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Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

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Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#411

Post by cmroanirgo »

derefr wrote: post #178
erk__ wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I beleive that the unicode consortium have chosen not to say much about witch flags are there pretty much for this reason. They don't want unicode to get mixed in with international politics.

It goes beyond that; technically, there are no flags in Unicode. Instead, there are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Indicator_Symbol — an symbol-alphabet where any pair of successive symbols from the alphabet are meant to be considered a ligature (so, a space of 36^2 = 1296 possible ligatures), where a subset of these ligatures are considered valid representations of a locale from the Unicode's https://en.wiki…

> Having "locale icons" rather than geopolitical-region flags is probably the most stable arrangement we can have

Agreed. The only other way to draw locales would be to country outlines: which would most certainly open a Pandora's Box of socio political issues.

What Apple has effectively done by invalidating the locale, is to remove the Taiwanese language.

As an aside though: from a personal point of view there's quite a few emoji that I'd like to see hidden, such as the poop and middle finger. There's no need for such things, & yet this locale is removed? Weird politics.

Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#412

Post by _iyig »

oasisbob wrote: post #207
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think most people on Hacker-News would know that Taiwan exists I frequently come across, in America, people who are genuinely surprised that Taiwan is a sovereign state.

Are you sure they don't just disagree with your use of the word sovereign? I find it a strange way to describe the ROC and Taiwan. Without a clear territory under exclusive control, recognition from other governments, or independence from the mainland, what's so sovereign about it?

>Without a clear territory under exclusive control

But isn’t there? Taiwan has borders and a military.

Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#413

Post by woah »

dirtyid wrote: post #139
peterkelly wrote: post #40

This reminds me of the story about how the first release of Windows 95 was banned in India because 8 pixels of the map shown in the timezone selection control panel were colored in such a way that suggested parts of Kashmir were part of Pakistan. https://www.cnet.com/news/how-eight-pixels-cost-microsoft-mi... https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20030822-00/?p=42...

Related to the original discussion, I wonder if there's a story behind how Taiwan got a emoji flag in the first place. Unicode Consortium referenced ISO 3166 for eligibility. Taiwan and a few other disputed regions didn't the cut until 3166-2 revision. The maintenance agency consists of representative from only western agencies. Interesting politics.

Isn't there a pretty objective and non-political case that Taiwan is it's own country? It has its own laws and government, and has presided over its own affairs for more than 50 years. Whether the CCP wishes this was not the case doesn't affect the reality on the ground.

Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#414

Post by carlob »

robocat wrote: post #180
briffle wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have movies where the country of the 'bad guys' was changed in post-production to North Korea to appease China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn_(2012_film)

Fawlty Towers when dubbed in Spain changed Manuel (a dumb waiter from Barcelona I think) to be Mexican.

In the Italian version of A Fish Called Wanda the mock-Italian is replaced with mock-Spanish.

Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#416

Post by h9n »

robocat wrote: post #180
briffle wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have movies where the country of the 'bad guys' was changed in post-production to North Korea to appease China: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn_(2012_film)

Fawlty Towers when dubbed in Spain changed Manuel (a dumb waiter from Barcelona I think) to be Mexican.

But the Swedish Chef is still, surprisingly, the Swedish Chef in Sweden, which seems to be a cruel joke. https://slate.com/culture/2012/08/swedish-chef-what-do-swede...

Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#417

Post by ichung »

hellocs1 wrote: post #386
thrwn_frthr_awy wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Korea is different. South Korea actually does require mapping servers to be ran on SK soil, but it does not put requirements on the data center owner or the workforce running the services. I'm sorry if this comes off as nit-picky as it is not my intention, but comparing the mapping services requirements of China and SK are worlds apart. The intent of each policy is important to think about.

What is the intent of SK's policy?

Based on the article that is linked above, its origin seems to come from laws preventing map/navigational data being exported due to national security (South Korea is technically still at war with North Korea, as the Korean War only ended with an armistice/cease-fire). The article then states how the non-Korean perspective may view this as South Korea utilizing these laws to push a protectionist policy, helping South Korean tech companies to compete with big tech.

Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#418

Post by damnyou »

DangitBobby wrote: post #377
reaperducer wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you mean safety net as in another job lined up or substantial personal savings? I had neither. I took menial temp jobs and short-term manual labor jobs for a while until I could get something full-time in my field. Took about six months the first time, and nine months the second time. Getting deported because of your H1B would be an example of "doesn't have a safety net". Is it? It's not like if you lose your job…

Many people talk big game about morals and ethics, but when the chips are down, they will happily forget all that if they have to sacrifice even the smallest amount of comfort. Good for you. Seriously.

It is not obviously better to value ethics over family and community. I certainly wouldn't blame someone for putting their family's wellbeing (deportation can be traumatic) over quitting a place that's doing unethical things.

Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#419

Post by amelius »

aembleton wrote: post #405
amelius wrote: post #393

Why can't we just send custom emoji, and maintain a library of them?

Because it is a character, not an image so the recipient would also need the character to display it.

This may be how it is implemented, but it may not be what the user wants. The user may just want to send "image of X", where X may be something that was not predefined by some company or standards-committee, or it may be something that some company or government does not want the user to send.

Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong

#420

Post by blotter_paper »

kuzimoto wrote: post #310
blotter_paper wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all pay taxes that buy triggers and pay to have them pulled. You can argue this is compelled, but I personally have more respect for those who refuse to pay taxes and face the wrath of the US government than I have for my own cowardly position of paying taxes and continuing to complain about the horrors committed using that money.

If no one paid taxes, then the governments capacity to do bad things would certainly go down. However, then there also probably would be no government and everyone would be worse off. I'm sure lots of tax money is wasted, or used for bad things, but also a lot of good as well. Roads, police (that keep the peace), firefighters, education, foreign aid, etc.

Given all those other countries we've been bombing based on false pretenses I'd say a lack of US government funding would be a net positive. I'll take lawless anarchy over a relatively well organized state that bombs children to secure foreign oil production facilities and prop up the petro-dollar.
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