The tools and services I use, and how I’m using them

In technology companies, there’s a term called a technology stack. Or a tech stack.

A tech stack refers to the suite of tools and services these companies used to run their businesses. I like to document and share my stacks as well. However, I don’t restrict writing only about technology stacks. I’d also include stacks used in non-tech areas in my life in this page.

Reasons for Sharing My Stacks

My reasons for sharing my stacks are two-fold:

1. When I share my stacks and the reasoning behind them, I am forced to examine those reasons. That leads to improvement either by eliminating redundancies or discovering weaknesses.
2. What I share might elicit feedback from other people about their stacks. Knowing about other people’s stacks can help improve my stacks.

So I welcome feedback. Do share your stack in the comments box below.

As an organising rule, any stack description exceeding 400 words will have its own standalone page which I will link from here.

Common Benefits I Look Out For When I Build My Stacks

Given I have limited time and energy, I have mostly set two key principles when it comes to making decisions.

1. Total Costs must be as low as possible
2. Total Benefits must be high as possible

I’ll probably have a separate page detailing these two principles. For now, it is enough to say that the way I configure my stacks is to conform to these two principles.

Stacks

• Blogging
• New Web Application Project

Blogging:

Domain Registrar – NameCheap.com
DNS management – NameCheap.com
SSL – NameCheap.com
Software – WordPress
Hosting – EasyWP.com
Theme – Author Theme from WordPress Themes
SEO Plugin – Yoast (Free)
Tracking Blogging Progress – Google Spreadsheets

Benefits I Value

1. Can easily maintain my blogging habit

Features I Choose

1. Easily compose draft ideas directly from my phone when the inspiration strikes
2. I don’t want to fiddle with server administrative tasks
3. Simple to configure SEO because I’m a newbie in SEO
4. Hosting, SSL, updating of the blogging software should be as automated and low-cost as possible
5. Tracking my blogging progress

For details about my blogging experience and how to sustain the habit, check /how-to-new-blog

Click here to go back to the stacks index.

New Web Application Project:

Language – Python 3.6 or any latest stable version that works with latest Django LTS
Framework – Django 1.11 or any latest Django LTS version
Database – Postgres
Environment Management – Docker
Cookiecutter – My own cookiecutter
Version control  – Git at Github.com
Serverless – Lambda at AWS via Zappa

Benefits I value

1. Run less software
2. Minimal grunt work like setting up configuration and installing commonly used plugins
3. Speed in spinning up new projects
4. Allow on-prem, or serverless setup

Features I chose

1. Potential to easily move to serverless infrastructure
2. Allow on-premises setup as well
3. I don’t want to fiddle with configuration too much
4. Must be Python and Django only because I want to be most fluent in that stack

For related pages, check out /run-less-software

Click here to go back to the stacks index.