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This part made me chuckle: Twitter had published an application programming interface (API) for its service. Using the API, I wrote some software to automate t

This part made me chuckle: Twitter had published an application programming interface (API) for its service. Using the API, I wrote some software to automate the posting, such that everything would be timed correctly. I just had to push a button and watch. We named the project “Twittering Rocks.” It ran successfully in 2007, and thanks to the software, it would be easy to run Twittering Rocks every Bloomsday. Which we did, in 2008, and 2009, and 2010. Then it broke completely and hasn’t worked since. It broke, surprisingly, not because Twitter arbitrarily decided to screw developers. It was because of the migration to OAuth, which, if memory serves, just happened to coincide with the beginning of the period in which Twitter decided 3rd-party devs were screwable. The conclusion nonetheless is apt: How many apps on your phone don’t work properly anymore? Software breaks all the time. But books don’t.

orly_bookz 10y ago
They did that one time in Night Vale... "Listeners, we are currently fielding numerous reports that books have stopped working. It seems that all over Night Vale, books have simply ceased functioning. The scientists are studying one of the broken books to see if they can understand just what is going on here. The exact problem is currently unclear, but some of the words being used include ‘sparks,’ ‘meat smell,’ ‘biting,’ and ‘lethal gas.’ For your own safety, please do not attempt to open a book until we have more information on the nature and cause of these problems. The city council has released only a brief statement, indicating that their stance on books has not changed, and that, as always, they believe that books are dangerous and inadvisable, and should not be kept in private homes."