What Web Development Tools Does a Solo Builder Actually Need?
A practical solo-builder web development toolkit: editor, browser dev tools, local setup, Git, database access, hosting, logs, backups, and deployment.
Simple Stack Web Dev
Practical web development with simple stacks, including PHP, MySQL, Apache, LAMP, VPS hosting, and old-stack tools that still get work done.
What Is a LAMP Stack?
A plain-English guide to the LAMP stack: Linux, Apache, MySQL or MariaDB, and PHP, including what it runs and when it still makes sense.
What Does Old Stack Mean in Web Development?
Old stack means practical, mature web tools that are easy to host, debug, maintain, and explain to AI coding assistants.
Contabo Review: More Than Good Enough Hosting for Most of Us
A practical Contabo review from real use: six months of 100% uptime, simple VPS hosting, and enough server for OSJ, TTD, AAR, and small tools.
The Token Tax of New Tech
AI-assisted development adds a new cost to tech choices: how much context, correction, and retrying your stack needs before it works.
TextToDeck: Turning Written Updates Into Short Video Decks
TextToDeck started as a workaround for making Old Stack Journal promo videos with HTML, OBS, and Clipchamp. Now it’s becoming a focused web app for turning written updates…
Automation Receipts: A Readable Record for Workflow Runs
A webhook is easy. The harder part is turning automation runs into readable receipts so someone can understand what happened without digging through old logs.
Building the OSJ AI Tool Matrix
I built the OSJ AI Tool Matrix as a custom WordPress plugin, because a hand-edited table of AI tools sounded like a future migraine with admin edits. Oh…
LAMP Is Still Enough for Most Web Projects
Most developers aren’t building Netflix. For normal web projects, PHP, MySQL, Apache and cron still do the job without startup architecture up front. Usually.
Not Every Side Project Needs a Modern JavaScript Stack
Simple stacks like PHP, MySQL, Apache, and cron jobs are still enough for many solo builder projects. Not every web app needs JavaScript complexity.