Keeping a server boring
The best server is the one you forget about. A short list of the habits that get me there: unattended upgrades, a locked-down SSH, and resisting the urge to add one more moving part.
Backend developer. I build small, reliable tools and write about running them.
Mostly Go and Python. Plain deployments, no magic, things that run for years without attention.
The best server is the one you forget about. A short list of the habits that get me there: unattended upgrades, a locked-down SSH, and resisting the urge to add one more moving part.
An untested backup is a rumor. I run a weekly restore into a throwaway container and diff a handful of files. Ten minutes, and it has saved me twice.
Why I stopped reaching for a stack and wrote logtail instead — a single static binary that tails, filters and colorizes, and nothing else.
I've been writing backend services for about ten years, most of them small and unglamorous. I like plain text, boring infrastructure, and software that stays out of the way. When something I run needs constant babysitting, I take it as a sign I built it wrong.
This site is hand-written HTML on a small server. Nothing to sell, nothing to sign up for.