How I Fly

Summary

This article describes how Xe Iaso uses Fly.io to host a blog, CDN, and experimental personal projects while deploying services near users. The blog backend runs in Toronto, while XeDN runs in 35 datacenters, fetches missing files from Backblaze B2, and uses caching and traffic shifting to tolerate individual node failures. Arsène runs every 12 hours, asking the ChatGPT API for posts, using Stable Diffusion for illustrations through an Automatic1111 API on a private network, then sending images to XeDN for global delivery. The setup emphasizes reusable, interoperable building blocks rather than isolated projects, with Fly.io handling deployment, networking, and scaling concerns. Xe reports that three 256 MB Machines ran XeDN for a year, while Arsène still runs on one, and says applications can scale to zero when idle.

Takeaways

1. 1

   The blog backend runs in Toronto, while XeDN runs across 35 datacenters and serves files backed by Backblaze B2.

2. 2

   Arsène uses the ChatGPT API every 12 hours to generate posts and Stable Diffusion through an Automatic1111 API on a private network to create illustrations.

3. 3

   XeDN ran on three 256 MB Machines for a year, and Arsène continues to run on one 256 MB Machine; applications can also scale to zero when idle.