Locky's English Playground

Saturday, 8 November 2014

Event & Opinions: 25 Images of Occupy Central

Cameraman capturing the truth
28th Oct 2014 @ Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

Visiting Mongkok and Admiralty a lot fewer these days, still am occupied with doing assignments, but I have not given up any chances of taking more photos every time. It is really encouraging to see creativity (in terms of art and actions) continues to explode. I shall photograph more of such creativity when I can afford more time to explore.

Policemen looking at arguing crowd from afar
28th Oct 2014 @ Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

Police mobiles has no end
28th Oct 2014 @ Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

Crowd having debates
28th Oct 2014 @ Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

President Xi poster
28th Oct 2014 @ Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

President's poster up close, sharing a can of SOL with the man on his right
28th Oct 2014 @ Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

The wall of HSBC has messages to convey
28th Oct 2014 @ Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

barricades strengthed by wooden boards
28th Oct 2014 @ Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

Windmill of Admiralty
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

A group of elderlies surrounded Civic Party Margaret Ng (in centre white trenchcoat) with a hostile attitude
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Zooming out on Connaught Road Central
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Study "rooms" made of tents with a library at the entrance
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Little girl is reading from the library
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

The umbrella of the umbrellas
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Great art
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Tents after tents, Occupants devote their time and energy for the future of Hong Kong
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

"Carry On!" in 2 big Chinese characters
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

"wir wollen gehoert werden, wir werden nicht kaempfen" /
"we want to be heard, we will not fight"
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Organic Farm on unused land
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Lennon Wall
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

The Umbrella Man
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

The umbrella tent
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

From the footbridge
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Panoramic View from the footbridge
6th Nov 2014 @ Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

Resources:

Event & Opinions: Stunning Images and Videos of Occupy Central @ Hong Kong @Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/09/event-opinions-stunning-images-and.html

Event & Opinions: Occupy Central Day 2 @ Admiralty @Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/10/event-opinions-occupy-central-day-2.html

Event & Opinions: Occupy Central Day 4 @ Causeway Bay @Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/10/event-opinions-occupy-central-day-4.html

Occupy Central 2014-10-16 @Mongkok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtVNYnLgJW0

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Travelling & Living: $48 Prepaid Local SIM Cards in Hong Kong

3G Travellers SIM and PCCW SIM
Image from Locky's English Playground

I have never really used prepaid SIM cards before, but once I have tried, I realise they are extremely convenient and tourist-friendly. Too bad I knew this too late, otherwise I would have recommended this to my Singapore friends who came to visit me.

For one thing, they are extremely easy to get hold of, walk into any convenient stores such as 7-11 or Circle K and you can find SIM cards offered by at least 5 companies.

So far, I have tried SIMs from 4 telecoms: PCCW, 3, China Mobile and Easycall, all cost HK $48 or lower.

Among them, I recommend PCCW to be the best of all. It sends fast SMS, connects quickly to 3G, offers day pass at reasonably high data package, and the best of all, free Wi-Fi at every PCCW hotspot, which is literally everywhere, such as Starbucks, phone booths, shopping malls, parks, etc. Plus, you get extra $10 recharge voucher for free.

3 doesn't offer free Wi-Fi, but you do get 3G on a capped $28/day, the fast SMS and the calls you need to make. And if you ever need a top-up, you get up to $100 rebate. The funny thing is, it has many way too many SIMs to offer, sort of catered to different customers' needs, such as HK Local and Special Asia. The cost for SMS, data and calls also differ a little, so I suggest spending a little time to study them carefully before purchasing. But if you need data more than calls, you may want to look into their Travellers SIM or Data SIM instead of Local SIM.

3G Local 3 SIM and PCCW SIM
Image from Locky's English Playground

Easycall is actually CSL, which is in turn PCCW after the acquisition, but with a much lower priority when it comes to SMS and calls. So, seriously recommend not getting it.

China Mobile seems like a decent choice if you visit China or maybe even Macau, but in Hong Kong, it is slow in every aspect, especially the 2G data it offers.

There are more expensive SIM from these companies too, you may want to give them a try and then let me know what you think.

Resources:
Hong Kong Prepaid SIM Cards @ HKTravelBlog
http://hktravelblog.com/sim-cards/hong-kong-prepaid-sim-cards/

Prepaid data – for visitors to HK (further thoughts) @ Thebrowngeek
https://thebrowngeek.wordpress.com/tag/pccw/

A Test of Hong Kong Telecommunications Network Speed Credit Suisse: SmarTone is the best, China Mobile & CSL Tie @Ming Pao Daily
https://www.smartone.com/about_us/our_company/aboutsmartone/common/Credit_Suisse_SmarTone_Beats_Rivals_Ming_Pao_update_confirmed_e.pdf

Local SIM @ 3HK
http://www.three.com.hk/website/appmanager/three/home?_nfpb=true&pageid=631001&_pageLabel=P200470391219567710594&lang=eng

Travellers SIM @ 3HK
http://www.three.com.hk/website/appmanager/three/home?_nfpb=true&pageid=641001&_pageLabel=P200470391219567710594&lang=eng

Data Package SIM @ 3HK
http://www.three.com.hk/website/appmanager/three/home?_nfpb=true&pageid=652001&_pageLabel=P200470391219567710594&lang=eng

csl
http://one2free.hkcsl.com/jsp/prepaid_sim_card/power_prepaid_sim/card_features/card_features.jsp?language=eng

Thursday, 30 October 2014

Technology: Changing WAN IP The Router Way To Bypass IP Ban

Image from mybloggerlab

Sometimes, for some reason, you visit a website and did something legal but that website still blocked your IP so that you can never visit them again. What can we do?

First, we have to know what IP address we are talking about.

To keep this post overly simple, there are two basic IP addresses: LAN and WAN

LAN stands for Local Area Network while WAN stands for Wide Area Network. Basically, LAN are all the devices connected to your home router and the LAN IP address are the identity numbers for each device, whereas WAN is what your Internet Service Provider (ISP) takes care of, including assigning a WAN IP address to each customer's home, possibly taken up by a router.

Image from montrealpcsupport.com

So in a way, the WAN IP address is like your home address, your mother (or someone) is the router and LAN IP address is like your ID card number. If your friend wants to send you a parcel, it will first go to a post office, and postman will then forward the parcel to your home following your home address (WAN IP), when the parcel arrives at your home, your mother (the router) takes the parcel and the pass it to you (LAN IP). Because your mother knows the parcel has your name on it, so she will not pass it to your siblings wrongly.

Now the above analogy is not exactly the whole picture, but it is enough to solve our problem.

Image from Hong Kong Broadband Network

Usually, websites block the WAN IP address instead of the LAN IP address, there are a number of technical reasons but you run a website and you want to ban someone, don't you think it is much more effective to ban the WAN IP address?

Sometimes, for some ISPs which provide dynamic (WAN) IP addresses, meaning that the ISPs update your WAN IP address regularly, changing the WAN IP address to bypass the website's ban is as simple as rebooting the router. Other ISPs offering static (WAN) IP addresses or changeable but rather persistent WAN IP addresses would mean you will continue to be banned for quite awhile.

Hong Kong Broadband (HKBN), which I have been using for years, belongs to the persistent WAN IP kind. Their WAN IP seldom changes at all despite actually being dynamic.

If you are using HKBN, and if you are using a router at home, here's what you need to do to change the WAN IP address to bypass IP ban from the website.

My router's interface, WAN IP removed for obvious reason
Image from Locky's English Playground

Start a browser, type (in general cases)

192.168.1.1

and log in with your password.

Depending on the type of router you have, the following steps might be different, but basically, you want to change your Router's MAC address to force the ISP to assign a new WAN IP.

Type a new MAC address you like
Image from Locky's English Playground

So under MAC Address, you type in a new 12 digit MAC address for your router (0-9, a-f / A-F), with a colon between every 2 digits, and then save it. When your router reboots, the ISP will assign a new WAN IP address for you, then all you have to do is to visit that website which banned you before and see if they are still banning you now. Chances is, they aren't and they can't.

Hope this can help you!

PS: One assignment down, 3 more to go and the never ending thesis. I think the best I can do is to keep up with short updates like this one. Learning never stops, but writing them takes time. My apologies to you all.

Resources:
How can I change MAC address in router ASUS DSL-N11? - @Super User
http://superuser.com/questions/335168/how-can-i-change-mac-address-in-router-asus-dsl-n11

Thursday, 23 October 2014

Event & Opinions: 23 Images of Occupy Central

11th Oct 2014 Admiralty
Image from Locky's English Playground

#occupycentral #umbrellamovement
The assignments on hand are taking up most of my times these days. Wanted to update my blog more often but turned out not quite possible. Causeway Bay and Mongkok though, I happened to have visited a few times, and on the way, I took some snapshots to document what I saw, and this is what this post is going to be all about, just photos. These photos are taken with my Note 3 camera with no skill at all, so if they aren't really nice, well, sorry. You'll find a virtual tour video at the bottom of this page, it moves pretty fast in the video so don't focus too hard on it, or you will get motion sickness. I will write again when I have time.

17th Oct 2014 from Hysan Place
Image from Locky's English Playground

13th Oct 2014 Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

14th Oct 2014 Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

16th Oct 2014 Mongkok
Image from Locky's English Playground

Resources:

Event & Opinions: Stunning Images and Videos of Occupy Central @ Hong Kong @Locky's English Playground

http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/09/event-opinions-stunning-images-and.html

Event & Opinions: Occupy Central Day 2 @ Admiralty @Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/10/event-opinions-occupy-central-day-2.html

Event & Opinions: Occupy Central Day 4 @ Causeway Bay @Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2014/10/event-opinions-occupy-central-day-4.html

Occupy Central 2014-10-16 @Mongkok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtVNYnLgJW0

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

The Chinese White Dolphins Tale – Part 2

Will these dolphins ever be this happy again?
Image from scmp

What happened next is of anyone’s guess.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge construction began in Hong Kong in December 2011 as all environmental impact assessments failed to stop it. Government claims that the impact on the Chinese White Dolphins will be kept at minimal level.

The ‘possibility’ of economic benefits always ranks much higher than lives of dolphins, as a result, the total number of dolphins plunged from 158 in 2003 to just 62 dolphins in 2013. The dolphins complained, they even demonstrated year after year, some even offered their lives to get attentions, but the government wouldn’t listen. Every day, they tolerated, quietly they allowed their livable areas shrink.

The government said they are “are studying the designation of the Brothers Islands as a marine park in accordance with the statutory process stipulated in the Marine Parks Ordinance to compensate the permanent loss of the dolphin’s habitat arising from the reclamation”, but this isn’t a promise and so the study goes on forever.

And then came another project – a third airport runway construction which requires reclamation of 650 hectares of the sea and expects an additional 981 hectares of heavy impact zone. In a sense, it means taking over the dolphins’ entire habitat! In return, the authority involved “has so far agreed to set up a 2,400 hectare marine park to compensate for the habitat loss, but will build the park only after the runway is completed in 2023.”

The dolphins of Hong Kong aren’t stupid. They won’t “Take It First” and accept a fake compensation of the homeland-we-want –not, so they decided to fight the power in their own peaceful way, calling their movement Occupy Sha Chau. The main idea is to use their own body and flesh to block marine traffic from using major routes such as Urmston Road, Adamsta Channel and West Lamma Channel in exchange for more bargaining power and an opportunity to negotiate with the government. To protect themselves from any forceful clearance, the dolphins covered themselves with layers of rubber-like dead skin cells and some plastic bags they conveniently picked up from the abundant marine garbage.

But what did the Hong Kong government do? They responded with more vessels, sprayed them with thick, stinging diesel and injured them with vessel propellers. It was brutal. To make this even more outrageous, the environmental impact assessment report received the endorsement by the Advisory Council on the Environment, which means only the acceptance from the director of environmental protection is needed for the project to get a green light. There was also no apology from the government, who claimed that it is simply futile because the dolphins speak a different language which they cannot comprehend.

And all these, triggered something that no one would ever expect…

Part 2 Ends

(To be continued)

Resources:

Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society

http://hkdcs.org/

https://www.facebook.com/HKDCSorg

#chinesewhitedolphinstale

#chinesewhitedolphins

#occupycentral

“30 Third Runway Victims” Campaign @Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society

http://hkdcs.org/30victims/