Here in Hong Kong, I am getting 10Mbps Up and Down, with no upload/download limit (Of course they said you can't setup any kind of server in your home in the fine prints but who knows:P)
How much? Not more than USD 20 per month! The service was there for some years already. And there are now serval ISP providing the same service so the price is getting even lower~
Not to mention i18n and i10n on Linux, they are simply sucks.. Windows (starting from 2000) comes with full Unicode awared core, and it's MS office suite, developing suite all comes along with that. Browsing chinese/japanese/korean(other languages u name it) webpages are painless on windows with default installation. Typing those complex languages that require special input method instead of simplying storking the keyboard are just a click-away to get the IME working. Look back to linux? I need to get the fonts installed, and playing with the locale thing and what and what...But after I have done all these, the application aren't just ready for processing multibyte characters yet!
Hey remember, only part of the people on the globe speak English, majority of them didn't use English as their native language...You see how big the CJK market is? Unless this is going to fixed...I would say Linux is still something very hard to get used with~~
And---The Octopus not just for taking bus and train of one company. You can pay all local bus company, all railway system, and all 7-Eleven, all Circle-OK, Supermarket, McDonald's...u name it...with the octopus card. It's a must have for everyone in Hong Kong, not just for train rider.
Re:In socialist Canada, the card cashes you!
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Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
I believe Interac would be something like Debit card I think? except it's universal accepted.
We have the same thing in Hong Kong for ten years, basically all ATM cards issued can be function as an EPS cards which is exactly the same as Interac. 99.9% stores do accept EPS and for each transaction just cost additional 0.25%
Hey but...I think you can't use this sort of thing to buy bus/train tickets...it just takes too long to enter the PIN.
Re: It's a big sucess in Hong Kong
on
Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
We have something similar in Hong Kong for 5 years, it works excellent. Because it's contactless, it allows operation without withdrawing cards from wallets/ purses...And the transaction is done within 2 seconds.
You can take a look at the cool Features over here...
Not to mention the Mondex in Hong Kong died very quick too.
Re:How much is on my smart card?
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Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
"With cold hard cash you can always thumb through it and see what you have (reminding you to go to the ATM for example) but with smart card you have to remember this yourself, and have the same annoyance to re-charge it"
What if it's linked to your credit card..and recharge your card automatically when it runs out of fuel? Of course for those living in US this may be a bad idea due to the evil government...
Re:Either secure or anonymous, but not both
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Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
For online system...If they are just tracking down the serial ID of the card, I don't think there is a big problem. You can have several cards on your hand, and this will make tracking difficult.
For duplicating, I think it's really quite difficult if not impossible. First of all those smart card are "smart"...They have an CPU inside and can banned any unauthorized access. Would the cost of printing paper money note be lowered than that of cracking a card?
I know many other area having the same card system doesn't include this extra fee...at least in Hong Kong there are no extra cost, no monthly/yearly/transaction cost (except for the first time user to buy the card)
I think those businessman are really silly on this...If they do charge me per transaction, why I don't just stay with my Debit Card...except that I have to enter the PIN each time and being tracked down by the Bank.
I just wonder...If they have an Tracking ID on the card, why don't they build a centralized database to keep track of card record? In this way they can detect if you are playing dirty.
And it just tracks the ID of the card...For those who afraid being tracked, can have several cards in your hands~
Re:Problems when paying with cards
on
Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
We have something similar in Hong Kong, called "Octopus". As the name suggest...you can use it everywhere. It's lanuched in 1997 and come to a great success, because almost all public transport (at least All Buses, Railway) do support the card. It's run by private company joint by several big transpotation companies...and it doesn't charge anything extra (no yearly charge/no transaction charge) And now even 7-Eleven, almost all vending machines do equip with the reader...everyone in Hong Kong, from elderly to children do have an Octopus Card.
Debit card does exist in Hong Kong for long time too...but Octopus is very and the most popular paying method because it doesn't require you to link it to a Bank account (even Children can have one then...) and it's work in touchless, transaction just take 2 seconds MOST.
And~the good thing is it doesn't link with driving license nor ID card...
Re: Destorying? I will cut your paper note apart
on
Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
What if they have some kind of central database which have an backup of your cards?
And...Don't forget that people can use a scissor to cut your paper money into two parts too~
Re:In Hong Kong [Something forgot to mention...]
on
Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
They, I mean the Octopus Company, won't charge you any extra. I think they earn the interests of your deposit. And AFAIK they also got some kind of tax discount from government, with some limitation about what they can do with the deposit, say can't use it to buy share and some invesement...
How about Mondex? It just died quickly...May be because it's a solo game played by HSBC...but Octopus is lanuched with full railways/subway and bus support.
It just takes 1-2 seconds for an transaction to complete (don't forget that it works in batch mode)...If it takes 10 seconds like those in Switzerland, it will get trashed...Take a look at this two photos, 1 and 2. It's a typical subway station, yes it always busy like that...people just can't wait for 10 seconds for going in...
An Money-Card Story in Hong Kong
on
Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
A money-card system named "the Octopus", covering six major public transport modes was launched in Hong Kong (Not by government). You can find a lot of information in their homepage, includin the Technology used. To be reminded that KMB, which of course got participated in this project, is the bus company run by private with the largest fleet.
Anonymousity They sell two types of card, one with no Personal Information and one with it.
Some company has developed system for Elementary/High school to use Octupus to take the rollcall and such, although they are still very new, you have to use the personalized one for these systems. Moreover, for the Personalized one, you can bind it to your credit card so it can Add Value automatically when you got negative value on the card. For non-personalized one (the "Standard" one), of course they still have an ID Number on it.
Publicity Nowadays, many stores and outlets do accept Octopus, for example, 7-Eleven, Coca-Cola Vending Machine, Public Telephone... The Octopus is very popular among Hong Kong'ers, almost everyone, from children to elderly, got an Octopus card.
Technology The card works in touchless way. In Hong Kong every minute is money, you/I mean we can't wait to pull the card out of the wallet, and find the hole to insert it! For Octopus you can put it inside the wallet/bag and put the wallet near the receiver, within several inch, and it works fine.
Someone has mentioned to add value to it...without paying for it...As far as I know they have deployed asymmetric encrpytion, (the basic card system is developed by Sony, as mentioned in the Webpage, you can find some technology spec over there). Cracking the card will be just as difficult as cracking the SSL Stream I think. And moreover, they have a backup of your card data, including the money you have, in some centralized servers. So they will detect unauthorized modification to the card in a day or so.
Updates (Transaction) to server, however, do not happen in real time. They sync in a least once a day, for those with permanent connection of course this happens in a lot frequencier. So in event where the Central server is blanked out (will it?), all subsystem will works fine.
Years ago, Some KCRC (a railway company) staff was caughted stealing money...They know it's working in batch job mode, so when people add value through them, they interfere the system before the transaction is commited to central database, and steal the money...However it's detected because the amount in the card and that of the central DB was unmatched...
To replace the "real" money? Probably not... 1. Just like Credit cards, it only works if you have the card reader... 2. There is no mechanism for user to transfer money betwee cards Although almost everyone in Hong Kong has an Octopus, but not every shops in Hong Kong got the reader installed... Besides, you will always need a reader to get the money from the card, but with paper money...you just need a hand (and optionally an eye to verify it quickly).
Slashdot Mirror
> Here in Hong Kong, I am getting 10Mbps Up and Down, with no upload/download limit
l an_content.html
d ocument_content.jsp?documentid=12
Or you want to check out some service pages?~
http://www.i-cable.com/ourservices/cablemodem/e-p
http://www.hgc.com.hk/eng/res_net_bb_hgcbb.html
[Sorry can't find English version for these]
http://www.vitaminbb.com/nwt/residential/chinese/
http://www.hkbn.net/broadband/index.htm
No sorry. Hong Kong's traffic is not filtered by the great firewall~
...Check out the wikipedia if you want to know more :P
Under one country two systems, we are really quite independent
Here in Hong Kong, I am getting 10Mbps Up and Down, with no upload/download limit (Of course they said you can't setup any kind of server in your home in the fine prints but who knows :P)
How much? Not more than USD 20 per month! The service was there for some years already. And there are now serval ISP providing the same service so the price is getting even lower~
May be you need to hold a button before you wave? Just like talking on walki-talki?
If it's not a rumour, it probably is a rumor. The other way round is also true.
Not to mention i18n and i10n on Linux, they are simply sucks..
Windows (starting from 2000) comes with full Unicode awared core, and it's MS office suite, developing suite all comes along with that. Browsing chinese/japanese/korean(other languages u name it) webpages are painless on windows with default installation. Typing those complex languages that require special input method instead of simplying storking the keyboard are just a click-away to get the IME working.
Look back to linux? I need to get the fonts installed, and playing with the locale thing and what and what...But after I have done all these, the application aren't just ready for processing multibyte characters yet!
Hey remember, only part of the people on the globe speak English, majority of them didn't use English as their native language...You see how big the CJK market is? Unless this is going to fixed...I would say Linux is still something very hard to get used with~~
I was just thinking would someone comes out and reuglate visual light?
Or someone would patent a LED Torch emitting wave at 6.98E14 Hz?
And---The Octopus not just for taking bus and train of one company.
You can pay all local bus company, all railway system, and all 7-Eleven, all Circle-OK, Supermarket, McDonald's...u name it...with the octopus card. It's a must have for everyone in Hong Kong, not just for train rider.
I believe Interac would be something like Debit card I think? except it's universal accepted.
We have the same thing in Hong Kong for ten years, basically all ATM cards issued can be function as an EPS cards which is exactly the same as Interac. 99.9% stores do accept EPS and for each transaction just cost additional 0.25%
Hey but...I think you can't use this sort of thing to buy bus/train tickets...it just takes too long to enter the PIN.
We have something similar in Hong Kong for 5 years, it works excellent. Because it's contactless, it allows operation without withdrawing cards from wallets/ purses...And the transaction is done within 2 seconds.
You can take a look at the cool Features over here...
Not to mention the Mondex in Hong Kong died very quick too.
"With cold hard cash you can always thumb through it and see what you have (reminding you to go to the ATM for example) but with smart card you have to remember this yourself, and have the same annoyance to re-charge it"
What if it's linked to your credit card..and recharge your card automatically when it runs out of fuel?
Of course for those living in US this may be a bad idea due to the evil government...
For online system...If they are just tracking down the serial ID of the card, I don't think there is a big problem. You can have several cards on your hand, and this will make tracking difficult.
For duplicating, I think it's really quite difficult if not impossible. First of all those smart card are "smart"...They have an CPU inside and can banned any unauthorized access. Would the cost of printing paper money note be lowered than that of cracking a card?
I know many other area having the same card system doesn't include this extra fee...at least in Hong Kong there are no extra cost, no monthly/yearly/transaction cost (except for the first time user to buy the card)
I think those businessman are really silly on this...If they do charge me per transaction, why I don't just stay with my Debit Card...except that I have to enter the PIN each time and being tracked down by the Bank.
I just wonder...If they have an Tracking ID on the card, why don't they build a centralized database to keep track of card record? In this way they can detect if you are playing dirty.
And it just tracks the ID of the card...For those who afraid being tracked, can have several cards in your hands~
We have something similar in Hong Kong, called "Octopus". As the name suggest...you can use it everywhere. It's lanuched in 1997 and come to a great success, because almost all public transport (at least All Buses, Railway) do support the card.
It's run by private company joint by several big transpotation companies...and it doesn't charge anything extra (no yearly charge/no transaction charge)
And now even 7-Eleven, almost all vending machines do equip with the reader...everyone in Hong Kong, from elderly to children do have an Octopus Card.
Debit card does exist in Hong Kong for long time too...but Octopus is very and the most popular paying method because it doesn't require you to link it to a Bank account (even Children can have one then...) and it's work in touchless, transaction just take 2 seconds MOST.
And~the good thing is it doesn't link with driving license nor ID card...
What if they have some kind of central database which have an backup of your cards? And...Don't forget that people can use a scissor to cut your paper money into two parts too~
They, I mean the Octopus Company, won't charge you any extra. I think they earn the interests of your deposit. And AFAIK they also got some kind of tax discount from government, with some limitation about what they can do with the deposit, say can't use it to buy share and some invesement...
How about Mondex? It just died quickly...May be because it's a solo game played by HSBC...but Octopus is lanuched with full railways/subway and bus support.
It just takes 1-2 seconds for an transaction to complete (don't forget that it works in batch mode)...If it takes 10 seconds like those in Switzerland, it will get trashed...Take a look at this two photos, 1 and 2. It's a typical subway station, yes it always busy like that...people just can't wait for 10 seconds for going in...
A money-card system named "the Octopus", covering six major public transport modes was launched in Hong Kong (Not by government). You can find a lot of information in their homepage, includin the Technology used. To be reminded that KMB, which of course got participated in this project, is the bus company run by private with the largest fleet.
...As far as I know they have deployed asymmetric encrpytion, (the basic card system is developed by Sony, as mentioned in the Webpage, you can find some technology spec over there). Cracking the card will be just as difficult as cracking the SSL Stream I think.
Anonymousity
They sell two types of card, one with no Personal Information and one with it.
Some company has developed system for Elementary/High school to use Octupus to take the rollcall and such, although they are still very new, you have to use the personalized one for these systems. Moreover, for the Personalized one, you can bind it to your credit card so it can Add Value automatically when you got negative value on the card.
For non-personalized one (the "Standard" one), of course they still have an ID Number on it.
Publicity
Nowadays, many stores and outlets do accept Octopus, for example, 7-Eleven, Coca-Cola Vending Machine, Public Telephone... The Octopus is very popular among Hong Kong'ers, almost everyone, from children to elderly, got an Octopus card.
Technology
The card works in touchless way. In Hong Kong every minute is money, you/I mean we can't wait to pull the card out of the wallet, and find the hole to insert it! For Octopus you can put it inside the wallet/bag and put the wallet near the receiver, within several inch, and it works fine.
Someone has mentioned to add value to it...without paying for it
And moreover, they have a backup of your card data, including the money you have, in some centralized servers. So they will detect unauthorized modification to the card in a day or so.
Updates (Transaction) to server, however, do not happen in real time. They sync in a least once a day, for those with permanent connection of course this happens in a lot frequencier. So in event where the Central server is blanked out (will it?), all subsystem will works fine.
Years ago, Some KCRC (a railway company) staff was caughted stealing money...They know it's working in batch job mode, so when people add value through them, they interfere the system before the transaction is commited to central database, and steal the money...However it's detected because the amount in the card and that of the central DB was unmatched...
To replace the "real" money?
Probably not...
1. Just like Credit cards, it only works if you have the card reader...
2. There is no mechanism for user to transfer money betwee cards
Although almost everyone in Hong Kong has an Octopus, but not every shops in Hong Kong got the reader installed...
Besides, you will always need a reader to get the money from the card, but with paper money...you just need a hand (and optionally an eye to verify it quickly).