Hello everyone, I am Er Ge. Recently, many readers have responded that this is their first time playing with servers and strongly requested me to provide some tutorials to feed them with information. Today, I will summarize for everyone:
What cool things can you do with your own server?
1. Build a Website
When I was organizing a group to get a free Alibaba Cloud server during the 618 sales, I encountered a very annoying problem: there was no small tool available to directly check whether readers were new users.
Readers could only ask themselves: “Hey, can I remember if I registered for an Alibaba Cloud server before?” The brain answers: “How would I know?”
This led to an awkward situation: readers were unsure whether they were old or new users, and when it came time to place an order, they hesitated, fearing that if they were old users, they wouldn’t be able to get a refund after purchasing. How could they face the identity of being a ‘freebie group’?
During last year’s Double Eleven, I spent half an hour building a simple tool on the server to check the eligibility for freebie users.
It was incredibly convenient; readers could simply input their Alibaba Cloud account ID and click submit to check if they were new users. If they were new users, they could place an order for the server using my Alibaba Cloud ambassador link, and the 200 spots I applied for were quickly snatched up.
Once they confirmed they were new users, placing an order became a very easy and relaxed task. Who doesn’t love freebie activities?
As I often recommend open-source projects like the e-commerce system mall and the micro HR management system vhr, you can download the source code directly to your local machine and upload it to the server to deploy and run it.
Due to time constraints, I chose JFinal as the prototype, which is a high-speed Web+ORM framework based on Java. It is sufficient for a small website like the Alibaba Cloud eligibility check! The official website also has many projects that interested readers can download, modify, and deploy on the server to experience—it’s really cool.
2. Run Scripts
Of course, to check if readers are new users, we also need to crawl some data from Alibaba Cloud. In front of Python, even my main language Java seems a bit overshadowed.
Let’s take a look at the basic idea of a Python script through the source code:
if __name__ == '__main__':
init_db()
while True:
get_users()
time.sleep(60)
close_db()-
Initialize the DB -
Crawl user data from Alibaba Cloud and insert it into the database one by one -
Close the DB connection
Generally speaking, Alibaba Cloud server images usually choose CentOS (Community Enterprise Operating System), which is a distribution of Linux, and it uniquely supports online upgrades with the yum command.
I chose CentOS 8.3 for my Alibaba Cloud server, and the Python version is 3.6. I can run the Python script directly using python xxx.py, which is very convenient.
Of course, crawling has its risks, so scripts should be used cautiously.
3. Learn Linux
To be honest, the production environment after starting work is basically all Linux. So once you have your own cloud server, you can freely learn Linux.
As one reader said, aside from playing games, Linux feels somehow more refreshing than Windows. Let me take this opportunity to briefly introduce some common knowledge about Linux.
What is Linux?
It is a computer operating system, just like common Windows and macOS, which can run on computers.
What are the advantages of Linux?
-
Stable and reliable, almost all companies use Linux systems for their backend servers -
Secure, Windows systems are easily attacked by hackers and viruses, while Linux is much safer in comparison.
Why learn Linux?
-
Learning the Linux system can provide a deeper understanding of computer operating systems, computer architecture, and computer networks, which are crucial for programmers. -
Since many servers run on Linux systems, it is essential for operations personnel to learn it. -
Linux is more secure in information security and big data processing.
What are the career paths in Linux?
If you have your own cloud server, learning Linux becomes very easy. You can even execute commands like rm -rf *, and after executing, reset the image, and it’s all good—it’s incredibly carefree.
4. Build a Personal Blog
I am a heavy user of mainstream blogging platforms like CSDN, Juejin, and Blog Garden. Just CSDN alone has brought me millions of visits.
However, at the same time, these platforms are somewhat less open.
For example, Blog Garden often removes homepage articles. It wasn’t this strict before; maybe they have new reviewers now;
For example, Juejin and CSDN even block GitHub. I hope both can whitelist GitHub in the future because GitHub is a large-scale:
But personal blogs are completely different; you can do whatever you want!
Tools like WordPress, Hexo, VuePress, Docsify, Hugo, and Halo can help us easily build a personal blog. Each building tool comes with detailed getting started guides, and here is VuePress’s.
Additionally, each building tool has a large number of customizable APIs and themes. I really like this theme under Hexo; it’s really nice.
If everyone needs it, I can provide a step-by-step tutorial for each building tool later.
Why do you need a blog?
The answer is that excellent programmers write blogs. Writing blogs has many benefits, such as:
-
It can help you organize and summarize knowledge points (personal improvement) -
It can help others understand knowledge points (may you have peace all your life) -
It can lead to promotions and salary increases, showcasing personal value (a good personal blog is a reflection of ability and value output; almost everyone knows Ruan Yifeng’s personal blog)
When you have your own server, the hardware facilities for building a personal blog are fully equipped; all that’s left is a personal domain name that is cheap to the point of being negligible.
Of course, aside from what Er Ge mentioned above, cooler things might be like this:
There are many cool things to do in life, so let’s start with having our own server!