A few of the people I follow on Twitter have mentioned that they've been unable to tweet when using the desktop version of Twitter and it turns out they're not alone. Twitter's issued a status update for Tue Feb 10th 2015 (sent '18 minutes ago' which I'm reading at 00.28pm UK time on Wed 11th Feb) which acknowledges that
We are aware of an issue where some users are unable to Tweet and have received a notice telling them they’ve been locked out. Our engineers are currently investigating this issue.
Examples of errors seen include
Locked account "Your account has been locked. Your account appears to have exhibited automated behaviour that violates the Twitter Rules. To unlock your account, please click the button below and confirm that you are the valid account owner. [Unlock my account]" Unable to tweet "This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can't complete this action right now. Please try again later." I've been able to tweet from desktop Twitter during this glitch (though I've only sent replies to people, no 'new tweets'), but those who did have difficulty seemed to be able to send tweets from Tweetbot for iOS or Twitter for Android, but this might not be particularly reliable information if the glitch crops up somewhere else. Oh, and as I am about to press 'Publish', it appears to have been solved (I am now reading this at 00:36) and am making the post title reflect the 'past tense' status of this glitch :)
[ Update 16:21 PST ]
Between 15:18 and 16:11 PST today, some users were unable to Tweet and received a notice telling them they’ve been locked out. This issue has now been fully resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this. We are aware of an issue where some users are unable to Tweet and have received a notice telling them they’ve been locked out. Our engineers are currently investigating this issue.
Yesterday I read with interest that Twitter's CEO, Dick Costolo, had been quoted as saying to colleagues(1,2) that the company could do a lot more to tackle persistent irritants on Twitter. Despite some cynicism and wariness many commenters seem buoyed by the tone and urgency of the acknowledgement and of Costolo's apology. My small contribution won't solve much but I think it would make the limitations of the block clearer to Twitter's users. An understanding of the limitations is important because many users believe (wrongly) that the block offers a stronger protection against annoying people than it actually does.
From the hundreds of tweets saying some variant of "if you block someone they can no longer see your tweets" it is clear that the block's limitations are not obvious.
How did people come to that (wrong) conclusion?
Since an update in early December those who are using Twitter's official platforms will now see an empty page when they click on the profile of someone who's blocked them. It says 'You are blocked from following @XYZ and viewing @XYZ's Tweets. Learn more'.
This has quite understandably given many users the impression that the people they've blocked would see the same thing when visiting their profile and led to the understanding that someone can no longer see your tweets if you block them.
I have two suggestions 1. Add some extra information to the 'learn more' help page, and to the article it links to about the limitations 2. When a user blocks someone, add a popup* that includes some extra information about the block and its limitations
*with a 'got it, don't show me this again' option What's this information that's currently missing? While many people do know this a fairly large amount of people don't seem to be aware that if you block someone they can still see your tweets...
by searching for from:yourname (even if they're logged in)
via a hashtag search, or if someone else RTs your tweets into their timeline
by using non-Twitter apps* (such as Echofon, Janetter, Osfoora, Tweetdeck etc) which will show profiles
by logging out or using a second account or a private browsing session
For most people a block works fine to stop someone's tweets from arriving, but if you really want to avoid them reading your tweets then a private account is probably more suitable. It is not possible to prevent one person from being able to read your tweets.
*perhaps Twitter will require these third-party apps to observe the block function in future updates - however not everyone automatically updates their apps (and there are plenty of other workarounds).
Being a fan of music used in film (ie music that has a narrative purpose as which often happens to be lovely to listen to beyond that) I've been getting out to quite a few film music concerts of late with Alexandre Desplat in the Barbican a few weeks ago and David Arnold in Dublin just last week (he's also doing the Barbican in June as part of a series of concerts).
Many of these concerts involve many tens of musicians (an orchestra) playing the music live and it's all ridiculously enjoyable - I am at peak squee soon after taking up my seat, hoovering up my micro-pack of ice-cream and having a look at the concert programme in anticipation.
Whatever the lovely music I'm going to hear (I died and went to heaven when the orchestras played Desplat's Birth and Arnold's Stargate and Wing Commander not to mention Sherlock) I always really really enjoy the bit just before the concert starts when the orchestra tunes up.
It's a magical thing, perhaps a little like a flashmob - in that an otherwise disparate group of people suddenly come together to create something harmonious, and move from just being on stage with their instruments to being part of a performance. Well.. it's halfway between being part of the performance, and not being part of it, and I find this 'between worlds' ritual rather thrilling.
I half-joked on Twitter that if someone released a CD of orchestras tuning up I'd probably buy it. I don't think that exists and perhaps it's a limited market (though a couple of people favourited my tweet) but the 'Baby Einstein' CDs do have an orchestra tuning up track (found via YouTube). It's a much more saccharine version than the real thing.
To be honest I had suspected it was more for show than being absolutely necessary as I'd have to assume professional orchestra folk tune their instruments before heading out on stage, however some comments here explain why it has a useful function, beyond quietening the metaphoric crisp-packet-rustling of pre-concert chatter. I'm just surprised that - given the hugely positive comments on YouTube - that there aren't more videos or sound clips of it, there seems to be a consensus that it's a lovely sound.
Concert pitch
Orchestras tune their instruments to Concert pitch, which is usually A (set at 440Hz) above Middle C though the A pitch can vary a bit. Here's Wikipedia on concert pitch:
"Despite such confusion, A = 440 Hz is the only official standard and is widely used around the world. Many orchestras in the United Kingdom adhere to this standard as concert pitch. In the United States some orchestras use A = 440 Hz, while others, such as New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, use A = 442 Hz. The latter is also often used as tuning frequency in Europe, especially in Denmark, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway and Switzerland. Nearly all modern symphony orchestras in Germany and Austria and many in other countries in continental Europe (such as Russia, Sweden and Spain) tune to A = 443 Hz."
Further tone fun Online tuning fork 329.6Hz (E), 440Hz (A), 523.3Hz (C) Online tone generator - you can have quite a bit of fun with this one if you open up multiple tabs. Two frequencies a few Hz apart will give you beats and the comments on the binaural page are fun too with suggested frequencies to try out, eg to recreate the sound of a touch-tone telephone dialling sound.
Bit that didn't fit anywhere else
I found out about 'Concert A' by accident. A couple of years ago I wrote a post about tuning fork therapy in response to a misleading advert that claimed special tuning forks could be used to diagnose and correct health imbalances. Utter nonsense of course but the act of writing it (and responding to the tedious comments) made me find out a lot more about tuning forks than I otherwise might have done. Played with them at home, played with them at school but still plenty of gaps in my tuning fork knowledge.
Really? No, Really? podcast with Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden
Really? No, Really is good fun, its launch was timed beautifully for me finishing my Seinfeld binge :) Click pic above for their YouTube channel or links below for audio only, or any podcast app will do.
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