Website is hosted on a disposable vape
46 comments
·September 14, 2025rimprobablyly
BogdanTheGeek
As this vape is so very British, you now have to queue to access the article. I can see that some people are getting though, so that's something.
jrmg
I wouldn’t want to be the lawyer who one day will have to argue how a device with USB C and a rechargeable battery can be classified as “disposable”.
I thought the point of making them like this was that they technically are reusable, so they can sell them (to people who for some reason keep buying them and throwing them away!) in places where disposable vapes are banned.
Zak
I'm confused by why anybody would buy one of these when entirely reusable versions exist, but then vaping seems unwise to me in general except as a way to quit tobacco.
loumf
But, then where would you host your website?
Ygg2
Used milk carton. It probably has more TFlops than Commodore 64.
bloqs
i have owned lots. they taste better than most permanent vapes. ive tried the whole buy all the best components and perfect juices etc with various tanks of different flavours. disposables just work and taste good, no leaks. they also have a logical end point like a pack of cigarettes. Its nice to switch flavour more frequently, and the packet/vape body colours pressed deep monkey brain buttons for fruit etc
zdragnar
Some have replaceable pods / tanks, but most have no user serviceable parts whatsoever.
One the liquid is low enough, the coil will burn a bit, and the whole thing should be disposed of.
One shop near me would take used ones and send them off to be properly taken apart and what not, but most people just toss them I suspect.
Gigachad
Some of the new ones have the coil and vape juice in a disposable section while the battery and charge circuitry are reused.
cjaackie
No, it’s there because the battery can’t hold enough charge for the ratio of vape liquid they put in it. So you get 2-3 full charges and it runs out of liquid.
bombcar
Just like how places with bag bans often just end up with thicker plastic bags that can be sold for ten cents and claimed as “reusable.
orev
They are reusable, which many people take advantage of. And it has dramatically reduced the number of tumbleweed bags clogging up nature.
privatelypublic
Reasonable people already reused single-use bags. Trashcan liners, dog walk bags, cat scoop bags, etc.
Having recently been reminded that it used to be common to see eviscerated VHS tapes by roads, I've been reminded that we'll always have people who litter.
meibo
You've misunderstood the assignment if you don't reuse those, they are perfectly fine for that and will last a long time. Just have one in your bag or car. I've even reused paper bags for more than half a year since the ban.
WD-42
They make perfect office/bathroom trash can liners
BogdanTheGeek
And... its down already. It can only handle about 10 requests at a time, so take turns guys :) Here is the same article but with hopefully better uptime: https://bogdanthegeek.github.io/blog/projects/vapeserver/
elliotec
Easy, just set up your other hoarded ones to make a mesh and do some distributed sharding in the vape cloud!
zacharynewton
Sounds like you need some more spent vapes ;)
SmellTheGlove
Wait, are we back to imagining beowulf clusters [0] of things!?
bombcar
The Internet server version of that old photo of a guy with an entire carton in his mouth.
om8
wslh
And reading the article mentioned there about "THE CHEAPEST FLASH MICROCONTROLLER YOU CAN BUY IS ACTUALLY AN ARM CORTEX-M0+" (2023) [1]
[1] https://jaycarlson.net/2023/02/04/the-cheapest-flash-microco...
Dilettante_
I respect the point about not wanting to send the manufacturer any business, but I would love to know the brand so I'd know which ones to rescue if given the chance.
analog31
So the EEs are right. Electrical circuits run on magic smoke.
dudeWithAMood
What were you doing to get traffic from the open Internet to your webserver at home? I always felt that was a risky proposition, but I might just be stupid.
Aachen
Done it since before I properly knew what I was doing. Haven't had issues. Even though n=1, also now that I'm actually working in IT security, I don't think the risk was ever much bigger than what I could oversee
The main thing is that, if someone gets onto the server system, then they're in my network and they can do attacks on other devices in that LAN (guest wifis are a nice way to isolate that nowadays; that didn't exist back when I started). Same as when I take my laptop to school for example, then others can reach it. I've had issues with others in school doing attacks because the internet was unencrypted http back then (client-side hashing in JavaScript limited the impact though), but not from anyone who tried to hack into the server. Only automated scans for outdated Wordpress, setup files for Phpmyadmin, ssh password guessing... the things they simply try blindly on every IP address. If any of this is successful, you're most likely going to be turned into a spam-sending server or a DDoS zombie; not something with lasting impact once you discover the issue and remove the malware
Most attackers don't do targeted attacks on your system or network unless you're a commercial entity that presumably can pay a nice ransom, or are a high-profile individual. Attackers aiming for consumers send phishing emails and create phishing advertisements, look for standard password vaults if you run their malware, try using stolen credentials on Steam and hope you've got a payment method stored... the usual old things. Having a server doesn't make any of those attacks easier, and besides, self hosting is very uncommon. Even if you and I had a similar enough setup at home with a straightforward path to exploitation, it's a few thousand people that self-host in a country with millions of people. It's not worth developing attacks for
rovr138
Open a port or if their router supports it, assign their device to a DMZ.
Why do you think it’s risky? Maybe we can talk about ways of securing it.
Like any server, it’s as safe as the server software (and its configuration).
koolala
People might hack your toaster and burn your house down? Smart ovens? Smart microwaves? Smart fires?
happyhardcore
VPS with public ipv4, connected to home network over Tailscale and forward the traffic with socat. You'd probably be fine opening a port directly but a small VPS is free most places so might as well make the most of it.
prynhart
504 Gateway Time-out
jsheard
You think a Cortex-M0+ in a disposable vape is wasteful, wait until you see the ones with colour touchscreens and Bluetooth radios. It's probably only a matter of time before they start running Android on them.
malfist
What's insane is how cheap all those components are. A quadcore processor with ram and memory, WiFi and Bluetooth for pennies at wholesale.
The latest and fastest GPUs might be a marvel of technology, but so is the tech that let's us make and esp32 for almost nothing
ants_everywhere
Imagine a beowulf cluster of... wait probably not
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BogdanTheGeek
so I had to throw nginx in front of it so my little router wouldn't explode, but I hope some people will get to experience the relaxing loading experience live.
temp0826
The HN way is to colocate a cluster of these and put them behind a F5
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HardwareLust
Your GitHub link in the doc gives me a 404. Otherwise, good stuff!
BogdanTheGeek
Thank you, it's fixed now.
Returning 503. Guess it got smoked.