Robert Evatt: War according to Twitter
BY ROBERT EVATT World Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
11/20/12 at 4:44 AM
This definitely brings new meaning to the phrase "Twitter War" - last week Israel announced the start of its military action against Hamas in the Gaza Strip via the social network.
The official Twitter account for the Israeli Defense Forces, @idfspokesperson, posted "The IDF has begun a widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the #Gaza Strip, chief among them #Hamas & Islamic Jihad targets."
Just minutes later, the account announced that Ahmed Al-Jabari, head of Hamas' military wing, had been killed. Since then, the account has alternated between posting up-to-the-minute accounts of military actions, advice for civilians and state propaganda, including a very provoking image of Jabari stamped with the words "eliminated."
It's true that technology has sped up news to lightning-fast paces, but this is just amazing. News of wars typically originate from a solemn government official in front of a microphone, or captured videos of attacks. Israel chose another medium entirely.
Sure, Twitter is loaded with people reacting to fumbled footballs and whatever the various Kardashians are doing. But it has also proven to quickly spread vital information during times of crisis - like superstorm Sandy or last year's uprisings against various Middle Eastern governments.
Maybe it's only natural that we'd get to the point that entire wars are announced on Twitter. Is the world changing fast enough for you yet?
Pointing fingers: Windows 8 is here, and if you've turned on a TV in the past couple of weeks, you've probably seen Microsoft's omnipresent ads. But if rumors leaking out of the company are true, the wildly different operating system needs all the help it can get.
Paul Thurrott, a well-connected Microsoft blogger, said that sales of the new operating system are well below projections. Supposedly, company officials are blaming the soft sales on the various PC makers' "inability to deliver," that is, their inability to make truly awesome hardware to go along with its new software.
As excuses go, this is a head-scratcher. The release of every other version of Windows didn't cause computer makers to suddenly change the way they make computer boxes, so why would Windows 8?
The official line, if true, isn't completely out of left field. Traditional computers and laptops really could use a hardware re-think, as many of them are stodgy, confusing, bloated or all three. But given the nature of the PC industry, that's almost a completely different issue.
If Microsoft officials truly are wondering what's going on with soft Windows 8 sales, they'd be better served looking inward than outward.
Original Print Headline: War according to Twitter
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