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Comment by RicoElectrico | Hacker News Reader

You can remove resolution from the image URLs to get a slightly better version.

However you're right. People hosting this blog clearly are still in the dial-up era.

But then again, archival/historical institutions do this all the time for some reason, that is not providing original scans.

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I wouldn't say a resolution from 300x244[0] to 3023x2456[1] is "slightly better." All things considered, it's pretty standard to use thumbnails in an article, but it definitely would be nice if they made the thumbnails directly link to the original resolution image.

[0] - https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/files/2021/11/48-300x244....

[1] - https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/files/2021/11/48.jpg

Wait... You were given that 300x244 version before mucking about? I was given 1024x832[2] using latest Chrome for Android 13. Your point remains, but to a far lesser degree, in my case.

[2] https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/files/2021/11/48-1024x832...

Interesting how around his right ear and along the top of his head it looks like his picture was cut out at some point.

I don't think that's cut & paste, I think it's dodge & burn. It's something you do while printing a negative that emphasizes the subject, in this case the man, and de-emphasizes the background. I was a news photographer in the 1970s and we did this all the time.

This is a fascinating process I’d never heard of before. Thank you for sharing. If there’s any good sources for descriptions of the photo processes like this you’re aware of, I’d be hugely interested as well (maybe write a book :)

I'd recommend "The practical photographer" by Ernst A. Weber

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of books about photo techniques, it was extremely common back in the days

I think Technology Connections on YouTube has a recent series on photo development process that mentions this.

Check out Ansel Adams’ series of books on photography, particularly “The Print”

Looks more like digital artefacts from a bad scan

Very nice! You can clearly see something like "Sesostris Temple" on the background award thing and maybe "Honorary Big Brother?" Honorary Elk Member"?

That may be an angle for tracking it down, the man seems to be behind "his desk" which would mean the award applies to him.

The caption in the blog says this:

We’ve been all across the country and back trying to ID this man at his desk. Yes, that’s a Shriner’s certificate on the wall behind him. It was issued from the Sesostris Shrine located in Lincoln, NE. And his stationary says “Memo to Recorders.” The folks at the Lincoln Shrine have been very helpful to us be we still have not yet been able to ID this man.

Trying to decode the letter on the desk... The resolution is such that it's all guesswork, but it's clearly a "Memo to Records" or Recorders[0] which I think of as something for a "permanent record". Gov't records, medical records, etc.

And possibly the image of the person on the letterhead is the signer. So, his company? Gov't Position? Law/Medical Practice? I'm bad at this.

[0] https://imgur.com/a/YBFmPTL

https://www.sesostrisshrine.org/ looks like Nebraska area? Perhaps someone at that group might have some idea who he is.

Just finding out who made the scary tie-pin might be enough to identify this person!

Looks like "Honorary Life Member" if my squinting is working.

> clearly are still in the dial-up era

Modern web devs should be required to spend a weekend with 56Kbps just to experience how terribly bloated the web is today.

Meta did this on Tuesdays:

https://www.theverge.com/2015/10/28/9625062/facebook-2g-tues...

If one were to transport these modern web devs to the time of 56Kbs they'd find things were just as bloated given the capacities of the time. The only question is what novel use of <blink> they'd find.

As example, here is A List Apart in 1999 "CODE: Broadband, schmoadband. In the real world, we must trick our pages into loading faster."

https://web.archive.org/web/19981212012511/http://alistapart...

A List Apart is one of those sites that just impresses me with their content. I'm not a UI guy, and from time to time have to remember how to do something I had done somewhere else usually something to do with CSS. There's a specific example on Taming Lists from them that I refer to any time I'm trying to do inline lists that makes them play/feel nice other than display:inline.

If I'm ever searching for a CSS something and receive A List Apart link, it gets clicked

Yes, but... the best practice today is lazy-loaded thumbnails linking to the real deal. Or opening a lightbox with a 800-1000px or so image and a full-sized download link below it.

> You can remove resolution from the image URLs to get a slightly better version.

> However you're right. People hosting this blog clearly are still in the dial-up era.

Or do they just have their blog software misconfigured? I have a feeling the scaling is being done automatically.

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