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jjoeon Using Immutable Caching to Speed Up the Web

With WiFi hotspots dropping connections more often than not, how many people would know they need to CTRL-F5 to "fix" a broken page/image/JS/CSS?

I just hope the draft as-is expires and never makes it to an RFC.

jjoeon Ask HN: Can you give some feedback on this thing I built?

Yes, definitely! I started off wanting to target people who've heard about or used Varnish. But now it's becoming clear that I shouldn't exclude those who don't.

Thanks :) !

jjoeon Ask HN: Can you give some feedback on this thing I built?

> You're really missing a short paragraph describing the exact service you're providing

Is the subheading "Spin up Instant Varnish Nodes for ..." not descriptive enough of the service? Perhaps I'm better off writing a short paragraph right before the "features" section?

Now that I've read your comment and sogen's, it's pretty clear I need a quick explainer of both the service and Varnish. Perhaps I need to fuse both into a paragraph.

Much appreciated!

jjoeon Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

Not an acquisition. If you can show you've built a XaaS from scratch, were able to acquire a good number of paying users, and were able to keep them happy, then chances are you're well worth the hire. You're high-end startup material. Do this a few times in a row and you can be certain investors will like you. Taking it up a notch each time.

People who can do this serially are never out of work.

jjoeon Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

The difference between a demo or prototype and an actual SaaS with paying users is significant. The former can land you a technical job if it's well done. The latter will getyou a C-level job for an upstart if it's well executed (read: shows important growth). But you haven't explained what kind of job you're applying for.

jjoeon Caching at Reddit

This is where ESI helps. You can portions of the page that don't change much.

jjoeon Caching at Reddit

You cache non-logged in users to start with. And then you cache based on sessions (logged in users) because you don't really need to show fresh votes on each visit and right away (admitted to it in the article). Plus there's lots of room for ESI.

jjoeon Caching at Reddit

The slowness of page load mentioned by folks here is the reason why I think caching at the HTTP level (ex: Varnish) is much more efficient than caching at the service level (ex: Memcached), which is much further down the stack and is bound to be latency-sensitive. Because it's much less entangled in your code and deep into your infrastructure (less technical debt). A hybrid approach can work too but only if it's light and unobtrusive.

By the way, and I'm going out on a limb with my shameful plug, I built a Varnish-as-a-Service kind of infrastructure called Cachoid ( https://www.cachoid.com ). But to my own defense, I'm putting my energy, time, and money where my mouth is.

jjoeon Ask HN: What is the best online resource to learn advanced SQL?

To be blunt, the best online resource is a production server being hugged to death. Human alertness, survival, and performance emerges at its very best.

jjoeon Feedback for my project to help startups build better products

Yes, I sort of did while building Cachoid. But now that I built 1.0, and the further I think about your question, the more I realize I'd have benefited more from the feedback of end users. Does that fall under the mentorship umbrella?

jjoeon Ask HN: How do I compile a list of censored websites in my country

I think you should crowd source it. Build a simple two-page site where people can submit censored websites and another where you display them. But your very own website could end up on the list.

jjoeon Ask HN: Have you launched your project this year? How are things so far?

> If I understand correctly, you're wanting to implement Keygen into an on-premise infra app that you would be selling? If so, that's definitely the sort of thing Keygen was designed for, even giving you the ability to lock down licenses to specific machines.

Yes, that's the plan in consideration. I'll get in touch should that pan out.

jjoeon Ask HN: What software do you use to run your small business?

Sendinblue is my go to platform for transactional and campaign emails. It's got a free tier too. You should also add a source control option like Git{hub,lab}.

jjoeon Ask HN: Have you launched your project this year? How are things so far?

I recall reading your announcement here on HN. I'm using a license verification system for the cPanel Varnish Plugin (https://www.unixy.net/varnish ). I only distribute python byte code so this is where I do the licensing logic. But I know real well it won't deter determined crackers. But the licensing system and the cracking effort has to be tedious enough for folks to become conscious of their actions and their damaging aspect (more cracking leads to fewer releases leads to fewer resources leads to a dead product). At least for people with a modicum of conscience.

I also recall being confused as to how this will work with an on-premise IaaS type app. For example, I'm gauging interest for shipping "Cachoid" to service providers so they can offer it to their end users. And this is where I think Keygen could help. What kind of pricing are you considering so far?

Thanks

jjoeon Show HN: Instant Varnish Cache for fast static sites,WordPress,death hug and more

I'm this guy who lurks in online forums and would jump in to help random people with their "server load" and "slow page loading" issues. The magic was in seeing that load drop from 100+ to single digits with snappier page loads. I knew this was something others could benefit from but also knew it was going to be a tough thing to build and scale. Challenge accepted! So I set out to build Cachoid. I paused work on it some months ago in order to finish off some other business I had started earlier.

I'm bootstrapped so I'm grateful in advance for feedback, comments, things I need to improve, and things you need to see before you seriously consider using something like this.

Outline:

0. Instant Varnish Cache nodes (< 10s) with ready-to-go VCLs you can spin from an increasing number of locations; each node runs inside its own container

1. Four 21-days trials. To hell with credit cards!

2. Simple API endpoint to get page cache status, push new VCLs, purge, upload TLS/SSL certificates, push HTML files (Varnish hosted).

3. ModSecurity rules a click away

4. WordPress, AWS S3, Github.io, and file/static hosting (HTML-uploaded files cached inside your Varnish instance) VCLs. So Cachoid will memory-cache your "backends" and serve them like hot pancakes

5. E2EE is a few clicks away if you have an TLS/SSL cert. It's rough around the edges but works

6. Internal & external monitoring of nodes

7. Google 2FA to access your Cachoid account

8. Stripe subscription, one-time Paypal & Stripe, Bitcoin (through Stripe)

9. Other features I haven't listed that I feel would make me sound like a car salesman like load balancing and auto resource upgrade (I almost tricked you there, see?)

10. Check out this page if you're curious. It has screen shots and articles: https://www.cachoid.com/support

Some uses cases:

1. Survive the hug of death (HN, Reddit, etc) with high flying colors

2. Cache static sites, S3 "sites", github.io, etc. Smooth out the sporadic speed issues

3. Cache CMS sites like WordPress

4. Cache certain API endpoints

jjoeon Ask HN: Would you see value in a “verify email” API?

It could be useful but the entity behind this service would need to be reputable with a proven track record. Because what this amounts to--from an end user perspective--is a breach of privacy.

As for the technical part, I think you're better off passing a callback URL to the service so it posts to it when the user verifies the email. The callback URL could be an AWS lambda.

jjoeon Show HN: Nines – Insanely Detailed Uptime Monitoring

Your previous Show HN has an unanswered question pertaining to ping-only probes. While I understand that the OP had confused your copy's ping with an actual ICMP type of ping, you probably want to clarify it with an example (https://app.nines.ws/ping).

Good luck!

jjoeon Ask HN: What are inspirational talks you watched which motivates you?

This very brief speech by one of Sony's. It's to the point and succinct:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExaAYIKsDBI

jjoeon Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent

I can think of a few pertinent cases. With every new generation you get fresh perspectives. Old practices die because generations die with them. Can you imagine slavery practices getting a "lifespan increase."

I bet the "cold war" mind set works the same way. You rarely see cold war brought up by much younger folks. It's always an old gen rehash.

What about a ruthless dictator like Kim Jong Un getting 12 extra years on earth?

jjoeon Ask HN: How did you overcome the trough of sorrow for your startup?

I personally think it's about setting the right expectations. Your short term goal from posting should be to gather initial feedback. Not to get patted on the back. And don't set your hope too high at first; chances are your project (it isn't a startup until you have users) still needs lots of work before you break through market barriers.

I think the trough is more mentally manageable this way.

jjoeon Show HN: Peekier – A new way to search the web

Your privacy is of the outmost importance...

You probably meant to say utmost. Outmost could imply a lesser importance or the complete opposite if read into too much.

jjoeon Ask HN: As a single bootstrapper, how do you deal with the pressure?

Ain't that some great motivation material or what? You've got kerosene fuel to get to success. Is the depression clinical or self perceived?

jjoeon Ask HN: What are your favorite variants on the “Now You have Two Problems” joke?

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll go Ask HN." Now they have HN problems.

jjoeon Ask HN: How to tell if a home is unoccupied?

Body heat detection equipped drones could help.

jjoeon Varnish Cache 5.0

It's always good to see new stuff coming out for Varnish. Do these changes warrant a major jump in release numbers especially when HTTP/2 support (biggest feature) is experimental?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to testing it out and integrating v5 with Cachoid ( shameful plug: https://www.cachoid.com/ ).

jjoeon Ask HN: How to forward client port number used?

That's remote_port

jjoeon Ask HN: I just finished building a “PaaS” prototype and I need your help

DHE was removed in Chrome starting from betal 53.x beta ( https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/5128908798164992 ). So this broke TLS negotiation. Should be fixed. Thanks!

jjoeon Ask HN: I just finished building a “PaaS” prototype and I need your help

Thanks! I'll resume my cipher trouble shooting later on tonight.

jjoeon Ask HN: I just finished building a “PaaS” prototype and I need your help

I broke the ciphers! It should be back up. Thanks

jjoeon Ask HN: I just finished building a “PaaS” prototype and I need your help

Clickable link: https://www.cachoid.com