DEV Community: Joshua Byrd

How to get 2x Oracle Cloud servers free forever

Joshua Byrd — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 04:04:52 +0000

This is a follow up to my How to get a Google server free forever post.

In the comments selim13 let me know that Oracle was offering a similar deal but even better!

Oracle also gives free VDS instances.
oracle.com/cloud/free/#always-free

Each have 1Gb RAM, 1/8 of CPU core and 50 Gb of storage (witch is rather cool). The biggest limitation of those is bandwidth limit of 10 Mbps,still suitable for lots of tasks. I host some demo web sites and proxy on those.

The servers have twice the RAM that Google offers and more Hard Disk space plus 2 CPU cores compared with 1 on Google Cloud. And you get 10 TB outgoing traffic per month compared with 1 GB on Google! As for the 10 Mbps bandwidth limit, it seems that only applies if you enable a load balancer on your virtual network.

Seems like a great deal anyway. Here's how to do it.

Go here and click Start for free. Then enter your country, name, and confirm your email.

Note: my confirmation email went to spam so check there

Choose a username and password and make sure you choose a region that includes the always free cloud services.

Fill in your address, verify your mobile number, then hand over your credit card details.

Note: unfortunately payment info is required even though they won't actually charge you if you stay on the free tier

Pretty soon they'll send through your access details via email so you can log in. Then you'll get this screen.

Click on Create a VM instance and configure your machine.

I switched from Oracle Linux to Ubuntu Linux but other than that I just kept all the defaults. You can change the boot image by clicking Edit in the Configure placement and hardware section.

IMPORTANT: SAVE THE PRIVATE KEY

You will not get another chance to do this and will not be able to access the server without it

Click Create and your server will spin up!

Repeat this from Create a VM instance to get your 2nd free server.

That's it! You can connect to your new servers via ssh.

Have fun!

How to make a GitHub profile README

Joshua Byrd — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 20:59:32 +0000

In case you missed it. GitHub profiles are now live!

// Detect dark theme var iframe = document.getElementById('tweet-1281883959140335617-748'); if (document.body.className.includes('dark-theme')) { iframe.src = "https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1281883959140335617&theme=dark" }

I first saw this feature being teased a little while back in this post and I was pretty excited, but I've been waiting a while for it to become an actual thing. Finally they're here!

// Detect dark theme var iframe = document.getElementById('tweet-1265773172520914944-869'); if (document.body.className.includes('dark-theme')) { iframe.src = "https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1265773172520914944&theme=dark" }

Looks like they used to be done with a .github/README.md repo and file. But it seems like they've changed things a little. Here's how you do it.

Make a repository with the same name as your GitHub username.
Create a README.md file inside that repo.
Commit and push the file to GitHub
Click the "Share to Profile" button in the sidebar.

That's it. Now check your GitHub profile. It should look a little like this.

How to get a free Google server forever

Joshua Byrd — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 20:22:50 +0000

NOTE: GOOGLE HAVE CHANGED THEIR FREE TIER FROM F1-MICRO TO E2-MICRO. PLEASE USE E2-MICRO TO GET A FREE SERVER. YOU CAN UPGRADE YOUR CURRENT INSTANCE LIKE THIS.

I first heard you could get a free Virtual Private Server instance on the Google Compute Engine from a random person on Twitter.

// Detect dark theme var iframe = document.getElementById('tweet-1284414043449511937-365'); if (document.body.className.includes('dark-theme')) { iframe.src = "https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1284414043449511937&theme=dark" }

So here's how to do it.

Go to the Google Cloud Platform Console and sign up/in if you have to and go to the Compute Engine section using the hamburger menu top left.
Enable Compute Engine if it's not already enabled and then set up billing (you need to add a credit card or PayPal but don't worry you won't be charged).
Create a new instance in one of the free tier locations (Iowa, Oregon, or South Carolina) with machine type f1-micro.

Finish the server config (make sure you add the max 30GB free disk space) and spin up the server.

Click the Connect via SSH button to log in.

And that's about it for now. Enjoy your free server forever!

If this post helped you please consider sponsoring my open source projects on GitHub for $1.

NOTE: Even though you can run this server for free, Google may charge if you go over certain "free tier" limits etc so just keep a lookout for that in the terms and conditions...

Update: The free offering from Oracle Cloud is almost certainly better than Google Cloud. See this article 👇

How to get 2x Oracle Cloud servers free forever

Joshua Byrd ・ Nov 15 '20

#cloud #devops #webdev #tutorial

... (rest and spread) explained as simply as I humanly can

Joshua Byrd — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 23:29:38 +0000

Three dots ... does two different things depending on how you use them.

Spread:

... in front of an array removes the outside [].

const x = [1, 2, 3];
const y = [0, ...x, 4, 5, 6];
console.log(y); // [ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ]

... in front of an object removes the outside {}.

const x = { one: 1, two: 2, three: 3 };
const y = { ...x, four: 4, five: 5, six: 6 };
console.log(y); // { one: 1, two: 2, three: 3, four: 4, five: 5, six: 6 }

Rest:

... when destructuring an array, assigns the rest of the elements.

const x = [1, 2, 3];
const [one, ...rest] = x
console.log(one); // 1
console.log(rest); // [2, 3]

... when destructuring an object, assigns the rest of the properties.

const x = { one: 1, two: 2, three: 3 };
const { one, ...rest } = x;
console.log(one); // 1
console.log(rest); // { two: 2, three: 3 }

That's it!

React Hooks explained as simply as I humanly can

Joshua Byrd — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 22:42:26 +0000

Hooks let you do more things with function components.

You can use state with the useState() hook.

eg. const [count, setCount] = useState(0).

Now count equals 0.

Update count with setCount(1).

Now count equals 1 and the component will update.

You can also trigger side effects with the useEffect() hook.

eg. useEffect(() => console.log(count), [count]).

Now it will console log every time count updates.

hint: use [] to only trigger the side effect once when the component is mounted and just leave off the second argument to trigger the effect after any state change.

hint 2: if you return a function from your side effect it will run that function after the componet unmounts.

Here's some code.

import React, {useState, useEffect} from "react";

function Counter(props) {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    document.title = count;
  }, [count]);

  function countHigher() {
    setCount(count + 1);
  }

  return (
    <p onClick={countHigher}>
      {count}
    </p>
  );
}

And that's pretty much it.

If you want a more in-depth look read the docs.

async/await explained as simply as I humanly possibly can

Joshua Byrd — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 04:30:00 +0000

Put async in front of a function.

eg. async function test() {} or const test = async () => {}

Now you can use await inside that function to pause and wait for values that take their time getting back to us.

Here's an async function:

// Define our async function and let it use await
async function test() {
  const response = await fetch("https://api.github.com/"); // Wait for the Promise
  const json = await response.json(); // Wait to resolve the Promise
  console.log(json); // Log the response
}

test(); // Run the function

Okay that's it! Get it now?

If not, go here for a better explanation. Or leave a comment and I'll try to help out.