Hong Kong's Octopus

Reuters is carrying an interesting story about Hong Kong's Octopus smart card system, which serves as a mass-transit fare card and is now being accepted by merchants for small purchases. A magazine cover story from last year goes more into depth. Interesting to note that the system started off anonymous, and is now being converted into a personally-trackable system.

Comments

Re:It's not as bad as the post says.

[RTFA Man]

When's the last time you dropped a penny and even gave two flying fucks about picking it up? Hell, I don't even bother to look where it rolls. The damn thing could land on my shoe, and I'd just kick it off. The fact that we still have the penny is a testament to how fucked up our government is. I expect to have the penny for many years to come ;)

Re:Taking currency out of the consumers hands

[dangermouse]

I think if tomorrow somehow became last year, all bets would be pretty much off.

Re:Taking currency out of the consumers hands

[dangermouse]

Crap, I hadn't noticed.

I'll bet the IRS is pissed.

Re:It's not as bad as the post says.

[NecrosisLabs]

Thruppence
Ha'penny
Farthing

I'm sorry, you were saying something about silly names for coins?

Re:It's not as bad as the post says.

[ObviousGuy]

Why does the Royal Mint have a .COM address?


Duh. They're in the business of making money.