MIT Creates World's First Psychopath AI by Feeding It Reddit Violent Content - <AUTHOR> https://techgrabyte.com/mit-psychopath-ai-reddit-violent-content/ <comment><USER2> Original site isn't loading. Here is the MIT site for the project [0] and a popular mechanics article [2]

[0] [http://norman-ai.mit.edu/](http://norman-ai.mit.edu/)

[1] [https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a21246473/meet-n...](https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a21246473/meet- norman-a-psychopath-ai-based-on-reddit/)

<comment><USER3> The submission should link to one of these articles.

I have 0 trust for "tech" publications which don't even show when an article was published.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Psychopathy is defined by lack of empathy. Are they really saying that all other AI agents have normal human levels of empathy? Because I don't think they do.

<comment><USER5> Well... what really is empathy? To me it stands to reason that it is the ability to recreate the mind of another using inference based on their behavior and communication, and thus be able to experience a similar emotional state or set of mental circumstances.

It would also stand to reason that this ability would be directly related to how similar the data contained within empathizing brains is.

If you conceive of empathy as "responding to behavior in a way that is considerate of the other party's ability to understand and receive benefit from it" in the sense that designers and product folks use it then it becomes clear that AI trained on data more similar to what a human would've drawn most meaning from would naturally be more empathetic.

<comment><USER4> Inferring the mental state of another entity would more fall under 'theory of mind' rather than empathy, which is not only inferring their emotional state but also feeling it yourself.

I guess you could define 'empathic behaviour' as per your last paragraph, as a synonym for 'considerate', but unless it's driven by empathy it's really just mimicry of empathic behaviour.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> jf- I've seen this before and I really have to wonder what the point is other than sensationalism. An image labelling AI will label images according to its training data. Yes, of course it will. This isn't a psychopath AI and it doesn't shed any light on anything, what's the point?

<comment><USER6> The point of academic research is somewhere between attracting attention and trying something new. This did both.

So good point, and well done.

<comment> jf- It's just training an image labelling AI on a different, sensationalist dataset. It looks designed for media attention and nothing else. What value is there in this?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This could probably be an interesting model of psychopathic behavior.

<comment><USER8> > model of psychopathic behavior

Maybe "broad strokes" elements of behavior, but no more. Whatever your Pixel is doing to recognize objects in pictures looks almost nothing like what your brain is doing to do a similar task.

<comment><USER9> >Whatever your Pixel is doing to recognize objects in pictures looks almost nothing like what your brain is doing to do a similar task.

Can you cite a source for this?</comment></comment></comment>


Javelin: Software tool for Lean Startups - <AUTHOR> http://pandodaily.com/2013/06/10/javelin-the-lean-startup-app-thats-a-product-of-lean-startup-methodology/

<comment><USER2> This strikes me as "selling tools to the miners", but hey, whatever works.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interested in seeing the interface.</comment>


A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/health/a-disease-without-a-cure-spreads-quietly-in-the-west.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=all <comment><USER2> I am very closely acquainted with a person who was found to have this infection by culture of a biopsy sample during the 1980s. The person I know has never been to the parts of the United States mentioned in this article. The examination finding that prompted the biopsy was persistent cough and general fatigue accompanied by an abnormal chest X-ray. (The chest X-ray, in turn, was follow-up to a course of preventive treatment for tuberculosis, medically indicated for a foreign person who arrived in the United States Mantoux-positive for tuberculosis, perhaps from having had the BCG tuberculosis vaccine overseas. The X-ray finding was nothing at all like the chest X-ray of someone with a tuberculosis infection, but quite unusual, prompting many other diagnostic tests, including repeated biopsies.)

The good news is that the patient I know recovered fully after surgery. The bad news is that the patient had to have major surgery. Moreover, we are unsure to this day what the actual diagnosis was. The surgery was curative, as the patient's complaints and disabilities all went away after it was over, but the lung infection was never definitively diagnosed. (Another infectious agent was cultured after a different biopsy.) Slow-growing lung infections are very hard to diagnose. Fortunately, most people have a lot of spare lung tissue, so even removal of a whole lobe on one lung does not impair future aerobic exercise.

Developing better diagnostic procedures for this illness will not be easy at all, but seems well worth doing. Antifungal drugs are very hard to develop, because fungi are very biologically similar to animals, and thus a drug that works on fungi has a high probability of being toxic to human patients if taken internally.

[http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/valley- fever/DS00695/DSECTI...](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/valley- fever/DS00695/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs)

</comment><comment><USER3> The article is actually a little sensationalist. Because Coccidioidomycosis is actually ENDEMIC to the western region of USA and Mexico.

The rates do usually go up after earthquakes and storms that can lift up large amounts of dust up in the air.

In most people the infection resolves itself (much like TB in healthy people). Some people might get pneumonia and rarely do healthy people get meningitis. The disease is severe in immune-comprised but any disease can be severe in that case (eg: simple thrush - candida albicans infection)

simple anti-fungals eg: fluconazole is effective is most cases

<comment><USER4> You're correct that it's endemic, and it is usually associated with the fungus getting kicked into the air, but being rid of it is hardly a walk in the park. It usually downs its victims with the effectiveness of polio, there's no vaccine, and no real "cure". Fungal infections don't work like that. It takes a long, sustained treatment to be rid of it, and the meek/unhealthy individuals you refer to usually die from the disease. Generally healthy people merely suffer for a year or so.

<comment><USER5> A year is a long time to suffer from invasive fungi, and if the toxicity of your air is, in any way, threatening your health, then you can build a very effective air purifier, which is better and cheaper than the store bought kind, using simple parts.

The key is a MERV 13+ filter (MERV Rating System [0]), because it's 90% effective for collecting particles 1-10 microns. TTBOMK, this is the size of most spores and the arthroconidia that cause this coccidioidomycosis [1].

Take a a 20" box fan (like this Lasko one [2], or available at the hardware store) and these 20x20x4 MERV 13 filters [3], $48, then either tape or bungee cord the filters to the back of the fan. Run it on an elevated surface so that it's not wasting the filter on cleaning up particles that have fallen from the air and can be swept and mopped up. Assemble 1 unit per room.

This works really well. If you're looking for other methods to improve your air quality, search for a UV A/C attachment (e.g. Calutech Blue-Ray), diffused oils (e.g. "Thieve's Oil" in a cold-air diffuser), and ventilation practices. For a wide rang of cases, these nasal screens [4] offer a great solution.

[0] [http://www.ontimeairfilters.com/air-filter-merv- rating](http://www.ontimeairfilters.com/air-filter-merv-rating) [1] [http://ci.vbi.vt.edu/pathinfo/pathogens/Coccidioides.html](http://ci.vbi.vt.edu/pathinfo/pathogens/Coccidioides.html) [2] [http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-3723-20-Inch- Premium-3-SPEED/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-3723-20-Inch- Premium-3-SPEED/dp/B000HHJ2I2/) [3] [http://www.ushomefilter.com/products/air- filters/SC80-20X20X...](http://www.ushomefilter.com/products/air- filters/SC80-20X20X4) [4] [http://www.filteryourlife.com/](http://www.filteryourlife.com/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Also, a new coronovirus in France and the middle east, which although it's killed 50% of the people who've caught it so far is probably not going to kill us all[1].

Also H7N9 (a new bird flu), although it's a bit of a lightweight having killed a mere 20% of sufferers. It may not spread human to human, although we don't know that, and this one hasn't yet reached "the West".

[1] [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23179570](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23179570)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H7N9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H7N9)

<comment><USER7> In med school I learned about a mailing list primarily for infectious disease specialists tracking potential outbreaks worldwide. After a few months I stopped reading it -- it was too terrifying.

Update: It was probably ProMED-mail[1]. The WHO also posts disease a outbreak news[2].

[1] [http://www.promedmail.org/](http://www.promedmail.org/)

[2] [http://www.who.int/csr/don/en/index.html](http://www.who.int/csr/don/en/index.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As an Arizona native, both my best friend and one of my college professors acquired the disease and became seriously ill. My professor had to miss most of the year of the class I signed up for, and my best friend was down for an entire year with weakened lung capacity, as well as not being able to drink an ounce of any sort of liquor while taking the medication she needed to fight it. These are probably 5s on a scale of 1-10 with how bad this disease is.

It's horrible, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'd say be careful when you visit AZ or CA, but there's not really anything you can do except avoid the dusty areas entirely.

<comment><USER8> This just reminds me that Prof. Fang Lizhi[1], who was a famous astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, a prominent activist during the 1989 student uprising in China, later hid in U.S. embassy in Beijing for months, exiled in U.S. and worked as Professor of Physics in Univ. of Arizona also suffered from Valley Fever [2], and was said to have died of it.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fang_Lizhi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fang_Lizhi)

[2] [http://www.csupomona.edu/~zywang/FLZ_NO6_2013-4-6.pdf](http://www.csupomona.edu/~zywang/FLZ_NO6_2013-4-6.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The problem also is that you have people who are constantly getting exposed to anti-fungal medications without their knowledge. E.g. almost all supermarket lemons/limes/oranges are coated in anti-fungal cream before being coated with another thin layer of wax, so when you make zest from them (or order a drink with zest at a bar) then you are probably reducing your body's ability to fight off things like this. So much better to avoid things like that entirely I think, as fungal infections are often not possible to cure.

<comment><USER2> There is utterly no epidemiological evidence that eating zest has anything to do with any kind of fungal infection.

<comment><USER10> Of course, that won't actually stop people from claiming there is.

<comment><USER9> Have you ever actually heard anyone mention the application of anti-fungals to citrus fruit rinds in the first place? Because I've never even heard of it outside of mycology circles, and there are virtually no Google results despite the fact that the practice is ubiquitous.

<comment><USER10> How does "There is virtually no evidence that this is even done" translate to "This is a big problem"? At least in my book, lack of evidence doesn't count as evidence.

<comment><USER9> Actually a Google Scholar search for 'citrus postharvest antifungal treatments' does show that this is in fact the standard operating procedure. E.g. this paper starts out with a summary of the current state of conventional agriculture:

[http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-1524.pdf](http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-1524.pdf)

It's just that a more simple Google search like 'citrus antifungal' doesn't turn up anything.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Swell. I write this from the Sacramento area (yeah, "the other valley" \- Central, not Silicon) as somebody who was born by Bakersfield.

OTOH - doesn't every place have its own local diseases and parasites???

<comment><USER12> >doesn't every place have its own local diseases and parasites?

Exactly. This whole article feels like the sort of ego piece you only get out of places like LA or NYC. Every place on earth has diseases and other medical problems caused by local environmental factors. To give it that a name like "valley fever" is to trivialize the fact that the exact same phenomenon occurs everywhere else in the world too.

<comment><USER13> I agree that the article is too California-centric, but if you follow the link to the Valley Fever Center, the first thing it says is "Two-thirds of all U.S. Valley Fever infections are contracted in Arizona"[0]. I'm not saying this is the next epidemic in the 'West', but I do feel a watchful eye is needed. I live in LA, I'm a runner and don't live in a coastal city. My lungs are very susceptible to bad air (particulates). I moved to LA from a city with much cleaner air, and I've read LA residents tend to have more lung problems. Sorry, I don't have a link/source handy.

[0] [https://www.vfce.arizona.edu/](https://www.vfce.arizona.edu/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment> bink-lynch We have recently been dealing with this not even knowing it existed prior. We adopted a flat-coated retriever from Kingman, AZ and he was soon diagnosed with a blown-out knee that required radical surgery. Luckily, my wife did some research and cancelled the morning of the surgery as his behavior was not consistent with a bad knee (lame sometimes, run like crazy others). Almost a year later, still lame off and on, my wife felt odd swelling on his leg bone. A new vet took more x-rays and found large lesions just above his ankle. We are lucky it did not affect his lungs, but it settled in his bones which seems painful. He has been on fluconazole for a couple of months and the masses on his leg are shrinking. He has not limped for a couple of weeks now, but I still have to carry him up and down the stairs because the weak leg could break and it would not heal. Treatment will take at least one year.

Arizona was on the top of our list for our next home. Not anymore.

</comment><comment><USER14> Interesting to see this link about Bakersfield. I grew up there (15 years). I remember every year knowing people that got sick from it. It was kind of like the chicken pox where you'd just have to stay home for a week. From that perspective, this article feels completely blown out of proportion. But maybe we as locals all underestimated it.

</comment><comment><USER15> Well that article makes you feel horrifyingly hopeless.

Somewhat related I've read that people who visit other countries for weeks at a time can also get all kinds of illnesses their immune system isn't familiar with, like Americans visiting Japan for a few weeks can catch all kinds of stomach viruses.

<comment><USER16> This is what I'd call sensationalist journalism. There are antifungal meds that deal with these type of infections, which are mentioned directly in the article.

A healthy immune system typically doesn't have an issue with this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is very common where I currently reside - Phoenix. It happens most often during dust storms, when soil is kicked up into the air. This is really terrifying though; I had no idea it was so serious.

</comment><comment><USER18> My mom lives in Bakersfield and our family own a ranch in the valley (north of Bakersfield). My mom's neighbor had a bad case last year and she said most people know someone who has/had it.

Out where the ranches are, everything is dusty. Much more so than you see to the west in the Salinas valley or where I live (Paso/San Luis/Santa Maria). They built several prisons there years ago. It's pretty much the only lights you can see at night.

</comment><comment><USER19> Looks like a hoax for me. Fungal infections are medically treated, even if your lungs are affected with, say, Candida after sharing some shisha in a dirty moroccan place.

<comment><USER20> While the human immune system does a good job with most fungal infections, human medicine is very poor at treating all but the topical ones.</comment></comment>


Pankration - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration

<comment><USER2> Notable is the story of Arrhichion who won the Pankration when his opponent surrendered even though he died in the attempt. His corpse was crowned and proclaimed the victor.

<comment><USER3> The story of Damoxenos of Syracuse on this Quora answer to the question "What is the most unsportsmanlike conduct you have seen in any sport?" is also pretty interesting: [http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-unsportsmanlike- conduc...](http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-unsportsmanlike-conduct-you- have-seen-in-any-sport/answer/Daniel-McLaury)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "... The only things not acceptable were biting and gouging of the opponent's eyes."

so (in honest curiosity) why didn't the first man to grab a thorny branch (or burning brand) aimed at the other man's genitals always win the contest?

<comment><USER5> Earlier mainstream MMA events like the first few UFC tournaments actually allowed groin strikes. I know for at least several bouts the athletes would have a gentleman's agreement not to employ them despite the legality.

Beyond that, the problem with attacking another man's genital's is...he can attack yours too. So the athletes employ defensive measures that usually nullify each other.

There are some positions like full guard where groin strikes are much easier to pull off for one person. And what can I say - that's hard to watch. Usually at the least they're wearing cups but it can still be painful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Certainly the current surge of MMA popularity (perhaps abating) appears to me to be a return to more primitive western mores around violence.

It is interesting how eye gouging and biting were, even in greek times, considered out of bounds. Why? From where does this moral sense of fairness- in-violence come? Why would people cheer a man who has successfully broken another mans neck, but shun a man who has gouged another mans eyes out?

One wonders if we will eventually return to widespread animal sport fighting.

<comment><USER7> Rules must be such that enough people enjoy watching the fights, and enough people agree to fight. Presumably, few will agree to fight if nothing is off limits, and even if that is false, few will have the chance to gain the skills making the fights enjoyable before their eyes are gouged out.

(Personally, I'm not into this sort of entertainment to say the least, but that is beside the point...)

<comment><USER8> Modern day Vale Tudo is as close as you get to organized Pankration[1]. It has very limited rules and was (not sure if it still is) popular in Brazil.

[1] [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale_tudo](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale_tudo)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The Greeks invented mixed-martial arts? And did it naked?

<comment><USER10> Yes, they did. Then the Brazilians invented it again and it became modern day MMA.

<comment><USER11> > Then the Brazilians invented it again

This is untrue, there were many people who traveled the world to fight 'all comers' in no holds barred competitions. Mitsuyo Maeda[1] is one of these people who brought judo to Brazil which later become BJJ. Maeda is not the only that did this however (travel and fight anyone, in any discipline)

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuyo_Maeda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuyo_Maeda)

<comment><USER10> Yes, there was Maeda, and there was a bunch of other stuff (Merikan fights, shooto, etc). However, Vale Tudo was created by the Gracies, who eventually went on to create a very similar thing with the UFC, which then caught on and today MMA is pretty much what the UFC is.

Plus, before, there were fighters pitting their style against other styles. In Brazil, besides the BJJ fighters, there were 'Vale Tudo' fighters, who trained in many styles and mixed, BJJ, wrestling and stand-up (Marco Ruas for example. His trained in everything, and when asked, he said his style was Vale Tudo). Which is what any MMA athlete is today.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> My introduction to this was Jeffery in Virtua Fighter.</comment>


Coding bootcamp in or around India - <AUTHOR> I am trying to find a good coding bootcamp in or around India. I have done some basic Oracle training and have done a 2 month course on Redhat Certified System Administration (everything except networking).
My criteria for a 'good coding bootcamp':
(1) Should be physical classroom (not virtual). (2) Focus on full-stack with back end preference for Python or Java (3) Provide some placement assistance (not as important as first 2) (4) Closer to Delhi, India the better. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai etc are still good. If there is something great available in Singapore, Hong Kong, or the UK (have some family near London that can help me save on food and lodging) I am willing to spend a little extra.
Any help will be greatly appreciated! <comment><USER2> /g/ seems to talk about these guys a lot.

Durgasoft - Nagoor Babu Weapon of Durgasoft

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjozK_PYCTLEluFlrJ8UZg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjozK_PYCTLEluFlrJ8UZg)</comment>


Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/amazon-acquiring-kiva-systems-for-775-million/71976 <comment><USER2> Kiva is a great company. They have been innovating since day 1, tapping into various industries. Last year, they put their robots on the floors of Boston Scientific's fulfillment center - a first for them in the highly-sensitive, highly-regulated medical arena. And, to be bought in CASH... I hope employees and the founding team made out well.

<comment><USER3> Also a great exit for Bain Capital.

<comment><USER4> Bain Capital _Ventures_. Venture Capital, not Private Equity.

<comment><USER5> I thought Bain Capital was the umbrella for all of their funds? Bain Capital Private Equity for the PE stuff and Bain Capital Ventures for the VC investments.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's a great time to start a robotics company and I hope this exit will further accelerate the pace of new companies being created! Kiva is also a great example of nailing a single high-value problem even if it's not the sexiest challenge.

<comment><USER7> Unfortunately you can't start a robotics startup with almost no money (like sw startups) !

<comment><USER8> Kiva Systems was started with almost no money...

It's actually one of the better stories I've heard. The founder basically found various phds that were researching in related fields and convinced them to work for equity.

<comment><USER9> Almost no money...Do you have specific details/article ?

I would still think to make the prototypes and get the initial robots manufactured must have cost a pretty penny.

<comment><USER8> I'm trying to remember more, he spoke at a class I was in.

His office was his small apartment with a whiteboard. In the morning he would go out for a cup of coffee, and when he came back it was his office. If he didn't do that, it wouldn't feel like an office.

Previously he had worked with Webvan, and one of their costs that was unexpectedly high was product fulfillment. Kiva was built partly as a solution to that problem (though it was after Webvan went bankrupt).

Their initial prototypes (we saw pictures of them) we're extremely scrappy, and I believe too big to realistically be used. I think they raised money with the prototype and computer simulations?

The robots are talked to wirelessly, and apparently wireless represented a major technical challenge (it was before wifi took off I believe).

The co-founder with robo-soccer experience was targeted. He said something along the lines of "If you can make a robot play soccer, you can definitely make a robot follow a grid and pick up shelving."

I got the impression that he gave up a lot of equity to get co-founders at seemingly late points in the game, but didn't regret it. I think people normally put a ton of effort into maintaining equity, sometimes at the risk of losing a great team member. It looks things worked out.

The great thing about this company is that it's indisputably the best solution available, although high costs mitigate some customers. He told the story of a stress test they did with one major brand name. To simulate high buying season, they held up regular orders for three days, then pushed them through at once without an issue.

Other cool benefits: despite having to power these robots, the power bills with Kiva end up being less expensive because of savings in lighting, heating and AC. Most fulfillment solutions require the entire warehouse to be lit up and heated so a person can comfortably work, while Kiva keeps the main warehouse dark and temperature doesn't matter much.

At the time, they were the fulfillment solution of some companies that Amazon had acquired, but not Amazon itself. I suspect that's going to change.

<comment><USER10> I may be able to provide some limited insight as well (source: used to work there, still keep in touch with a few people).

IIRC, Kiva raised ~$18M in funding, most of it from Bain. I read an article recently which broke it down to ~$1.5M in angel, with the remainder coming from Bain, but I can't track it down right now. Not a huge amount, but definitely not "no money". Great place to work, but most of that money was going right to the robots. :)

The robots do use Wi-Fi, but there are challenges with a multi-robot system of that scale which are somewhat novel, especially when they had to invent a lot of the backend IT infrastructure to get them to work.

The co-founders definitely came in right at the beginning, and it was Raff's robo-soccer team which actually inspired the concept of shelves which can "walk and talk." They found a great market - the Kiva approach isn't the best for all approaches, but it does happen to be particularly well suited for online retailers.

Also, a Kiva system is probably the closest you can come to real-life Frogger, but playing in the dark is not recommended.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> On both a very unrelated and totally related note, one of the co-founders of Kiva, Rafaello D'Andrea, dominated robo-soccer for five years.

</comment><comment><USER12> I wonder if preventing their competitors from using Kiva is part of the goal for this acquisition.

<comment><USER13> Or, perhaps even better, making your competition your customer.

<comment><USER14> I agree, this is more likely given their behavior with AWS. They're happy to rent their IP and infrastructure to competitors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I would have gone for this Norwegian system: <http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iyVDMp2bL9c>

<comment><USER16> That system may be in Norway, but the technology is made by a company called Swisslog, which is located in Switzerland.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> One interesting question is what will happen to the current clients of Kiva (of which many are competing with Amazon in ecommerce market) newegg. etc ??

<comment><USER18> I think they will be getting the same service from Kiva.

Netflix is one of the biggest user of EWS, yet, Amazon is pushing hard on their streaming service too.

<comment><USER19> If amazon wouldn't have offered EWS to netflix or have stopped offering it to netflix, netflix could have easily use some other cloud competitor. Maybe netflix would had to pay a bit more , but i don't think it would have been a big difference.

I don't know much about kiva but if their service is hard to replace and is a unique competitive advantage(and looking at the purchase price,it seems so), amazon would use this advantage.Amazon is known to play hardball.

<comment><USER20> Netflix actually can't switch to an AWS competitor at this point because none of them are big enough. (source is some random cloud infrastructure presentation they did)

When AWS started they were basically running off the "christmas season" and end-of-life amazon.com boxes with almost no up front expenditures. Everyone else in the "cloud" business is buying new boxes to build out, which means its really hard for them to get to scale or handle surge loads.

<comment><USER21> This one:

[http://perfcap.blogspot.in/2012/03/cloud-architecture- tutori...](http://perfcap.blogspot.in/2012/03/cloud-architecture- tutorial.html)

???

<comment><USER20> Yup. That is the one. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This can also ease a lot of the criticism that Amazon is getting about slave- driving the (human) pickers in their warehouses lately.

<comment><USER23> True. Ironically this will also result in criticism about how Amazon isn't employing enough humans.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is a very smart play on part of Amazon. They have around 65 fulfillment centers and they are adding more this year.[1]

It costs around 15-20million to get a kiva system for a large fulfillment center.[2] With the number of kiva system amazon would need in those centres they surely saved a whole bag of money by buying the company instead of just systems, not to mention first dibs on future innovations.

[1][http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/19/amazon-acquires-online- fulf...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/19/amazon-acquires-online-fulfillment- company-kiva-systems-for-775-million-in-cash/)

[2][http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative- companies/2012/ki...](http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative- companies/2012/kiva-systems#profile)

</comment><comment><USER25> I was wondering if anyone was going to draw the connection between today's news and this story from a few weeks ago: "I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave" <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3641184>

</comment><comment><USER26> Was I the only one who thought that $775 million seemed like quite bit of cash for a non-profit micro-lendng company...oh wait, not that one.</comment>


Scientists Find 'Baffling' Link between Autism and Vinyl Flooring - <AUTHOR> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=link-between-autism-and-vinyl

<comment><USER3> If you look at enough variables, you WILL find a correlation with whatever you are looking at.

Key paragraph:

 _Vinyl flooring is commonplace in Sweden, where only about 1 percent of homes have carpeted floors. But it is uncommon in U.S. bedrooms, so it may not be related to autism among American children. However, carpeting contains other contaminants, including pesticides and brominated flame retardants, which have been found to harm brain development in animal tests._

This makes me very suspicious, because it smacks of "our unusual theory does not bear out when we look at another country, so we will come up with another unusual theory to explain the effect there".

Also, while I am not familiar with Sweden, there are other places where vinyl/carpet flooring versus wood/tile correlates with socioeconomic factors.

<comment><USER4> In fairness, that handwaving is from Sciam's writers; the study itself is quoted on page 1, expressing caution against drawing conclusions: 'The data are far from conclusive. They are puzzling, even baffling, and not readily explicable at this time. However, because they are among the few clues that have emerged about possible environmental contributions to autistic disorders, we believe that they should be weighed carefully and warrant further study.'

 _If_ their insight is correct, it may be significant. Other data (eg the link about smoking in this article, and many other sources) suggest a degree of heritability, as well as noticing the correlation with asthma, which condition is also thought to be heritable. Although modern vinyl flooring may be low in phthalate emissions, they may well have been higher in the past. I grew up with linoleum in a lot of the house, and well remember its characteristic smell (along with those of vinyl car seats and a bunch of other plastics which were widespread in the 1970s). While I certainly wouldn't draw conclusions from that about having ADD - factors like parental smoking are likely to have played a more significant role - it's worthy of further study.

<comment><USER5> Even they aren't saying anything about linoleum...

"Infants or toddlers who lived in bedrooms with vinyl, or PVC, floors were twice as likely to have autism five years later, in 2005, than those with wood or linoleum flooring.

<comment><USER4> Sorry, sloppy copy-editing on my part.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "The scientists were surprised by their finding, calling it 'far from conclusive.' Because their research was not designed to focus on autism, they recommend further study of larger numbers of children to see whether the link can be confirmed."

That's the money quote in the interesting submitted article.

<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>

The finding is quite intriguing, and I wonder how it will filter through the varied opinion-makers in the autism-issues blogosphere.

After edit: You're welcome for the link to Peter Norvig's article. As regular readers here know, it is one of my favorite links to post in comments here on HN. My further comment on the submitted article in this thread is that its second page refers to an increase in autism in California. Statements that autism has increased in recent decades are controversial,

<http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=4726>

<http://www.asatonline.org/about_autism/ontherise.htm>

<http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/features/counting-autism.html>

because diagnostic criteria have changed over the same period, so how much real increase in the actual condition there has been may be much less than the increase in recorded diagnoses.

<comment><USER7> I would like to nominate Mr. Norvig for the post of Internet Resident Expert please.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is the most worst piece of a bad article: "Rates of autism in California have increased seven-fold since 1990, a recent study found. Because genetics do not change that quickly, scientists suspect that chemical pollutants are probably playing a role. But there have been few studies attempting to pinpoint which chemicals, or combination of chemicals."

How could they not mention that the diagnostic criteria for autism changed over that time period? In addition to it getting slapped on shy kids, it's become a socially acceptable word for what used to be called mental retardation.

<comment><USER7> That's a crucial point. I wonder why that angle keeps getting overlooked when there are studies that support and explore it so well. Are the scientists dropping the ball? Are the writers?

<comment><USER8> The cynic in me says that they don't mention it because that won't generate as much funding for autism research.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's sad, but my first thought at seeing yet another weak "link" between something and autism was, "well, better to have wacko parents shield their children from PVC floors than from vaccines."

<comment><USER10> >'It's sad, but my first thought at seeing yet another weak "link" between something and autism was, "well, better to have wacko parents shield their children from PVC floors than from vaccines."'

I guess you'd call me a wacko parent then.

When we were offered the swine flue vaccine I looked at the medical literature as, to my mind, using an untested (long-term tests) vaccine against an unknown risk seemed a bit chancy.

My research showed that there were associated with one of the factors (Thiomersal) apparent risks of elevating occurrence of autism. I ruled out the risk based on the evidence from the USA that removal of this factor over the last few years had not lead to a consequential reduction in the number of children suffering from autism. This seemed sufficient evidence for me to rule out the link and go on to look at the other constituents.

Once an intial, if now discredited, link between the chemical factor and autism was established, lacking refuting evidence, it doesn't seem "wacko" to me to exercise caution. A large part of this is that the vaccines have been successful in reducing incidence of the once common diseases making them known smaller risks to weigh against the then unknown risk of inducing autism.

The evidence in the OP shows a correlation. Phthalates certainly interact in negative ways with human biology already and so are a good thing to test - <USER2> I were fitting a floor I'd be more inclined to something phthalates-free given this result.

But I guess I'm just a wacko ...?

<comment><USER11> So, you'll depend on the rest of the world to vaccinate so you can benefit from herd immunity and not chance the impossible odds that anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are correct?

No, maybe not a wacko, just selfish and uninformed. Vaccine preventable diseases coming back. Children are dying at the hands of the anti-vaccine movement.

<comment><USER10> >So, you'll depend on the rest of the world to vaccinate so you can benefit from herd immunity

It's easy to make a remark about "anti-vaccine conspiracy theories" now that we have evidence to show - but to expect me or anyone else simply to trust the medical establishment has not erred in creating a new vaccine is too much.

Selfish? My children have both been immunised for the standard spread of common [childhood] disease in my country using the established vaccines. The swine flu vaccine was offered to us the week before vaccination was stopped - the reports were already in that it had been vastly overstocked, that vaccination wouldn't be effective against next seasons mutations, that other countries had ceased immunisation, that there were barely any new cases being reported, that it was far less virulent than expected and in addition I had a strong suspicion that our youngest (the only one offered the vaccine) had actually had the virus already. FWIW I've also donated to charities that make medical interventions such as vaccination of children.

Uninformed? I've attempted to ascertain the risks involved in the vaccines offered to us. Most have been widely tested over several years but the swine- flu virus had not; as you saw I did rely on past empirical data to establish some of the risk factors.

I am in no way part of an "anti-vaccine movement" I'm simply trying to use available knowledge to reduce the risk of harm to my own family.

This does bring us back to the question of selfishness - I would let others be guinea pigs first before risking the health of my own children. Part of the problem is that from an immunological perspective you can expect a lot of deaths from a vaccine and still make the call that to save the population it's better to vaccinate.

Do you really believe that I was risking the lives of other children by not immunising against swine flu in January of this year? ( <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/8645477.stm> shows there were no further deaths in reality in my region).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> >Infants or toddlers who lived in bedrooms with vinyl, or PVC, floors were twice as likely to have autism five years later, in 2005, than those with wood or linoleum flooring.

Wood flooring is more expensive than vinyl, so.....really, maybe its just an indicator of economic status...

<comment><USER13> If there actually is a link to economic status that's actually very important to know.

Lots of diseases are linked to economic status, but I've never heard of autism being one of them.

<comment><USER14> I recall reading more than a few articles about a strong positive correlation between socioeconomic status and autism diagnosis rate.

What I've never seen addressed in any of the underlying studies, was whether the rate could be determined to be tied to prevalence of condition or prevalence of diagnosis.

Given the "flavor of the month" status that Autism Spectrum Disorders have attained, I'm very skeptical that the socioeconomic link is anything more than the same helicopter parenting that seemed to lead the explosion of attention disorder diagnoses and prescription rates.

<comment><USER15> If there is a positive correlation between higher socioeconomic status (especially in the last 10-20 years) and a higher autism diagnosis rate, I have a theory to explain it. My pet theory is that as the rise of the Internet and Web has placed higher economic demand for people with certain kinds of mental skills and thought processes (programmers, computer hardware designers, etc.), and that class of people has generally risen in wealth, and also in marriage suitability (more money, success, greater attraction to women, etc.) that then causes those kinds of people to be more likely to have kids, and thus you see a spike in kids who inherited those mental traits from their parents -- I'm guessing mostly from the father, assuming my theory is right.

It could be a combination of that effect plus the rise in widespread Internet usage, and the massive increase in "geek out" behavior that has caused in the general population (surfing the web, clicking on every little link, web forums, text messaging, etc. all the kinds of things that a hyper-focused nerdy or Asperger's like person would be more likely to engage in).

<comment><USER12> Likely it is the opposite though. Wood flooring is more $$ than vinyl flooring...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> phthalates have been linked to behavioral problems in children before, [http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/phthalates-a...](http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/phthalates- and-attention-deficits)

It's also been linked to asthma, allergies, endocrine disruption, obesity and diabetes. The federal government recently banned them in children's toys.

So even if this study turns out not to hold up, you should keep this stuff away from kids. The other worrisome chemical in plastic is BPA.

</comment><comment><USER17> In 2004, I had a friend who tried to convince me that Bush and Kerry would both lose in the upcoming election to Woodrow Wilson.

"You see, every time the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series..."

<comment><USER18> I've heard of a study that found a link between U.K. nuclear power plant sites and cancer ... including ones they were only thinking about placing a plant in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> What if parents with autistic tendencies prefer vinyl flooring? We already know that there is a genetic connection.

</comment><comment><USER20> fyi, this article is from March 2009. This is not new.

</comment><comment><USER21> I love these things. Here's a template: "Scientists find dubious link between ___ and ___."

<comment><USER22> "...but let's not draw any conclusions yet".

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Correlation != Causation.

</comment><comment><USER24> people with bad taste in flooring the link to autism?</comment>


DJ Steve Aoki quietly opens a cloud only pizza restaurant in Oakland - <AUTHOR> https://www.berkeleyside.com/2019/02/11/dj-steve-aoki-quietly-opens-a-pizza-restaurant-in-oakland <comment><USER2> It's Amazon house brands, but for generic takeout food. In my mind, it's the culinary equivalent of frozen dinners for people willing to pay extra to have someone else stick it in a microwave for them and then drive it to their house. An EDM DJ putting his name on the box just gives me the false hope that I'll be able to get my groove on while eating the equivalent of a Tombstone.

<comment><USER3> Hate to admit it, but a bunch of ideas from this article really resonated with me

1) Convenience of ordering, speed, & price > atmosphere (edit: for pizza joints at least)

2) Shorter menus

3) Goofy marketing gimmicks (aoki) help me convince friends to get out of their comfort zone and try new things. Instead of saying 'want to get some pizza' I can say 'did you know that awful DJ opened a restaurant in Oakland?? we gotta try it!'

4) it's just more efficient to expand the kitchen size than have more room for seating. The weather is amazing 11/12 months of the year, let's eat outside. Or more likely in our overpriced apartment

5) I get about the same enjoyment from frozen pizza as fancy pizza. They're both equally terrible for your health, may as well save a few bucks

<comment><USER4> >> I get about the same enjoyment from frozen pizza as fancy pizza.

Dominos, Papa Johns and especially Pizza Hut are not real pizza. They're about the same shit as a grocery store frozen puck.

Try a _real_ pizza place some time. For instance... If you're ever in Southern Palm Beach County in Florida, try Jack's Pizza. Or find a family run place near you...

<comment><USER3> I lived in Brooklyn near Robertas and used to work in little Italy (the real one, Arthur st in the Bronx). I've tasted the best American pizza you can buy. If I'm just feeding myself I'll usually opt for dominoes or something. I'm just not really a foodie especially when it comes to greasy food like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > _a total of 12 pizza brands, almost all being delivery-only restaurants. As > in Oakland, each location hosts several brands in one space,_

> _Customers can order thick crust pizzas from Chubby Pie or Thick & Tasty; > New York-style from Gabriella's, Lorenzo's or Joe's; Chicago-style from > Froman's; etc. Vavra said although multiple brands use the same kitchen, > each uses different recipes and ingredients. He said sauces and doughs are > made in-house, and Family Style either creates its own recipes or licenses > recipes from chefs. "We look at each brand as its own company," he said, > "Every product we put out is distinct from the other product."_

That sounds like a nice theory at first, but after putting more thought into it I'm strongly opposed to it. A single pizza shop could offer several recipes under one brand if variety was their objective. However by putting several brands into one location and concealing that fact from consumers, they are attacking the consumer's ability to make savvy informed purchasing decisions. If somebody has a food quality issue with a pie from a normal pizza shop, they might avoid that pizza shop in the future. However this scheme makes that more challenging since you need to be sure you don't order a pie from the same shop (with the same quality/sanitation issues) operating under a different brand.

This practice should be illegal without clear and prominent disclosure.

<comment><USER6> Many car brands are owned by the same company (see for example GM), many beverage companies are owned by the same company (see for example Coke or Pepsi), many beer companies, many electric drill companies, restaurant chains, hotel chains, candy companies, toilet makers, shampoo brands, and faucet manufacturers use this technique as well. I hear you arguing that Pizza however is clearly different and anyone proposing to bring hundred year old brand management practices to Pizza clearly needs to serve time in jail. I suspect if you looked into modern commercial kitchen practices, where restaurants commonly share kitchen facilities, you would be surprised to say the least.

<comment><USER7> I don't agree with the op, but most of your analogies miss the point. The op is essentially talking about manufacturing. So perhaps a bottling plant voting student branded sodas or beers. Perhaps a car company making several different brands in the same plant. It isn't just about one company owning several products. If it's about several products being made under one roof, but all appearances make it look like they are different. I don't agree with the op though.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Capire – Private twitter for work communication - <AUTHOR> http://capire.co <comment><USER2> This is nice. I've thinking about something like this for some time and finally someone made it. I know there have been a lot of similar solutions in the past, but no one is nearly as simple as this.

I'm not a potential customer, however, but I guess there will be many.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for checking this out. Really nice to know it's been thought of. Wouldn't it be interesting to put this to work?

Besides, I am also longing to know if the paradigm shift in the tool may change the way we communicate. Here we're not pushing information towards people, we can write with more insights and less concern on who might read it. Instead we pull what's good and worth to read.

Implicit transparency was something I hope this brings, which may not be possible if not the default nature of the tool, and shall be beneficial to everyone within. Wouldn't that be cool?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice idea, but if it's not self hosted - it's not private.

<comment><USER2> Not all companies would like to self-host all the things. In fact, I guess it is only a minor part of _tech_ companies.

This tool is for all others too.

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally, this is clearly going that path. Provided as a service has been popular theme possibly because it benefits both the service provider and adopter, for efficiency and simplicity respectively. At early stage this seems the best entry to start with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So, Yammer circa 2010?

<comment><AUTHOR> It wasn't set to be a social network like Yammer, but solely on messaging. From my view it works in quite different way for users to discuss on this than on Yammer. But thanks for mentioning, probably need to show the differences for people to be interested.

<comment><USER4> Yammer started out as Twitter for the enterprise and soon morphed into Facebook for the enterprise after it was clear that clearly threaded and grouped conversations helped the user stay in context and follow multiple important conversations. Sorry, didn't mean to be inflammatory.

<comment><AUTHOR> Got it. Guess I was a bit late to Yammer as it was already morphed then. Wish I knew and took this into consideration early. Still useful now, and thanks a lot for the share.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


CraftCMS vs. WordPress vs. other CMSs - <AUTHOR> We're considering a new CMS for our huge 10-20,000 page site. We are not currently using any CMS, but have individual html pages with the content embedded(!).
Our site is mostly 'regular' content types, with a few discussion boards and some document handling. We also have a number of news sections/blogs and some profile directories.
We have few developers with limited coding skills and even fewer coders on the team. We've considered WordPress (which we're already using for a few sites) and also CraftCMS. CraftCMS seems more fitting to our needs because it's flexible and lean; we're impressed with what we've seen so far but are concerned that it's not open-source and that it's so new. WordPress seems cumbersome to the coding developers as much of the system is 'out of the box' and requires loading lots of plugins and things that you don't 'need' for a page.
Are there other similar CMSs that people can recommend for us to consider? Please don't tell me about your favorite CMS; please DO tell me about a CMS that you know of that may fit our needs. Comments on the CMSs mentioned above in the context of our needs are welcomed as well.
Thank you. <comment><USER3> > CraftCMS seems more fitting to our needs because it's flexible and lean; > we're impressed with what we've seen so far but are concerned that it's not > open-source and that it's so new.

Hi, I'm the Founder & CEO of Pixel & Tonic, the team behind Craft CMS. I'm obviously biased, but if your only concerns with Craft are that it is proprietary and relatively new, I'd like to attempt to ease those concerns :)

Yes the actual Craft application logic is proprietary, but all of the code is "open source" in that it's not obfuscated in any way, and the majority of the code is in fact FOSS, including Yii, Twig, Guzzle, jQuery, and several smaller scripts. We contribute to many of them, and if we can create a business model that supports it, someday we'd even like to make Craft itself FOSS.

Which brings me to a second point, which is that unlike most CMS projects (and open source projects in general), Craft is made by a dedicated team of developers. We're funded entirely from Craft CMS (and Craft Commerce) sales, with no VC/angel funding. So we're highly incentivized to keep making Craft better every day, and keep offering great support. Our business is stable, we're profitable, and revenue is rising steadily. We'll still be around in 10 years :)

And as to it being new, well, it's not really that new anymore. 1.0 came out in early 2013, it's had over 240 updates (see the changelog – [https://craftcms.com/changelog](https://craftcms.com/changelog)), and it's generally considered to be one of the most bug-free CMSes out there. And it is being used by thousands of companies and organizations, from small boutiques to global brands like The Associated Press, Netflix, Oakley, Mixmag, and Wired. You can read about a few of those projects here: [https://craftcms.com/news/case-studies](https://craftcms.com/news/case- studies)

That's my spiel, but feel free to AMA if you have any questions :)

<comment><USER4> I've known Brandon for close to 10 years. I'll also state that Brandon and his team are some of the most competent programmers I know. He was easily one of the top developers of add-ons for ExpressionEngine before starting Craft. His dedication and customer service are top notch and he, in a very jobs-ian way, seems to know what developers need before they even ask for it.

Craft will be around for a long time. Open Source projects see higher adoption rates because hosting companies have 1-click installers for them. But if you look at high quality, high traffic sites the playing field is much more evenly spread.

Anyway, buy with confidence. Brandon doesn't know I am posting this. He did not ask for this endorsement. But I love what he is doing and would easily recommend it to anyone looking for a flexible system that is easy for clients to use

<comment><USER5> I second everything Marcus just said. I have been using Brandon's tools (plugins and CMS) since 2008, and have consistently been impressed with the quality and attention to detail that he and his team give to each release.

Just look at "craftcms" in Google Trends and you'll see a nice trajectory of community interest and involvement moving forward: [https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=craftcms&cmpt=q&tz=E...](https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=craftcms&cmpt=q&tz=Etc%2FGMT%2B4)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I would like to echo what Brandon has said and can highly recommend Craft not just because it's an awesome, flexible CMS (and it is) but because it is stable and extraordinarily well supported.

Out of the box it performs well when compared with other CMSs (I can't find the stats right now) and for the majority of sites can be used without needing any third-party plugins. However, if you do need to do something more custom than a CMS will generally allow you Craft gives you a clean plugin architecture to work within. Plugins essentially take the form of small apps that look much like a Laravel app.

Whilst all that is great there are two things that really make it my choice for day-to-day development: the community and the support from Pixel & Tonic. Regardless of if you have one site or 100, stellar support comes as standard. I've been building Craft sites since the early beta and have never once not had a question/bug/feature request dealt with in a timely manner. In most cases you get a response within hours, and often a fix or feature within days.

Add to this the thriving community of developers who can mostly be found on the Slack group and Stack Exchange site and its win win. Just join the Slack group and watch the #help channel for about 10 minutes and you'll see what I mean.

I honestly think after years of experience that you won't go wrong with Craft. Your content will be yours to own and move around, you won't be locked into a way of thinking that doesn't fit your structural needs. Your design and templates will be an actual joy to implement. Frontend devs will rejoice, editors and admins will hug you, backend devs will get EXCITED (I do) - <USER2> entire team however small will literally take a deep breathe and thank their choice of deity.

You get my point. I'm happy to go into more details about the guts of Craft if you like, just ask away, but for now I think I've gone on enough.

Go forth and Craft something worthwhile.

<comment><USER6> To add to this - I'm assuming you probably want to import your current content in some way. Having a clean database structure really helps with this, I've imported upwards of 5k entries from a number of different sources into Craft on one project and having a clean API to deal with makes massive difference.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have worked with Silverstripe before and as you mentioned about CraftCMS I find it flexible and lean compared to Wordpress - I feel like it is much easier to be close to the data etc so great from a developer point of view. It is OpenSource and has been chosen as the common web platform for NZ Government so presumably this means it hosts some pretty large sites.

<comment><AUTHOR> Took a look at Silverstripe. Do users enter all content into one WYSIWYG? Is there a way to configure custom fields?

Thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Have you looked at Drupal? Drupal 8 with a couple modules could handle everything you need(custom content types, discussion boards, blogs, user profiles, etc) It is scalable and easily configurable. www.drupal.org plus the community is a big help.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks very much for your input.

We looked at Drupal 8 a little and spoke to some people in the organization who are using it.

Our concerns are:

1\. the need for full-scale developers when working with Drupal. We don't want to the site maintenance to be dependent on hard-core coders long-term, since that requires always hiring programmers rather than lower-level web developers.

2\. Drupal upgrades. We've heard that it's very difficult to upgrade between Drupal versions, as many of the plugins/modules don't get upgraded, at least not right away. So you can be left with a Drupal site that can't be upgraded without losing functionality.

Any comments?

<comment><USER8> 1\. depends on if you need to build custom modules/plugins. Alot of the functionality that you seem to need can be created using already created modules(plus my experience is that if I'm thinking I need to build a module one is already out there.) 2\. I've heard they are trying to make this better, but it can be wonky. A lot of times developers will wait 3-4 months to allow modules to catch up to the new version.

Another option may be Backdrop (backdropcms.org). Which is working on maintaining backwards compatibility.

<comment><USER9> Backdrop should only be used if you cannot upgrade, not for new projects.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why is it important that the CMS be open source? Do you want to fork it and develop your own?

</comment><comment><USER11> Craft can handle everything you have described with one caveat:

The "few discussion boards."

If it is a very basic setup then you could build something. For example, if it was similar to a comment system, such as the one I'm currently writing on (here at Hacker News), then I think it could be done easily with a comment plugin:

[https://github.com/engram-design/Comments](https://github.com/engram- design/Comments) (note the threaded commenting and that by adding a few other plugins you could make it more feature rich than even this. Josh (@crawf) is almost always in the Slack channel if you have any questions about any of his plugins.)

If you need something more advanced, with allot more features etc, you'd currently want to look into third party options (since you don't have the time and or resources to build a plugin, I'm sure and one it's currently available.) For example:

Using a third party forum system like Vanilla and setting up SSO via a Craft plugin: [https://github.com/nystudio107/vanillaforums](https://github.com/nystudio107/vanillaforums)

Or a discussion system as a service like: [https://muut.com](https://muut.com)

Craft is new compared to some though, it is going on 4 years old ([https://craftcms.com/changelog#build2063](https://craftcms.com/changelog#build2063)). Pixel & Tonic, the company behind Craft, is definitely not new, however. They've been around for along time and built some amazing add-ons for ExpressionEngine before they started Craft. The Matrix being one ([https://craftcms.com/features/matrix](https://craftcms.com/features/matrix))

Are you still worried about it being new? Well, consider a different perspective in that this is actually a good thing. That is, it doesn't have all the baggage and bloat those other systems continue to carry. They are built upon a different paradigm and are married to said paradigm (religiously) because it is what they started with, it is what they know, it was what has fed them etc. and what they continue to know and understand.

With Craft, you get a modern system which is very user friendly and, at the same time, as powerful as you'd need it. And yes, it is "flexible and lean" because of this. You can just "feel" it (the others "feel" heavy.) The UX/UI really is amazing!

Craft's source is open and built using OSS but, it's not FreeOSS. I don't want to get into some sort of debate about what that means here (if you're an org that needs FOSS then you need FOSS; don't use Craft) but, I would like to point out that paying a mere $299 buys me some of the best support in the business. Really, their support is stellar! Often times I speak directly with Brandon or Brad and many other team members when I have a question or need help (via Slack or Twitter or Email etc.) Good luck finding this with any other CMS for 300 bucks.

The license is pretty basic and is really in place so they have a business model to continue to build Craft itself and this long into the future. I like that. I, for one, don't mind supporting them. I see it as a win win (I think I'm getting the better end of the stick I might add.)

If you have any other questions feel free to head over to Craft's Slack channel ([https://craftcms.com/community](https://craftcms.com/community)) where you'll find allot of community members who are more than happy to answer any of your questions; when and if they arise.

Continue your research and good on ya for doing your due diligence. Oh, and good luck with the project!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your comment...and to all the others on this thread for the help. The reason we like Open Source is NOT because we don't want to fish out $300 for a CMS.

It's because effective Open Source projects have a large and robust community behind them, which means that:

1\. They're not dropping out when the product becomes less profitable...if some drop out, others take over and

2\. There are many people looking at the code and fixing bugs.

So that's why we'd prefer an Open Source product. But like I said, we are considering Craft.

Thanks.

<comment><USER3> > 1\. They're not dropping out when the product becomes less profitable...if > some drop out, others take over

I mentioned we're open to moving to FOSS if we can create a business model that supports it. I should also say that, if worst comes to worst and we have to shut off the lights, one of two things will happen: either we will sell Craft to one of the thousands of companies with a vested interest in the product, whom we strongly feel is capable of continuing to move it forward, or we'd give Craft a GPL or MIT license, making it FOSS. There is no scenario where we would just drop it and pretend it never existed. Even if we wanted to do that, it would ruin our professional careers and probably result in a few lawsuits, so no thanks! :)

> 2\. There are many people looking at the code and fixing bugs.

We recommend that plugin developers familiarize themselves with Craft's codebase, because it's the best place to find examples of how to do things when developing plugins. As a result, we've received hundreds of bug fixes from the community (including suggested code fixes). So this is definitely not an exclusive benefit to FOSS software.</comment></comment></comment>


Are the smart getting richer? - <AUTHOR> http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/redistribution_of_wealth/

<comment><USER2> I have met many smart poor people. I have met many dumb rich people. I've never met someone with business savvy who was poor (for long).

As near as I can tell, capitalism doesn't reward the smart at all. But it rewards those with business savvy. Maybe some people call that intelligence. I don't. It's more an ability to shrewdly calculate just how much you can take advantage of other people and get away with.

<comment><USER3> Suppose you meet someone who is poor. How do you tell whether they have "business savvy", and how do you avoid your judgement of that being affected by the fact that you know they're poor?

<comment><USER2> It's all just anecdotal evidence. You can't just point at someone and I could to tell you how savvy they are.

I just note the people I know who come out ahead or behind in their dealings, just as I note when someone says something fairly profound, finds a rather ingenious solution or writes a bit of clever code to guesstimate intelligence.

I wasn't representing it as anything other than a working theory from personal data. But it's not like Adams started from a statistical argument either.

I figured my experiences and generalizations were a fair response to his.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This appears to completely ignore the fact that money gives you power, privilege and opportunity - and that can be used to make more money. It's not impossible to get rich from nothing, but you start with a huge disadvantage.

<comment><USER5> I think if you studied it, you'd find that most people who start out with a lot of money, end up with less, not more. The smart poor are hungrier and more willing to take risks.

And that's what really hit home for me: when he made the comment that risk counted more than hard work. I work for a company whose stock was severely depressed last spring. I know our fundamentals are good, we're a leader in a growing, relatively recession-resistant industry and that the stock would probably bounce back in a year. So I considered buying a $10k block of it when it dropped below half normal price, but chickened out when I realized that I couldn't afford to lose $10k or so if I was wrong. What happened? Exactly what I guessed: the stock is now back to to its high 60's-low 70's level and I would have made an easy $10,000 had I made the investment a year ago.

Reminds me how bourgeois I've become :-( Losing my stomach for risk!!

<comment><USER6> I can make exactly the opposite argument: the poor can't afford to take risks, so the smart poor don't.

It's one thing to be poor and desperate enough to take risks to survive, but when you have enough to survive reasonably comfortably, you need another buffer before you can take risks that can really pay off.

Someone with 10K to spare - I mean really to spare - in your situation would have made that money. If you were even tighter for money, I don't think you would have been less risk averse - on the contrary, you'd be even tighter with it.

<comment><USER5> My ability to accept risk these days depends more on the downside than the upside. This was radically different 10 years ago. At that time I would have seen the opportunity to make an easy $10k and gone for it. If I lost the money, well I could always make more. These days I have a hefty mortgage and a family to support. Losing the 10k won't put us on the street, but it takes a big bite out of our safety net. It wasn't worth the risk, especially with the economy tanking.

In retrospect, my comment was poorly phrased since I had myself in mind as the "smart poor." Upon reflection I can see that it wasn't the lack of money that made me so willing to take risks without much of a buffer, it was the lack of responsibilities.

<comment><USER7> That tends to happen as you age. Values and priorities shift drastically as you get older and, presumably, take on more responsibilities (children, wife, etc.). This is played out pretty heavily in politics. Young people tend to be more liberal and grow more conservative as time goes on with the possibility of again moving back towards the liberal side of things at the end when responsibilities start to dissipate (children grow up, social security kicks in, etc.).

I think the key is to take risks when you have the ability to (i.e. when you're young). It doesn't mean you can't grow rich later in life, but I have a feeling that the longer you put off taking on the "big" responsibility, the higher the probability you will be to succeed in a financial sense. If your idea of "successful" is to have a spouse and offspring, by all means, pursue that as early as possible. If it's to be financially well off, you'd be better off pursuing that instead of a family.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> [quoted from some website]"It turns out that Mensa has an investment club. Wow. That must be one heck of a way to make money, right? The smartest people in the world making investment decisions.

Well, not so fast. During the 15-year period 1986 to 2001, the S&P 500 had average annual returns of 15.3%, but the Mensa investment club's performance averaged returns of just 2.5%. Let's see, that would be 84% worse than the index.

How could this be? An amusing article by Eleanor Laise ("If We're So Smart, Why Aren't We Rich?") details the smart-but-undisciplined investment approach that reduced Mensa's returns to fiasco status. In brief, the investing "strategy" of the club relied on trendy tech stocks, horrible timing, and over-reliance on charting. The "strategy" was constantly changed. Some stock picks were taken straight from Internet message boards. One member described the approach as "buy low, sell lower.""[/quote]

also: <http://minvestmentclub.com/>

sexy web design is sexy

<comment><USER9> Malcolm Gladwell says, a gifted child is a gifted learner but a gifted adult is a gifted doer and the two are quite different.

Mensa members are gifted children who never grew up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Two comments:

1\. "Smart" is not a scalar; "rich" is.

2\. True that hard work alone will not make you rich, but [extreme] hard work coupled with _working-on-the-right-thing_ has a very high chance of making you rich.

<comment><USER11> I don't believe "rich" is a scalar, either.

When I look for a firm definition, it appears to be, in effect, accumulated wealth (however one might define it). However, especially in a taxation context, I hear it associated with, if not equated to, income. (Granted, this could merely be an artifact of a taxation system which relies heavily on taxing income).

Let's put that aside and use the "something people want" definition of wealth.

One can certainly convert to a scalar value (money) a particular form of wealth (asset) at a particular point in time (i.e. sell it). However, since the reverse is not true, (e.g. just because, if I had it, I could sell the Mona Lisa for $X does not mean there is a value of $Y for which I could buy it if I didn't have it), it seems safe to say they are of a different type.

Although that doesn't mean that wealth itself is not a scalar, I contend that any additional dimension, not bidirectionally convertible to a scalar does. Risk (e.g. that people will want an item more or less) is such a dimension. Inherent depreciation is another. Scarcity is, arguably, another.

Perhaps a more compelling situation is where a particular asset is worth more when concentrated, such as fissionable material or arable land. The former has what one could consider a sharp increase in value at "critical mass," whereas the latter increases more steadily due to economy of scale.

Perhaps "smart" is the same kind of non-scalar, but I'll let someone else exercise that conjecture.

<comment><USER10> I'd define "rich" as |wealth|

You may define it differently, but that's language isn't it.

<comment><USER12> Although "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" is a pretty terrible book, I liked his definition of "rich": how long can you live your life without working. (Of course, a more precise definition would need to factor in standard of living)

<comment><USER10> Actually that was his definition of wealth, quoted from Buckminster Fuller.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The formula for success is apparently: Intelligence + hard work + risk taking + luck

I want to focus on risk taking, because Mr. Adams mentioned that the degree to which risk taking rewards you is a function of intelligence. It seems like in the recent economic downturn capitalism did reward good risk taking in say, the banking industry, but it also failed to punish bad risk taking, as many of the same people who caused the crisis still received their bonuses, and probably will well into the future.

The phrase the rich get richer tends to resonate because very often the rich engage in behaviors which would result in serious consequences for the poor, but for which the rich only seem to get rewarded.

<comment><USER14> There are two ways to take a risk:

1) Bet on something unlikely and get lucky

2) Have an advantage over others so that your chance of success is higher than the average chance of success.

#2 is pg's approach to startups - starting a company is "risky", but starting a company if you're determined, smart, and connected to a system that turns entrepreneurs into companies isn't risky at all, with a ~50%+ success rate.

On a sinister note, insider trading falls into this category too - the market isn't a random walk if you know information that will move it, and your information gives you an advantage over the average investor.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> What is smart? There is no proper definition of smart so it's a pointless question. Many people seem to define "smart" as "good at making money" in which case of course the smart are getting richer. If you consider musical smarts, artistic smart, being a great teacher, carpenter, whatever.. very often those don't make any money, and yet I have met people who do each of those who are absolute geniuses.

<comment><USER7> Part of being business savvy is working on the right thing. Most artists I know, and some of them are damn fine artists, aren't really working on the right thing because art isn't typically a good way to make a large some of money. Sure, you may end up catching a break and ending up becoming super famous, but that isn't the norm. If those incredibly intelligent people were to direct their interest towards business, my guess is that they'd be more than capable of making money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This sounds a lot like some of PG's essays, where he tries to break something complex down into a few character traits. I wonder if the reactions here would be different if PG had written this, too.

<comment><USER17> They would be. I don't think it's just that Paul is famous here and Scott Adams isn't, though certainly there's always a pro-YC bias present. Part of it is also that Paul's essays have a very clear style about them, and they've got a confidence about what they're saying. So combine something convincing along with a community inclined to like the something and you get overwhelming support.

That's why I was astonished the first time I read MeFi's commentary on a Graham essay. There, the community is much more critical, and it's more built to support multiple viewpoints. There was some interesting criticism that I found myself agreeing with a lot, and there were a few people that really _hated_ both his essays and the YCombinator crowd. While I can't say I agree with their vitriol in full, it reminded me that even a bright, argumentative community has blind spots.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> He dismisses hard work because it exists at all income levels, yet intelligence also exists at all income levels and he considers it the dominant factor. He needs to demonstrate that intelligence is more correlated to present wealth than work ethic is.

He also dismisses risk taking as only being useful in combination with intelligence. Can he provide an example of an intelligent person who became rich in the absence of risk taking, hard work, and luck?

Wealth being equivalent to intelligence must be a very flattering idea if you are rich, but I have observed many smart and hard working people who do not become rich.

</comment><comment><USER19> I had expected the opposite argument. Dilbert is pretty smart, but he sure isn't rich. His boss, on the other hand...

<comment><USER20> His boss isn't rich either.

<comment><USER21> But his boss's boss, Dogbert, is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Am I the only one who finds some irony here?

I mean, the man made his fortunate satirizing the managerial class.

</comment><comment><USER23> "Smart" is a word you can drive a truck through.

"Smart" like Sam Walton? You betcha. As it should be

"Smart" like a Nobel prize winner? Nope, and Nobel prize winners shouldn't all be rich.

Smart can mean knowing things, discovering things, applying things, or a combination of all of those attributes and more.

In this case, the word "smart" is very misleading.

</comment><comment><USER24> I clicked on the link expecting some revealing statistics showing that the smart were getting richer.

</comment><comment><USER25> Wow. I know he's cartoonist and it is literally his job to over simply, but still wow!

<comment><USER26> I don't know why you were voted down: as a cartoonist, his over- simplifications are funny, but as an essayist they just make you scratch your head.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Social darwinism rears its ugly head in odd places.

 _Luck and intelligence can each work alone to produce fortunes. But after the initial fortune is made, only intelligence helps grow it._

Wow.

<comment><USER28> You can't just disagree with something by saying "Wow".

<comment><USER27> I can disagree by deconstructing the ideas to relatives of Social Darwinism, the friend of colonialists and the entitled alike.

<comment><USER28> Umm, nope, that's pretty much exactly what you _can't_ do.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Backlit e-readers 'damage sleep and health' - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30574260 <comment><USER2> The well accepted definition of an e-reader is _" a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading"_ (from wikipedia) and most (all?) of those devices are reflective as opposed to LCDs which are backlit.

 _" They spent five days reading from a paperback and five days from an iPad."_. If only iPads were used, I don't believe the word e-reader is appropriate.

If you use an e-ink display without a built-in light, there are no reason this would be any different then using a book (as mentioned in the article but it's not only about _" the original kindle"_). Also there were tons of studies about the effect of light on sleep and especially blue light emitted by LCDs, most e-reader makers use a warmer light if I'm not mistaken.

EDIT: elaborating

<comment><USER3> There are a lot of e-book reader with a built-in backlight that can be turned on and off, like the Kindle Paperwhite.

But I agree that using iPads then calling that "a backlit e-reader" is pretty stupid. That's a tablet.

<comment><USER4> > There are a lot of e-book reader with a built-in backlight that can be > turned on and off, like the Kindle Paperwhite.

"Paperwhite guides light toward the surface of the display with its built-in front light—unlike back-lit tablets that shine in your eyes" [1]

I have a Kindle Paperwhite, and was surprised to read this article, because I have no trouble sleeping. Apparently the way the light works is the reason for this :)

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Paperwhite- Ereader/dp/B00AWH595...](http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Paperwhite- Ereader/dp/B00AWH595M)

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the reference. I am not sure that backlights are the problem though. Just imagine shining a light behind the page of a book (although it's hardly comparable to the level of transparency of Liquid crystals). I would rather bet on the color of the light (warm vs cold). Maybe it's all in my head but when it's sleep time, I hate cold bulbs (and LCDs) while I am not bothered by warm light like a candle or a warm bulb.

Furthermore, it seems to me that with the Paper White's light guided _" on the surface of the display"_, the light shines as much in towards your eyes as it does towards the screen...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Probably the only useful line in the article:

> The light emitted by most e-readers is shining directly into the eyes of the > reader, whereas from a printed book or the original Kindle, the reader is > only exposed to reflected light from the pages of the book.

So it's talking entirely about brightly backlit tablets, not e-readers with e-ink.

<comment><USER6> Since 2012, Amazon's high-end Kindles (the 2012 Paperwhite, the 2013 Paperwhite and the 2014 Voyage) shine light directly into the eyes. It looks just like a backlit display although technically the light and the diffusion panel are in front of an opaque (e-ink) display, not in back of a translucent (LC) display. On my Paperwhite, it is impossible to turn this light off -- only to dim it.

Also, I dispute the OP's contention that reflected light on s paper book is any better; certainly, a normal bed-side lamp is _worse_ for the sleep of anyone sharing the room with the reader.

EDIT. Although like I just said, an iPad probably has less of a deleterious effect on sleep than a Kindle Paperwhite does, it is probably possible to do better in the current market. Specifically, Samsung makes a tablet (the Tab S, which comes in 10.5- and 8.4-inch versions) with an OLED display, which has the advantage over LCD displays that the portions of the screen that are supposed to be black do not emit any light at all. Especially if used with software that displays red or orange text on a black background (to minimize the blue-ish photons) an OLED display is the best choice in the current smartphone-plus-tablet market AFAICT if protection of sleep is the main consideration.

EDIT. Oops, I forgot to include my main reason for preferring the iPad to the Paperwhite: on iOS, Settings > Accessibility > Invert Colors reverses black and white. Combined with the fact that many iOS apps like Safari and iBooks normally present a white field broken only by text and thin lines, the use of "Invert colors" probably results in less light entering the eye than a Paperwhite since (unless they changed it since I last updated the software on my Paperwithe a couple of months ago) you cannot alter the Paperwhite's default color scheme of black text on a white background. I will concede that the Paperwhite's brightness setting goes a lot dimmer than the iPad's does, but I consider that consideration to be trumped by what I just wrote, and, again, neither Paperwhite nor iPad comes close IMHO to an OLED display used with decent software.

<comment><USER7> The Paperwhite isn't a backlit display.

The LEDs in the Paperwhite Kindles do not shine light directly in the eyes: the leds shine from below the screen towards the top end of the screen. As it exits the LEDs, light is reflected inside a light guide from which it exits towards the display from specific holes, much like a leaky fiberoptic cable[1].

The directionality and position of the LEDs, and the existence of the light guide, are _precisely_ the differences which make the Paperwhite unlike a backlit display.

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/12/26/technology/lig...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/12/26/technology/light- reading.html)

<comment><USER8> That's the same with smartphones and tablets.

For the sake of simplicity and to keep it as thin as possible, they use edge- LED lighting with a diffusor layer to spread the light evenly.

<comment><USER9> Are there any smartphones/tablets that have the light hit the display surface from the front and then bounce off like the kindle does? I thought they all either used a backlight shining through the display from behind or were an array of tiny little light sources (depending on the screen technology used) - either way the light is being broadcast direct from the source to your eyes; not hitting a surface and emitting diffuse light out.

<comment><USER10> Old monochrome reflective LCDs used that, but smartphones and tablets are almost always using transmitive screens with backlight (sometimes transflective, like on Nokia N900, but reflective properties are only usable in very bright sunlight).

Kindle Paperwhite however has 100% reflective e-ink screen plus set of LCDs that shine through the light guide layer above the screen. Some people think that makes it better than transmissive LCDs - that's why using Kindle Paperwhite instead of iPad in this test would be much more insightful, as sleep-disturbing properties of transmissive, blue-tinted LCDs are nothing that wasn't known before.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> F.lux has this study on their webpage.

[https://justgetflux.com/research.html](https://justgetflux.com/research.html) [http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/12/18/1418490112.full...](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/12/18/1418490112.full.pdf+html)

I was really hoping for research comparing F.lux to a non-backlit screen; this seems to tell us what we already knew.

<comment><USER12> The journal article says that they even set the brightness of the "LE-eBook" (iPad) to maximum.

I guess we'll have to wait for more detailed studies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is one reason why I use a European model Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300) for ebooks. It includes "mDNIe" which gives you very flexible OLED display configuration on rooted phones. You can completely turn off the blue channel and remap blue to green so blue things remain visible. I use the "Galactic Night" app for switching between mDNIe modes.

To further reduce light exposure I use gray (remapped to yellow) text on a black background (very dark because the display is OLED). I set the screen brightness to maximum in FBReader to avoid PWM flicker, and reduce the text brightness to compensate. I also disable the phone indicator LEDs. I don't find reading like this to harm my sleep.

The one problem is that the mDNIe mode very briefly flashes to default when the phone is first turned on from standby. I think this could be fixed with a kernel patch but I just avoid looking at the screen then.

</comment><comment><USER14> I put a red filter over our nightlight, which seems to work quite well for reading paper books (or non-lit e-readers). Now I've also ordered some amber LED bulbs, without any blue light at all, which should be a more of a permanent solution.

I also ordered an amber filter for my phone, although I think perhaps a better solution would be to not use phones/tablets in bed.. but I'm not sure it's realistic to always avoid the temptation.

The final part of the solution is to have a wake-up light. I had one before, and it's really quite essential up here in the north. But I think it would be beneficial everywhere. Studies showed that people have different times it's natural for them to wake up ("A" and "B" people), and if you wake up earlier than what's natural for you, it affects your performance. Solution? Block out all external light from the bedroom, and use a wake-up light as an artificial sunrise. (Or allow people to come to work/school at different times, but that's not always an option).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> The study only seemed to compare An iPad with print books. While I am sure many people who do use an iPad for ebooks I am sure there are many more Kindle readers, which may well have given a different result.

<comment><USER15> Thats the primary reason I would buy a kindle over an iPad. Its not comparing e-readers and books, its comparing a bright screen with books.

<comment><USER16> The Kindle Paperwhite has a very blue tinted light. I'm not sure about other lighted eBooks, but I dislike that they specifically called out light emitting vs reflective surfaces. As far as I'm aware the colour of the light makes a much bigger difference to melatonin production than the source of the light.

EDIT: Looking at the actual paper they were definitely aware of this with measurements of the colour spectrums of different tablets, unfortunately not including the Paperwhite. Disappointing journalism skewing the story as normal.

<comment><USER15> Does it now?? Is there an option to go into standard e-ink/nonlighted mode? I've been considering purchasing one for a while in order to help my eyes at night.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> We just need f.lux[1] for our tablets.

[1] [https://justgetflux.com/](https://justgetflux.com/)

<comment><USER18> I hope you're not jesting, as this was my first thought. I definitely found it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep after installing Lux on my tablet, and phone. Flux for my computer.

If I disabled Flux -- like I just did -- it's awfully painful! Torture! How did I used to stare at this awfully lit thing for hours on end and expect sleep to be peaceful?!

On a serious note, it'd be interesting to see whether it's the actual 'light exposure' that's hindering the sleeping process, or the 'blue light' that Flux, Lux and others have set out to solve.

<comment><USER17> I am serious. Unfortunately, I don't believe Apple allows the necessary access to the graphics pipeline. :(

And yes, color is a big part of it. They have a whole section reviewing the research: [https://justgetflux.com/research.html](https://justgetflux.com/research.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I've been looking for a laptop with a kindle like screen and a cool ARM processor for ages. My brain gets burned by the backlit screen and my lap gets burned from the steamy hot intel processor. I would be happy to switch to Ubuntu even if I prefer OSX if this became available.

</comment><comment><USER20> Any kind of bright light at night is going to reduce your melatonin production. This problem goes all the way back to the introduction of incandescent lighting, e-readers are just the latest chapter.

<comment><USER13> The retina contains receptors sensitive to blue light, and stimulating them suppresses melatonin production: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsically_photosensitive_r...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsically_photosensitive_retinal_ganglion_cells) Other frequencies also suppress melatonin production, but less strongly.

If you look at the progression of artificial lighting, from candles, to incandescent, to halogen incandescent, to fluorescent, to LED, each generation typically increases both the blue light production and the brightness. Such strongly blue spectrum isn't an essential feature of the technology, so I suspect that it's marketing driven because it looks more futuristic.

Additionally, a lot of LED lighting flickers at frequencies that are visible when you move your eyes via the phantom array effect: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_fusion_threshold#Visua...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_fusion_threshold#Visual_phenomena) I personally find this very annoying, but even if you don't consciously notice this it's something not found in nature, and I'm not aware of any long term safety studies.

I'm very skeptical of these changes. Humans have a poor track record of predicting safety implications of new technology (eg. radioactive materials as health products, leaded gasoline, etc).

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I use the Kindle app under "sepia" mode to help mitigate this sort of problem, somewhat. It works much f.lux does, though I don't think it's as extreme as f.lux's colors.

</comment><comment><USER22> If you really have to read with a backlit display on your iPad or another device, just get flux[1].

[1] [https://justgetflux.com/](https://justgetflux.com/)

<comment><USER23> Can't believe I have to jailbreak my phone to get f.lux on my phone. Love it on my Mac. Seems so obvious.

<comment><USER17> Lobby Apple.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Does it really? After reading 30 minutes of a PDF I knock out! :P

</comment><comment><USER25> is the same case with having my macbook pro on my bed every night before I sleep?

<comment><USER18> Yup. Gives out nasty 'blue light' as spoken about in the article. Try Flux[1], it'll change your life. If you doubt me, install it and have it run at night and then after an hour of browsing HN, disable it...

[1] [https://justgetflux.com](https://justgetflux.com)

<comment><USER25> wow this is awesome I wish I knew it about a while ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This article is poorly titled. Disappointing since the BBC is capable of better journalism than this. They should be specific that it is backlit LCD screens (especially LED backlights since their spectrum is predominantly in the blue range which simulates morning) rather than what is typically meant when someone says E-readers, ie: readers that use E-Ink panels which are not backlit and thus rely on ambient light.

<comment><USER27> I agree that BBC is capable of better journalism. This resonates with the article 'Why so many health articles are junk' posted 5 days ago on HN. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8764871](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8764871)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> The study ignores real e-readers with e-paper displays that mimic dead tree books extremely well. They also have a sample size of 6 for each of the 2 groups...</comment>


Renewed efforts to merge exFAT into Linux kernel - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-exFAT-2019-Discussion <comment><USER2> This is one of the things that reminds me not to trust Microsoft.</comment>


What Countries with the Best Coronavirus Responses Have in Common? Women Leaders - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2020/04/13/what-do-countries-with-the-best-coronavirus-reponses-have-in-common-women-leaders/ <comment><USER2> The countries with the best responses*

*if you exclude China and South Korea, and consider Taiwan a country

</comment><comment><USER3> Like Sweden with women majority cabinet? ...

<comment><USER4> "Sweden -- the only Nordic country not led by a woman -- where Prime Minister Stefan Löfven refused to impose a lockdown and has kept schools and businesses open. There, the death rate has soared far higher than in most other European countries."[1]

[1][https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/asia/women-government- leaders...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/asia/women-government-leaders- coronavirus-hnk-intl/index.html)</comment></comment>


SF Open Data: Map of the Most Ticketed Areas In San Francisco - <AUTHOR> https://www.spotangels.com/blog/sf-parking-tickets-most-ticketed-areas-in-sf/ <comment><USER2> Ok, moving to Twin Peaks now.

<comment><AUTHOR> After this rent will increase 800%</comment></comment>