Still very busy, but just a quick note. Two recent events once again demonstrate the utter incompetence of the Hong Kong Government.
The Health Department refused to ban pork import from Sichuan while
reported cases of streptococcus suis are on the rise. Our
Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food said
Scientific evidence and international guidelines and practices
must be carefully considered before imposing any ban.
Huh? What scientific evidence and guidelines do you need when people are
getting killed, Dr Chow? Are you telling us international guidelines are more important than
Hong Kong people’s lives? Even Beijing is banning Sichuan pork imports.
Tropical Storm Washi is within 500km of Hong Kong. Ships are getting
sunk in the South China Sea. Sustained gale force winds and widespread
thunderstorms are affecting Hong Kong. Yet the Hong Kong Observatory
refused to issue the T1
signal. Yeah yeah, people should look after themselves instead of relying on
the nanny state etc., but when people’s lives are potentially endangered this
is just outright irresponsible.
Clearly getting rid of Tung was not enough…
Went to the HK Book Fair with Sharon tonight. Bought over HKD 400 worth of books despite having planned to buy none, but that was expected. Also expectedly, Sharon bought the latest instalment of Harry Potter, which my sister finished in three days despite having promised to take it slow…
Yesterday I accused Qantas for being a tight-arse… well after some research using Google, I found that by claiming CX points on QF, CX actually has to pay QF for the points, so in this case it’s very probable that Cathay Pacific is the one being tight. Sorry Qantas!
Why is it that Qantas never automatically credit my Cathay Pacific flights to Australia into my Qantas Frequent Flyer account? Case in point: my CX flights to Melbourne way back in Easter this year are nowhere to be seen, yet the CX ones I took to Tokyo didn’t pose a problem. Even my Finnair flights to Helsinki last week already show up in the online account summary.
Way to go, Qantas…
First of all, thank you DebConf5 organizers! You guys did a fantastic job in providing the opportunity for both DDs and non-DDs alike to meet face-to-face with each other. Debian definitely is alive and kicking!
So it is with great disappointment to see articles like this (”No Way For Linux To Replace Proprietary Software”) when I came back to Hong Kong. It’s an op-ed piece in a local newspaper by Charles Peter Mok, and begins by attacking last week’s Evans Data report for lacking objective data, therefore the conclusion reached (OSS adoption is speeding up) is too far-fetched. This is followed by (translation to English mine):
In fact, due to their love of open source systems (sic), open source supporters
often are shallow when it comes to analysis and reaching conclusions, and confirming
their subjective wants become their priority; of course, open source critics, like
the Microsoft Windows camp and Sun Micro’s Unix camp, sometimes do the same thing.
Maybe he takes the /. crowd too seriously? Anyway, he then essentially translates the month-old SG Cowen report as an example of an objective argument… actually the translation is rather dubious. For example, the report only said “Linux seems to be hitting a limit” (via BusinessWeek); he translated that as “Linux’s development has reached the stage where it’s facing piling limitations”. What a nice and objective extrapolation!
Moving on, he uses the report to reach the conclusion that (again translations mine):
… whether Linux will still enjoy considerable growth, or the red light has been lit, is at the
moment too early to say. Enterprise and personal users who use proprietary software
such as Windows are still the majority.
Thanks for stating the obvious, Charles. So where’s the objective argument that supports the title of the article?
richeyxx, your analysis of the impending free-newspapers-war in Hong Kong is interesting, but there’s one problem: Metropolis Daily is in fact part of the global Metro group, not the Associated Newspapers. Check out their 2004 Annual Report; it says their Hong Kong operations is one of the fastest growing.
(ps. richeyxx, I could not figure out how to leave a comment or otherwise respond to your post, so I’ve responded to it here instead)
Came across the article “Inquiry into the Chinese and Foreign Philosophies of Swearing” by a Lin Siyun the other day (via Simon and HuiChieh). While I don’t agree on all the points made in the article, for the sake of discussion I would like to point to the excellent Cantonese Swearing Research Net. Hopefully I’ll have time to translate that into English some time in the future, but suffice to say if the points raised by Lin Siyun are true, then Hong Kong-style swearing is truly the fusion of East and West.
Update Even if you can’t read Chinese, I suggest Section 9.5 — English Homonyms. At least you’ll then know when a Hong Konger is actually swearing. (With apologies to Macau, France, and the Netherlands.)
Hey Hemlock, don’t blame HSBC for introducing the ‘Security Device‘; it’s actually mandated by the HKMA.
Well, it only took our beloved Chief Executive three days to make 3 concessions on the proposed Article 23 bill. Actually there are only 2 concessions—while the part about proscribing local groups that are linked
to banned mainland groups is deleted from the draft bill, the Secretary of Security still reserves the right to decide which groups are participating in separatist
activities.
But the government still wants to pass the bill on July 9.
This shows how out of touch the government is with the people of Hong Kong. They went to the streets on July 1 not only because of what is in the draft, but also because of how the bill is rammed through LegCo. The government addressed a small part of what is wrong with the draft (merely four days before the final debate in LegCo), but they have not addressed what is wrong with the process—arguably more important of the two.
Don’t think you can cheat us all, Mr. Tung.
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