Nurturing a Passion for Technology:

A Journey from DIY PCs to Crafting Virtual Worlds

From the moment I unwrapped my first desktop PC at the age of 6, my fascination with understanding how technology works has been a driving force in my life. Armed with a screwdriver and a thirst for knowledge, I delved into the world of hardware, sometimes leading to systems meeting an untimely demise due to my early, limited understanding.

My journey took an exciting turn with the release of the iPod Touch, sparking my interest in device customization. Jailbreaking the device became my gateway to pushing beyond manufacturer limits, altering homescreens, backgrounds, and even experimenting with custom fonts. This early experience set the stage for my lifelong passion for tinkering with technology to make it uniquely mine.

As I grew older, my curiosity expanded to laptops, desktops, phones, and beyond. At 12-13, I successfully disassembled and reassembled a laptop, opening my eyes to the benefits of desktops and the ease of part-swapping. Over time, I became the go-to person among friends for assembling and upgrading desktop workstations.

However, my exploration didn’t stop at hardware. The allure of making devices communicate in a smart home and the thrill of PC gaming introduced me to the world of server-client communication. Minecraft played a pivotal role, prompting me to self-host a server and customize the gaming experience for friends. This marked the beginning of my journey into server management and customization.

Fast forward to the Covid-19 pandemic, where my Minecraft server project, Mineuphoria, became a focal point of my technological endeavors. Renting a dedicated server from Hetzner, I transitioned from managing game servers on Windows to the performance-driven world of Linux. Setting up Ubuntu Server, Pterodactyl admin panel, and MariaDB laid the foundation for my project.

The need for a web front-end introduced a challenge, but this led me to the world of Hypervisors. Proxmox became my choice, enabling me to run multiple virtual machines with dedicated resources for game servers, websites, and databases. This shift led me down the path of running containers in Docker, DNS routing, setting up reverse proxies, and deciphering YAML and JSON syntax. These scripting languages proved to be indispensable tools not only in configuring the virtual machines for Mineuphoria but also in customizing various services within Docker containers. YAML and JSON’s adaptability became apparent as I defined server parameters, orchestrated Docker containers, and navigated the intricacies of Mineuphoria’s diverse technological landscape.