You MUST upgrade by March 5th. All previous versions will stop working due to Twitter API changes.

Twitter framed the API v1.1 changes as a move to fight abuse and improve stability. But for many developers, it felt like the beginning of the end of an open platform.

Yes, authentication and rate limits make technical sense. But forcing all access behind stricter controls and approvals also made it easier to restrict usage, favor paying partners, and protect ad revenue. Free experimentation became harder. Third-party clients were boxed in. Innovation suddenly required permission.

Was it about money? Not directly in the announcement, but strategically, yes. Locking down data creates leverage for monetization.

What's most disappointing is the shift in mindset. Twitter didn't just change an API. It changed the relationship with its developer community.

Wife Acceptance Factor: approximately zero. But look at it!

Update, May 25, 2014: Got it!

And that's tracx in a nutshell...

Social media is a noisy moving target and keeping pace with the evolving social landscape is getting harder every day. Social media is about more than keywords and brand mentions - it's about people and conversations.

If you need a better way to understand what's happening on social media, why and what to do about it; if you want measurable business impact and to return on your social media investments, you're ready for tracx.

Tracx is an end-to-end social intelligence platform for the modern enterprise that offers robust tools and workflows designed to inform and empower all of your teams. Request a demo at www.tracx.com.

Reading Wittgenstein.

All philosophy is a critique of language.

Every argument. Every misunderstanding. Every time I knew exactly what I meant and still couldn't make someone else see it. Every time someone else knew exactly what they meant and I couldn't see it either.

So excited, just received a package with Ray Kurzweil's new book "How to Create a Mind" (and with it, an inscribed bookplate!)

⚠️ This video contains air raid sirens recorded during the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv.

OK, I have to admit that now that it hit home, something's changed. The siren, office evacuation, frantic running-down-the-stairs-to-reach-the-bomb-shelter and hearing a big explosion not so far away while still on the way to the shelter, gave me a new realization about what the people of Sderot and the rest of the Southern District in Israel have been going through for the past 12 years.

Leaving politics aside, and taking the current military operation as a given, I'm amazed by the enormous effort taken by the Israel Defense Forces to surgically attack missile launchers deeply embedded inside the civilian population.

The absurdity of it all, having thousands upon thousands of Syrians slaughtered for months - just a few kilometers to the north - while the world stands still; having terrorists launch rockets targeted at women and children in Israel, while hiding behind women and children in Gaza; having Israel announce the invasion via Twitter, and both sides @replying to each other...

All this reminds me again and again what a snarky genius Einstein was:

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

• Albert Einstein (allegedly)