Regardless of whether or not the Boston bombing was part of some greater agenda, I personally feel it was terrorism. The purpose of the attack was to kill, maim, and frighten the public("terrorize"). In my book, that makes it an act of terrorism, and that makes those who committed the acts terrorists. We recently had a similar event in Quebec, where university students threw smoke bombs into various public transit stations. It was part of their protest against raising provincial tuition prices(if anyone could explain how smoke-bombing people on their way to work in the morning protests tuition prices, I'd love to know). An act such as that is aimed at creating panic and disorder among the public. Regardless of lethal intent or result, I also consider that an act of terrorism, and would have liked to see the parties responsible tried as such(it would help if our justice system had a little bit more for teeth, and wasn't so directed toward sheltering and protecting the participants in such events, and more geared to punish participants and protect victims).
With regard to terrorist incidents overall, I pay them only cursory attention. It is terribly unfortunate that something like this has happened. However, I don't feel that the endless, non-stop media coverage helps much, so I don't pay it a lot of attention. I think that terrorists can claim a pretty significant victory when they've paralyzed a huge amount of the population into staying home and watching CNN non-stop, afraid to leave their homes. 9/11 is a perfect example. What did it work out to, something like 3000 people killed? However, they managed to paralyze a nation of around 300 million people and inspire an environment of fear in one of the most powerful, privileged countries in the world, an attitude which can still be seen to some extent today. Yes, it's important and relevant news and needs to be relayed to the public, but it doesn't help anyone when they are force-fed it by the major media outlets non-stop for the next week.
I believe in swift and aggressive justice. I would like to see the surviving bomber tried and sentenced almost overnight. If that sentence means that he's condemned to die(do they do that in Massachusetts?), they need to get out there and do it, right away. None of this spend-30-years-on-death-row crap. Give him his trial, sentence him, and hang him from the big oak tree in front of the courthouse that afternoon, or bury him deep in a vicious prison atmosphere amongst the other scum of the earth, and allow him no chance at "infamous celebrity". And then promptly let the incident be pushed aside. Allow the appropriate parties access to the information they need to prevent similar events in the future, but take it out of the newspaper and off the television, and motivate the city of Boston(and the country in general) to remember it more for the lesson of vigilance it teaches, and less for the actions of some homicidal terrorists.