iPods are Rad Again

Remember the iPod?

Gen Z have been embracing vinyl and cassettes, point-and-shoot cameras, and ditching smartphones for "dumbphones" -- ones without apps or the ability to go online. 

This trend is called Newtro, the revival of retro cultural artefacts in young people's quest to get away from algorithms and technology harvesting as much information from users as possible.

And now Gen Z have recently discovered iPods.

Remember those? 

You could rip CDs and store all the songs in there, along with nascent podcasts that hardly had any sound effects and rough editing, and listen to them on headphones connected to the jack. iPods were a massive step up from Walkmans (cassettes) and Discmans (CDs).

The rest of us have our iPods stuffed in the back of our drawers collecting dust, but these music gadgets can go for as much as $300 these days.

This is my iPod Touch from 2008. I believe it's the first generation.

I actually won it in a lucky draw from Time Out Beijing, otherwise I probably would not have bought it.

But it was so useful in bringing music I wanted to listen to at the gym, and later in Hong Kong listening to podcasts or relaxing music on long commutes.

It could also had internet access, but the memory capacity is so low, you can hardly do anything with it online.

However back then it was just one step away from the iPhone...

Taking Public Transit in HK will be Safer...

Soon there won't be so many phones in cars

New year, new regulations.

People who ride buses in Hong Kong will have to buckle up from January 25 or face a fine of up to HK$5,000 and three months in jail.

This regulation isn't just on large buses, but also mini buses, school buses, and anyone sitting in vehicles delivering goods.

This regulation will be hard to enforce at first, and passengers won't be used to the idea of buckling up on a bus.

Also happening on January 25 is a regulation requiring all drivers to limit having a maximum of two electronic devices -- smartphones or tablets -- while behind the wheel.

The screens must not be bigger than 19cm in size and cannot obstruct the driver's view of the road or mirrors.

Any driver who violates these requirements will be fined a maximum of HK$2,000.

Gone will be those taxi drivers with several phones all over their dashboard... 

Someone taking all their toys to work everyday

A friend used to take snaps of taxi dashboards, but perhaps there should be a crackdown on decorations?

Review: Factory

Factory gives a peek inside a Lenovo factory during Covid-19

The Vancouver International Film Festival started on October 2 and right out of the gate I watched a movie on the first day, a documentary from China called Factory (工厂）.

The country is known for its massive factories that churn out everything from cheap plastic goods to furniture, sex dolls to microchips and iPhones.

As trade wars have led to companies moving away from Chinese-made products, China is still considered the best when it comes to manufacturing smartphones, tablets and computers.

Viewers get access into the workers' dormitories

But what happened to these factories in early 2020 when an unknown virus seemed to originate from Wuhan, China and then spread around the world?

Director Hao Zhou focuses on the Lenovo campus in Wuhan during the pandemic and we see the operations manager named MT who is under pressure to figure out how to get workers back into the factory to get products out the door. He copes by smoking a lot.

Factory gives a very real picture of what factory managers need to do to curry favour with government officials in order to jump over bureaucratic hurdles, then rounding up workers, interviewing and training them, and then working them on the line.

It's soul-crushing work, having to work 10-12 hours a day, putting together circuit boards, assembling smartphones, testing them, and not only do it accurately but faster. Faster! Faster! 

In the 148-minute documentary, we also see life from the workers' point of view. One worker claims he is working hard enough, but his superior begs to differ, and they argue it out in front of the human resources staff. Viewers are shown what their dormitories look like, and how it's hard to get enough sleep when half the people are on the night shift, and the others on day.

Director Hao gives a real picture of factory life

One worker admits he feels lonely despite living with five other people -- he doesn't feel like he has anyone he can really talk to.

A round-faced woman wearing makeup explains she used to work in a beauty parlour and now is testing out smartphones before they are packaged. It's not the kind of work she wants to do, but it pays the bills, despite being away from her child and husband.

The younger workers don't like being called migrant workers -- that was their parents' generation. These Gen Z people want more respect and feel they deserve more pay for what they do. They only make a few hundred US dollars a month and wonder how they will ever afford to buy a home.

Meanwhile MT and senior managers are feeling the pressure to keep the company globally afloat, with supply chains in India faltering, while the United States sees its death rates skyrocket from Covid-19 infections. MT's friends wonder why he continues to do this stressful work when he's made enough money to retire. Maybe it gives him status? Financial security? Loyalty? 

Factory is pretty much unflinching picture of life inside a factory. It's quite amazing for the director to not only get this kind of access, but also be able to show many scenes with people swearing and workers being rebellious. There are even scenes addressing mental health issues like bipolar and depression, with one female worker having stomach pain issues and deals with it by cutting herself. How Hao was able to persuade Lenovo to film everything is a feat in itself.

Hopefully after watching this film, viewers will have a greater appreciation for the faceless people who made the smartphones, laptops and tablets they use everyday.

Factory

Directed by Hao Zhou

148 minutes 

Review: The Sirens' Call

Hayes says attention has become a scarce commodity

On CBC Radio's The Current, I heard an interview with Chris Hayes, the author of The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource. He is an American commentator, news anchor, and hosts a weekly podcast on MSNBC.

He gives the perspective of someone who works in the media of how it's so crucial to have the attention of the audience all the time, and how reporters and editors try to sustain that attention through breaking news, a ticker tape running at the bottom of the screen, or the stories they choose to cover.

While a few decades ago TV viewers were pretty much rapt with attention, these days people -- like himself -- are watching television but also scrolling on their phone and watching a video on their laptops.

How did we get this way?

Hayes is a commentator and podcaster

This is what Hayes tries to explain in his book, and believes attention is fast becoming a scarce commodity thanks to technology. Because of smartphones, the internet and social media, our attention spans have become shorter and shorter; conversely there is so much information out there thanks to the internet, we are overwhelmed and can't learn or absorb as much, or there is so much choice, we don't know where to begin and flail. 

He points out the biggest companies in the world are tech firms: Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet (Google's parent company), Meta and Amazon. They are all making money from us -- from monopolising our attention. But it started further back with slot machines, and then video games and now the limitless scroll on our phones.

Meanwhile the media try to grab attention with horrific news like plane crashes, or wars, and if that's not happening then salacious content called clickbait. Yes the media is guilty of trying to get our undivided attention too.

Not only are companies vying for our attention, but we ourselves want attention too, called social attention. Hayes says humans need to interact with each other and explains that prisoners in solitary confinement can't stand being alone

However the other extreme is social media like Facebook is selling users' attention to advertisers. Instead of seeing posts of what their friends are doing, they see a lot of advertisements, and that is a waste of time and energy. But that's how social media monetises our attention and makes a lot of money from it.

The same goes with Google. It became really good at finding information we needed, but now when you search for something, the top four entries are advertisements that are somewhat related to what you were looking for. Hayes cites in 2004, 99 percent of Google's US$3.2 billion in revenue came from advertising.

Then there are people who crave or demand attention and here Hayes apologises in advance for discussing Donald Trump (the book was written before he was elected a second time), and Elon Musk.

Hayes says back in 1858 there was a political debate on slavery by Democratic senator Stephen A Douglas and Republican Abraham Lincoln. They debated seven times in seven towns. The format? The first speaker talked for an hour, then the second one rebutted for 90 minutes and finally the first speaker gave a 30-minute rebuttal.

How did people in the 19th century have the attention to listen to a three-hour debate? Today the presidential TV debate is less than an hour. Hayes adds Trump either avoids debates and when he does, he shows no debating skills and can't even string a proper sentence together. 

Finally towards the end of The Sirens' Call, Hayes explains three negative things that are happening today: trolling, where people behind screens can provoke online; whataboutism, where those being attacked deflect criticism and turn the tables; and conspiracism, which is total disinformation, but appeals to many because they neatly explain things (incorrectly). 

So what can we do to retain our attention? Hayes harks back to the time when we made trips to the video store to rent a movie, we made a commitment to focus on the task at hand. And he gives the example of how vinyl records have made a big comeback, as not only is the sound quality better, but also makes the choice of music for us. 

Other examples are print newspapers, where editors have carefully curated the news according to its importance in terms of length and pictures, and group chats which have zero advertising and people can keep up with others in real time.

Will people actually follow through with his suggestions? Not really. His book has a lot of examples and points, but are already preaching to the choir who are looking for more concrete ways to safeguard and focus our attention. Maybe that's his next book?

Remembering Live Aid 40 Years Later

Tens of thousands watched the Live Aid concerts in person

You know you're getting old when it's the 40th anniversary of the Live Aid concert.

40 years!

When I was a kid and I didn't want to finish the food on my plate, my mom would ask if we should take those leftovers and send them to the starving children in Africa.

Geldof organised the ambitious live concert

And several years later sadly the children were still starving in Africa, Ethiopia to be exact.

But Bob Geldof wanted to do something about it after seeing the news footage of children with bloated stomachs, too weak to swat the flies swarming them.

He and Midge Ure of Ultravox wrote Do They Know It's Christmas? and the song quickly became a hit. I went out and bought the single in a record store downtown. It was probably one of the first times I contributed to a fundraiser like that.

A few months later Geldof together with musicians to organise Live Aid, and not just have a massive concert at Wembley Stadium, but also at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia on the same day. Phil Collins had the distinction of performing at both concerts -- he traveled via British Airways Concorde to New York and then via chopper to get to Philly.

Jagger and Tina Turner performed together

I remember being a teenager and watching bits of the concerts on TV in the living room in the summer heat, thrilled to see all these musicians like Madonna, Duran Duran, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and U2 performing together, mixing genres and styles. 

Not only was it a logistical challenge but technical too for TV networks to broadcast live from two different cities at the time using 13 military satellites. Apparently there was no plan B in case the live broadcast failed. Now live broadcasts in various cities are done all the time, but back then it was only for a few minutes for a news story.

Around 1.5 billion people watched over 70 artists and bands performed over 16 hours of live music from London and Philadelphia. 

In the end Live Aid raised US$127 million ($370 million in 2024) for famine relief. It demonstrated that individuals could indeed make a difference, even if us kids couldn't vote yet. 

Madonna on stage in Philadelphia

Ure was asked recently if he thought something like Live Aid could be done again today. He seemed to think people had too many distractions.

"Technically, you could organise it easier, but these days you have so many distractions. Forty years ago, music was the be all and end all. You didn't have smartphones. You didn't have the internet. You didn't have 24-hour anything at all.

"There were no distractions. You had no video games. You had none of that stuff. So, you could focus."

But isn't it cool we're still talking about it, 40 years later? 

Fact of the Day: Fewer Canadians Going to the US

There's less traffic at the Canada-US border these days

Ever since Donald Trump became President of the United States and taunted Canada about becoming the 51st state, there's a lot of anecdotes of people saying they are not traveling to the United States anytime soon.

And now there are numbers to back it up.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of return trips among Canadians traveling to the US in March plummeted compared to the previous year. When it comes to air travel, it was down by 13.5 percent, and for land travel a whopping 32 percent.

Canadians are also concerned about the possibility of being detained, after reports of people being detained, including Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney, who was detained for 11 days last month when her work visa application was denied at the US-Mexico border.

"I got put into real jail. So it's just like the movies, two levels, cells on each side," she said in an interview with CBC News. "I didn't leave my cell for, I think, 24 hours, to be honest I was so distraught."

US Customs and Border Protection says the Trump administration is cracking down on people who try to enter the US under fraudulent pretenses or with malicious intent.

"Lawful travellers have nothing to fear from these measures, which are designed to protect our nation's security," wrote Hilton Beckham, CBP's assistant commissioner.

Last week the Canadian government quietly updated its online travel advice to the US. Ottawa now reminds travellers to "expect scrutiny" at the US border, including smartphone searches.

Around the same time someone I met over dinner told me they had gone through her emails and social media and deleted any negative mention of Trump just to be safe...

Turquoise-Coloured Budget for Hong Kong

Chan walking into LegCo to deliver his budget speech

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po unveiled his budget today and it reflects the tough economic climate the city is in.

Chan reported the deficit is at HK$87.2 billion for financial year 2024-45, with the aim to get Hong Kong into the black by 2028-29. Meanwhile the city's reserves continue to dwindle, from HK$734.5 billion (US$94.5 billion) to HK$647.3 billion, and is expected to decrease further to HK$580.3 billion in 2025-26. 

In order to tighten the government's belt, he announced pay freezes for civil servants and cutting some 10,000 posts. That clearly reveals a very bloated operation.

Ip wearing sunglasses and leather top

Other ways to bring in more money is to charge HK$200 instead of the current HK$120 for departure tax, allow betting on basketball games through the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and to make seniors shell out more for public transportation.

The elderly have had a great time taking advantage of the HK$2 fare on most public transit, and the government has had to subsidise the rest of the fares. But now there will be a cap on 240 trips per month, and seniors will have to pay 20 percent more on those routes costing over HK$10. 

It's controversial because it's mean to take away what was a privilege for the elderly, though 240 trips is more than reasonable.  

Chan's address clocked in at one hour and 48 minutes, and some lawmakers lost interest and looked at their smartphones.

However, it was hard to tell with Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, who wore dark sunglasses inside the Legislative Council chamber. Lau claimed she had an eye inflammation, but she looked grumpy; she did comply with the dress code of wearing something turquoise to match the colour of the budget's cover.

Top 10 Bizarre Emergency Calls

Got a problem with your avocados? Don't call 911 please!

We're a day away from 2025 and the year-end lists have appeared.

Probably the most bizarre one is from E-Comm -- the 911 line that provides emergency communications for British Columbia.

They are the front-line staff who get the calls and then help them get the assistance they need in crisis situations -- like police, fire and ambulance.

But not everyone who calls realises their "emergencies" are not considered life and death critical.

So here is the Top 10 list of calls that did not belong on 911:

10. Domesticated-bunny seen in a park.

9. Requesting help removing a wasp's nest.

8.  Phone left in an Uber.

7. Box of 38 avocados purchased were rotten.

6. Requesting technical support.

5. Complaining the power was out.

4. Seeking directions to a 24/7 Shoppers Drug Mart.

3. McDonald's wouldn't open its doors (at 5am).

2. Dry cleaners stained a shirt.

1. Neighbour wearing too much cologne.

E-Comm also gets a lot of calls from people who accidentally pocket dialled 911 on their smartphone or smartwatch.

"The biggest message [is] that if somebody is accidentally calling into 911, and they noticed, just to stay on the line with us. An emergency police call taker will make sure that they're safe, and then we can disconnect the call," said Laura Fiddler, an emergency call taker.

VIFF Review: Caught by the Tides

China's fast progression to modernity is captured in this film

The last film I caught at the Vancouver International Film Festival was one from China called Caught by the Tides by Jia Zhangke. The screening I saw was in the afternoon on a weekday but there were a lot of people there, particularly mainlanders which made me wonder if they were skipping work or school to watch it.

For the first 30 minutes viewers are wondering what is going on. The film opens in the late 1990s with a scene of women bundled up in a bare room in Datong, Shanxi province singing songs on Women's Day -- China actually celebrates this day by giving women a half day off work. 

Qiaoqiao and Bin have a relationship in Datong

Then the scene suddenly jumps to a nightclub with young women wearing skimpy clothes dancing with men, and viewers are wondering who the main characters are and if this movie is going anywhere.

Finally it zeroes in on two people, Qiaoqiao, an attractive woman and a man named Guo Bin, but their relationship isn't clearly established at first. It is only when he sends her a text message on his phone (several years before smartphones came out) that he was going away and that he would come and get her later.

It is unclear how long she waits because soon after he's gone she has a backpack slung over her shoulder and takes a boat along the Yangzte River just before areas along it would be flooded because of the massive Three Gorges Dam.

Qiaoqiao wanders where buildings are being demolished, the bricks sorted by peasants to repurpose and used to build other constructions elsewhere, while families with their worldly possessions wait for the ferry to move them elsewhere and they proudly explain they are making this sacrifice for the good of the country.

Director Jia wanted to capture China's changes

Meanwhile Bin seems to be caught up in some corruption scandal involving real estate, but it seems karma has come back for him. Years later he seems to have had a stroke, his left hand immobile and he walks with a bit of a limp.

Caught by the Tides is about this couple, but more interesting is how China has changed around them in the years and decades. There are news reports of China entering the World Trade Organization, and later Beijing is chosen to host the 2008 Olympics.

The film finally catches up with them in 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic, wearings masks, lining up for mandatory swab testing, and how people make money by making silly videos online. It's a far cry from the room full of women in the opening scene.

Except for the first 30 minutes of the film, Caught by the Tides is interesting to watch; however, there is only a tenuous link between Qiaoqiao and Bin, and so the film doesn't explain her motivation to deliberately go out of her way to find him.

Caught by the Tides

Directed by Jia Zhangke

111 mins

2024

HK Police Warn of Whatsapp Scams

Scammers use Whatsapp to get people to send money

One would have thought by now people would be more wary about scams -- especially in Hong Kong -- but there's a new sucker every minute.

More than 130 people were victims of a scam in one week and lost a total of HK$1.7 million (US$217,300). 

The scam involved fraudsters hijacking Whatsapp accounts, getting into their contact lists and duping people by sending messages posing as friends or relatives who urgently needed money due to emergencies.

The victims were asked to send money as soon as possible, but when they spoke to the real account holders, they found out they were scammed because they had already sent over the money.

It all starts by swindlers sending phishing text messages that are linked to fake websites and manage to trick users into giving their account verification codes.

"If you receive a text message asking for money or a bank transfer request from friends or relatives, please remember to call and confirm first," Hong Kong police said.

According to police figures on the theft of online accounts, 3,434 were reported last year, compared to only 168 in 2022. Most of the cases involved Whatsapp accounts.

Financial losses in these scams totalled HK$87.6 million in 2023, compared to HK$73.8 million the year before.

However in terms of total scams, Hong Kong recorded a 42.6 percent increase to 39,824 cases last year, from 27,923 reports the year before. The total amount lost rose by a staggering 89 percent to HK$9.1 billion in 2023, compared to HK$4.8 billion the year before.

When you get a strange message, stop and think carefully. Better yet, call the friend or relative in question first to see if they really are in trouble.

Fraudsters need to earn less money and more jail time!

Review: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Imagine taking over a parade to sing Twist and Shout!

Yesterday I went back to my teens and re-watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off which was released in 1986 at the VIFF theatre downtown. The community theatre is having an 80s film festival, showing everything from Back to the Future and Ghostbusters, to Fatal Attraction, Sex, Lies and Videotape, and E.T.

The theatre was hardly full for the matinee, or maybe people were taking advantage of the nice (hot) weather?

Ferris persuades Cameron to take his dad's car

Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience re-watching something from 37 years ago. First off, it reminded me of how young and charming Matthew Broderick was, and how amazing it was that his character could pull off a sick day from school with such an elaborate plan as a teenager.

The other was all the antics he, his girlfriend Sloan and friend Cameron got up to in Chicago, from getting a table in a fine dining restaurant to catching the baseball in a Cubs game, and taking part in a parade -- on a weekday?

It was all a fantasy written by John Hughes, who had apparently finished the script in one week. That may explain why Ferris' character was quite flat, while his doting parents were just characters who had to be there because, well, they're his parents.

The only person who grows in the film is his friend Cameron, who starts off as someone who is sick all the time and then realises he needs to stop cowering in front of his domineering father and grow up. Meanwhile Ferris just seems to want to have fun all the time, and gets away with everything, much to the annoyance of his sister.

Contemplating art at the Art Institute of Chicago

In fact Ferris seems to dismiss Cameron's insecurities and moodiness which today feels insensitive. 

Perhaps this is why Broderick had trouble connecting with Ferris as a character as the time of filming, as Ferris didn't seem to care much about Cameron and his life problems while he hardly had any.

In any event it was enjoyable watching the school principal, Ed Rooney trying to catch out Ferris; he would probably still get away with it using today's technology like smartphones, Uber and maybe even ChatGPT?

What still stands the test of time is Ferris' statement at the beginning and the end of the film, which is very mature for a high school senior -- "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

So true.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Written and Directed by John Hughes

98 minutes

Canada Bans Tik Tok on Govt Phones

Canada follows the EU and US in Tik Tok ban

The Canadian government has followed the United States in removing and blocking the video-sharing platform Tik Tok from all government-issued smartphones due to security reasons from February 28.

In an email sent to Global Affairs employees said the Chief Information Officer made the decision following a review which found that Tik Tok's data collection methods could lead to cyber attacks.

"The Government of Canada continuously works to ensure the cyber security of our networks by identifying threats and vulnerabilities, including those on social media platforms," the email said.

Parent company ByteDance stores data in China

"The government will continue to monitor the situation and will work with partners to keep the information on our systems and networks secure."

But why would anyone install Tik Tok on a government-issued phone in the first place? How many would have done so?

If anything Tik Tok is a time suck -- getting viewers to watch endless 30-second videos about a whole range of subjects, mostly mindless. And it is this monitoring of users' watching habits and their information is the data that Tik Tok's parent company ByteDance wants, and that it is stored in China.

Nevertheless hopefully this will be a wake-up call to people using Tik Tok to understand they have no control over where their information is extracted from and kept, and perhaps they should think twice about having Tik Tok on their phones.

Canada is following the European Commission and European Council, several American state governments, and most US federal government employees in barring the app on government-issued phones.

Trudeau says this ban could be the first step

While the US Congress is debating a bill which would ban Tik Tok across the country, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau hasn't said whether Canada would do the same.

"This may be the first step, it may be the only step we need to take, but every step of the way we're going to be making sure we're keeping Canadians safe," he said. 

"Certainly, I suspect that as government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees they can no longer use Tik Tok on their work phones, many Canadians... will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices in consequence."

So does this mean Trudeau is finally coming around to possibility of Chinese interference in Canada and that it must be stopped in every possible way?