Hall Of Fame

This is my personal hall of fame, a collection of the products, services, and creative works I genuinely love and wholeheartedly recommend to friends. Each entry has earned my trust and admiration.

Digital Products / Services:

Home Assistant:

A self-hosted open-source gateway to a smart home that doesn't spy on users. It provides the foundation for a home that is intelligently automated, not constantly monitored.

Immich:

A self-hosted open-source photo and video management service aimed at storing your media on your own server that you can access from anywhere. It features advanced machine learning algorithms, that run locally, to comb through your media to find the file that you are searching for. No recurring subscriptions or storage space limitations, just add a new hard-drive pool to increase the capacity.

Nextcloud:

I grew tired of my personal information living on the servers of giant tech companies, being scanned, analyzed, and monetized. Nextcloud flips that model on its head. It’s a sovereign suite of productivity tools that puts you in charge, ensuring your private life stays private. It began as a way to replace Google Drive, but it has become the entire digital hub of my life. Files, documents, calendars, contacts, and more, all running on a server I control. Integrations like OnlyOffice (an alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Suite of document editors) allow you to have a similar experience to Microsoft 365, a document editor in the cloud that is accessible on any of your devices. Start on one device and continue on another.

Initial setup is painful. My first time setting it up, I wanted to throw my keyboard at the monitor due to the errors. It was easier the second time I set it up for my friend. If you configure it correctly and set it up the first time, you don't have to fiddle with it again, at least in >98% of the cases.

Nextcloud began as a fork of ownCloud and has since evolved into its own independent project. While the two platforms share similar core functionality, they have diverged in development and vision. Both are robust solutions trusted by organizations worldwide, including the university I currently attend, which uses ownCloud.

Link to Nextcloud home/private users homepage

OnlyOffice:

An open-source community version of a document editing suite, a reliable alternative to Microsoft Office, while maintaining dependable file formatting that works in Microsoft Office and vice versa. Still limited in some features, however, it has everything that I use 99% of the time. No telemetry, no ads, no AI going through my documents.

Librewolf:

A key component of my everyday digital life. The primary browser that I do my work on. The browser is a fork of the fox, with ublock orign, container tabs and more privacy features turned on by default. It is totally possible to get the same feature set on the fox with tweaking the settings and extensions.

Fedora:

My operating system of choice on my desktop and laptop. After a lot of distro-hopping, I eventually settled on Fedora KDE. It has everything I need and works as I expected it to. My only nitpick is that lack of proper multi-finger gesture support on my laptop.

Hardware:

Framework Laptops:

Fully repairable, customizable, upgradable laptops. Expensive compared to the competition for same specifications, however all the parts are available on their website and the repairability aspect makes them last longer, rather than ending up in a landfill.

https://frame.work/de/en

Fairphone Series:

Repairable phones with mid-range processors, great battery life, expandable storage (damn, I miss that feature) long warranty and software support. Expensive compared to competition, limited availability based on your country. Easy to repair and replace phone parts and assemblies. Can last years. Love the idea, hoping the next iteration will have a better processor that can compel me to switch.

Current iteration of Fairphone smartphone's homepage.

GL.iNet Routers:

Stock OpenWrt routers directly from the company. A viable option for people who don't want the hassle of flashing their routers with OpenWrt. Good balance of hardware, tech and features while being reasonably priced. I myself use a Flint 3 router from GL.iNet.

Youtube Channels:

The Diary Of A CEO:

Amazing podcasts where Mr. Steven Cliff Bartlett brings in a experienced professional in any field to have a conversation with. Every podcast/video is insightful, condensing the guest's lifetime experience into a single video/podcast. I found many professionals that I follow from this podcast, ranging from nutritionists, finance experts, doctors, etc., If there's only one podcast that I can recommend to everyone, It would be this.

Veritasium:

Great videos on everything science related. Mr. Derek Alexander Muller brings science topics from our everyday lives and explains the intricacies in great detail. I liked all of the videos from Veritasium, and the only YouTube channel whose videos I watch on the day they were released.

Think School:

Geo-political news analysis, politics, finance and business case studies by Mr. Ganesh Prasad, primarily from the Indian perspective and how it affects the market, businesses and livelihood in India and abroad. Insightful finance and entrepreneurship related case studies. I always look forward to the Think School's case studies and are also the videos that I frequently share to my friends and family.

Nischa:

Finance related content creator, whom I found from the Diary Of A CEO podcast. I like the simple, byte-sized insightful finance information shared through her videos.

Raj Shamani:

Similar to the Diary Of A CEO YouTube channel.

Watch-list Recommendations:

I watch movies, TV series and anime very rarely. There are many amazing multimedia available for streaming, however, there are very few that you wholeheartedly recommend to everyone irrespective of the genres they love watching. This list is my personal recommendation.

Person Of Interest (TV Series):

My first-ever TV series that I actually watched and loved. I watched this based on 7+ recommendations from my friends from different circles and acquaintances. And 3 of the people recommended saying I was relatable to a character in the series. When 3 people said the same thing, I had to watch, and I loved it.

Dr. Stone (Japanese Anime Series):

Follow the journey of a young scientist who along with the rest of the world gets petrified and turns into stone. The main character, Senku Ishigami awakens from his slumber after thousands of years and plans to work his way to jump start the civilization. Damn, I would like to write more but anything I write made me realize I'm giving spoilers for the anime. At the very least, I would suggest everyone to give this anime a try.