Recently, I needed to run a VLESS subscription on Windows, make it work with my work VPN, and deal with all the associated 'joys.' I tried v2rayN, Nekoray, and Hiddify—and quickly realized I wanted to write my own client.
And so, singbox-launcher was born:
👉 https://github.com/Leadaxe/singbox-launcher
Below are a few details about why and what came of it.
Since I'm a fan of self-hosting, I have a home infrastructure:
Orange Pi - a media server;
Synology - a file dump;
Neptune 4 - a 3D printer with a web interface and a camera feed. And I'd like to have secure access to it externally via my phone and PC, while also having internet access outside the RF. I used to use OpenVPN for these needs, but it's no longer reliable. So I started studying the documentation for an excellent tool from our Chinese comrades - Xray!
What you'll need:
A server with an external IP for the infrastructure. In my case, it's an Orange Pi, hereinafter - Bridge
The server you want to access - Server
A server outside the RF for internet access. Hereinafter - Proxy
A client of your choice. Hereinafter - Client
Client and server on Linux - Xray-core, which can be installed via the official Xray installation script
Client for Android - v2rayNG
More clients can be found in the Xray-core repository
Let's take the VLESS-TCP-XTLS-Vision-REALITY configuration file as a base and start reading the Xray documentation
Routing is done on the client. For example, if the client accesses the xray.com domain, we route the traffic to the Bridge, and for all other connections - to the Proxy. Then the Bridge routes the traffic to the Server if the client accessed server.xray.com.
It looks like this:
Ten years ago, I wrote a couple of articles - How to download the latest Office from the Microsoft website without any App-V / Habr (yg140.servegame.com) and How to download Microsoft Office 16 from the Microsoft website / Habr (yg140.servegame.com), using the then little-known Office Deployment Tool.
Time flies. After Office 2016 came Office 2019, Office 2021, and now it's time for Office 2024. Well, let's see what has changed in terms of downloading, installing, and activating the product over the past ten years.
First, let's talk about the versions and editions of Microsoft Office. To avoid being too meticulous in the description, I'll briefly state the most important thing: over the years, the Office lineup has evolved. There are different subscriptions and update plans, new features appear in new versions, and bug fixes and patches for found vulnerabilities are released for older versions.
Microsoft has long since switched to a system of distributing Office family products through various so-called "channels," depending on how often you want to receive new features and updates.
The key difference in the current download and installation of Office from what was relevant in the days of Office 2016 is that you must determine which distribution channel you are going to use - that is, from which channel you are going to install the product itself. For those who would like to study the different distribution channels in detail, I suggest reading the original source - Office updates - Office release notes | Microsoft Learn. For the rest, I'll summarize briefly - Microsoft now prefers to sell everyone a subscription to Microsoft 365 (what was previously called Office 365), with regularly updated features under the so-called Modern Lifecycle Policy. The consumer (boxed, retail) versions of Office 2021 are also distributed under this modern policy. Office 2021, for example, is only supported until October 13, 2026. And older versions follow the so-called Fixed Lifecycle Policy, under which Office 2016 and Office 2019 are only supported until October 14, 2025. In general, they will not stop working after that date, but they will stop receiving updates. And for those of you who use email services based on Microsoft Outlook.com or Office365, and possibly Microsoft Exchange users, with updates released after October 14, 2025, it's time to think about upgrading.
In a changing network infrastructure, mobile internet users face questions: what resources remain available, and what does this look like on a technical level? This material is the result of a practical study using standard network analysis tools.
No speculation—only measurements, numbers, and technical facts.
I finally decided to replace my old Linksys router and buy a new gigabit router with a built-in VPN – that's what most retailers call the feature, without specifying whether they mean a VPN client or a VPN server.
After some searching, I managed to find only one major seller – the orange one with three letters – whose website has advanced filtering for routers by VPN parameters, such as protocol and operating mode (client/server).
And so, with a list of several dozen candidates for purchase, the main question arose – what speed over VPN can each of them deliver?
From hype to strategy: how EXANTE redefined Cloud Native after painful Kubernetes mistakes, lessons learned, and building a more resilient infrastructure
Training is one of the most essential factors for growth, evolution and effective collaboration for any UX design team. Design is an ever-changing industry, and there is always something new to learn even for the most experienced professionals. The reality is, not all companies take training seriously, whether the reason is a low budget, lack of time or just not realising its necessity. Meanwhile, investing in training not only boosts the quality of work, but also helps find ways to find easier solutions, work faster and optimize the whole process. Let’s discuss some tips that might help you provide effective and fruitful training for your design team without spending extra budget or wasting time on some questionable training methods.
It’s Never Too Late: My Start into DevOps
Summary
Learn about the challenges, growth, and lessons gained — from juggling work, studies, and a pet project to achieving a dream.
In recent years, discussions about the environmental impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have largely revolved around hardware — data centers, electronic waste, and energy consumption. However, an equally important factor has been overlooked: the software development methodologies themselves.
When I read the UNCTAD “Digital Economy Report 2024”, I was struck by the complete absence of any mention of how programming methodologies impact sustainability. There was no discussion of whether developers use algorithm-centric or code-centric methodologies when creating software, nor how these choices affect the environment.
This realization led me to introduce the concept of Eco-Methodological Sustainability — a new approach that highlights the role of structured software development methodologies in shaping an environmentally sustainable future for the digital economy.
The photograph accompanying this article captures a moment I once witnessed on a beach in Silicon Valley, California. The endless waves of the Pacific Ocean stretch into the distance, fading and dissolving into the sand. All three states of matter are present here: the solid, unmoving sand; the liquid, flowing water; and the wind — invisible yet tangible chaos of air. This landscape seems to symbolize the transitions and boundaries between order and freedom, between stability and change.
This very scene inspired me to reflect on how DAOs, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, transform into a "third state" for communities. They combine the chaotic freedom of scattered individuals and the structured order of centralized organizations, creating something new — fluid and adaptive.
In the world of IT services, the idea that operations must run 24/7 is often taken for granted. However, for business-to-business (B2B) services, this assumption needs to be rethought. By reconsidering the need for around-the-clock processing services, companies can achieve significant benefits in efficiency, security, and sustainability.
Lose Your Sale) How to lose an IT project sale.
My name is Paul Karol and I work as a director in a Russian IT company that mostly sells their products into the American Market. What we will discuss today was so costly for that company that I want to share this knowledge so that it doesn't happen to other Russian IT companies.
Case Study
Today I want to tell you about a sale that almost was. I was Consulting for this one company and they were involved in selling software to the United States. This one particular client was in contact with the sales manager for 2 months.
Now this sales manager was very good at their job and they had a lot of charisma on the phone and in the text messages. However they specifically did not know something that cost them a large contract.
1. In Russia it's respectful not to talk about your personal life because you feel that you're wasting someone's time if you do not know them well.
2. In the United States once you have been talking with somebody for a couple of months you would start to consider them sort of a friend.
The Russian IT sales manager had not been in contact with this client for about a week and this was unusual.
They were worried.
Then the text message came that said this.
"I'm sorry Marina that I have not been in contact with you for some time. I took my family and kids to the Lakeside and we enjoyed some time by the beach."
The Russian IT sales manager did not know how to think about this and they asked this question.
" So, do you want to buy our product?"
In the DevOps realm, where automation is crucial, the management of resources and updating processes in the cloud is vitally important. Many modern projects, particularly in AWS cloud environments, leverage Auto Scaling Groups (ASG). This mechanism aims to achieve three key objectives: balancing loads, increasing service reliability, and optimizing operational costs for efficiency and effectiveness.
Imagine working at a company where you deploy applications on Amazon's resources. To streamline this process and manage configurations more effectively, you use pre-built AMI images. These are crafted with tools like HashiCorp Packer, ensuring your applications launch swiftly and reliably. For the actual infrastructure deployment, you turn to Terraform. It's widely recognized as the standard in many major companies for managing cloud resources and using the IaC (Infrastructure as Code) approach.
As an IT engineer, you sometimes need to update instance versions to a newer AMI image, either for the latest security patches or to introduce new functionalities. The challenge lies in updating an active ASG without causing downtime. It's crucial to ensure the new AMI performs as reliably as the existing one, balancing the need for updates with system stability and uptime.
ASG's instance refresh is a crucial feature that allows for updating instances within a group while minimizing downtime, thereby maintaining high availability. However, ensuring the success of such updates, especially in large, complex systems, can be a challenge. Terraform resources, such as aws_autoscaling_group, can initiate this process but don't provide progress tracking. This limitation becomes apparent when other infrastructure components, such as certificate renewals or DNS updates, depend on the state and version of the instances. Monitoring the update process is essential to maintain an accurate infrastructure state after Terraform's execution.
To overcome this challenge, Ansible can be utilized...
Title:
After sale IT support for American and Western Companies
Let’s have a case study.
A Russian IT company sells software to a western country like say America. And you are working as an application developer on the support side.
One day, there is a problem with the program, and the program has stopped working.
You must contact the company now to inform them that the program is off-line.
THE NEXT STEP YOU TAKE IS VERY IMPORTANT.
The way, the two cultures operate in a situation like this are very different and it will have everything to do with how easy your job goes for you.
…………
Russia : “we have a problem”
“What is wrong?”
“I don’t know”
“When can it be fixed?”
“I don’t know”
……………
USA: “i’m just giving you a real quick call to let you know that there is a problem with the program.
I’ve already put my team on it and we will have it up and running shortly.
I will let you know more by 3 o’clock today what is going on”
It’s not important how long you think it will take you, but I will always tell them a few hours from the time that you informed them of a problem.
I understand that you have no idea how deep the bug is and also whether it will affect any other systems.
But it is important to set a time window very close to when you inform them that you will bring them more information.
This also works very well if you don’t know something that they ask you.
Question:
“What can we do to fix this problem?”
Answer:
“I understand what you’re saying. I will look into it and get back to you in two hours. By 1 PM today.”
in this case, it’s important that you:
1. Take responsibility for yourself and your team.
2. Communicate that you understand this responsibility.
3. Gives strict timelines. (if it’s not possible, you can always say that there is a problem, but do it before the deadline.)
4. Use certain key language.
“ I understand you”
“ I understand what you were saying”
“ I wanted to inform you”
“ we are working on it right now”
UX writing is an essential part of UX design, which plays a huge role in providing qualitative user experience. The job of a UX writer is to compose texts for a digital product, which can be of two types: microcopy (labels, buttons, notifications and other small notes) and macrocopy (larger texts like written content on pages, instructions, information sheets). UX writing helps users easily navigate through the product, perform various tasks and get all the necessary information.
This is one of the most important articles I’ve written.
In this article, I’m going to dive deep into one of the largest differences between Russia and America pertaining to sales and marketing.
1. You must use your name.
2. You must have a personal approach.
3. You must show that you are involved.
4. You must show that you care about the needs and desires of the client.
Recently, I was faced with an interesting problem. I was asked to call clients without making it personal.
So let’s go back to when I was in America, living and working as a sales person. The company I work for, was very large, and had multiple branches around the Washington DC area. They had offices in three states.
They put me through a sales training course.
The biggest “take away” from the course…..
You’re not selling the product/
you’re selling yourself.
It's important to use your charisma and your genuine caring for the customer to win them over. Once they understand that you're actually trying to help them, then they will seriously consider the item you are telling them about.
I also want to say, very clearly, that it's not a prideful approach. It should be a professional approach. You're responsible to tell the customer/ the client all the benefits of the item and how this item will help their business.
Everything above pertains to sales in America. So if you are approaching America as a sales manager this is how you should craft your approach.
Now I've spoken to my colleague,
Kristina Pashnina and we have agreed upon some stark differences to the Russian sales climate. Here she will begin to tell you how the Russians see sales.
My last article stirred up some definite comments and even questions about different things in business. I’m going to keep giving you as much information as I can so that you can continue to do business as IT professionals outside of Russia with other countries.
How do you design a website that will be viewed in the west and appreciated by the people there?
What are the most important elements
for, America and other western markets?
Information shared below is exactly how I work with my IT professionals who are going to be participating in pre-sales to America. I tell them exactly this, and it helps prepare them to successfully sell the the United States companies.
As developers and IT companies, we must sell our software.
What can give you an edge in this very competitive market place?
Please, if you would allow me to let me explain why this is important and how this can make your company more successful. There’s a certain type of thinking that is conducive to working as a software developer. This is a very practical mindset, but it goes beyond that. If you have the mindset of direct thinking.
Here are examples:
I see the target a target and I don’t see obstacles
Вижу цель, не вижу препятствий
This is an example of the practical mindset, how is approaches the problem of development. It makes people who have this mindset, the best developers in the world.
Example of mindset:
Problem……………… find a solution………… No problem.
Notice how this looks exactly like a line of code?
This is well-known around the world in places where you would like to sell your software, the United States, Germany, Belgium, and the Middle East.
Countries where people have this mindset have the best developers.
now let’s talk about your competition:
Americans: during the center process, “find a solution” Americans are overly concerned about responsibility. This slows them down in the decision making process.
i’m writing this series articles to spearhead the new marketing campaign for into the American market. I will be covering a wide range of topics that will allow us to position the company in the proper way so that is excepted as a provider of High-quality software in America.
The key to converting an American CEO or CFO is the trigger point for the American business culture. The trigger point for America is responsibility. This means in business you must be responsible. You also look for business partners that are responsible.
But let’s take this into the newest more powerful view that we need to have now.
The scene from the point of you of the CFO sitting at the head of the financial controls of a large hospital conglomerate. Put yourself in the mind of the CFO. What are they concerned about?
As an American CFO they will be very concerned about whether they are being responsible in their job and responsible to the hospital, staff, shareholders, patients and the management above them.
And this is how we get our foot in the door in this American niche market. If we present ourselves as offering something that “May” give an answer to specific problems that they know that they have, they must give us a chance to present a Presale. The reason is because they are responsible, and if there is a solution as an American Director you must explore that solution.
It would be irresponsible to not explore a potential solution.
Then it’s a simple case to actually give value in the presale meeting and convince them that we can deliver some thing that will benefit their business and profits.
In our last article we covered the anatomy of a presale meeting gone wrong. In that article we posed some questions for everyone to think about. What exactly does an American company wanting to hire a Russian custom software development company, feel about this Russian company? What are they afraid of? What are their concerns?
In the end we came up with five concerns.
1. Is the company a fly by night company, is the company a one-day company?
2. Will they be professional in supporting or developing the software that they've sold to us?
3. Will they have proper data security?
And now the two new ones that are because of the mess the world is in now...
4. Will they be able to complete the project on time? This includes proper internet access an infrastructure to support IT.
5. Where is your team located? Are you still located in Russia?
Now we're going to look at the last 2, number four and five.
However let's look at number 5 first.
Many IT companies today if they want to work with the United States or even Europe they must not have their developers located inside of Russia. Matter of fact it goes so far that if a developer is located in Russia and they're using a VPN and somehow the VPN is breached the credentials are canceled for that developer to work on the project.
It's for this reason that Russian IT companies are opening offices around the world. Let's look at Armenia as an example.
Wait a minute I have to go back for a second...... We must discuss how countries look to America Canada and Western Europe. I basically give them a score based on questions that are brought up in the mind of the American company or European company.
