musalbas/listentotwitter

Listen to Twitter.

Listen to Twitter

Listen to Twitter is a Python2 web application that allows you to convert the sentiment of any topic into a unique musical melody in real-time. The happier the general discussion, the higher the pitch of each note; the more tweets there are, the faster the notes play.

A live version is available at listentotwitter.com.

Python dependencies

The application has the following Python dependencies, which can be installed via pip:

• flask-socketio==0.4.0
• textblob
• tweepy
• Flask==0.10.1
• gevent==1.1b4

Setup notes

If you'd like to setup your own copy of the application, following these instructions:

1. Install the above Python dependencies.
2. Clone the repository.
3. Copy listentotwitter/config.py.default to listentotwitter/config.py.
4. Edit the TWITTER_* variables in listentotwitter/config.py with your Twitter API keys.
5. Edit the HTTP_* variables in listentotwitter/config.py with the host and port that the web server should bind to.
6. Run python runserver.py.
7. The web server should now be running and accessible from your web browser.

Credits

Initially created by Mustafa Al-Bassam, Mark Ormesher, Fares Alaboud and Kristin Kasavetova as Noisy Tweets at MLH Launch Hack.

listentotwitter's Issues

Investigate why Flask-SocketIO versions >0.4.0 break listentotwitter

It seems to create two TweetStreamer threads. Somewhere in a release after 0.4.0 a change was made to Flask-SocketIO that causes this.

Add loading image

Add a loading image on the web client when a new keyword is pinged but the TweetStreamer must sleep before updating the keywords being tracked.

Add change instrument box

Add a dropdown box in the web client to allow the user to change the instrument.

Web interface looks slightly distorted on small screens

Spacing isn't consistent on the front page, and the input box looks out of place when surrounded with the "Listen to _ on Twitter" text.

DoS via keyword saturation

A denial of service of the application can be invoked by a client which pings many junk keywords simultaneously, to the extent that other clients are unable to request new keywords as the keyword tracker has maxed out the keyword limit.

Fix by adding a limit to how many new keywords a single IP address can track concurrently.

SoundManager crashes FireFox sometimes

On a high-volume keyword such as "lol" where many musical notes are played, FireFox crashes after a while. This appears to be caused by SoundManager as FireFox does not crash when music is not played.

Keyword box tooltip drags slowly on some mobile browsers

The keyword box tooltips moves slowly when the user scrolls down the page, on the Android stock browser. It's very visually unappealing.