My advice is: - Read all his stuff then read it all again.
But - if you are a stickler for thoroughbred plotting then don't look to close at Against a Dark Background. This is easily my favorite book of his - but it has huge plot holes in it that I wish he had taken the time to fill in.
This is one case where his great characters and great world building carry an intriguing plot over the bumps and holes.... enough so that I didn't notice them the first time - enough that much of my reading for several years was all about avoiding reading in a rush every book he'd written.... I wanted to stretch out the enjoyment over time.
I just updated my DNS and re-read the DNS howto on LinuxDoc. In the Keeping it working section there is information about keeping your root.hints up-to-date.... though if this is the first change in 5 years perhpas not so vital.
I'll post the page below.... but the pertinent point here is this: -
Some of you might have picked up that the root.hints file is also available by ftp from Internic. Please don't use ftp to update root.hints, the above method is much more friendly to the net, and Internic.
If though this is a little out of date (BIND 8) it is still valid in principle. Try the script included....
Keeping it working.
There is one maintenance task you have to do on nameds, other than keeping them running. That's keeping the root.hints file updated. The easiest way is using dig. First run dig with no arguments you will get the root.hints according to your own server. Then ask one of the listed root servers with dig @rootserver. You will note that the output looks terribly like a root.hints file. Save it to a file (dig @e.root-servers.net . ns >root.hints.new) and replace the old root.hints with it.
Remember to reload named after replacing the cache file.
Al Longyear sent me this script that can be run automatically to update root.hints. Install a crontab entry to run it once a month and forget it. The script assumes you have mail working and that the mail-alias `hostmaster' is defined. You must hack it to suit your setup.
Some of you might have picked up that the root.hints file is also available by ftp from Internic. Please don't use ftp to update root.hints, the above method is much more friendly to the net, and Internic.
An article on News.com mentions that "the new working group could have some competition from IBM and Microsoft, which have promoted a separate standard known as SIMPLE". This also has a IETF working group - here's the charter
Meanwhile a group of users in finance industry are pushing for exactly this sort of integrated solution. Called FIMA they "say it is non-partisan, and is open to any company that wishes to promote Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) IM standards and protocols within the financial services community. By endorsing IETF instant-messaging standards, FIMA wants to promote "interoperability and beneficial competition among instant-messaging vendors."
There is an air of enevitability about the integration of protocols - but it may not be based on Jabber.... but SIMPLE doesn't sound all that hot...
In the case of the "Hot Zone" - the Pearl River Delta - Child labour is not the issue. Kids are at school for the most part. The workers are migrants from the poor inner provinces and are adults, and are mainly women.
There are definitely cases of poor working conditions but the deal is usually good enough that the workers stay for a few years and then return to their province as the richest person in town.
Child labour is certainly an issue in other countries, but with a huge surplus of adult labour China does not need to use children. With the one child policy such children are more likely to be spoilt rotten... the Little Emperor Syndrome is well known in the region. Little (boys usually) kids doted on by their four grandparents as the only offspring carrying on the tradition of ancestor worship.... you think they'd be sent to work in a sweat shop factory?
You've got to be kidding me.... Exploitation - you are confusing dollar cost with purchase power parity.... and even that measure is biased by the baseline requirements of a Westerner's need to buy western food, western clothes, western houses and western goods.
If you think about it these people are able to SAVE money and send it home to their families. This means that they have disposable income - given the fact that a huge number of Americans live well beyond their means and are digging a debt hole into their lives I think you should take time to pause. Perhaps these guys are better off than many Americans.
These people want to work here - they travel HUGE distances to do so - in a way they are exploiting their employers because they value the money they are receiving more than the time they spend... ie they are making money from the gullibility of the employer who is giving them money for their time and work.
Come on - don't think about it in US$ terms - they are working hard and receiving cash that they can do things with - and the deal is good for them - they're not stupid - they would run otherwise. It's called capitalism - and it has worked for the west and will work for the Chinese.
I work in Hong Kong and have done for 10 years. My salary is enormous compared to that in my home country of New Zealand, and even what I could earn in the US - and NZers don't consider themselves ripped off by the (comparatively) paltry salary they recieve - nor do most Americans. What? You get $USD15 per hour - I get $USD40 in Hong Kong... you're being ripped off!!!!
It is all a matter of context - you don't pay $USD2000 per month for a shoe box apartment like I do in Hong Kong either....
Just because the numbers are low does not equate to slave labour. In fact the anti-globalisation idjeets are working against the wishes of the poorer countries who want more globalisation and more access to western markets - even if they are being paid at $USD2 per hour.
Whether a black hole behind an event horizon is a singularity or not all depends on the way it formed. If say you cross the event horizon of a black hole this large (ie one with tidal effects that don't rip you apart) you become part of of the black hole... the mass of the black hole edges up a tiny bit and the event horizon expands. But you can still be orbiting it quite happily. In fact behind the event horizon of a super massive black hole there could be many suns that are not part of some central body.
The star spoken of at the beginning of the article is one that is just outside the event horizon.
The star passes within 17 light-hours of a compact radio source known as Sagittarius A, pegged as the galactic center.
If it moved a wee bit closer, within the event horizon it would still orbit - and still be a sun - but be part of the Black Hole.
So the issue of density certainly does not require an infinitely dense singularity.... which sounds like bull-pucky to me.
I think some people have been reading too much science fiction - and not enough science fact.
Yep - I'm on your side.... although it may not be premeditated the end result is the same. Amazingly this works across national boundaries. I'm a New Zealander and the situation is similar to the British situation.... except perhaps for a slightly younger population which delays the problem a little longer.
So my solution? Don't live in the West - go East young man!
I've been living and working in Hong Kong for the past 10 years where the tax is low, the opportunities large and the salaries high. I was fortunate to work as an Architect during one of the largest property booms ever and thus was able to score probably the highest income a graduate architect could get anywhere in world at anytime - ever.... those days are over and the boomers have laid us Gen X's off.... new grads are dirt cheap and desparate - whereas we're just desparate.
So for the last year there has been no work - zero - zip....
Prospects? Don't even think about getting a job - there are none in Hong Kong - especially if you are not a local local with a family home to run to. The only option is to run your own business - which is what all the expats and overseas educated locals I know are doing - none are employed any more. And is it a result of being Gen X? - you bet. Those older than us have secure jobs as seniors in the firms - those of us graduating in 1992 are screwed. There is only one way forward - make your own job.
A return to NZ? Well at least here in Hong Kong the tax is low - it only starts to kick in at $108K HKD - that's around $13K USD and maxes out at 15% - who can complain about that? In NZ the tax maxes out at 39% (plus $12.5% sales tax) - and that's at $USD 28,000 - so it's a no brainer.
There is only one thing that is sure about the future - there can be no reliance on State support even as we pay for our senior's retirement. Don't even dream about it.... it makes me sick that we are being set up in this way.
Perhaps the solution is that once you reach 50 years old you should not be allowed to vote..... a flip of the no taxation without representation.... If you are a net receipient (or soon to be) of tax then you have no vote.... A bit draconian but it is all too possible that we are gonna be screwed rotten by the boomers otherwise.... it might be that they will only vote themselves tax breaks and benefits - to hell with the consequences - they don't have to live with it.
It might be sensible to make them work until they're 75 - tax them for there own near future retirement.
There is a very real possibility that there will be a real generational conflict - Gray Power is nothing compared to the affect of the Boomers reaching retirement!!!!
I think I'll move to China before then - at least they have a young and growing population... even if they are all men... I'll be a married man amongst all those hard working males striving to get one of the few women available.... now that's motivation if ever I heard of it - the economy will boom....
It's not a laughing matter - it's easy to make jokes when you live in North America where the population density is 32 people per square mile - in Asia it's 203 - but for Hong Kong we're talking 6,571.14 per square kilometer.... a smaller area than square miles. Also a large proportion of Hong Kong is uninhabitable mountains or isolated islands - the real habitable area's density exceeds the 20,824.38 quoted for Macau.... I mean Hong Kong people go there to escape the crowds!
Hong Kong's population grows by 1 million every ten years and everyone has to be accomodated. The large proportion of people live in high rise residential on reclaimed land, and construction is the number one source of garbage in Hong Kong. When you add up all these issues then any way to improve construction efficiency and sustainability and reduce waste is important.
Now all this might be moot - I mean Hong Kong is literally on the other side of the world.... but hang on... check out this article in the Economist. Predictions are for half a billion Americans by 2050. Where are they going to live?
The Integer project has relevance here.
Living in Hong Kong is like living in an Arcology and many of the trends visible here will need to be transferred to North America if the population does increase to 500,000,000 people.
So next time you crack a joke about living in a cubicle 24/7 at work and play - you might just be fortelling the future....
This question reminds me of the story about 'K Swiss' shoes in Hong Kong.
In the early 90's K Swiss was doing badly in Hong Kong and the sport shoes were pulled from the market. They did some research and relaunched as a premium brand at three times the price - with the same product.... they sold like you would not believe... they sold many times the previous number of shoes.
It is a problem. If something is too cheap - it is under-valued.... if it is priced high then its perceived value is increased. There are implications for Open Source projects here. If the product is free, is its value nothing as well?
Leitch supply equipment to the broadcast industry. It is vital for accurate timecodes to be used throughout a TV studio - for everything from editing to telling the audience the right time. Most broadcasters will use their own dedicated GPS driven Time Server that resides in their central equipment room. Leitch make a one of these. Check it out here.... I use the Leitch timeserver at leitch.com for my ntpdate on my linux box - as well as Mac OS X.
Another 'I live in Hong Kong so I know the truth' post..... give me a break....
Even if you do live in Hong Kong your post is lacking in verasity.
I mean - my goodness they use Octopus so parents can't track their payments.... like um - why don't they use cash? I mean that leaves a real trail that worried parents can track.
Octopus is used for micropayments - we're talking payments that would otherwise have used coins.... we're not talking a big conspiracy here. Give me a break....
Location based tracking..... if in one sentence you claim tha parents are worried about the untraceable transactions and in the next you are talking about tracking people with GPS.... isn't that a bit inconsistent?
Sorry - mod this guy's post down - he is talking drivel.... GSM sims, GPS sims.... Octopus locators of anonymous card users? Give me a break!!!!
I 'm getting tired of posts claiming to be in Hong Kong..... like.... guess what - I'm posting from the Mars..... and the weather is great this time of year.....
Right - so you live in Hong Kong - I think not...... other wise you would know that the minimum addition to the card is $50 and not $100.
If you lose the card - well hey - you've lost the card - deal with it. Having to pay $50 for a new one should focus your mind on not losing the next one!
If you lose $200 in cash - the bank doesn't say ' Oh poor boy - let's give him his money back?' - live with it - you've lost your money get some more.
I am convinced this is a Troll - it is obvious that you can always use cash at the 7 Eleven so why say that they have cornered the consumer - total rubbish.
If you ae worried about the lack of interest on the money on the card - then don't carry so much on it. Add $50 at a time - and that's only around $6 USD so let's keep this in perspective.
Re:I still have dreams about the Octopus card.
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· Score: 1
'Ethical aspects of using it'..... pla leeze
When there are so many things to worry about in the world - the 'ethical uses' of using an efficient mass transit payment system do not loom large.
This whole series of posts has been crazy - what are the security, ethical, privacy implications of using the Octopus card?
There are none.
When ever you need to fork over money in payment for a service you are making a transaction - this requires you to give something in return for the service.... doing this anonymously is not an issue. People care only if the transaction is done.
In fact the whole notion that this should be anonymous is a total affront to the normal relations of humanity.
For ever (practically) everyone has known everyone that they have met - strangers mean danger - how can you trust a stranger?
And this modern situation has become an evil. Strangers not knowing strangers has allowed an impersonality to enter into the relationship of people to society, You can be a faceless unknown individual and still interact with society.... in traditional societies you couldn't - you had to be known, you had to have a position in society.
This means that impersonal relationships mediated by such things as credit ratings, arbitraged by banks, have replaced the shake of the hand agreements of the past.
This also means that transgressors of the norms of society can be locked up without the rest of the society knowing of the transgression - what has become of peer pressure to enforce acceptance of agreed standards of behavious?
Guess what? - I'm raving.....
But I see the lack of a close societal interaction with the day to day life of people to be the curse of modern society - and privacy to be something that only a few generations have enjoyed - I always suspect innovation - especially innovation in human relations - people are used to the oversight of their peers - the impersonal face of society has caused the rash of impersonal criminality that Western societies expereince....
The idea of a homogenous society totally misses the point - there is no such thing as a homogenous society and this goes for Hong Kong in spades. We're not all Jackie Chans after all.
Just because Asians look alike to Westerners and out actions are different from yours - does not mean we are all the same. The arogance of the idea is outrageous.
Hong Kong runs the full gamut of educated wealthy westernised locals to never been abroad local locals - but even so HKers are more informed of the outside world than many westerners - hey - we're a small place - 7 million people. A huge number are educated overseas - proportionately more than the US - so who is the backward stay at home type?
And we do not look alike - everyone is different - and that includes Asians - it is just that the differences loom larger than the similarities when it somes to looking at races.... I mean Westerners are these strange dudes with big noses and sticky-in eyes - wierd dude.....
By the way - I'm a Caucasian - I've just been here too log.....
You have to remember the thing here I'm raving about is density.... sure Tokyo is larger - significantly larger - but Tolyo has like 15 lines - Hong Kong has like um well - 4.... with a fouth to be started in August - and it handles 4 million a day!!!!! Yikes
I've been in Tokyo, I've been in Osaka during crush hour - and Hong Kong is better faster more efficient - and the numbers handled inthe crucial stations better.....
I mean in the time you've rad this post tow trains have been and come and gone.....
with 4 million people using the transit system everyday - you value every second for each person.... do the Math.
You have NO conception of the density of people in HK - it's great - not over crowding as some people have said - you just deal with it - but dealing wit it requires that the transit co's know the situation and deal with it.
I repeat - you hve NO conception of the flow rates and densities we deal with in designing these systems - just believe me. If you landed in HK and had to deal with the crush you wouldn't know how to move 2 metres - whereas we go with the flow and get where we want.... it's a completely different way of moving.....
Flame me if you like - but I love Hong Kong - I love the density - it's like a dance that you learn and love to dance - There is no place on the planet as dense as Hong Kong...... Tokyo is a joke - full of wide open spaces in comparison..... you've not seen the future until you've lived Hong Kong's crush hour.....
So there!
Re:Heard a dude talk about it...
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· Score: 3, Informative
I'm in Hong Kong and have been designing train stations for 10 years. Your Dude is so wrong.
It's great that it senses within 1cm of the plate - but you have to pause slightly for it to confirm the transaction. Also even if you want to you can't use the same card for multiple payments - say paying for your girl friend's ride on your card after paying for your own.
It is not disturbing that you don't know the price. It's like a toll road - you travel a certain distance and pay the amount. Once you get to the toll gate you can't go "Uh that's too much - I'm gonna go back now".
Octopus in HK is so important for transit - the flowrates through the gates had to be increased along with all the calculations for the number of people on the platforms. The extra second it saves changes the way people use the system. With the density of movement the speed of passengers going through the Octopus gates affects the train frequency.
Without Octopus the system would not run as well for passengers or operators.
The funny thing is that you all think of it as Science Fiction, to us it is normal.... just wait 'til you see the mile long escalator that climbs from Central to Mid-Levels.....
A great many people, including some of history's most successful scientists, have their pet irrational beliefs
Yep - amazingly Roger Penrose has some wierd beliefs. On Edge.org there is a neat summary of his very special brand of Pseudo-science - and this from a man widely aclaimed as a genius.
However that does not let him off the hook - nor others peddling Pseudo-Science, nor allow complacency when it comes to other kooks (UFOs? - Pah-leez!)...
The scientific method is the most important belief system ever invented - it allows us to overcome our inate need to explain things any which way.... and the proof of its excellence is obvious when you look at the Technological Civilisation we have built. This only happened once we conquered the hide bound teachings of religion.
I hope and pray that God will deliver us from the folly of believing in him and his works - we need to grow up and be responsible for our own lives, our culture, our impact upon the world and the realisation that the future can not be devined or foretold - that we have even more power over fate, because we live in a civilisation that can make decisions and create our own future - the way we want it to be.
That to me is better than being told to expect the foretellings of loonies, to hope for devine intervention, or saviour from ourselves by UFOs toting space aliens.
Time to grow up....
I am SOOO glad I grew up and was educated in New Zealand - it's the most secular country on the planet and it shows in the education rankings found here. The one for the US is here - check out your own country ranking here.
market forces should result in authors getting more money
Yeah yeah - but only if there is a royalty paid on the sale of the used books - there's not... which is the point.
Authors get paid by the publishers - that's the only route to the $$$ - (except for sales of movie rights etc..) so if the publishers get less so will the authors.
So what other routes to payment do you see that would allow for the authors to be compensated?
1902 was the year that Pearse began his flight experiments: - His first aircraft was built over a number of years and flight-tested from 1902
The letter you refer to is one in which he said that the Wright Brothers will get the credit for flying first.....
On this page referrence to the two letters is made. But there is a large amount of ambiguity about what he acheived in 1902.
Pearse's definition of 'flight' was far more rigorous than the Wright brothers'.
By that same definition the Wright brothers never 'flew' in 1903. They never got out of ground effect, and never for more than few seconds. People have long argued that Pearse's definition of flight is more complete than the Wrights' and so when he said that he never flew in 1902 - he meant it.... but by the same definition the Wrights didn't either.
So if flying in ground effect counts as first flight - Pearse's hops and short flights perhaps count too - from 1902.
When people look at the Wright flyer - it looks archaic..... but at the same time Pearse's aircraft was more sophistocated... his first aircraft was a remarkable invention embodying several far-sighted concepts: a monoplane configuration, wing flaps and rear elevator, tricycle undercarriage with steerable nosewheel, and a propeller with variable-pitch blades driven by a unique double-acting horizontally opposed petrol engine.
At the same time that the Wright Brother's were 'flying' in an oversized box kite Pearse was flying a machine that bears a remarkable similarity to modern day ultra-lights.
Whether or not the Wrights or Pearse flew first there is another who was flying around the same time Gustave Whitehead
"In the early morning hours of 14 August 1901, near Bridgeport, Connecticut, a small graceful monoplane took to the air with its inventor and builder, Gustave Whitehead at the controls,carrying him for half a mile before landing undamaged."
So probably the only thing you can claim about the Wright brothers is that they were masters of publicity well before their time.
1902 was the year that Pearse began his flight experiments: - His first aircraft was built over a number of years and flight-tested from 1902
On this page referrence to two letters is made. And there is a large amount of ambiguity about what he acheived in 1902. The letters reveal that he said that the Wright Brothers will get the credit for flying first..... but whether they did or not is another matter. It's a all in the definition.
Pearse's definition of 'flight' was far more rigorous than the Wright brothers'.
By that same definition the Wright brothers never 'flew' in 1903. They never got out of ground effect, and never for more than few seconds. People have long argued that Pearse's definition of flight is more complete than the Wrights' and so when he said that he never flew in 1902 - he meant it.... but by the same definition the Wrights didn't either.
So if flying in ground effect counts as first flight - Pearse's hops and short flights perhaps count too - from 1902.
When people look at the Wright flyer - it looks archaic..... but at the same time Pearse's aircraft was more sophistocated... his first aircraft was a remarkable invention embodying several far-sighted concepts: a monoplane configuration, wing flaps and rear elevator, tricycle undercarriage with steerable nosewheel, and a propeller with variable-pitch blades driven by a unique double-acting horizontally opposed petrol engine.
At the same time that the Wright Brother's were 'flying' in an oversized box kite Pearse was flying a machine that bears a remarkable similarity to modern day ultra-lights.
Whether or not the Wrights or Pearse flew first there is another who was flying around the same time Gustave Whitehead
"In the early morning hours of 14 August 1901, near Bridgeport, Connecticut, a small graceful monoplane took to the air with its inventor and builder, Gustave Whitehead at the controls,carrying him for half a mile before landing undamaged."
So probably the only thing you can claim about the Wright brothers is that they were masters of publicity well before their time let's celebrate that!
Yep - hardware is all the magic.... It's the way Steve Jobs wants it.
There was a post on Slashdot awhile ago (I know I should go find the link) that was pretty insightful to the way Steve thinks. Steve is a fully paid up member of the Style Council - cool design is his thing, remember the Cube - totally cool, and this was a total reprise of the NeXT Cube and they both bombed. Steve has an obsession about cool hardware and if you've eveer seen him demo OSX you can see him drooling over his candy coloured OS too. And do you get his "oh and one more thing' surprise fetish?
The point is could Steve ever bear to see his beautiful OS run on a beige box? Probably not. And he's a wealthy man having the time of his life - so why bother?. He has this company making these great looking computers, running a beautiful cutting edge OS and when he has time he can duck over to Pixar. I bet his idea of a great time is watching Monsters Inc on a Cinema Display running OS X. I have to agree - it's mindblowing.
So what's the motivation for going to Intel for Steve? He's having all the fun he wants, the business model is dubious - Apple is a hardware company.... I repeat HARDWARE company. Do you think that iPod is going to drive sales of computers for Apple... No. It's just more cool hardware. There's nothing about moving to Intel that does it for him.
I figure that Apple will begin to release more and more hardware products alongside their range of iComputers. It's much much more likely that Apple will support Intel based computers and operating systems for these other products... iPod will be the first of many.
So Cringley is way off - he doesn't get how Apple and Steve Jobs tick - he should stick to technology - this whole topic is too much about people for him to grok.
Yes and on every Von Neuman machine will be batches of sperm and ova. Then as the machines spread out they carry humanity with them. No need for anti-boredom devices, reduced need for life support.
Once a habitable palnet is found the Von Neuman machine can build itself one of those artifiicial wombs we've been reading about. With good virtual reality we can give the kids a virtually perfect upbringing.... think of it as a massively online game with the kids reacting to each other as they grow, the AI subtlely controlling things. (hey haven't you ever thought about that actually being where you are?)
Then they transistion to real reality orbiting around a new planet.
This seems more doable and achievable than sending generations off in a generation ship!!!!.... well assuming any one can create a Von Neuman machine I guess.
Still - it all seems a little pointless and cruel doesn't it...... poor little orphaned sperm and ova..... the non-borns....
Slashdot Mirror
My advice is: - Read all his stuff then read it all again.
.... I wanted to stretch out the enjoyment over time.
But - if you are a stickler for thoroughbred plotting then don't look to close at Against a Dark Background. This is easily my favorite book of his - but it has huge plot holes in it that I wish he had taken the time to fill in.
This is one case where his great characters and great world building carry an intriguing plot over the bumps and holes.... enough so that I didn't notice them the first time - enough that much of my reading for several years was all about avoiding reading in a rush every book he'd written
Read him - then read him again. Excellent stuff.
the number plate reads WOBL1 - wobbly....
... but it is at least as ugly.
Is this a comment on its stability? Though I do notice it at least has more wheels than the Sinclair C-5
I just updated my DNS and re-read the DNS howto on LinuxDoc. In the Keeping it working section there is information about keeping your root.hints up-to-date.... though if this is the first change in 5 years perhpas not so vital.
I'll post the page below.... but the pertinent point here is this: -
Some of you might have picked up that the root.hints file is also available by ftp from Internic. Please don't use ftp to update root.hints, the above method is much more friendly to the net, and Internic.
If though this is a little out of date (BIND 8) it is still valid in principle. Try the script included....
Keeping it working.
There is one maintenance task you have to do on nameds, other than keeping them running. That's keeping the root.hints file updated. The easiest way is using dig. First run dig with no arguments you will get the root.hints according to your own server. Then ask one of the listed root servers with dig @rootserver. You will note that the output looks terribly like a root.hints file. Save it to a file (dig @e.root-servers.net . ns >root.hints.new) and replace the old root.hints with it.
Remember to reload named after replacing the cache file.
Al Longyear sent me this script that can be run automatically to update root.hints. Install a crontab entry to run it once a month and forget it. The script assumes you have mail working and that the mail-alias `hostmaster' is defined. You must hack it to suit your setup.
Note - go to LinuxDocs to get the script
Some of you might have picked up that the root.hints file is also available by ftp from Internic. Please don't use ftp to update root.hints, the above method is much more friendly to the net, and Internic.
An article on News.com mentions that "the new working group could have some competition from IBM and Microsoft, which have promoted a separate standard known as SIMPLE". This also has a IETF working group - here's the charter
Meanwhile a group of users in finance industry are pushing for exactly this sort of integrated solution. Called FIMA they "say it is non-partisan, and is open to any company that wishes to promote Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) IM standards and protocols within the financial services community. By endorsing IETF instant-messaging standards, FIMA wants to promote "interoperability and beneficial competition among instant-messaging vendors."
There is an air of enevitability about the integration of protocols - but it may not be based on Jabber.... but SIMPLE doesn't sound all that hot...
In the case of the "Hot Zone" - the Pearl River Delta - Child labour is not the issue. Kids are at school for the most part. The workers are migrants from the poor inner provinces and are adults, and are mainly women.
There are definitely cases of poor working conditions but the deal is usually good enough that the workers stay for a few years and then return to their province as the richest person in town.
Child labour is certainly an issue in other countries, but with a huge surplus of adult labour China does not need to use children. With the one child policy such children are more likely to be spoilt rotten... the Little Emperor Syndrome is well known in the region. Little (boys usually) kids doted on by their four grandparents as the only offspring carrying on the tradition of ancestor worship.... you think they'd be sent to work in a sweat shop factory?
You've got to be kidding me.... Exploitation - you are confusing dollar cost with purchase power parity.... and even that measure is biased by the baseline requirements of a Westerner's need to buy western food, western clothes, western houses and western goods.
If you think about it these people are able to SAVE money and send it home to their families. This means that they have disposable income - given the fact that a huge number of Americans live well beyond their means and are digging a debt hole into their lives I think you should take time to pause. Perhaps these guys are better off than many Americans.
These people want to work here - they travel HUGE distances to do so - in a way they are exploiting their employers because they value the money they are receiving more than the time they spend... ie they are making money from the gullibility of the employer who is giving them money for their time and work.
Come on - don't think about it in US$ terms - they are working hard and receiving cash that they can do things with - and the deal is good for them - they're not stupid - they would run otherwise. It's called capitalism - and it has worked for the west and will work for the Chinese.
I work in Hong Kong and have done for 10 years. My salary is enormous compared to that in my home country of New Zealand, and even what I could earn in the US - and NZers don't consider themselves ripped off by the (comparatively) paltry salary they recieve - nor do most Americans. What? You get $USD15 per hour - I get $USD40 in Hong Kong... you're being ripped off!!!!
It is all a matter of context - you don't pay $USD2000 per month for a shoe box apartment like I do in Hong Kong either....
Just because the numbers are low does not equate to slave labour. In fact the anti-globalisation idjeets are working against the wishes of the poorer countries who want more globalisation and more access to western markets - even if they are being paid at $USD2 per hour.
Think about it.
Finally someone with a bit of sense.
Whether a black hole behind an event horizon is a singularity or not all depends on the way it formed. If say you cross the event horizon of a black hole this large (ie one with tidal effects that don't rip you apart) you become part of of the black hole... the mass of the black hole edges up a tiny bit and the event horizon expands. But you can still be orbiting it quite happily. In fact behind the event horizon of a super massive black hole there could be many suns that are not part of some central body.
The star spoken of at the beginning of the article is one that is just outside the event horizon.
The star passes within 17 light-hours of a compact radio source known as Sagittarius A, pegged as the galactic center.
If it moved a wee bit closer, within the event horizon it would still orbit - and still be a sun - but be part of the Black Hole.
So the issue of density certainly does not require an infinitely dense singularity.... which sounds like bull-pucky to me.
I think some people have been reading too much science fiction - and not enough science fact.
Yep - I'm on your side.... although it may not be premeditated the end result is the same. Amazingly this works across national boundaries. I'm a New Zealander and the situation is similar to the British situation.... except perhaps for a slightly younger population which delays the problem a little longer.
So my solution? Don't live in the West - go East young man!
I've been living and working in Hong Kong for the past 10 years where the tax is low, the opportunities large and the salaries high. I was fortunate to work as an Architect during one of the largest property booms ever and thus was able to score probably the highest income a graduate architect could get anywhere in world at anytime - ever.... those days are over and the boomers have laid us Gen X's off.... new grads are dirt cheap and desparate - whereas we're just desparate.
So for the last year there has been no work - zero - zip....
Prospects? Don't even think about getting a job - there are none in Hong Kong - especially if you are not a local local with a family home to run to. The only option is to run your own business - which is what all the expats and overseas educated locals I know are doing - none are employed any more. And is it a result of being Gen X? - you bet. Those older than us have secure jobs as seniors in the firms - those of us graduating in 1992 are screwed. There is only one way forward - make your own job.
A return to NZ? Well at least here in Hong Kong the tax is low - it only starts to kick in at $108K HKD - that's around $13K USD and maxes out at 15% - who can complain about that? In NZ the tax maxes out at 39% (plus $12.5% sales tax) - and that's at $USD 28,000 - so it's a no brainer.
There is only one thing that is sure about the future - there can be no reliance on State support even as we pay for our senior's retirement. Don't even dream about it.... it makes me sick that we are being set up in this way.
Perhaps the solution is that once you reach 50 years old you should not be allowed to vote..... a flip of the no taxation without representation.... If you are a net receipient (or soon to be) of tax then you have no vote.... A bit draconian but it is all too possible that we are gonna be screwed rotten by the boomers otherwise.... it might be that they will only vote themselves tax breaks and benefits - to hell with the consequences - they don't have to live with it.
It might be sensible to make them work until they're 75 - tax them for there own near future retirement.
There is a very real possibility that there will be a real generational conflict - Gray Power is nothing compared to the affect of the Boomers reaching retirement!!!!
I think I'll move to China before then - at least they have a young and growing population... even if they are all men... I'll be a married man amongst all those hard working males striving to get one of the few women available.... now that's motivation if ever I heard of it - the economy will boom....
Shanghai here I come...
It's not a laughing matter - it's easy to make jokes when you live in North America where the population density is 32 people per square mile - in Asia it's 203 - but for Hong Kong we're talking 6,571.14 per square kilometer.... a smaller area than square miles. Also a large proportion of Hong Kong is uninhabitable mountains or isolated islands - the real habitable area's density exceeds the 20,824.38 quoted for Macau.... I mean Hong Kong people go there to escape the crowds!
Hong Kong's population grows by 1 million every ten years and everyone has to be accomodated. The large proportion of people live in high rise residential on reclaimed land, and construction is the number one source of garbage in Hong Kong. When you add up all these issues then any way to improve construction efficiency and sustainability and reduce waste is important.
Now all this might be moot - I mean Hong Kong is literally on the other side of the world.... but hang on... check out this article in the Economist. Predictions are for half a billion Americans by 2050. Where are they going to live?
The Integer project has relevance here.
Living in Hong Kong is like living in an Arcology and many of the trends visible here will need to be transferred to North America if the population does increase to 500,000,000 people.
So next time you crack a joke about living in a cubicle 24/7 at work and play - you might just be fortelling the future....
This question reminds me of the story about 'K Swiss' shoes in Hong Kong.
In the early 90's K Swiss was doing badly in Hong Kong and the sport shoes were pulled from the market. They did some research and relaunched as a premium brand at three times the price - with the same product.... they sold like you would not believe... they sold many times the previous number of shoes.
It is a problem. If something is too cheap - it is under-valued.... if it is priced high then its perceived value is increased. There are implications for Open Source projects here. If the product is free, is its value nothing as well?
Leitch supply equipment to the broadcast industry. It is vital for accurate timecodes to be used throughout a TV studio - for everything from editing to telling the audience the right time. Most broadcasters will use their own dedicated GPS driven Time Server that resides in their central equipment room. Leitch make a one of these. Check it out here .... I use the Leitch timeserver at leitch.com for my ntpdate on my linux box - as well as Mac OS X.
Another 'I live in Hong Kong so I know the truth' post ..... give me a break....
.... isn't that a bit inconsistent?
Even if you do live in Hong Kong your post is lacking in verasity.
I mean - my goodness they use Octopus so parents can't track their payments.... like um - why don't they use cash? I mean that leaves a real trail that worried parents can track.
Octopus is used for micropayments - we're talking payments that would otherwise have used coins.... we're not talking a big conspiracy here. Give me a break....
Location based tracking..... if in one sentence you claim tha parents are worried about the untraceable transactions and in the next you are talking about tracking people with GPS
Sorry - mod this guy's post down - he is talking drivel.... GSM sims, GPS sims.... Octopus locators of anonymous card users? Give me a break!!!!
I 'm getting tired of posts claiming to be in Hong Kong..... like.... guess what - I'm posting from the Mars..... and the weather is great this time of year.....
DHI - Graham Street, Central, Hong Kong
Right - so you live in Hong Kong - I think not...... other wise you would know that the minimum addition to the card is $50 and not $100.
If you lose the card - well hey - you've lost the card - deal with it. Having to pay $50 for a new one should focus your mind on not losing the next one!
If you lose $200 in cash - the bank doesn't say ' Oh poor boy - let's give him his money back?' - live with it - you've lost your money get some more.
I am convinced this is a Troll - it is obvious that you can always use cash at the 7 Eleven so why say that they have cornered the consumer - total rubbish.
If you ae worried about the lack of interest on the money on the card - then don't carry so much on it. Add $50 at a time - and that's only around $6 USD so let's keep this in perspective.
'Ethical aspects of using it' ..... pla leeze
When there are so many things to worry about in the world - the 'ethical uses' of using an efficient mass transit payment system do not loom large.
This whole series of posts has been crazy - what are the security, ethical, privacy implications of using the Octopus card?
There are none.
When ever you need to fork over money in payment for a service you are making a transaction - this requires you to give something in return for the service.... doing this anonymously is not an issue. People care only if the transaction is done.
In fact the whole notion that this should be anonymous is a total affront to the normal relations of humanity.
For ever (practically) everyone has known everyone that they have met - strangers mean danger - how can you trust a stranger?
And this modern situation has become an evil. Strangers not knowing strangers has allowed an impersonality to enter into the relationship of people to society, You can be a faceless unknown individual and still interact with society.... in traditional societies you couldn't - you had to be known, you had to have a position in society.
This means that impersonal relationships mediated by such things as credit ratings, arbitraged by banks, have replaced the shake of the hand agreements of the past.
This also means that transgressors of the norms of society can be locked up without the rest of the society knowing of the transgression - what has become of peer pressure to enforce acceptance of agreed standards of behavious?
Guess what? - I'm raving.....
But I see the lack of a close societal interaction with the day to day life of people to be the curse of modern society - and privacy to be something that only a few generations have enjoyed - I always suspect innovation - especially innovation in human relations - people are used to the oversight of their peers - the impersonal face of society has caused the rash of impersonal criminality that Western societies expereince....
Give me Hong Kong anytime....
Yeah right and all Gwailo look alike too!
What is the point of your post?
The idea of a homogenous society totally misses the point - there is no such thing as a homogenous society and this goes for Hong Kong in spades. We're not all Jackie Chans after all.
Just because Asians look alike to Westerners and out actions are different from yours - does not mean we are all the same. The arogance of the idea is outrageous.
Hong Kong runs the full gamut of educated wealthy westernised locals to never been abroad local locals - but even so HKers are more informed of the outside world than many westerners - hey - we're a small place - 7 million people. A huge number are educated overseas - proportionately more than the US - so who is the backward stay at home type?
And we do not look alike - everyone is different - and that includes Asians - it is just that the differences loom larger than the similarities when it somes to looking at races.... I mean Westerners are these strange dudes with big noses and sticky-in eyes - wierd dude.....
By the way - I'm a Caucasian - I've just been here too log.....
Homogeneous - my ass.
You have to remember the thing here I'm raving about is density.... sure Tokyo is larger - significantly larger - but Tolyo has like 15 lines - Hong Kong has like um well - 4.... with a fouth to be started in August - and it handles 4 million a day!!!!! Yikes
I've been in Tokyo, I've been in Osaka during crush hour - and Hong Kong is better faster more efficient - and the numbers handled inthe crucial stations better.....
I mean in the time you've rad this post tow trains have been and come and gone.....
Frekin hal,
with 4 million people using the transit system everyday - you value every second for each person.... do the Math.
You have NO conception of the density of people in HK - it's great - not over crowding as some people have said - you just deal with it - but dealing wit it requires that the transit co's know the situation and deal with it.
I repeat - you hve NO conception of the flow rates and densities we deal with in designing these systems - just believe me. If you landed in HK and had to deal with the crush you wouldn't know how to move 2 metres - whereas we go with the flow and get where we want.... it's a completely different way of moving.....
Flame me if you like - but I love Hong Kong - I love the density - it's like a dance that you learn and love to dance - There is no place on the planet as dense as Hong Kong...... Tokyo is a joke - full of wide open spaces in comparison..... you've not seen the future until you've lived Hong Kong's crush hour.....
So there!
I'm in Hong Kong and have been designing train stations for 10 years. Your Dude is so wrong.
It's great that it senses within 1cm of the plate - but you have to pause slightly for it to confirm the transaction. Also even if you want to you can't use the same card for multiple payments - say paying for your girl friend's ride on your card after paying for your own.
It is not disturbing that you don't know the price. It's like a toll road - you travel a certain distance and pay the amount. Once you get to the toll gate you can't go "Uh that's too much - I'm gonna go back now".
Octopus in HK is so important for transit - the flowrates through the gates had to be increased along with all the calculations for the number of people on the platforms. The extra second it saves changes the way people use the system. With the density of movement the speed of passengers going through the Octopus gates affects the train frequency.
Without Octopus the system would not run as well for passengers or operators.
The funny thing is that you all think of it as Science Fiction, to us it is normal.... just wait 'til you see the mile long escalator that climbs from Central to Mid-Levels.....
Holy moly.... that's amazing - those North Koreans are really going to be pissed with Kim Il Jung when they find out....
A great many people, including some of history's most successful scientists, have their pet irrational beliefs
Yep - amazingly Roger Penrose has some wierd beliefs. On Edge.org there is a neat summary of his very special brand of Pseudo-science - and this from a man widely aclaimed as a genius.
However that does not let him off the hook - nor others peddling Pseudo-Science, nor allow complacency when it comes to other kooks (UFOs? - Pah-leez!)...
The scientific method is the most important belief system ever invented - it allows us to overcome our inate need to explain things any which way.... and the proof of its excellence is obvious when you look at the Technological Civilisation we have built. This only happened once we conquered the hide bound teachings of religion.
I hope and pray that God will deliver us from the folly of believing in him and his works - we need to grow up and be responsible for our own lives, our culture, our impact upon the world and the realisation that the future can not be devined or foretold - that we have even more power over fate, because we live in a civilisation that can make decisions and create our own future - the way we want it to be.
That to me is better than being told to expect the foretellings of loonies, to hope for devine intervention, or saviour from ourselves by UFOs toting space aliens.
Time to grow up....
I am SOOO glad I grew up and was educated in New Zealand - it's the most secular country on the planet and it shows in the education rankings found here. The one for the US is here - check out your own country ranking here.
market forces should result in authors getting more money
Yeah yeah - but only if there is a royalty paid on the sale of the used books - there's not... which is the point.
Authors get paid by the publishers - that's the only route to the $$$ - (except for sales of movie rights etc..) so if the publishers get less so will the authors.
So what other routes to payment do you see that would allow for the authors to be compensated?
1902 was the year that Pearse began his flight experiments: - His first aircraft was built over a number of years and flight-tested from 1902
The letter you refer to is one in which he said that the Wright Brothers will get the credit for flying first.....
On this page referrence to the two letters is made. But there is a large amount of ambiguity about what he acheived in 1902.
Pearse's definition of 'flight' was far more rigorous than the Wright brothers'.
By that same definition the Wright brothers never 'flew' in 1903. They never got out of ground effect, and never for more than few seconds. People have long argued that Pearse's definition of flight is more complete than the Wrights' and so when he said that he never flew in 1902 - he meant it.... but by the same definition the Wrights didn't either.
So if flying in ground effect counts as first flight - Pearse's hops and short flights perhaps count too - from 1902.
When people look at the Wright flyer - it looks archaic..... but at the same time Pearse's aircraft was more sophistocated... his first aircraft was a remarkable invention embodying several far-sighted concepts: a monoplane configuration, wing flaps and rear elevator, tricycle undercarriage with steerable nosewheel, and a propeller with variable-pitch blades driven by a unique double-acting horizontally opposed petrol engine.
At the same time that the Wright Brother's were 'flying' in an oversized box kite Pearse was flying a machine that bears a remarkable similarity to modern day ultra-lights.
Whether or not the Wrights or Pearse flew first there is another who was flying around the same time Gustave Whitehead
"In the early morning hours of 14 August 1901, near Bridgeport, Connecticut, a small graceful monoplane took to the air with its inventor and builder, Gustave Whitehead at the controls,carrying him for half a mile before landing undamaged."
So probably the only thing you can claim about the Wright brothers is that they were masters of publicity well before their time.
1902 was the year that Pearse began his flight experiments: - His first aircraft was built over a number of years and flight-tested from 1902
On this page referrence to two letters is made. And there is a large amount of ambiguity about what he acheived in 1902. The letters reveal that he said that the Wright Brothers will get the credit for flying first..... but whether they did or not is another matter. It's a all in the definition.
Pearse's definition of 'flight' was far more rigorous than the Wright brothers'.
By that same definition the Wright brothers never 'flew' in 1903. They never got out of ground effect, and never for more than few seconds. People have long argued that Pearse's definition of flight is more complete than the Wrights' and so when he said that he never flew in 1902 - he meant it.... but by the same definition the Wrights didn't either.
So if flying in ground effect counts as first flight - Pearse's hops and short flights perhaps count too - from 1902.
When people look at the Wright flyer - it looks archaic..... but at the same time Pearse's aircraft was more sophistocated... his first aircraft was a remarkable invention embodying several far-sighted concepts: a monoplane configuration, wing flaps and rear elevator, tricycle undercarriage with steerable nosewheel, and a propeller with variable-pitch blades driven by a unique double-acting horizontally opposed petrol engine.
At the same time that the Wright Brother's were 'flying' in an oversized box kite Pearse was flying a machine that bears a remarkable similarity to modern day ultra-lights.
Whether or not the Wrights or Pearse flew first there is another who was flying around the same time Gustave Whitehead
"In the early morning hours of 14 August 1901, near Bridgeport, Connecticut, a small graceful monoplane took to the air with its inventor and builder, Gustave Whitehead at the controls,carrying him for half a mile before landing undamaged."
So probably the only thing you can claim about the Wright brothers is that they were masters of publicity well before their time let's celebrate that!
Yep - hardware is all the magic.... It's the way Steve Jobs wants it.
There was a post on Slashdot awhile ago (I know I should go find the link) that was pretty insightful to the way Steve thinks. Steve is a fully paid up member of the Style Council - cool design is his thing, remember the Cube - totally cool, and this was a total reprise of the NeXT Cube and they both bombed. Steve has an obsession about cool hardware and if you've eveer seen him demo OSX you can see him drooling over his candy coloured OS too. And do you get his "oh and one more thing' surprise fetish?
The point is could Steve ever bear to see his beautiful OS run on a beige box? Probably not. And he's a wealthy man having the time of his life - so why bother?. He has this company making these great looking computers, running a beautiful cutting edge OS and when he has time he can duck over to Pixar. I bet his idea of a great time is watching Monsters Inc on a Cinema Display running OS X. I have to agree - it's mindblowing.
So what's the motivation for going to Intel for Steve? He's having all the fun he wants, the business model is dubious - Apple is a hardware company.... I repeat HARDWARE company. Do you think that iPod is going to drive sales of computers for Apple... No. It's just more cool hardware. There's nothing about moving to Intel that does it for him.
I figure that Apple will begin to release more and more hardware products alongside their range of iComputers. It's much much more likely that Apple will support Intel based computers and operating systems for these other products... iPod will be the first of many.
So Cringley is way off - he doesn't get how Apple and Steve Jobs tick - he should stick to technology - this whole topic is too much about people for him to grok.
Yes and on every Von Neuman machine will be batches of sperm and ova. Then as the machines spread out they carry humanity with them. No need for anti-boredom devices, reduced need for life support.
.... well assuming any one can create a Von Neuman machine I guess.
Once a habitable palnet is found the Von Neuman machine can build itself one of those artifiicial wombs we've been reading about. With good virtual reality we can give the kids a virtually perfect upbringing.... think of it as a massively online game with the kids reacting to each other as they grow, the AI subtlely controlling things. (hey haven't you ever thought about that actually being where you are?)
Then they transistion to real reality orbiting around a new planet.
This seems more doable and achievable than sending generations off in a generation ship!!!!
Still - it all seems a little pointless and cruel doesn't it...... poor little orphaned sperm and ova..... the non-borns....