Dustin Lifford

A programmer/developer specializing in search engine optimization, social media, WordPress, Google analytic, PHP, HTML 5, CSS 3, Javascript, Python

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

Before anyone in Kingsport sold internet access, the Tri-Cities was on bulletin boards. 24 of them by June 1994. Seven left in one week that November, the month Preferred Internet opened.

Part 2 of my Tri-Cities tech history series. The full six-minute version is in the reply.

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

To everyone who served, and to the families who waited at home, thank you. Today and every other day.

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

The railroads passed Kingsport by and it nearly stopped being a town. Then it spent a century learning every new machine that came through. 38 stops, flatboats to AI, including the parts that didn't go well. https://t.co/QqjtbgVS5E

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

One hacker's AI agents reportedly got into 100+ companies. The common thread was sites nobody was maintaining. Can you name who updates yours, and when they last did? https://t.co/4oYoiDd0Jx

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

In 1996 a Kingsport ISP went to a state hearing over whether a modem is a telephone switch. It won, and the phone company rewrote its tariff.

Part 3 of my Tri-Cities tech history series, now a video.
https://t.co/fYWorV57PN

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

If finding your own logo takes a group text, you need a one-page brand kit. Ours is public. Borrow the format. https://t.co/ifxcc0qXiJ

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

"You can't believe anything you see anymore." I heard it in line to vote this week. I'd change one word. You can't believe everything. Most of it is still real, and the rest you can check. Here's how, with a free card to print.
https://t.co/YISFGeKXoT

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

Made a fake car-damage photo in Gemini and ran it through Facebook.

Content Credentials got stripped. Google's hidden watermark survived a screenshot and a crop. Facebook labeled it AI with its AI label set to off.

Ask for the file, not the screenshot.
https://t.co/umhfLgcAjr

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

@worstdream25 @gobrightspeed @worstdream25 Two years with no outages? You must be on the good side of the pole. Here in Kingsport it's a few times a month, and today they took the phone line down with it.

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

@gobrightspeed Down again in Kingsport, TN. It's a few times a month now, and today your phones, chat and outage checker are down too. I pay for reliable fiber and keep losing work hours. When is it restored, what's the credit, and what are you doing so this stops happening?

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

@gobrightspeed @gobrightspeed "Widespread" and "actively investigating" isn't a restore time. Nearly three hours down in Kingsport, I've already cancelled a client call, and your phones still don't work. When will service be back, and will credits be automatic or do we have to chase them?

[Brightspeed @gobrightspeed]

Hi Dustin,

We are currently experiencing a widespread internet outage that is affecting many of our customers. We understand how disruptive this can be, and we want to assure you that our teams are actively investigating the issue and working closely with our partners to restore service as quickly as possible.

At this time, we do not have an estimated time of resolution. We know how important connectivity is to your daily life, and we're truly sorry for the inconvenience this is causing. We will continue to provide updates as soon as we have more information.

-Ian

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

A holiday program came to me with a prototype that only ran in one browser. Here's how it became the registration system Jonesborough families started using this week.
https://t.co/vTJQZsMJx7

Need help, or want to sponsor or volunteer? https://t.co/zVnaIUk9Qz

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Halloween seems like the right time to talk about ghosts. Specifically, the ones AI cites.

Made-up sources, fake links, policies nobody wrote, all said with total confidence.

Open the links. Check the source. That part is still a person’s job.

https://t.co/aFbns1zJU9

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

Before anyone in Kingsport sold internet access, the Tri-Cities was on bulletin boards. 24 of them by June 1994. Seven left in one week that November, the month Preferred Internet opened.

Part 2 of my Tri-Cities tech history series, now a video.

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

The full version, with The Inferno, the long-distance workaround, and every board I could find.
https://t.co/y4mvLklpVO

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

Before anyone in Kingsport sold internet access, the Tri-Cities was on bulletin boards. 24 of them by June 1994. Seven left in one week that November, the month Preferred Internet opened.

Part 2 of my Tri-Cities tech history series. The full six-minute version is in the reply.

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

One hacker's AI agents broke into 100+ company websites for about $50 each. Then PHP announced two critical flaws. We patched our servers the day the fix shipped.

Who updates your website? https://t.co/4oYoiDd0Jx

[Dustin Lifford @WebTechdl]

The oldest domain still registered in the Tri-Cities is https://t.co/2b0Ziq0pHV, from February 1993. Kingsport was online before most people had heard of the web.

Who came first, and what happened to them.

https://t.co/XUAVFSpPQa

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

AI told customers a bakery was closing. It wasn’t. It sent Bristol plumber searches to Bristol, England.

What AI says about local businesses, and the 15-minute fix.

https://t.co/UTRnk6ouHh

[Tri-Cities AI Lab @tricitiesailab]

Nearly half of local owners have never checked what AI tells customers about them. Meanwhile AI keeps closing open businesses and inventing $4 pizza deals.

Here's a free check of what AI can tell customers from your homepage.
https://t.co/UTRnk6ouHh