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Alex Chen

Full-stack developer passionate about open source, web performance, and developer tools. Building things that make developers happier. 🚀

Location San Francisco, CA Joined Joined on  Personal website https://github.com/alexchen-dev

Education

UC Berkeley - Computer Science

Pronouns

he/him

I Ran the Same 30GB Backup Through Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2 Free, and an Oracle VM with MinIO — One Charged Me $0 and Slept Fine
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I Ran the Same 30GB Backup Through Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2 Free, and an Oracle VM with MinIO — One Charged Me $0 and Slept Fine

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2 min read
Quick Tip: `python3 -m pip check` Catches Broken Dependencies Before Your Deploy Does
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Quick Tip: `python3 -m pip check` Catches Broken Dependencies Before Your Deploy Does

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1 min read
I Stopped Paying $15/Month for Uptime Alerts — Uptime Kuma on a Free VM Pings 40 Endpoints Every 30 Seconds
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I Stopped Paying $15/Month for Uptime Alerts — Uptime Kuma on a Free VM Pings 40 Endpoints Every 30 Seconds

Comments 1
2 min read
I Stopped Paying $240/Year for Managed Redis — Dragonfly on a Free VM Handles 4x the Load
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I Stopped Paying $240/Year for Managed Redis — Dragonfly on a Free VM Handles 4x the Load

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2 min read
Quick Tip: Benchmark Any Python Function with `timeit` the Right Way (CLI One-Liner)
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Quick Tip: Benchmark Any Python Function with `timeit` the Right Way (CLI One-Liner)

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1 min read
I Replaced Pocket's $45/Year with Linkwarden on a Free Tier VM — My Bookmarks Finally Have Full-Text Search
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I Replaced Pocket's $45/Year with Linkwarden on a Free Tier VM — My Bookmarks Finally Have Full-Text Search

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2 min read
I Stopped Paying $20/Month for a Hosted Database GUI — TablePlus on a Free Tier Does More
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I Stopped Paying $20/Month for a Hosted Database GUI — TablePlus on a Free Tier Does More

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2 min read
Quick Tip: See Every Python Process Listening on a Port in 2 Commands
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Quick Tip: See Every Python Process Listening on a Port in 2 Commands

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1 min read
I Stopped Paying $99/Year for 1Password — Vaultwarden + a Free ARM VM Covers Everything
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I Stopped Paying $99/Year for 1Password — Vaultwarden + a Free ARM VM Covers Everything

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2 min read
I Ran the Same 13B Model on Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp — One Is 2.4x Faster
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I Ran the Same 13B Model on Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp — One Is 2.4x Faster

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2 min read
I Replaced Datadog's $15/Host with a $0 Prometheus + Grafana Stack — 90 Days, $135 Saved
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I Replaced Datadog's $15/Host with a $0 Prometheus + Grafana Stack — 90 Days, $135 Saved

Comments
2 min read
Quick Tip: Fix "ModuleNotFoundError" in 10 Seconds with importlib.metadata
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Quick Tip: Fix "ModuleNotFoundError" in 10 Seconds with importlib.metadata

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1 min read
I Self-Hosted Plausible Analytics for 6 Months — Then Switched to Umami on a $0 Stack and Never Looked Back
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I Self-Hosted Plausible Analytics for 6 Months — Then Switched to Umami on a $0 Stack and Never Looked Back

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2 min read
Quick Tip: See Which Python Process Is Holding Your File Hostage
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Quick Tip: See Which Python Process Is Holding Your File Hostage

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1 min read
I Replaced Screen Studio's $29/Month with OBS + a 3-Line FFmpeg Script — Nobody Can Tell the Difference
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I Replaced Screen Studio's $29/Month with OBS + a 3-Line FFmpeg Script — Nobody Can Tell the Difference

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2 min read
I Canceled Pocket and Built a Read-Later Inbox with FreshRSS + Hoarder — $45/Year Saved, and It's Mine
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I Canceled Pocket and Built a Read-Later Inbox with FreshRSS + Hoarder — $45/Year Saved, and It's Mine

Comments
2 min read
Quick Tip: Tail a Log and Get a Desktop Notification When a Keyword Appears
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Quick Tip: Tail a Log and Get a Desktop Notification When a Keyword Appears

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1 min read
I Replaced iCloud + Google Drive with Syncthing — Free, Private, and 3x Faster on LAN
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I Replaced iCloud + Google Drive with Syncthing — Free, Private, and 3x Faster on LAN

Comments
3 min read
Quick Tip: Diff Two Directories and Get a Clean Summary with `diff -qr` (No GUI Needed)
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Quick Tip: Diff Two Directories and Get a Clean Summary with `diff -qr` (No GUI Needed)

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1 min read
I Ditched Notion for a Free Stack: Obsidian + Git — My Notes Finally Survive a Company Dying
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I Ditched Notion for a Free Stack: Obsidian + Git — My Notes Finally Survive a Company Dying

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2 min read
Quick Tip: Find What's Actually Slow in Your Python Script with cProfile in 10 Seconds
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Quick Tip: Find What's Actually Slow in Your Python Script with cProfile in 10 Seconds

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1 min read
Quick Tip: Peek at a Huge JSON File Without Loading It Into Memory
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Quick Tip: Peek at a Huge JSON File Without Loading It Into Memory

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1 min read
I Replaced UptimeRobot's $7/Month Plan with Cloudflare Workers — $0, Checks Every 60 Seconds
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I Replaced UptimeRobot's $7/Month Plan with Cloudflare Workers — $0, Checks Every 60 Seconds

1
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2 min read
Quick Tip: Find What's Eating Your RAM with 4 Lines of Python
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Quick Tip: Find What's Eating Your RAM with 4 Lines of Python

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1 min read
I Stopped Paying $20/Month for a Status Page — GitHub Actions Checks My Sites for Free
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I Stopped Paying $20/Month for a Status Page — GitHub Actions Checks My Sites for Free

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2 min read
Quick Tip: Find Your Slowest Python Function with py-spy — No Code Changes, No Paid APM
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Quick Tip: Find Your Slowest Python Function with py-spy — No Code Changes, No Paid APM

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1 min read
I Replaced Plausible ($9/Month) with Umami on Neon's Free Tier — 6 Months, $0 Total
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I Replaced Plausible ($9/Month) with Umami on Neon's Free Tier — 6 Months, $0 Total

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2 min read
Quick Tip: Work on Two Git Branches at Once with `git worktree` (No Stashing)
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Quick Tip: Work on Two Git Branches at Once with `git worktree` (No Stashing)

Comments 1
1 min read
I Replaced Postman ($14/Month) with a .http File in My Repo — Free Forever
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I Replaced Postman ($14/Month) with a .http File in My Repo — Free Forever

Comments 1
2 min read
Quick Tip: Share Your Localhost with a Free Public URL in One Command (No Signup)
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Quick Tip: Share Your Localhost with a Free Public URL in One Command (No Signup)

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1 min read
Quick Tip: Debug Any API Response with `curl | python -m json.tool` (No jq Needed)
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Quick Tip: Debug Any API Response with `curl | python -m json.tool` (No jq Needed)

Comments
1 min read
I Ran My SaaS Database on Neon's Free Tier for 90 Days — Total Cost $0, But Two Limits Almost Killed Me
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I Ran My SaaS Database on Neon's Free Tier for 90 Days — Total Cost $0, But Two Limits Almost Killed Me

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2 min read
Quick Tip: Cache Function Results with lru_cache — Even When Args Are Dicts
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Quick Tip: Cache Function Results with lru_cache — Even When Args Are Dicts

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1 min read
Quick Tip: Time Any Python Block with a 3-Line Context Manager (No timeit Boilerplate)
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Quick Tip: Time Any Python Block with a 3-Line Context Manager (No timeit Boilerplate)

Comments
1 min read
I Ran My Side Project on Cloudflare's Free Tier for 6 Months — My Total Bill Was $0. Here's the Catch.
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I Ran My Side Project on Cloudflare's Free Tier for 6 Months — My Total Bill Was $0. Here's the Catch.

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2 min read
Quick Tip: Pin Any Python Dependency Set with uv's `--constraint` Flag (No Lockfile Needed)
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Quick Tip: Pin Any Python Dependency Set with uv's `--constraint` Flag (No Lockfile Needed)

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1 min read
Quick Tip: Compare Two Python Environments with 5 Lines (Find Why 'Works on My Machine')
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Quick Tip: Compare Two Python Environments with 5 Lines (Find Why 'Works on My Machine')

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1 min read
I Hosted My Whole Stack on Oracle's Always Free Tier for 60 Days — 4 CPUs, 24 GB RAM, $0
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I Hosted My Whole Stack on Oracle's Always Free Tier for 60 Days — 4 CPUs, 24 GB RAM, $0

Comments
1 min read
Quick Tip: Resume Any Interrupted Download with aria2c in 1 Command (Even After a Reboot)
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Quick Tip: Resume Any Interrupted Download with aria2c in 1 Command (Even After a Reboot)

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1 min read
DeepSeek-V4 vs Other Models: I Tested Both and Here's What I Found
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DeepSeek-V4 vs Other Models: I Tested Both and Here's What I Found

#ai #opensource #deepseek
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1 min read
MiniMax H3 vs Other Models: I Tested Both and Here's What I Found
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MiniMax H3 vs Other Models: I Tested Both and Here's What I Found

#ai #opensource #minimax
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1 min read
Quick Tip: Python List Comprehensions That Replace 6 Lines of Loop
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Quick Tip: Python List Comprehensions That Replace 6 Lines of Loop

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1 min read
I Run My AI Coding Assistant 100% Locally. $0/Month, Full Privacy, No Rate Limits.
dev_je9iv0z7 profile

I Run My AI Coding Assistant 100% Locally. $0/Month, Full Privacy, No Rate Limits.

Comments
3 min read
I Replaced My $45/Month VPS with Cloudflare Workers. My Bill Is $0 and It Got Faster.
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I Replaced My $45/Month VPS with Cloudflare Workers. My Bill Is $0 and It Got Faster.

Comments
2 min read
I Replaced a $99/Month Chatbot Service with Dify. Self-Hosted, Free, and Done in One Afternoon.
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I Replaced a $99/Month Chatbot Service with Dify. Self-Hosted, Free, and Done in One Afternoon.

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3 min read
I Fine-Tuned a 7B Model for $0 Using Kaggle's Free GPU. Colab Wanted $50 for the Same Job.
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I Fine-Tuned a 7B Model for $0 Using Kaggle's Free GPU. Colab Wanted $50 for the Same Job.

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2 min read
I Replaced My $45/Month VPS with Cloudflare Workers. My Bill Is $0 and My Site Got Faster.
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I Replaced My $45/Month VPS with Cloudflare Workers. My Bill Is $0 and My Site Got Faster.

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3 min read
I Ditched Google Colab's Paid GPU for Hugging Face Spaces — Free, Always-On, No Timeouts
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I Ditched Google Colab's Paid GPU for Hugging Face Spaces — Free, Always-On, No Timeouts

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2 min read
I Ran My Entire SaaS on Free Tiers for 6 Months. Total Cost: $0 (Full Breakdown)
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I Ran My Entire SaaS on Free Tiers for 6 Months. Total Cost: $0 (Full Breakdown)

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2 min read
Quick Tip: Run 5 Free LLMs Locally with Ollama in 3 Commands (No API Key, No Cloud)
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Quick Tip: Run 5 Free LLMs Locally with Ollama in 3 Commands (No API Key, No Cloud)

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2 min read
I Tested 4 Free AI Coding Assistants Against Copilot — One Came Within 1 Point
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I Tested 4 Free AI Coding Assistants Against Copilot — One Came Within 1 Point

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3 min read
I Replaced $1,104/Year in Dev Tools with Free Alternatives — Here's the Full Stack
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I Replaced $1,104/Year in Dev Tools with Free Alternatives — Here's the Full Stack

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3 min read
I Cut My AI Bill from $183 to $11 by Switching to Free Local Models
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I Cut My AI Bill from $183 to $11 by Switching to Free Local Models

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3 min read
I Replaced My $564/Year Hosting Bill with a $0 Free-Tier Stack (Vercel + Neon + Cloudflare)
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I Replaced My $564/Year Hosting Bill with a $0 Free-Tier Stack (Vercel + Neon + Cloudflare)

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2 min read
DeepSeek Latest Updates — What's New in 2026
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DeepSeek Latest Updates — What's New in 2026

#ai #opensource #deepseek
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2 min read
DeepSeek vs GPT-4: I Tested Both and Here's What I Found
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DeepSeek vs GPT-4: I Tested Both and Here's What I Found

#ai #opensource #deepseek
Comments
1 min read
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