Xah's Emacs Lisp Tutorial - <AUTHOR> http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/elisp.html

<comment><USER2> If you write Lisp like Xah suggests, people will laugh at you. Just read the Emacs Lisp Introduction that ships with Emacs, that actually teaches idiomatic Emacs Lisp.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been a fairly recent Emacs user, a year and half I suppose. I've found Xah really helpful in some cases when I was starting with Emacs. He tries to start online discussions, writes some tutorials in his blog, even starts G+ hangouts where he helps random people, and all this voluntarily.

I have no idea what discussions he has trolled or what controversies he was involved in. But there is a humble volunteer part of him I appreciate (like this HN item), and I believe in this way he adds some real value to the community.

</comment><comment><USER4> Xah Lee's ErgoEmacs fork of GNU Emacs is a memory hog. On my machine, the EmacsW32 program uses 23,032 K of working set with three text buffers open. With the same buffers open, ErgoEmacs uses more than 103,000 K. The most significant differences between ErgoEmacs and other Emacsen (actually, the whole point to ErgoEmacs) are user-interface issues. ErgoEmacs uses keybindings that match Windows conventions. I wish that I were as prolific as him, but he should include some tips on memory usage in his tutorials.

<comment><USER5> Is it a fork ? I thought it was a distribution. I never read that they changed emacs core, so I thought it was just a vanilla build with prepackaged/preconfigured bits to reflect their principles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Alex wrote this[1] on emacswiki page, and I totally agree with him.

          Xah has also been a well known troll on various comp.lang.* newsgroups and played in the same league as ErikNaggum. Just browse some older stuff in the Usenet archives. – AlexSchroeder

[1] <http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Xah_Lee>

<comment><USER2> I kind of doubt Xah is actually trolling; he's just a strange person with strange ideas. How many people blog about their first experience with a prostitute under their real name?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Xah is one of my best friends, he's a nice guy :)

</comment><comment><USER8> He's been a controversial figure in many forums but his emacs lisp tutorial is the best out there. I gave him a donation through Paypal (for approximately the price of an O'Reilly book) and he personally sent me an email thanking me.

<comment><USER8> Well, looks like he's got ads on his site now which I suppose takes place of the donation button.

<comment><USER5> Not sure but I think it's an emergency measure to sustain income.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm reading your tutorial. very helpful and informative!</comment>


Apple security rules leave inherited iPad useless - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26448158 <comment><USER2> Apple literally cannot win in the media and the current security narrative. If they could/would remotely unlock or reset passwords people would freak out about lax security you could get around by purely faking a written and signed letter.

This sucks but is all this heartbreak and fighting with a company worth a 500 dollar toy? This whole thing is ridiculous.

<comment><USER3> _This sucks but is all this heartbreak and fighting with a company worth a 500 dollar toy?_

You do understand that some people have to work full time for several months to save enough to buy that kind of "toy", right? Maybe you're lucky enough to be more wealthy than that, but many aren't. Not that the amount of money involved is even slightly the point here anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> When my friend who is only 29 now developed a blood clot two years ago (thankfully surgery went fine but the chances weren't good according to the doctor going in); I set up a password protected encrypted disc image with all my login details (1Password), monitary asset information (iBank), contact details (Address book + txt file), instructions for dealing with employer, insurance stuff (life, home, accident), etc that's on a USB stick in my flat and synced to my parents computer via SFTP every month or so.

That way they can get any information they need easily if something were to happen to me by unlocking the disk image with the password they have.

Obviously out of the scope for most people (including article's subject) to set up but a good idea for those of us who are technologically inclined IMO (others may disagree, if so I'd love to hear why).

</comment><comment><USER5> It sounds reasonable to me. They have provided evidence that the woman has died, and that she left an iPad. Apple is asking for a legal declaration that it is this iPad and this iTunes account.

 _" We've provided the death certificate, will and solicitor's letter but it wasn't enough. They've now asked for a court order to prove that mum was the owner of the iPad and the iTunes account._

The survivors are balking at the £200/hr for the solicitor to make that happen.

So it appears there is a path for an executor to gain control of an iTunes account and iOS devices, but it requires a legal verification from the courts. Anything less would be open to abuse.

Note to self: make a mechanism for my survivors to unlock my keychain, because that is really going to suck for them in my case.

</comment><comment><USER6> It's hard for me to want to blame Apple for this. The fact of the matter is, they should not have lost those security tokens.

I'm getting pretty sick of the externalities of people's unwillingness to manage their information. You lose your password, you lose your device, unless you know how to hack it or can pay someone to do it. If it costs you more to recover your device than it's worth, tough shit. That password is designed to keep people who don't know it out. Don't lose track of it.

<comment><USER7> What a great attitude towards user friendliness!

Let's apply it to email, online banking and forum accounts while we're at it, shall we?

<comment><USER6> With these things, there is someone you can talk to that controls the service. If you lose access to your online bank account, then you can call up your bank and have them manually reset it. Since they have alternate trust channels for alternate ways of doing things, (you can check your balance and make transfers by phone in most cases) you can just reuse them to regain access. (God help you if you lose your Gmail account, though)

Apple's devices are fully in your control after you buy them. If you lose access to a perfectly working device then it's your own damn fault. It's your own damn fault in the other cases too, it's just that the nature of the services provided mean you can go also go through a person.

But if you buy a safe, lock it, and subsequently lose all normal access to it, don't bitch to me when you have to ruin it to get back in. It's just doing its job, and you failed to do yours. Suck it up, buy a new safe, and be more careful next time.

<comment><USER8> You obviously didn't read the article. This isn't an issue of someone losing their password and subsequently being locked out of their account --- something that Apple would help with. It was mom's iPad. She died. They don't have the pass code and/or iCloud password and Apple won't help them open that up. Sounds fair or unfair depending on your personal beliefs.

Having said that the article is a non-sensible emotional plea for sympathy at the expense of painting Apple as a cold-hearted villain. If they just want to be able to make use of the iPad it's simple to restore it using iTunes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This would be disgraceful at the best of times, and it's just adding insult to injury in this case.

It seems not only software but even perfectly usable hardware can now be crippled by some high and might organisation's "security" measures. Roll on changes in the law to compel unlocking mechanisms.

<comment><USER9> Actually this is exactly what I want to happen to any devices that I own. Depending on the executor of the will of course, there is a lot to gain from possession of a device/account.

People need to make separate arrangements like password handover etc and sort their affairs out properly. This should be promoted here, not the fact that Apple haven't handed the details over yet.

If I were Apple, I'd deny the request to be honest.

If I were the people in question, Id shrug the iPad off and get on with rebuilding my life.

And before I get accused of sounding insensitive, exactly this happened to me with my father a couple of years back. I had a 1Tb encrypted NAS and no passwords. Had to write the data off.

Edit: that NAS array contained 38,000 photographs for reference that I'll never see.

<comment><USER3> _People need to make separate arrangements like password handover etc and sort their affairs out properly._

And how will that help if someone dies suddenly?

I'm guessing you've never dealt with, or watched a friend or family member deal with, probate in that situation. It typically means months of stressful and often heart-wrenching work that has to be done on top of everything else in your life. There are rules and procedures for dealing with all kinds of unknowns, many of which no-one saw coming and that's why they're unknown. One of the few things you can usually rely on is that if there are explicit wishes properly documented in a will, the law will tend to side with whatever that says. How come Apple can't rely on the same thing?

 _This should be promoted here, not the fact that Apple haven 't handed the details over yet._

So everyone now has to maintain a legally registered compendium of every password change they ever make, in case a bus hits them tomorrow? Or someone who knows they have only a little time left, for whom every moment is precious, should waste that time filing formal notifications of their electronic accounts with companies who apparently have too much control over modern devices?

Apple have been shown copies of the death certificate, will, and solicitor's letter. _That is sufficient to transfer millions of pounds in estate assets in the eyes of the law._ How come it's not sufficient for the mighty Apple to show a bit common sense?

Apple deserve every bit of horrible PR that's coming to them over this.

<comment><USER9> _> And how will that help if someone dies suddenly?_

I've sorted my affairs out. I have a keypassX database and master passwords listed my will.

I take it you read the rest of my last post -- I have dealt with this.

Most people amble through life and never ask the question "what if?". If they do ask it, they light another cigarette rather than put mitigation in place. That is naivety and people need to snap out of it, pretty damn quick. The world is a big and complicated place and if you don't want to leave a pile of pain and suffering for people if you do decide to walk in front of a train or something then you need to sort it out.

No excuses.

Sorry.

As for Apple, they have no obligation to do anything. The device is an asset (tangible) and the will probably states about transferring them and the contract and terms are with the person who signed it. In this circumstance, they will cause themselves problems if they act and say yes here you go or no chance. I'm sure the Apple Account which is the issue wasn't even mentioned in the will or signatory's asset declaration.

Doomed either way.

Apple chose the right answer: mu (i.e. no answer).

<comment><USER3> _As for Apple, they have no obligation to do anything._

I don't know whether that's true legally here, but if it is, I don't think it should be.

If they provided devices with a factory reset that let someone unlock them, even if it meant locking out any older data, then maybe.

If they sold them with prominent warnings about how they could be rendered permanently useless in this sort of situation, maybe.

But they don't do those things. They deliberately lock the device to an authentication mechanism over which they have exclusive control under these conditions. If you're going to do that, and you're not going to warn people about it so they can make an informed decision about whether they want to buy a product with that limitation in the first place, then I think you do bear some responsibility for ensuring that the recovery mechanism operates reasonably.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why wouldn't they just completely wipe/reset it?

<comment><USER11> Can't do that without the password.

<comment><USER12> You can, it just requires putting the device in recovery mode.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Madness. Who owns this device really? The physical owner or Apple?

Cases like this shows why tablets, like any other computers, should be formatable and reinstallable.

Android at least has a factory reset option in the recovery menus for cases like this.

<comment><USER13> Not really madness... Theft prevention has been a mandate. I would love to see your foolproof proposal for preventing unauthorized users access while allowing authorized people access.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> There's absolutely nothing stopping them from using the iPad with a fresh OS installation, so I don't think useless is actually an accurate description. (Indeed, the BBC title is less linkbaity than this one and acknowledges the subjectivity of that description.)

Without a provision in the will to permit Apple to unlock the device, I can see why it would be hesitant to do so. Certainly, if I bequeathed my phone, computer, or tablet to relatives I would most assuredly _not_ want them to also have access to the content on it.

<comment><USER14> This is less about the device and more about the content. Yes, they could wipe the device and start over without issue, but they would lose access to the mother's purchased content in iTunes. Some people have the income to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on content for their Apple device. In that case it would be a substantial loss to lose access.

<comment><USER15> So the true issue is less to do with the restrictions on the account and more on the absolutely absurd DRM placed on the content. I can leave my collection of CDs to whomever I would like (along with the digital library I keep on my hard drive). Apple has done a huge disservice in convincing people that vendor specific draconian DRM was an acceptable thing.

<comment><USER16> The issue is the new iOS 7 Activation Lock, not any content on the account. Unless "Find my <iPhone/iPad>" is turned off before wiping, the device's serial number is tied to the Apple ID that was previously signed into the device. Even after a complete wipe and reinstall of the OS image, you still cannot use the device without that account's password. The setup process will ask you for that login info and will go no further unless you have it.

[http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5818](http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5818)

The intent with this is that if you lost your device or had it stolen from you, even if you remotely wiped it, it would be worthless to anyone who may have found it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> You know, I remember perusing Richard Stallman's "The Right to Read" in the early 2000s and thinking "this is all extremely unlikely and way too pessimistic, this stuff will never happen like this" — [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to- read.html](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html) — and here we are, one step at a time, inching towards trapping our knowledge on devices that only one person can ever use.

</comment><comment><USER18> OMG just do a DFU Restore and be done with it. How is it crippled if you can just restore it? I think the only thing crippled is their heads... You can have whatever "activation lock" you want active if you do a DFU restore it does not matter. The device will be restored and you'll have full access to it. WTF why the drama?

</comment><comment><USER19> In the past, kings were buried with their swords and food for the afterlife, perhaps now we'll be treated the same.

</comment><comment><USER20> Maybe too snarky, but they could have simply called Apple support and gotten them to reset the password. If a hacker can impersonate a person, hopefully this guy would know enough about his mom to do so too.

I'm hoping they already tried the security question route and were unsuccessful.

</comment><comment><USER21> _sigh_ If you buy an iPad for your dying mum, ask her for her password. Before she dies.

Problem solved.

I know all of my wife's passwords, and if my folks were alive, I'm sure I'd know all of them, as well.

</comment><comment><USER22> Some people just can't win - if they _had_ granted access, half of HN would be shrieking about "OMG APPLEZ INSECURE".

<comment><USER23> Possibly true, but at the same time, if apple had, this would probably have never been a news article at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is one of those rare times when Android's inherently insecure system is an advantage.

<comment><USER25> lol you can't be serious</comment></comment>


Upstream Color - <AUTHOR> http://caublestone.quora.com/Upstream-Color

<comment><USER2> Excellent review. For me, the film was so obscure I was almost forced to look up that Slate article that promptly ruined the entire experience immediately.</comment>


San Francisco, the City That Apps Built, or Destroyed - <AUTHOR> https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/04/san-francisco-city-apps-built-or-destroyed/587623/ <comment><USER2> according to this graph, foreign investment makes up 0 % of this bar graph because they use corporations to buy apartments.</comment>


Dajax: An easy to use ajax library for Django - <AUTHOR> http://code.google.com/p/dajaxproject/

<comment><USER2> Maybe this is a dumb question, but why do we need AJAX libraries? The methods in current JavaScript frameworks like Prototype, jQuery, et. al. make AJAX dead simple to begin with.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is more of an Ajax framework than library. It allows you to write Python code in your Django apps to support Ajax requests. On the client-side, requests are made through a wrapper which can use the Prototype or jQuery JS libraries.

I believe it is closer to Pyjamas (<http://code.google.com/p/pyjamas/>) than jQuery.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> There be dragons in the Python: [http://code.google.com/p/dajaxproject/source/browse/trunk/da...](http://code.google.com/p/dajaxproject/source/browse/trunk/dajax/views.py#6)

If all that importing is really necessary then you might want to check out Django's new preferred import method, importlib, it might clean that up a bit: <http://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/8193>

And here in the J/S - lots of evals - is that really necessary?: [http://code.google.com/p/dajaxproject/source/browse/trunk/da...](http://code.google.com/p/dajaxproject/source/browse/trunk/dajax/templates/dajax/jquery.dajax.core.js#8)

</comment><comment><USER4> That's ugly to say the least... You're way better sticking with something like jQuery.

<comment><USER5> It is unfair at the least to compare this to jQuery. This library attempts to bridge the gap between jQuery and Django for AJAX calls by being in between.

If you mean you are better sticking with raw Django views and jQuery AJAX calls, that could be true.

I was planning on writing a few helper functions for this myself as a lot of my AJAX work is getting repetitive and could be refactored, so I will at least read through before passing judgement.

<comment><USER4> Yes, I mean sticking with Django and jQuery. I think it's _really_ ugly to have DOM stuff in your view functions.</comment></comment></comment>


Vitamin D, part 1: back to basics - <AUTHOR> https://www.devaboone.com/post/vitamin-d-part-1-back-to-basics <comment><USER3> I've had Vitamin D deficiency from the child and I suffer from Achondroplasia(not diagnosed until recently). I've had ilizarov fixations twice during childhood to fix the bow legs and I had explicit medication for Vitamin -D only when I was teen for couple of years.

But after 15 years, I nearly ended-up becoming a Quadriplegic[1] and I was told my bone condition was like that of 80 year old (I was 32). For the past 2 years I've had single Zoledronic acid injection each year to treat the osteoporosis along with monthly Vitamin D3-Cholecalciferol 60K IU, recent tests showed that there has been about ~ 10% improvement in bone density at some areas and few areas have become worse.

I often wonder if whether I had been put through proper Vitamin D supplement from childhood, the situation would have turned out this bad.

Anyways, Vitamin D seems like the new Yoga and everything from memory to COVID prevention is being attributed to it; but I can say one thing for sure from my experience - If your Vitamin D is low, take proper medication on doctor's advice and follow it up regularly as bone diseases don't come with warning unlike other organs in our body.

[1][https://abishekmuthian.com/i-was-told-i-would-become- quadrip...](https://abishekmuthian.com/i-was-told-i-would-become- quadriplegic-68c0371e6f05/)

<comment><USER4> Very sorry for your problems.

No disrespect intended, I am biologically challenged, but I do not understand how anyone can have a Vitamin D deficiency when 15 minutes of sunlight a day on the skin creates all the Vitamin D anyone needs, and too much Vitamin D is very bad. I suppose it makes sense in the Winter months when everyone is inside for months, but usually, the sun shines every day, even in Winter.

<comment><USER5> Not everyone can afford getting half naked under the sun on a daily basis. It's easier to be deficient than you think. Do a blood test. You may get an unpleasant surprise. I think about half of the population is either insufficient or deficient without supplementation.

<comment><USER6> It really depends on what counts as insufficient. There is enough debate in the scientific literature on what constitutes a "sufficient" level of Vit D for most healthy adults. If we set the sufficiency level of 25(OH)D of 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L), most of the world's adult population would be in the healthy range. These levels can be achieved in a healthy Caucasian adult in a northern latitude in summer (eg, Edinburgh, Scotland) with as little as, say, two sessions of 10 minutes each in a week, exposing just the arms and legs.

Serum levels of Vitamin D also do not plummet with the winter months - it's more of a slow dip, and the seasonal low levels do not seem to negatively effect most adults.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The author explains the following, regarding Vitamin D studies:

> Most studies follow this pattern: Two sets of people are evaluated. One set > has a certain disease (diabetes, for example). The other set does not have > the disease. Vitamin D levels are measured in both groups. Vitamin D > deficiency is found to be much more common in the group of diseased > individuals.

If this is true, I wonder if most studies aren't falling short for failing to control for Vitamin D deficiency. Couldn't the studies be structured differently?

Let's say we want to know the effects of Vitamin D on Covid. What if, instead of measuring Vitamin D deficiency in a group with the malady and a group without (analogous to what the author suggests most studies do):

We had two groups made up of Vitamin D deficient people. We gave the first group a Vitamin D supplement and the other a placebo. We then observed both groups out in the wild (ideally a place with a high R), measuring for infections. If the supplement folks were infected at significantly lower rates than placebo folks, wouldn't this be better at demonstrating causation?

<comment><USER8> > failing to control for Vitamin D deficiency

Do you mean failing to control for the disease causing vitamin D deficiency? Because it seems that's the issue you're addressing with your proposed study design.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> There's a lot more to this author that the average poster. Deva Boone was commenting in this thread [1], she's a doctor. Seems sensible and makes interesting points. She was posting under [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=devaboone](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=devaboone). Just posting this because there's always kind of wacky things said about the miracle of vitamin D and I was interested in what an actual doc has to say (as opposed to us programmers ;-)).

1\. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24061164](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24061164) Vitamin D and covid-19 mortality.

<comment><USER10> Interesting that she never mentions the effects of sunlight on Vitamin D levels. I know she has talked about it in other threads on HN, but not in this article.

<comment><USER11> Hi, I'm the one who wrote the blog post. Thanks for commenting. Sunlight is important. There are a lot of things that are also important that aren't in the blog, simply because I couldn't cover all of them and keep the post to a manageable size. I like reading these comments to find out what people want to know, though, and what I should cover in the next post. Sunlight will be addressed.

<comment><USER12> I recall reading a few years ago about an (Australian?) study That found that the non-bone health benefits correlated with Vitamin D were equally correlated with sun exposure. I'd be interested to know if any more research has been done on this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> There was a lot of interest last time on this topic in a previous hacker news discussion [1] so posting this article by my wife (the parathyroid surgeon) here. If you have any questions feel free to post them here and she will check in.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24061164](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24061164)

<comment><USER13> Thanks for sharing. I skimmed the article looking for a specific set of info but may have missed it: how do bodies naturally/organically generate vitamin D and can that be sufficient or are supplements necessary? (E.g. I surf 5 days a week with sunscreen and go for walks regularly. Will I have enough vitamin D or should I supplement?)

<comment><USER14> I'm not a doctor but I've read a few articles on vitamin D.

> how do bodies naturally/organically generate vitamin D

Avoiding the biochemistry details, vitamin D is produced exposing skin to 280-315 nm (short UVB) radiation [1].

> I surf 5 days a week with sunscreen and go for walks regularly. Will I have > enough vitamin D or should I supplement?

The UV radiation depends on [1]:

       Seasons
       Time of the day
       Latitude
       Altitude
       Ozone
       Aerosol and pollution

The production of Vitamin D depends on physiological factors such [2]:

        Age
        Skin type
        Fat absorption
        Obesity

And, of course, the amount of exposed skin and sun sunscreen usage.

According to [2], the required time for a fair skinned Australian achieve "synthesis of 1000 IU of vitamin D with one side of the hands, arms and neck (11% of the body) exposed to the sun (0.455 MED)" on _winter_ at a few AUS cities:

        Darwin: 8 min
        Townsville: 11 min
        Brisbane: 17 min
        Perth: 17 min
        Sidney: 9 min
        Adelaide: 32 min
        Melbourne 43 min

For more details check [2].

A note about sunscreen:

The most common screening agent and their attenuation/absorbance spectrum can be seen on [3, 4]. Note: Only a few of them absorbs UVA radiation, and most of them have downside:

\- Avobenzone: is not photostable, it degrades when exposed to the sun. Figure [5 Fig.3 a] compares the degradation with and without glutatione to stabilize (note: glu has a sulfurs smells and is expensive). Another alternative is ubiquinone [6] (also expensive). In pratice they are stabilized with octocrylene and bemo-trizinol.

\- Menthyl anthranilate: Wikipedia article has one line. Found only 2 products with this sunscreen.

\- Oxybenzone: Banned in few place. It is "detected in nearly every American", "Weak estrogen, moderate anti-androgen; associated with altered birth weight in human studies" [7].

\- Zn/Ti Oxide: White cast. Nano sized particle can harm marine life [8], offer poor UVA protection [9] and can cause lung damage when inhaled [9].

In summary. Sunscreen works better at blocking the spectrum needed to produce vitamin D (UVB) than the spectrum that penetrate deeper and does most DNA damage (UVA).

I've been looking for an UVA blocker. But with no luck. I might get one of from a compounding pharmacy, but I reckon an commercial product would have better quality and price.

[1] [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=97098646450885509...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=9709864645088550922)

[2] [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=10953625923154745...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=10953625923154745587)

[3] [http://www.brynmawrdermatology.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/0...](http://www.brynmawrdermatology.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/03/c58be9ca65b2fbc14d13947b6c6be676.jpg)

[4] [https://i.redd.it/kr2knqhn88ey.png](https://i.redd.it/kr2knqhn88ey.png)

[5] [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=18414347133842843...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=18414347133842843143)

[5 Fig 3] [https://pubs.rsc.org/image/article/2019/PP/c8pp00343b/c8pp00...](https://pubs.rsc.org/image/article/2019/PP/c8pp00343b/c8pp00343b-f3_hi- res.gif)

[6][https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=39499394362965209...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=3949939436296520932)

[7] [https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with- sunscr...](https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with-sunscreen- chemicals/)

[8] [https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sunscreen- corals.html](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sunscreen-corals.html)

[9] [https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with- sunscr...](https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/report/the-trouble-with-sunscreen- chemicals/)

<comment><USER15> >Avoiding the biochemistry details, vitamin D is produced exposing skin to 280-315 nm (short UVB) radiation.

Could we then just have a bracelet that had a diode that emits that specific wavelength of light and that way have our body constantly produce vitamin D?

<comment><USER14> The UVB radiation also does DNA damage, causes redness and tans. Exposing a small area to large cumulative radiation doesn't sound like a good idea. I don't know if this would be physiological possible.

But you are onto something. Since we spend most of the day inside, maybe installing a DLP projector* with UVB light over the monitor could provide an optimal amount of radiation. The DLP could be used to avoid the eye area.

By the way, russia had a full body approach:

[https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of- the-...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the- day/2009/10/ultraviolet-bath-mcnally-pod/)

* I'm not sure if DLP mirrors reflects UVB.

<comment><USER15> I guess if we had light bulbs that emited that light it could provide the normal amount of exposure that's needed, or even adjustable to suit your needs, quite in interesting idea indeed!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > Vitamin D is a big deal. Recent studies have shown that patients with low > Vitamin D levels are more likely to die from Covid-19 than their Vitamin > D-rich counterparts,(1) and deficiency in the vitamin has been linked to > seven of the ten leading causes of death in the U.S.(2)

1,500 or so words about Vitamin D, but not a single mention of UV?

Can the correlation between COVID-19 mortality and lack of Vitamin D be explained by lack of exercise and/or exposure to UV?

In other words, maybe Vitamin D levels have nothing to do with the disease. It's just a marker for inactivity, which is the real culprit.

If true, this explanation suggests that pumping people full of Vitamin D in the hope they'll fare better with certain diseases would be about as useful as force-relocating the homeless to Beverly Hills. Correlation, not causation.

The paper cited by the author (1) doesn't consider this possibility, either.

<comment><USER17> i was reading another thread where people were saying homeless and surfers, people who spend a lot of time outside, often have low vitamin D when they get tested. I have NO idea how true that is, but might be an interesting data point.

<comment><USER18> Being outdoors isn't the same as sun exposure though. In particular, I can imagine that homeless people cover up more to prevent sunburn. Additionally, just being homeless might cause a depletion of vitamin D.

In general, I can imagine that people who spend a lot of time outdoors could get very little sun exposure since they would be more cognizant of the effects of the sun and more likely to wear sunscreen and protective clothing.

<comment><USER19> Can you explain why just being homeless might cause a depletion of vitamin D?

<comment><USER20> That's easy. Crappy diet and alcoholism. Something like 68% of single adult homeless credit substance abuse with their homelessness[1], with alcohol being the most commonly abused substance. Alcoholism and vitamin D deficiency has definitely been linked.[2]

[1][http://www.ncdsv.org/images/USCM_Hunger-homelessness- Survey-...](http://www.ncdsv.org/images/USCM_Hunger-homelessness-Survey-in- America's-Cities_12%202008.pdf)

[2][https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5074581/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5074581/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I have literally no educational background about any of this, yet this was so well-written that I was able to understand most of it with hardly any cognitive work or re-reading.

This only confirms my belief that informative writing should be written for the least knowledgeable person regardless of the assumed audience, and if anybody thinks you're stupid for not understanding their informative writing, then that person is a jerk and should learn how to write better.

<comment><USER11> Thank you! I wrote the blog post, and my goal was to make it so that someone without any medical background could understand it. By the time I finished, I wasn't sure if I had accomplished that. The article is still pretty dense with medical science. So glad you commented.

<comment> tuna-piano +1, I've heard so much about vitamin D in recent months (and even started taking supplementation myself)... this was super well written and informative. Can't wait for part 2 - please post to HN again!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> For a review of many vitamin D studies google "site:theincidentaleconomist.com vitamin d", a blog by a doctor who evaluates many studies. Many do not show extra vitamin D beneficial.

Blog quoute: " The IOM says that anything over 20 ng/mL is "Generally considered adequate for bone and overall health in healthy individuals" and when you get over 50 ng/mL "Emerging evidence links potential adverse effects to such high levels". I do not understand why we keep looking for Vitamin D to be some sort of wonder drug. It's seriously baffling to me."

So we need some,>20ng/ml but keep it under 50 ng/ml.

<comment><USER23> I suspect it's less that Vitamin D is a wonder drug, and more that the majority of the population (at least in the US) has a Vitamin D deficiency.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Correlation may not be causation, but it does provide a null hypothesis to fire at. And people with adequate vitamin D seem to die less ([https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(18)...](https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196\(18\)30183-6/fulltext)). Hence the conclusion in this paper (which does have dosages in it).

[https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/7/2097/htm](https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/7/2097/htm)

"The bottom line is that there is no downside to increasing our intake of vitamin D to maintain serum 25(OH)D at at least 30 ng/mL (75 nmol/L), and preferably at 40–60 ng/mL (100–150 nmol/L) to achieve optimal overall health benefits of vitamin D."

<comment><USER11> This is a good point. And I do want to get to more of the studies done in humans. Although I haven't discussed dosages yet, my advice on everything in life is pretty much: everything in moderation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I was pretty excited about vitamin D for cancer prevention. I though it might explain higher cancer prevalence further away from the equator. But then Mendelian randomisation studies showed it made no difference. Having said that there was a large randomised trial (VITAL) with some trends towards reduced cancer burden. Only if BMI was normal however, which is highly salient of itself.

<comment><USER26> Vitamin D is a side effect of exposure to sunlight. Wouldn't the more likely discerning factor be the irradiation with sunlight itself?

There are thousands of papers on the positive effects of photobiomodulation (exposure to visible and near infrared photons): [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZKl5Me4XwPj4YgJCBes3...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZKl5Me4XwPj4YgJCBes3VSCJjiVO4XI0tIR0rbMBj08/edit)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> What an amazing article, written with such clarity and meaning (I have no idea how accurate it is, as I'm not a doctor or medical expert).

I wish more people would write like this.

<comment><USER11> Thanks! My goal is to write about medical topics in a way that anyone (especially non-medical people) can understand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I should wait for the next parts, but I fear the author ignores our very important point of view: we are bayesian machines working with limited information under conditions of bounded rationality.

Lack of proof that Vitamin D supplementation is necessary is irrelevant. We don't work on proofs. If I were to describe our standard, it would a balance of "might it help?" and "might it hurt?". Currently, and I think taking the next parts in consideration as well, I think the answers will be very much in favor of supplementation - with caveats I'm actually very eager to read about.

<comment><USER11> Thanks for commenting! I wrote the blog, and I like your point of view. There was only so much I could cover in one post, but I do hope to get to these issues. And you are right, for most people the conclusion will likely be that a moderate dose of Vitamin D is not likely to harm, and may help - but then there are many many arguments over what constitutes a moderate dose, and I hope to cover that as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is great to read! I think there are 2 basic questions that many of us are looking for guidance on:

How can I find out if I am deficient in Vitamin D? Can I do this without an office visit or lab visit?

How much should I supplement with?

<comment><USER30> Yo might want to read [https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/vitamin-d-supplements- do-no...](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/vitamin-d-supplements-do-not- reduce-the-risk-of-depression/) before you rush to buy supplements, at least.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> > Obesity, for example, is a known risk factor for diabetes, and people who > are obese also tend to have low Vitamin D levels, due mostly to the dilution > of the fat-soluble vitamin in the larger mass of adipose tissue.

I didn't know this. I'm hoping that Part II addresses the long-term Vitamin D storage mechanism. Logically, since sun derived Vitamin D is accumulated during the summer and depleted during the winter, extra storage capacity might be beneficial. This is one area of research where the seasonal cycles are critical. Latitude and the date that samples are collected should be part of the dataset.

Since diet and lifestyle seems to be involved, I wonder how much the phytate [1] content of the starchy staples we consume contributes to Calcium/Magnesium imbalances:

> The (myo) phytate anion is a colorless species that has significant > nutritional role as the principal storage form of phosphorus in many plant > tissues, especially bran and seeds. It is also present in many legumes, > cereals, and grains. Phytic acid and phytate have a strong binding affinity > to the dietary minerals, calcium, iron, and zinc, inhibiting their > absorption.

It would be ironic if white rice and white bread become recommended over high fiber options. I wonder if the detrimental effects of phytates only apply during digestion, suggesting that some foods shouldn't be mixed in the same meal, or whether the binding affinity is something that occurs in aggregate independent of ingestion time.

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

</comment><comment><USER32> This is excellent. An explanation from first principles about what Vitamin D does in our bodies that is accessible to lay people.

</comment><comment><USER33> This piece is not as thorough as my vitamin D & COVID-19 review: [http://agingbiotech.info/vitamindcovid19/](http://agingbiotech.info/vitamindcovid19/) or its 1-page bullet-point summary: [http://agingbiotech.info/vitamindcovid19facts/](http://agingbiotech.info/vitamindcovid19facts/)

A lot of words on correlation != causation without noting any of the causal evidence. Even my 1-pager highlights the obvious responses to this over-used inequality:

1\. RCTs show D supplements effective against respiratory infection (Martineau BMJ'17: 25 RCTs, now updated as preprint expanded to ~40RCTs covering ~30,000 people.

2\. Causal evidence D is protective against lung injury (in rats) related to ACE2.

3\. D extends lifespan in worms (which don't have bones), and we all know how much of a risk factor age is for C19. [This one not in my 1pager, only the full review.]

4\. The number of plausible biological mechanism arguments is very large and expanding. See Linda Benskin's excellent review for the most comprehensive review of that evidence up through mid-June. More recently, the active form has been shown to have direct action against SARS-CoV-2.

5\. Causal inference model shows that D's effect on C19 is causal [Davies et al].

6\. Mendelian randomization shows that the correlations that would need to explain its data are far fetched (eg, systematic racism is worse in the US the farther north you go, by more than 5x) [De Smet et al]

7\. Controlled intervention trial shows benefit from D+mag+B12 [Chuen Wen Tan et al]

I don't talk about it in my reviews, but there is also a set of guidelines for when you can infer causation from observational data called Hill's criteria and one paper did apply that to D related data and the evidence so far met all the criteria.

Long pieces that try to create uncertainty around vitamin D in the context of COVID-19 by repeatedly questioning the correlational data without noting any of the relevant causal evidence are far too common these days, and a bit irresponsible at this point.

Karl

<comment><USER33> Correction (sorry, copy/paste error): The Mendelian randomization paper was by Kohlmeier. De Smet was one of the other studies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I've recently posted 2 Vitamin D studies on HN.

One "COVID‐19 and Vitamin D" study recommends treatment of COVID‐19 patients with high dose of vitamin D - 200,000 IU of vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 when admitted with COVID-19 followed by 4,000-10,000 IU/day - since populations most vulnerable to COVID-19 are likely vitamin D deficient ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24132440](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24132440))

Another study (cited by Deva Boone) discusses Vitamin D deficiency is a predictor of poor prognosis in patients with acute respiratory failure due to COVID-19: 81% of patients had hypovitaminosis D; severe vitamin D deficiency patients had a 50% mortality probability, while those with vitamin D ≥ 10 ng/mL had a 5% mortality risk ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24109396](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24109396))

</comment><comment><USER35> I'm literally on the side of my chair waiting for part two. The first scientific article I've read that felt like a cliffhanger.

</comment><comment><USER36> Vitamin D deficiency is more or less inversely proportional to the amount of time one spends active and outside, isn't it?

I'm sure this has been answered somewhere on the internet, but wouldn't it be reasonable to posit that a sedentary lifestyle is likely the root cause of many of these health issues correlated with vitamin D deficiency?

<comment><USER37> Yes, but not entirely.

[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17218096/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17218096/)

> In a study of Hawaiian surfers with sun exposure of at least 15 hours per > week for the preceding 3 months, 25(OH)D levels ranged from 11 up to 71 > ng/mL, demonstrating wide individual variation.

<comment><USER38> 15 hours per week isn't really much, is it?

<comment><USER39> I don't know - most weeks I spend perhaps that amount outdoors (say 8/9 hours hillwalking at the weekend and 6 hours during the week gardening) and that is far more than most people I know.

However, that's in spring/summer/autumn and assuming the weather is OK. In December or January its entirely possible for me hardly to hardly see any sun at all due to short days (say 8am to 3pm) and poor weather - and if I am out I'll inevitably be covered in bad weather clothing.

Edit: I started taking Vitamin D a few years back and saw a dramatic improvement in some areas.

Edit2: Amusingly, I had no idea what Vitamin D was supposed to do when I started taking it, my wife had bought some and asked if I wanted some. It had a dramatic effect on anxiety levels that I was suffering from at the time - <USER2> was mid winter. The only side effect I noticed being truly bizarre and vivid dreams - again something that I didn't know about in advance but have read other people commenting on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Great read! Are there more (preferably personal)blogs like this that make topics in medicine more accessible?

<comment><USER41> [https://sciencebasedmedicine.org](https://sciencebasedmedicine.org)

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Hopefully part 2 will contain a section about how Vitamin D regulates cytokine production in your lungs. Without enough vitamin d, your body over reacts to a respiratory illness by over producing cytokines, and then the patient has a much higher chance of dying.

There has to be additional evidence showing a decline in vitamin D levels over the past 20 years or so as we all got addicted to our devices, became narcissistic and anti social as a result of social media addiction, and largely stayed inside more than we used to. So we cut off our main source of vitamin D over time, and here we are...

<comment><USER11> Cytokine production wasn't something I was able to include, simply because I was trying to cover a lot of ground in 1200 words! I alluded to it in the discussion about the cascade of events that occur when Vitamin D binds to immune cells. Cytokine production is one of those events. Still, I'm not completely convinced that Vitamin D deficiency directly leads to a higher chance of dying due to cytokine production. It's another one of those areas where we have a correlation, and a plausible explanation for causation... but it's not straightforward. And yes, the lack of sunlight is one explanation for why we seem to have so much Vitamin D deficiency... then again, maybe we see so much because we are defining deficiency the wrong way. There are so many things to discuss, and hopefully I can get to all of them.

<comment><USER42> I'm just a software developer and simply regurgitating stuff I've read and maybe only half way understand. I look forward to someone like you with an open mind and with the proper knowledge to tackle that specific question. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Not mentioned in the article: human skin depigmentation was an adaptive mutation to ensure adequate vitamin D production at higher latitudes. (The traditional diets of far northern people also supplement.)

Compare lactose tolerance.

<comment><USER44> Are you sure? Melanin the skin pigment converts 99.9% of UV radiation into heat otherwise it damages deeper layers of the body. I'd say Melanin is there to protect us, so at polar latitudes, the need to protect from UV radiation drops off. Plus things like copper which is one of the chemicals used to make melanin is also used in other processes, for example some of the aromatic neurotransmitters. If you reduce chemicals to some neurotransmitters because its needed elsewhere in the body, what does it do to the brain? Look into hair pigmentation to get a better understanding. Remember diet restricts our intakes so some processes can appear to be rate limiting, when they are not, we are just a complex real-time chemical reaction. Feed any chemical reaction the right amount of chemicals for the environment and you can keep a chemical reaction going forever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> It's clear why she's interested in VitD as parathyroid surgeon. There are some thoughts that VitD deficiency is the root cause of hyperparathyroidism. I have another theory: it's sodium disbalance with calcium. That's why if you have bone ache some water with sodium will temporary relieve the pain. Even though it's not the root cause. It's simptom. At the same time keeping VitD active in your body requires Boron. Also boron is needed to keep your hormonal balance. And Boron impacts Zinc. And if Zinc is in proper place you won't get sick.

</comment><comment><USER46> Since it seems some regular adequate exposure to sunlight is required for humans, my fantasy future-city building designs have a special type of glass that permits UV B.

<comment><USER47> Depending on the country you already have workplace regulations that mandate minimum natural light intensity levels at your workstation.

It seems only logical that the next step is to regulate that HVAC can only apply selective UV filters on windows instead of UV wide spectrum filters.

I am not sure what would be the manufacturing challenges for this? It would likely apply only for new construction but it would be a step forward.

<comment><USER46> There is glass like that but its only for special applications as far as I know and probably not a lot of quantity. So it might be basically the same thing they are doing but much larger scale.

<comment><USER48> You need fancy lenses to do UV photography.

From wikipedia: "For UV photography it is necessary to use specially developed lenses having elements made from fused quartz or quartz and fluorite."

Veritasium has a video using a special UV setup, it's pretty cool - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9K6gjR07Po](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9K6gjR07Po)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> Interesting article if you are interested in the background. But I want the conclusion first so that I can take action now not wait for some unspecified amount of time for part two.

So I wish that authors of this sort of blog post, especially knowledgable and literate people like the author, would put a short summary of the information that ordinary people could actually use at the top of the page.

<comment><USER50> Why? It is already a problem that the "herd" is doing whatever some blog post tells them to. People need to understand, and to think for themselves. If someone does not understand the difference between causality and correlation - and just takes his dose of X mg of vitamin D then the whole post missed its point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> I am shocked that knockout of vitamin D receptors still produced a functioning organism given how important vitamin D has been billed.

</comment><comment><USER52> Vitamin D also helps Cluster Headache.

A Survey of Cluster Headache (CH) Sufferers Using Vitamin D3 as a CH Preventative [https://n.neurology.org/content/82/10_Supplement/P1.256](https://n.neurology.org/content/82/10_Supplement/P1.256)

</comment><comment><USER53> The Sunlight League [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sunlight_League](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sunlight_League)

1924\. Caleb Saleeby - admittedly complicates matters due to his eugenics background.

</comment><comment><USER54> Great article but am unable to figure out on which site one has to create an account to be able to login to comment on the article. A pop-up box prompts me to login, but doesn't specify where to register if I'm not already having an ID...

</comment><comment><USER55> Can't find it now but I remember seeing something about how people with not enough zinc in their diet will have low D, even if they supplement or get sunshine. So maybe low D is a symptom of some other problem upstream.

</comment><comment><USER56> Question for the author. I have historically had low Vitamin D levels and recently had my thyroid removed due to thyroid cancer. Do I need to be particularly worried or do anything to supplement my vitamin D?

<comment><USER49> As this site is predominantly read by people with software development experience I think Rob Pike's rules of programming are apposite here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24135189](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24135189)

Specifically rules 1 and 2:

Rule 1. You can't tell where a program is going to spend its time. Bottlenecks occur in surprising places, so don't try to second guess and put in a speed hack until you've proven that's where the bottleneck is.

Rule 2. Measure. Don't tune for speed until you've measured, and even then don't unless one part of the code overwhelms the rest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> why are all the images in this article blurred beyond all recognition?

</comment><comment><USER58> Are these studies just showing that vitamin D is a good predictor of income (because race is a good predictor of income)? Now that the US is starting to have conversations about racial inequality, every time I see a hackernews or reddit post on vitamin D I am asking myself that question.

I have read several studies that link low income to higher mortality rates across several different diseases. [0]

And several other studies that link education levels (which are inherently linked to childhood wealth levels) to worse mortality rates as well.[1]

There is a link between lower vitamin d levels and skin color, with an obvious plausible explanation ( Melanin lowers skins ability to produce vitamin D).[2]

In the U.S. at least there is a strong link between income, education levels, and skin color. [3]

While I am hopeful that ongoing research will help us understand the mechanisms by which vitamin-D operates, I really worry that it is somehow a very well dressed red-herring. One one hand a promised panacea: vitamin d supplements, the other a complex economic and political problem that barely anyone can comprehend or are even willing to engage with.

One of the more damning studies shows that vitamin d supplementation is good enough to remove your deficiency, it has reproduced really poorly on any of the other correlated health effects.[4]

Are there any studies that someone can link that would alleviate my concerns? When these kind of population health studies are conducted (I am in no way familiar with how they are actually done), how are factors like income inequality and education level generally controlled for?

And an interesting article that may or may not be valid that kind of got me on the road of becoming a vitamin D skeptic: [https://www.outsideonline.com/2380751/sunscreen-sun- exposure...](https://www.outsideonline.com/2380751/sunscreen-sun-exposure- skin-cancer-science)

[0] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866586/) [1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4435622/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4435622/) [2] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5946242/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5946242/) [3] [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0190640#sec014) [4] [https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1809944](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1809944)

</comment><comment><USER59> 300-500 IU/kg/day vitamin D3. 5-10 mg vitamin K2 MK-4. 100 mcg vitamin K2 MK-7. 1.2 grams magnesium. 500-600 mg calcium from all sources. ZMA (if male). Eventually melatonin to keep at level of youth.

<comment><USER60> That is ~30k IU Vitamin D3 a day, isn't it? That's an astonishingly outlier amount of D3 to be taking. The author strongly recommends against that much in a previous thread.[0]

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24061164](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24061164)

<comment><USER61> Yeah, that's like a really fucking lot. I was taking maybe half of that when I was extremely deficient, and about 3k currently (which I guess is still a bit more than I need, I just didn't take a blood test in a long time and assume I'm a tiny bit below the norm). And I weight way more than 60 kg you used for calculation.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: What can be done with a LiveCode, modern-day HyperCard, and a pledge - <AUTHOR>

Hello,
I came here to show some cool stuff that I made with LiveCode, an HyperCard on steroids, and why I think it makes a great programming language for both beginners and seasoned developers alike. In the end, I make a pledge for the readers to help the kickstarter to make LiveCode an open source language in the terms of the GPL. There are only about 24h left and we're almost there but we need help.
My little article is at:
http://files.andregarzia.com/pledge.html
The KS campaign is at:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1755283828/open-source-edition-of-livecode
Thanks in advance for all the help making a wonderful tool open source and free! <comment><USER2> I use it for this: <http://andregarzia.on-rev.com/richmond/dwriterpro.html>

Enpowering academics and whole communities alike.

Richmond Mathewson.

</comment><comment><USER3> LiveCode is awesome for building cross platform apps. I'm currently building one that will be deployed on iPad, android tablets, OS X and Windows. All with the same source!

</comment><comment><USER4> Does anyone have experience developing iOS apps that attempt to match native experience with LiveCode? From playing with Die Waldfibel ([https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/die- waldfibel/id453746100?mt...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/die- waldfibel/id453746100?mt=8)), it seems to lack native-feeling momentum scrolling, scroll bars, navigation menus, etc.

</comment><comment><USER5> Andre-

I know folks are gonna jump on you for not using switch statements in your CuteX86 screenshot, but 300 lines of code! Yow!

<comment><AUTHOR> Mark,

Yep, should have used switch. But in the article I say that code is horrible and served a single purpose rsrsrsrs.

I will post the source on github or something similar.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Been using it for a long time and love it's cross-platform abilities - as well as the speed of development and easy to understand language - and it's power!</comment>


Ask HN: Advice on regaining passion at work - <AUTHOR> Hi HN,
    For the last 8 months, I've been on a high pressure and demanding project that has led to a mental burnout and I've lost any passion to do work. Moreover, I've stopped caring about work and become a monotonous mechanical programmer.
As a result, I reached out to other folks at the company and managed to successfully switch to a new team. I still don't have the previous excitement I used to have for work nor the passion. I even don't find joy in my personal side projects anymore which is depressing. I'm hoping this is a short phase and it shall pass with time.
I was wondering if anyone else has been in the same boat and how you handled them. I'd appreciate any advice in this regard.
- throwaway_dev <comment><USER2> It may sound cliche, but take a vacation. A disconnected, no social media, no email, minimal tech vacation. I find that completely tuning out recharges me and after a little while (usually 4 days) the distance from all things tech makes the "itch" come back and my heart a little fonder. I think if you try to work on side projects and have a constant negative self-perception, you won't be motivated to do much at all - not just program.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, maybe that's what I need. A vacation to clear up my mind and purge some negativity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It comes and goes.

Years ago I (semi-)retired from the corporate world for similar reasons and because I thought I would have more fun working on projects related to my hobbies. Turns out that even that got old eventually.

Then a couple of years ago I started working on something else and got renewed passion which continues until today.

Can you take a long break (say 6 months) and go do something completely different (like spend time in the Sahara or something)? When you come back you will have a new passion for your work. Or perhaps you will have discovered a new passion :)

Good luck!

<comment><USER2> This always sounds so nice in theory but how did you pull this off? Did you ask a manager? Quit and find a different job? Assuming you have the savings to do so, how did you just stop working for 6 months and not feel stressed out about the potential looming instability?

<comment><USER3> Simple: I quit.

Yes, I did have savings. Yes, I was single at the time. I recognize that it would not have been possible otherwise.</comment></comment></comment>


Skinny genes the 'secret to staying slim' - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46976031 <comment><USER2> I'm very skinny and often get comments that I can and do eat anything, but I think I have some traits that make it easy for me: I hate ice cream (that fatty feeling in your mouth, ugh, I do love me some butter though!), in fact I don't like most desserts at all. I always prefer savory stuff (like a sandwich or olives for snacking) over sweet things (like cookies or candy). And I never get hungry anymore at night after a good dinner. My wife can each crisps 2 hours after dinner, I don't know how she does it. Or even how people can eat a piece of pie after a fulfilling meal, it just doesn't fit anymore. This could be genetic.

<comment><USER3> It is probably traits - I'm one of those people that can eat almost endlessly (and yes, am not skinny). The problem is that I don't really feel full, no matter what or how much I eat.

If I just continue, then I do get the uncomfortable feeling of my stomach being overly filled even to the point it actually hurts, but still, I don't feel "fulfilled" and have the desire to keep eating.

I'm trying to control it of course, but my life is basically spent almost continuously with the feeling that I could eat some more right now. It's not always hunger as such, although that comes by quite easily as well. It's a continuous drain emotionally.

<comment><USER4> Do you use any drugs by any chance? and if so do you approach consumption of said drugs with the same gusto. This seems more like a eating to be happy thing rather than eating to be full.

<comment><USER3> Not any more and the hungryness doesn't seem to be related to moods too much.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> so, obviously, calories in and calories out are what controls your weight. But that doesn't conflict with the idea that your success at managing your weight in a world where calories in are increasingly cheap and calories out are increasingly expensive is largely genetic.

I think I can speak to this a little bit; I've taken four points off my BMI in the last year or year and a half or so, all through counting calories in and calories out... and I'd rate the experience as slightly easier than trying to breathe a little less.

The most annoying part was that everyone... fat people _and_ skinny people would give me a hard time for actually tracking everything I ate. "Just eat less," they'd say, along with some advice about how they have a friend who lost weight on some fad diet that restricts not how much you can eat but what you can eat. I had a doctor who told me to take the sides I'd normally eat and cut them in half, you know, like I planned my meals or something.

For me? writing down what I ate was key; Obviously, (and this is likely the genetic part) some people have something that causes them to be not hungry anymore after they've eaten enough food. Whatever that is, it's obviously not working properly in me, or else I never would have gotten fat in the first place, so I need some external tracker to figure out if I've eaten enough.

(The other thing that seemed to be different about my experience than about most people's was that if I went a lot below my maintenance caloric intake, say, significantly more than 40% below for several days in a row, my work performance would collapse. If I tracked my caloric intake and kept it around 25% below what I burned, i was okay, though it was still difficult.)

<comment><USER6> I think the hunger thing is habit?

If I'm in a job where I get a regular lunch break at the same time every day. If for some reason I'm late my stomach starts rumbling really loudly, conversely if I eat early I have problems eating because I'm not hungry. Now this can be as little as 30 minutes difference either way.

I don't have the same issue at weekends though.

<comment><USER5> If you eat 25% fewer calories than you burn every day, and you do this for a week, unless our physiology is dramatically different, you will feel hunger that is not related to habit.

Interestingly, for me? If I cut down to the point where my performance falls (closer to 40% for a few days) my hunger kind of goes away. Of course, I can't really work in that state (I'm aware some others can) so it's not really useful to me. If I want to lose weight while still working, it seems I need to experience that hunger.

One of the annoying things for me is that because this hunger is such a big part of my experience, I want to talk about it, and this... annoys almost everyone. Aside from people on the internet who want to insult you for not following their favorite fad diet, it's worse in person, because almost everyone I've talked to about it in person seems to think I'm telling them that _they_ need to lose weight.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Weak scientific result put in the media as a new truth. It does not take a genius to see any picture of Europe in '70s where there are people, to see that with very rare exceptions everybody was slim. The same happened in France, Italy, Germany, ... and now despite that we are genetically the same people are fat. Maybe there are people genetically more inclined to stay lean _despite_ the terrible lifestyle, but that would be another story and another message: you still have control on your weight most of the times.

<comment><USER8> Same thing in the US. Although I'm old enough to remember the 1970s firsthand and to remember that most people were pretty thin.

Other things I remember from that time include: people not having microwave ovens, people eating at home for the most part, trips to fast food restaurants being only an occasional thing, regular restaurants having much smaller portions, and a lack of social acceptance of being overweight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Prof Tom Sanders, emeritus professor of nutrition and dietetics, at King's College London, said: "This is an important and well conducted study confirming that precocious severe obesity is often genetically determined"

No. It says that thinness is genetically determined. Yes one is the flip side of the other, I don't think that allows the 'severe' though.

Professors should surely be choosing their words more wisely.

<comment><USER9> I was watching an interview with the scientist who conducted the study this morning and she indicated it was both.

</comment></comment><comment> black-tea I've been obese. Then I stopped eating too much and haven't been obese for ten years. The secret is not eating too much.

</comment><comment><USER10> I need to invest in a CRISPR home kit...

</comment><comment><USER11> Anyone know the SNPs involved?

</comment><comment><USER12> BBC spam

</comment><comment><USER13> Eating too much food the 'secret to becoming fat'

The secret to staying slim is to not eat more calories than your body uses. Excuses like this will only make obesity even more common and accepted than it is today.

<comment><USER14> Sure, but some might be genetically predisposed to make more efficient use of calories (burn easier rather than store as fat). Which could make a massive difference.

<comment> black-tea Actually the person who makes more efficient use of calories is more likely to become fat because they don't need as much. There's also a lot of evidence that burning through loads of energy will reduce your life span. Eating less is always better than trying to burn more.

<comment><USER14> > There's also a lot of evidence that burning through loads of energy will > reduce your life span. Eating less is always better than trying to burn > more.

I would think that it is highly dependent on what you're burning the energy for... Surely if you eat more to maintain a fit body/lifestyle, it is likely to have a more positive effect on lifespan compared to eating less and living a more sedentary life?

Of course, an optimal balance needs to be struck between the two, but I am very curious on what the research says about this balance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The thing is, for the vast majority of human history, the ability to quickly pack on fat was a crucial survival trait, and those with "skinny genes" wouldn't last over a hard winter. It is only in soft modern society that it is viable to live without onboard energy reserves.

<comment><USER16> Kind of depends on the part of the world you come from, no? Nepali porters seems to be pretty slim and run up and down mountains for a living. Inuit seem to be a bit rounder in general which makes sense given their environment.

<comment><USER15> Well, sure, manual labourers/athletes are likely to be lean in any culture but what about the general population?</comment></comment></comment>


To ban Telegram Russian regulator blocked two million ip adresses(translated) - <AUTHOR> https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://m.roem.ru/16-04-2018/269861/roskomnadzor-amazon-telegram/&xid=17259,15700022,15700122,15700124,15700149,15700168,15700173,15700186,15700201&usg=ALkJrhgvjU-Z33g8ca8FRUiYZ2rL4KJyog <comment><USER2> I no longer live in Russia, so can't tell if it is true, but from what I'm reading, Telegram devs used a clever hack to bypass the blocking.

They say Telegram is using service PUSH notifications (DC_UPDATE - [https://core.telegram.org/api/push- updates](https://core.telegram.org/api/push-updates)) to send new server's IP.

Apparently, those push updates come from Apple/Google/Microsoft notification servers. So if Roskomnadzor blocks those servers, then all push notifications will stop working altogether (not only for Telegram).

Does anybody know if it is possible?

Also, Roskomnadzor asked Apple/Google/Microsoft to delete Telegram app from their app stores.

UPD1: Obviously, Web version of Telegram won't work as it doesn't have/use push notifications.

UPD2: Roskomnadzor blocked ~800,000 Amazon IPs and more than 1,000,000 Google IPs. People say they're having issues with Viber calls

<comment><USER3> Yes it's possible.

Few years back ppl on HN says Chinese government don't dare to block Gmail because it's waaaaayyy too important.

Turns out authoritarian governments don't give a fuck.

Ppl keep inventing the same wheel. See also:

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

<comment><USER4> Thankfully the Russian regulator doesn't feel that kind of power.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I remember a discussion on HN about Orchid Protocol, where proponents argued that if you route traffic through GCP/AWS China wouldn't dare ban the big american clouds because that would, in effect, ban most of legitimate internet for its citizens, and that would have a net negative effect on its economy and its citizens' well-being.

Russia shows that political will and/or technical incompetence can easily overlook these things.

<comment><USER6> China couldn't care about breaking AWS and therefore most of the western companies that depend on it, it would simply provide an advantage to domestic competitors. Last time I lived in China the average person didn't use much from outside of China on a daily basis and it's only gotten worse (back then people still used Facebook over VPNs but that has mostly gone away as far as I can tell after China started more seriously cracking down on VPNs).

<comment><USER7> It's similar with Russia. It has its own search (Yandex), lots of mail servers, video hosting, social network (vk), etc. Western analogs are popular, but if they would become inaccessible, most of people would switch and not care that much.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Russia is sick and I hope it gets help soon, but probably won't.

As reported by one of the leaders of the opposition, ironically on the banned Telegram app ([https://t.me/DmitryGudkov](https://t.me/DmitryGudkov)), the IP blocking has resulted in cash registers no longer being functional at a popular chain of stores.

<comment><USER9> Russia just put the pressure on Amazon and Google. They are basically forced to decide between keeping one customer or to have other services blocked too. So its actually a smart (sadistic) move in a power game, by Russia.

<comment><USER10> It's a game in which the biggest losers are Russian people in either scenario.

<comment><USER9> Of course. Not sure why I was downvoted. I don't agree with Russia's decision a tiny bit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Amazon already asked Zello, another banned communication app, to stop using their servers to circumvent the Russian ban.

Can't see why they wouldn't shy away here as well.

<comment><USER12> Whats funny is that Amazon "support" net neutrality and free speech only if this "democracy" will help they business, if not they will block your account even if you haven't violated any rules

<comment><USER13> > _Whats funny is that Amazon "support" net neutrality and free speech only if > this "democracy" will help they business_

Amazon supports net neutrality in America, a democracy, where debating such things has meaning. Opposing the Kremlin in Russia is meaningless. You'll just get stomped on. As long as Amazon don't directly support anything insidious in Russia, that's a fair compromise between two incompatible systems.

> _haven 't violated any rules_

Different sets of rules.

<comment><USER14> >Opposing the Kremlin in Russia is meaningless. You'll just get stomped out.

Isn't there some line where if a country does something bad enough you will refuse to do business with them? That doesn't seem meaningless to me.

You would only get stomped out in that country. You would not get stomped out globally.

<comment><USER4> Even Apple moved part of the iCloud data to China to continue working there, so I guess they don't care that much as long as that doesn't affect their xore audience.

<comment><USER14> There's probably still some line. Just China hasn't reached Apple's line yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> They have also asked APKMirror to stop hosting Telegram APK's (ie. The install packages for android devices).

No word on whether or not the F-Droid repositories have been contacted as well.

I wouldn't be surprised if infected copies started popping up soon.

</comment><comment><USER16> Russian contact has to use tor on mobile now to access telegram when on cell network. But the home ISP still has access without blockage.

Said contact sent me some text in a screenshot, I'll provide it here. I don't have a source to link to.

According to an unofficial copy of Roskomnadzor's internet blacklist, the hundreds of thousands of Amazon IP addresses (plus some owned by Google and Telegram) are prohibited because of a decision by the Attorney General's office that is technically unrelated to the April 13th court ruling in Moscow that allowed the government to start blocking Telegram.

</comment><comment><USER17> Its surprising AWS hasn't tried to open a Russian region yet. All the arguments about compromise of the data centres etc can also be made even more so for China (which is both a more sophisticated opponent and one that literally forces you to work with their state sponsored companies.

I guess the economics vs just running out of the Stockholm region dont make sense but it seems like an underserved market

<comment><USER18> After this episode AWS would have to be a bit foolish to invest in assets subject to Russian seizure.</comment></comment>


Favorite PG essay? - <AUTHOR>

http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html
My fellow friends and I identify :) <comment><USER2> Beating The Averages <http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html>

<comment><USER3> That's the one that cured me of trying to evangelize Lisp. If the combination of pg's success and pg's essays wasn't going to win people over, nothing was.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> <http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html> \- What You'll Wish You'd Known

</comment><comment><USER5> <http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html> my all time fav.

</comment><comment><USER6> While I'd pick Hackers and Painters, my favorite few paragraphs come from "Why to not not start a startup."

<http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html>

I find the comparison of a job to serfdom to be unsettling. Of course, a modern day cubicle dweller isn't living the kind of life of a medieval serf, but that won't necessarily stop people in the future from looking back on the lives of most people in the early 21st century with pity, wondering how they could have lived with so little personal freedom.

It's not just the analogy, it's the optimism. One reason I'm so behind the new tech economy is that it's about more than business and money - this is about changing the rules. Even if you don't start a startup, or work for one, the way you work and live may be changed, much for the better, if startups prove that people who work freely and own their results dramatically outperform the serfdom of the cubicle dweller. I hope that we can prove that there's no hope in running a cubicle dwelling company - you will simply be thrashed and outperformed by more nimble startups.

</comment><comment><USER7> Forced to choose one, I'd say _What Business Can Learn From Open Source_ (<http://paulgraham.com/opensource.html>). I've felt that stuff for a long time but I was never able to articulate it like PG did. Now I just give people that essay and tell them "This will help explain where I'm coming from."

<comment><USER8> Wow... I somehow managed to skip this one. Great read.

I, however, cannot get rid of the feeling that in open source world there is always one or two "few" who get all the credit (money, fame) for work of many.

Working on something you love is a wonderful thing, but in a realm of all acitivtes _required_ to build something, not everything is a subject of someone's love. In other words, someone will always have to get paid to clean the restrooms.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> 1\. <http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html>

2\. <http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html>

</comment><comment><USER10> Succinctness is power -- <http://www.paulgraham.com/power.html> \-- probably the best article for a language designer. Not only succinctness is power, it turns out to be the most important quality of a good programming language. The rest is a matter of taste, I think.

</comment><comment><USER11> Hackers and Painters <http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html>

See also my view on this here: [http://weblog.fortnow.com/2006/07/science-and- art-of-computa...](http://weblog.fortnow.com/2006/07/science-and-art-of- computation.html)

</comment><comment><USER12> My favorite one is: <http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html>

And this one really inspired me. <http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html>

</comment><comment><USER13> I don't think I would have survived high school if I hadn't read "Why Nerds Are Unpopular".

</comment><comment><USER14> What You'll Wish You'd Known: <http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html>

</comment><comment><USER15> Beating the Averages and The Python Paradox

</comment><comment> daniel-cussen <http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html>

<comment><USER16> "What you can't say" is definitely one that struck a chord. In fact, my paraphrasing the article online is the way I met my husband, so thanks Paul :)

<comment><USER17> Do you have a link to this, ahem, "engaging" paraphrase?

<comment><USER16> Sorry, but it's not online anymore. Though if you're curious, it was the part of the essay about people using words that don't mean anything.

No but seriously, what the hell does it mean to be "offended?"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> <http://paulgraham.com/essay.html>

</comment><comment><USER19> The Power of the Marginal</comment>


New Solutions Found for the Boltzmann Equation - <AUTHOR> http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/university-pennsylvania-mathematicians-solve-140-year-old-boltzmann-equation-gaseous-behaviors

<comment><USER2> Paper is at <http://arxiv.org/abs/0912.0888> . The Boltzmann equation describes the motion of particles in a fluid. If I've understood the opening section of the paper correctly (which I may not have done), other people have found solutions of the Boltzmann equation under some rather unrealistic assumptions about the distribution of relative velocities when particles collide. (AIUI you're supposed to work out that distribution by doing some actual physics, then plug it into the equation; the solutions describe the behaviour of a fluid with the properties encoded in that distribution.) Specifically, past work has required the assumption that collisions at shallow glancing angles never happen, which is typically far from the truth. What's new in this paper is that they've got rid of those unrealistic assumptions. I think.</comment>


Spaceman Diff: Diffing Images on the Command Line - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/holman/spaceman-diff <comment><USER2> 5 stars.

This is the best utility to detect if your image has been transmogrified.

<comment><USER3> You can also use ImageMagick to generate a "diff" image:

magick compare img1.jpg img2.jpg diff.jpg

If you want a numeric result, you can use "-metric AE" (and a null output file) to count the number of pixels that differ.

There is also a "fuzz" option: -fuzz 2%

<comment><USER4> I think he's referencing to the Calvin and Hobbes Transmogrifier. The name of the util reminds of one of the personalities of Calvin : Spaceman Spiff

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wrote a command line utility for finding duplicate images: [https://github.com/nickaubert/pdupe](https://github.com/nickaubert/pdupe)

Useful if you're trying to reorganize pictures after migrating out of one photo management service or another that may have resized images or altered the resolution. It doesn't attempt to display the images (that's what feh or imv are for), it only quantifies images' similarity.

I based on the logic on Geeqie's tool for finding similar images. My tool doesn't do anything that Geequie doesn't, except mine is run from the CLI.

</comment><comment><USER6> > ImageMagick can do everything from image conversion to probably running a > nuclear reactor.

Please, someone chime in that they use 'convert' in some process at a reactor site.

<comment><USER7> At my first job, our lab worked closely with the local TRIGA research reactor, and I did write and run some Java code that analyzed data collected in it. The Java license has always prohibited its use in nuclear reactors, but I figured a little offline analysis would be OK. The results didn't influence the use of radiation in any way.

ImageMagick is old enough and I used it regularly back in the day, but I think (it's been 20 years) most of the data I got was just raw numbers so there probably wouldn't have been much call for it.

I was also working on some (non-nuclear) image processing algorithms at the time, so it's quite likely I ran 'convert' on my laptop while inside the reactor building.

<comment><USER8> _> The Java license has always prohibited its use in nuclear reactors, but I figured a little offline analysis would be OK_

[https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk...](https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk-6u21-license-159167.txt) has:

 _3\. RESTRICTIONS ... You acknowledge that Licensed Software is not designed or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility._

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For those to who it isn't obvious...the name is a pun on Calvin's imaginary alterego "Spaceman Spiff" in the comic Calvin & Hobbes.

</comment><comment><USER10> Wish he just used tiv, it's a far superior terminal image viewer

<comment><USER8> Is that [https://github.com/radare/tiv](https://github.com/radare/tiv) , [https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer](https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer) , or something else?

<comment><USER11> [https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer](https://github.com/stefanhaustein/TerminalImageViewer) is _amazing_ (but requires high-ascii font support from your term). And it's easy to install: `sudo snap install --edge tiv`

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Would it be better if checksum the images ? Unless we want to actually see the actual changes between the two.

<comment><USER13> Git is already checksumming the images. This utility is for looking at the actual changes in case the checksums differ.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Zounds!</comment>