131–140 of 250 posts
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-scale_macroeconometric_m... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Earth_Simulator_Project
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I keep voicing concerns about Google Wallet in that respect but nobody takes it seriously.
That's because everyone knows that nobody really uses Google Wallet.
Many people might not know, in US, credit card transactions/payments are on sale by various sources. There's a very active market for this and some fintech startups are solely based on this kind of data. Since most of our financial life is based on credit card, we are under surveillance at a micro level in a similar situation. The issue is we not only use 'services', we handle data to the service providers. Data unde…
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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. Yes, I've always had to use my passport with my Eurail passes; though often it's to prove I'm an American who is eligible for the cheaper pass. 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 addre…
You can definitely buy a SIM-card in Sweden without any kind of identification. However, if it is a SIM-card with a (non prepaid) subscription, THEN you have to ID yourself and be credit worthy (since you can potentially run up a huge bill that is invoiced afterwards).
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Oh come on. 16 years is modern China not Maoist China.
1989 is also modern China ruled by Deng Xiaoping and in no way Maoist China.
I don't approve of their actions, they reacted way too late and were too violent. A faster intervention, something like mass arrests (+ releases after everyone cooled down) would have probably been the best compromise.
It's easy to judge them from outside.
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Im comparing China to other countries that were similarly poor in 1980-- much of the world, including the second biggest country, India. China did much better than them. I don't think any other society in history has lifted as many people out of poverty in as short a time.
Why not compare China to countries that were similarly poor in the 1950s? China, Korea, Taiwan were comparable then, but Korea and Taiwan have leaped ahead now due to saner government. If anything how poor China is in PPP GDP per capita terms vs Taiwan/Korea should be taken as an indictment of how terrible the government's been.
To achieve growth in a small country, you can be nimble and find relatively small market opportunities and then exploit them relentlessly. That simply doesn't scale to 1bn+ people.
Oracle maintains a database of personal information for billions of people. The US corporate surveillance web is rich in complexity. Before we judge China, lets make sure we know what we're comparing them to. I highly encourage anyone interested in the subject to watch this talk from last month's Chaos Computer Club Congress. "Corporate surveillance, digital tracking, big data & privacy: How thousands of companies ar…
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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?
So take this as a personal account from someone who lived in China for over a decade.
[1] http://fortune.com/2015/12/14/china-fake-economic-data/
[2] https://www.ft.com/content/0361c1a4-bcfe-11e6-8b45-b8b81dd5d...
I was really surprised to see my Chinese friend pay the restaurant bill using WeChat, just by flashing a QR code. Which means they know all the data a typical social network can handle, but also how much you are paying where.
I keep voicing concerns about Google Wallet in that respect but nobody takes it seriously.
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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. Yes, I've always had to use my passport with my Eurail passes; though often it's to prove I'm an American who is eligible for the cheaper pass. 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 addre…
Strange situation...