eddz

I moved away from my hometown longer ago than that and had no problem depositing cheques in branches other than the one with which I was registered. It may depend on the bank you are using, or possibly even the method of deposit and the branch's ability to provide the resources for it.

"No actual businesses built" is completely not the case. At least not for all ICOs. Take PundiX, for example – they have a fully-functional product with a growing base of B2B customers which are starting to use the device in the wild.

While nothing has come from many (probably most) ICOs, there are certainly some great examples of "cool business ideas" which are being realised thanks to the ICO.

I'll chime in to add Thailand to the list of countries which require your shoes to be off as you pass through security.

Some programs are designed to replace humans, others are designed as tools. Automation does not always equal the replacement of humans.

I appreciate your analogies but there is not evidence in the article to suggests that police and investigators are being replaced by automated systems.

Data such as this can be used to eliminate a lot of the investigative work which usually goes into law enforcement.

Are you familiar with a police lineup? Police detain a selection of suspects based on various characteristics and ask witnesses to select the perpetrator, who may or may not be present at the lineup.

Neither a police lineup nor facial recognition are accurate or reliable when used alone, but when used in combination with other facts, tools, and resources an arrest can be made with increased speed and confidence.

As long as the data is used as one of many guideline sources which is scrutinised by human officers before the individuals are suspected and acted upon, I personally don't see a problem with the inaccuracy (which will get better over time).

But GET should have no side-effect

I disagree. There are some ways in which GET can be non-idempotent, such as pageview counters and endpoints with a vast amount of constantly-changing content, for instance. One may argue that the first example may be possible with a GET followed by a POST, but any subsequent GET response (assuming it contains the counter) would still be different to its prior.

I would call it more of a "market correction" than a "collapse."

Well, usually I will ask friends or colleagues who have experience of that country. But if not then yes, I will spend an evening reading up on the country and its rules/customs while planning my trip. I don't know a sensible traveler who doesn't.

I have experience of Thailand and Japan so can chime in.

Thailand does not require registration, but authorities prevent travelers from re-entering shortly after their stay (cracking down on "visa runs") which has caught some tourists/nomads off guard. The strictest punishment is banishment for a maximum of 10 (IIRC) years.

Like China, Japan requires registration with the local city office if you are staying with a long-term visa. Although it should be noted that China applies this to all visa types whereas Japan allows tourists to stay without registration. Failing to register with the local Japanese city office can result in banishment.

As with registration in China, you are not told this information upon entry of these countries. If you blindly travel you will be caught out (and usually punished). However, asking around and doing the research before you travel can prevent that from happening.

It may be annoying or inconvenient, but China is not the only country a requirement to register with the local authorities. The fact that it applies to all types of visas may throw some travelers off. Still, it is their responsibility to make sure (preferably before arrival) that the requirements for entry are met.

When you break the rules (intentionally or not), you're taking a risk. Some people get off unnoticed whereas others learn the hard way. Ask people familiar with the country and its laws before arrival and plan your trip properly.

I'm sorry, but I fail to see your point. This does not have anything to do with his sexual relationships so I am unsure of why you are making that analogy. It is completely usual to have to declare your place of residence to an immigration officer upon entry to a foreign country, wherever you are visiting. If you are suspected of wrongdoing, expect calls to be made and questions to be asked.

It is entirely the traveler's responsibility to understand the requirements for stay and local laws of a foreign country. Ignorance can only get you so far.

The immigration officer – who has absolute power over entry – neither asked anything unreasonable of him nor made any false accusations. This is despite the reporter technically having broken the law. He got off lightly, since the fine for not registering within 24 hours after arrival can be up to $300.

The reporter comes off as a bit paranoid and slightly egotistical. Read up on the rules and follow them closely or risk facing consequences. If you aren't 100% sure, ask.

Personally, I was held overnight in a cell in KIX (Osaka International Airport) because after 6 hours of back and forth interviews, I couldn't provide a convincing enough reason for working for a Japanese company (my own company) without the correct visa. This was entirely due to miscommunication but something that would have been obvious – and easily remedied – had I consulted the right people. Fortunately, I was granted conditional entry the following morning. Though despite the inconvenience, the officers and warden were extremely pleasant and very accommodating.

The robots are designed to free up store employees' time so they can use it to help customers.

This is probably the most textbook spin I've ever seen. It's as if their PR firm didn't even try.

These robots are obviously being deployed to increase margins.

Personally I would have went for the "adding more value" angle, either by suggesting to the customer that "Your favourite product is more likely to be on shelves", or positioning these robots as "helpers" to shelf-stackers.

To be fair, this post is about Google's UX for developers, which is admittedly very good. The APIs and supporting documentation and guides for many of Google's properties usually do an excellent job at appealing to skill levels that range from beginner to expert.

Good post, but it does not consider conversion of former customers.

I develop a subscription service which launched in January and now has ~9,000 MAUs. This above metric accounts for ~10% of "new" subscribers each month, despite not yet making an effort (such as by sending reminder or "sorry" emails) to re-capture them.

The post does make a good point about retaining existing users, though.

I would like to add that we saw MAUs spike when redesigning the cancellation process to be more thankful and apologetic than spiteful. (Being a service for Japanese users, we included a little "thank you bow" animated character at the end of the process.)

One more point – our cancellations for the first days of the month often come close to outnumbering new users. We have concluded that the reason for this is that users 1. perform their financial housekeeping around this time, and 2. find a low-numbered charge date easier to remember.

I understand. But to many businesses – especially online businesses – time is the most significant expense. It is the elephant in the room here. You are not "profitable" (not even "ramen profitable") until you've factored in this expense.

First of all, congratulations on your success and experience.

Second of all, correct me if I am wrong, but you do not seem to be factoring in your time (16 working days) or any kind of opportunity cost required to produce the content?

Kaz Hirai is doing pretty well at Sony, all things considered.

I can see where he is coming from, but this quote is wrong on so many levels.

Traveling often has forced me to adopt this approach. I do not miss the days where I owned much more. Slimming down your possessions to a couple of suitcases worth is liberating, to say the least. Incidentally, I also live in Japan, but most apartments I have visited here are very cluttered.

I have also observed this behaviour, especially from higher ranking employees.

I have worked in several office environments in Japan where coworkers have frequently napped at their desks.

Android is an OS, not a phone.

Twitter and Snapchat are big projects based on small ideas. It's not necessarily a bad thing to narrow your focus.

Do you mean the one with the :// which precedes the "curl"? If so, I agree. The first version was too complex and inconsistent, but the third version played it too safe. I also agree with another poster who said that the accepted logo has more in common with PCBs than URLs.

There are plenty of alternatives to Whatsapp. I don't even have it installed on my phone.