R3X / Developer, Builder & Systems Engineer
I build infrastructure tools and write about what breaks.
Edge proxies, Kubernetes tooling, API telemetry. Built solo, run in production, documented here as I go.
Selected work
All 4 projects →TinyLink — Short Links That Do the Whole Job
A URL shortener with real analytics, in-process QR codes, expiring and password-protected links, bio pages and a REST API — written in plain PHP with no build step.
TLDRadar — Domain Price Intelligence
Live registrar price comparison across 50+ ICANN registrars, surfacing the renewal markups and promo codes that a first-year headline price hides.
DropNote — Encrypted Notes That Delete Themselves
Write it, lock it, drop it. Notes encrypted in the browser with AES-256-GCM, shared by link, and destroyed on a schedule you set — the server never holds a key.
R3X Tools — Twenty Developer Utilities, No Accounts
Format JSON, decode a JWT, test a regex, read a cron expression, catch a webhook, mock an API. Twenty tools, most running entirely in the browser tab — no account, no ads, no tracking.
Writing
All 15 posts →-
Designing Idempotent APIs: Because "Just Retry It" Can Cost You Money
API Design 21 min -
Scaling Background Queues Beyond 10,000 Jobs Per Second
Systems Engineering 8 min -
The Internet Is Slowly Becoming a Rental
Indie Engineering 21 min -
The Great Server Purge: Why Blizzard's War on WoW Private Servers Matters to Every Gamer
Gaming 10 min
Working on something in this territory? I read everything that comes in.
hello@r3x.site →