The Hong Kong film industry, once a vibrant and dominant player in the Chinese and Asia cinema, is in a steep decline. It happens that I come across a web entry on Jin Yong (金庸), the most popular and prolific martial art novels writer in Asia. In the entry is a chronological list of all the screen adaptations. Since Jin Yong's novels has been made into TV and movies in regularity, it serves as a proxy to the activity of the entertainment industry.

I have plotted the adaption of each popular novel on a graph, with different colors to differentiate the country of production. The dense chart shows that each novel has been adapted multiple times, sometimes within only a short span of time. Looking decade by decade, you'll see how the pattern has shifted. Jin Yong stories first appear on Hong Kong TV in the 70s. It was the time when most families started to own a TV. 80s is the period when a lot of early and now classic adaptions are made. Taiwan has also started to made Jin Yong stories in this period. 90s continues the frenzy activities. It is also the beginning of decline of the Hong Kong movie industry. The last Jin Yong movie was made in 1994. In 2000s, the 3 decades of restless Hong Kong entertainment production seems to come an end. The last TV made by actors is in 2001 (an animation came in 2003). Instead it is the era of China, where nearly all new productions are now made.

The filmography is not just a list black and white raw text. It comes to life once we carefully render it into a color graph. And the graph tells a story of the rise and fall of the different players in the industry.

2010.08.20 [business, media, design] - comments (0)

Wells Fargo Bank is ordered to repay about $203 million to customers who were unfairly charged fees in debit card transactions under a court ruling. As a customer of the bank for over 10 years (though I have never been hit by the overdraft charge), I'm really unpleased with my bank's ethics.

The key scheme works like this. Let's say a customer have $10 in his account. Without a good knowledge the account balance, the customer make multiple debit charges and overdrafted his account. Let says he make a series of transactions in the amount of 5, 1, 2, 3, 11, bringing the final balance to -$12. Instead of denying the charges, Wells Fargo introduced a new feature around 2000 to automatically gives credit to the customer. The catch is each overdraft will cost them a fine of, say, $25. This in itself is not very evil. But what is really enraging is the way the bank manipulate the charges to maximize the overdraft fine. Instead of processing the debit in the order it comes in, the bank rearranged the charges to process them from highest amount to lowest amount order, i.e. 11, 5, 3, 2, 1. In this case all 5 transactions results in overdraft and a $125 fine. If they were processed in chronological order, they fine will be only $50 instead.

The bank insist they have done the right thing for the customers and the customers desire this. Because the larger amount transaction is more likely to be important, therefore it was given priority. Such reasoning is what prompt me to write this blog. It angers me because the bank is offering us a bogus reason. Since all charges are authorized no matter what order they comes in, the customers receive no benefit what so ever from such "prioritization". It would have make a difference if the bank deny the transaction once the account run out of fund. But in the present scheme, the only difference is the amount of fine the customer will incur. It can be mathematically proven that by processing the transaction from lowest amount to the highest, it results in least fine and thus the most beneficial to the customer. Instead the bank scheme to process the transaction from highest amount to lowest, this results in maximum fine and thus results in worst outcome for the customer. There is simply no justification to choose this scheme other than enriching the bank.

Note that while Well Fargo is the first bank to lose an anti-consumer lawsuit, this is an industrial wide practice. I'm looking forward for other major banks to be exposed and fined.

After this ruling and addition regulation against such practice preceding the trial, the banks are grumbling on how much revenue they are going to lose and the possibility of stop offering free checking and other banking service to make up for the difference. For me this should raise an alarm on the corporate board level. When your company is deriving a significant portion of revenue from such unsavory source, it is a clear indicator that it is not doing the right thing. It is like opening a gym with free membership, but in fact the true revenue is derived from the vending machine on the floor selling tobacco. Sooner or later pressure will come to maximize profit. Then the company will be mobilized to sell more tobacco to more people. This will become a corrupting force in no time.

Clearly a company wants to make profit and there is always a pressure to maximize profit. But the question if they earn it because they are providing value to the customer? It is justifiable if they charge for banking services because they are managing my money and dispose them to merchants I authorize to. But the overdraft fee scheme did not provide any value. Instead it is nothing but an exploitation on uninformed customers.

2010.08.15 [business, ethics] - comments (0)

Stephen Batchelor, the author of <Confession of A Buddhist Atheist>, has articulated he feeling about atheism very well.

nor am I an Atheist, who has a particular axe to grind with God. I’m not an Atheist in that I have some objection or some dislike of that way of thinking. It’s simply that I see no use or value of entertaining such notions. I feel that I can articulate what I believe to be at the heart of my quest for meaning as a human being without any recourse to such ideas.

I can make perfect sense of the world without making any reference to god. I see no need for me to confirm or deny its existence. I won't call myself atheist though, as this term is usually associated with the opposition to the concept of god. I think a better description for me is "I don't care".

2010.08.05 [philosophy] - comments (0)

This is the fourth and probably my last post about solving Facebook programming puzzle. The Find Sophie problem is a buffet (hardest) level puzzle. It is basically a variation of the traveling salesman problem. Traveling salesman is of course, a NP-complete problem. But before you throw up your hand, consider the puzzle refers to locations in your home where you may find a cat. Just how many locations are there. Let's say living room, dining room, bedroom, on the bed, under the desk, behind the curtain, ... etc. If Facebook is not very wicked, this puzzle should be bounded to a low hundreds of locations. This mean it is still possible to solve using some relatively simple search algorithm.

Here is the outline of my solution:

1. Prepare to enumerate all paths.
2. Prefer the local optimal during the search. Remember the best solution encountered so far.
3. Prune the search tree. For example if the current best solution has a score of 50. When you are considering another path, as soon as its score exceed 50, you should abandon it.
4. Improve the pruning by taking the additional score to complete the path into account. For example, if the current score of a partial path is S, the minimum score to complete the remaining walk is Rmin. Then if S+Rmin > best score, prune it.

Actually I have submitted the solution a few months ago. Only today do I find out I have not posted my solution in my blog. So I'm really speaking from my memory. I hope my plan is still accurate. Again my un-tidied code is available.

The other 3 facebook puzzles I have solved was posted below:

• Peak Traffic Solution
• Refrigerator Madness solution
• smallworld solution

2010.07.22 [programming] - comments (0)

Have you wonder why a highway is designed like this? Let's say you are driving from a large city A to a large city B. Between them is a mid size city K. Now city A and B are major economic center and travel destinations. City K is none of that. It is yet another non-descript city. Everyone seems to heading to city B. There seems little reason for anyone to stop in city K.

The traffic on the highway was free flowing. Yet as you approach city K, local traffic starts to fill up the highways. the It gets to a point when everything comes to a crawl. You curse at the traffic. Then you wonder why must the intercity highway go through city K at all? Why doesn't it just bypass it so that travelers between A and B can have a smoother trip?

I have wondered about this for a long time. Now I have a theory. Roads are built for people. Where there are more people traveling, more investment will be made to build roads. This should make pretty good sense.

Now which kind of traffic have higher volume? Intercity traffic between A and B or local traffic in K? Despite your intuition that everyone seems to travel between A and B, there are actually more local traffic in city K. This is demonstrated by the fact that traffic is free flowing between A and B but clogged within city K. Therefore more funding will be allocated to build roads for residents of city K and not a bypass. Since intercity travelers are the minority, they will not be better off than the local residents of city K.

2010.07.10 [travel, engineering] - comments (0)

Shenzhen is a major Chinese city adjacent to Hong Kong. It is a vibrant economic power house, home to the Shenzhen stock exchange and many top-tier technology firms. With 9 million residents, its population has surpassed Hong Kong despite its short history of about 30 years only.

Although I grew up next door in Hong Kong, somehow I have never visited Shenzhen (besides using it as a jump off point to other parts of China). Yesterday I have an opportunity to take a dip into the city. It was an unplanned trip. I know nothing about the layout of the city. I have not even bother to purchase a map since it is only going to be a few hours. Instead I just trust my instinct. I jumped on the metro and managed to emerge in the heart of the central business district.

Shenzhen Business District

Upscale Shopping Mall

It was more than 10 years since my last visit to China. During the time the economic and urban development of China has make huge stride. I want to witness the extend of development myself. If a cityscape of glass-clad office towers and upscale shopping mall is an indicator, Shenzhen has surely joined the rank of world class cities. The Central City Shopping mall is as good as any great mall in the world. Satisfied with what I saw, I decided to move on.

According to the map in the metro station, there is a large garden outside of the mall. I set off to explore it. The garden is separated from the mall by a wide boulevard. In order to access it, it seems I have to get on an elevated walkway. But how do I access the walkway?? This has become an unexpected challenge for me. I walk in and out and around the mall before I finally found the unobvious access to the rooftop garden.

Central Park

The park is an oasis in the large city. It is well manicured with stylish fixtures that any city will be proud of. It is also a great refuge for birds and a delightful place to hear their chirping. There is only one issue though. The park is eerily devoid of people. I mean this is a prime real estate in the center of a metropolitan. Where is everybody? New York's Central Park it is not, all I can see is just a sea of green. Perhaps no one is as foolish as me to go outdoor under midday's summer heat. But I suspect this is not the only problem. Perhaps the park's access difficulty has challenged not only me but also the locals.

Shenzhen Cultural Center

I went out to see the soaring architecture of the Shenzhen Cultural Center on the other side of the park. I figure the building is too far for me to walk to. So my goal is to find a vintage point to take a good picture. This require a long walk through some confusing pathway in an empty park. But the walk just keep getting longer without going anywhere. Many times I have considered to give up my pursuit. This will be a slap in my face since I pride myself in my wayfinding skill. When I finally reached the edge of the park, I found a boulevard and the cultural center in a distant. Nice architecture. But there seems no way for me to continue the walk. It is not even an inviting landscape for a pedestrian. I just took my picture and then walked back.

By now I have spent a fair amount of time walking under the sun. I need to return to civilization to grab my lunch. But there are more long trek before I have finally reached a shopping center and its food court. I finally got a sense of Shenzhen's cityscape. It is a new city done in grand scale, wide boulevards, monument buildings and huge parks. But it is not a livable city that I enjoy.

Las Vegaseque Sheraton Hotel

You can tell I was getting cranky. The lousy Chinese fast food I have had did not help either. I rushed back to the Hong Kong side to end this short trip.

2010.06.30 [travel, urban planning] - comments (1)

Causeway Bay is a major shopping district in Hong Kong. Gazillion number of people come by Causeway Bay every day. Over the year, one street after another have been converted into pedestrian use. Instead of squeezing into overcrowded sidewalk, more space are make available for pedestrian. This makes walking in Causeway Bay a much better experience.

Hennessy Road is the major thoroughfare in Causeway Bay. The surrounding streets are often narrow and labyrinth like. These streets were once only backstreets behind major department stores. Today they are destinations themselves with many boutiques stores and restaurants. These side streets are lousy for moving traffic but terrific for walking and shopping. It is a superb idea to close them for cars and open them for pedestrians.

Some streets have permanently converted into pedestrian plaza. They are nicely paved and raised to level with the sidewalk. But in other area, it is not obvious what has been done to restrict vehicle access. In the picture above, the only control device seems to be the sign that says "Access Only". In the morning the streets are lined with delivery truck, those access is expressly allowed. Still access restriction is working quite well with relatively few vehicles coming in. The taxi in the picture below is one of those.

With few physical marking, how do I recognize this as a newly created pedestrian area? I think the pedestrians themselves make it a pedestrian street. When sufficient number of people come off the sidewalk and go into the street, it makes driving through difficult. Cars become intruder there. These pictures are taken in the morning when actions have barely started. I'm sure when people are coming out in full force in the evening it will become impassable for cars.

2010.06.29 [urban planning] - comments (0)

After many years of debate, Hong Kong has finally decided to impose a 50 cents (USD 0.06) tax on the use of disposable plastic bag in supermarkets. There have been many efforts to convince people to reduce plastic bag use voluntarily. But mostly the shops hand out bags freely and the result is very limited.

I was shopping in a Causeway Bay supermarket in the basement of a Japanese department store. To see how effective this law is, I've spent a few minutes to observe the shoppers coming out from the cash register. The ratio of people using their own reusable bag vs. disposable plastic bag is roughly half and half. I was hoping even more people would bring their own bag. But compare to the baseline figure a few years ago where reusable bag usage is almost 0, this is certainly a big improvement.

See also my eariler entry about proposed plastic bag ban in California.

2010.06.28 [environment] - comments (0)

Remember this moment.[more...]

2010.06.25 comments (0)

How long ago was it when I went to the marathon screening of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue, the entire ten episodes shown in one full day? It must be more than 15 years ago. Kieslowski's films have a such important place in my memory, it is hard to imagine he has left more than 10 years ago. [more...]

2010.06.14 [movie, philosophy] - comments (0)

Last time I recorded my HTC EVO battery lasted over 2 days. It has gotten better. This time it has cleared 3 days of light use.[more...]

2010.06.11 [phone, battery] - comments (0)

By putting it in airplane mode! Don't laugh. Please read on. [more...]

2010.06.05 [phone, battery] - comments (1)

I'm delighted to hear that the California legislature is consider to ban the use of plastic and some paper bags from retails. If the law passes, we will be joining other nations like Ireland and China in curbing irresponsible use of disposables and reduce the pollution to the environment.[more...]

2010.06.02 [environment] - comments (0)

I have just finished a fascinating book, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes by Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich. Traditional economics considers people as rational being, acting to optimize one's own welfare. In practice, few people really acting rationally all the time. Even well informed people have found to make many faulted financial decisions. Behavioral economics incorporates psychology and cognitive factor into consideration. It have found great insight into people decision making process. [more...]

2010.05.27 [book, investment] - comments (0)

This is the picture I've used as my new desktop background. What is that? I think this is just some random picture my 4 year old son has taken. You know, he has learned to aim a camera to something, press the shutter button and got his own pictures. He makes outrageous mistakes by photographers' standard. A lot of times the lens was obscured by his finger, the picture was blurry, or he has framed on some unobvious objects. But sometimes his pictures also have certain abstract, artistic quality, certain intricacy of light, something totally original that you will never know how to make. So instead of just deleting his pictures, I have kept some of them.[more...]

2010.05.26 comments (0)

I have received Motorola Droid phone as a free gift courtesy from Google. My first question, do I really want an Android phone? I'm an iPhone user of 1.5 year. My service contract has not even ended. But since it is free I'll just give it a try. This is a report of my impression after using it for a few weeks.[more...]

2010.05.19 [tech, phone] - comments (0)

If you are considering to serialize a large amount of data to the disk, performance may become a concern to you. Python provides a serialization tool in the pickle module. There is also an optimized version called the cPickle. But how do they perform? [more...]

2010.05.12 [programming, python] - comments (0)

Yesterday the U.S. stock market experienced a sudden and volatile fluctuation. Dow Jones index has briefly dropped by 10% during intraday trading. The main culprit seems not to be economic issue but suspect to be a glitch in trading. Apparently one trader has entered an exceptionally large trade by mistake, which set off all the automatic trading program to sell-off. There goes the market value. [more...]

2010.05.07 [philosophy, tech] - comments (0)

This is a follow up on my last post about data compression. After encoded my numerical data in a compact CSV format, I apply data compression before storing it in the disk. I have done a quick study on the two algorithm available in standard Python library, gzip and bzip2. The result is shown below. The original message's size is 537,776 bytes.