What would you do with $300 in AWS credits

Cary said:
Just waste it

How would you suggest I waste it

Teo said:

Cary said:
Just waste it

How would you suggest I waste it

I created a fun experimental project that streamed a game of RollerCoaster Tycoon to Twitch and let viewers participate by clicking on the screen. All inputs were accepted like in Twitch Plays Pokémon!

Unfortunately, it cost around $20 a day, haha.

@Phoenix
That sounds amazing and totally worth the $20 a day, in my opinion. Did you upload the project to GitHub? I’d love to see it!

Teo said:
@Phoenix
That sounds amazing and totally worth the $20 a day, in my opinion. Did you upload the project to GitHub? I’d love to see it!

Unfortunately, I didn’t share this project on GitHub since it was a huge mess, haha.

What really did all the heavy lifting was this Twitch extension/plugin. It’s not the most intuitive, but their Discord community is really helpful.

Try running one of the most powerful Minecraft servers for an hour and see if you can get to the end before your credits are gone.

Palmer said:
Try running one of the most powerful Minecraft servers for an hour and see if you can get to the end before your credits are gone.

Minecraft came out a bit after my time, but I might give it a try.

@Teo
So you were born yesterday?

Sal said:
@Teo
So you were born yesterday?

Yes, exactly

@Teo
As someone who wasn’t a big fan of Minecraft during its early days, I say give it a shot. You might be surprised :slight_smile:

Run an Aurora RDS for about 2 hours.

Avery said:
Run an Aurora RDS for about 2 hours.

This!! :joy:
I truly dislike RDS and how ridiculously expensive it is.

Accidentally burn $3000 in AWS credits.

Launch a large EC2 instance and just forget about it.

I would invest it all into crypto mining.

Peyton said:
I would invest it all into crypto mining.

That sounds interesting. What crypto would you mine with only $300 in AWS credits?

Teo said:

Peyton said:
I would invest it all into crypto mining.

That sounds interesting. What crypto would you mine with only $300 in AWS credits?

Just a heads up, this is usually against the terms of service for cloud providers.

@Zinnia
Dear Jeff Bezos, I will definitely NOT be mining crypto. Even with $300 worth, I wouldn’t consider it for a second because it’s wrong and against your terms of service. I value our relationship, Jeff.

@Teo
You probably could have pulled that off if you hadn’t spelled his name wrong… smh.

$300 in AWS credits… Here are some things I’d experiment with:

  • Spin up a powerful EC2 instance. Just to feel what it’s like. Want to try a different Linux distro or need a Windows server for something random? Now’s your chance, worry-free about costs.
  • Experiment with serverless functions (Lambda). Automate tasks, create a mini-API, or just learn the basics of serverless. It’s handy stuff nowadays.
  • Set up a proper S3 bucket for backups. We should all be backing things up, right? S3 is affordable and dependable.
  • Play with databases using RDS. Try out PostgreSQL, MySQL, or even some NoSQL options. Great for hands-on experience with different database setups.
  • If you’re into AI/ML, check Sagemaker’s free tier options. It may not let you train massive models, but it’s a good way to learn.

Basically, think of it as a playground! Experiment with stuff that piques your curiosity but that you hesitated to pay for before. Just keep an eye on usage so you don’t run it out too quickly (CloudWatch alerts are helpful!). Enjoy!