EST. 2026 — Notes from real server work SYSADMIN · SECURITY · AI · DIRECTADMIN Issue 01
THE SYSADMIN ALMANAC
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Rate Limiting

#Rate Limiting

4 articles
Hosting
Let Clients Pick Photos on a Web Page Without a Login
Web

Let Clients Pick Photos on a Web Page Without a Login

When the person choosing photos for a website is not comfortable with computers, adding registration and login means the work stops at the login screen. This article covers a photo picker with no authentication at all, but with a server endpoint that checks every value against an allowlist strict enough to leave nothing from arbitrary input, plus limits at every layer and a backup before every write.

#php#javascript#web-security#permissions
8 min read·23 Oct
A Report Form for a Static Site with No Backend
Web

A Report Form for a Static Site with No Backend

A calculator site made entirely of static files has no server to handle forms, but users still need a way to report mistakes in the formulas. This article covers the one approach I chose—a single worker file that accepts POST requests on one route, verifies Turnstile on the server using the real client IP, accepts images pasted from the clipboard, and sends email from the network edge—along with three traps that cost me an entire night.

#cloudflare#static-site#javascript#web-security
9 min read·21 Oct
Making 20,000+ API Calls That Resume Without Leaving Corrupt Files
Linux

Making 20,000+ API Calls That Resume Without Leaving Corrupt Files

Generating 26,850 files through an API limited to 20 calls per minute requires three pieces—a system-wide throttle, resuming from what is already on disk, and a separate file validator—because files interrupted by network failures still have the right extension and a nonzero size.

#python#api#rate-limiting#automation
9 min read·19 Oct
AI Crawler Overloads ?add-to-cart= — Block It Without Hurting SEO
Security

AI Crawler Overloads ?add-to-cart= — Block It Without Hurting SEO

Server load triggered an email alert. The logs showed that 84% of the day's traffic came from one AI crawler following add-to-cart links for every product. I added layers of protection with robots.txt, rel=nofollow and nginx limit_req while keeping all product pages indexable.

#nginx#security#wordpress#seo
10 min read·12 Aug