Notices by David Colarusso (colarusso@mastodon.social)

Pictured: The first vibe coder, Geordi La Forge, about to discover the dangers of natural language programing.

When people dismiss due process as a nicety & are okay with throwing it out in service of "dealing with the bad guys," it's important to remember that absent due process, we can't be sure if the accused really are "bad guys." It's not a "nice to have;" it's an important pillar on which justice stands. See e.g., https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/03/18/trump-migrants-venezuelans-deportation-bukele/

Forget all this cloture talk, I want a good old fashioned filibuster. They could start by reading the names of all the illegally fired federal employees, or given the CR's DC language, the DC phone book.

I remember the good old days (2019) when Trump threatening to withhold aid from Ukraine was grounds for impeachment. Third times a charm.

This ends with DOGE sending an all-government email using CC instead of BCC.

Today’s family viewing: the Rocketeer. Unexpected emotion bit: when the mob boss realizes he’s been working for a Nazi and is all like, “hell no, I may be a criminal, but I’m 100% American,” and proceeds to fight at the side of the FBI against said Nazis, because that’s what Americans do.

If you have somehow missed this masterpiece, I envy you, because you get to watch it for the first time. May I present, “All I want for Christmas is Q.” 🎄🪐 https://youtu.be/3KvWwJ6sh5s?si=emOdOCiZNEy4J2PH

@inthehands "comically overeager" is the perfect description. 👌

Disney fighting restaurant death suit with Disney terms “absurd,” lawyer says https://arstechnica.com/?p=2043279

Instead of doom scrolling, I find myself actually filled with some emotion long absent from late-night social media use. Is this hope? #Harris2024

Nearly every Saturday I get to watch #STNG with my kids (5 & 10). It’s amazing how affecting it is as a GenXer sharing this mythology with them. Today: Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel. Darmok and Jalad on the ocean.

A consequence of Gen Xers' formative years straddling the birth of the world wide web is the fact that we are now in a place to start having old person opinions about internet issues. Back in my day I had to walk to school uphill both ways and download movie trailers over dial-up. Also, I thought we fought this crypto war already, and don't believe Big Media when they say they want a maximalist IP interpretation to protect the little guy. I've seen how this movie ends.

@Gargron more context, I'm a dyslexic attorney who knows full well I could not have been a part of this profession before the age of spellcheck and text to speech. You may think these don't count as AI, but the rule doesn't make that clear, and tts is classic AI. If I have my computer read to me while I write, do I have to disclose that? The rule seems to say yes. What if I use grammar check? What if I use an LLM as a sounding board? See e.g., https://mastodon.social/@Colarusso/112116776575480184

The rule is too vague.

As a financial supporter of Mastodon¹ this pains me, but the new rule @Gargron announced yesterday is a bad rule.² It's too vague, & vague rules invite abuse. Forget figuring out how one is supposed to cite a meme's source, what is meant by "the use of AI must be disclosed?" Predictive text on your phone is a language model (small not large). It's AI, grammar check too. Ugh!

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¹ https://joinmastodon.org/sponsors#supported_by ctrl+f colarusso
² https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/112118260677357857 (screen shot of rule embedded)

@Gargron and to be clear, when I say "vague rules invite abuse," I say that as a former public defender who has seen what happens when those in power are free to operate under the pretext that they're just "punishing rule breakers." The thing is, when everyone is arguably a rule breaker, those who get punished are those who run afoul of those in power.

I felt the need to download my archive before writing this post because I don't know how you'll respond. That saddens me. :(

Please fix this.

So um, I got to address an audience at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this weekend, and instead of reporting back like all the other facilitators, I summarized our session by delivering a extemporaneous poem. It was really earnest, and it felt like the right thing at the time. So yeah, that happened. :/

And no, I'm not going to share the poem. You had to be there.

There's no way to convey how much I ❤️ this essay by @inthehands. Maybe it's because when I got my masters, before becoming a physics teacher, I took a divinity class that looked interesting, which seems to parallel the author's experience. Or maybe it's because I teach law students about tech, straddling two worlds... No, it's because liberal arts is a precious beautiful enriching thing that made all of that possible.

So, what is a liberal arts education for? Find out: https://innig.net/teaching/liberal-arts-manifesto

@inthehands good, I already have too much to read. ;)

@inthehands I love that you editing this post alerted me to the blog post because I had re-posted it. Good tool usage. 👍

As a former public defender and technologist, I really like the spirit of this bill.

TL;DR: The Justice in Forensic Algorithms Act, would allow defendants to access the source code of software used to analyze evidence in their criminal trials. The bill also calls for the creation of testing standards for forensic algorithms and aims to address concerns about bias and transparency in the criminal justice system.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/15/24074214/justice-in-forensic-algorithms-act-democrats-mark-takano-dwight-evans

#JusticeReform #AlgorithmTransparency #CriminalJustice