1,800 CI Minutes for 680 Minutes of Work: Where a Free-Tier Budget Actually Goes
A continuous-integration bill is not a speed problem. It is a counting problem — and almost every instinct you have about making builds cheaper is aimed at the wrong variable.
How to Run an Old Laptop as a Server — Without It Sleeping on You
A spare laptop makes a fine always-on machine. The reason it keeps dying isn't the hardware — it's three power defaults written for a device someone carries, not one that lives on a shelf.
Your Postgres Connection Limit Is Not Your Concurrency Limit
A database that accepts a hundred connections is not a database that does useful work on a hundred things at once. On a four-core box, throughput stopped scaling at four — and the fix was to stop counting connections and start counting cores.
Where to Find and Create Images for Your Website (Free Sources, Licenses, and When to Pay)
Good images make a page look finished — but the wrong image can cost you a takedown notice or a license bill. This is the practical order: find free ones, confirm you're actually allowed to use them, make your own when nothing fits, and know when paying is the cheaper option.
When a Multisite Subsite Vanishes: Reaching a Blog Whose Mapped Domain Is Parked
A subsite whose mapped domain is parked looks deleted from every angle — the front end shows a parking page, the REST API returns nothing, and no URL you guess resolves. It isn't gone. Here's why it hides, and the thirty-second fix.