This is kind of old news now, but I have been too busy to post in the last week or so.
The chaser "invasion" of the APEC security zone was funny but also extremely alarming.
The authorities applied "spin" to the issue, claiming that the security worked as the Chaser boys were arrested and that they placed themselves at risk of being shot by snipers.
In fact, as shown by the video below, it wasn't until "Osama" got out of the car that they were challenged. And if they weren't challenged by ground staff, why would snipers suddenly decide to open fire?
The fact is that once again a lot of money was spent and a great deal of public inconvenience caused in the name of security that was in effect "security theatre".
Although it seems unlikely that the cars were close enough to a venue to actually kill or injur any APEC delegates, if the vans had been packed with explosives and detonated it would have killed & injured a number of police officers and created a serious embarassment for the Australian government.
The Chaser's stunt was fairly simple impersonation attack and even if the police didn't have time to examine the (obviously) fake security passes on the cars, procedures should have been in place to challenge any unexpected convoys. The movement of these VIP convoys through the city was obviously co-ordinated with the RTA traffic operations centre to ensure green lights; this means that even if they movements weren't scheduled it should have been simple to notify the people "on the ground".
The police would have had standing orders to either
Stop any unexpected convoys
or allow through unexpected convoys
Clearly option 1 may have resulted in potential inconvenience to a VIP, but is the more secure stance. It is what is known in IT security as a "default deny" policy. Option 2, "default permit" increases risks while reducing inconvenience.
Surely the same world leaders that decide we can't take nail files on to an airplane would understand the need for a little inconvenience to protect their safety?
Well, colour me excited. Tonight when I brought up the TV guide on Foxtel I noticed a new entry.
Starting from December 1, The SciFi channel arrives on Foxtel.
About a week ago my much loved Bose headphones broke - the plastic headband snapped. If they were a cheaper set of headphones I would have just thrown them away, but with a $500 replacement cost I thought it was worth enquiring about repair. I called Bose and was advised that they may be able to repair them and that the best thing to do was to drop them in to the Bose office in Newington.
I called in there yesterday and was met by the service manager. He asked when I purchased them and how they had broken. I advised him that they were about 18 months old and that they just broke one day when I took them out of the case. He told me that he could see evidence of hairline cracking in the plastic and that even though they were out of warranty they would replace them at no charge!
5 minutes later he brought me a Bose bag containing a replacement set of headphones, some Bose stickers and two packets of Bose branded "Jaffas"! It certainly left me with a great impression of Bose and not only much more likely to purchase Bose in the future but also to recommend Bose to other people.
Dear LazyWeb,
I am looking for sample code that demonstrates how to achieve equivalent functionality of the Addresss Book "Large Type" option.
I have successfully created a transparent NSWindow into which I can place by view, but I am not sure how to put that window on "top" of the screen rather than just on top of my application. Do I need to use something other than Cocoa to achieve this?
Thanks,
Paul
Update 11/10/2006 For the sake of Google and posterity, the answers can be found in the Round Transparent Window example on Apple's Developer site. I had figured most of it out myself - the key item is [iconWindow setLevel:NSStatusWindowLevel]; in order to have the window appear on top of everything else.
According to an article in this morning's Sydney Morning Herald
US Homeland Security officials were warned the bombers were plotting to use liquid explosives hidden in sports drinks or other containers in their hand luggage.
Once on board, the suicide bombers would detonate the explosives using a battery from a simple device like their camera or an iPod.
