iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I checked your bio. Fellow DevRel. 🫡 It's tough out there. Sending solidarity.

I feel you there. Glug glug glug

Right now I'm just grieving the loss of what I loved and trying to find the joy in the remaining bits I care about.

Easier said than done. I did this before in my late 20's into something I loved, that paid well, that didn't require a student loan. This time around it's looking more like saddling myself with student debt + earning less money + entering a workforce as a tired 40+ year old woman. Less enticing.

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Balance Phone: The minimalist smartphone

Yeah! Google maps or any other nav app you use. It's just a samsung phone, so you can download any app you would usually use. Just not anything social porn or gambling related www.thebalancephone.com#url-checker

thebalancephone.com

Balance Phone is the minimalist smartphone designed for kids and digital minimalists - no social media, no games, no gambling, no adult content, no streaming, no distractions. Just what you need to st...

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The algorithms need feeding and we've found a super fast way to feed them.

As a very wise human said "I am very upset I had to write any of this, but here we both are."

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Agreed! And I'm still optimistic. I went to EMF camp last weekend and that was a glorious mess of human creativity and tech weirdness. It's still out there.

I cut off social apps from my phone ages ago, but I could still use reddit in the browser, and that became a replacement quite quickly. I love that social's locked down in the browser on this OS too.

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I tried an old dumb phone for a bit, but I missed signal and it was absolute hell trying to navigate life without banking apps and parking apps etc. This is working really well for me so far. I've been reading again in the evenings instead of scrolling. That in itself is worth it for me.

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Definitely. I did that on IOS for a while - but I could just disable it when it got annoying, download apps if I wanted, and I could still hit all the social sites and reddit and youtube in my browser. I needed to be saved from myself 😂

videogame history @vghistory.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Reposted by Cassie Evans

macromedia shockwave, print ad (1999) archive.org/details/eu_W...

prominent text:
shockwave makes your website groovy, baby!
photo: austin powers and felicity shagwell back to back, holding pistols, smiling, against a shagadelic background of coloured flower outlines.
smaller text:
austinpowers.com uses
the shockwave player to deliver the
web's most shagadelic experience.
when you want more of the world to visit your site and return more often,
reach for the director 7 shockwave internet studio. it's the secret agent
of engaging and entertaining sites that add life to the web.
www.macromedia.com
add life to the web

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It's a strange time, and it's not the internet I fell in love with anymore.

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I want real tangible art. Imperfections, books, gigs in little venues with friends. Problems that you have to really think about, that take time to build. I want that "aha" moment you get in the shower or while walking in the forest. Everything feels throwaway, too noisy, too empty, too demanding.

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My job is to help people build fun, engaging, visual things on the internet. My current personal baseline is to avoid all engaging visual things on the internet for my mental health. Conundrum.

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Shaw @shaw.city · 24/07/2026

I'm so burnt out from AI era velocity, slop posts, bots and the attention economy, that I've recently got a balance phone. It's black & white, doesn't allow social, and has reduced motion on by default. It's wonderful. But actively avoiding being online does leave me feeling weird about my job.

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Reposted by Cassie Evans

🚀 🚀 It's launch day! 🚀 🚀 CodePen 2.0 is officially released! To celebrate, there's: 1. A brand new homepage codepen.io/2 2. An in-depth blog post blog.codepen.io/2026/07/23/t... 3. A Podcast blog.codepen.io/2026/07/23/4... 4. A brand new @keyframe.rs live stream youtube.com/live/sgwPEW1...

codepen.io

CodePen – Online Code Editor For Building & Deploying Websites

Build, share & learn with CodePen 2.0, the best community for developers with an all new online code editor featuring a file system, compiler, realtime & async collaboration, deployment, and more.

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Reposted by Cassie Evans

Chris Coyier @chriscoyier.net · 21/07/2026

A bonus reason to have `alt` text is so when your images fail, it's funnier.

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I can verify that it was indeed about a million degrees. That's celsuis, I'm not certain in freedom units, maybe 33 million?

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Shaw @shaw.city · 08/07/2026

Basically the dune stillsuits, except the water just pools in your shoes and doesn't get recycled.

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Reposted by Cassie Evans

Did the @keyframe.rs really…? 💻 Build a fully playable Lunar Landing page 🎮 Make a controller programmed with JavaScript 🧑‍🚀 Wear polyester space suits in a 90° studio 🚀 Create custom Keyframers mission patches for said polyester suits 🥵 Nearly die from heat exhaustion caused by said polyester suits

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I haven't visited your blog in a while - that little box entrance animation is so cute

My figma files are the same, and big same on not wanting subjective feedback 😂

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Blown away by the production quality, care and effort put in by @jason.energy and his amazing team. Such a dream to get to hang out with the OG Keyframers crew - @shaw.city and @davidkpiano.bsky.social, the newbies on the block (Osmo) AND internet bestie @strange.website

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Some real human creativity goes down a treat at the moment.

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I felt the tension when the rover was broken with 30 seconds to go. 🫠

Chris Coyier @chriscoyier.net · 07/07/2026

Reposted by Cassie Evans

Cinema.

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OG codepen gang! Gonna have to get you on next time. 🥹

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Watching this now and can't stop grinning.

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I am very, very much not looking for someone to try and play devils advocate here

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I was genuinely baffled by the tone of your responses but missed emotional cues make sense. The engagement that I care about - in my community - is gone. Metrics that kept my friends in jobs have dropped and people I love have been let go or had to change careers.

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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Why do you feel the need to explain this to me? I'm aware that my industry is changing. Do you feel that people experiencing grief over the end of something they cared about negates your experience somehow?

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Reposted by Cassie Evans

My LinkedIn is full of posts by former Microsoft colleagues who accepted the voluntary retirement offer. I counted at least 9 posts from people I worked with in the past. For some reason, it felt even sadder than layoff posts. It was hard to put into words until this post from a now ex-Microsoftie.

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Personal sites aside - In DevRel corporate measures the worth of edu material, docs and community with clicks, engagement and other stats. LLM's scrape and resurface that content elsewhere, So simply put - no clicks, no engagement, no budget, no edu content, no jobs, no people to help.

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I don't feel very whimsical nowadays unfortunately.

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It was very fun to make. It brought me a lot of joy!

Reposted by Cassie Evans

LLM's are helpful because they're trained on years of high quality educational material and forums where people helped each other. People aren't visiting forums or paying for educational content anymore because of LLM's. The well isn't going to magically fill itself in perpetuity.

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Cassie Evans @cassiecodes.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

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Not sure what to say to this, thank you