More London bombs

What a difference a day makes. Rucksack-based acetone peroxide bombs with small detonators in Central London on three trains and a bus, two weeks after the first wave. There are reports of one person wounded, although ambulance services said they did not transport anyone from the scenes.


Tony Blair said while the near-simultaneous attacks had echoes of the ones two weeks ago that killed 52 people and the four bombers - also on three Tube trains and a bus - it was too early to say whether they bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.


The police chief confirmed there were four scenes - at Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush Underground stations and on a bus in east London - where "attempts have been made to set off explosive devices."

London Tourists and Workers

Spent today in London, mainly around Whitehall. I wondered whether there would be a discernable decrease in the number of people, but the area around Parliament and Trafalgar Square was seething. Normal workers and many tourists, giving a lie to the thought that there would have been a major impact to London's flux of people after the recent tragic events.

And there was a typical sprinkling of protesters around Parliament - including, today, one for the Parliamentary cleaners, who are on strike for better pay. In the hot sunshine, the Capital seemed to have returned to its normal hectic, eclectic mix of action.

Final Cut Crush

So we have crunched eight hours of video down to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Now is the part where we add the angle shots and the titles, before adding chapter markers and cutting to DVD. Doing the whole process on a laptop is qiote a change from the hardware assisted Wintel boxes of a year ago. Remarkably, the whole environment is also very stable, wiothout lots of strange crashes and interminable rendering times.

At this rate, we should have a copy available to send to David on Friday, which was what Melanie had estimated. Tomorrow, I'm in London and Melanie will be counting frames.

Joy of Tech Coffee Widget

Got Tiger? Here's a simple widget to give you a cartoon choice, each day.

ICE - In Case of Emergency

In view of the recent events in London, NHS East Anglian Ambulance Service have launched a national "In Case of Emergency (ICE)" campaign in association with Vodafone's annual life savers award.

The simple idea is that you store the word "ICE" in your mobile phone address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency".

In an emergency situation, relevant personnel will be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them. It's as simple as that, and for more than one contact name you can use ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc. There's more info on the ICE website.

Harry Potter

It was interesting walking into our local Tescos on Friday evening, to see an empty display rack for this book, due out on Saturday.

And then to walk in again on Saturday evening to see the same empty display rack. In the gap between, the books had arrived and then departed. Almost a Harry Potter storyline.

Outdoor Studio

Spent part of today hacking through eight hours of video created by John and Melanie, on a Powerbook connected to a LaCie drive, in the garden. Try doing that with Windows!

Trinity Test

July 16th was the date of the Trinity test. First Nuclear Bomb. Nothing was ever the same.

Moment of Silence

Londoners and tourists visiting the British capital have made a point of going about their business and leisure as normal - or as near normal as possible, following last Thursday's devastating terrorist attacks, which killed at least 53 people and injured around 700.

Today, a week after the attacks, there was a two minute silence throughout London and the rest of the UK and many parts of Europe. With many others, we went outside to take the two minutes of silence on the hot London streets at midday.

Electronic Freedom

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been around in the internet for many years and argues - amongst many things- on behalf of bloggers, publishing useful advice about rights, privileges, and protections.

Bloggers are entitled to free speech - The EFF works to shield from frivolous or abusive threats and lawsuits. Internet bullies shouldn't use copyright, libel, or other claims to chill legitimate speech.

Bloggers have the right to political speech - The EFF works with public interest organizations to ensure that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) doesn't gag bloggers' election related speech. Bloggers also have the right to stay anonymous - including providing a guide to help with strategies for keeping identity private.

William appears

Julie had managed to get seats in row 3, which was around two metres from the stage. In addition to a strong set from mainly the second album and the recent arena tout, Will Young sang three new songs, which will no doubt already be available as mp3 captures from the many cellular phones in the concert.

Mara Carlyle

Enjoyable, talented and slightly quirky singer. First album called 'The Lovely'. Mara disarmingly handles sensuous glissandos and leaps into a heartstopping upper register with deliciously buttery phrasing. She makes it all seem casual. Her folk singer style covers many genres augmented with ukelele and saw(!) amongst the instruments.