Alistair Young @cerebrate@schelling.pt

Okay. #WritingWonders . Let's do this thing. Since I need to redo my intro, etc., since an abrupt server move, let me start with an #introduction .

I'm Alistair Young. I write indie science-fiction nanofiction in my own universe, the Associated Worlds, which at the moment amounts to three books out there and my blog where I write for change:

https://eldraeverse.com/

Made one replacement driveway camera out of the most-intact parts of the old driveway and backmost-yard cameras.

I honestly can't tell if this is just "we didn't give a crap about damage" or "we didn't have anyone who could operate advanced technology like a Philips screwdriver".

So, as a writer and one in need of some distraction, I'm thinking about doing this #WritingWonders thing this month.

Is there a particular account I should be following where the prompts come from, or anything?

Well, we found them now, by talking through them and listening for our voices.

In the dumpster, holes bashed in the casing. So we are going to need replacements. But I repeat: I am *seriously* impressed with the quality of this hardware.

They may be ripped off the house and missing, but our doorbell cameras are still reporting in now we have the WiFi back up. Goddamn, but Ring makes some quality hardware.

In yesterday’s house-recovery discoveries: among the things they don’t teach you in federal agent school, apparently, is how to tell the difference between a tablet and a portable monitor.

On a completely different topic, on this day when Twitter is self-owning so epically, it seems like a good opportunity to answer the people wondering what I think of Elon Musk these days.

Well, he's close to the biggest damn disappointment on the planet.

That's what.

(Although I do rather like the rockets, so if he could refrain from screwing up SpaceX until he gets the chance to also be close to the biggest damn disappointment *off* the planet, that'd be swell.)

@merospit Thanks muchly for the boost of that!

Meanwhile, in other resulting revelations: is it _really_ impossible to set a static IP on a Raspberry Pi from the config file? Seriously?

('Cause this is a mite inconvenient when the Feds have taken your DHCP server.)

At the moment, we've got at least some of our accounts back and are trying to regain access to our cloud backups, and have started the long slow process of returning our home to habitability.

More news when we have it.

(5/n=5)

"Since I have no access to most of my accounts, I would appreciate it if those of you reading this could pass this message along to other readers and to anyone else who knows me or might be interested in the situation.

"For the moment, I can be reached at the gmail address post.cyber.apocalypse@gmail.com, and a friend has set up a GoFundMe for recovery and legal costs at:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-amy-and-alistair-after-a-mistaken-fbi-raid

"Thank you all very much for your kindness.

(4/n)

"This, obviously, is a disaster for us, and I would like to beg your forgiveness, as this will obviously mean a lack of new content for a while. (Among the things they took were all my writing and worldbuilding notes, not to mention anything to write on, and it is doubtful whether I will ever see any of them again.)

(3/n)

"Fortunately, we’re both still alive and well, if shaken up and thoroughly terrorized, as are our dogs. Our house, however, is a wreck, and they have taken essentially everything electronic that we had. Computers, phones, everything.

"Why? As it was explained to me, the username which I have been using on Twitter, and everywhere else on the Internet (“cerebrate”, and variants) for over 20 years has also been used by the person responsible for the Redeemer ransomware.

(2/n)

So, for those of you who weren't there for my emergency Twittering-in-lieu-of-anything-else, the FBI story, as I have told it elsewhere:

"Unbelievably, or at least I’m still having trouble believing it, yesterday [the 27th June, so a few days ago now] my wife and I were raided by the FBI.

(1/n)

If you can’t, it’s “The Portable Library of Liberty”.

Irony much?

In the picture is the bin I use to store failed 3D prints and filament ends for recycling, that they emptied onto the floor so they could throw my stuff in it.

Can you read the title on that CD they threw in last?

Today, having recorded what we need for legal purposes, we’re starting the job of cleaning up the wreckage the FBI goon squad left behind.