How to run Tailscale on AWS Lambda
24 Jun 2025 18:41 | aws | tailscale
Just in case anyone thought I was joking about running Tailscale on AWS Lambda, this is how: aws-lambda-python312-tailscale
[read more...]Tailscale ephemeral nodes as the ultimate MMORPG superweapon
22 Jun 2025 12:46 | aws | tailscale
People often talk about Tailscale but don't seem to mention its ephemeral nodes and their awesome power as an MMORPG weapon so I thought I'd address that. There are many MMORPGs but my all-time favourite is AWS which I play as an extremely stingy but also quite rich and entitled hacker. This character choice works well within the game dynamic as the object of the game is obviously to run your workload for as little financial outlay as possible.
The bog standard default way of running things on AWS is to use EC2, but one glance at the in-game pricing for this will make you quickly realise this is not a viable way to win. Managed services can sometimes be a good cost-effective alternative, but for those of us playing super stingy characters who just want their personal stuff to run for as close to free as possible, these too are usually unviable options. Serverless is therefore where the real action is at and how you can truly win at this game.
It's not without its limitations though and there are many crafty ways the game monetises its side channels and ancillary services in order to extract profit from the player. Take for example AWS Lambda, on the surface for smaller workloads this can be close to essentially free compute. That only works until you need a state store though, and depending on what you're doing pay-as-you-go DynamoDB can quickly add up to unacceptable costs. My in-game bill was recently creeping over the $5/month mark so I decided to have a think about my strategy and see if I could level up by levelling down my bill. The observant reader might wonder if hours of my time are really worth the potential cost savings here, all I can say is that some people will just never understand gaming.
[read more...]Synology SRM 1.3.1, a thoughtful review of the latest software release
5 Feb 2025 00:00 | synology
Originally posted on the Synology Community forum.
It's great to see the new SRM release - 1.3.1 - has recently dropped. Although a minor update, apparently adding only optimisations to the network connectivity check mechanism, this is a testament to the stability and resiliency of the SRM software in that dramatic changes are no longer required in order for their products to continue to operate well.
Those of us with Synology routers may cast our minds back to the late summer of 2022 when SRM 1.3.1 was released, adding much-wanted VLAN support for the older devices including the RT2600ac router. This update was unfortunately slightly problematic, resulting in an additional update - 1.3.1 - being pushed out on the same day.
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