Camera-phones are already technologia non grata in several Hong Kong locations. The Jockey Club bars all mobile phones, and has miniscule lockers for members to stash their trilling mouthpieces-and many movie fans suggest that Hong Kong cinema box-office receipts would rise if cinemas would install equipment that blocks mobile signals.

Some manufacturers continue to release handsets unencumbered by photographic-capture devices, which makes them lighter/cheaper while preventing photo and/or video recording.

This move toward simplicity flies in the face of mobile telephony's Brave New World. Advertising for 3G services would have us believe that magical new handsets will deliver multimedia messages, most egregiously evoked by dripping wet Cantopop-singer Leon Lai proposing to his pouty supermodel girlfriend outside Hong Kong's International Airport. But when we fired up 3G on a test unit, all we got was shouting feng shui experts, and postage-stamp-sized football highlights...then our battery ran out.

While 3G continues to underwhelm, memes continue to proliferate. Pre-Internet, the popular term was "urban legend": lore rooted in city culture, to distinguish it from more traditionally rural older folklore. Urban legends have their own watchdog website--www.snopes.com--where you can research fantastic fables and questionable quotes. Yes, DEC founder Ken Olsen really did say in 1977 (at a convention of the World Future Society): "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."

Bus Uncle might agree, as he was unaware of his meme-borne fame until a Hong Kong reporter tracked him down and told him that his video was all over the Net. Ironically, the Uncle himself was blissfully unaware.