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I was amazed with the quality of the video - almost no latency (when compared to simultaneous TV broadcast) and very high resolution. Some investigation revealed that they were caching video off the local Akamai servers in the area. Akamai is underrated for sure - atleast compared to Google but they have the POWER!

I was amazed with the quality of the video - almost no latency (when compared to simultaneous TV broadcast) and very high resolution. Some investigation revealed that they were caching video off the local Akamai servers in the area. Akamai is underrated for sure - atleast compared to Google but they have the POWER!

Of course, that's the obvious comment (no offense). But consider: What if you're wrong?

If he's wrong, and "hearers of the new noise are virtually unable to resist turning to face the direction from which it is coming" and they intend to use this sound in cellular phones, then I can imagine what would happen if somebody drove with a cellular on the side seat. Fortunatelly (or not), from what I heard from the video here (this link was posted by another /. user) the sound is more annoying than anything else.

It's just a different sound. Any strange sound calls your attention. If you're in a glass shop, and hear tires squealing, would you resist to face the direction from which it is coming? Me thinks not.

You have to put up with a three minute interview and a horrible site design, but it's here, in RealAudio and Windows Media, along with a demonstration in a smoky room. The sound is more like a compressed air can, and I would swear it's being produced by an air compressor.

When they say "impossible to ignore", they're not saying your head instantly turns to it - they're saying that in a smoky room, you can pretty well tell where it's coming from without having to think or concentrate on it. Believe me, my head didn't instantly gravitate toward my laptop speakers when the sound came on.

http://www.now.com/feature.now?javascript=dhtml&fi d=1922344&cid=1023695
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This place is a fascinating mix of east and west.

Net geeks lean heavily to the libertarian side and HK is definitely one of the freest countries in Asia.

No net censorship here a la Singapore and Australia. Free press, laissez-faire government. You're also free to chew gum. :) HK is consistently chosen as the freest economy in the world. Low flat tax. No sales tax.

For English speaking geeks, they should be able to fit right in as there is a sizable expatriate population and English and Chinese are the official languages.

Plenty of start-ups here. There's a culture of entrepreneurship born out of the place's immigrant roots. Some interesting sites:
now.com
comicinema

Lots of cutting edge tech. People are gadget crazy here just like in Japan. One of the highest rates of cell phone usage here, behind only Nokia-land, aka the Scandinavian countries. People change cell phones like clothes. WAP is already widespread here and i-mode is coming soon. Broadband is rapidly being adopted. Had the world's first interactive TV system.

Great food, HK movies, excellent public transportation system. Clean subways, trams, buses, ferries, even the world's longest escalator that cuts through the city up the hills!

Downer: pollution. That's the major complaint that people have but it's getting better. Also high cost of housing. Prices have dropped in the past few years but costs probably rival those of Tokyo and SF.

Oh yeah. And there's Starbucks, CNN and CNBC if you're into that sort of thing.

Dilbert_ writes "Since most dot com domains of the form www.[common english word].com are taken today, you could theoretically surf around using just a dictionary. Now you can search the web from a page that will will automatically generate a fresh load of links, based on a dictionnary. " For some reason this amuses me greatly.