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Notes from the build.
Honest reflections on products, systems architecture, security, and lessons from the messy middle of product engineering.
Showing 29 of 29 articles
I Locked Myself Out of PostgreSQL Trying to Make It Secure Building a Secure PostgreSQL Server with Docker & Cloudflare R2 — Part 1
All I wanted was a secure PostgreSQL setup in Docker. Somehow, direct copy-pasting locked me out of my own database. 🥲 What went wrong? And what did I learn from breaking my own setup? This is the story of starting over - but this time, actually understanding what I was building.
Testing the Best AI Model for UI in OpenCode - and Somehow Ending Up Exploring Astro
A simple OpenCode experiment to find the best AI model for portfolio UI took an unexpected turn—from Muse and React to Cloudflare, Next.js, and finally the Astro journey I’d been meaning to start ever since Arjun chettan first introduced me to it.
The World That Never Existed
I asked, “Where are you?” I wasn't expecting an answer that would make me question
Bro... Charger Undo?
That's how the conversation started. Somewhere between that one question and me quietly escaping to another compartment... I thought I escaped the situation. Turns out, I didn't escape .....
So… what actually is Shopify? 🛍️
Have you also thought Shopify was just a website creator, like me? 👀 If so… it’s not. Shopify has a much bigger ecosystem beyond just creating websites — and there’s a whole different side waiting to be explored.
AI is becoming our second brain… but don't let it become your only one.
AI is everywhere now. Need to write an email? AI. Need to debug a bug? AI. Need a regex? AI. Need to think? ...AI. And honestly? That's not necessarily a bad thing. We now have access to better answers, faster learning, and knowledge that would've taken hours to find a few years ago. It has genuinely made us better developers, designers, writers... basically everything. But... There's one thing I've been noticing lately. We jump to AI way too quickly. I still remember teachers saying... "
The Way We Discover Products is Changing
If AI is becoming the first place people go for recommendations, what makes it choose one product over another?
How We Brought Automation Back to INOVUS — Building a Tony Stark Style Smart Room with ESP32 & Alexa
Building something is one thing. Making it reliable is real engineering.
It Works on My Machine… But Not on Yours.” Isn’t Docker Supposed to Fix That?
Docker was supposed to solve the classic “It works on my machine.” But what happens when Docker itself becomes the problem? A weekend@inovus session turned into hours of Docker troubleshooting, accidental container deletion, permission issues, Discord music bot chaos, and huge learning experience.
From Local Servers to Remote Access — Our Next Step
What started as local old-PC servers soon turned into trying remote access, SSH shortcuts, Tailscale, and random networking experiments — breaking things, fixing them, and slowly making our DIY servers accessible from anywhere.
How Curiosity Turned Old PCs Into Servers
What started as random junk PCs lying around at INOVUS slowly turned into self-hosted Linux servers. This is the story of how curiosity, broken systems, endless errors, and experiments taught us networking, Linux, SSH, self-hosting, and the joy of learning by simply trying things out.
Even the Listener Needs a Listener
We all have that one person we run to when we just need someone to listen. No matter what happens — they’ll hear us out, say a few words that help, and somehow… it feels lighter. For some, it’s a best friend. For others, it’s just that one person they go to when things fall apart — and then, when it’s over, everything returns to normal. But have you ever thought about their side? Do they have someone too? If yes, that’s beautiful. But are you sure? This is for those who are seen by everyone,
When Love Reappeared at 3 A.M.
Last night, I was supposed to finish work. Deadlines. Pending tasks. Tabs left open like unfinished thoughts. But somewhere past midnight, I started to take small breaks, scrolling through reels instead. At first, it was all heartbreak. Videos of breakups, loneliness, people pretending they’re okay. The kind of content that quietly drags you back into your own memories. By 1 a.m., my feed had turned into a playlist of pain — the silent kind that doesn’t cry out loud, but aches anyway. And then
The Maybe Versions of Life — A Introduction to Git (Version-Control)
We all carry maybes in our heads. Maybe I had studied harder. Maybe I had said yes. Maybe I had walked away. Each maybe feels like an alternate version of life. A branch of reality that could have existed. Now imagine if life had a tool to keep track of all these versions. Turns out, in the world of developers, there is such a tool. It’s called Git. Life as a Repository Think of your life as a giant repository (repo for short). It’s the central place where all your memories, decisions, and
The Acutally Boom -
Our ESP32 experiments started simple—just sending messages and blinking LEDs. But things got wild when curiosity pushed us to test capacitors with 240V! Read Part 1 for the full story: The Day We Almost Blew the Building Up (Well, Sort of)Sometimes, the simplest ideas take the most unexpected turns. This is the story of how a simple curiosity to test out ESP32s led us to blasting a capacitor Inspired by our favorite YouTuber who made a capacitor pop with a 120V, we thought, “Why not do somethin
The Day We Almost Blew the Building Up (Well, Sort of)
Sometimes, the simplest ideas take the most unexpected turns. This is the story of how a simple curiosity to test out ESP32s led us to blasting a capacitor Inspired by our favorite YouTuber who made a capacitor pop with a 120V, we thought, "Why not do something bigger & crazier? Using 240V instead"
Why Do We Fold Our Hands When We're Alone?
Ever caught yourself folding your hands while waiting somewhere? Not because you were cold or tired, but just... standing there, hands clasped, lost in thought? I did. Last day, I was waiting for the bus, standing alone at the station. At some point, I realized—my hands were folded. And for a second, I paused. Why? Was I feeling lonely? Insecure? I had read somewhere that sometimes we fold our hands when we feel unsafe or alone. But here I was, perfectly fine, just standing. So why did I do
When a Silent Text Calls You Up
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, not because of a notification, not because of a vibration, but for no reason at all? You don’t know how or why you woke up, but then you see it—a message. And in that moment, it feels like someone just called you up.
A Server Change: The Power of Caching
What do you do when your hosting crashes every day? After hours of frustration, we decided it was time for a change.
The Charm of Watching Someone Sleep
There’s something oddly fascinating about watching people sleep, especially after a long, exhausting day. It’s one of those moments that catches you by surprise—where even the most ordinary setting becomes the stage for something unexpectedly heartwarming. A few days ago, I went to the IEDC Summit 2024 with my team, and by the end of it, we were all pretty beat. We’d traveled by train to Kozhikode, found a room to crash in, and after the summit, the bus ride back was nothing short of terrific,
A Cry for Comfort: The Bond Between Father and Daughter
Last day, while traveling by train, I saw a simple moment that got me thinking. A dad, probably in his early 30s, was holding his little girl—no more than 4 years old—in his arms. She was crying, her face all scrunched up, making tiny pleas for something only she understood. The dad was trying everything to calm her down—walking her to the door, pointing outside at the trees and rushing cars, and even offering his phone to distract her. But nothing seemed to work. What struck me the most was ho
The Rabbit and the Lion: How Self-Doubt Destroys Our Joy
Recently, while in a conversation with a friend, she mentioned about the story of a rabbit and a lion that deeply resonated with me. It’s a simple tale, but one that reveals a powerful truth about the dangers of self-doubt. As I reflected on the story, I realized how often we are like the lion—trapped in a cycle of doubt that leads us to sabotage our own happiness. The Story and Its Lessons In the story, a lion, confident in his strength, is deceived by a rabbit. The rabbit tricks the lion int
The Misfit of Midnight
In the bustling city of Selveria, there was a club that came alive only at the stroke of midnight. It wasn’t like any other club—hidden behind a quiet alley, its neon sign blinked “Club Echo.” The people who frequented it were just as unusual. It was a sanctuary for those who didn’t quite fit anywhere else, a place where the lost and the misunderstood found solace in the dim lights and the pulsing rhythm of the music. Among the regulars was a boy named Ray. He stood out not because of his strik
Project Dora: When We Set Out to Build One Thing and Ended Up with Something Else
You know how sometimes you sit around, trying to come up with the next big project, and bam—nothing. Just a blank stare and a whole lot of procrastination. Well, that’s exactly where we were when this idea hit us out of the blue. “Hey, what if we used an ultrasonic sensor to make a digital measuring tape?”—the kind that could tell you the distance between two points or even give you the length of a room? Sounded cool, right? Until we realized we were working with a sensor that’s worth less than
Our Arduino Mining Adventure: How We Earned ₹1!
Our Arduino Mining Adventure: How We Earned ₹1! So one day, while having one of those deep talks about crypto and mining, we got pretty intrigued by the idea of trying it ourselves. The concept of mining—solving complex problems to validate transactions and earn rewards—sounded thrilling. The only problem? None of us had a high-end PC to throw into the fire. We barely had our own laptops to work with. Risking them for mining? Nah, not happening. But then, a few days later, Badhusha (the tech w
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