121–130 of 250 posts
I often wonder what's missing to create and simulate a detailed economic model down to the individual level for and entire country or even the world. There are only 7 billion people to simulate, that doesn't actually sound like that much anymore. Obviously one would not simulate every individual with realistic human-like AI, but with a statistical economic model. How much and what kind of data would one need for this…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing in China is that so many trivial daily activities require government-issued ID. Buying a coach/train ticket. Buying a SIM card. Every website/mobile app registration require a mobile phone number, which means any account is easily traceable to your government-issued ID, too. Hell, even visiting your friend in a hotel requires recording your ID before hotel staff will let you go upstairs (strictly enforced i…
When going overseas, all of those are required anyways: 1. The DB wants to see id (that they can verify) for Eurorail passes. The DB or the Belgian rail people require seeing the purchasing CC. 2. Buying a sim in europe requires a passport. 3. Most things you sign up for in the US requires a phone number. Loyalty programs certianly do. 3.1 Walgreens requires your ID in hand to scan it to verify that you're "over 21"…
Who except students uses Eurorail passes anyway, these days?
2. Buying a sim in europe requires a passport.
No; in Austria and Germany you can (at least at the moment) still buy SIM cards without providing an ID. Germany requires online activation but no one verifies if the address or the name is real.
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Physically: Fights are rare, guns are extremely rare, even if a disagreement turns loud and verbal it usually works out without police involvement. Cars: lots of 'em, but they don't move fast so the roads tend to be friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists. Medical care doesn't have overheads so high as to result in triple-mortgages and suicide watch. Socially: Urban environments tend to offer more of a sense of commun…
Lies. Fights are very common, especially in the north-east. Foreigners are often assaulted for being foreigners. Last year, a foreigner-Chinese couple was attacked by a sword-wielding man for being a foreigner-Chinese couple in one of the busiest areas of Beijing, rife with police. The woman died [1]. Roads are very friendly to pedestrians indeed, where the driver will most likely try to run you over again to kill yo…
I would say per-capita stats are ideal for objective comparisons rather than picking individual instances. Would you have those by any chance?
This is what comes out of Google allowing apps to read phone IMEI in Android. I have no concrete proof, but the reason why all major Chinese apps snoop after phone IMEI is said to be that the commies have secretly demanded Chinese dotcoms to collect and report phone IMEIs. For example if you have a 6.0 or later Android, Alibaba app will block you if you disabled the permission to read IMEI or it detects spoofing. htt…
Please ELI5; What info about your actions can IMEI info/actions give anyone with access?
Though the IMEI should be exposed to a Stingray type device, so you'd be able to track users without access to the cell networks, you'd just have to set up a bunch of radios.
And you wouldn't be able to shake it by swapping SIMs. That said, most users wouldn't bother with changing phone numbers or SIMs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing in China is that so many trivial daily activities require government-issued ID. Buying a coach/train ticket. Buying a SIM card. Every website/mobile app registration require a mobile phone number, which means any account is easily traceable to your government-issued ID, too. Hell, even visiting your friend in a hotel requires recording your ID before hotel staff will let you go upstairs (strictly enforced i…
When going overseas, all of those are required anyways: 1. The DB wants to see id (that they can verify) for Eurorail passes. The DB or the Belgian rail people require seeing the purchasing CC. 2. Buying a sim in europe requires a passport. 3. Most things you sign up for in the US requires a phone number. Loyalty programs certianly do. 3.1 Walgreens requires your ID in hand to scan it to verify that you're "over 21"…
2. No, only in certain countries. I've bought SIMs from vending machines in Iceland and Denmark. In Italy the merchant made me seriously promise, I really mean it to send him a photo of my passport as soon as I returned home with my SIM. He gave me his personal gmail address to do so (probably because he certainly didn't want that info going to his work email where it would be obvious he ignored the rules). In Germany, rumor was you basically had to be a German citizen to get a SIM; that turned out to be untrue but I cannot remember if I gave them my (EU but not German) passport. IIRC I could not buy a SIM in Sweden as a non-resident though. UK was no problem to buy a SIM.
3. Yeah, but that's just an identifier. You could use any number, and a different number for every merchant, and nobody would know. Though there was a case of a fireman convicted of arson, partially on evidence of firestarters bought using his wife's Safeway loyalty card number.
4. I can't really ever remember being asked for my passport in the 5 of those 6 countries, but of course it's not unreasonable to be expected to show ID so I cannot say for sure I never produced ID. Though I remember in Poland and I think the Czech Republic they actually hold your passport, which made me very uncomfortable. When you leave the room for the day you swap key for passport, and vice versa on your return. Whether this is government or business policy, I do not know.
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When going overseas, all of those are required anyways: 1. The DB wants to see id (that they can verify) for Eurorail passes. The DB or the Belgian rail people require seeing the purchasing CC. 2. Buying a sim in europe requires a passport. 3. Most things you sign up for in the US requires a phone number. Loyalty programs certianly do. 3.1 Walgreens requires your ID in hand to scan it to verify that you're "over 21"…
> 1. The DB wants to see id (that they can verify) for Eurorail passes. The DB or the Belgian rail people require seeing the purchasing CC. Who except students uses Eurorail passes anyway, these days? 2. Buying a sim in europe requires a passport. No; in Austria and Germany you can (at least at the moment) still buy SIM cards without providing an ID. Germany requires online activation but no one verifies if the addre…
Some activation step happened when I inserted the SIM but it didn't involve using a computer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing in China is that so many trivial daily activities require government-issued ID. Buying a coach/train ticket. Buying a SIM card. Every website/mobile app registration require a mobile phone number, which means any account is easily traceable to your government-issued ID, too. Hell, even visiting your friend in a hotel requires recording your ID before hotel staff will let you go upstairs (strictly enforced i…
When going overseas, all of those are required anyways: 1. The DB wants to see id (that they can verify) for Eurorail passes. The DB or the Belgian rail people require seeing the purchasing CC. 2. Buying a sim in europe requires a passport. 3. Most things you sign up for in the US requires a phone number. Loyalty programs certianly do. 3.1 Walgreens requires your ID in hand to scan it to verify that you're "over 21"…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lies. Fights are very common, especially in the north-east. Foreigners are often assaulted for being foreigners. Last year, a foreigner-Chinese couple was attacked by a sword-wielding man for being a foreigner-Chinese couple in one of the busiest areas of Beijing, rife with police. The woman died [1]. Roads are very friendly to pedestrians indeed, where the driver will most likely try to run you over again to kill yo…
> Fights are very common, especially in the north-east. I would say per-capita stats are ideal for objective comparisons rather than picking individual instances. Would you have those by any chance?
Of course, I would request similar stats for the contention the other commenter made saying that fights are rare.