Newsletter No. 541

藝 士 匹 靈 / ARTS pirin 數碼身後事 Death Be Not Browse 數年前有位朋友危疾末期，那段日子我久不久便上他的WhatsApp帳戶，看看他是否在線， 若是離線又是離了多久。相信很多人也有過我對病重親友這樣憂心忡忡的經驗。 要來的終於來了。那天我收到一個從他帳戶發出的訊息：「我是他太太，我丈夫剛過身了。」 2017年臉書的用戶人數首過二十億，那一年世界人口的死亡率是7.617（一千人中有7.617人死 亡），即是說那年大約有一千五百萬臉書的用戶過身，最少一千五百萬個帳戶自此沉寂下去。 深埋在臉書等社交媒體的伺服器裏的，還有海量的文字、相片及其他有商業價值的數據。 繼承法並不適用於數碼遺物，後者屬社交媒體的資產，不能指定由誰來繼承。而社交媒體 往往以私隱為由，拒絕死者家屬或朋友要求取回帳戶中的資料。但其實一個人死後，私隱 權也及身而止。 臉書的用戶其實可以指示臉書在其死後把帳戶永久刪除，或是委任一名遺物管理人，負責 更改設定、編輯內容及決定誰可瀏覽/留言等。臉書得悉用戶過身，帳戶會變成一個「追悼 帳戶」，已經成為朋友的，可繼續瀏覽上面的內容或留下悼念之詞，但除了遺物管理人外， 無人再可登入或更改裏面的內容。臉書的某些功能如廣告、「你可能認識的人」和慶生提示 等，也不再適用於這類帳戶。 朋友過身後我沒有再上過他網路上的帳戶，我寧願到他墓前拜祭。可能我還未接受事實， 怕重見那些笑臉，重讀那些留言，特別怕聽到語音訊息。我也沒有把他的帳戶刪除，就讓它 既存放雲端，也藏在心中。 A few years ago when one of my best friends fell terminally ill, I used to go on his WhatsApp account just to see if he’s online or, if he’s off, for how long. I shouldn’t be the only one who’s gone through such period of alternating reassurances and premonitions when one has a sick friend or family member. When the moment of truth came, I got a message from him, well, his WhatsApp account, saying, ‘This is his wife. My husband has passed away.’ Facebook’s users passed the 2 billion mark in 2017. The crude death rate of the world population in 2017 is 7.617, meaning there were 7.617 deaths per 1,000 people. That translates into a mortality of roughly 15 million Facebook users in that year. That’s a lot of accounts being rendered inactive henceforth. While the deceased would be buried soon, a large amount of data (texts, pictures, other monetizable data) get locked away in the servers of Facebook and other social networking sites. The laws of succession do not apply to digital legacy. You can’t pass your digital footprints to your next-of-kin or loved ones. Those remain the property of the social media hosts, which rarely accede to the requests of families and friends for access to the contents on the departed’s accounts, often on the ridiculous grounds of privacy. But in law privacy ceases on death. Facebook allows a person to choose to either have her account deleted after her death or appoint another to be the ‘legacy contact’, sort of a digital executor, who can change the settings, edit the contents and decide who can browse/write what in the posthumous account. When Facebook becomes aware that any account-holder is dead it would turn the account into a ‘memorialized account’. Friends can still see its contents or leave RIPs, but no one can login or change the contents except the legacy contact. Facebook will not send any more ads, ‘People You May Know’, and birthday reminders—a hugely merciful act. I have not checked in at any of my late friend’s sites on the web since. I prefer paying respects at his gravesite. Perhaps my mourning isn’t over and I can’t bear to relive the happy faces, witty words and most of all the voice messages. Neither have I unfriended him. To do so is almost sacrilegious. TC 咖啡皇道 Café Royale 在所有大城市中，傳統的書店正迅速消失，反而咖啡店則開得如雨後春筍。世界各地的大 學校園也出現類似現象。 咖啡對健康的好處正開始為科學認同。咖啡因是一種可以刺激腦幹的化學劑，有助集中精 神，深耕細作，是大學知性生活的調味料。 在中大上學或上班的咖啡愛好者有福了。從早上至午後，從星期一到星期五，從山腳到山 頂，都有非常不錯的咖啡店為我們服務—龐萬倫學生中心的 Paper & Coffee 、和聲書院 的 Café Tolo ，還有在敬文書院和新亞書院均有開業的 Coffee Lover Café 。 喝咖啡最好不要加奶加糖。拉花雖然令一杯咖啡生色不少，而到了 Coffee Lover Café 的 廖智烽 先生手裏，沖一杯咖啡變成了向顧客提供一個完全的官感享受體驗。不過我還是喜歡 我那杯寡些清些，要夠黑夠苦才夠過癮。杯邊稍縱即逝的咖啡脂層已是我容忍的極限了。 喝咖啡雖然不需太多花巧，但杯子還是要講究的。意大利人喝濃縮咖啡用的杯子很小，只夠 淺嚐一口。美國人習慣鯨飲，所以用的杯子也大。至於對營營役役的上班族來說，晨早驅寐 醒腦的玉液，多是以形形色色的紙杯或膠杯盛載。我數年前購得一套紅色的 Julius Meini 咖啡杯碟，杯柄呈一個問號形狀，是我不少個早上食指必扣之處。 大凡鍾愛之事，着迷者對之都或多或少帶點執着。不光顧校園咖啡店的那朝，我會小心翼 翼地量出十五克耶加雪菲、西達莫、伎藝或是甚麼的，然後以近乎宗教禮儀的專注用手沖 濾杯為自己調滴出一百毫升的深啡飲料，捧在手上已是無比滿足。 All across the globe, traditional bookshops keep disappearing in modern cities while cafés mushroom at many urban corners. The same can be said about university campuses everywhere. The health benefits of coffee are beginning to be understood by science. Caffeine is a psychoactive chemical, hence a natural aid to contemplation and serious thinking which are hallmarks of a university’s way of life. Blessed are the coffee lovers or addicts among us who come to school or work at CUHK. There are enough cafés to fill our appetite, from morning to afternoon, from Monday to Friday, from lower campus to higher. One can choose from, among others, Paper & Coffee at Pommerenke Student Centre, Café Tolo at Lee Woo Sing College, and the two outlets of Coffee Lover Café at C. W. Chu College and New Asia College. Coffee is best enjoyed without cream and sugar. Latte art has taken the art of coffee to a new height, and Mr. Johnny Liu of Coffee Lover Café has already shown what a master he is in designing exquisite sets of tea and coffee for the total experience of his customers. But I prefer my coffee to be lean and clean. It should be black and bitter. Crema is the only fat admissible to my diet of caffeine. I may be a minimalist but I do know what you drink in matters as much as what you drink. Coffee-drinking is made more delectable by the infinite variety of the drinking vessel—the Italians drink espresso in small cups; the Americans drink Americano in large mugs; we lowly wage-earners have our morning brew delivered in paper or plastic cups of various stripes and colours. I acquired a Julius Meini cup and saucer set some years ago. The cup with its question-mark handle plays no small part in energizing my workday forenoons. Every addiction has its ritual. In the morning when I don’t go to any of the campus cafés, my ritual consists of grinding 15 g of Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Geisha or what have I in my office and pouring hot water over the grounds in my Hario V60 dripper. I then hold the 100 ml of dark brown beverage thus yielded in unspeakable bliss. TC 11 # 5 4 1 | 1 9 . 0 8 . 2 0 1 9 字 裏 科 技 / T ech T alks