Coming soon

This is Ivan's IO, a brand new site by Ivan Smirnov that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content

Visited Countries

As a followup to https://ivans.io/visited-countries/, here's a map of all the countries I've been to: Create your own visited countries map or check out the JavaScript Charts.

Speeding up git operations for CI/CD

I recently found myself undergoing an epic journey to speed up our CICD builds at work. After some initial digging, I found that our git clone operations were taking 3 minutes and pulling 2gb of data, just to test a tiny Golang binary (3,500 LoC,  20mb). With some easy

Acknowledge the Truths in Your Reality

I had an interesting situation come up in my life recently, where I caught myself being highly irrational. It took me some time to work through it, but today I'm ready to share the story and the lessons I gained. A Blurry World I've had terrible

Jump Start a Car When Alone

Earlier this year, I took a 6 month road trip through most of America. You can see the path I took on https://ivans.io/visited-states/. While on that epic adventure, I had my car battery die on me a few times. Once it was due to the cold, and

Random Life Tips

This is a tiny post with an assortment of life tips. I use these every day, and I've had enough people express amazement at some of these that I decided to write them up and share them. I'll try to come back here and add to

Simple Mobile File Access

Once in a while I need to access my documents from my phone. When using Android, I was able to use Solid Explorer paired with ZeroTier to log in remotely to my SMB share on my home server. After moving to iOS, I have yet to discover a files app

Single Landing Page

As I generate more content online, I find myself having to keep an index and try to remember what lives where. I set up a large number of short links using YOURLS on https://smirnov.link, but that doesn't solve the problem of having a single landing page

Easy Docker Updates with docker-tag-yoinker

I run a large number of docker containers on my two personal servers. It's safer to have the deployments pinned to a specific tag, but manually updating the tags can get tedious. For each image, you have to check the Docker Hub, figure out which tag you want

Taming Junk Paper Mail

Opening your mailbox and seeing a flood of junk fall out has become so normal that we don't even notice it. Odds are there is a recycling bin next to your mail room and you unconsciously dump all the random junk you get into that bin. Luckily, there

Taming Email Newsletters with RSS

Taming the messy inbox Over the years I've accumulated a large number of email subscriptions. The main problem with this approach is that there are actionable emails (reminders to pay bills, requests for advice, etc) mixed in with asynchronous knowledge consumption packets (newsletters and updates). This goes completely

Adulting App

I recently stumbled upon https://www.realworld.co/ - an app that helps young adults understand the basics of common "adulting" challenges, and provides specific action items. This is similar to the financial course I would like to build one day. In the meantime, check out this app!

Visited States

It's always fun to see charts or graphs of my past exploits. I wanted to see which states I've seen so far as an adult. Using AmCharts.com, we can generate a nifty map: Create your own visited states map or check out the JavaScript Charts.

Investing Starter Kit

I strongly believe that access to financial knowledge should be universal. Personal finance is often viewed as a scary or taboo topic, but it really doesn't have to be. All of the knowledge is out there, and everyone deserves to be wealthy. Here are some starter resources to

YNAB Podcast Guest

I was recently hosted on the YNAB Podcast where I had an awesome chat with Jessse Mecham (the founder) and Daniel Chen (my mentor). We covered a plethora of topics - please enjoy our content! Video: High-Income Earners Using YNABJesse chats with two people that are passionate about personal finance

Just Ask

I had an interesting phone call with a hotel chain the other day, where I called to politely express some concerns I had with my experience. There was a massive voltage surge that fried all the lights, so I had to move out by flashlight late at night into a

keyboards

One Handed Typing

A short while back I had a small sports accident and injured my left thumb quite badly, to the point that my left hand needs to be left alone to heal. As a software engineer, this presents a major challenge. I decided to look into one handed typing layouts. Mechanical

recommendation

My Top Book Recommendations

I deeply enjoy reading books. Here's a short list of some of my favorites. Non Fiction Every book on this list has changed my life in a pivotal manner. I invite you to read them for yourself and hope it brings about positive change for you as well.

podcast

CyberPro Podcast Guest

I had a chance to be hosted on the CyberPro Podcast recently. We had a fun chat about cyber security, continuous learning, and retro technology. It's 5 questions in 9 minutes - enjoy! You can find it on: * LinkedIn * PodBean * Apple Podcasts * YouTube * Twitter

lifehack

Credit Card Points Hacking with PayPal Key

I maintain several credit cards which yield good points rewards if used well. For many years now, I've really wanted to be able to pay my rent with my credit card. Unfortunately, most providers will pass along the 3% network charge fee directly to you. There are a

Life Philosophy

Reflections on Mindset and Framing

I recently had a chance to visit the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. It's a curious system of caves with various stalactites and stalagmites and interesting rock formations, located in the ancient seabed in the mountains. I found the experience enjoyable, but at times it felt slightly underwhelming

cooking

Solving Cooking Once and For All

Experiments with meal kits and instant pots lead to sunday meal prep with frozen bags.

macos

Better Status Bar for MacOS

Combine Ubersicht, Yabai, SKHD and Simple-Bar for an awesome MacOS menu bar.

macos

Fixing DNS for Wireguard on MacOS

Fix wireguard DNS resolution on MacOS with PostUp and PostDown + CLI usage.

tech

Abusing Public DNS for Zerotier Routing

Picking a Mesh VPN I've been a big fan of mesh VPNs for many years now. It's great to not have to deal with Strongswan or OpenVPN on a central server. Mesh VPN's also come with intelligent routing, so if both of my devices

career

Interview Resources

I recently went through the interview prep process as I prepared to leave Google and find a new position. These are the resources that I used that helped me land my current role at Stripe. Action Log * Solve every problem in the https://www.interviewcake.com/ * Do at least 10

Life Philosophy

Just Do It

What are you holding yourself back from right now? Go do it.