Posted on

Banned from Facebook Marketplace without a reason and without recourse

As much as technology improves our lives (and is integrated into literally everything we do), it really fucking sucks when the algorithm gets it wrong.

Earlier this summer, I posted a shop vac for sale, as I’ve done a number of times before (err, posting things for sale, not specifically shop vacs).

Soon after, I was banned for “violating community standards.” I have literally no idea what happened. But! Apparently you could appeal the decision if you felt it was incorrect.

So I did.

And was rejected.

So I appealed again.

And was rejected.

I appealed again. And now it looks like I am permanently banned from Facebook Marketplace. And there’s no way to appeal the decision. No way to contact customer support. Cool.

 

Anyway, here’s an image of Mark Zuckerberg wearing clown makeup, created using Stable Diffusion.

Posted on

Interesting uses of a Steam Deck

My Steam Deck has to be one of my favorite gadgets in the last few years. Gaming aside, the fact that it’s running Linux opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities.

For example, let’s use it to add a new feature to ArtBot… while I’m on an airplane. The screen is tiny, but oh man, it actually worked.

Posted on

ArtBot mentioned again in PC World!

ArtBot got another callout in PC World in the article: “The best AI art generators: Bring your wildest dreams to life.”

Though a bit of (fair) criticism at the end of the blurb though:

Why use Artbot? The vast number of AI models, and the variance in style those images produce. Otherwise, generating images via Artbot can be a bit of a crapshoot, and you may expend a great number of kudos simply exploring all the options. Since there’s no real setup besides figuring out the API key, Stable Horde (Artbot) can be worth a try.

Hey, I’ll take it!

Posted on

ArtBot written up in PC World!

Hah! This is pretty awesome. My nifty side project, ArtBot, has been written up in PC World as part of a larger article about Stable Horde (the open source backend that powers my web app):

Stable Horde has a few front-end interfaces to use to create AI art, but my preferred choice is ArtBot, which taps into the Horde. (There’s also a separate client interface, with either a Web version or downloadable software.)

Interestingly enough, ArtBot just passed 2,000,000 images generated!

Posted on

Woe is Twitter…

To the tune of R.E.M’s “End of the World”:

“It’s the end of the (Twitter) as we know it, and I feel fiiiiiiinnnnneeee!” via… me.

I don’t have high hopes for the future of Twitter, pending Elon’s acquisition. It’s a service I’ve long loved, been frustrated with, but also found immense value in.

I’ve gotten jobs because of it, made new friends because of it, learned a lot because of it. Granted, it’s gotten much more toxic and I long for the days when it was fun.

But I don’t think having this service in control of a self-proclaimed internet troll who has lurched evermore rightward is going to improve things. Alas.

Posted on

New side project: ArtBot, a way to create images using Stable Diffusion

Thanks to Reddit, I recently stumbled upon a cool project called Stable Horde. It essentially lets you generate images using a distributed cluster of GPUs donated by community members.

I had been creating my own web interface to remotely interact with a Stable Diffusion instance running on my own machine. I decided to quickly repurpose the web app and connect to the Stable Horde API. The result?

ArtBot, a Stable Diffusion demonstration that allows you to generate images using the power of the Stable Horde. It is awesome!

Posted on

This dev tools update is going to take awhile

Oops. I guess I accidentally typed in “git status” (no, I didn’t — I do this all the time!)

Now, MacOS needs to redownload all the dev tools again. It looks like it’s going to be awhile.

Fun fact: The time between when Tyrannosaurus Rex existed and now is less than the time between now and when Git will finally be installed on this machine.