Xandy Xints
Week from Monday 31st July 2023 - Dearest (X)Twitter users: It's come to my attention that a vast majority of you do NOT welcome Elno Skum FORCING his ugly great Xs all over your nice blue and white Twitter. I mean, even the City of San Francisco has objected to his wanting to turn a not-too-unattractive old listed building into something resembling a sex club. Well, I don't know much about planning permission regulations in the State of California, but here's how to stop the little blue birdie from turning into the sinister 'X' on your Android phone...
EN BEE... Personally, I can only speak of HOW IT WORKS on a relatively old-model Android phone. I don't have any experience of iPHONES and iPADS, so I won't even try to advise users of the Apple beasts...
Please note also that the previous Xandy Xint is purely academic if your birdies have already updated to X's. There doesn't appear to be an easy way to roll it back to the earlier version. Even uninstalling the app and then reinstalling it will get you the latest 'darkside' version that's now in the app stores.
However, there might be a workaround! Like, by not doing it through the app stores at all, f'rinstance?! You should be able to "find" an older version of the app and install it manually, but it's a little more risky. Here's some potentially useful "How To" links, but I can't vouch for any of them or make any guarantees (Disclaimer Alert!)...
I must admit, that all looks like it might be a kerfuffle to carry out on a phone of any flavour, so if you are REALLY determined to hex the 'X', you do so at your own risk! As I said before (regrettably) it might turn out to be just a temporary fix anyway! Remember what happened the last time they radically changed the appearance of Twitter? Lots of clever folks wrote extensions for Firefox and Chrome that forced the browser to show 'The Old Twitter', but it didn't take long before they blocked that from working.
You should also remember to UNINSTALL the current 'X' app completely, before you start afresh with the process of reverting to an older Twitter version. I would humbly suggest that you download one from about three-to-six months ago, and pick one that (it says) works with your version of Android. Some of the REALLY old ones probably won't be compatible with newer phones anyway. Plus, my previous 'life hack' (of completely turning off your Automatic Updates and IGNORING any new Xs) will still apply, of course...
Another kind of a kerfuffle on the TRAINS this Wednesday, but then it would be unusual for me to report otherwise these days! Not only were there SIGNAL FAILURES affecting all trains going in and out of Portsmouth, but the ASLEF staff were having one of their 'work to rule' days.
I perused the online Departure Boards as usual and decided that, while there were SOME disruptions reported, the train was still a preferable option over catching the "DEATH VALLEY 69" bus. Then I crawled to the station in the wind and drizzle, only to find that the ticket office was closed! A sign of things to come?
The people who would NORMALLY operate the ticket office were standing around chatting on the pavement outside of the station. Not that they were in any position to "advise" anyone anyway. Only one of the three ticket machines was working so, inevitably, there was a queue. These machines, as I mentioned before, give you the 'wrong' kind of tickets and one needs to buy with PLASTIC (so I knew I would also have make a visit to the bank to deposit the cash while I was in Winchy).
At least the automatic barriers were all turned off and remained open! The trains (in both directions, as it happens) were running about ten minutes late.
This year's BBC PROMS continue apace, but they've been fairly underwhelming in their programming so far. "NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT", which is probably why I'm only just getting around to mentioning it now!
I've mostly just treated the broadcasts as post-seven o'clock BACKGROUND listening, something to drift off to, but very little to actually get EXCITED about. The choices of music have been fine (if a tad predictable), but none of the performances have grabbed my attention. I put this down to the fact that there haven't been many 'guest' orchestras taking part so far, just various permutations of BBC bands hacking out the tunes in a perfunctory manner.
There have been a couple of goodish "world music" Proms (particularly the MARIZA one), but any "pop" or "jazz" events have typically shown the cluelessness of Radio 3 producers (trying to appeal to a 'broader' audience) operating outside their own musical comfort zones.
Which reminds me, I just found an unfinished 'PROJECT' from LAST year's Proms sitting on the digibox, still waiting to be 'processed':- a Sunday morning set by sarod maestro AMJAD ALI KHAN and his sons. Now THAT'S the stuff!
HOW TO PREVENT THE SINISTER UPDATES
1) Turn off automatic updates on your phone.
Open up PlayStore > Click on your 'my account' avatar > Go to 'Settings', then 'Network Preferences', then 'Automatic Updates' > Select the 'Don't Automatically Update' option.
2) You will still receive a notification whenever updates are available, but you must manually install the ones you want.
This is the set-up that I prefer anyway: it's much safer all round, from a security/privacy point of view.
3) When the dreaded 'X' app appears asking to be updated, ignore it.
A lot of folks will have the habit of clicking on "Install all updates" for an easy life! That is a habit you need to break if you want to prevent 'THAT THING' from happening!
4) The phone's operating system will still recognise 'Twitter' as the app you originally installed.
A handy link... https://www.makeuseof.com/disable-auto-update-android-apps/
Of course, it's quite likely that this can never be a permanent solution! You're stuck with what is essentially an 'out of date' version of the app. At some point, they could stop 'supporting' it altogether, it might stop working properly or become increasingly vulnerable to bugs.
1) Turn off automatic updates on your phone.
Open up PlayStore > Click on your 'my account' avatar > Go to 'Settings', then 'Network Preferences', then 'Automatic Updates' > Select the 'Don't Automatically Update' option.
2) You will still receive a notification whenever updates are available, but you must manually install the ones you want.
This is the set-up that I prefer anyway: it's much safer all round, from a security/privacy point of view.
3) When the dreaded 'X' app appears asking to be updated, ignore it.
A lot of folks will have the habit of clicking on "Install all updates" for an easy life! That is a habit you need to break if you want to prevent 'THAT THING' from happening!
4) The phone's operating system will still recognise 'Twitter' as the app you originally installed.
A handy link... https://www.makeuseof.com/disable-auto-update-android-apps/
Of course, it's quite likely that this can never be a permanent solution! You're stuck with what is essentially an 'out of date' version of the app. At some point, they could stop 'supporting' it altogether, it might stop working properly or become increasingly vulnerable to bugs.
EN BEE... Personally, I can only speak of HOW IT WORKS on a relatively old-model Android phone. I don't have any experience of iPHONES and iPADS, so I won't even try to advise users of the Apple beasts...
Please note also that the previous Xandy Xint is purely academic if your birdies have already updated to X's. There doesn't appear to be an easy way to roll it back to the earlier version. Even uninstalling the app and then reinstalling it will get you the latest 'darkside' version that's now in the app stores.
However, there might be a workaround! Like, by not doing it through the app stores at all, f'rinstance?! You should be able to "find" an older version of the app and install it manually, but it's a little more risky. Here's some potentially useful "How To" links, but I can't vouch for any of them or make any guarantees (Disclaimer Alert!)...
DOWNLOAD OLDER VERSIONS OF TWITTER for ANDROID:
https://androidapksfree.com/twitter/com-twitter-android/old/
https://androidpicks.com/twitter-older-versions-apk-download/
INSTALL on ANDROID (video tutorials):
https://youtu.be/hLxUHB2bMBY
https://youtu.be/WFAX_mFJzK4
ALSO:
https://www.fonedog.com/tricks/download-older-versions-of-apps.html
https://youtu.be/eaRkNcJlDE0
https://www.imobie.com/iphone-manager/how-to-download-apps-without-app-store.htm
ALSO ALSO: This could be interesting, all you desktop browser users!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/old-twitter-layout-2022
https://androidapksfree.com/twitter/com-twitter-android/old/
https://androidpicks.com/twitter-older-versions-apk-download/
INSTALL on ANDROID (video tutorials):
https://youtu.be/hLxUHB2bMBY
https://youtu.be/WFAX_mFJzK4
ALSO:
https://www.fonedog.com/tricks/download-older-versions-of-apps.html
https://youtu.be/eaRkNcJlDE0
https://www.imobie.com/iphone-manager/how-to-download-apps-without-app-store.htm
ALSO ALSO: This could be interesting, all you desktop browser users!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/old-twitter-layout-2022
I must admit, that all looks like it might be a kerfuffle to carry out on a phone of any flavour, so if you are REALLY determined to hex the 'X', you do so at your own risk! As I said before (regrettably) it might turn out to be just a temporary fix anyway! Remember what happened the last time they radically changed the appearance of Twitter? Lots of clever folks wrote extensions for Firefox and Chrome that forced the browser to show 'The Old Twitter', but it didn't take long before they blocked that from working.
You should also remember to UNINSTALL the current 'X' app completely, before you start afresh with the process of reverting to an older Twitter version. I would humbly suggest that you download one from about three-to-six months ago, and pick one that (it says) works with your version of Android. Some of the REALLY old ones probably won't be compatible with newer phones anyway. Plus, my previous 'life hack' (of completely turning off your Automatic Updates and IGNORING any new Xs) will still apply, of course...
Another kind of a kerfuffle on the TRAINS this Wednesday, but then it would be unusual for me to report otherwise these days! Not only were there SIGNAL FAILURES affecting all trains going in and out of Portsmouth, but the ASLEF staff were having one of their 'work to rule' days.
I perused the online Departure Boards as usual and decided that, while there were SOME disruptions reported, the train was still a preferable option over catching the "DEATH VALLEY 69" bus. Then I crawled to the station in the wind and drizzle, only to find that the ticket office was closed! A sign of things to come?
The people who would NORMALLY operate the ticket office were standing around chatting on the pavement outside of the station. Not that they were in any position to "advise" anyone anyway. Only one of the three ticket machines was working so, inevitably, there was a queue. These machines, as I mentioned before, give you the 'wrong' kind of tickets and one needs to buy with PLASTIC (so I knew I would also have make a visit to the bank to deposit the cash while I was in Winchy).
At least the automatic barriers were all turned off and remained open! The trains (in both directions, as it happens) were running about ten minutes late.
This year's BBC PROMS continue apace, but they've been fairly underwhelming in their programming so far. "NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT", which is probably why I'm only just getting around to mentioning it now!
I've mostly just treated the broadcasts as post-seven o'clock BACKGROUND listening, something to drift off to, but very little to actually get EXCITED about. The choices of music have been fine (if a tad predictable), but none of the performances have grabbed my attention. I put this down to the fact that there haven't been many 'guest' orchestras taking part so far, just various permutations of BBC bands hacking out the tunes in a perfunctory manner.
There have been a couple of goodish "world music" Proms (particularly the MARIZA one), but any "pop" or "jazz" events have typically shown the cluelessness of Radio 3 producers (trying to appeal to a 'broader' audience) operating outside their own musical comfort zones.
Which reminds me, I just found an unfinished 'PROJECT' from LAST year's Proms sitting on the digibox, still waiting to be 'processed':- a Sunday morning set by sarod maestro AMJAD ALI KHAN and his sons. Now THAT'S the stuff!
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