Thu - July 7, 2005
Terror attacks on heart of London
Blogosphere kicks into
overdrive.
I saw what may be the first almost real-time use
of vision from a videophone to cover a major international event on the TV
tonight, showing ambulances arriving at a London hospital with casualties from
the London blast on the
Tube.
It is amazing how swiftly the UK's bloggers have shifted into high gear to give so many angles on the story. Their personal accounts have been supplied with the aid of still camera phones, videophones, wifi notebooks and PDAs, desktop PCs (at work, many of them), to Flickr, blogs, newspapers, TV and radio via direct upload, emails and text mesages. Truly, if there was an example of how wireless mobility and personal electronic publishing can be brought to bear with laser-like intensity for a single event, then this must be it. Even with the failure of several networks to cope, webservers falling over, and a reported takeover by the police of some communications services for emergency traffic, the news is still getting through with remarkable speed. It makes the Live8's 28 million SMSs look somewhat pale in many ways.
I have spent the last couple of hours trawling the net and bloggers for news tips for the late night crew on the newsdesk at the paper. The guys there have done a great job all things considered. They must have been just about to put the first edition to bed when news broke.
Judging by early reports, at least 50-60 people must have been killed, although Wikipedia reports just about 13 at the moment -- but this is sure to rise. (Sky News later reported 45 dead and 1000 injured based on information from a "reliable, but unofficial source")
The terrorists would have thought that with all the police in Scotland to protect just eight men, that London would be a soft target. But it seems, based on eyewitness reports posted to BBC's news site, that the British police had at least two hours warning because they started to scour the Underground at least as early as 7am, delaying passengers.
I was struck by how the terrorists again used classic special forces tactics. Namely, kick off an explosion that does enough damage to herd people into a kill zone where the main charges are then set off. In this case, panicked Underground commuters were told by security staff to get on buses, which they crowded on to and then at least one exploded (although there were early reports of three buses hit). Al Qaeda did much the same thing in the Bali blast, herding patrons out of the nightclub and into the radius of the bigger, more devastating truck bomb.
The big question now for France is where are the bombs around Paris? If this was inspired in part by a decision to attack the winning Olympics 2012 city, then there may have been two Al Qaeda ops running -- and the other would be in Paris.
On the other hand, the timing of the Olympics announcement last night and events today -- given the G8 meeting got underway at about the same time in Gleneagles, Scotland as the blasts struck -- may just be coincidence. But Chirac won't know that until his security services have thoroughly cleansed the city of any suspicious packages and checked for any suspicious travellers.
It is amazing how swiftly the UK's bloggers have shifted into high gear to give so many angles on the story. Their personal accounts have been supplied with the aid of still camera phones, videophones, wifi notebooks and PDAs, desktop PCs (at work, many of them), to Flickr, blogs, newspapers, TV and radio via direct upload, emails and text mesages. Truly, if there was an example of how wireless mobility and personal electronic publishing can be brought to bear with laser-like intensity for a single event, then this must be it. Even with the failure of several networks to cope, webservers falling over, and a reported takeover by the police of some communications services for emergency traffic, the news is still getting through with remarkable speed. It makes the Live8's 28 million SMSs look somewhat pale in many ways.
I have spent the last couple of hours trawling the net and bloggers for news tips for the late night crew on the newsdesk at the paper. The guys there have done a great job all things considered. They must have been just about to put the first edition to bed when news broke.
Judging by early reports, at least 50-60 people must have been killed, although Wikipedia reports just about 13 at the moment -- but this is sure to rise. (Sky News later reported 45 dead and 1000 injured based on information from a "reliable, but unofficial source")
The terrorists would have thought that with all the police in Scotland to protect just eight men, that London would be a soft target. But it seems, based on eyewitness reports posted to BBC's news site, that the British police had at least two hours warning because they started to scour the Underground at least as early as 7am, delaying passengers.
I was struck by how the terrorists again used classic special forces tactics. Namely, kick off an explosion that does enough damage to herd people into a kill zone where the main charges are then set off. In this case, panicked Underground commuters were told by security staff to get on buses, which they crowded on to and then at least one exploded (although there were early reports of three buses hit). Al Qaeda did much the same thing in the Bali blast, herding patrons out of the nightclub and into the radius of the bigger, more devastating truck bomb.
The big question now for France is where are the bombs around Paris? If this was inspired in part by a decision to attack the winning Olympics 2012 city, then there may have been two Al Qaeda ops running -- and the other would be in Paris.
On the other hand, the timing of the Olympics announcement last night and events today -- given the G8 meeting got underway at about the same time in Gleneagles, Scotland as the blasts struck -- may just be coincidence. But Chirac won't know that until his security services have thoroughly cleansed the city of any suspicious packages and checked for any suspicious travellers.
Posted at 11:25 PM
Mon - April 25, 2005
Russell crows about iTunes Music Store Australia
The Australian actor-musician star of
Gladiator places an ad for iTMS on shock jock's broadcast this
morning.
Russell Crowe told Sydney broadcaster John Laws on
his radio show today that Apple's online music store will debut this Thursday,
more than a day before Tiger
launches.
We had indications back in January that Apple wanted to launch the site then, but last-minute hiccups with the local music industry killed that plan.
The report says that inexplicably the cost per track will be $A1.80, when everywhere else it is just under a unit of currency. Although this is in keeping with Apple Australia's far higher pricing than simple exchange rates would indicate. It looks like there is a secondary market opening in iTunes arbitrage.
We will be keeping a close watch over the www.apple.com.au/itunes/store/ URL, the most likely home for Apple's iTunes music site, which redirects to iLife at the moment.
This is the most reliable indication to date that iTMS will start this week; It seems Apple or someone connected with the company may have paid for this product placement if John Laws' history is a guide.
And it may be a coincidence, but after setting my system clock forward to April 28, OS X wanted to access Software Update only when later the iTunes software looked for a local store. This would seem to lend weight to the assertion that iTMS will start this week, even if it doesn't prove it. And it would dovetail with the rumoured iTunes 4.8 update.
We had indications back in January that Apple wanted to launch the site then, but last-minute hiccups with the local music industry killed that plan.
The report says that inexplicably the cost per track will be $A1.80, when everywhere else it is just under a unit of currency. Although this is in keeping with Apple Australia's far higher pricing than simple exchange rates would indicate. It looks like there is a secondary market opening in iTunes arbitrage.
We will be keeping a close watch over the www.apple.com.au/itunes/store/ URL, the most likely home for Apple's iTunes music site, which redirects to iLife at the moment.
This is the most reliable indication to date that iTMS will start this week; It seems Apple or someone connected with the company may have paid for this product placement if John Laws' history is a guide.
And it may be a coincidence, but after setting my system clock forward to April 28, OS X wanted to access Software Update only when later the iTunes software looked for a local store. This would seem to lend weight to the assertion that iTMS will start this week, even if it doesn't prove it. And it would dovetail with the rumoured iTunes 4.8 update.
Posted at 02:18 PM
The sweet Serenity
Film spinoff to Joss Whedon's
western-in-space, Firefly, previews exclusively on Quicktime
tomorrow.
It was one of my favourite SF series, and thanks
to television network stupidity it was predictably
canned.
Joss Whedon's Firefly arises from the ashes this week with a preview of the spinoff movie, Serenity, at Apple's Quicktime site.
Whedon, who most famously created the Buffy and Angel franchises and wrote the awful Alien 4, makes a point of saying the previews will be exclusive to Apple.
Whedon writes:
Now, here's a word of warning: this trailer ain't shy. If you're looking to live totally spoiler-free, know that there's plenty of key dialogue and images running through this bad boy. It's pretty tasty, though, and it doesn't give everything away. But close scrutiny will definitely learn you much of what's to come. (Anakin TOTALLY goes evil.) It's a nice piece to while away the time till September, and hopefully should intrigue th' peeps that don't have coats of brown.
Joss Whedon's Firefly arises from the ashes this week with a preview of the spinoff movie, Serenity, at Apple's Quicktime site.
Whedon, who most famously created the Buffy and Angel franchises and wrote the awful Alien 4, makes a point of saying the previews will be exclusive to Apple.
Whedon writes:
Now, here's a word of warning: this trailer ain't shy. If you're looking to live totally spoiler-free, know that there's plenty of key dialogue and images running through this bad boy. It's pretty tasty, though, and it doesn't give everything away. But close scrutiny will definitely learn you much of what's to come. (Anakin TOTALLY goes evil.) It's a nice piece to while away the time till September, and hopefully should intrigue th' peeps that don't have coats of brown.
Posted at 01:33 PM
Sun - April 24, 2005
Tiger Gold on Bit Torrent
Will they try then buy?
Often the impact of piracy is over-stated, but in
the case of the Tiger Gold I saw on Torrent trackers the other day, I can only
hope that those who download will buy the
software.
Apple needs the revenue to continue innovating. And whatever I may think about Steve's blitzkrieg marketing tactics, it seems to have worked this far.
Legal issues aside, I certainly wouldn't want to download the hefty file -- you just never know what might be in it.
Update: Last Thursday, The Pirate Bay received a cease and desist order from Apple.
Apple's San Francisco lawyer, Ian Ramage of OMelveny & Myers, writes:
We demand that you immediately disable the torrent and/or tracker and prevent further distribution of Apple's trade secret and copyrighted material.
Apple further demands that you provide us with all information relating to the posting of torrents enabling the distribution of Mac OS X Tiger, Build 8A428, including all log files and tracker files associated with such torrents. Apple also demands all information related to the identity of the persons who created such torrent files and/or who uploaded the software referenced by those torrent files, as well as the identities of all individuals who participated in the uploading and downloading of Apple's software. If you fail to maintain the evidence of this illegal activity, you will be subject to severe sanctions. In particular, if you destroy or hide any evidence, you will be subject to civil and criminal penalties. Please produce all requested information by the end of the day, Friday, April 22, 2005.
The site offered a reply, but I won't post that here.
Update: It is confirmed the Torrent distribution and the official build (8A428) are the same. I still wouldn't advocate piracy, though.
Apple needs the revenue to continue innovating. And whatever I may think about Steve's blitzkrieg marketing tactics, it seems to have worked this far.
Legal issues aside, I certainly wouldn't want to download the hefty file -- you just never know what might be in it.
Update: Last Thursday, The Pirate Bay received a cease and desist order from Apple.
Apple's San Francisco lawyer, Ian Ramage of OMelveny & Myers, writes:
We demand that you immediately disable the torrent and/or tracker and prevent further distribution of Apple's trade secret and copyrighted material.
Apple further demands that you provide us with all information relating to the posting of torrents enabling the distribution of Mac OS X Tiger, Build 8A428, including all log files and tracker files associated with such torrents. Apple also demands all information related to the identity of the persons who created such torrent files and/or who uploaded the software referenced by those torrent files, as well as the identities of all individuals who participated in the uploading and downloading of Apple's software. If you fail to maintain the evidence of this illegal activity, you will be subject to severe sanctions. In particular, if you destroy or hide any evidence, you will be subject to civil and criminal penalties. Please produce all requested information by the end of the day, Friday, April 22, 2005.
The site offered a reply, but I won't post that here.
Update: It is confirmed the Torrent distribution and the official build (8A428) are the same. I still wouldn't advocate piracy, though.
Posted at 03:48 PM
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Published On: Jul 08, 2005 12:29 AM
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Published On: Jul 08, 2005 12:29 AM