Under attack?

This screengrab from BBC News 24 could possibly show the moment when the UK came under terrorist attack for the second time in 24 hours.

Taken at Glasgow Airport at around 3.15pm, the picture shows the moment that a 4x4 vehicle appears to have been driven into the terminal building.
Now obviously I'm not here to report on matters of fact, however I am writing to express my fear that once again, innocent civilians are being targeted by terrorist groups who seem intent to bring violence and evil into the streets and homes of everyday people.

As I watch these pictures I am both saddened and frustrated. Saddened that anyone would try to kill and injure members of the public. Frustrated that I cannot see the situation changing any time soon.

Blogging in the classroom

How about taking the concept of blogging and citizen journalism and teaching it in the classroom? Well that's exactly what I've done in one of the local high schools near to where I live.

Most of you will already be well aware of my interest in blogging and its uses and I am very interested indeed in looking at new ways in which blogging can be used by everyday people to promote or produce their work or interests. Fortunately with my own work as a media producer within education, I have been able to draw up a six-week series of lessons which introduces the concept and technology behind blogging into a classroom setting.

The result so far has been excellent. The school in question, has decided to replace the good ol' term newspaper with a new blog and they also identified sixteen students from across the yeargroups who will produce and edit the content.

You can keep your eye on their blog by clicking here and if you'd like to see a short video (shot and edited on the N95 mobile) then check out this post on my moblog.

If you work in a school and would like more information about setting up and teaching blogging skills to your students, please get in touch.

YouTube launch a dedicated UK site

Used by millions and responsible for all kinds of questionable content videos, YouTube today announced the launch of dedicated sites for a wide range of countries. The UK was included and although the service does not change, the speed of the servers and the relevance of the featured content should improve for international visitors.

One of the famous 'YouTubers' here in the UK has recorded his comments. Geriatric1927 Has been featured by the BBC and other news organisations as being a blogger with a difference... He's over 60...

Have a look at the clip below and listen to his words of wisdom.

Could this send your blog rank through the roof?

Every blogger wants the hits to be high and there's quite a few ways of making sure that your content ranks highly in Google too. A good post can see a massive spike in passing traffic but also repeat visits as well so imagine my interest when I came across this post.

The blog claims that by adding a few lines of text to your blog, the traffic and linkbacks will increase thanks to the laws of mathematics.

I couldn't resist giving it a go although I wonder firstly if it will work or not, and secondly, whats the pont in having artificially high figures if it does work?

I ended up justifying it by arguing that if your blog is more popular, then your material can be seen by a wider audience. In fact, you're doing everyone a favour!

Anyway here's the bit that's needed and if you'd like to include this on your blog, then simply copy the text below and paste it into your blog. Needless to say I will keep you posted.

Below is a matrix of 120 stars, I have already added a link to my blog onto one of the stars, all you need to do is copy and paste the grid into your blog and add your own link to one of the other spare stars, and tell others to do the same!



Viralink

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When I receive a ping back once you have added the Viralink to your site I will add your link to this grid, and each person who copies the grid from here will also link to your site!

Rules
Only 1 link per person (i.e don't hog the viralink!)
Please don't tamper with other peoples url's
Enjoy!

*****EDIT****

I have been reliably informed that this isn't working on my site so please DON'T try to use it from here, you will be wasting your time.

Instead, Here's a site with all you need to know about this post, hopefully you will have more luck with it than I did :-)

Slow GPS sat lock on the N95?

Now the N95 may be the best mobile on the market at the moment, but many people are struggling with sluggish GPS fixes. It seems that the phone doesn't lock onto the sats as quick as people would like and although I experienced a slightly different problem related to the GPS setup, I did come across an interesting post which seems to offer some advice as to speeding up acquisition time on the handset.

If you'd like to check it out, you may do so on Ed Parson's blog which is here. Good luck and by disabling the network lock option under GPS settings, my phone does seem a little quicker...

Has the Apple gone sour?

Today has been one of the busiest days for techno-geeks the world over. The initials WWDC may not mean much to most, but to Apple aficionados, it one of the most important days in the diary.

If Apple corp were to release an 'on this day in history' The World Wide Developers Conference keynote speech from CEO Steve Jobs would include such delights as the original iMac (WWDC 1998), the PowerMac G5 (WWDC 2003) and of course the various versions of Apple's crowning glory, the iPod.

It based on this kind of hype and cult-brand-status that anyone who is remotely interested in Apple products can be forgiven for holding out high hopes for the day as far as gadgets and gizmo's go. In previous years, Steve's near-evangelical keynote has hit my credit card hard and I was expecting the same this year. Maybe an update to the iLife software and the aging iMac desktop? As the lights dimmed, I pulled up my laptop and prepared to want...

As it turns out, I was left wanting. Steve's keynote didn't lack enthusiasm or even the odd 'boom' here and there (I counted over 40 back in '03), what it did lack though was err... products. In fact I basically counted 2, the iPhone which isn't out here in the UK for ages (and isn't HSDPA compliant) and the upcoming operating system 'Leopard' which looks OK but doesn't flick my switches like laptops and desktop computers.

And that was about it... I was shocked and saddened (now there's two words you don't see together often!) with the lack of any 'real' products or upgrades. No iMac upgrades, no iPod upgrades, instead news that the beta software development is going ahead as planned and that the iPhone will also launch in the US in two weeks, where it will undoubtedly do well.

It also looks like I wasn't the only one to find this keynote 'lacking', as Steve bowed out, Apple's share price also seemed to be exiting-stage-left, with a 3.45% drop in value. It seems that the markets were also hoping that Steve would have more than a mobile phone and a CD up his sleeve. Alas! He didn't!



So as the dust settles, my hopes that the last poor keynote from Jobs was a one off were dashed and to add insult to injury, he even used his "one more thing" section to announce that apple are now coding software for PC'! What is the world coming to?