Twitter/Sylvester for Dummies

[xairbusdriver]

OK. This looks so simple that even I could figure it out...

However, upon opening the shared screen to the mini, I see the "'Sylvester' Would Like Access to Twitter Accounts" dialog... again. Opening the Sylvester window shows the still spinning 'gear', no 'Reports Sent', no characters used, but it claims it is "Running". There is nothing in the "Account" drop down, nor is any Template highlighted. Much as I hate the garbage on my Twitter 'page' I can confirm (I think) that I have not seen and messages/Twits(?) fro Sylvester (nor any other 'cats').

Sylvester: v.0.60 (1.0)
WeatherCat: v.2.30   Build 86 (2.3.0)

"Allow" dialog refuses to accept "OK", it simply reappears. Even after Quitting Sylvester.

Sly is supposedly set to send a Twit at five past most daylight hours. Console, however, shows a posting every single minute: "Sylvester: Tweeter: Nothing to post at this time". I don't understand this 60 times an hour log entry, WC itself only reports most things at 2 minute intervals.
I note that there are two other Console entries from Sly. They are "Posting 4" on each hour. There is also a "Posting 0" (zero) at five past the hour. That leads me to believe that the Template is being followed.

I notice that the four default Templates all show <dict><key>Enabled</key><true/>... I assume that simply means they are to be displayed in the list of Templates, not that any one of them was selected by the user.

I'll change the name of  the .plist, restart Sly and see if that helps. I'll first Shutdown and Restart the mini, since that seems the only way to get rid of the "Allow..." dialog without tracking down the PID.

[xairbusdriver]

OK, the "Allow..." dialog was there on Start up. But that's normal since I have WC as a Startup Item, and it, in turn, starts Sylvester. I clicked the "OK" button and it has not reappeared for ~five minutes. The .plist is back to the default list and the 'gear' is not spinning. Well see if a Tweet is made in a few minutes as the default "Hourly" Template is selected.

No luck. Although I haven't actually checked at Twitter, the Sylvester window confirms nothing was sent, IMHO.

[xairbusdriver]

Sylvester/Twitter/WC experts:

Additional, confusing to me, info: As the Template time for the tweet rolled around, the "Allow..." window reappeared. Clicked OK, once again. Tweet did not happen. 'Gear' still spinning.

Looked in Console and now see a couple of strange Sylvester triggered messages:

4/15/16 5:00:41.437 PM Sylvester[509]: [default] Failed to updated[sic] bookmark for item Computer-Up-Time.app  [BC98030E-A135-41AD-9CB2-4A0B29DE6D69] - URL:file:///Applications/WeatherCat_2_2/Web_Templates/Computer-Up-Time.app / with error Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=260 "The file couldn?t be opened because it doesn?t exist."

4/15/16 5:00:41.437 PM Sylvester[509]: -[SFLListItem synthesizeMissingPropertyValues] Failed to updated[sic] bookmark for item Computer-Up-Time.app [BC98030E-A135-41AD-9CB2-4A0B29DE6D69] - URL:file:///Applications/WeatherCat_2_2/Web_Templates/Computer-Up-Time.app / with error Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=260 "The file couldn?t be opened because it doesn?t exist."

Two things stand out here:
First, I have no idea why Sly is concerned about "bookmarks" or the "Computer-Up-Time.app" (an AppleScript no longer in use).

Second, there is a reference to that "WeatherCat_2_2" directory which I changed a couple of days ago. I assume that item is in the 'path' of that mysterious bookmark. However, I don't know where that 'bookmark' might be nor who or what might have created it. I have, however, moved the app completely out of the WC path of items it parses or uploads. There is still a reference to a "Computer-Up-Time.txt" file that is in the WC Prefs->On-Line->Custom Web->Additional files section.

Any idea(s) about a attempt to use a 'bookmark' by Sylvester?

[elagache]

Dear X-Air and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

OK. This looks so simple that even I could figure it out...

However, upon opening the shared screen to the mini, I see the "'Sylvester' Would Like Access to Twitter Accounts" dialog... again. Opening the Sylvester window shows the still spinning 'gear', no 'Reports Sent', no characters used, but it claims it is "Running". There is nothing in the "Account" drop down, nor is any Template highlighted. Much as I hate the garbage on my Twitter 'page' I can confirm (I think) that I have not seen and messages/Twits(?) fro Sylvester (nor any other 'cats').

Which version of OS X are you running on this computer?  Remember that there is an OS bug in El Capitan that prevents Sylvester from working.  That's one of the reasons I'm sticking with Yosemite for the moment.

Cheers, Edouard

[xairbusdriver]

there is an OS bug in El Capitan that prevents Sylvester from working.

Well! That tiny bit of information certainly explains a lot!!!

"Yes sir, we fixed all the problems with your vintage station wagon. We just removed all the non-functional parts. Here is the nut off the steering wheel mount. We will only charge you for the pickup fee for taking all the other parts to the junkyard. It's been a pleasure helping you."

I suppose the "fix" is to put the little cat back in its "Companion Applications" carrier...

[Blicj11]

I'm running it on El Capitan but I believe that is because it was already setup when I was still running Yosemite. If memory serves correctly, and it may very well not, you cannot at present setup Sylvester on EL Capitan but if you had it set up before you upgraded, it still works. If this is not correct, a good WeatherCatter will correct me.

[xairbusdriver]

if you had it set up before you upgraded, it [may] still work...

I had no use for Twit until someone asked me to send him weather. Not sure why he/they can't just have a bookmark set to anything they want. I have well over 1200 bookmarks in URLM Pro, but find I use 1Password just about as fast. I can probably count on two fingers the number of days in a year I don't have a browser open. Why look at a few, scant weather details when you can have the whole shebang updating every two minutes right on the Desktop? Beats me. I now have even less use for Twit. I can simply ignore it, unselect any "interests", etc. I'm not interested in being "followed". We have stalking laws in our state, anyway.

BAH! HUMBUG!!!

[xairbusdriver]

In order to minimize my Twitter account, I've found ways to turn just about everything off. Called the FBI, State, County, and City police and reported all those 'things' following me. They are now gone (in spite of Twitter saying I still have "1 Follower").

I'm pretty sure all the original 'followers', who appeared within minutes of my account being activated, were from commercial bots that monitor new registrants, particularly those who specify any kind of 'interest' when signing up. I think the 'interests' settings are only available when signing up as a new Twit. However, reading between the lines, I think Tweets are monitored and affect those initial 'interests' and create areas for the "Personalized" profile; ie, who Twitter thinks would find you a possible ad target. BTW, I can only assume that the "1 Follower" is actually Twitter, the ad company itself. The only other explanation would be poor programming skills, which seems incredibly unlikely given the profits they are making.

At the bottom of each page is a very light gray 'footer' with text links to various things. The text is a very slightly darker shade of gray that becomes much easier to see if and when one's cursor is over them. "Yes Virginia, we do have a 'Help' link on every page. You just have to scroll to the very bottom while wearing polarized glasses and hovering over the area with your cursor. We aim to please... our real customers, not viewers, of course."

When and if, you find that 'Help' link, you will see about 2,093 predefined topics and a search box. Good luck!

I did find the following, however.

Can I turn off tailored suggestions and stop this collection?

Yes. We are committed to providing you with simple and meaningful choices about the information we collect to improve your Twitter experience. For those who don?t want to tailor Twitter, we offer several ways to turn off this feature:

For users signing up to Twitter on the web, you can uncheck the box that says Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits.

After signup, you can uncheck that box in your Security and privacy settings next to the heading Personalization.

Anyone can turn on the Do Not Track browser setting to turn off Tailored Suggestions.

Now, all I have to do is check that their site is still operating once every six months or until Sylvester and Apple work out their differences.

[dfw_pilot]

I'm running it on El Capitan but I believe that is because it was already setup when I was still running Yosemite. If memory serves correctly, and it may very well not, you cannot at present setup Sylvester on EL Capitan but if you had it set up before you upgraded, it still works. If this is not correct, a good WeatherCatter will correct me.

Correct. At least according to my experience. People here who already have it setup don't have a problem, but an Apple bug prevents new online accounts from being shared with other apps like Sylvester.

[xairbusdriver]

Thanks to the publishing of the "Show new posts since last here" capability, I found a thread where Stu published a 'work-around' for this Twitter vs Apple problem. The thread has several posts from members saying it has fixed the problem, even in El Capitan. <Re: Sylvester on MacOS 10.9.5 not tweeting - can't select twitter account> Not sure how I missed this in my searching here...

...you can try enabling debug output on the accounts demon - this may get it working. To do this, open the terminal application and enter:

Code: [Select]

defaults write com.apple.accountsd ACOutputLevel 7 && killall -9 accountsdwait a minute, then launch Sylvester. If you have a Twitter account configured, it may then pick it up.

(You can disable debug output by replacing the 7 with 0 (zero) in the above command line).

Progress: "Twitter" appeared in the Account: area. The next scheduled Tweet is on the hour. I suppose I'll have to open Twitter to see it there, but I'll expect the "Sylvester" window to show a 'Reports Sent' of "1" and "Character count" to show "131"(?).

Later: Seems to be working! The Sylvester window shows the message, 1 "sent", "131/140" characters.