Mike

Containers are awesome, right? "Build once, run anywhere!" But that convenience comes with a catch. Your container is a whole mini-OS, and if you're not patching it, you're basically rolling out the red carpet for hackers.
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Left your AWS keys in public code? Ouch. That 4 AM commit could cost you a fortune. This article dives into why "just deleting it" isn't enough and how to build bulletproof protection against this common dev blunder. Stop handing hackers your server keys!

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Your Dockerfiles are chunky, slow, and making your security team cry? This post breaks down how to turn your 'it works' Dockerfile into a lean, mean, production-ready machine through four levels of optimization.

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Struggling with secure remote access? Get your OpenVPN server up and running on MikroTik RouterOS! This guide cuts through the noise, showing you exactly how to set it up, even with RouterOS's quirks. Perfect for legacy systems or clients sticky with older protocols
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Tired of Portainer bloat for your home lab or small VPS? Meet Dockge, the lightweight container manager from the Uptime Kuma dev! It's focused, fast, and might just be the minimalist solution you've been craving for Docker. Ditch the heavy Swiss Army knife!

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Don't blindly sed -i your binaries into oblivion! Learn how to safely mass-replace strings in your code without corrupting files, bloating Git, or regretting your life choices. This guide has the production-grade algorithm you need.

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Tired of Jitsi recordings collecting dust? This article spills the beans on a slick pipeline to automate everything! Go from Jibri to Notion, transform heavy MP4s into HLS, and serve it all securely via Caddy. Code included for a production setup!
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Hate wrestling with your Mikrotik? This guide breaks down setting up ANY Mikrotik (from cheap home gear to enterprise beasts) from scratch. Learn RouterOS once, conquer all! Get your network humming like a pro.

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Tired of cloud vendor lock-in or wrestling with Kubernetes? Kamal smashes the dilemma, offering Heroku-like simplicity on your *own* server! Deploy like a boss without breaking the bank or your brain. Escape cloud slavery now!

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Tired of cloud storage fees and flaky external drives? TrueNAS turns your old PC into a beastly, enterprise-grade NAS. Ditch those pricey Synology boxes and build your own data fortress.
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Netcat isn't just telnet! It's the ultimate network Swiss Army knife, a utility so good you'd take it to a deserted digital island. Forget dozens of specialized tools – NC does it all: reading, writing, TCP, UDP. This post shows why it's pure network magic!

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Database migrations got you sweating? This breakdown compares AWS, GCP, and Yandex Cloud's tools for moving your precious data. From simple pipes to full-blown ETL, find out who does it best and how to avoid that "open-heart surgery" feeling. Don't lose a transaction!

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Shipping code only to find out it's broken for users later on? We've all been there. This dev shares a super quick 15-minute setup to catch those elusive production errors, especially the client-side ones! Stop flying blind and get real-time insights.

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Lighthouse shows 100/100, but users still complain about lag? Turns out, synthetic tests don't capture real-world chaos. Check out CrUX Vis – Google's free tool that visualizes actual user experience data!

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Heads up, n8n users! 🚀 Taming those wild LLMs just got easier. Say goodbye to endless IF nodes and regex hacks for security. The new Guardrails node is here, finally giving you a robust safety net for your AI automations. No more toxic content or data leaks by accident!

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Tired of your code only working on *your* machine? 😤 This guide cuts through the CI/CD hype and gets straight to how automation can save your sanity. Learn the basics, from "git push" to automated deployment, without the jargon. Level up your DevOps game! 👇

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Ever wondered how "google.com" turns into an IP address? It's all thanks to DNS, the internet's phonebook! Dive deep into different DNS record types—from A to ALIAS—and uncover the magic behind every website visit. This guide breaks down the internet's backbone in simple
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Got a ton of remote clients or IoT devices and need logs without breaking the bank on Splunk? Good news! If your devices can do HTTP, you're almost there. Learn how to set up a super basic, super cheap log collection system. No fancy tools needed, just pure web magic!
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Tired of Google Photos fees and losing control of your memories? Ditch the cloud giants and host your own photos! Immich is here to give you back control, offering a slick, private alternative to manage your precious pics. Stop paying, start owning!

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Tired of juggling a million AI tabs? Open Web UI is your new secret weapon! Manage ChatGPT, Claude, Llama 3, and more from one slick interface. Stop the tab madness and finally conquer your AI workflow.

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Jitsi Meet + Active Directory? Yes, please! Get seamless corporate logins and ditch those separate accounts. This guide shows you exactly how to integrate Jitsi (in Docker) with AD, plus pro tips to squash common bugs. Your IT team will thank you!

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Running Jitsi Meet in Docker but stuck on ports or SSL with other apps? This guide shows how to easily put Nginx in front of your Jitsi containers. Nginx handles all the boring stuff (SSL, 80/443), so your video calls just work. No more port conflicts! bigmike.help/en/case/jits...

Forget bloated Linux distros! Yocto lets you custom-craft your own minimal, super-stable OS like LEGO bricks. Perfect for embedded devices, industrial giants, or if you just want a tiny 15MB image with a 10-year lifespan. Stop settling, start building!

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Forget flimsy firewalls! pfSense is the battle-hardened tank of network security. Rock-solid, stable for years, and packed with features like multi-WAN and VPNs, it's perfect for anyone who values reliability over flashy updates.

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Forget clunky firewalls! OPNsense is here, making enterprise-grade security simple enough for anyone. Think slick UI, easy setup, built-in WireGuard, and an API for automation. Get your office network locked down in minutes, not hours.

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Got an old router collecting dust? ♻️ Don't toss it! Flash OpenWRT onto it and turn that relic into a beast! 🚀 Block ads network-wide, set up a VPN for the whole house, or build a mesh system. All with an old device and zero subscriptions. Seriously, it's a game-changer. bigmike.help/en/posts/ope...

Tired of your PostgreSQL connections hogging all the resources? Dive into the world of PostgreSQL proxies! This read breaks down how tools like PgBouncer and Pgpool-II supercharge your database by expertly managing connections, not just splitting reads/writes like MySQL

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Wanna bounce your local subnet's traffic through a remote server? This guide shows you how to use IPIP tunnels and policy routing to make your services appear from another IP. Great for bypassing restrictions, or just playing hide-and-seek with your traffic!

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Ever wondered how to supercharge your MySQL setup without changing a single line of client code? Enter MySQL Proxy! It's like a bouncer for your database—monitoring, tweaking, and forwarding traffic seamlessly. Get ready to unlock some serious database magic! 🚀

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Tired of wrestling with unstructured data? Check out MinIO! Perfect for your AI/ML projects, big data, and web apps, whether local or in the cloud. Get the lowdown on why it's a dev's best friend, plus its pros, cons, and alternatives.

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