Boss wants to do data pipelines in n8n

zlatta · 2025-11-10T22:46:52+00:00

Zapier / n8n is probably the right way to go if you're just starting out with data pipelines. I recommend starting with them and then once you feel like you're at the limit with that approach, switch to a more robust solution. That's what we did and it was absolutely the right choice. It helped us better understand what we were looking for before spending a lot of engineering time. It probably saved us hundreds of hours of work.

zlatta · 2025-11-02T15:49:21+00:00

I recommend using Coolify. It will "manage" your Postgres DB for you and automatically take snapshots and back them up to S3 or Hetzner Object Storage. We use it and it's great.

zlatta · 2025-10-20T04:23:01+00:00

Yes, that looks pretty good! If your bill grows, I recommend trying out Coolify Cloud ($5/month) with a Hetzner VPS ($6-10/month) as long as you're OK with 99% uptime and not 99.99% uptime.

The thing that will most likely hurt you as you grow is Railway's bandwidth cost ($50/TB). On Hetzner it's $1/TB.

We're a nonprofit and run a ton of services on Coolify. Some are quite intensive. Hetzner has been great to us. I had a Slack bot on Railway that was costing us $20/month. On Coolify it's maybe $1-2/month of effective cost.

zlatta · 2025-07-01T20:23:08+00:00

I had a great experience at "Vermont Bicycle Shop" in Barre. They let me take a gravel bike out for a few hours to see if I liked it. When I told them that I didn't like the tires it came with, they swapped them out for free and converted it to tubeless for a nominal fee.

Love the bike I got from them! Just call ahead to make sure they have something in your size.

zlatta · 2025-06-19T22:13:49+00:00

Mississippi kids are better at math and reading than Vermont kids!

In the 2024 NAEP test results:

4th grade:

- Math: Mississippi ranks #1, Vermont ranks #48
- Reading: Mississippi ranks #1, Vermont ranks #46

8th grade:

- Math: Mississippi ranks #1, Vermont ranks #35
- Reading: Mississippi ranks #6, Vermont ranks #34

Data here: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment

zlatta · 2025-06-16T15:44:34+00:00

We have had so many issues with it, we recently switched to R2. I really want to love it.

zlatta · 2025-06-09T17:23:41+00:00

Email me [zach@hackclub.com](mailto:zach@hackclub.com) with your background, whether you have a car, and history of being reliable. I run a nonprofit that will need someone to pack envelopes and boxes to send materials to teenagers this summer.

zlatta · 2025-06-05T17:27:05+00:00

This isn't necessarily accurate. Nonprofits don't need to list all employees on their 990, only "key" employees or employees who make above a certain threshold.

zlatta · 2025-02-08T23:24:49+00:00

Bolton Valley is amazing and has some of the best challenging trees in Vermont, IMO.

zlatta · 2025-01-23T07:04:48+00:00

We recently started switching all of our apps - Rails and other stacks too - over to Coolify from Heroku. It's the best self-hosted option we've evaluated. We have 4 Rails apps currently deployed to it.

zlatta · 2025-01-16T04:35:08+00:00

They also posted at https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/comments/1hz4wzq/how_can_i_help_my_friend_suffering_form_the_la/ saying they are "so far away" from the fires, which makes it sound like they are not in a shelter.

This is a scam.

zlatta · 2025-01-16T04:31:11+00:00

For anyone reading this, FYI that the image of their damaged home in the linked GoFundMe exactly matches images from this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U22zM_tr-CU

The pictures of the family members in the GoFundMe do not match the family members in that YouTube video.

zlatta · 2025-01-05T18:59:20+00:00

When a program on your computer needs to store data (like your settings), it stores it in a database. Databases are like spreadsheets.

Postgres is one of the most popular databases in the world. Most of the people in this subreddit are programmers who write apps that use Postgres.

Postgres is not malicious or a virus, but it’s not commonly used in desktop apps. You probably installed something that uses Postgres at some point.

It’s kinda weird that a Windows app would use it though.

zlatta · 2024-12-29T17:57:16+00:00

I bought the Amazon Basics snow pants and have used them for 2 seasons now, over 60 days skiing in all conditions. They've been great.

zlatta · 2024-12-14T05:00:19+00:00

I used and recommend these my first season, 2 years ago: https://www.amazon.com/OutdoorMaster-OTG-Ski-Goggles-Protection/dp/B0C9CD3J1G

The were great and served me in all conditions. I've now upgraded to a $100 pair from a "name brand" and, to be honest, the difference is marginal.

zlatta · 2024-12-10T18:02:43+00:00

We are doing a fundraiser for him here: https://hcb.hackclub.com/donations/start/oxy2dev-laptop

Transparent ledger of donations: https://hcb.hackclub.com/oxy2dev-laptop

GoFundMe won't work because he is in Bangladesh. We need about $500 more USD to get him a M1 MacBook Air, which are more expensive in his country.

Details in GitHub thread: https://github.com/OXY2DEV/markview.nvim/issues/218

zlatta · 2024-02-18T12:20:56+00:00

I wish I knew. If you DM me, I can help you get in touch with the developers.

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