The overflow of the 32-bit signed integer value for status ids
(a.k.a "The Twitpocalypse" [1]) is fast approaching. The current
estimate is around tomorrow at around 11am GMT, or 3:00am Pacific time
in the case of Twitter. There is some discussion internally about
accelerating things so we'll be in the office and able to cope. Nobody
is their freshest at 3:00am, not to mention it would be nice to not
have apps broken throughout the weekend if one-person developer teams
don't notice. No decision has been made yet but I wanted to get
something out to you all so you know what's going on in the event we
decide to do this.
Thanks;
– Matt Sanford / @mzsanford
Twitter Dev
The responses to @twitterapi and all discussions internally show
a preference to not waiting until the middle of the night. The current
plan is to force this issue at 21:00 GMT (2:00pm Pacific/5:00pm
Eastern for those in the US). This will let us make sure we have all
staff available in the unlikely event something goes wrong on our end.
We'll also be available when people who don't follow the twitter-dev-
talk list start reporting errors. While we did warn developers about
the Twitpocalypse I'm sorry we didn't think about setting a drop-dead
date and scheduling this previously. We'll keep trying to improve on
warnings like this.
Good night, and good luck.
Thanks;
– Matt Sanford / @mzsanford
Twitter Dev
2009/6/12 Matt Sanford <ma...@twitter.com>:
>
> Hello again,
>
> The responses to @twitterapi and all discussions internally show a
> preference to not waiting until the middle of the night. The current plan is
> to force this issue at 21:00 GMT (2:00pm Pacific/5:00pm Eastern for those in
> the US). This will let us make sure we have all staff available in the
> unlikely event something goes wrong on our end. We'll also be available when
> people who don't follow the twitter-dev-talk list start reporting errors.
@ttytter stands ready!
--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * cka...@floodgap.com
-- NetBSD - a devil of an operating system. -- Julian Assange -----------------
I read it as "we're considering skipping a bunch of IDs so we hit the
limit during today rather than sometime over the weekend. That way
there will be people at Twitter able to react to support issues that
might arise.
As for what developers should do I think it's pretty obvious. If
you're using a signed 32-bit integer to store tweet IDs you need to
change that ASAP because judgement day is coming!!!
-Stuart
--
http://stut.net/projects/twitter
That is indeed what I meant. We are planning to skip some ids to
force the 2^32 change during business hours. Twitter itself should be
fine but I originally announced this to the list so people could make
sure they'll also be fine. There is no change to the format of
responses and the number will continue to grow upward. This was just
fair warning that you might have used the Rails default definition (or
some other method) that relies on signed 32-bit integers.
The 'decide to do this' part is deciding to do this now by
skipping ids rather than let it occur naturally 12 hours from now when
people have been up for 24-hours and might not be at their best. Let's
not allow the 'insulting' vagueness devolve into insulting tone,
please. We're working on co-ordinating internally to do this at 21:00
GMT but like all things involving groups of people we may run a little
late. Sometime after 21:00 GMT this is still planned. We'll update
@twitterapi when the exact time comes.
Thanks;
– Matt Sanford / @mzsanford
Twitter Dev
No,
EDT is GMT-400
PDT is GMT-700
-Chad
--
Dossy Shiobara | do...@panoptic.com | http://dossy.org/
Panoptic Computer Network | http://panoptic.com/
"He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)
The fuse got long on the Twitter bomb, it seems. :-P
--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * cka...@floodgap.com
-- If I am not for myself, who will be for me? -- Pirkei Avot -----------------