nlanier

As a professional brewer by trade, I did not have it on my bingo card that the culprit behind 'old person smell' would be the same as the compound prevalent in stale beer.

I've found that this engineered optimization has a more pernicious side effect: killing curiosity.

Lack of complexity stunts the desire to become curious - to give reasons to look closer, ask questions, compare experiences - and ultimately develop 'taste'.

When everything is optimized into its most obvious, frictionless, immediately-rewarding form, the sum of all experience becomes more 'pleasant' but harder to care about.

The author touches on something that's been grating at me (and is professionally relevant) for some time now, and I appreciate his effort to articulate it.

I'm fond of New Zealand, where you either pay as you walk out or the waiter brings you a mobile POS. There's no awkward 'take my credit card, walk away with it, and bring it back' moment. It's a much better system, and I would love to see it more common in the US.

Absolutely love the sense of discovery this has. Kudos to the creator… I will be watching for updates!

Cool… now do a Turbo S.

Interesting discussion here, I enjoyed reading it. I was sad to learn of Anchor’s demise today. It’s rare a thread appears on HN that’s relevant to my work! If anyone is curious about the current state of the beer market from someone who earns a living at it I may be able to provide some insight.

Damn. This bums me out.

I understand this and I agree with you. I don't even deny that the 4s has a great camera. It does! But to compare it to an S95 and a 5D Mark II isn't a story that's ready to be told. I wouldn't have said a peep if they just showed the iPhone 1-4s comparisons. That's the story - Small sensor technology is rapidly advancing and it's great! BUT it's not a replacement for the niche the s95 fills. The image presented here of the city is the most striking example of that.

I think it's unfortunate but I can understand it's appeal and why people like it. Anyone can turn a crap photo into an appealing image with the application of a filter. Who wouldn't love that? It's like MSG for photography.

It doesn't bother me nearly as much as poorly done High Dynamic Range images. . .

As a professional photographer, comparisons like this drive me absolutely insane, especially when they are called "incredible".

Look, the iPhone 4s processes images with in-camera software and does it aggressively so images look pretty to the average user. They are over-saturated and over-sharpened. And the lack of detail captured by the small sensor all but negates the possibility of any REAL post processing.

I get it. The consumer doesn't care. They just know the pictures look pretty. The practicing photographer knows better.

The video comparisons are even more futile. The depth of field, flexibility, and low light performance of the 5D Mark II is so far beyond the iPhone 4s it makes my head spin.

We are headed into exciting times when a device smaller than a deck of cards will replace a device the size of a toaster. I know. But we aren't there yet. Really, we aren't even close.

There are people consistently on my list whom I never interact with.

The other trump card: Chrome. Bake the Google bar in and Facebook is in a world of hurt.

I have nothing insightful to say but I am in awe.

Wow, I came in here to say the same thing. I don't get enough traffic through Disqus to have issues at the moment, but when I did a while back I remember Daniel bending over backwards to answer all of my questions and it left an absolutely incredible impression. I thought that in a world of meticulously curated "FAQS" and auto-repsonse e-mails that Daniel was remarkably refreshing.

Kudos.