Adam Lein

Designer & web developer since the mid 1990's starting on the DEC intranet. User experience consultant since 1998. Photographer since 1995. Tech journalist since 2002.

#tech #journalism #photography #webdesign #ux #uxdesign #fedi22 searchable

Previously @adam in 2017.

Public Key

npub17wymzsllah3rrpz47nl3mwqgppzl6ram0k6k6y23kksn9het35asz4m6h8

NIP-05 Address

Adam@social-lein-us.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs08zd3g0l7mc33s32lflcahqyqs30ap7ahmdtdz9gmtgfjmu4c6wcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qr95m25

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub17wymzsllah3rrpz47nl3mwqgppzl6ram0k6k6y23kksn9het35asz4m6h8

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-04-10 15:51:23 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…4grq QR code/link invitations to DC chats are tied to i.delta.chat though, right?

2025-06-19 16:22:51 UTC

Anyone can buy those Police vests online and pretend to be ICE agents. https://youtu.be/FmpOZsjbCks

2025-06-18 22:07:57 UTC

This is what I always say: "It doesn't actually matter how cryptographically secure your end-to-end encryption is when 1 entity controls all ends and can instantly update them whenever they want." https://www.moparisthebest.com/against-silos-signal/

2025-06-17 23:57:05 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…v998 @nprofile…lkng We have Delta Chat, Simple X Chat, and Briar that are all actually open-source and decentralized encrypted messaging systems. I'd say they're even more user-friendly than Signal since there are no phone number requirements. Plus you make contacts via QR code key exchanges instead of letting the app scrape your contact list.

2025-06-17 15:04:44 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…lkng Signal is centralized just the same as Whatsapp though. What's stopping them from enshittifixation too? They're already doing closed-spurce things.

2025-06-16 01:02:53 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…64u0 Oh wait, I guess having the union down is a signal of dire distress according to the flag code. That's good then. https://us-flag.net/code/

2025-06-16 00:52:33 UTC

@nprofile…64u0 Carrying upside down USA flags makes you look like the enemy. You're not! You ARE the USA!

2025-06-12 14:52:05 UTC

I love that I can re-color individual parts of SVG graphics automatically for prefers-color-scheme user preferences using CSS! #WebDesign

2025-06-10 23:41:49 UTC

Which part of the Oath of Enlistment do you think Marines in LA will uphold?
"I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

2025-06-08 00:56:37 UTC

How Facebook and Yandex bypass your privacy controls. https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/meta-yandex-secretly-tracking-android-users/

2025-05-20 14:44:16 UTC

I should learn to do a floating IP, but it sounds complicated! https://docs.oracle.com/en/learn/oci-ip-failover/index.html#task-2-configure-the-cluster-and-the-floating-ip #OracleCloud

2025-05-14 11:45:49 UTC

Star Wars Andor was great!! I wish there was more of it, but I also wouldn't want to wait years more for the story to complete. So great how it matches up to the Rogue One movie!

2025-05-05 18:43:41 UTC

Jeez! The Signal clone the US gov uses was super easy to hack. https://www.404media.co/the-signal-clone-the-trump-admin-uses-was-hacked/

2025-05-01 00:19:01 UTC

I don't think I like the new Plex app UI. Good thing I've been making my own custom Jellyfin UI.

2025-05-01 00:14:22 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nvxe That’s what I learned in grade school! I hate that people don't do it so often. Sometimes I'll add to the conversation as if the acronym means something totally different from what they think it means just to be funny.

2025-04-25 00:15:06 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…faxx Ah, nice! The decentralized ones still work! That's good.

2025-04-24 23:35:04 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zndp @nprofile…3ufw Would that happen if it was actually decentralized?

2025-04-20 02:46:13 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hrqr Yeah. I have a 3 month free Xbox Game Pass coupon that I used to play Indiana Jones on PC. If not for that, I'd be playing the Mafia games that I got for $0.70 each when those were on sale.

2025-04-19 14:37:58 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hrqr You have me wondering too. $20 is alright: https://gg.deals/game/sonic-frontiers/
I almost put Indiana Jones & the Great Circle on my list after recently beating that, but the others were "replay multiple times with friends" good. Oh, I should have put Jackbox Drawful!

2025-04-19 12:33:12 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hrqr Same. That’s why it's on my list! :) The newest one I played was "Sonic CD" because it was free one day on Steam. Are any of the newer ones good? I bought Sonic Forces for my nephew and he beat it in like a day so I felt like that wasn't worth it.

2025-04-19 03:56:16 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hrqr
Ilo Milo
Super Mario Brothers
Ghost Recon Wildlands
Star Wars Kinect
Sonic the Hedgehog
Mortal Kombat (1992)
Tekken 3
Halo 4
Red Dead Redemption 2
Bioshock Infinite

2025-04-18 13:27:48 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…te5v Some of those servers may not work anymore so obviously test to find one that works well in your country. Or it's relatively easy to make your own video chat instance with these instructions: https://jitsi.github.io/handbook/docs/category/deployment

2025-04-18 00:13:32 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…te5v @nprofile…g4yp
In Settings>Advanced>Video Chat Instance > Enter one of these servers: https://github.com/tosterkamp/random-redirect/blob/develop/res/jitsi_servers.lst ....with this at the end of the URL: "$ROOM#config.prejoinPageEnabled=false"
Or if you want to start the call with audio only (no video), add "$ROOM#config.prejoinPageEnabled=false&#config.startWithVideoMuted=true"

2025-04-18 00:00:12 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…g4yp @nprofile…te5v Yeah, I know... the audio/video call requests should activate a special incoming call interface and better Jitsi integration. It takes too many clicks right now, but I imagine if you stand up your own server in whatever country, it will work. There's a switch you can send to the Jitsi server to bypass having to enter a name to start the call too.

2025-04-16 17:05:43 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…te5v Do the Jitsi Meet servers that you can add in the Video call settings not work either?

2025-04-16 01:19:13 UTC

Watching the entire end credits of "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" in order to listen to that amazing music! #Gaming

2025-04-13 23:08:13 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…g4yp Spike did have encryption last time I checked, but I haven't used it in a while, too. It might have only been between Spike users. They're not Gmail-only anymore and also offer email hosting for people who just want to point the domain MX record to them. I know the owner and lead developer if you want me to introduce. They had helped a bit with COI-dev at one point too.

2025-04-13 22:54:02 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…g4yp @nprofile…zkfh I'm still learning though, so I apologize for when I don't understand something.

2025-04-13 22:49:16 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zkfh A proprietary competitor to @nprofile…g4yp does group messages with list servers just like this and formats them as instant messages: https://www.spikenow.com/features/team-collaboration/ I don't know how they handle encryption within groups though, if at all.

2025-04-13 22:43:19 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zkfh Oh ok.

2025-04-13 22:43:00 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zkfh @nprofile…g4yp Yes, list servers use email.

2025-04-13 22:38:17 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zkfh Can we encrypt from Adam to group@example.com with one set of keys and then from group@example.com to Tokudan with another set of keys?

2025-04-13 22:29:21 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zkfh No, I'm talking about list servers. The way those work is you subscribe to group@example.com. Maybe an admin approves you or maybe it's instant. Then any subscriber on the list for that address can email that address and it will resend that message to all other subscribers from group@example.com. It CAN hide the address of each sender if you configure it that way. Then the entire conversation appears peer to peer, but it's going through one forwarder.

2025-04-13 22:19:21 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zkfh What do you mean? You don't want one group message owner knowing about everyone on the list? Isn't that better than everyone knowing about everyone on the list?

2025-04-13 22:14:21 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zkfh @nprofile…g4yp If public groups were really email Listservers like we've had for 30 years, the listserver address could be the only thing that knows your personal address as it would be syndicating your messages to the other subscribers under the listserver's email address. That method would also mean only having to encrypt between one address for each response.

2025-04-05 03:19:42 UTC

People really need to stop using SMS/RCS messaging all together.
ATT's SMS bridge is being shut down. https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1061254/

2025-04-04 21:13:21 UTC

Everyone's complaining about Nintendo Switch 2 games costing 80 dollars and I'm here buying Mafia 3 Definitive Edition for my Legion Go for 80 cents. https://gg.deals/game/mafia-iii/ #Gaming

2025-04-01 00:06:00 UTC

I hope Andor season 2 does not have any Jedi or light sabers in it. I love how season 1 and Rogue One are more like war movies without magical space wizards.

2025-03-28 21:35:10 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…2wc8 If it was open source we'd be able to see the source code for the "spam-filter @ e73138e" folder in https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server - That's closed source.

2025-03-28 15:09:21 UTC

Looks like another Windows Update this week... now I have to uninstall MS Teams on everything again!

2025-03-27 23:14:14 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…wmtj Oooh! That's way smaller than my current Debian microserver NAS with 4x3.5" drives.

2025-03-27 20:19:06 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…pvpy @nprofile…3ph2 That’s what I was going to say. They specifically removed standards compliance. Facebook messenger also used to have an email bridge so it worked with the biggest open messaging standard ever; SMTP! Also removed of course.

2025-03-26 19:06:00 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…e0vp Haha! Because he has a "tech support" t-shirt maybe?

2025-03-25 17:17:56 UTC

- reply

I was hoping the video would end with some insightful way of ending the cycle, but it didn't. :-/

2025-03-25 17:06:42 UTC

Is every civilization doomed to fail? Maybe so. https://youtu.be/uqsBx58GxYY

2025-03-25 13:29:37 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…8tld @nprofile…s8j9 @nprofile…nw9n Yeah, SimpleX checks all the trustworthy boxes. Signal doesn't deserve much trust since it's centralized, depends on phone numbers, can't be self-hosted, and the server isn't even open source anymore.

2025-03-25 13:02:34 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…85e3 @nprofile…x3tn
I was going to say, "not in mine" since the "invite" command only sends a generic URL & the "new chat" only allows searching by phone number or username, but now I see the QR code scan button hidden in the username search.

2025-03-25 12:35:57 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…x3tn Smarter still would be to use something that uses in-person QR code key sharing in order to join conversations... like Delta Chat, SimpleX, and Briar. Nothing confirms someone's identity better than the real world, right? Those are decentralized and actually open source, too.

2025-03-17 02:17:56 UTC

Google making a knowledge panel about you is way better than a blue checkmark on Twitter or Instagram. ;)

2025-03-14 13:22:31 UTC

Alright, $0.72 for Mafia 2 Definitive Edition PC sounds like a good deal. #Gaming #PCMasterRace https://gg.deals/game/mafia-ii-definitive-edition/

2025-03-11 13:14:03 UTC

Remember how cool Geocities was? https://cybercultural.com/p/geocities-1995/

2025-03-09 22:44:52 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…f7u3 I searched for my own Fediverse address "adam@social.lein.us" and other things that don't include that show up.

2025-03-09 22:39:40 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…f7u3 Cool, but it doesn't seem to load things that have any relation to the search terms.

2025-03-08 13:45:30 UTC

Updated my "Stop being naive" article with Skype's shut down announcement. https://bookofadamz.com/stop-being-naive-when-it-comes-to-things-like-whatsapp-telegram-signal-etc/

2025-03-07 10:07:57 UTC

Having Photoshop for graphic design on a phone was pretty cool 20 years ago. https://youtu.be/se1B5iRgMyA?si=XSN2cwZ6H6yOP866

2025-03-01 13:57:37 UTC

Is there anything stopping the Signal Technology Foundation from "pulling a Mozilla"?

2025-02-26 23:37:27 UTC

For the people who think GIF should be pronounced with a hard G... how do you pronounce the DOGE acronym?

2025-02-26 23:05:36 UTC

Ha! Growing Pains S06E16 from 1990 mentions Donald Trump going to a charity at their house and everyone is like, "Who's Donald Trump?" https://watch.plex.tv/show/growing-pains/season/5/episode/16?context.page=show.season&context.groupID=episodes&context.groupIndex=2&context.itemIndex=15

2025-02-24 02:56:54 UTC

The weather in NY was 40F today so people were out on their bicycles and motorcycles enjoying the warm weather. :)

2025-02-20 17:52:09 UTC

Ouch! Microsoft 365, Outlook, Hotmail, OneNote all not syncing now. That's a big outtage!

2025-02-19 16:54:19 UTC

My Raspberry Pi VPN and DNS uptime before yesterday was over 750 days! Upgrading to Pihole 6.0 and trying to fix log2ram killed it. :( Had to restore from a backup img.

2025-02-18 02:56:48 UTC

I switched to Cloudflare for DNS because they support TLSA records & Namecheap STILL does not. Something screwy was going on with one www domain loading the wrong NGINX server block, but it looks like I fixed it now.

2025-02-18 02:53:21 UTC

Personal websites successfully upgraded to PHP 8.4.4! Woo hoo!

2025-02-16 17:09:17 UTC

Email is so diverse and inclusive that it even works on a 1987 Amiga 500. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tztA6g7NKqA

2025-02-13 05:50:47 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nlst Well, if you want the encryption between servers to stay encrypted you gotta have the updated TLS, DNS, and certificate authentication stuff. So I think the modern security things are good to have. I still have to learn how to update my TLS key exchange parameters to a newer/better method.

2025-02-13 03:59:13 UTC

Sounds like this was written by someone who doesn't know anything about setting up an email server. https://www.xda-developers.com/tools-you-should-use-for-hosting-your-own-email-server/

2025-02-05 17:11:41 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…qz4x Ah ha! Point taken! Thanks

2025-02-05 14:17:34 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…yn4x @nprofile…args Still that's often easier and cheaper than programming it all from scratch though. :)

2025-02-05 13:55:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…wm95 People on Threads and Twitter literally refuse to read! It's like, I already answered that question if you scroll up.

2025-02-05 13:45:54 UTC

I don't think @nprofile…vvfe understands the meaning of enshittification, @nprofile…qz4x ... Not being able to copy/paste text from PDFs isn't enshittification. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/as-internet-enshittification-marches-on-here-are-some-of-the-worst-offenders/

2025-02-04 17:38:16 UTC

I feel like rsync isn't as fast as robocopy. Could that be?

2025-02-02 22:37:33 UTC

I wonder if "Crocodile Dundee" would be a good movie in 2025.

2025-02-02 03:37:38 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…843t I had high hopes for Matrix but now I hate it. Are there no anti-spam programs for it?! Just use a listserv like nature intended. https://bookofadamz.com/the-most-intelligent-people-on-the-internet-use-this-instead-of-slack-teams-or-discord/

2025-01-30 01:17:01 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…f456 What programs did you try it with so far? I'm just running a QEMU KVM for Windows programs in Debian now.

2025-01-30 01:14:35 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…843t Nice! I hope I don't miss your updates as you post more. :)

2025-01-30 01:11:06 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…843t Nice! Is it the SteamOS version or Windows? I can't seem to tell from the pictures. I told them when previewing the Legion Go in 2023 that they should try SteamOS on it. :)

2025-01-29 18:44:41 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…2uaj The first time I heard it was on "The Wonder Years" TV show in the 1980's. The kids would ask things like, "Do you like him, or like him like him?" Haha!

2025-01-28 22:48:17 UTC

A good look at the history of economy and what might happen next from Richard D. Wolff, an American economist and professor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFa4Lm_ZTyI

2025-01-28 01:46:59 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…qde4 The ones that are available are probably the fake ones.

2025-01-27 20:02:17 UTC

Wow, LM Studio already has support for DeepSeek R1. https://lmstudio.ai/

2025-01-27 00:29:07 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…mmu6 Gotcha. Plex doesn't seem to be good at photo libraries either, but Jellyfin seems to be great at videos and music so far!! Thanks!

2025-01-27 00:03:49 UTC

Got myself a @nprofile…mmu6 server running! Kind of disappointed it doesn't do photo libraries though.

2025-01-26 17:14:26 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nxda This one about historical videos is cool: https://fedi.video/c/historical Also the parent account: fedivideo@fedi.video

2025-01-26 03:59:50 UTC

In a synchronous environment, does Signal offer any security benefits that can’t be achieved with a modern version of TLS? https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/256443/in-a-synchronous-environment-does-signal-offer-any-security-benefits-that-can-t

2025-01-26 03:44:56 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…ypgd Why Signal? It's centralized and went closed-source in 2021 (See the "spam-filter @ c9a4cb2" module on https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server). Any of the federated open-source standards-based messaging systems would be more sustainable in the long run.

2025-01-26 00:27:25 UTC

If/When Tesla goes bankrupt and the servers are shut down, will all the existing Telsa cars even still work?

2025-01-26 00:00:33 UTC

We had some really futuristic stuff 12 years ago! Voice control for the TV? QR code slideshows? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbvm1At-vGc

2025-01-23 03:32:15 UTC

The 1 train driver just made an announcement, "Be sure to tell the people you love that you love them. We never know how much time we got left. 86th street next."

2025-01-21 16:04:31 UTC

I wonder if anybody noticed any parallels to Nazi Germany at the USA presidential inauguration yesterday.

2025-01-20 02:53:37 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…0dwp @nprofile…gllm I can't access my Signal account anymore because I stopped paying for the phone number. Someone else got the phone number and is now using my Signal account. How do I log back in without a phone number capable of SMS?

2025-01-19 23:03:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gllm Probably shouldn't trust Signal either since it requires your phone number, SMS to log in, is completely centralized, and isn't even open-source on the server anymore with the anti-spam component they added.

2025-01-16 14:22:25 UTC

It's been 10 years since Facebook stopped using the open standard interoperable XMPP protocol for messaging! https://web.archive.org/web/20150326013317/https://developers.facebook.com/docs/chat

2025-01-13 22:04:17 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…0tp5 Probably shouldn't be going through a central point at all, but directly to each other in a web-like pattern.

2025-01-13 16:32:40 UTC

When I review restaurants on Google Maps or whatever, I like to include the prices I paid at the time. That way the restaurant has to tell other people, "Oh, $14 was last year's price. Now it's $24."

2025-01-10 13:08:54 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…asy0 @nprofile…l638 Nice! How is the IE 8 graceful degradation?

2025-01-09 01:26:23 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…a5wt Which distro are you going to put on it? With my PineBook Pro battery bulge, I'm thinking about another Linux laptop too.

2025-01-08 14:20:15 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…lspt The point is that you have to make that assumption based on faith/imagination, not a verifiable reproducible process. They could be using that component for anything now. The other 3 I mentioned prevent spam in a transparent way since they do encryption key sharing in-person and don't depend on phone numbers for ID.

2025-01-08 07:21:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…lspt @nprofile…pej0 Yes, they announced it 01 Nov 2021: https://signal.org/blog/keeping-spam-off-signal/ And as we know, if any part of the system is closed source, the whole thing might as well be.
https://social.lein.us/system/media_attachments/files/113/791/518/469/308/259/original/c43b8351d2eec794.jpg

2025-01-08 06:34:57 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…pej0 Signal is centralized though so not sustainable. Plus it's dependent on phone company SMS for ID and in 2021 they added a closed source component for scanning content. Better choices would be DeltaChat, Briar, or SimpleX chat all of which use QR codes to exchange encryption keys, are fully auditable, and fully self-hosting capable.

2025-01-08 00:08:14 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…zyd3 Yeah me too! I have ancestors from Norway so your instance will be fun for me to follow.