Dan,

If you're using an unsigned integer, you won't see problems until the
4.2billionth tweet.  If you're using a signed integer (which you don't
need to, will there ever be NEGATIVE tweets?), you'll see it at the
twitpocalypse.

Thanks for playing.

- Tom

On Jun 12, 4:52 pm, Dan Udey <[email protected]> wrote:
> They're bumping it up so that if you're doing something silly (like
> using an unsigned integer to store the ID), you can find out and fix
> it. For an automatically incrementing ID, using a signed integer makes
> no sense, so this is a good chance for shortsighted developers to find
> and fix their bugs. An overflow will only happen if the developer of a
> given app has made a careless mistake.
>
> All Twitter is doing is triggering the event that will break careless
> developers' apps on a Friday, instead of breaking careless developers'
> apps on a Saturday.
>
> On Jun 12, 12:08 pm, "J. Adam Moore" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > So do I just allocate as many bits as I can in my database to the id
> > field and hope that it doesn't ever run out? I'm confused why you just
> > announced that. Okay, so an overflow is happening. Is that your fault?
> > Is this fixable on your end, my end. Is this just for people who are
> > using 32-bit signed ints to store ids? Decide to do what? Roll it over
> > like an odometer or increase the field size? Forgive me for being an
> > idiot, but 'decide to do this' is just about vague enough to be
> > insulting. I was happily under the assumption that this problem was
> > considered long, long ago when the field size was initially chosen by
> > who I also assumed to be smart people.
>
> > On Jun 12, 10:23 am, Matt Sanford <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > Hi all,
>
> > >      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
>
> > > [1] -http://www.twitpocalypse.com/

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