I’m assuming that the majority of my readers don’t regularly read the SCMP.  Here’s an editorial in the paper today by Philip Bowring that spells it all out.

The bizarre and the tragic seem inextricably linked in the murky world of land and buildings policies in Hong Kong. No sooner has the financial secretary ruled out a return to public housing development when none other than New World’s Henry Cheng Kar-shun – the big developer with the closest connections to government officials – says there is a need for more public housing.

Is this an honest analysis from a cartel whose influence over the administration killed the public housing programme – once the poster boy of caring government? Or has word come down from on high, bypassing the local bureaucrats, that some concessions to the interests of the restless masses are now necessary?

Or is it that the alternative to a modest revival in public housing is a significant increase in residential land supply, which would make private housing more affordable but hurt the interest of the cartel and its bureaucrat hangers-on, who sit on large amounts of developable land?

That in turn links to two recent tragedies, the Ma Tau Wai Road housing collapse and the Cheung Sha Wan blaze. The buildings concerned apparently housed numerous illegal structures and partitions. The Buildings Department may pretend that these were exceptional cases, but many old buildings have clearly been thus altered without being challenged, then or since.

My two encounters with this department show its ability to harass owners over tiny matters but somehow find ways of helping developers without regard for safety. Myself and adjacent owners were accused of having illegal structures that had to be removed on safety grounds. These were just metal frames for air conditioners, in good condition but a few centimetres wider than permitted by regulations issued after they had been installed. Meanwhile, large numbers of buildings, mostly in poorer districts, have become warrens of illegal structures which are fire hazards if not in danger of collapse.

Not long before my illegal structure case, the Buildings Department had given permission, without informing the owners of one-half of the three-storey, 12-apartment block, for the owner of the other half to demolish it! It had been built as a single building, and different lot numbers were covered by a deed mutual covenant. The department pushed ahead even though consulting engineers said it would threaten the integrity of the remaining half. The demolition did not happen only because the developer decided it would not be commercially viable.

The problem of illegal internal subdivisions is not just a problem of a blind eye being turned to a difficult issue. It relates directly to the lack of will on the part of government to address the lack of low-cost accommodation in inner-city areas and to find a way of rehousing those living in truly squalid conditions other than by destroying communities. The industrial building subdivision issue has its roots partly in the need of small businesses for low-cost accommodation. But it also feeds into the housing issue.

The government has been reluctant to allow large-scale redevelopment of old industrial areas into mixed or residential use because that would force a fall in redevelopment premiums by increasing the de facto supply of land. Thus, the only future for old manufacturing buildings lies in subdivision in ways that make them useful for postindustrial business – but also dangerous.

Urban renewal has instead become focused on schemes that allow the Urban Renewal Authority to find ways around the town planning rules and make huge profits from monstrosities such as the 57-storey Tsim Sha Tsui tower of luxury apartments, a masterpiece of exploitation of the government-big-developer nexus.

But do not expect the Independent Commission Against Corruption ever to look seriously at big development issues. It is yet another top bureaucrat fiefdom.

Note that I’ve put four items up for sale on DC Fever.  You can see all of the details there but here are the items and the links:

Netvigator Everywhere Pocket WiFi E5838

Nikon AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED lens

Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens

Nikon AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G lens

You can reply on DC Fever or send an email to hongkietown at gmail dot com if interested.

That’s if you have a US shipping address.  I have several options here and so do you.  You can’t have yours shipped to my mom or to a friend of mine who lives in the US and works for a global shipping company.  But you could use a service like OneNow – I’m sure there are other companies offering a similar service. OneNow’s pretty pricey, even with their supposed discount rates on global shipping, of course they tack on a handling fee, as they have every right to do.

Anyway, pre-orders went live on the Apple web site today.  For the WiFi-only models, you can pre-order now and get home delivery promised on April 3rd or in-store pick-up the same day.  WiFi+3G models will go out in “late April.”

Accessories available to order at the same time include a docking station with a keyboard ($69), a dock with no keyboard ($29), a spare AC adapter, a cover, crappy Apple earphones and a VGA-display adapter.

Andy Ihnatko has gone for the whole nine yards.  Of course, as he says, he’s writing a book on this and will earn back the $829 many times over. In terms of storage, my reasoning is much the same as his.  If I can get 64 gig, why would I settle for 32?  If there was a 512 gig model, I’d probably pop for that one and have no trouble filling it up either.

My first thought was that I should get the WiFi only unit.  $130 cheaper.  I have the PCCW MiFi device to use with it and I don’t want to enter into yet another contract to provide data service for this device.

But, to put it another way, the WiFi+3G version only costs $130 more than the WiFi-only.  Presumably I could yank the SIM card out of my MiFi and shove it in this.  Would I want to do this?  Would I need to do this?  Right now, I can’t say for certain.

The WiFi+3G model has at least one feature that the WiFi-only model doesn’t – built-in GPS.  Will that be useful?  That’s also hard to say.  I know what’s in the app store today but who can say what will be there six months from now?  One thing’s for certain, there will probably be at least 10,000 new apps written specifically for the iPad but who knows what they will be?  (Okay, a thousand of them will be fart sound apps, but still.)

In the long run, I’m tempted to get the WiFi-only and use it in conjunction with my PCCW MiFi.  But I still haven’t pulled the trigger.  Thinking, thinking, thinking …..

At the moment, I have the Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 lens.  It’s a really nice lens.  But it’s a DX lens, bought when I had the D300. It was really handy on my recent trips to Kyoto and Macau, being able to zoom out to 10mm, capturing entire buildings even though they were often on narrow streets where one couldn’t back up more than a few feet.

But now I have the D700 and if I wanted to keep using that lens, I’d have two choices.  I can use the “DX crop” mode, which just uses the center of the image sensor and cuts down the number of effective megapixels recorded by half.   Not so nice.  If I turn off the DX crop mode, at 10mm I get this weird effect, a round image that leaves about 1/3rd of the area black and with a lot of color fringing around the edges.  Zoom in to 15mm and the effect is almost gone.  By 18mm the image does fill the frame, but what’s the point of a 10-24 zoom if you can only effectively use it from 18-24?   So I’ll be selling off that and my other DX lenses as well.  (Some have suggested that I should keep the DX lenses in case I ever decide to buy a second, back-up DSLR, such as the D90.  I don’t think that’s likely to happen.)

If I’m looking for a different wide angle zoom, one for the FX sensor instead of the DX sensor, and if I want to stay with Nikon, there are two choices.

There’s the 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, which retails in Hong Kong for $15,750.  This lens is  said to be a classic, built like a tank and tack sharp.

And there’s the recently released 16-35mm f/4 lens, which retails in Hong Kong for $10,800.   With this, one is obviously losing 1 F stop and 2mm at the wide end, where it can matter. But saving a pocketful of change.

On the other hand, the 16-35 has VR (vibration reduction) and if one is mostly shooting at night, this could be a very handy addition.  But on the other hand, initial reviews of this lens say that it’s not at its best when one is zoomed out to 16mm.

So maybe it’s time to consider Tamron, Tokina, Sigma?  Something else to investigate over the coming days or weeks.  I’m now getting intrigued by the notion of making several day trips to Shenzhen and exploring and photographing different areas of our very interesting neighbor and I know that a wide angle zoom will be very useful for this.

Or Chief Executive …..

I had a job interview over at the Bank of China tower today.  High floor.  A few minutes alone in the office and couldn’t resist grabbing some photos of the view of the construction work at the Place Formerly Known As Tamar.  Note that I only had my iPhone camera with me and in too much of a rush to think about Best Camera or any of those, just brought up the basic camera app – maybe not worth clicking on these to see larger versions – and lots of reflection in the glass as well.

My first thought was that if this was my office, I’d shoot a picture out the window and post it every day, a new photoblog documenting the progress on Our New Government Center. (Or Centre.)

My second thought was that if I was Chief Executive, I might have put this prime piece of real estate to different use.  I started thinking about a park.  Well, there will be some park land attached to this, no doubt filled with signs about what you can’t do there.  No smoking, no pets, no ball playing, no skating, no having fun ….   Since the space is rather large, something more than just some park space, some picnic area, some public barbecues.  Maybe an amphitheater for outdoor concerts and plays? A space larger than Asiaworld where superstars can come to town and play concerts outdoors with the harbor as a brilliant backdrop?  (Imagine how many bands that did that would want to release DVDs of a concert in such a special place and how that might boost the tourism industry in other sectors aside from “poor mainlanders on group tours.”)  Shakespeare in the park?  Opera in the park – both western and Cantonese?  Sunday afternoons, duplicate that soap box area in, is it London’s Hyde Park?   The options for what one could do with such a Public space are almost mind-boggling.

Instead, we will get the Donald Tsang Memorial Buildings.  I think that if he doesn’t build one himself, no one’s going to build it for him, not even the mega-billionaires whom he helped get richer at the expense of the average Hong Kong citizen.  So I suppose the best thing about that will be the day that Tsang is gone and we only have to deal with memorials to him rather than deal with the bowtie himself.

What a day for a day dream ….

The news was all over Twitter this morning.  Google Street View went live for Hong Kong.  This is dangerously addictive stuff.  Basically you go to Google Maps and then keep zooming in.  Once you’ve zoomed in far enough, it will switch over from a map to street view.

What’s amazing to me is how much of Hong Kong they’ve covered.  Central and Wanchai were a no-brainer.  Yes, you can see all the Wanchai bars (but they did the photos during the day, not at night).  They got Sai Kung town, too.  And then I followed the trail all the way into the car park of my tiny village.  I could see my car and my house!

Just what I need, another dangerously addictive distraction.

UPDATE:  As others figured out long before me, you can click on the little orange man and it will outline the streets covered by Street View in blue.  Drag the “man” to the street you want to view.   Looking around Sai Kung, I know they shot this in the morning because the gate at Anthony’s Ranch is down.  And at the bottom of my road it shows construction, that finished up a few months back.   Anyway, the more I look at this, the more I’m loving it.

Many people feel that digital photography is now at the point where 50% of the shot is capturing the image with the camera and the other 50% is the post-processing that you do to the image on the computer afterward.  I agree.

I love Adobe Lightroom.  Well, as much as it’s possible to love a bunch of digital bits.  I know I still have a lot to learn about using the program and at some point I’ll have to get serious about learning Photoshop.  Lightroom does most of what I’m looking to do and  even though I’d rate my skill level with it at intermediate, I can still do a hell of a lot.

For example, last night’s pictures.  When I first looked at them, I was pretty tired.  And quite disappointed with the way they looked straight out of the camera.  Later I found some energy and went to work on them and I’m pretty happy with the results.   So I thought that some might find it useful for me to post an example here of what I’m talking about.

Here’s a shot straight out of the camera (click on the image to see it full size):

And now the same image after “developing” it in Lightroom:

In no particular order, I straightened out the photo, cropped it very slightly, cut back on the overall exposure level, boosted up the blacks, used the noise reduction tools, brought up clarity and vibrance, backed off on saturation on blue and orange, sharpened things up a bit.  Of course I’m working with a RAW image.  Did I over-do or under-do some bits?  Maybe. That’s one of the things with tools like Lightroom – there’s no one “right” solution, you work at it until it looks good to you.  And I’m pretty happy with the end result.

For those who are interested in this sort of thing, this was shot with my Nikon D700 camera and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.  For this shot, I was all the way out at 24mm and wide open at f/2.8, ISO 3200, 1/20th of a second, handheld.  And here’s where I was standing when I took the shot.  (Actually, it’s slightly off.  Zoom in and it looks as if I was on the roof of the next building over.)

I know the lens is not at its sharpest at 24mm and f/2.8.  Normally I would have stood out there and taken a dozen variations on this shot at different settings.  I might have boosted the ISO up to 6400, closed down the aperture a bit and perhaps experimented with some different focal lengths.  But I was too fricking cold!  I think I’m going to revisit this spot on a clear night when the temperature is back to normal again.

Anyway, I know some of my readers are more expert at photography than I am, some aren’t, but your comments, tips, advice are always appreciated.

March 25th is Twestival, a day when (ahem) Twitterati in 200 cities worldwide come together to raise money for Concern Worldwide.  Hong Kong is of course a part of this and I urge you to click this link and take a look at the plans for the event.

Too lazy to click?  Okay, here’s what it says:

Twestival is an event when the Twitter community across the globe made up 100% of volunteers gets together to raise money for charity.  Twestival Global which will take place on March 25 will be a day where over 200 cities will coordinate efforts around one cause.

What will we DO at Twestival??

Twestival is meant to be a night of social networking and fun among the Twitter community and beyond.  Drinking, food, music and fun.  We will have an auction and lucky draw with lots of great prizes raising money for CONCERN WORLDWIDE.  Since this is the center of the digerati community of Hong Kong you can expect some cool Tech features like a TweetWall, Ustreaming with other Asian Cities and some other cool things.

Why come to Twestival??

The Social Media Community has been growing rapidly over the past few months with new people and new businesses signing up to Twitter daily.  If giving to a good cause isn’t a good cause isn’t a good enough reason for you, well, it is the day before Rugby 7s weekend, we are going to be taking over STAUNTON’s & SCIRROCCO! on the corner of Staunton Street on the Escaltor & everyone is going to be there!  It is a networking event NOT TO BE MISSED!

As you’ll see if you click over to here, there are still 98 tickets available at an “early bird” price of HK$150.  Once these are sold, regular price will be $200.

And hey, let’s face it, we’re all gonna do a lot of stuff we’re gonna regret the next day, when the HK Rugby 7’s kick off.  So why not atone for your sins a day in advance?  Go out, get hammered, do something (or many things) foolish and feel good knowing that you’ve already done a good deed the night before!

This evening, I found myself with some free time before dinner.  For me, unexpected free time means time to take more photos.  And Hong Kong has something photo-worthy on almost every street.

This fabulous old building is at the corner of Johnston & Wanchai Roads.  Given our government’s almost psychotic bent towards redevelopment, I wonder how many years this building has left?

Speaking of real estate, since there are almost no exclusive listings for vacant properties, anyone with a license can stick up a sign.  This is one of the more extreme examples I’ve encountered recently.

My understanding is that the government no longer issues permits to erect new scaffolding for neon signs.  But you can put new signs on old scaffolding, and this is a relatively new one.  If memory serves, this used to hold a sign advertising two rather grotty night clubs.   I like the neon rose here.

This got me sad.  I used to be on Mallory Street every week when Rock Gallery was in the Emperor Group Centre.  And I used to love looking across the street at this row of houses, kickin’ it old skool, filled with life.  And now they’re coming down.  It’s not too hard to guess what will replace them.

How many excellent hotels do you know in Hong Kong?  Here’s one!

A nice night time view looking down Johnston Road.

And we close “part 1″ with two views of The Hennessy – in true Hong Kong fashion, the entrance to this building is not on Hennessy Road, it’s on Johnston Road.  I suppose Hennessy Road sounds like a better address for this self-described A-List Shopping Destination (which features a home furnishings shop and several restaurants).

Dinner was at Wooloomooloo, the branch at The Hennessy.  They have the 31st floor and rooftop, which was why I brought the camera along.  And even though it was a fricking cold night (especially on the roof, where the winds were really whipping around), I had to go up and take a few photos.  I had both my 24-70 and 70-300 lenses along.  The 70-300, zoomed all the way in, has a maximum aperture of only f/5.6 – and with the cold, my hands were shaking so much that I had trouble getting decent photos handheld.  The last couple of shots, ISO is bumped all the way up to 8000 – and still quite okay I think.

Several items from the past few days in the SCMP that caught my attention:

We Needed to Pay Someone to Tell Us This?:  The Harbour Business Forum hired a team of students from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the US to study HK harbor facilities; these students have conducted similar surveys in other cities around the world.  The study found that waterfront facilities for the public are few and far between.

Despite large increases in the number of pleasure vessels and tourists in and around the harbour, the study found the waterfront is not very user-friendly. It said people could be seen climbing over obstacles to get aboard vessels because no steps were available or their way was otherwise blocked. Public piers were crudely built, the study said. Boat operators had built their own shelters to protect passengers from the weather but such structures lacked lighting, making getting on and off vessels at night difficult.  Poor signage and a lack of washrooms and general-use kiosks in landing areas were also cited. Fake life buoys were welded onto railings at Sam Ka Tsuen Typhoon Shelter in Lei Yue Mun. A small sign said the metal buoys were for decoration only. The real buoys are in a sitting-out area on the other side of the shelter.

The Shoes Are Mightier Than the Word:  At a “Youth Summit” organized by two government agencies to try to reach out to the “post-80s generation,” one attendee threw a pair of sneakers at Henry Tang.  He wants the government to support a minimum wage for workers.  “The former computer repairman added he chose to act in this manner because he believed using foul language in public was inappropriate.”

Monty Python comes to Hong Kong courts:  A man accused of setting off a home made rocket in an alley in Mong Kok defended himself on trial by saying he had served time as a member of the French military.  When asked to say some specific things in French, apparently he responded by speaking in English with a French accent.

Yuen then said to him: “You go to tell your colleague: ‘I’m hungry. I want to have beef, potato and apple pie. You go to find someone to get a yellow jacket and a pair of green pants’.” But the only French words Chan managed to say were “Je veux” ["I want"] and he managed to say the English words “hungry” and “beef”, but with a French accent.

A Thai tourist was killed in Revenue Tower in 2005.  In the trial, the defense attorney says it was an accident.

“We know when a robber uses a knife, accidents happen,” said Nicholas Adams, barrister for So Kam-tong, who has denied murdering Charitar Kamolnoranath.  Adams said that the killing was just an accident that could happen in robbery cases. He pointed out that So had no intention to kill, as there was only one stab wound on the victim’s body.  “He did not repeatedly stab her,” the lawyer said, asking the jury to return a verdict of manslaughter.

That’s right, he didn’t repeatedly stab her – after stabbing her once in the chest, he used a plastic bag to suffocate her.