Blog

A deep dive into how I architected and built a fully custom SMTP server for Kosh — handling mail routing, DNS records, DKIM signing, SPF validation, and scaling to thousands of concurrent connections.

The thought process behind choosing a brutalist, blueprint-inspired aesthetic for my portfolio — drawing from technical drawings, engineering schematics, and modernist typography.

How I designed the real-time messaging layer for Kosh's chat-like email interface — connection pooling, room management, presence indicators, and handling reconnections gracefully.

My end-to-end workflow for translating Figma designs into pixel-perfect, responsive React components — component-driven architecture, design tokens, and motion choreography.

Key takeaways from deploying production applications on AWS — EC2 instance sizing, S3 + CloudFront CDN setup, RDS vs self-managed databases, and cost optimization strategies.

A comprehensive benchmark and breakdown comparing Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS Lightsail, Oracle Cloud, and low-cost startup disruptors like ExCloud across pricing, real-world performance, and student perks.