iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kenny @kennyqin.com · 06/02/2026

I hosted my own Pleroma node for a few years ago, actually. I think I'll just quit social networks completely rather than doing that again. 🙂

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 25/01/2026

I haven't posted here in a while and, truthfully, that's partly because I didn't appreciate logging in one day to see a bunch of age verification nonsense. In Australia, Bluesky is not mandated to do anything but, yet, they did. No drastic actions for now but I probably won't post much anymore.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 06/12/2025

I managed to get "Reverse Scroller" set up to reverse the scroll input for my locked down MacBook. It's still insanity that I need a third-party app to do this but at least it's done now. 😌

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 01/12/2025

I went searching for my next yearly mobile plan. Again, there's nothing for minimalists like myself. In the last year, I used 12GB of data and that's with more impulse browsing than usual. The cheapest plan I can find is ~$150. PAYG plans are impractical as the cheapest one I found is $51 per GB.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 01/12/2025

It's been almost two weeks with me trying to adjust to scrolling in reverse to what I'm used to. I hate it because whenever I switch to my non-Apple machines, I then have to re-train myself again. Thinking about just abandoning using a mouse.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 18/11/2025

Thanks. I actually do really appreciate that insight.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 18/11/2025

Got a mouse to use with MacOS and forgot that you can't have separate "natural scrolling" settings for trackpad and mouse. I want to throw this whole setup in the bin now. No, I can't use a utility to fix it. This machine is locked down.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 16/11/2025

I just saw that at the bottom of the article I linked that the contact picker needs to be specifically used by apps. What the heck.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 16/11/2025

Anyone remember the "Say no to Black Friday" campaigns from a few years ago? 🤔 www.reddit.com/r/tutanota/c... www.facebook.com/tutaprivacy/...

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 03/11/2025

I joined a tech interest group today. Most of the participants were 70+. Surprisingly, they were quite informed on a lot of topics. Despite mistakenly claiming that Facebook and Google are owned by the same company, one ~80 year old said his social group shies away from FB due to privacy concerns!

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 31/10/2025

Call me slow but I just found out that #AppleEarPods have a USB-C variant. I grabbed one immediately due to its reasonable price and I'm already convinced that it'll be my go-to for voice calls on Android as well as for as for voice chats when gaming on my #SteamDeck. Such a great product!

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 27/10/2025

A friend linked an Instagram post with no context whatsoever that I ignored. The next time I saw them, they mentioned a restaurant that apparently they'd messaged me about. I had to kindly tell them that I can't view Instagram posts because Meta makes you log in...

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 16/10/2025

Not sure if there's a better way to do it but I achieved it by following the "Add a custom search engine in Settings" instructions. support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add...

support.mozilla.org

Add or remove a search engine in Firefox | Firefox Help

This article explains how to add or remove the search engines that Firefox uses.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 16/10/2025

Just switched my default browser search engine to noai.duckduckgo.com. This isn't an anti-AI move. I'm just trying to be mindful of the additional compute being used all the time.

noai.duckduckgo.com

DuckDuckGo - Protection. Privacy. Peace of mind.

The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 03/10/2025

As someone who's dabbled a fair amount in self-hosting, photo management is really something I don't think I want to spend the energy managing. Ente is actually self-hostable if I change my mind. 😀

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 03/10/2025

@ente.io is a media management tool that I've been using for 2 months now. I love that I can organise and share (with others) my photos and videos knowing that everything is private. The price is affordable and I can see myself using for many years to come. 🤞 This post was not sponsored. 😅

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 11/09/2025

I also looked at Plus Codes which is similar. It's not as user friendly but at least it's open and already adopted in the map apps I use. I just can't imagine sharing the code verbally to someone in an emergency scenario. plus.codes

plus.codes

Redirecting...

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 11/09/2025

TIL about what3words. I quite like the concept but it's proprietary and the company behind it will take legal action against you down for stepping outside their ecosystem making it a nonstarter for me; not to mention that their app doesn't work on my phone without installing more proprietary crap.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 08/07/2025

TIL: After installing Fedora Silverblue, you should almost immediately install the Flathub version of Firefox if you want a functional browser for video streaming. This is because there are a bunch of dependencies that are a pain to manage that just work out of the box with the Flathub installation.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 28/06/2025

Tell me you're an evil company without telling me you're evil. People often ask me why I disallow them to take photos of me. It's because of bullshit like this. 👇

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 27/06/2025

Unpopular opinion: Steam sales need to stop being glorified. Games are often on sale throughout the year and often cheaper on other legitimate websites. This has been true for many years now.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 23/06/2025

Just had a scramble to join a video call because Zoom no longer seems to allow Android devices to join through the browser by using "Desktop site". I, relunctantly, installed the APK which didn't work anyway. I then resorted to joining the call without a webcam on another device. Boo. 👎

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Reposted by Kenny

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Use Signal. We promise, no AI clutter, and no surveillance ads, whatever the rest of the industry does. <3

Image of a screenshot of news headline, saying, "WhatsApp is getting ads using personal data from Instagram and Facebook
Forced Consent & Consent Bypass
/
16 June 2025
Meta announced today that it also wants to introduce ads on WhatsApp, which will be based on personal data from Facebook and Instagram. This further integrates WhatsApp into other Meta services - an originally independent app, which initially was available for just $1 per year without ads or data usage. This also means that Meta is consolidating its social networking monopoly. EU law was actually supposed to prevent this."

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 19/05/2025

I've been waiting like 5 years for this. lol

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 15/05/2025

I've seen a bunch of people and orgs make a huge deal out of the Steam "leak". They even go so far as to link to Steam's official announcement where Valve says it's all a load of nothing. 🤦

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 28/04/2025

Thank you to the person who let me use their Windows machine to install the "XBox Accessories" Windows app so that I could update the firmware of a few official XBox controllers so that they could pair with my Linux machine over Bluetooth.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 03/04/2025

Tailscale has been great in my homelab and its been something I've talked about with others on multiple occasions. #5yearsofTailscale

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 29/03/2025

The "Limited Access" to Contacts feature in iOS 18 is great. It should be the default and users should be warned when giving apps full access. Users should be responsible for the contacts shared with an app. In reality, most people will just give full access. support.apple.com/en-au/guide/...

support.apple.com

Control access to your contacts on iPhone

On iPhone, you control which of your contacts an app can access.

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Reposted by Kenny

Signal @signal.org · 25/03/2025

Right now there are a lot of new eyes on Signal, and not all of them are familiar with secure messaging and its nuances. Which means there’s misinfo flying around that might drive people away from Signal and private communications. 1/

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 26/03/2025

I've found that LinkedIn becomes a lot more tolerable once you've configured your notifications properly. Those LinkedIn Premium ads though...

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 21/03/2025

Overnight, a bunch of Australian Mullvad servers started being blocked by Reddit. Back to using frontends. Redlib has been working well so far.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 20/03/2025

My current, temporary desktop setup is a Steam Deck with a basic M/KB combo connected to a UGREEN USB hub connected to a GL-MT300N-V2 via Ethernet. My Android phone works well as a webcam. I have a notebook but it doesn't satisfy the gaming itch. It all just works. 🤓 Sent from my Steam Deck.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 19/03/2025

Got scammed in the last few weeks with this no longer circulated 1977 Australian 2c coin. Presumably, it was given as a change where the cashier thought it was a $2 coin. I think it's the first one I've ever held and it's pretty neat.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 13/03/2025

I've been catching up on the whole boycott US companies thing and realised I've already been unofficially doing it for a while now...

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 25/02/2025

I saw this on Hacker News. It was really interesting. 🙂

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 20/02/2025

I dined at a relatively well known German restaurant that uses a QR ordering system. They had a daily surcharge that added like 40c to the total. I went to the counter instead and paid the amount with no surcharge. I get QR ordering systems to save on cost but to then pass it onto patrons. 👎

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 17/02/2025

Pretty annoyed at @humblebundle.com right now. Compared to how they used to be a decade ago, they feel extremely scammy nowadays with their expiring keys and games that don't replenish keys for months. They definitely don't live up to their name anymore. old.reddit.com/r/humblebund...

old.reddit.com

I claimed all of my keys. 32 of them are Exhausted.

After hearing about the news about Humble Bundle no longer providing key if it's out of stock after 3 years, I managed to pull some time and...

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 11/02/2025

I've had two friends try Mumble out with me now. One gave some praise about how it was nice and simple. The other one exclaimed "OMG it's like MSN Messenger". 😂

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 07/02/2025

Any chance for a non-YouTube link? YouTube has become a lot more hostile towards VPN users who aren't logged in in the last year.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 02/02/2025

I might make a blog post on this because I think I need to elaborate on a few things.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 02/02/2025

Scenario: 3 friends are playing a game. 1 friend would normally join but they're tired and just want to watch each individual's perspective for the day. There are a bunch of things that need to happen for it to work well. There are GH issues to track most but nothing is happening in that space.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 02/02/2025

I'm out right now so it's a bit of effort to dig up right now. It's mostly Discord-y type things like adding a voice threshold slider to Element Call. I feel like socialising online (not limited to gaming) is greatly overlooked. Tackling Signal use cases is great but people still need Discord.

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Kenny @kennyqin.com · 01/02/2025

That was quick... By shut down, I mean the PRs literally got rejected and closed because they didn't align with the Element product team, which I can understand. (I work in software dev.) It's still frustrating. I can't wait for the day where I no longer have juggle Discord with secure comms.

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