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(fwded to me by my mum)
Excerpt: 7 hours and 118 aftershocks later, the store was still open. Why? Because with the phone and train lines down, taxis stopped, and millions of people stuck in the Tokyo shopping district scared, with no access to television, hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news on USTREAM and contact their families via Twitter, Facebook, and email. The young did it on their mobile devices, while the old clustered around the macs. There were even some Android users there. (There are almost no free wifi spots in Japan besides Apple stores, so even Android users often come to the stores.)
You know how in disaster movies, people on the street gather around electronic shops that have TVs in the display windows so they can stay informed with what is going on? In this digital age, that's what the Tokyo Apple stores became. Staff brought out surge protectors and extension cords with 10s of iOS device adapters so people could charge their phones & pads and contact their loved ones. Even after we finally had to close 10pm, crowds of people huddled in front of our stores to use the wifi into the night, as it was still the only way to get access to the outside world.
Read the entire blog post here. Very inspirational. :)
BTW, in case any anyone on my f-list are also watchers of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
honorh's lj, you know she's in Japan and has been e-missing since the big quake (there was apparently a smaller one that she weathered just fine). She's safe! She was in contact w/her mom earlier this week, who told friends and family, at least one of whom is also on lj, and thus the word is being spread.
I know this sounds crazy, and it is, but I'm actually glad honorh was in Japan. Not because I wanted her to suffer through the quake and tsunamis, not at all, but b/c I was so burned out last week that without some kind of personal connection to what was going on there, I doubt I could have worked up the mental strength to either notice or care. And more on that later. So thanks to honorh, I had a reason to care at all, and a foundation from which I could care in the larger sense. I know it sounds callous and it's wrong, but that's where I was last week. Certainly, it's not a place I'd like to be again.
Excerpt: 7 hours and 118 aftershocks later, the store was still open. Why? Because with the phone and train lines down, taxis stopped, and millions of people stuck in the Tokyo shopping district scared, with no access to television, hundreds of people were swarming into Apple stores to watch the news on USTREAM and contact their families via Twitter, Facebook, and email. The young did it on their mobile devices, while the old clustered around the macs. There were even some Android users there. (There are almost no free wifi spots in Japan besides Apple stores, so even Android users often come to the stores.)
You know how in disaster movies, people on the street gather around electronic shops that have TVs in the display windows so they can stay informed with what is going on? In this digital age, that's what the Tokyo Apple stores became. Staff brought out surge protectors and extension cords with 10s of iOS device adapters so people could charge their phones & pads and contact their loved ones. Even after we finally had to close 10pm, crowds of people huddled in front of our stores to use the wifi into the night, as it was still the only way to get access to the outside world.
Read the entire blog post here. Very inspirational. :)
BTW, in case any anyone on my f-list are also watchers of
honorh's lj, you know she's in Japan and has been e-missing since the big quake (there was apparently a smaller one that she weathered just fine). She's safe! She was in contact w/her mom earlier this week, who told friends and family, at least one of whom is also on lj, and thus the word is being spread. I know this sounds crazy, and it is, but I'm actually glad honorh was in Japan. Not because I wanted her to suffer through the quake and tsunamis, not at all, but b/c I was so burned out last week that without some kind of personal connection to what was going on there, I doubt I could have worked up the mental strength to either notice or care. And more on that later. So thanks to honorh, I had a reason to care at all, and a foundation from which I could care in the larger sense. I know it sounds callous and it's wrong, but that's where I was last week. Certainly, it's not a place I'd like to be again.