China bars millions from travel for 'social credit' offenses - <AUTHOR> https://www.apnews.com/9d43f4b74260411797043ddd391c13d8 <comment><USER2> Previously (23 hours ago, 144 points, over 180 comments): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19281192](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19281192)

</comment><comment><USER3> It's going to be interesting over the next 10 years to see the outcomes of these experiments in terms of long term behavior change in the population. It's a good time to be a social psychologist in China.

<comment><USER4> Eventually, these policies will eliminate their ability to innovate and advance.

<comment><USER5> That sounds like wishful thinking. The US certainly does soft punishment of dissidents and doesn't seem to hurt itself much on the innovation front. I mean, innovation is definitely lower than before, but still better than everyone else.

<comment><USER4> What do you mean by soft punishment? The United States is a great place to be a dissident. Dissident behavior is kind of expected, and historically, they've been iconified.

<comment><USER5> No, actually, other than something like the communist film writers of the 1950s (who obviously had a better publicity department than most), most American dissidents have been forgotten.

Soft punishment means you don't let them get jobs doing what they're good at. Like commie writers in the 50s.

<comment><USER4> It's never an easy life to be a radical against the establishment. But, there's plenty of tolerance for such behavior (especially if the behavior is non-violent). Even during 50s. McCarthyism was a knee jerk reaction to the Cold War. And, it was quickly rectified.

Our culture encourages thinking differently and speaking out - just consider our history of music, literature, film, comedy, political dissent, etc.

<comment><USER5> I dunno, sounds like happy talk to me. It's definitely part of the english speaking people's self conception that "thinking different and speaking out" is encouraged, but it really isn't any more than in any other society.

Consider the Comstocks, the people who were against US entry into WW-1, the "brown scare" which started the HUAC, people who are presently against various wars in the middle east (denounced as "racists" or "Russian sock puppets"), or various recent coups and attempts at such (ditto); these people were and are squashed fairly mercilessly by the establishment. The actual bounds of allowable discussion are narrow and strictly enforced. Hell, US persists in passing anti-BDS laws that are obviously and egregiously unconstitutional, and the British throw people in prison for saying things ... on FB.

It's a kinder, gentler system than used by the Chinese, but the end result isn't any different.

<comment><USER4> I'll admit that I'm probably biased, and I haven't had enough experience living outside of the US to have gained a different perspective.

But, now I'm curious. Which countries are currently and historically known for being tolerant and accepting of dissent? Honest question - I've been considering retirement lately, and I'm up for a new adventure.

<comment><USER5> If I had to rank them, I think Iceland is the most tolerant country. Assuming you know how to use the Icelandic-correct way to use Sauna and the Hot tub. Generally speaking I think smaller countries are better for this; dissent becomes a judgement on a personal level which is almost always more generous than on a societal level. In Iceland I heard many times, "I knew Bobby Fischer, he was a nice man." In America we still think of him as some kind of demon because ... I dunno, he said things I guess. Reality was he didn't bother anyone which is more than you can say for virtually any US politicians.

Personally I don't look at things this "what is most tolerant" way. You don't pick the country which is tolerant and accepting of dissent: this is a futile exercise. You pick the country which best fits your views.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is a weird article. It mentions in passing that implementation of a nationwide system is only planned for 2020 without concrete details yet, but otherwise pretends as if the blacklists, the experimental credit scores and the internment camps in Xinjiang are all part of a single "social credit system".

But the government doesn't need to know someone's credit history to determine whether they are Uyghur, and forcing people to pay their outstanding fines before they can buy plane tickets doesn't need a complex score either. Those factors would probably influence the social credit score once it gets implemented, but so far they're really separate systems.

Edited to add: a lot of people here are hung up on the idea that if your friends have a low score, you'll be pulled down with them and end up unable to buy a plane ticket. But to include someone on the travel blacklist, a judge needs to order it. That judge is still required to do the Party's bidding, so don't expect a fair trial; but it's not like there's an automatic system doling out travel bans for minor violations.

<comment><USER7> They're planning on rolling out the system nation-wide in 2020 and making it obligatory, and nobody knows how exactly that system will look like.

However, there's over a dozen of local projects already in place, whose participation is voluntary (Honest Shanghai[0] is one of them). Offer a couple of gift cards and cheaper rental cars and there's your test group.

It is a commonly-accepted opinion in China that if you commit a crime in a city X, you shouldn't be able to go to city Y and repeat the same crime. Limiting the movement of "criminals" is how you achieve that goal. There are other techniques as well, like naming-and-shaming "offenders" on public billboards in their neighborhoods.

[0] Some screenshots and a bit of details available here: [https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1554/new-app-rates- shanghai-c...](https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1554/new-app-rates-shanghai- citizens-honesty)

<comment><USER8> With the offer of rewards I can see a similar scheme becoming popular in Western countries too. I expect it would have a large overlap in users with Facebook.

It is possible to argue that we already have an informal social enforcement scheme, with people having lost jobs and being doxxed because of saying the wrong thing on social media.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Honestly I hate how dystopian and alien Western publications make China's social credit system when our actual credit system (Equifax/Experian/Transunion) bars millions of people from getting a cell phone, renting apartments, even getting a job (why is it even legal or useful for an employer to check your credit?!).

Point is, preventing people from access to communication, housing, and employment because of nonexistent or bad credit is much more dystopian than not being able to buy a plane ticket.

<comment><USER3> On my first long trip to the US in 2001 I couldn't buy a simcard because I didn't have a credit history. A prepaid plan btw.

"How do I get a credit history if I just landed?"

"Well here's a free credit card application. We'll give you a credit card immediately. Run around the mall and buy some stuff."

Which I had to do.

Weird country.

<comment><USER10> > couldn't buy a simcard because I didn't have a credit history. A prepaid > plan btw.

Maybe this was a 2001 thing, but you definitely do not need a credit check for prepaid plans. Maybe you were also financing your phone?

>"Well here's a free credit card application. We'll give you a credit card immediately. Run around the mall and buy some stuff."

This sounds suspect as well. I've seen in store applications, but they never give out cards to use on the spot. Also, I highly doubt that they would give a credit card to a non-resident with no credit history.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "U.S. Vice President Mike Pence criticized it in October as 'an Orwellian system premised on controlling virtually every facet of human life.'"

Americans forget we have our own "social credit" system, and I'm not convinced China's is any worse than ours. Want to sign up for TSA Pre-check? Certify you're not a convicted felon, otherwise you're ineligible.

Want to coach little league? Background check. Rent an apartment? Background check. Get a job? Background check.

Want to vote? Depending on the state, you can be imprisoned if you've been convicted of something (i.e. low social credit score).

And, finally, if you're a defendant, if the other side wants to dig out every little secret they can find and trot it out before the judge, jury, and/or public, expect a ding to your social credit for every matter they bring up, in terms of the outcome you receive.

Before we point out the sawdust in China's eye, we should acknowledge the plank in our own.

<comment><USER12> There is a speck of truth to what you say but I think you are conflating things. There is a difference between keeping convicted pedophiles away from children and suspecting terrorists off airplanes and the other checks you list. A lot of the things you cite aren't even government checks but financial risk assessments of businesses.

Having a friend that tweets anti-government thoughts shouldn't mean you can't take the train. Drinking alcohol shouldn't prohibit you from applying for a government job. Playing too much video games shouldn't mean you can't leave leave your town. A lot of the information about this system and its rollout is hard to get accurate facts about since everyone on both sides is most interested in sensationalism. I've never seen any information about _if_ you can ever improve your social score. Even people who commit crimes have the about to do their time and work to start over. People need 2nd chances.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm not arguing for or against this - however I'd feel significantly more comfortable and at ease for the safety of China's citizens of such programs if there wasn't also their layer of censorship.

Re: Downvotes - I'm really curious how you're all comprehending what I said as a negative? Do you think the censorship isn't a worse component of China's systems? Or are you projecting and think I'm saying more than that? I'm sure I'll be downvoted further because of how uncivil having a system of downvotes actually is - lazy and doesn't allow or promote civil conversation, just promotes someone being able to get a dopamine reward by clicking a down arrow instead of digging deep into understanding their feelings and putting them into language, developing critical thinking, and if the impulse isn't strong enough then you just won't comment - perhaps better off for everyone if you haven't put enough thought into it yourself - or maybe you'll even share a perspective or reasoning or point out that my wording wasn't as accurate as I meant.

<comment><USER14> I am not sure I could ever advocate the restriction of the right of movement on "unsocial behavior/associations". That generally only happens to people on parole who have committed actual crimes. Censorship just makes this even worse...

So I don't see how you can be so neutral on this. Honestly, a lot things from what I have read this evaluates should never be in the purview of any government.

<comment><USER13> I didn't say I'm neutral - I simply said I'm not arguing for against it with the statement to follow; I didn't want to put a weight one way or the other of my thoughts/feelings relating to the "social credit" system, in part because I'm not familiar enough with it.

Also, wasn't me who downvoted you.

<comment><USER14> Okay how would you feel if your score went down because someone you knew was "sketchy" (may just be the beliefs) to this system. Like this has made people cut ties with other people.

<comment><USER13> It's not good. That's what natural trust networks are meant for, and developing your own skill to protecting yourself, your family, the circle of people for whom you bring or consider within your circle - of whom you associate with hopefully without external pressure, although it certainly happens because of bias or vested interests.

It shows a lack of integrity of the individual, and is a slippery and dangerous slope as Hitler and and the SS would want or require you to report your neighbours, etc - and it sounds like this is all without due process. If the Chinese people knew this literature, this history: I don't know if they do know, or what version they know, or if they know the similarities between what China is doing and what Nazi Germany did - which is where the grave concern for the system/layer of censorship is what I pointed out.

I do have compassion and understand that if merely associating with someone with a "low social credit" brings your own credit score down, that based on if people do indeed know and are quiet about not talking negatively about government, then they may be doing so to protect themselves. They won't however know then if they distance themselves from these people what happens to them, if they are taken off in trains to "rehabilitation camps" for "rehabilitation" or murder.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: React Native Express – Learn React Native Through Interactive Examples - <AUTHOR> http://www.reactnativeexpress.com/ <comment><USER2> Q: Should one get familiar/experienced with React[0][1] first before jumping into React Native dev?

Or is this tutorial sufficiently stand-alone without React (web) experience?

[0] [http://survivejs.com/react/introduction/](http://survivejs.com/react/introduction/)

[1] [https://online.reacttraining.com/p/reactjsfundamentals](https://online.reacttraining.com/p/reactjsfundamentals)

<comment><USER3> As someone who dove headfirst into RN without JS/React experience (~5 years of iOS), you don't need to know any of that stuff beforehand.

I haven't gone through (or really looked in-depth) this tutorial, but I can say that the ES{x} features are pretty easy to grok once you've seen and written them a few times. Most of the syntax specifics are easy to pick up just by reading code. The biggest things I'd focus on for starting into RN is:

\- React lifecycle (componentDidMount, willUnmount, shouldComponentUpdate, etc) \- Add render counts into your debug builds so you know if components are re-rendering way more than they should (shouldComponentUpdate is your friend here).

Other than that, learn by building. Keep an open mind to frustrations since RN changes rapidly, and the documentation/examples/libraries online are not the most up-to-date.

<comment><USER2> Nice, I'm going to jump strait into this then. Thanks!

I did find the You Don't Know JS[0] book series extreamly helpful as a C++/Python coder who has only done enough JS to get by. But that is the extent of my prep for learning React Native.

Interestingly, the YDKJS author (Kyle Simpson) is very down on the adoption and heavy usage of ES6 class notation and the over-reliance of the syntactic appearance of a OO-language class systems in JS.

His argument is the abstraction _will_ leak the in-its-own-right powerful delegation system of JS prototypes, so why not just learn/use raw objects or his OLOO (objects-linked-to-other-objects) pattern.

I find it hard to mentally map the ES6 class to the equivalent object+prototype structure it is syntax sugar for, so just throw my hands up and for the most part pretend they are Python style open-objects.

[0] [https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know- JS](https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is the gold standard for online tutorials - concise explanations, interactive code, and a well-thought-out flow. Really appreciate you taking the time to produce such a high quality resource.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is the best way to get started learning React Native, really amazing work Devin!

<comment><USER6> Agreed - so far I think it is the best introduction to learning React Native. And I've reviewed a lot of them - see [https://github.com/hsavit1/Awesome- React-Native-Education](https://github.com/hsavit1/Awesome-React-Native- Education)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is really well done. I'm fairly familiar with React & was able to pick this up around Section 3 "Core Components" [0] & feel like I could be decently productive with React Native.

Thanks for sharing your work!

[0] [http://www.reactnativeexpress.com/core_components](http://www.reactnativeexpress.com/core_components)

<comment><AUTHOR> :D That's what I like to hear!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Hod @ Couchbase. Looks like an excellent tutorial. I understand you have limited time, and this is providing a great resource to the community. I'd ask, if you have the chance, to take a look at Couchbase Mobile. I'm of course biased, but I think I can legitimately claim that Couchbase is on par with Realm (as evidenced by business critical apps using it in large scale deployments). Happy to chat about it (hod@couchbase).

<comment><AUTHOR> For sure! There was definitely demand to know more about Couchbase Mobile at my class, so I know it's relevant for people using RN.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Can anyone give pros/cons of RN vs Native in a nutshell?

I'm already familiar with native coding, but not sure how much better RN is than say PhoneGap.

<comment><USER10> Development time is a lot quicker with RN. Not only are you targeting a single code base instead of maintaining two apps, but the React environment helps you to be productive.

The React way of managing views makes a lot of sense - change a variable and the whole UI updates accordingly. Also, rather than going through the typical debug, modify code, recompile cycle, there is a Hot Reload mode in RN where your code updates are immediately applied when you save. Laying the UI out with RN's CSS-style syntax is a lot easier than doing it by hand or mucking with Interface Builder / Android XML files. There is a lot that RN wraps around that gives easier management of than the native approach to, e.g. a BackButton component vs. dealing with a stack of Android fragments.

I haven't done any PhoneGap programming, the lack of native UI always scared me off. Without that, I never felt like I could hit a level of polish that was acceptable. The nice thing with RN is you can build you own native components and access native functionality as needed. It's not super well documented, but powerful when you need it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The sections with ES6 vs output compiled with babel is amazing. Javascript really has come a long way.

<comment><USER12> Amazing yes. But I think that on certain sections they should output the console value instead. I'm specific talking about the Array Spread example as the Babel output in that case is a very roundabout and verbose way of showing me what the Array Spread Operator actually does. I think it would be better to allow the user to play with the operator and see the output of it right next to the code.

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally agree with you on that. When I have a little more time I'm gonna add that.

The compiled output starts out awesome with the first few sections, and then just gets tedious and weird.

<comment><USER11> Still useful, but yeah, adding the console output would be even better for said sections. Either way, I'm loving this write up. I saved it to run through the entire tutorial, starting tonight.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Small nit pick. Realm does not use the "underlying SQLite database" as listed here: [http://www.reactnativeexpress.com/persistence](http://www.reactnativeexpress.com/persistence). Realm is built from scratch as an append only database, see here: [https://realm.io/products/realm-mobile- database/](https://realm.io/products/realm-mobile-database/) and here: [https://github.com/realm/realm-core](https://github.com/realm/realm-core).

<comment><USER2> How would you compare Realm vs Couchbase Mobile in terms of a syncing mobile store?

Maybe a more fair comparison is to IBM's CloudantSync[0] which is the managed service version of Couchbase compliant Cloudant.

[0] [https://developer.ibm.com/clouddataservices/offline- first/](https://developer.ibm.com/clouddataservices/offline-first/)

<comment><USER8> Hod @ Couchbase. Couchbase Mobile has had sync for a long time. It's used in serious, large scale deployments. (Check out the video from Ryan Air if you want to see a really cool example of how they were able to improve their app with it.) Couchbase is a document oriented database storing JSON and blobs. (I'm not a Realm expert, so I won't attempt to compare sync solutions.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I built a personal finance app using RN - [https://www.titmiceapp.com/](https://www.titmiceapp.com/). I had some prior React.js knowledge but rest assured as long as you have javascript experience, you can do without it.

The biggest pain point so far is adding analytics but otherwise, everything is pretty smooth sailing.

Also I come from a web developer background, so structuring layout isn't too unfamiliar. AMA if you have any qns. I'm looking to pour all these experiences into a blog post before my next distraction comes and terrorizes my short-term memories

</comment><comment><USER14> Doesn't work at all on IE11/Win7, blank page, errors

        SCRIPT438: Object doesn't support property or method 'findIndex'
        File: bundle.js, Line: 2, Column: 26381

<comment><AUTHOR> :( I will fix. Thanks for the error message. I only use findIndex once, fortunately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Quick feedback: the first code example on [http://www.reactnativeexpress.com/redux](http://www.reactnativeexpress.com/redux) defines the action types in an object, but then never uses the definitions, instead just hard-coding strings. Would be good to fix.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah! Nice catch. Will fix.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Omg perfect timing. I was just looking for something like this. Y'all are the best.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is an excellent tutorial. I have been looking for something like this forever: "One should be able to learn React Native directly through this tutorial, without starting with React" Thank you!

</comment><comment><USER18> This looks pretty useful!

Question - is it possible to make a third-party keyboard in react native currently (the kind you download an install from the app store)?

<comment><USER19> I've built one. It worked nicely once loaded but I found it took too long to initialize when switching between keyboards so I ended up going purely native. For your use case this may not be an issue however.

<comment><USER18> any chance you open-sourced it ?

<comment><USER19> Let me see if I can get it working again, it was a while ago. If so I'll try get it up on github for you.

<comment><USER18> thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> FYI Array Spread section is missing the example.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed :)

<comment><USER20> Awesome. Going through this as I've been meaning to pick React back up (after previous failed ramp up attempt) and I'm finding it really effective easy to follow.

Another fix: In Redux Minimal example types.INCREMENT is defined at the top but then never used.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Amazing work!

</comment><comment><USER22> Keep up the great work! Upvoted ;)</comment>


Eliminating Global Interpreter Locks in Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/files/jp-ODAIRA/PPoPP2014_RubyGILHTM.pdf

<comment><USER2> Interesting!

\---

7\. Conclusion and Future Work

This paper shows the first empirical results of eliminating the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) in a scripting language through Hardware Transactional Memory (HTM) to improve the multi-thread performance of realistic programs. We proposed a new automatic mechanism to dynamically adjust the transaction lengths on a per-yield-point basis. Our mechanism chooses a near optimal tradeoff point between the relative overhead of the instructions to begin andend the transactions and the likelihood of transaction conflicts and footprint overflows. We experimented on the HTM facilities in the mainframe processor IBM zEC12 and the Intel 4th Generation Core processor (Xeon E3-1275 v3). We evaluated the Ruby NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB),the WEBrick HTPP server, and Ruby on Rails. Our results show that HTM achieved up to a 4.4-fold speedup in the Ruby NPB, and 1.6-fold and 1.2-fold speedups in WEBrick and Ruby on Rails, respectively. The dynamic transaction-length adjustment chose the best transaction lengths. On Xeon E3-1275 v3, programs need to run long enough to benefit from the dynamic transaction-length adjustment. From all of these results, we concluded that HTM is an effective approach to achieve higher multi-thread performance compared to the GIL. Our techniques will be effective also in Python, because our GIL elimination and dynamic transaction- length adjustment do not depend on Ruby. Conflict removal can be specific to each implementation. For example, the original Python implementation (CPython) uses reference counting GC, which will cause many conflicts, while PyPy uses copying GC and thus is more suitable for the GIL elimination through HTM.

\---

Funny how I stumbled on this article just after finding out about Peach:

Parallel Each for JRuby

[https://github.com/schleyfox/peach](https://github.com/schleyfox/peach)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=7802918](https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=7802918)</comment>


Ask HN: What, if any, is the most faithful HyperCard workalike in 2020? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> People mention LiveCode as a modern successor: [https://livecode.com/docs/9-5-0/introduction/welcome/](https://livecode.com/docs/9-5-0/introduction/welcome/)

Myself, I use Mini vMac to run the original HyperCard. It's endlessly fascinating, though not for practical use. [https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac](https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac)

Really, the web and "hypertext" is/was supposed to be the evolution of HyperCard. I occasionally get a flash of joy, a remembrance of that dream, when working on React apps with hot reload - where I'm no longer writing code, but shaping a living material.

I still believe the potential is there for a new HyperCard, some kind of participatory, visually programmable social media (in an authentic sense of the term).

<comment><AUTHOR> > Really, the web and "hypertext" is/was supposed to be the evolution of > HyperCard. I occasionally get a flash of joy, a remembrance of that dream, > when working on React apps with hot reload - where I'm no longer writing > code, but shaping a living material.

With you all the way on the instant feedback thing. (This is what the smalltalk people demonstrated in the 70s and 80s.)

The web is not -- in a turtles-all-the-way-down sense -- wysiwyg like HyperCard or some application of that nature, which is what I was looking for. I expect someone has made something in Squeak or Pharo which has the qualities of HyperCard.

>I still believe the potential is there for a new HyperCard, some kind of participatory, visually programmable social media (in an authentic sense of the term).

agree.</comment></comment>


How to be a super hacker - <AUTHOR> http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Super-Hacker.aspx

<comment><USER2> Isn't this known as the "Social Engineering" form of hacking?</comment>


11 Best Basecamp alternatives for project management 2018 - <AUTHOR> http://alternativoj.com/basecamp-alternatives/ <comment><USER2> Thanks a lot for sharing this amazing list.</comment>


Study: Diet May Help ADHD Kids More Than Drugs - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/2011/03/12/134456594/study-diet-may-help-adhd-kids-more-than-drugs?sc=fb&cc=fp <comment><USER2> _altering your child's diet without a doctor's supervision is inadvisable._

WTF? I'm sure this is just a CYA, but the idea that most people need the advice of a medical professional to make dietary decisions is absurd. Sure, be careful about any radical fad diets, but adding or eliminating certain foods is quite safe. People do that all the time due to price fluctuations, availability and changing tastes with no ill effects.

<comment><USER3> There's also the possibility that there will be parents that severely restrict their child's diet in a way that causes malnutrition too...

[edit] Not saying that it's a good reason to make that statement, but that's what that CYA aspect probably is...

<comment><USER4> This shouldn't be downvoted. It's a real risk. It's _easy_ to over-restrict a child's diet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So they basically hypothesized ADHD is often a symptom of a food allergy, tested that premise and found some strong evidence for it. Just the kind of straightforward and useful study that somehow never seems to get funding.

Have a glance at the charts in the Lancet PDF (that erikpukinskis helpfully linked) to see the improvements versus the control group and the way that reintroducing high-sensitivity foods caused a regression:

[http://marrym.web-log.nl/files/adhd-and-elimination-diet- rct...](http://marrym.web-log.nl/files/adhd-and-elimination-diet-rct---the- lancet-2011.pdf)

Wow. If I was a NYTimes health reporter, I would start researching a story on how up-and-coming young families are requesting food allergy tests for their seemingly asymptomatic kids as a matter of course, because that's clearly going to be the trend now.

<comment><USER6> On page 500, under Discussion: "Blood tests assessing IgG levels against foods did not predict which foods might have a deleterious behavioural effect. ... We recorded no difference in behavioural effects after challenge with high-IgG or low-IgG foods. These results suggest that use of IgG blood tests to identify which foods are triggering ADHD is not advisable. However, IgG blood tests might be useful in other diseases."

<comment><USER5> I wonder if the IgG test they used is that reliable, though.

It might be that their results are limited by the accuracy of the ImuPro test, which would be a shame.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The article title is a bit misleading. It looks like they done a blind search on foods the children ate and by process of elimination found foods whose removal caused the reduction of ADHD like symptoms from 64% of kids in their sample. The Two signal paragraphs are:

 _Pelsser compares ADHD to eczema. "The skin is affected, but a lot of people get eczema because of a latex allergy or because they are eating a pineapple or strawberries." According to Pelsser, 64 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD are actually experiencing a hypersensitivity to food. Researchers determined that by starting kids on a very elaborate diet, then restricting it over a few weeks' time.

...

"In all children, we should start with diet research," she says. If a child's behavior doesn't change, then drugs may still be necessary. "But now we are giving them all drugs, and I think that's a huge mistake," she says._

My questions as someone ignorant of this area are 64% seems a confident generalization, theres no real physiological basis with respect to neurochemistry given for what causes these er mental allergies, what foods or absence thereof created the best results, is this scalable - it seems very trial&error so susceptible to misapplication and corner cutting and

I don't know how to read the following statement:

> _Also, Pelsser warns, altering your child's diet without a doctor's > supervision is inadvisable._

<comment><USER8> I think reaction to food can vary greatly from individual to individual, so maybe a broad generalization doesn't make sense. Or rather it makes sense to determine individual problems, rather than broad common problems.

Supposedly they could have created a similar study by just testing a single problematic food item (I don't know, wheat or whatever), and they should also have found an effect - only smaller.

It does not seem to outlandish that different things can trigger allergies, yet all allergic reactions are somewhat similar.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Full study here: [http://www.adhdenvoeding.nl/cms/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/P...](http://www.adhdenvoeding.nl/cms/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/Pelsser-The-Lancet-2011-Publication-INCA-study.pdf)

<comment><USER9> Here's a better summary article:

[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/diet- cha...](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/diet-change- improved-adhd-childrens-behaviour-lancet-reports/story-e6frg8y6-1226000212800)

<comment><USER10> Yes, that article draws attention to the important issue that the study was not "blind" and thus subject to influence by observer-awareness effects.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> After some supplemental reading, the hypothesis of ADD/ADHD symptoms as a reaction to food allergies has been tested before[1], the authors had done a previous experiment published back in 2009, and it appears this experiment was designed to avoid criticisms[2] of past experiments in the field.

[1] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8257176> [2] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17048717>

<comment><USER12> Cool!

Is the full text of [2] available anywhere? I can't seem to find it with web searches.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> ADHD has a long history of claims of diets supposedly helping kids with the diagnosis. It began with the Feingold diet, went on to the Gluten-free/Casein- free diet, and now apparently exclusion diets. I am rather sceptical.

<comment><USER5> That's what makes this study interesting. Instead of a "hey, maybe this works" regimen, the foods excluded from the diet in this study are individualized according to the patients' measured allergic response.

It would be interesting to look at the data, even with this small sample, to see how different the individual diets ended up being.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Some doctors attribute ADHD, particularly the inattentive sort, to actually be a manifestation of general allergic reactions which really just makes people tired, and triggers symptoms that would classify a person as having ADHD according to the DSM (Remember, the DSM generally makes no distinctions as to what causes a condition, it only diagnoses it.) They often try to treat the allergies first, which is generally a good start.

I have both ADHD and a mild latex allergy. Ironically, the latex allergy makes eating almost any fruit shitty ( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome#Cross_rea...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome#Cross_reactions) )

However, my diet has definitely kept clear of most of these foods when possible for a long time now (although I really do love avocados), and even did the fatty fish thing for a while, but symptoms haven't changed for me.

<comment><USER15> The conclusion of the original study is that it isn't an allergic reaction that is causing the symptoms, but that somehow restricted diets still work.

Their "few-foods diet" was rice, meat, vegetables, pears and water. Then, based on the needs of the individual kids, likes and dislikes (and maybe their known susceptibility to various allergens?), etc, potatoes, fruit and wheat were added.

You could try just sticking with the reduced few-foods diet for a month and see if symptoms improve.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I read this article on the ketogenic diet and epilepsy a while back:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/magazine/21Epilepsy-t.html>

If I understand correctly, nobody completely understands why these dietary changes effect such significant benefits. But the results are interesting, to say the least.

About six years ago, I was forced to change my own diet quite radically. It has been a huge adjustment, but the process has made me acutely aware of just how much certain foods can effect me physically and mentally. And, too, how the physical reaction to certain foods effects me, mentally. So my bias here is obvious -- it's good to see investigation into possible causes. Especially when the medications for ADHD are a bit scary.

</comment><comment><USER17> As a pretty strongly affected ADHD person and as the parent of an extremely affected seven year old, my experience is that no, diet alone will not help kids more than drugs. I'm a vegetarian, eat right, work out - all the right things - and, although they help, they are no replacement for some type of methylphenidate (i.e. Ritalin or Concerta). I don't need a study to tell me that "One approach does not work for all people."

Sorry for the rant - I just think it's easy for non-ADHD people to dismiss ADHD. I see hyper kids who get called "ADD" and then people make comments/decisions about truly ADHD kids from these people ("Just don't feed them red dye #10!" (or whatever)).

<comment><USER11> Read the study, it's not dismissive at all. According to the authors, roughly 1 in 3 kids don't respond to changes in diet.

As someone who recently abandoned methylphenidate for my new BFF bupropion, I understand the sensitivity to common claims that ADD/ADHD is primarily a lack of will power or a lack of parental/teacher discipline. But I still believe in science. Part of my early treatment involved vitamin supplements for serum deficiencies in iron, B12, and D. Bringing those levels up did not alleviate the symptoms for me, but I'm open to scientific investigation of reports that such supplements were a crucial difference for other people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> My kids are more ASD rather than ADHD but dietary changes and nutritional supplements and generally treating previously unrecognized health issues did a lot for them. While I was really, really sick, I got asked at times if I was (or accused of being) ASD or ADHD. I have no reason to believe I am either, though if I am feverish, in pain, throwing up, heavily medicated and so forth, my attention span and social skills are definitely impaired. Getting healthier has done a lot for my "social skills" (which I actually have, I just sometimes am too screwed up to effectively execute) and attention span/ability to focus.

</comment><comment><USER19> From an anecdotal perspective, I can tell you that diet has the most significant effect (either in aggravating or helping) ADD, this is great advice. With children, it's even worse since any effect that food would have would be multiplied because they're smaller (just like drugs are dosed way less)

<comment><USER19> Downmod? Care to elaborate?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is this relevant to Hacker News because a significant portion of us are ADD and need to cut out the bahama mamas from our drink diet?

<comment><USER21> We've gotten to the point where damn near any article is argued to be relevant to Hacker News. Keep fighting the good fight... I'm with you in spirit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The OA's theory does not surprise me. Food is just chemicals we put into our body. Alter the chemicals, alter the effects on behavior and health. And I wouldn't be surprised that, in addition to the cases where an allergy is involved, a lot more kids today are getting too much sugar and too much caffeine, and possibly trace elements from plastics and pesticides and detergents, and none of the latter group should probably be going into our bodies at all -- and weren't for the first few million years of our existence because they didn't exist yet!

</comment><comment><USER23> Filed under "no shit Sherlock".</comment>


Dad and the Egg Controller - <AUTHOR> https://www.pentadact.com/2018-12-18-dad-and-the-egg-controller/ <comment><USER2> """ I didn't know much about it, but I was fairly sure you don't bring an oscilloscope to a barbecue. """

I think I'd enjoy the sort of company that would require an oscilloscope at a barbecue.

<comment><USER3> Indeed there's an oscilloscope on my kitchen table right now; at the other end are placemats. This doesn't seem absurd.

<comment><USER4> My 3D printer lives on the kitchen counter. Right next to the toaster and stand mixer.

<comment><USER5> If you print ABS or PC, look into proper ventillation. Known carcinogens present in the fumes.

Proper ventillation for my home-residing 3D printer is the bathroom. Close the door and hit the fan.

You can guess when the idea hit me... :D

<comment><USER6> > You can guess when the idea hit me... :D

While cooking?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > _So, technically, I made a game. It's a game where the only level is a giant > room that looks like my business card, the menu system writes a giant code > across it, then it takes a screenshot. Thirty times a second. You win the > game by waiting for 7 seconds. Then when you quit, you have a folder full of > 200 images, each with a different code on them, which you can send straight > to the printers._

This is an amazing approach.

<comment><USER8> It certainly is an amazing approach.

One of my former co-workers was a physicist who knew LabView and he used it for everything from parsing log files to sending automated emails.

<comment><USER9> I've seen just about everything written in LabView -- used to work with a bunch of EEs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If anyone likes his storytelling and is into PC gaming, he is a founding member and regular on what I feel is the best gaming podcast around: The Crate and Crowbar[1].

It's run largely by a bunch of ex-PC gamer magazine journalists so their analysis of games and the issues around them are really interesting, and a number of them have moved into game development (such as Tom) which gives them an extra perspective.

Tom also does a lot of storytelling of his game experiences which is a lot of fun.

[1]: [http://crateandcrowbar.com/](http://crateandcrowbar.com/)

<comment><USER11> I've nearly worked my way through the Idle Thumbs archive, and was starting to think I'd run out of driving entertainment soon :P

I'll add this to my podcast rotation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> That's the ultimate test for a project: can someone else use it?

I managed to somehow add a Wifi-controlled cruise control to an RC car that I borrowed from my kids, but somehow it ended up such a complicated mess that noone except myself can use it...

<comment><USER13> I often start off a little less ambitious - if I let it rest for a month, can I pick it up and use it myself again? :)

<comment><USER14> I thought that was only true of code.

<comment><USER13> Ohno, very much so with hardware too. With the added dimension of "will it start smoking when I turn power on?" :). Key is to clearly mark what's expected of the user, eg "IN 3-5V", not just "3-5V" since it may not be obvious.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Loved the story, really captures the magic of curiously poking the universe that most folks call inventing stuff

Complete side note....I has wanted something _just like_ the Egg Controller, and got the "fireboard" as a gift. It works fantastically well, and I've wholeheartedly recommended the product since then. The technology stack is well done - changes are instantly reflected on the mobile/desktop/controller - and I've gotten 10x better at smoker cooking using the data collected. Some examples in case anyone is curious:

Here's a test of how well my oven PID works - [https://share.fireboard.io/F65461](https://share.fireboard.io/F65461)

Here's me showing my grill controller board going bad (got a free replacement board using the data!): [https://share.fireboard.io/C95FDA](https://share.fireboard.io/C95FDA)

Here's is a fun one - I wanted to track how much ambient temp changes the internal meat temp (per advice to open/baste as quickly as possible). TUrns out, it's good advice, there is a significant effect! [https://share.fireboard.io/792FDC](https://share.fireboard.io/792FDC)

etc...not affiliated with this company in any way

</comment><comment><USER16> This is such a heart-warming tale. As one who's struggled to cook on my father-in-law's Big Green Egg, I fully understand the need for such a controller. Cooking on the Egg always fills me with performance anxiety.

The world needs The Egg Controller. Take it to market!

<comment><USER17> You will be happy to know that they do already exist; there are the Stoker, BBQ Guru, Fragger, Cyberq, Digiq, Egg Genius, Auber controller, and more! Modern pellet smokers have a PID controller right in there. There's also my homebuilt monstrosity, but it's not for sale, and you wouldn't want to buy it anyway.

As someone who's been through a thought process that was likely similar to OP's dad, I can say it usually goes something like this for me:

"I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay one hundred dollars for two thermocouples, a fan and an 8 bit micro running some PID library I don't even have to write. I have all of that crap in my junk drawer."

For the record you can bring an oscilloscope to a BBQ. And a DMM. And grab those bench supplies and the logic analyzer while you're down there. And of course you didn't grab the spectrum analyzer, but you ended up needing it after all.

Things get a little crazy; the better part of a case of beer gets consumed, and the next day you're watching your brisket come up to temp on your phone while you pop into the hardware store for a piece of sheet metal. Your BBQ looks like you are building a nuke with all of the smoke and colored wires snaking out of the big ceramic bomb casing to breadboards and test gear and antennas. A rainstorm would easily cost you five thousand dollars right about now.

Over the next week or two the purple PCBs show up along with some red ones and blue ones and a big box from Digikey. You have to wait a little longer for the OLED display to show up from that ebay seller in China because damned if you are gonna pay Digikey's stupid price.

So naturally it takes you until the next summer to solder it together and thank god it works perfect the first and only time you will ever use it because you really don't want to have to try to get your code to compile again.

This is where the "You should sell it" guy comes in. And so you say thanks, but you think to yourself "Damned if anyone's gonna pay six hundred bucks for something they can buy for a hundred."

<comment><USER18> Ah, the old money/time pit called "saving $100".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> > "Quite neat, actually" – his strongest possible praise for a gadget.

I wish understatement would make a bit of a comeback.

<comment><USER20> It's alive and well in the engineering community in Cambridge, UK.

E.g.: A "couple of nice little tricks involved" in making something work probably means you should ring up some patent lawyers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Brought a tear to the corner of my eye. Anyone with this kind of legacy has lead a good life.

<comment><USER22> My grandfather was the opposite unfortunately. We found a radio power supply he made, I carefully but not carefully enough reverse engineered it, brought it up slowly on a variac and after three minutes it exploded violently spewing capacitor guts everywhere.

We came to the conclusion that this wasn't operator error either. He'd finished it but was too scared to power it up himself so locked it in the cellar.

<comment><USER23> Anyone who's not ducked capacitor shrapnel isn't really an electrical/electronic engineer. Perhaps he was leaving you with an initiation ritual.

<comment><USER24> Normal (not utility scale) capacitors do not blow up anymore. You can plug them on the wrong way directly on the rectified mains, they bubble, expand, get hot, and smell; they don't blow.

<comment><USER22> They do explode quite violently still. I've blown up tens of new ones.

Try an average Chinese or even rubicon 10uF 63v ish cap which is in just about every bit of crap from SMPS to cheap toys. They go with quite a Big Bang.

<comment><USER24> Well, looks like I got lucky on my choice of suppliers :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This article made me slightly sad that my kids might one day find my various gadgets among all the junk in the garage and not be able to figure them out, but equally not want to throw them out for sentimental reasons.

I need to either put printed instructions on everything, or else dispose of them before I die!

<comment><USER25> > dispose of them before I die

That is my plan. My parents had so much stuff they had saved and I hated to throw any of it away after they died because most of it triggered specific fond memories. Yet the stuff they did get rid of, I never missed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> > This was a programming problem, and the only programming language I knew was > the one I made the game in: it's called Game Maker.

This reminds me of a kid I used to play MUDs with. He started getting into programming by writing scripts for the MUDs, but he refused to learn any other scripting or programming languages. Over the years I saw him implement a chess engine, a web server, and even a whole MUD all using his MUD client's integrated scripting language.

</comment><comment><USER27> Relevant xkcd

[https://xkcd.com/974/](https://xkcd.com/974/)

</comment><comment><USER25> "Proportional-Integral-Derivative Controller" never knew what that was called. Guessing that would just be a Raspberry Pi these days.

<comment><USER28> PID [1] is the feedback-driven algorithm to control the error in a process. You could deploy the implementation of the PID on a Raspberry pi or an arduino or probably even a PIC.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Its a neat thing, the software left behind as monument to a men.

<comment><USER30> I think in this instance I get more of his dad's 'flavor' from the hardware though.</comment></comment>


Treasury Reaps Billions as It Sells Citi Shares - <AUTHOR> http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/treasury-reaps-billions-as-it-sells-its-citi-shares/?src=twr <comment><USER2> But the US government may still be guaranteeing a lot of their assets, in particular troubled mortgages and other toxic assets that might not be gone from their books.

In 2008, this guarantee was for $306 billion.

[http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a...](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aYXG9i3RJRRk)

<comment><USER3> Sounds like that is included:

> And the government will get even more money from its investment in > Citigroup. The Treasury said it would reap a profit of $2.25 billion by > selling all its Citigroup trust preferred securities, which it received for > guaranteeing $301 billion in the bank's most troubled assets. It expects > that sale to be completed on Tuesday.

<comment><USER4> How does selling these trust-preferred securities relieve the Treasury of its obligations to guarantee troubled assets? (I ask because I don't know)

<comment><USER3> Because they only sold the securities after the guarantee agreement was over:

[http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100930/bs_nm/us_usa_citigroup_t...](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100930/bs_nm/us_usa_citigroup_tarp)

> In a statement, the Treasury said it sold all of the trust preferred > securities that it received in exchange for guaranteeing a pool of about > $301 billion in Citigroup assets. The Treasury never made any payouts on the > guarantee, which has been canceled.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> By the time the government exits all the ownership stakes acquired by the bailouts -- banking industry, auto industry etc. -- there could be 100 billion plus in profits. That should go directly and immediately to more economic stimulus, to further counteract the economic damage caused in the first place.

<comment><USER6> I'd prefer it went to paying down a little of the national debt.

<comment><USER5> I'm trying to reply to this in a way which doesn't turn this political. The national debt will not be brought under control until government spending policy reflects that. Putting that money on the national debt is like paying down the credit balance on a reckless spending teen card holder; it doesn't really help the overall situation. This money is free and clear profit, so it looks to me like it should go right back into the economy immediately where it can be beneficial immediately. A bird in the hand and all that...

<comment><USER7> I'm not sure how you could ever manage to make $100 billion in government borrowing or spending not 'political'.

If you reduce government borrowing by $100 billion that frees up $100 billion for use by the private sector. Quite a few people would argue that $100 billion in private investment via the free-market is a much better idea than $100 billion in dubious government projects selected via political horse trading.

<comment><USER8> That $100b doesn't get really "freed up", at least not entirely, and certainly doesn't go directly to the private sector. Part of it more or less gets destroyed: among large institutions, federal debt instruments, especially short-term, are treated as something close to cash. The government buying it back (by paying down the debt) takes that quasi-cash out of circulation, deflating the money supply. In effect, the government uses $100b of one kind of money to destroy $100b in quasi-money.

<comment><USER7> * The government buying it back (by paying down the debt) takes that quasi-cash out of circulation, deflating the money supply. *

We aren't talking about paying down the debt. We are talking about borrowing less money this month than we did last month because we just sold our shares in Citibank and so we've got a few billion in cool cash lying around. The total debt continues to go up, just at a slower rate.

From the credit market's point of view, the US govenment just sold a few billion less in bonds this month (as compared to last month) and so that means that the creditors have a few billion more to invest elsewhere.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> In a really roundabout way, the Fed is manipulating securities in much the same way Wall St did during the financial crisis. Only an entity with that much buying power could make such a vast investment with such incredible terms. It seems like they said, "we're gonna loan you a bunch of money and then you're going to owe us that much and then some back, and to protect our investment, we will make a guarantee to your solvency so our floor is profit."

<comment><USER5> The U.S. Treasury stepped in to prop up the banks (i.e. the financial system) with the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP. This was essentially taxpayers loaning money to banks in trouble which were threatening to bring down the entire financial system, since no one else would, in exchange for ownership in the banks. The Federal Reserve is not the same thing as the Treasury.

<comment><USER10> You're correct but the Federal Reserve took actions on its own to try to make the banks solvent and directed the treasury on its course of action. The Federal Reserve ended up with a bunch of garbage on its balance sheet as a result of this activity.

We don't know to what extent because there is no full audit of the Federal Reserve's activities in this department (for our benefit of course).

We do own the "Red Roof Inn" though so that's cool I guess.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE3oiKuU8UI>

<comment><USER5> Yes, you're correct. The Fed I believe was forced to purchase many of the toxic securities directly. Many people don't understand just how severe and dire the situation was. One thing I'm not quite clear about is what happens at the individual home level with some of those securities. For each of the mortgages sent up to Wall St., who is the legal owner of it? I read somewhere that many of these mortgages were sitting in boxes in warehouses somewhere. If you've signed to repay a loan to a lender, how can those terms be enforced when rights to the loan are divvied up as securities?

<comment><USER11> The relation is like a futures contract to a commodity. You are just trading an abstract thing, not the commodity itself. CDOs are bonds created by the corporations that hold the assets, not assets themselves.

<comment><USER5> Right, okay... so let's say I walked into my local bank and took out a mortgage, which was then sent to Bear Stearns, which then collapsed. JP Morgan Chase bought those assets, so I guess my mortgage would now be held by JP Morgan Chase...

<comment><USER12> No, actually here is what probably happened.

Bear Stearns created a small shell company with a detailed and interesting charter. They loaned this company a large sum of money, in return for a set of bonds. The company used that money to purchase the loans from Bear Stearns. At this point Bear Stearns owns bonds whose value is approximately that of the loans. (Actually slightly more because the bonds are structured to better meet investor's needs.) They then turned around and sold the bonds to investors.

One of those investors (in theory it doesn't have to happen this way, but in practice it does) gets both the most risky piece of the investment, and a contract to run the company by rules specified in the company charter. That investor is called the _servicer_ , and they are responsible for the day to day activities of the company. Which mostly consist of collecting loan payments, paying out the bonds, and making detailed records available to any properly qualified investor. Once the last loan is gone, the company has no assets and goes away.

Your loan is now owned by the shell company (which has no employees and exists only to shovel income from loans and send them out again as bonds), which is run by the servicer. JP Morgan Chase did not purchase any connection to this company when they bought Bear Stearns unless Bear Stearns chose to keep some of the bonds. (They did keep some from many deals, and purchased some from deals they didn't do, so they may be an investor.) Control is with the servicer. However it should be noted that the servicer's hands are tied by the charter, and there is very little flexibility in how they can choose to run things.

Also note that once the deal goes bad, the servicer's incentive is to run the deal in whatever way maximizes the servicing fees they get. This has proven to result in decisions that are counter to the interests of both investors and people who owe the loans. For instance renegotiating a lower loan that people can actually pay generates less in servicing fees than taking a loan through bankruptcy court. Therefore the servicer often prefers driving loans into bankruptcy even though that is worse for everyone else.

Now do you see why this is a mess?

<comment><USER5> Wow... I think I've got it all, but could you give an example of who would be a "servicer"?

<comment><USER12> I haven't been in the bond business since 2003, nor did I deal with servicers then, nor did I deal with user loans. Therefore I don't know the names.

However it looks like [http://www.americanbanker.com/mortgage_serv/top- subprime-ser...](http://www.americanbanker.com/mortgage_serv/top-subprime- servicers-at-123109-1018661-1.html) can give you a bunch of the names and how much servicing they do. I can guarantee you that they will be a bunch of companies you've never heard of from all over the country. Except that if you have one of these loans, then you're familiar with the one who is servicing your loan.

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the info. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> so when the govt makes "a good profit from its investment" (according to the article) ... where are those profits applied? Surely not to lower my taxes slightly ...

</comment><comment><USER14> Wish the Gov't would push this money out as dividends to shareholders

<comment><USER5> In this case the shareholders are U.S. taxpayers due the dividends. So, let's say profits amount to 100 billion, and divide that by 300 million Americans. That's about a $333.00 rebate check. That certainly could help as economic stimulus. I'm all for it.

<comment><USER14> Precisely.</comment></comment></comment>


Why practice makes perfect: How to rewire your brain for better performance - <AUTHOR> http://blog.bufferapp.com/why-practice-actually-makes-perfect-how-to-rewire-your-brain-for-better-performance?hn

<comment><USER2> <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5780255>

<comment><USER3> If there are no comments on the other submission either, there's no point linking to it other than to say "I got it first"</comment></comment>


13 Reasons your Facebook account will be disabled - <AUTHOR> http://getsatisfaction.com/facebook/topics/13_reasons_your_facebook_account_will_be_disabled <comment><USER2> That's why I will never invest my time in Facebook,</comment>


The architect designing self-assembling habitats for space - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190131-the-architect-designing-self-assembling-habitats-for-space <comment><USER2> I can't seem to see the full article. It seems like an endless scroll after the initial introduction. Can you provide some key words or the name of the person so I can search for another article?</comment>


GM developing car to rival Tesla - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323981304579079492902482638.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

<comment><USER2> In related news, GM is starting a new division it will call Saturn, in hopes that it can compete against Toyota and Honda.

</comment><comment><USER3> All you young scientists and engineers should pay attention to this story, in particular this: "... all face the same problem: current electric vehicle batteries are too expensive, and deliver too little usable driving range compared with vehicles powered by internal combustion engines."

It is an unmet need not unlike a cheap, durable electric light bulb or an effective mousetrap. It is an inevitable technological development, and chances are someone alive today will meet it and become richer than Bill Gates.

I say this to all you people starting your careers who post here saying, "What do people want? What should I be working on?" This is what people want. This is what you should be working on -- battery and general energy storage technology.</comment>


Visualizing language usage in New York Times news coverage - <AUTHOR> http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=google.programming.radio.olympic&format=percent <comment><USER2> I love how strikingly editorial changes show up:

"Theater" vs. "Theatre": [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=theater.theatre](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=theater.theatre)

As well as how quickly culturally accepted terms are replaced:

"Mrs." vs. "Ms.": [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=mrs..ms](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=mrs..ms).

<comment><USER3> Another cultural change - [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=gay..homosexual](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=gay..homosexual)

<comment><USER4> homosexual, gay, same sex, lgbt: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=gay.homosexual.lgbt.sa...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=gay.homosexual.lgbt.same%20sex)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The OCR anomalies are very interesting...for example, it seems that the word "fuck" occasionally found its way into the NYT pages throughout history:

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=fuck&format=count](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=fuck&format=count)

But if you look at the pre-digital-text archive period (pre-1990?), you won't see "fuck" in the actual articles, such as the ones in the 1880s...I tried other cusswords and saw that they would appear in the very-old stories but no other time in NYT history...So I'm guessing that there is some fuzzy matching going on to compensate for the text in the scanned archives.

<comment><USER6> There are several hits for 'Internet' in 1853, and hundreds for 'email' in the 1890s. To avoid that, maybe they could weight the OCR recognition based on a word's first occurrence in dictionaries (backdated a decade or two).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I was about to ask why the word "equation" is trending upwards since 1960 even though the related words "equations" (plural) has not. It also doesn't exactly track the word "mathematics". But after I added the word "music", it reminded me that the Y axis shows "equation" at less than 1%. I suppose that's within the realm of random noise insofar as word count statistics. Maybe NYT had the odd mix of staff writers that happen to use "equation" more often in the journalism that's unrelated to any larger cultural context.

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=equation.mathematics.m...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=equation.mathematics.music.equations)

(unclick "music")

<comment><USER8> Perhaps non-mathematical usage of "equation" in phrases like "entered the equation" and "wasn't part of the equation" has been increasing?

I certainly hear it in conversation often enough, but I've never taken note of how frequently it's written.

<comment><USER7> Yes, that seems possible.

The Google Books Ngram Viewer doesn't have any hits for "enter the equation". However, the word "equation" and "equations" have the opposite trend from NYT.[1] But to emphasize again, the hits are less than .01% which is potentially abusing the word "trend".

[1][https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=equation%2Cequ...](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=equation%2Cequations%2C+music&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cequation%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cequations%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cmusic%3B%2Cc0)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Love it.

Just a simple one of past presidents (last names) [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=clinton.bush.obama.rea...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=clinton.bush.obama.reagan.carter.nixon.gerald%20ford.watergate) (didn't want to try ford because of the automotive bailout, but that might have given better results)

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=social%20security.bail...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=social%20security.bailout.crash.unemployment.jobs)

Seems like "jobs" wasn't thrown during the great depression like it is today.

These match up pretty well...

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=politics.supreme%20cou...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=politics.supreme%20court)

<comment><USER4> try this one for presidents: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=president%20nixon.pres...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=president%20nixon.president%20kennedy.president%20ford.president%20carter.president%20reagan.president%20bush.president%20obama.president%20clinton.president%20johnson)

Seems like "jobs" has somewhat replaced "employment" and "unemployed": [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=jobs.unemployed.unempl...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=jobs.unemployed.unemployment.employment)

<comment><USER10> I'd be careful with "jobs" since case appears to be ignored, so it's likely picking up references also to Steve Jobs (or anyone with that last name)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Some interesting symbolic stats:

[1] [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=computer.smartphone.mo...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=computer.smartphone.mobile)

[2] [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=security.freedom](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=security.freedom)

[3] [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=men.women](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=men.women)

[4] [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=homophobic.homosexual....](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=homophobic.homosexual.queer)

[5] [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=love.money](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=love.money)

<comment><USER12> I think his vs her is more interesting than men vs women.

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=his.her](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=his.her)

Surprisingly, the difference seems to be be fairly constant.

<comment><USER11> I would expect that to be more constant when individuals are addressed. My interest was towards addressing men and women as a group, which - to some degree - would reflect the 'relevance' of the group for the given time in media.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It took me a long time to realize that articles related to a topic can be seen by clicking on the year. This instruction is hidden below the screen fold. It'd also be nice to see actual numbers (along with the %) for each year during hover.

It'd also be useful to see a curated list of topics to select from, instead of just randomly picking some related topics on page load. Hopefully they harvest some interesting suggestions they receive through @nyt. There are some fun topic-suggestions in this thread already.

Overall, a nifty tool that I wish existed for all news sources in the world and worked across all languages.

Thanks to the creator(s)!

</comment><comment><USER14> Wow nice, and look, and maybe it can even predict a likely future:

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=vietnam.korea.iraq.rus...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=vietnam.korea.iraq.russia)

</comment><comment><USER15> This surprised me; even at the height of the phrase "war on terror", it was still matched by "cold war", which was going down, then bounced up: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=cold%20war.war%20on%20...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=cold%20war.war%20on%20terror)

Also, a nice way of visualizing just how far back this data reaches: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=reconstruction](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=reconstruction)

</comment><comment><USER16> Here's an encouraging one:

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=beatles.bieber](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=beatles.bieber)

</comment><comment><USER17> I love how "Netscape", "Loudcloud", and "Opsware" were mere flickering events for the NYT, but "Andreessen" got traction and has been on an upwards trend for the last ten years. Also - a unique spelling, while probably annoying when he was growing up, certainly makes it easier to track his presence in media.

</comment><comment><USER18> Does anyone have an idea why the occurrence of "New York" drastically drops (62,000 articles vs. 29,000 articles) between 1980 and 1981?

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=new%20york&format=coun...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=new%20york&format=count)

<comment><USER6> Perhaps they stopped using datelines for stories?

It was probably a change in style or format, not a reduction in the number of stories about New York, because the percentages of stories about other cities drop in a similar way at the same time.

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=new%20york.washington....](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=new%20york.washington.moscow.london&format=percent)

Bonus... the end of that chart, I think you can see when the NYT really did begin to expand its proportion non-local news.

<comment><USER18> Aaah, that makes sense. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Note: Don't take the titles seriously.

Publishing schedule changes? [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=saturday.sunday.monday...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=saturday.sunday.monday.tuesday.wednesday.thursday.friday)

Strong correlation: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=moon.mars](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=moon.mars)

Each peak higher than the previous leader: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=microsoft.google.faceb...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=microsoft.google.facebook.twitter)

Resilience: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=computer.phone](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=computer.phone)

And then there was one: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=fax.iphone](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=fax.iphone)

Exponential decrease of area: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=telegram.fax.iphone](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=telegram.fax.iphone)

There's still hope: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=science.pop%20music](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=science.pop%20music)

We meet again, after almost a century: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=america.russia](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=america.russia)

The baby boomers had it so good: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=marriage.divorce](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=marriage.divorce)

Didn't last: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=blessings](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=blessings)

Interesting: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=luck](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=luck)

Added:

Increasing aspirations or inflation? [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=millionaire.billionair...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=millionaire.billionaire)

Obligatory: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=hacker](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=hacker)

</comment><comment><USER20> What if more articles were published in a particular year? I mean I assume the data would be skewed if more words existed in a particular year. I figured they'd measure how the language of say a random bunch of 5000 words as changed over the course of the life of NYT.

</comment><comment><USER21> Search Query: ipad. This article looks interesting: [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/11/technology/state-of-the- ar...](http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/11/technology/state-of-the-art-the-web- without-microsoft.html)

</comment><comment><USER22> These plots would be even more interesting with a logarithmic scale option.

In Chronicle-golf, the most common word I can find is "new" at 74% of articles in 1978 (which beats out "who","what","when", "why", and "how"...).

<comment><USER23> "I" gets ~79% in 1869.

<comment><USER22> Whoa - "can" scores 100% in only one year.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> The obvious one, some religious denominations: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=jewish.christian.musli...](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=jewish.christian.muslim.buddhist.hindu)

</comment><comment><USER25> [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=nigger.chink.chinaman](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=nigger.chink.chinaman)

I wonder how much of the change is terms becomes slurs and how much is NYT racism.

</comment><comment><USER19> How expensive food items are "created": truffles, caviar: [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=truffles.caviar](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=truffles.caviar)

</comment><comment><USER26> Civil War, World War II, and more!

[http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=assault.attack](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=assault.attack)

Ok, what happened in 1871?

</comment><comment><USER27> [http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=negro](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=negro)

</comment><comment><USER28> the largest percentages i found so far are for the words: president and war.

<comment><USER3> The trends for "russia" and "military" worries me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> An interesting one: try "code". There's an odd spike in 1934

<comment><USER6> It's very likely to be related to the National Recovery Administration, which was formed in 1933, and set price codes and codes of fair practice. It must have generated a huge amount of public debate and lots of news stories.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Administratio...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Administration)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> c# was way more popular in the 1800's than today.

</comment><comment><USER31> Interesting that "republican" is much more common than "democrat" and has been for all the decades covered by the graph.

<comment><USER32> You're comparing different things there: Republican is both the noun and adjective form, while Democrat is only the noun form. "Clinton is a Democrat" and "Bush is a Republican", but "Obama was the 2000 Democratic candidate" vs. "Dole was the 1996 Republican candidate".

You could try to adjust for that by comparing Republican vs. the sum of Democratic+Democrat, but that also pulls in unrelated uses of both terms: "democratic reforms in $countryname" and "Irish republicans", especially since it isn't case-sensitive. Which then probably overcounts "democratic", because it's used in that non-US-party sense more than "republican" is.

In general this kind of thing makes it _very_ tricky to conclude things from pure word or n-gram frequency counts, since without more semantic annotation there are a ton of confounding issues.</comment></comment>


A real-time chat app in 23 lines of Python and 35 lines of JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/dunglas/mercure/pull/32 <comment><USER2> I'd take 46 lines of python and 70 lines of javascript if we could have a moderation panel that gives admins access to vistor ips and ability to block names, ip subnets and cidrs.

Would be nice to finally get a replacement for the old RealChat application - everyone seems to be building light ux apps without security. Fine for chatting with friends or coworkers, not so great for open web deployment.

</comment><comment><USER3> Should have a "Show HN:" tag.

</comment><comment><USER4> It's a pull request that hasn't been merged yet? Why share this?

<comment><USER5> Not OP, but I suspect it's to either drum up interest for it and/or get more eyes on the code in the hopes that others will review it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> What's the difference mercure and the competition such as wamp.ws ?

<comment><USER7> They address this in the README of the repo ([https://github.com/dunglas/mercure](https://github.com/dunglas/mercure)) under the "What's the Difference Between Mercure and WebSocket?" section:

> WebSocket is a low level protocol, Mercure is a high level one. Mercure > provides convenient built-in features such as authorization, re-connection > and state reconciliation ; while with WebSocket, you need to implement them > yourself. Also, unlike Mercure (which is built on top of HTTP and Server- > Sent Events), WebSocket is not designed to leverage HTTP/2.

> HTTP/2 connections are multiplexed and bidirectional by default (it was not > the case of HTTP/1). When using Mercure over a h2 connection (recommended), > your app can receive data through Server-Sent Events, and send data to the > server with regular POST (or PUT/PATCH/DELETE) requests, with no overhead.

<comment><USER6> Wamp.ws is not raw websocket, it's a high level open protocol standardized and registered at IANA. It features rpc, pub sub, namespaces, realms and has FOSS client implementations in python, c++, java, js, php, c#...

So my question stands.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I was about to comment about how it might be better to use WebSockets since SSE has a bad compatibility history, then I realized what mercure is.</comment>


Ask HN: Do you think there are too many posts on HN? - <AUTHOR> This discussion could also be divided further, e.g.
1. How many articles do you click and read through entirely?
1a do you navigate to second, third page?
2. Would you appreciate the content more if you knew there was a time window until new content could be posted? <comment><USER2> I think it's likely a lot of good stuff that gets posted never makes it to the front page.

As I look over at New, at 8am EST on a Monday I see 27 stories posted in the last 30 minutes. I don't know if that's average, but I suspect it's low compared to later in the day when more people are awake.

<comment><USER3> Yep. Please visit the newest page and upvote the good post.</comment></comment>


CSS Testing with PhantomCSS, PhantomJS, CasperJS and Grunt - <AUTHOR> http://www.phase2technology.com/blog/css-testing-with-phantomcss-phantomjs-casperjs-and-grunt/

<comment><USER2> Used this technique myself and I can recommend it, Also Best practices are using only on specific areas of the web page, since this kind of testing is fragile and change prone.

Might be your only option when testing non DOM parts of a webpage (such as canvas based) from the outside (e.g selenium or casper.js for example)

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm actually about to start setting up something similar myself. I had a pretty basic setup using Wraith a while back, but it wasn't terribly useful during heavy development since everything was intentionally changing.

Last I checked (not too long ago), Phantom didn't support flexbox properly, and I'm heavily invested in it now. Hopefully I can find something that works.

[https://github.com/BBC-News/wraith](https://github.com/BBC-News/wraith)</comment></comment>


Rare color photos of Berlin from the 1930s to the 1960s - <AUTHOR> http://interaktiv.morgenpost.de/historisches-berlin-in-farbe/ <comment><USER2> The one thing that bothers me more than it should, it's than the new photos are not taken at the same angle and/or distance than the original ones, making the comparison worse than it could.

<comment><USER3> I recall a talk or possibly HN post I saw once, where they developed some software to warp photos like this to account for camera position and focal length.

<comment><USER4> Photoshop can try to do this with "Align layers". I've found it to be pretty good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm a sucker for these kinds of photo comparison essays .. always great to see, and as a recent implant to Europe its been a decade now of looking at people's old pictures, before/during WW2, and comparing to how it is now in the modern age .. and I'm always struck by how modern things seemed to have looked in 1930's/40's ..

The first two pictures in this article for example include buildings which to my modern eye look out of place "in the early part of the last century", as they are 'too modern'.

But then I wander around these places now and see these buildings in their physical form, and I'm filled with even more wonder that they survived so long and still have a feeling of modernity to them. I wonder where this bubble came from and how it came to be that I cannot see the modern world for the centuries-long process it is, and only feel connected with 'modernity' formed in the recent decade or so. I think this is something that changes as one gets older and starts to care about these things - never in my youth would I have been concerned with the trivial meanderings of comparison with the then and now.

<comment><USER6> I think the era we are born into define us way more than we'd like to admit and it includes our feeling of being at home in the architectural environment we grew up into.

There is something along that line in Rice's vampire chronicles where she states vampires tend to prefer and retain the taste for what was considered beautiful or worthwhile when they were humane.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting how much of the prominent architecture is still in ruins (presumably from WWII era bombing) into the 50's and 60's.

I mean, I guess it makes sense, since there was a lot of stuff to repair and important infrastructure and industry was probably higher on the to-do list than Cathedral and Courthouse repair. But I hadn't really thought about how long the prominent war-time damage would've lasted.

<comment><USER8> I think Berlin is unusual. Construction happens very slowly here. Things don't get fixed quickly. And there is a lack of desire to change the city too much, physically.

As an example, the paving on the pathways is in a constant state of being repaired because the design is such that the little stone blocks pop out very easily. Many of the side roads are still cobbled (and a nightmare to cycle on). People don't worry about it.

<comment><USER9> As an American, I think those cobbled streets are one of the most charming things about Berlin. IIRC, many of the sidewalks are of some stone-like construction as well, quite a delightful change from the flat, poured concrete that I have to walk on in the US. When there are sidewalks at all that is.

It's almost as if it was all designed to lure one outside.

<comment><USER10> Cobblestone is really nice until you have to walk on it for hours. My inferior North American knees couldn't take it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Was the Google's self driving car based on the one from 60s? (last picture)

<comment><USER12> In Soviet-satellite East Germany, car drives you!

<comment><USER13> Very droll. That photo was taken in West Berlin and the car in question is a BMW 600[1], built between 1957 and 1959. (Oddly enough, I saw its little sister[2] not far from that spot a few days ago.)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_600](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_600)

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The picture of the City Palace (Stadtschloss) is interesting. It looks like they accidentally swapped the old and the new picture. The building is complete in 1939 and far from finished in 2015. Upon further research (Ok, I wiki'd it) I found out the original building had been knocked down to make way for parking in 2008 and only 5 years later in 2013 they decided to start rebuilding it.

<comment><USER15> The site has an interesting history. The former Stadtschloss suffered serious destruction during WWII ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Berlin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Palace,_Berlin) ) and the Communist East tore it completely down to build the Palace of the Republic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Republic,_Berlin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Republic,_Berlin) and acted as the hub of DDR government. Once the wall fell, and DDR disintegrated, in 2008 DDR's Palace of Republic was almost completed demolished, and work on new Stadtschloss which very much resembles the original commenced.

<comment><USER16> I hope they intend to add back the decoration. Comparing the photos the old building had character, but the new one is all blocks and smooth faces.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Surprising how they had much more street advertising back in the day compared to now.

<comment><USER18> Perhaps there are more alternatives to neon signs now? TV, Internet, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Fantastic - I really like this kind of documentary.

</comment><comment><USER20> How do you take photos that look like the old ones? They seem to have much more interesting colors.

<comment><USER4> Films behave a little differently than digital sensors. Films don't have perfect reciprocity characteristics (1/2 the exposure doesn't necessarily yield 1/2 the negative density, but digital sensors essentially count photons and obey the reciprocity law quite well), nor does slide film have the dynamic range of digital sensors, so the look tends to be different. I was recently taking some pictures around town with Velvia 50 and immediately thought "wow, this looks like it was taken in 1990". It really does give a distinct look. The sky gives it away: [https://goo.gl/photos/ciawuX28bbBhnehc7](https://goo.gl/photos/ciawuX28bbBhnehc7)

There are also other characteristics that come into play. With digital sensors, you're capturing colors as seen by the color matrix on top of the sensor; Nikon, Canon, and Sony make these differently. With film, you're physically activating dye, and the dyes are also chosen uniquely for each film. So the colors can end up looking different, both because of process difference and intentional changes of the color. (Velvia 50 does not provide what one would call accurate color, but the inaccuracy is quite pleasing. The same goes for the Kodachrome/Ektachrome which were very popular in their times.)

<comment><USER21> IMO the most important characteristic that digital lacks is the "shoulder" of negative films. Once you exceed the target exposure of the film by several stops, it starts to take exponentially more light to further expose those areas. This translates into the ability to capture more detail in the highlights. It's not ideal - the tones of the film are certainly "blocked up", and color film may start to show color shifts (usually to yellow). It's better to hit the exposure properly. But with proper scanning or wet-printing technique (particularly split-filter printing) you can recover quite a lot of detail.

On digital - when the pixel goes to 255 light intensity, it's just gone. There's no way to recover data that isn't there. The Magic Lantern firmware has the ability to scan out lines alternating between high and low ISOs to capture blown-out areas, but it's not perfect either.

"Modern" films tend to be very well-behaved with regards to these kind of characteristics, actually. Acros 100 has virtually no reciprocity failure - for exposures between 2 minutes and 10 minutes you need to add 1/2 stop of light. I've recovered pictures off negatives with virtually no visible exposure. The tonality is great and the grain is virtually invisible even with Rodinal. The new Portra 400 is also extremely forgiving - you can get something workable up to about ISO 1600 or 3200 with standard processing, and if you push process (develop longer) it's even better.

<comment><USER4> For color I mostly use Velvia 50 and Ektar 100 both which have poor reciprocity characteristics. When the meter indicates 10 seconds I expose for 20, and the results are pretty good: [https://goo.gl/photos/uL3a8Ezf3NJfhdP49](https://goo.gl/photos/uL3a8Ezf3NJfhdP49) Note that it's turning white lights green because of the reciprocity effects, but I kind of like that color. (The datasheet recommends a filter to correct this, making the exposure even longer. Given that I took this picture on a bridge, 40 seconds without a car going over and ruining the photo was going to be a stretch. Indeed, this picture is a little blurred because the bridge moved; my digital camera took a much better picture under these conditions.)

I have some Provia 100F which works to something like 160 seconds, I will try that in the future for long exposures.

I haven't tried the Portra films yet, as I mostly do landscapes, not portraits, and prefer Fuji's inaccurate colors for that application. (Ektar is a bit more muted color-wise, which yields a nice calming effect: [https://goo.gl/photos/jMLY9UwS5Uwn2TQW7](https://goo.gl/photos/jMLY9UwS5Uwn2TQW7) )

One other thing: digital camera tend to get rated on shadow detail, not highlight detail, so their built-in light meters tend to "expose to the right", discarding highlights in favor of collecting more shadow detail. If you meter off an 18% grey card, a real light meter tends to give a shorter exposure than the camera's built-in meter, better preserving highlights. As someone who likes a well-defined sky, I'm betrayed by the camera manufacturers here. (But you'll of course notice it on the screen, and you can just turn the exposure compensation wheel to underexpose, and you're golden. It is not quite so easy with slide film, involving a lot of measurements and very careful spot metering. Therein lies the fun.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> this is amazing</comment>


Choosing a Web Framework/Language Combo – the SRS Test Application - <AUTHOR> http://jacquesmattheij.com/choosing-web-framework-language-combo-srs-test-app

<comment><AUTHOR> Discussion of part one can be found here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7777149](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7777149)</comment>


The Brix System: a collection of modular devices [video] - <AUTHOR> http://www.lovehulten.com/brixsystem.html

<comment><USER2> Looks cool, for sure! But... most of this can be done in software, and in an even more modular and flexible way.</comment>


Pyresto - A general REST based ORM for Python - <AUTHOR> http://pyresto.readthedocs.org/en/latest/index.html

<comment><USER2> This would be great library -- only if they begin to support a wide range of commonly used APIs. Idea is good, so should be the execution.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice. i think to use it my django projects.

</comment><comment><USER4> Seems useful!

</comment><comment><USER5> Awesome!</comment>


Samsung Galaxy Tab's Gorilla Glass can stop (BB) bullets - <AUTHOR> http://www.uberphones.com/2010/11/samsung-galaxy-tabs-gorilla-glass-can-stop-bullets/

<comment><USER2> BB "bullets"? Really? Gross attempt at a more linkbaity title.</comment>


The Stable Marriage Problem - A Mathematically Optimal solution to Marriage - <AUTHOR> http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~evs/intro/stable/writeup.html

<comment><USER2> I'm surprised the author doesn't make reference to Knuth's classic work on the subject.</comment>