The Twitter app just went very, very strange (www.independent.co.uk)
from stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to technology@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 13:49
https://kbin.social/m/technology@lemmy.world/t/574720

Twitter has broken after seemingly being hit by an unusual bug.

#technology

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autotldr@lemmings.world on 27 Oct 2023 13:50 next collapse

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Tracking website Down Detector saw a huge surge in reports of problems on Tuesday afternoon UK time.

Many computers do not count time in the usual way, but instead register it as the number of seconds that have amassed since 1 January 1970, which is called the Unix epoch.

But it also means that any problems with that code can lead to confusion, since they will often make it appear as if something happened 50 years ago.

Even users who could see those posts saw the tweets as empty or not showing properly, however, suggesting that the issue was more widespread than just a problem with the time.

Users also reported that retweets appeared to broken, showing instead as “RT” alongside the post they had tried to share.

The problems come almost exactly a year after Elon Musk bought Twitter, a deal that was closed on 27 October, 2022.


The original article contains 309 words, the summary contains 149 words. Saved 52%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

hogunner@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 13:58 next collapse

“Unusual bug” is a polite way of describing Elon.

residentmarchant@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 15:43 collapse

Peculiar Grub

PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works on 27 Oct 2023 14:13 next collapse

It’s a feature, not a bug.

dhork@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 14:14 next collapse

The unusual date is seemingly a consequence of the so-called Unix epoch.

<img alt="Image" src="https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/bug.png">

grue@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 14:25 collapse

Did Y2038 come early?

bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de on 27 Oct 2023 16:07 next collapse

I’ve already had to deal with Y2038 bugs about 15 years ago. Cookies in PHP couldn’t (and I think still can’t) be set with an expiration date beyond the end of Unix time.

squaresinger@feddit.de on 27 Oct 2023 20:41 collapse

They are using 31-bit signed integers.

FarceMultiplier@lemmy.ca on 27 Oct 2023 14:20 next collapse

I hear it was the South African Shitbeetle.

Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 14:42 collapse

A shitbeetle’s gotta shit, Randy.

Fisk400@feddit.nu on 27 Oct 2023 14:27 next collapse

It’s fine. It’s just Elon gnawing on wires in the basement of twitter HQ.

CmdrShepard@lemmy.one on 27 Oct 2023 15:20 next collapse

The mental image of this is hilarious. I picture them finally finding him, shining a flashlight in his face, and then he screeches and tunnels further under the floor.

long_chicken_boat@sh.itjust.works on 27 Oct 2023 15:54 collapse

someone needs to make this in stable diffusion. a rat with elon’s face gnawing on wires.

AzureRT@reddthat.com on 27 Oct 2023 18:43 collapse

God, I hope someone actually does this

olicvb@lemmy.ca on 27 Oct 2023 20:20 collapse

Made these real quick

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/94c580e3-39dc-4b9b-9207-d180cf805a65.png"> <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/83b01a71-1b62-4822-b486-1bea2dddf437.png"> <img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/1b4fad32-c04b-43c9-9b11-2859f424590b.png">

squaresinger@feddit.de on 27 Oct 2023 20:42 collapse

The top one isn’t a rat, but it’s perfect!

Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 14:49 next collapse

Elon needs to just admit to being the embodiment of the fail whale

Granite@kbin.social on 27 Oct 2023 14:58 next collapse

Elon is such a lolcow.

dangblingus@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 15:14 next collapse

Slowly killing the platform on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government going well.

ryan@the.coolest.zone on 27 Oct 2023 15:16 next collapse

It doesn't seem to be broken. This article gave no screenshots, only a million ads, so I searched up reddit. Yeah, there's some minor visual glitches. The dates have been epoch'd for some people.

It's indicative of Twitter's services slowly breaking down as the engineers left either don't know how to manage everything or simply don't have time to, but what else is new?

This article is pretty sensational for what is the continuing sad decline of an app which was probably a detriment to humanity overall, but which spawned some funny jokes and was occasionally a means of mass communication in times of crisis.

Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Oct 2023 18:30 collapse

means of mass communication in times of crisis.
So many emergency and customer service accounts there. I didn’t need them so far but they surely would come in handy once I’d actually need them :(

Also a good way to follow japanese based accounts since many either block non-domestic traffic/sales on their websites or are otherwise hard to get hold on as a foreigner for news/services.

AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca on 27 Oct 2023 16:16 next collapse

Guess no one remembers the fail whale

Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social on 27 Oct 2023 21:52 next collapse

I can't wait to tie my entire financial life to X.

iAvicenna@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 2023 22:46 next collapse

Unusual bug: believing that you can run a company after firing 2/3 of the employees and because whoever remains has superpowers

TheLonelyWonderer@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 2023 00:33 collapse

You mean it wasn’t already?