alt Hacker News... I think you're reading a bit much into it. It's less that I couldn't afford to pay that, and more that I didn't want to pay that, and iterating on the solution I used to dodge that led me down a giant rabbit hole of learning more about Linux while solving stupider and stupider problems posed for myself.
That four part blog was one of the most entertaining things I've read this year, thanks.
Really in the spirit of "hacker" news IMO.
I get the motivation, it's less avoiding the 1.50 per month and more like a challenge to work around it!