Alex Vranas @Alex@vran.as

So apparently federal courts in Illinois consider email to be sufficient to serve someone notice of a lawsuit, including for our-of-state defendants. Now we have a case of a woman in Florida facing a default judgement for copyright infringement because she missed her summons.

Apparently it was in the junk mail of a lesser-used inbox.

Kinda scary to think that getting behind on your email could cost you $250k. I don't think it should work that way...

https://www.wfla.com/8-on-your-side/better-call-behnken/pinellas-woman-who-sold-luke-combs-themed-tumblers-owes-country-star-250000-judge-rules/

Imagine if we had this kind of pressure for presidents and CEOs to resign when they give bullshit lawyerspeak answers during congressional testimonies.

@realjosephknapp @GrantRVD There are no winners in a trade war.

It's honestly funny that his own fanboys convince him to sabotage his projects just by complaining that they aren't insulting enough.

This is going to be a hilarious arms race.

The next step is to get Grok to explain the right wing opinions Musk is going to force on it so that we can laugh at how little sense it's going to make.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-grok-ai-left-wing

Compelling #AIart shouldn't just emulate what humans can do, it should showcase the weird things that an #AI can do uniquely.

I've been having some fun pushing #StableDiffusion to its limits. I used a "time slider" LoRA model and had it animate its travel through time.

It took 18 hours, and about $5 in cloud costs to render.

Background Music is a sample of "
for you will burn your wings upon the sun" by Black Tape for a Blue Girl, slowed down 10x.

I was reviewing the status of some of the instances I've defederated from, and I found something very funny that I missed earlier this year from an instance that was especially awful.

Whoever would have guessed that cultivating a community of Gamer Gaters, Kiwi Farmers, and other petulant sociopaths would end up backfiring, lol.

Reap what you sow, idiot.

Outside of a handful of one-off applications, and the necessity to understand how my employer's Windows software works, I haven't actually used Windows since Windows 7.

I've managed to lose all hands-on experience with currently supported Windows releases. Even Windows 8.1 is EOL, and I don't think I ever touched it.

Everything I have seen about Windows 11 has me thankful that I have purged that awful OS from my life.

Ten years later and I'm still baffled that KFC actually tried to run "I ate the bones" as a marketing slogan for boneless wings.

@bodiednovel @pluralistic It's got the Netflix logo on the box, which isn't a great sign given it was made by Apple TV. Looks counterfeit.

I wish Hell were real just so we'd know Kissinger was there. Shame the real world is so unjust.

@ccunning @taylorlorenz I guess the comparison here is that both Elon Musk and Tim Cook were outspoken in rejecting outside demands?

However, Tim Cook was absolutely right to prioritize the planet over short-term profits, and realized a 900% increase in stock price since his 2014 statement regardless.

Musk is prioritizing his ego over his company's only source of revenue, and is burning billions of dollars in the process.

If I had it my way, it would be a criminal offense for any governmental organization to post anything at all on social media if they do not first publish the same media on a .gov website.

The current status quo of gov orgs using Facebook and Twitter as their primary platform is a huge mistake. The government should not be beholden to private interests to communicate with the public, nor should the public be forced to use gated private platforms to access public information.

I'm seriously considering making legal challenges against the government's use of X.

To state my position simply: It is unacceptable for any government entity to use a for-profit, members-only private platform for communications.

I am going to delete my remaining X accounts, and then start requesting copies of everything my local government posts there.

I should not have to enter into a contract with a private company to access government communications.

Any advice / help is welcome.

Here's the original, now-deleted tweet. The account doesn't appear to be operated by WSP. The display name contradicts the actual username!

Absolutely absurd that they pushed this over the emergency alert system like this without even putting a press release on their website.

Key points:

1. Use of link shortener is suspicious.
2. Shouldn't require X account for government comms.
3. Ads on a missing child alert is distasteful.
4. Linked X account is not listed on the WSP website.
5. "Deputy Scaggs" account is "verified", but also not listed on the WSP website.
6. Missing child not listed on WSP website's missing child list.
7. Asking everyone to drive to the scene of the abduction is not helpful.
8. Tweet was deleted, so the emergency alert now links nowhere.

So I wrote an email to the WSP asking for clarification on all of this. I don't like writing phrases like "the twitter link included in the emergency alert" or "the advertisement before you can see the missing child report" in an email to the government, and hope I don't have to do it too often.

@Obdurodon I don't know of any site, but there needs to be one. I am really getting tired of the government entrenching itself in for-profit platforms like this.

I wish I had the web dev skills to do it myself, there are so many examples of this. Advertisements on a members-only Amber Alert is especially disturbing.

Just got an Amber Alert from the Washington State Patrol that includes a bitly link to a Twitter thread. The details of the alert are included in an image with no alt text.

After logging in, I had to see an ad for dog poop before I could see additional info from law enforcement.

This is the official way we do Amber Alerts in Washington State.