Tagged: coronavirus
BASH script to block Twitter followers, en masse
Without even looking at their names
In a previous update of EmailTweetor, I added the ability block/unblock, follow/unfollow and mute/unmute other Twitter accounts from the command-line (in Linux/Mac/Windows, not Android).
I do not follow anyone on Twitter and I do not want anyone following me. (I use Tweets for their temporary presence online, as a historical record. I delete all my tweets afterwords after I take a backup with TwitterToRSS.) When TwitterToRSS shows me that somebody is following me, I need to manually type their names to block them. Today, I created a Linux BASH script to automate the process of blocking them – en masse.
DDIR="/home/$USERNAME/sbin/EmailTweetor" ETR="java -jar ./EmailTweetor.jar " LISTFIL="followers.lst" cd $DDIR if [ -f "$LISTFIL" ]; then sTimeStamp=`date +%G-%m-%g-%I-%M-%S` mv $LISTFIL $LISTFIL.$sTimeStamp.bak fi $ETR trolls > $LISTFIL #LISTFIL="test.txt" #Comment this iLines=`wc -l $LISTFIL | awk '{ print $1 }'` #echo $iLines if [ $iLines -gt 4 ]; then let iCatch=iLines-4 tail -$iCatch $LISTFIL > follower-accounts.lst cat follower-accounts.lst | while read sLine do #echo $sLine | awk '{ print $1 }' sAccount=`echo $sLine | awk '{ print $1 }'` $ETR block $sAccount >> $DDIR/blocked-twitter-followers.lst done echo "Finished blocking all followers" else echo "No followers" fi
The command java -jar EmailTweetor.jar trolls
displays the owner account name, two blank lines, column headings, and two columns of follower accounts and account names. This script ignores the first four lines and the second column (containing the account names) and then proceeds to block the accounts in the first column.
How to block Twitter accounts suggestions
The simplest way to do this is to disable the HTML block containing these suggestions. (Right-click near the block, select Inspect element fro the context menu, find the ID or class names of the DIV elements, and mark them as “display: none!important” in the /home/$USERNAME/.mozilla/firefox/[your-profile-name]/chrome/user-Content.css.)
Another way is to manually block accounts that are repeatedly suggested. Twitter cannot suggest an account if you have blocked it. The coronavirus has given obscure bureaucrats some exposure.
Stop quarantining “CORONAVIRUS” patients in enclosed places like hospitals, hotels, and ships! Use isolated open spaces to treat victims and limit spread of infection!
Developed countries are using medieval practices of quarantining. Concentrating the airborne virus in an enclosed space is a stupid procedure with a dangerous outcome.
Shiploads of people have been stranded on the sea and country after country are turning them away. What good is medical science if you have to be this callous?
When you quarantine people in enclosed places like hospitals, hotels and ships, you are only concentrating the number of viruses that are spread by the air. The virus gets settled in the ventilation system, from where they will continue to flourish and spread.
How to effectively quarantine and treat CORONAVIRUS patients
Instead, infected people should be taken to isolated flat grounds and placed under roof-only tents with limited paneling so that wind draft will harmlessly take away any virus sneezed or coughed into the air by patients. In cold places, room-heaters should be placed under patients beds so they do not feel the cold.
Without fresh supply of air, medical staff are putting themselves at risk of infection. This is how so many medical personnel have themselves become infected in China. Masks are useless in an atmosphere where the viral load is high.
If there is no medical personnel to treat the infected, then it is ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.