I am an expat working in HK for the summer, and much like Batkid, have an Octopus in my wallet as well.
Question though: in what way is HK society more homogeneous than that of any one in North America? If you mean socially and financially, im afraid that we are observing two extremely different cities. Granted, the people in the higher socio-economic tier seem to be very similar in many of their buying/transportation/etc. habits, but the other half of the people in HK are moving to the beat of a different drummer.
As far as the implementation of such a system in North America, I don't know if dismissing the possibility right away is very founded. Besides the possiblity of hacking into the system and giving yourself a few hundred bucks(anyone know if Octopus is set with a limit?), the only obvious security problem with an anonymous system is pickpocketing.
I would love to have someting like an octopus card in Philadelphia when I go back to school in the fall. The possiblity of hopping on the subway and buying cigarettes and snapple (Octopus can be used at 7-11 in HK) on a card I have to wave in front of a sensor is way too conveninet for me to want to pass up. Please note that I realize my dream of a cigarette-el-philly-snap' chip is a bit idealistic...im guessing that the logistics involved in such and undertaking (not to mention the cash) would prevent such a thing from getting off the ground for a while.
COMPLETELY OT, but more celeb deaths.
on
Hong Kong's Octopus
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
Also,/. readers may be saddened to hear that in the past week DeeDee Ramone, of the Ramones died of an overdose in his apartment
Also, Davey Boy Smith, the beloved Bristish Bulldog of professional wrestling, was found dead. Steroid abuse may have played a role.
actually, in Hong Kong the money is controlled by banks. The bills dont say "HK Special Administrative Region", they say "Honk Kong Bank of China" or "Standard Chartered"..........a picture of a neat building is a little less foreboding than a weird ass, all seeing pyramid......or is it? just a thought to get the wheels turning.
Now we can all get on Kazaa and grab credit card numbers so we can buy porn and cds and dvds and software and computer games and books and even computer games about porn........cause all these things still have to be bought right? its not like i can just get them free through some program......
"Now this really isn't that big of a deal, because in 30 years it is predicted that most cars were be electric/fuel cell driven, we won't need gasoline for our cars/trucks"
besides all the "woulda, shoulda, couldas", does no one take the oil lobby/auto lobby connection in to account? With all due respect, how likely do you think it would be for Dubya, or anyone, to sign a mandate requiring the gradual switch to a partial/non-fossil fuel based auto industry?
i think that we should make all pregnancy tests have a 50% false positive rate also. that would be almost as fun as getting thrown into a cell and being denied legal counsel for a few days.
Actually, The "DE9: Closer to the Edit" album was done almost entirely on loop based software such as Acid Pro. Final Scratch is quickyl becoming Richie's preferred live tool. I read an article in Mixer Magazine from last month where he says that his sets are now at least 40% final scratch, the rest vinyl, and that some sets are all final scratch. John Acquaviva, a pal of Richie's, was the first to get a working copy of the interface a few years ago in Holland. Heres a link ot the wired articel form a while ago: http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,47398,00.html
good god, thank you for clearing that up. "No formal system can prove all of its own truths" would be more accurate way of describing Godelian (pardon the lack of oomlat on o) logic. sure, this definitely throws shit in the fan for logical positivists (e.g. Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, authors of Principia Matematica, the book which tried to reduce all matehematical statements into formal logic equations (which Godel completely trashed)), and definitly makes us aware that our trust in the finite rules we place on (seemingly?) infinite systems should be questioned. Also, with the advancement of physics, we are now encountering things which are "unexplainable"; maybe we should start to think of metaphysical explanations, no matter how hokey that sounds (especially to you purebred empiricists out there).
wow......a 100g recording budget.....i guess hookers and coke have playback functions now? I Nirvana (ooh...pop reference) cut their bleach album for $650 in three days. I cut an album for $500 in two days. This is on analog equipment, which tends to be a bit more expensive nowadays...sure, i was in a local band, and the recording studio was a warehouse in the dealer district, and we werent trying to be the next "insert commercial success here". But come one...100g for recording is pretty fucking out there...unless you realy suck and need to do a lot of overdubs and effects processing. Of course, that would mean that you sucked and couldnt play it straight through the first few times.
tsk....firstly, your complete (not partial) lack of fighting for your rights (no matter how nominal and US-centric they may be) is disheartening. If the only right I happened to have while living in a hypothetical totalitarian regime was the right to fuck a goat twice a day, you bet that goat's asshole would be bleeding all day long. Hell, I know that I'm not going to willingly accept being raped of my cash. Sure, other countries deal with price fixing, unfortuantely for the businessmen in this country, it is unlawful. They can do it if they really want to, but if they get caught, theyll get sacked for it. The meek will inherit the earth? sure.......
genesis games? no, with all due respect, its quite improbable that the execs at sega are still turning out a profit for genesis games....the system has been "obsolete" for a good three years now, and I havent seen any place to order or buy copies of "legendary axe 2" in a very long time. With all of this evidence, it doesnt even seem as if the manufacturing of any genesis equipment is still occurring. infringement? maybe, but none of the rom site peeps is claiming they invented these games, and it doesnt seem as if the manufactureres have alot of projections based on future sales of"general chaos" games.
i posted up something earlier about this...there is a program called metasynth (i think its mac only, not usre though, only heard of in The Wire, british avant rock/electronica magazine) where you can input a JPEG ar any image, and it createsa asound based on the visual image. pretty cool stuff, never heard of it anywhere else though.
I as much as the next individual believe in the soulful spirit in music, the part which cannot be captured by mathematics, algorithms, and even recordings. True, a computer could never synthesize the feeling that Mozart or Bach felt when they composed or played their music, but if youre familiar with anything at all (which, um, it really doesnt seem) you'd probably realize how mathematical all of Bach's pieces (fugues esp.) are. Math does take creativitiy and feeling, maybe not the math that youre familiar with though.
id be great to discover that the record industry has been using a version of this program to shoot out the music of boy bands (and their contemporaries). I can see the headlines: Backstreet Boys constructed from more algorithms than Al Gore.
To be completely honest, all music (in theory) can be reduced down to some sort of mathematical expression, but the expression of the artist cant be grasped by numbers and equations. Sometimes it seems like this is a valid argument against any recorded music at all. The source of the music on a cd or an mp3 file is mathematics, and although reproductions of the performance can be made, it will never rival the real thing.
Im the magical man, from happy land, in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane.
Slashdot Mirror
Question though: in what way is HK society more homogeneous than that of any one in North America? If you mean socially and financially, im afraid that we are observing two extremely different cities. Granted, the people in the higher socio-economic tier seem to be very similar in many of their buying/transportation/etc. habits, but the other half of the people in HK are moving to the beat of a different drummer.
As far as the implementation of such a system in North America, I don't know if dismissing the possibility right away is very founded. Besides the possiblity of hacking into the system and giving yourself a few hundred bucks(anyone know if Octopus is set with a limit?), the only obvious security problem with an anonymous system is pickpocketing.
I would love to have someting like an octopus card in Philadelphia when I go back to school in the fall. The possiblity of hopping on the subway and buying cigarettes and snapple (Octopus can be used at 7-11 in HK) on a card I have to wave in front of a sensor is way too conveninet for me to want to pass up. Please note that I realize my dream of a cigarette-el-philly-snap' chip is a bit idealistic...im guessing that the logistics involved in such and undertaking (not to mention the cash) would prevent such a thing from getting off the ground for a while.
Also, /. readers may be saddened to hear that in the past week DeeDee Ramone, of the Ramones died of an overdose in his apartment
Also, Davey Boy Smith, the beloved Bristish Bulldog of professional wrestling, was found dead. Steroid abuse may have played a role.
actually, in Hong Kong the money is controlled by banks. The bills dont say "HK Special Administrative Region", they say "Honk Kong Bank of China" or "Standard Chartered"..........a picture of a neat building is a little less foreboding than a weird ass, all seeing pyramid......or is it? just a thought to get the wheels turning.
hehe..if you go to the Lord of the Rings website, it says right on the first page: "LOTR wins MTV movie award for best movie"
Now we can all get on Kazaa and grab credit card numbers so we can buy porn and cds and dvds and software and computer games and books and even computer games about porn........cause all these things still have to be bought right? its not like i can just get them free through some program......
besides all the "woulda, shoulda, couldas", does no one take the oil lobby/auto lobby connection in to account? With all due respect, how likely do you think it would be for Dubya, or anyone, to sign a mandate requiring the gradual switch to a partial/non-fossil fuel based auto industry?
wow...i was just trying to make a joke about preganacy tests. but i mean, hell, if you want to make a schizz about it, by all means, pick on me.
i think that we should make all pregnancy tests have a 50% false positive rate also. that would be almost as fun as getting thrown into a cell and being denied legal counsel for a few days.
Actually, The "DE9: Closer to the Edit" album was done almost entirely on loop based software such as Acid Pro. Final Scratch is quickyl becoming Richie's preferred live tool. I read an article in Mixer Magazine from last month where he says that his sets are now at least 40% final scratch, the rest vinyl, and that some sets are all final scratch. John Acquaviva, a pal of Richie's, was the first to get a working copy of the interface a few years ago in Holland. Heres a link ot the wired articel form a while ago: http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,47398,00.html
i never knew that william h. macy had juped off of the screen of "Happiness' and into the real world. i hope youre not a psychiatrist.
too bad the headline isnt anything like this. Man, we are one dumb species.
"Im the Henry Cabot Lodge of filth." - John Waters
Wired did an article on this guy at IBM a while a few months ago...am I the only one reading print anymore?? click here.
this is also known as "tapping the sweet spot".
i dont know about higher dimensions, but definitely some creamy centers. ludes man! gimme the ludes!
good god, thank you for clearing that up. "No formal system can prove all of its own truths" would be more accurate way of describing Godelian (pardon the lack of oomlat on o) logic. sure, this definitely throws shit in the fan for logical positivists (e.g. Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, authors of Principia Matematica, the book which tried to reduce all matehematical statements into formal logic equations (which Godel completely trashed)), and definitly makes us aware that our trust in the finite rules we place on (seemingly?) infinite systems should be questioned. Also, with the advancement of physics, we are now encountering things which are "unexplainable"; maybe we should start to think of metaphysical explanations, no matter how hokey that sounds (especially to you purebred empiricists out there).
id rather have this bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
wow......a 100g recording budget.....i guess hookers and coke have playback functions now? I Nirvana (ooh...pop reference) cut their bleach album for $650 in three days. I cut an album for $500 in two days. This is on analog equipment, which tends to be a bit more expensive nowadays...sure, i was in a local band, and the recording studio was a warehouse in the dealer district, and we werent trying to be the next "insert commercial success here". But come one...100g for recording is pretty fucking out there...unless you realy suck and need to do a lot of overdubs and effects processing. Of course, that would mean that you sucked and couldnt play it straight through the first few times.
tsk....firstly, your complete (not partial) lack of fighting for your rights (no matter how nominal and US-centric they may be) is disheartening. If the only right I happened to have while living in a hypothetical totalitarian regime was the right to fuck a goat twice a day, you bet that goat's asshole would be bleeding all day long. Hell, I know that I'm not going to willingly accept being raped of my cash. Sure, other countries deal with price fixing, unfortuantely for the businessmen in this country, it is unlawful. They can do it if they really want to, but if they get caught, theyll get sacked for it. The meek will inherit the earth? sure.......
genesis games? no, with all due respect, its quite improbable that the execs at sega are still turning out a profit for genesis games....the system has been "obsolete" for a good three years now, and I havent seen any place to order or buy copies of "legendary axe 2" in a very long time. With all of this evidence, it doesnt even seem as if the manufacturing of any genesis equipment is still occurring. infringement? maybe, but none of the rom site peeps is claiming they invented these games, and it doesnt seem as if the manufactureres have alot of projections based on future sales of"general chaos" games.
ickyickyicky icky pi-tang woop grrlblrlllbburllllll....woop auuwwww ....mumble
wow, and Im on your side.
there are places where tb is more common than tv.
Isnt this a reverse version of the Metasynth program with the focus on amplitude only? Im curious.
To be completely honest, all music (in theory) can be reduced down to some sort of mathematical expression, but the expression of the artist cant be grasped by numbers and equations. Sometimes it seems like this is a valid argument against any recorded music at all. The source of the music on a cd or an mp3 file is mathematics, and although reproductions of the performance can be made, it will never rival the real thing. Im the magical man, from happy land, in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane.