ToasterBotnet Monthly Transmission #001
🔥 ToasterBotnet Monthly Transmission #001
Hello internet person,
Welcome to first transmission from the ToasterBotnet.
Last month I spent way too much time on:
Real botnet attacks
New content
Beeing overprepared
Making better content
Vibecoding stuff
Trying to build a Business
Let's begin.
💣 The Botnet Attack
Someone probably thought it would be a hilarious idea to attack "ToasterBotnet" with a real botnet.
So, roughly a month ago, I had a very busy week figuring out how to mitigate a DDoS attack. It was approximately 40 to 50 million requests spread across a few days, peaking at around 4 to 5 million requests per day.
Still not a particularly large attack, but for a hobby-scale shitpost blog running on a very cheap Linux server, this is basically Armageddon.
After checking the web server logs, it became clear that this was heavy bot traffic and a deliberate attack. Most of the requests consisted of vulnerability scans trying to poke holes in the server.
Luckily, I was already mostly protected by Cloudflare. However, the traffic managed to bypass the cache whenever cached pages expired. As a result, every couple of hours the server would get hammered and go down again.
Over the course of a few days, I learned a lot about DDoS mitigation, multi-layered and tiered caching, and security practices under pressure. It was actually a really interesting experience.
Thank God there are services like Cloudflare that offer caching, WAF, and DNS protection for free. I wouldn't have stood a chance otherwise.
Today I'm running WP Super Cache, Redis Object Cache, Fail2ban, and hierarchical multi-tier caching through Cloudflare.
The shitpost blog should be safe for now. 🙂
And it's more performant than ever.
I love shit like this. It makes my infrastructure brain go full autism mode.
🎬 New Content
New Video: Dealing With Stress
Feeling overwhelmed and stuck in stress mode all day? In this video we are going to talk about a simple way to handle too many tasks without burning out or shutting down. Turn chaos into structure and take back control of your day.
Watch here:
https://youtu.be/nfQdUjdVNl8
New Video: Why You See AI Slop Everywhere
I talk about about why AI slop seems to be everywhere and why your feed might look completely different. The algorithm is not neutral, it reacts to your behavior and feeds you more of what you engage with. Once you understand this, you can take control of what you see.
Watch here:
https://youtu.be/W0cFle4r_Vc
New Shorts:
An Interview with a Toaster:
https://youtube.com/shorts/xKfk0DBJy8I
Why Doomscrolling makes you angry:
https://youtube.com/shorts/BDm4mt6hNoY
Why Budgeting is awesome:
https://youtube.com/shorts/H6XuoM_x5BM
🧠 Things I Learned Recently
YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO PREPARED
I was building infrastructure like a crazy person for an audience that didn't exist.
I thought I looked stupid and that I was wasting my time.
Caching, SEO, and automation for a shitpost blog? Probably overkill.
Turns out I wasn't prepared enough and actually got attacked.
Making media kits, partner portals, Stripe accounts, and thinking about the business side of things?
With virtually no followers, probably a little cringe, yes.
But if I hadn't started thinking about these things way too early, I would be anxious, confused, and stressed right now.
I would have no idea how to schedule appointments, process payments, or communicate professionally.
Because now my inbox is slowly being hit by people who are considering doing business with my online brand, and I'm very glad I prepared when literally nobody cared.
CONTENT SFX IS ALWAYS TOO LOUD
If you create content, lower the volume of your sound effects.
If you think you've got it right, reduce it by another 40%.
Trust me.
VIBECODING ADVENTURES
I recently discovered why a website felt sluggish in Firefox.
It turns out Firefox handles CSS backdrop-filter: blur() effects quite poorly.
The solution?
Remove them. AI usually puts those in when you vibecode a website.
The site looks virtually identical without them, and performance improved immediately.
Something to keep in mind when vibecoding. 🙂
WEBSITE AND SERVER RESILIENCE
I've learned a lot about hierarchical and multi-layered caching recently.
Your website can never be too resilient, especially if you plan to spend money on advertising and performance matters.
The funny thing about infrastructure is that nobody notices it when it works.
They only notice when it doesn't.
🚀 Building Stuff
One thing I'm currently experimenting with is whether ToasterBotnet can eventually become more than just a hobby.
I'm nowhere near quitting my day job, but I've started putting the infrastructure in place to see where this project goes over the next few years.
That includes things like a partner portal, consultation booking systems, and generally figuring out how the business side of content creation actually works. Very early stages. I still have no idea what I am doing.
https://partner.toasterbotnet.com🖥️ Behind The Scenes
🎬 Growing ToasterBotnet
I've been experimenting heavily with advertising and audience growth lately.
Some experiments worked better than others.
One thing I've learned is that getting views is easy compared to getting people who actually care.
The challenge isn't traffic. The challenge is finding the right people.
🏢 Building the Business Side
Behind the scenes, I've been working on things nobody ever talks about:
Partner portals
Calendly scheduling
Payment systems
Legal pages
Media kits
It's not glamorous work, but if I ever want ToasterBotnet to become more than a hobby, the boring infrastructure matters.
🎥 Upcoming Videos
I'm currently working on a new long-form video about intellectual comfort zones and how to actually get smarter by tolerating looking stupid.
But first, there will be two Shorts:
One about how to stop being lazy
One about how creativity can actually be learned
And because you're a newsletter subscriber, here's an exclusive sneak peek at the next long-form video:
📬 Get in touch.
What are you working on right now?
Tell me:
What project you're building
What problem you're stuck on
What you're currently obsessed with
Do you have content requests?
constructive criticism?
Write me a DM on social media or send me an E-Mail to toasterbotnet@gmail.com
Stay curious.
Stay weird.
— Daniel
