respect the collective commitment

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

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 😭

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-...

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

"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."

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

The NYT front page is 49 megabytes, larger than the original install disk size for Windows 95 thatshubham.com/blog/news-au...

Thank you for your kind words. It took me about a week to improve the first gigantic draft...which was initially intended to be read by a small subset of technical folks. I'm truly amazed by how far and wide it spread and resonated with so people!

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.

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.

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

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 😂

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?

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

gallery dump

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.

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

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

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

A fancy Diwali diya at home. #photography #creative #diwali #art

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

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🙏✨

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.

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]

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

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 😅

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 😭

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

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

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

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!

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..

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.

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

Sunlight on a plant 🌿☺️ #flowers #gardening #photography #blooms #nature

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

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 😊💪

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

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

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

Today, we hit the exact mid point of the year. In other words, not only are we closer to the end of this year, 2050 is now closer in time than the year 2000.

Haircut makes me a feel like a new human, always.

Rain lilies if my guess is correct. I love them, very cute and really stay true to their names. Here's a pic I took yesterday evening! #flowers #gardening #photography #blooms #nature

It was 1984 when the last Indian went to space. The next is combat leader and seasoned test pilot Shubhanshu Shukla with the Axiom Mission 4. And guess what? This astronaut is from my city, attended the same school as me and his home is just a 10-minute drive from here! Beyond cool! 🇮🇳✨

After I had given the exam, I had a little time to kill. It was raining as well. I went to a nearby small park which had many roses. Wish I had taken more pics because the colors were stunning and unique. Does anyone know what the name of this one is? #roses #gardening #nature #photography

Good to be back online. I had an exam this Saturday which kept me occupied for the last few days. It was in another city. I had to travel the previous day and it was hectic but went well, I think. 😊

Ouch

Just had the first ever business call with a company, and it went good, I think. I may have fumbled my words a little bit, nerves man! But eventually got it together. The business head wanted me to send a proposal and they agreed to send me samples too. Dang that, nervous energy people 🥶