Intro I run several backend services built on different frameworks and languages, One of them being Spring Boot and Spring Reactor on my own Linux server. Recently, I asked myself: why not host these services on Google Cloud Run? Cloud Run offers a free tier for the first 2 million requests per month, but if I leave an instance running (with a minimum instance count), it costs around ₹200–₹500 monthly—something I’ve paid before.

Intro The water hardness in my home (Gobi) is around ~600 ppm. In Chennai where I live, it’s around 800 ppm (metro water). Half the people get purified water for their drinking; there is business for those who supply water, while the other half get a water-purification system installed in their homes by a vendor/company that produces it. We can build a DIY homemade purifier. It’s a new challenge, a chance to learn new things, and cheaper than buying ready-made.

Introduction Summary: I’m documenting this so that I can refer back to it in the future. Recently, I’ve been working with Spring WebFlux, and although I’ve previously used JWTs, this is my first time writing about them. I often forget the implementation details when switching between languages or frameworks, so I’m recording this while it’s still fresh in my mind. JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) are a compact way to prove a user’s identity between two parties—usually a browser and your API.

Overview This post is a continuation of my Rooting My Pixel. Over the past months, I’ve been using my rooted phone to bypass storage limits and enjoy unlimited Google Photos storage. However, using a rooted device isn’t without its challenges—if someone gains physical access to my phone, my data becomes vulnerable. Banking appsa and even general purpose applications refuse to run on rooted devices because they detect system tampering. In some cases, the Play Store won’t allow you to install certain apps at all.

Overview Securing my website with HTTPS is crucial, and Certbot makes it straightforward for many domains. However, when it comes to wildcard domains (like *.domain.com), there’s a bit more work involved—particularly if I want to automate renewals. This post explains how I set up a manual DNS hook for Certbot that integrates with my domain name provider’s API (in this example, GoDaddy), so I no longer have to manually add DNS TXT records every time I need to renew my wildcard certificate.

Introduction I’ve been experimenting with Project IDX lately, and it’s quite an intriguing solution for cloud-based development. In essence, Project IDX gives you an always-available coding environment running on Google Cloud. As long as you keep the instance running and remain active, you effectively have a 24⁄7 development machine at your disposal. I primarily use Project IDX for Java and front-end development on my personal projects. One of the coolest parts of my setup is using it with Samsung DeX.

All the previous android phones I had, I rooted them and used them with a custom ROM that had gphotos mod or used it with gphotos mod, I’ve had a pixel for android development as my second device..but all this time, it had stock android and not rooted with no modifications. But what do I mean by gphotos mod..? You get unlimited photos and videos backup in Google photos, the mod makes it seem like you’re using a pixel device.

My ai usecases Purchasing AI - Using It as API vs Monthly Subscription for ChatGPT/Claude Do you need to buy monthly subscriptions? Take Copilot and other examples. To test this out, I bought $5 worth of usage from OpenAI, used an extension for VSCode for ai operations, and used ai tools that require api token..like AI Commits. Did it work? Yes. Have I used all of those $5? No, it’s still there.