Really Virtual Speaks

Really Virtual is the guy who sent out tweets during OBL raid. He has become an instant Twitter celebrity and was so inundated by media questions that he set up web site to answer all questions.

Pretty fascinating window into life in Abottabod.

http://www.reallyvirtual.com/nsfaq/

 

There was a power outage 30 minutes before the raid?

And, hey, the guy owns a coffee shop and is looking to upgrade his espresso machine.

These days, I am running on 7-8 espresso shots per day L The coffee shop has a couple of semi-automatic Saeco machines, and will upgrade to a 3 group professional machine when needed.

A lead! I'll have to send him an email.

 

Send him a tweet. @ReallyVirtual The guy seems to respond to everything.

Maybe you can get the rights to the Really Virtual coffee shop franchise in the USA.

 

May 1 would make for a great book about the amazing use of social media...It's just remarkable how a guy in his bed complaining about wanting to get out his giant swatter to smack a helicopter, in a city no one had ever heard of, on the other side of the world, can become, in the course of about an hour, not just a hyper celebrity, but also a reporter, a columnist, a political pundit, a diplomat, and a Chamber of Commerce representative.

I'd argue the rise of Really Virtual is unlike anything ever in human history.

 

The Times has an article about the stealth helicopter used in the raid:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/world/asia/06helicopter.html?_r=1&hp

The whole article is interesting, but at the end, they speculate that we may have used stealth drones to watch OBL's compound.

That makes sense since the Pakistani military might have been tipped off if their radar constantly picked up a drone flying over Abbottabad.

 

I've got a beautifully restored 3-group machine for sale too.

 

Isn't it incredible? Ghonim (http://twitter.com/#!/ghonim) in Egypt's story is pretty wild too.

Hsrd to keep anything secret nowadays.

 

Lost in all the aero-geek euphoria over the stealth helicopter is the fact that, by any usual means of measurement, the thing was a failure -- one of two crashed, jeopardizing the mission. So unless it's proven to be pilot error, seems to me there's some kinks that need to be worked out.

Maybe 3Bags can get a hold of one and sort out the problems!

 

You mentioned your phone is being used for music, what are you currently playing?

Dogs of War - Pink Floyd

 

What is the avg response time of the cops/military? The shooting/explosions lasted 40min and yet no one showed.

The neighbors said that a firetruck showed up first, but it was stuck in a small ditch. The police showed up next and asked where the problem was.

 

Well, I guess we'd have to know if the stealth components contributed to it losing "lift power".

I think it's unclear from what we know so far. It may well have happened to any Blackhawk.

 

What's your estimate of how much the UBL compound land is worth-250K or 1M? how many usd is 20M rupees?

20M Rs. is roughly 236,000 US$ - it is a pretty large compound, so 20M can be a reasonable price, depending on when it was bought.