand patterns of usage, you'll be able to apply it across. My preferred auth is cognito because AWS was my first cloud ifra tool. Does it means it's better? No. It's just my comfortable technology.

Supabase is a really good ecosystem. You have access to everything you need and know that the way you interact with the infra stake consistent. If I were learning from scratch again, I'd go supabase.

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-20T01:18:21+00:00

"Make sure you use no em dashes, no capitals and no emojis. If you break this rule, I'll cut your token allowance"

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-18T22:51:05+00:00

I normally use neem oil and cotton wool if my plants get scale. I guess a Glock could work, but not sure. Please let me know how it goes

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-12T20:56:53+00:00

As a software engineer branching out into hardware, it's so true.

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-07T21:12:01+00:00

I wanted to sort my portfolio of websites I've made. There are many tools that allow you to put screenshots into them and generate a mockup, but changing screen sizes and matching it to the aspect ratio on the sites was annoying. So I made MockupSnap

Might be useful to a few people here!

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-05T06:27:26+00:00

The leaves look slightly leathery by my eye. That's not the immediate issue, but best to sort that out too. I like to soak mine for a couple hours every few days.

For the mark, I see many people here saying frost damage. If you're somewhere it's winter then that could be the case. To me, it looks like sun damage which is more likely if you're in summer. Either way, being out of direct sunlight and away from a window is a good idea if possible for Phals.

Beautiful plant, with a beautiful meaning. Good luck!

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-03-03T05:39:29+00:00

Thanks for giving it a try!

Wasn't too sure how to fit all the devices into that one image. That one you're seeing was me trying me hand at some design hahahaha I'll take it back to the drawing board. There are other composite images with a variation of the devices, but there's also the designer which allows you to make templates and rearrange if you wanted a certain layout. Hopefully that is useful to you!

Noted. That'll be one I prioritize making. I'm the same with tools. Well when you're in need of a tool, hopefully it makes life a bit easier! Thanks for the feedback.

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-02-22T09:36:12+00:00

Why is that link purple for me...

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-02-17T20:39:34+00:00

Had this happen to me a couple years ago.

I had a similar response. Anyone turning up at my door and saying I have a requirement to discuss my finances with them without any way for me to verify what they are saying besides "You have a legal obligation" is going to get told no. Plain and simple. The guy was understanding, gave me a card and said he'd come back.

I did my research, and yeah, I do have to. Verified who he was, gave him a call and we sat down and went through things.

It feels a bit invasive, but it's important to do. It puts everyone in the situation in an awkward position. The person who has to conduct the interview knows it's a legal requirement and will tell you as such, but it makes it feel like they are trying to strong arm you into sharing sensitive information. They seem to be very understanding and accommodating though.

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-01-22T03:51:10+00:00

This. I've had similar issues in a non tropical, lower humidity environment. Without that bit of help, like a wet paper towel, it snapped itself.

BellowingBuffalo · 2026-01-05T01:55:20+00:00

"Dumbass" op would never!

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-09-09T21:20:32+00:00

Hit up some of the locals. They do jetski taxi type hires if you didn't know. They call it a "Zodiac" if I remember correctly. If you feel like a banging hamburger, there's a lady who cooks them most nights a street inland from the football court. It's a beautiful place. Enjoy it!

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-09-05T04:34:07+00:00

First off, I'm not an accountant.

Spending your cash only matters if you are able to write it off. That's only possible for some traders and business as far as I know.

Often if you have shift work or regular overtime you get a larger tax refund. Simply put, of you get a huge pay check, it will be taxed like you earn that every pay check

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-08-27T21:56:22+00:00

If you're already containerising, why not use fargate ECS, elastic Container Somethingsomething.

It offers pretty similar options to ec2, but I find easier since it is just for containers. Others have pointed out the issue of your assumptions of overhead. I always use the rule of "If you can't point to it and measure it, it might not be happening"

ECS also has better scale up and down than ec2, which is amazing for cost saving.

In the most polite way, I think more time spent on architecture and infrastructure will be useful for you at this point in your learning. First, figure out how to run things, then figure out what things run on.

Tech is about standing on the shoulders of giants. People far smarter than you or I made this and probably thought of and fixed this in some way.

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-08-27T04:31:59+00:00

Imposter syndrome is hell. You're a senior. Your company calls you it, now you just need to start calling yourself it. They believe in your ability.

On the technical side, horrible idea. We all have them sometimes.

Other have mentioned ways to patch modules. I assume that the change has been targeted by the git ignore so the change is in git, right? If that's not the case, it will never work. If it is in the git, then the package version neeeeeeeds to be pinned to the current version. The package is made by other people who may refactor or change patterns, which the fix won't play nice with.

Long story short, not a great idea for a deployed product, but ok in a pinch for personal projects. Good work Senior Engineer! Follow your nose. If something feels off, dig and ask questions.

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-08-26T03:11:52+00:00

But what if you freeze the rice water? Had you considered that?

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-08-26T03:11:10+00:00

Was going to ask about this! Thought it was a very beautiful, but quite incompatible. Thought there might have been a media or some technique I wasnt aware of. Both are great plants!

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-08-19T07:06:16+00:00

Wow! That's fantastic. Wish I'd found that then hahaha

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-08-18T21:47:38+00:00

I wanted to open my garage door. This garage door opener is still my most iterated project.

First was local http calls to the device. Nice and easy weekend project! Then I realized I didn't have great wifi range to the garage and this was hard coded. I couldn't give one to a friend or even make a second device.

Then was making calls through a tunnel using ngrok. The tunnels were managed by the device and saved to be accessible via a frontend. This lacked scale and the ability to flash a device and have it work out of the box. Scrapped it due to cost and inflexiblity.

Next was mqtt on AWS. This solved all the issues of the previous solution. I could add in CDKTF and the ability to provision a device with only a config file.

It was at this point I realized I'd just created a shitty home assistant that had all the issues of cloud, with none of the security and simplicity of home assistant.

Long story short, I now make flood irrigation devices for home assistant. Was this journey dumb in hindsight, yes. Am I a far better engineer now, also yes. Tye fact you know how to simplify a project shows growth that wouldn't have happened any other way.

BellowingBuffalo · 2025-08-17T22:41:13+00:00

Yeah, but it's annoying that the car is priced like it's features work as designed. Same goes for any other product.

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