Category Archives: General

General, Political Economy

街知巷聞﹕將軍澳 無街之城

將軍澳以至香港整體規劃的問題並不在於無街，亦不在於千遍一律。正如文末所說，是有人喜歡香港的方便，喜歡連鎖店的效率。真正的問題我認為有二：

一，比較表面的是地產壟斷問題，由政府牽頭，各大地產商和應。地產商作為商業機構，發展模式當然以消費為主。但壟斷主要影響價格，即使打破壟斷也不見得生活會變得多元化。

二，深層的問題是香港的地域流動可能性太低。在歐美要方便，可以住城市，要便宜密度低，可以住郊區。香港現在可是沒有郊區—君沒聽說，現在元朗亦算是市中心麼？

在別的地方，當一個城市用盡可發展空間，一般會考慮擴張或與週邊同城化。紐約市和廣州市都是例子。這一過程會做就新的郊區，居民不會沒有選擇。香港作為一個擁有自己邊境的城市卻不能這樣做：不要說內地不會同意，香港人也不見得樂觀其成。

結果香港就成了困獸鬥—城市在發展的巨輪下變得一元化，在內求變的的卻沒有出路。

De-clicking Canon FD lens to get stepless aperture

General, Photos, Tech Zone, Video

Dedicated video lenses usually feature stepless aperture to allow for smooth adjustment of exposure. Most still photography lenses, in contrast, feature stepped aperture adjustment. This guide demonstrates how to “de-click” Canon FD lenses to get stepless aperture.

Before you continue, note that

  1. De-clicking is easy. All you need to do is to unscrew the rear and take out one or two things.
  2. The process will not introduce dust into your lens—the optical assembly is sealed in one piece inside the lens.
  3. There is a “cheat” that gives you continuous aperture adjustment without the hassle of opening up the lens. All you need to do is set your lens to the smallest aperture, then turn the ring on the FD adapter. The downside of this cheat is you do not have any indication of which f-stop you are at.

With that in mind, if you still believe de-clicking is useful—and I personally do find that being the case—here is a quick demonstration on how to do so.

1. Take apart the lens from the rear and remove parts that cause un-smooth movement

taken apart

You need to remove the two parts indicated by the blue arrows if you want the aperture ring to rotate smoothly. If you can stand the un-smoothness, however, you can keep the parts on—with the parts on, step 2 alone is actually sufficient to give you stepless aperture.

2. Remove the piston

piston

On lens such as the the 28mm—in which you lock by rotating the whole lens—the piston underneath the aperture ring provides the click. Remove the piston de-clicks the lens. If you have kept the two parts on in the first step, you can now re-assemble the lens.

If instead your FD lens locks with a rotating metal ring, you will need to remove the two ball bearings inside the aperture ring.

3. Removing the spring holding the aperture selector

remove spring

At this point if you re-assemble the lens without the jiggering parts, you will notice that the aperture bounces back when you try to set a small aperture. This is due to the spring mechanism used in FD lens’ aperture control: the aperture ring is actually only capable of driving the aperture in one direction; reverse movement is driven by the spring holding the aperture selector. Removing the spring solves this issue.

4. Linking the aperture ring to the aperture diaphragm


linking

Because the aperture ring is designed to only drive the aperture in one direction, you need to manually link the aperture ring to the diaphragm. Here I used a short polyester thread, lopping around the coupling pin on the diaphragm and held underneath the link on the aperture ring. Make sure the aperture size match up with the f-stop indicated on the aperture ring.

If your FD lens locks with a rotating metal ring, you will be lopping around the coupling fork instead:


link to driver

5. Re-assemble the lens. It’s done!

General

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General, Political Economy

破窗理論促進就業–街頭實例

畫面右方的人兄一貼街招，左邊的食環署外判清潔工嬸嬸就緊隨著撕。撕完又貼、貼完又撕。人兄沒有怪嬸嬸撕、嬸嬸亦沒有阻止人兄貼。兩個人各安本份有工開。

Parable of the Broken Window in Practice

Right after the man on the right post the yellow flyers, the street sweeper on the left torn them down. That is, before the man post more up on the same spot. Neither tried to stop the other from doing their jobs, and the economy has two more jobs secured.

General

婆：「個商場叫咩話？」
我：「APM。」
婆：「ABM？」
我：「A*P*M。」
婆：「ACM？」
我：「…下次都係我代妳叫的士。」

結論：希望商場嘅中文名要放多啲當眼處，用晒英文老人家好唔方便。

General, Political Economy

范 徐 麗 泰 ： 參 選 與 否 看 民 意 　 無 悔 支 持 唐 英 年

全 國 人 大 常 委 范 徐 麗 泰 說 ， 支 持 唐 英 年 時 不 知 道 對 方 的 緋 聞 ， 但 無 後 悔 支 持 他 。 她 重 申 ， 參 選 與 否 留 待 民 意 決 定 。 她 出 席 中 大 座 談 會 時 被 問 到 對 六 四 事 件 的 看 法 時 說 ， 香 港 人 接 觸 的 資 料 來 自 外 國 傳 媒 ， 無 權 就 非 親 眼 見 的 事 作 評 論 。

范常委教我看凊，我們可以談論的事原來真的很少—當今世代誰都沒見過孔子、沒見過耶穌、沒見過恐龍、也沒見過反物質，所以這些事物我們渺小的人類通通都無權過問。要求這般嚴謹，可見常委崇高之教育理念。

一眾傳媒政客指責常委是機會主義者，其實亦是誤解了常委的智慧—絕大部份港人從未親眼見過范常委，他們根本就不應對她有任何意見。所以常委所說的「民意」明顯只是一眾小圈子選委。如此明言在先，常委不愧為真君子。

唐唐英英，鬥反智，你們還遠遠未到家呢。

General, Political Economy

“[I]ntroductory economics classes…teach economics as a settled science, as a set of established and universally accepted principles that govern how the economy works. Yet this is not the way most economic research is done in practice”
-Alan Krueger. “Teaching the Minimum Wage in Econ 101 in Light of the New Economics of the Minimum Wage.” Journal of Economic Education. 2001.

There is so much work yet to be done.