You thought I was making up Hyderabad being a Digital Dystopia. After Hyderabad Metro we have ads of Bigg Boss is watching us around the city under every surveillance camera 😭
@digitaldutta
Kind of reminds of San Francisco. I went on a day trip to there recently and the number of ads specifically targeting tech companies was bewildering. One giant billboard for Twilio literally just said, "Ask your developer"
Dutta is talking about something completely different.
Dutta is implying that traffic cams intended to fine motorists for not wearing helmets are actually for surveilance.
He is of the opinion that peolle who believe helmets are unfashionable shouldn’t be punished. That the no-helmet culture prevalent in India shouldn’t be corrected. That people should just die eve after minor motor cycle accidents.(head injuries)
Death by bikes is cool isn’t it - ? @design_RG
The reason they have the bill-board is to scare people of facing heavy traffic fines if caught by the camera.
Let’s not cross the fine line between caution and paranoia.
It is the youths who mostly die in these motorcycle accidents. Let’s do whatever we can to protect them.
@Full_marx @jump_spider @design_RG you have no idea what I am talking about. Have a good day.
@digitaldutta @Full_marx @jump_spider
Karl, indeed -- riding a motorcycle without a helmet is asking for trouble. Too easy to get a major injury, and maybe turn into a vegetable, to be supported by someone. Or dead.
We have a publicly funded health insurance system in Canada, like they do in UK and most other developed countries. To allow someone to carelessly risk head injuries that could cause big costs to the system is unacceptable to most people.
Surveillance is everywhere in the UK apparently (haven't visited), not even disguised but sold as public safety.
George Orwell was prescient.
China is EVEN worse, there AI is monitoring all the camera feeds.
In china the Facial Recognition can fine you for J-Walking and deliver the bill to your WeChat !!
I saw a video of a guy testing this out in shenzhen. and within minutes of his crime he was fined.
It's Insane!!
@Full_marx
It really is insane. WE don't need that.
In Hong Kong, the protesters seem to be using small laser pointers and zapping the cameras to disrupt them.
It's a nightmare if things keep going this way.
Even people who are digitally literate might see Luddite action as appropriate.
This apparatus has to be stopped.
@digitaldutta @jump_spider
@design_RG @Full_marx
My note about San Francisco is I guess tangential; it's a tech dystopia not because of the active surveillance but because if you don't work in tech, then you're either homeless or a part of servant class that works for the tech elites
@Full_marx
It's fun to visit Castro district if you're any kind of queer. But my second time there, all I got was, Holy crap, this city is the definition of gentrification without the infrastructure improvements
@design_RG
I heard there are poor people permanently camping out on streets.
Too much capitalism way too fast.
It's like literally displacing entire neighbourhoods out.
BREAK UP BIG TECH !!
@Full_marx
There are many homeless, some live in vehicles, you can see vans loaded with things, bags, etc.
Mental health problems too, and no easy treatment options.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/16/san-francisco-homeless-increase-tech-ipo
I've heard.
But I still wanna visit.
I wanna ride the tram all day looooooooong!!!!
wheee!!
And go to china town!!
@Full_marx
Oh, by all means, do visit. It's a cool town, ignore the yuppies, try to find some lower cost accomodation, some cheaper places to eat or cook your own.
Walkabout there is fun.
The Tram - there's the Cable car, which runs up and down some really steep hills, very popular with tourists, but pricier than a normal ride.
Go down to the lower area, near the Bay, and you can ride Stret Cars for the price of a ticket anywhere in town.
Those are lovely, SF bought a bunch of them from other cities who were moving to newer vehicles, and kept them intact.
They have street cars that came from Torino, Italy, and still have aLL the internal ads, and signs like "Uscitta" to mark the exit doors.
Take a look, too many lovely pictures to post here, one is not enough. 😃
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=San+francisco+street+cars&FORM=HDRSC2
I meant the street cars.
We call them trams here.
Cable cars are just called Cable cars, (or death traps, if the gov runs them)
@Full_marx
More pics!
https://speechfoodie.com/san-francisco-street-cars/
Tram is a common name for them too. In SF there's some, the touristy ones, that are actually attached to a Cable under the street. They grab the cable with a device under them similar to huge pliers, and the cable is pulled by machinery in fixed stations.
End of the ride, there's a turntable, they disconnect the cable, turn around, reconnect the cable to return in the other direction.
How can you not get stoned and spend your day hanging out of these contraptions as it whizzes you around the city.
@Full_marx
Lisbon, Portugal has nice trams too, the city is wonderful, walkable and affordable too.
Many Tech, digital nomad and retirees are moving there.
I love the city. 🇵🇹 ❤️
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Lisbon street cars
@jump_spider
@jump_spider
It's true, SF is a delightful city, it has always been, but the character is changing since the huge influx of tech jobs and the purchase power they bring.
Creative types, lower paid workers are being pushed out, moving across the Bay to Oakland is pretty common. And even there costs have inflated.
@design_RG
I even work in tech and am looking at a potential relocation there, and I'm thinking I'm gonna live in Oakland and commute
@Full_marx
@jump_spider
Hope you get a nice offer, and enjoy the area if you do move there.
My son worked in SF, games design studio, and we visited a couple times, years ago. I really liked the city, in terms of how it is physically.
Not many high rises, pretty older wooden Victorian homes, some nice big parks, the Pacific coast on one side, the Bay on the other.
Not boring at all, with some huge hills to make bike trip route planning a needed step. (avoid them big hills!)
But is has gotten worse, cost wise, since we last visited.
Vancouver, here in Canada, is also with housing costs out of control, and the jobs don't pay much -- the area is scenic and reputed to be a great place to live.
At the costs of housing they have, younger people will do much better to run away like they are, from Vancouver, from the whole Bay area, to find places with lower living costs and where they can start a small business, ply a dream trade, a bakery or restaurant, etc.
@jump_spider
I remember the whole "Glass-hole" fiasco.
Gentrification and what not.
Have never been there though.
Someday.
@design_RG