phunel

Mr. Hawking is obviously a brilliance we've been privileged to learn from, but in this particular instance the wisdom of Freeman Dyson immediately struck me as more sound:

"Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect. Trouble arises when either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, when either religious or scientific dogma claims to be infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally dogmatic and insensitive. By their arrogance they bring both science and religion into disrepute. The media exaggerate their numbers and importance. The media rarely mention the fact that the great majority of religious people belong to moderate denominations that treat science with respect, or the fact that the great majority of scientists treat religion with respect so long as religion does not claim jurisdiction over scientific questions."

I like the parallels - I'm managing a tech company at the moment but have previously worked at production companies. The overlaps are ample but I'm curious if anyone sees the negative aspect of such low barriers of entry.

I first noticed this as I started losing interest in photography following the shift to digital. Previously it required such a large degree of craft and investment of time. Interestingly enough this is what made it rewarding. Exposing celluloid, developing it by hand, and printing in darkrooms was something of a meditative and powerful process. And in turn the results were more highly valued. After the barriers were removed via digital photography the space got more crowded, and the craft was, if not eliminated, then replaced by something altogether different.

I understand nothing is stopping anyone from still developing by hand, but the value has been destroyed as you can't compete with the low cost or, more importantly, the low barriers for creating a satisfying image - and in turn, the value of photographers as a profession (and the work they create) has become saturated.

I balance this reality with the undeniable ease of shooting now, and there is room for innovation yet in that field. And the social benefits of being able to easily share imagery is still in its infancy. But in my heart I'm doubtful if we'll see another Cartier-Bresson or Adams as the climate has been saturated, and therefore simply commoditized.

And so that's the question - do low barriers of entry inherently lead to saturation/commodification of a craft (as much as you can label startups/entrepreneurship a craft)? And is that, in reality, the point? The inevitability?

Sounds great. I'll be looking forward to the settings update which I assume will be accessible via a different url (versus user controlled setting)? I.e. toadjaw.com/hninverse Again, nice implementation and it's become my default as of now.

Would love to see the text displayed inversely - whether in traditional terminal style (green text on black background) or something similar to arc90's readability style.

Anyone in the HN community working on PGP encryption for the iPhone/Android? Not in the hushmail vein, but using the Thunderbird/Enigmail implementation of GnuPG as the model instead? Thoughts?

Very helpful. Looks like it should be the ticket. Perhaps more interesting was the kdenlive project. I wasn't aware of it previously. I'll still most likely use final cut on another laptop for polish, but I'll give it a try and thank you kindly for pointing me in the right direction.

Are there any recommendations for a good screencast program on Linux?