iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 07/09/2026

This week I have made several UX improvements to the home page and comparison page of Stackipedia.

Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 27/08/2026

Can you help me fix this abysmal font rendering on KDE 6.6.6? Fresh system, 100% scaling, no hinting, sub-pixel rendering at RGB and anti-aliasing is enabled? Google can't seem to help. Everyone apparently has 4K monitors with scaling, I use a 1080p monitor and can't get it right. #kde #linux

bad font rendering on kde on cloudflare's page

#linux #gnome #kde #linuxmint #sysadmin #arch #design #fedora #debian #ubuntu

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 21/08/2026

Here are some pictures I clicked at home recently 🙏💗 #photography #flowers #bloomscrolling #roses #garden

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 11/08/2026

One shotted apps and websites are the bane of my existence. Same goes for overtly verbose emails clearly lengthened by AI

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 09/07/2026

Clearing out the shelves and realizing 80% of my personality is just hoarding ex-university library sales from like a decade ago 📚 Time to pass these classics along to someone else. #reading #books

some used and well read books in a shelf

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 19/05/2026

My current phone, the Galaxy A52 is a gone case. Will be updating soon, I am looking at Motorola's Edge 60 Pro. Is that a good choice? I've going to ditch Samsung this time around. Are Pixels 10 or 10a good for the extra cost? What about the phones by One Plus? Vivo's T4 Pro is also close.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 15/05/2026

‪Yes! There's clean water supply at home now. Straight from the ground. This might seem a like a trivial post to most, but to me it's such a relief. No more week-long summer rationing mandated by the government, no more dirty water 😊

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 24/04/2026

Losing my mind since there has been no water supply in my area for 3 days now. The perks of living in India.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 14/04/2026

Before you buy that nice hoodie online, ask yourself, "Am I willing to delete one extra email every day for the rest of my life?"

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 04/04/2026

I completed a long due book called Piranesi today. The author has elected for a slightly different story-telling style, with the entirety of the text being in the form of a journal by the protagonist. There are elements where the writing shines but it wasnt for me. Not bad, not good either. #reading

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 25/03/2026

The year is 2026 and yet it remains impossible to simply drag and drop an events.ics file directly into my Google Calendar and have it block a time-slot. Dear Alphabet, not all our meetings happen in the realm of the Gmail/Meet combo, please add this 😭

A sample screenshot of Calendar from Google's blog

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 24/03/2026

Incredibly humbled to have been featured in Harvard's Nieman Journalism lab and Adexchanger this weekend. Do read. www.adexchanger.com/daily-news-r... www.niemanlab.org/reading/the-...

adexchanger.com

The JavaScript Overload; Whatever, AI Will Handle It | AdExchanger

Why do individual web pages now require as much memory to run as an entire operating system did 30 years ago? Ad tech, baby.

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Reposted by Pheonix

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 19/03/2026

An analysis of a NYT article load finds 422 network requests totaling 49MB, triggering a sprawling programmatic ad auction, an example of "hostile architecture" (Shubham Bose) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

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Reposted by Pheonix

lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 19/03/2026

"The reader is not respected enough by the software. The publisher is held hostage by incentives from an auction system that not only encourages but rewards dark patterns."

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Reposted by Pheonix

mitch said @mitchsaid.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

nothing better illustrates the desperate search for a media business model like a 50MB web page with a 90:10 ad-to-content ratio

thatshubham.com

The 49MB Web Page

A look at modern news websites. How programmatic ad-tech, huge payloads and hostile architecture destroyed the reading experience.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 08/12/2025

Living through the worst time of my life right now, it takes all I've got to see the positive in things. Hope there's a sunrise beyond the darkness.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 23/11/2025

Oh wow great. Just what I needed. A seasonal flu and itchy throat. The perks of living in hazardous-level AQI for months does that to you.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 10/11/2025

I've begun reading two books simultaneously yesterday. 800+ pages each. Let's see how it goes.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 10/11/2025

Logged a complaint with the municipal corporation for something and a month ago. Today, they sent a message saying it was resolved. Funny thing is they called for feedback but I didn't pick up cause their number is automatically marked as "potential fraud" on my Samsung phone's caller ID 😂

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 10/11/2025

I'm really thinking about experimenting with a adblocking DNS service on the Sony Bravia (Google TV) at home. I know the settings might be tough to find. OTT apps have started showing ads in the middle of some of their programs and its becoming a menace. Why did I pay you an yearly premium buddy?

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 09/11/2025

What is the best thing about living in Switzerland? Well, the flag is a big plus.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 04/11/2025

Was thinking that over time hanging out feels like a chore. It hit me that this post covid era is wack and I'm still processing 2020. That pandemic changed me. I wish I could have these five years back.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 31/10/2025

Not a single Under Armour outlet near my place or in my city. Only option is getting it online and this sucks 😒

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 30/10/2025

Open for a surprise! Some flowers from my garden 😊🌹✨ #flowers #nature #photography #bloomscrolling #garden

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 30/10/2025

Mosquitos in this part of the world deserve special place in hell. And this is their prime season 🤦‍♂️

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 21/10/2025

Cleaning out your bedroom and cupboards is less about organization and more about an archeological exploration of who you used to be.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 21/10/2025

That post-festive tiredness hits different! Especially when it comes to Diwali (which was yesterday), an event that builds up after weeks of anticipation and prep. Deep cleaning homes, setting up diyas+lights and so much more! I took some nice photos of the main day, will share in the coming days🙏✨

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Reposted by Pheonix

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Shubh Deepavali! Wishing everyone a very happy Diwali. Across our city, families are lighting diyas and celebrating the triumph of light over darkness and hope over despair. New York shines brighter tonight because of the people who bring their light and traditions home.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 07/10/2025

If a day comes when I'm asked to pick a favorite superhero movie, the Dark Knight trilogy will be somewhere in the top five. [ #movies #darkknight #batman #joker #dc]

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 07/10/2025

If anything, bluesky ought to have had a bigger character limit than twitter. Be a clone, but be a better clone.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 05/10/2025

This coming Diwali, I'll be sitting on an airplane after a gap of 2 years. Very excited about it. Can't wait to get overpriced airport coffee and infinite walk to the boarding terminal 😅

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 03/10/2025

What even is that special about the movie mean girls? My gf has seen it like a dozen times its her comfort movie for some reason. The same goes for the devil wears prada or twilight. Never saw the appeal but of course I gotta sit through even when I doze off 😭

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 29/09/2025

You can't hurt me you're not instrumental versions of my favorite 00s hits being played in the grocery store.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 26/09/2025

Well, now the season gets interesting. What seemed like was a build up has finally started to come to fruition. Can't wait for episode 7. Love it! #peacemaker #DC #episode6

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 24/09/2025

If the end of Windows 10 doesn't spawn the year of the #Linux desktop, what will?

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 24/09/2025

Someone somewhere shared my extension and it's gotten a low of downloads yesterday. The website too got a lot of hits, wish I knew where the traffic came from. So glad either way. Happy browsing!

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 21/09/2025

Why I personally feel people are attached to retro interface and design is not only because familiarity but also cause: 1. It was the first to develop as the world moved from terminals to GUI, and the firsts are always treasured. 2. The UX and workflows of those early days stuck. Kinda like a..

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 21/09/2025

Samsung's Health, the app I've recently used to track a bunch of stuff has a food section too! Unfortunately, it is really lacking in Indian cuisine. Kind of a mixed bag really. I search for dishes and it's got 1/10 things. Lookup whey protein and it lists all Indian brands. Wish they worked on it.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 20/09/2025

Navratri and Diwali season coming up. Time to start prepping, cut some weight and get ready for the festivities lol

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 11/09/2025

Urban themed photo for a change 📷👍 #photography #urbanphotography

Picture of a multi-level building interior with escalators and nice ambient lighting

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 06/09/2025

I switched my dad's old computer from Windows 10 to #Linux Mint. It's better in almost all ways! His desktop is low on specs and was often running slow. Last week it was unusable! Mostly browses the web and uses MS Office. #LibreOffice found him right at home. And #Firefox replaced Edge 😊💪

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 29/08/2025

I've got the numbers of my closest people memorized. Just a force of habit, I guess.

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 27/08/2025

I wrote a little something about the growing prevalence of AI into a lot of tools - thatshubham.com/blog/ai #ai #llm #privacy #surveillance #enshittification

thatshubham.com

Is there a no-AI audience?

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Pheonix @thatshubham.com · 03/07/2025

Coming weekend, I will try to finish this book. It's written mostly for people interested in geopolitics with a bit of policy and history thrown into the mix and is a departure from my usual reads but interesting nonetheless. #books #reading

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