Georgia: Why so many counties? - mkr-hn http://jimcofer.com/personal/2011/05/18/georgia-why-so-many-counties/ <comment><AUTHOR> > Finally, the Normans invaded England in 1066, and they subdivided the land > into counties, from which we get the title of "Count".

Other way round: "county" comes from "count", which is an anglicisation of a gallicisation of the Latin "comes", literally "companion" but forming part of a number of Late Roman military titles, such as _comes brittaniarum,_ commander of the British field army in the 4th century.

<comment><USER2> Although the shires became counties after the Norman conquest, the rulers remained earls, probably because 'count' was too similar to a rude word.

<comment><AUTHOR> > probably because 'count' was too similar to a rude word.

Now that's a theory I've not heard before: you could well be right.

However, the Wikipedia article on the word in question says that it's not attested in English before 1230 (though it has cognates in Old Norse -- which contributed a lot of vocabulary to English, via the Danelaw settlers -- and in other early Germanic languages), and that as late as Chaucer it was not considered obscene (though by Shakespeare's time it was).

But I suppose it wouldn't have to be obscene to cause problems: puerile humour appears to be part of the human condition, and we can imagine the sniggering today if a conquering foreign power tried to impose a governing class with titles that sounded like "buttock" or "scrotum".

[Edits: improve phrasing; fix spelling & random capitals.]

<comment><USER3> You're talking about 'cunt', right?

<comment><USER2> Yes, and they would have sounded more similar before the great vowel shift.

<comment><USER4> Chaucer has it written as 'queynte', so the words may have actually sounded more different.

<comment><USER2> The OED's earliest attestations is 'cunte' (first in 'Gropecuntelane').

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >which is also why, until recently, Georgia voters would waste time voting for such low-ranking officials as coroners and dog catchers.

We still vote for coroners. The corner has powers similar to the sheriff (to execute arrest warrants, serve process etc..). In some places coroners even have the power to arrest the sheriff if needed.

<comment><USER6> We actually had a problem in Berkeley County, South Carolina at Christmas where the sherrif engaged in a drunken hit and run and then a high speed chase. He was charged and released for the reason that only the coroner has the power to arrest the sherrif.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Thanks for this. I grew up in Georgia and knew some of this, but a lot of it was new to me.

It prompted me to read more about the Trans-Oconee Republic, and I found an old 20 page academic publication about it on the Open Library. The OCR is screwed up in places, so I've been making my own corrected copy the last hour or so. Open Library doesn't seem to allow for corrected versions. Looking in their email list archives, they just don't have the tech to support that, which is a shame. Maybe I'll upload the corrected version to Gutenberg or something.

[https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6659849M/Elijah_Clarke's_for...](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6659849M/Elijah_Clarke's_foreign_intrigues_and_the_Trans- Oconee_republic)

</comment><comment><USER8> Very interesting article. I'm from Iowa and I always knew we had a lot of counties (99), but didn't realize there were states with so many more. IIRC, the rationale for making all of our counties roughly the same size is that the state founders wanted everyone to be within a one day horse ride to the county seat so that it was easy to vote.

<comment><USER9> A lot of counties fell out of the Public Land Survey System:

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

(it looks like many Iowa counties are roughly the size of a Quadrangle)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Quite a contrast with someplace like this, in Oregon: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harney_County,_Oregon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harney_County,_Oregon)

Which would still qualify for the old census bureau definition of frontier, having fewer than 2 people per square mile.

<comment><USER11> May I recommend "Miles from Nowhere" [http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Miles-from- Nowhere,...](http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Miles-from- Nowhere,672233.aspx). Turns out that a county in Texas has fewer folks per square mile.

<comment><USER10> Looks good - added to my wishlist. Offhand, it seems a bit like: [http://www.amazon.com/Last-Empty-Places-Present- American/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Last-Empty-Places-Present- American/dp/0345495373/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1428217366&sr=8-4&keywords=peter+stark&tag=dedasys-20) which is, unfortunately, also unavailable on the Kindle.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Thanks for the read. I moved to Atlanta metro area from Miami about 9 years ago and always wondered this. I currently drive across 5 counties on my way to work.

<comment><USER13> Yeah...it's fun living here in GA.

<comment><USER14> Except with the Pollen Count is insanely high...

[http://atlantaallergy.com/pollen_counts](http://atlantaallergy.com/pollen_counts)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Great post! I was born in Clarke county but didn't know much of this history.

(When Oglethorpe was 4 years old, a baby named Joe Waters was born in Virginia. He eventually migrated south, with descendants in Georgia and Alabama. Lots of people there look like me, which is really too bad. But the overwhelming crush of people coming into the area over the past 30 years has mixed it up quite a bit. Probably an improvement.)

</comment><comment><USER9> At the other end of the scale Connecticut and Rhode Island have discarded counties as a unit of government. And Delaware has consolidated most former county functions at the state level.

The pox in many states ends up being townships, which mostly duplicate functions of the county (Especially now that we have an extensive road system and telephones).

<comment><USER16> New England states (incl RI, CT) are a bit of a funny example, though, because of the way they use "towns" in a way that that I (from the midwest) associate more with counties. Across RI, CT, and MA (and maybe the northern states too), every bit of land is allocated to a "town", even if they are well outside the central population concentration of that town, and indeed even if there are multiple, differently-named, population concentrations. (These latter are often called "villages", and may cross town boundaries and in a couple cases even state boundaries. They don't really have any formal legal existence other than having a name people use to refer to them.)

Anyway, so the idea that RI and CT have discarded counties as governmental units has mostly to do with the fact that they have replaced them with something else.

<comment><USER9> I lived in CT briefly. I only hinted at it with the comment about townships, but I'm impressed that they recognized the redundancy and did something about it.

(If I understand correctly, they moved most of the regional functions up to the state and most of the more local stuff down to the towns, so the towns do more than a town might in other states, but not quite the same things as a county)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Speaking of Georgia, does anyone here live in the Atlanta area? I would love to get to know other HNers living nearby.

<comment> mkr-hn I'm all the way out in Winder, which is technically within Metro Atlanta. Probably too far.

<comment><USER17> A little bit far, but at least I can say I know of another HN user in Georgia. :)

Send me an email if you're ever out this way, and I'll do likewise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Thanks immensely for this as well. My great-grandmother was a white woman adopted by a black couple in the 1920s in Screven County (along the SC line two counties NW of Chatham). I always wondered how that county could have such a small population.

</comment><comment><USER19> By what metric is Georgia "the largest state east of the Mississippi River"? Certainly not by area or population.

<comment><USER20> Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi by land area.

Michigan is larger if you include part of the Great Lakes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I like this type of long read on a nice Saturday afternoon. And the comments are quite instructive.</comment>


Ask HN: What to do about a fake cofounder/employee? - <AUTHOR>

We hired an independent contractor a few months back and fired him. In his contract it clearly stipulates he wasn't an employee, owner, etc. He has no equity interest in the company. He is now claiming on Linkedin he was a cofounder. I fear that this might be a negative signal to future investors by associating us with him.
Thinking about talking to a lawyer on this.  Before I do was wondering if anyone had suggestions/similar stories? Any way I can get Linkedin to remove his 'title'?
I am realizing anyone can claim anything on Linkedin. <comment><USER2> This may be a simple case of resume embellishment.

Before you lawyer-up; know that even a simple cease & desist letter written by an attorney can run $500. And the helpful attorney, would gladly pursue further legal action for an additional modest fee.

You can of course, write your own demand letter. But I suggest you phone this guy first. He needs to hear the tone of your voice.

Keep the conversation buttoned-up and professional. As an opener, seek to understand-- ask him what's the deal with the Founders title on Linkedin? Let him know your position and request he remove it today. No need to threaten him, threats are often counter-productive.

In most cases, the call should be enough. And you saved $500.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yeah I've had fake "employees" as well. When I read up on it, it seemed the general consensus was that you could ask LinkedIn to remove them but they didn't particularly care. Over time, you'll likely end up playing whack-a-mole with fake profiles.

</comment><comment><USER4> I have written to LinkedIn before about a claimed "employee" (a person who has never been in my state, ever) and LinkedIn appears to have removed the fake information. Some fakers just try to see what they can get away with.

</comment><comment><USER5> Putting a clause in the contract stipulating that he isn't an employee doesn't mean anything, at least in the state of New York [1].

I should know, my previous employer got me to sign such a contract, but the state determined I was indeed an employee after I was unjustly fired, and now I can legally collect unemployment.

1\. [https://labor.ny.gov/ui/claimantinfo/ui%20and%20independent%...](https://labor.ny.gov/ui/claimantinfo/ui%20and%20independent%20contractors.shtm)

</comment><comment><USER6> As with competition the less mind space you are using on him the better.

I am pretty sure a future investor has seen this before and will understand that he is a fake.

</comment><comment><USER7> I have many false employees on LinkedIn, but I can't completely divorce myself from blame after naming my company "Made Up Name." :-)

And I also recommend a phone call. I understand it will be uncomfortable for you after firing him, but be polite and if he doesn't comply, try LinkedIn, and then finally the legal route.

</comment><comment><USER8> I had a coworker recently whose behavior became problematic, leading me to discover a similar situation.

For example: I introduced a style / complexity checking tool into various repos, including his. When I ran it, it flagged a couple methods as too complex. We got into an argument over whether this was a fair assessment or not. The end result was that I left things where they were and moved on to something else until I could coordinate with the CTO on how to achieve my objectives in this context. (My role involves security...)

It's worth noting that at that point the tool was optional and out-of-band. It wasn't failing CI, it wasn't required as part of any other workflow, etc. At that point it existed solely for my own use and he could have ignored it for the time being.

At the end of the very next day, he brags to me about how he's "fixed" the complexity issues in the code. Based on my previous interactions with him, I decided to check this out. His "fix" was to put meta-comments in that disabled the relevant rules for the code violating them. Except he put the meta-comment to disable each rule several statements earlier than needed, and didn't include any meta-comments to re-enable the rules after the relevant code. And he had changed the config file comments I had made, reflecting that the exceptions from the company standard configuration were done to accommodate his needs (I felt it was important to have that context present for future maintenance efforts).

His bragging to me about "fixing" the complexity issues (and yes, he used the word "fix") struck me as being either deeply dishonest, or representative of a truly breathtaking lack of understanding.

Between this and several other incidents (most of them I merely observed, some I was entangled in), I decided to dig into his background a bit.

I found a few things that I could chalk up to simply not understanding the very domain-specific meaning of some general-sounding terms in particular contexts. For example: On his FounderDating profile he listed himself as having been a "mentor" to TogetherSoft / Borland. That just seemed... _beyond_ implausible to me. So I read deeper and it seems his role at TogetherSoft (acquired by Borland turing his tenure) involved _mentoring coworkers_.

Ok, I'll chalk that up to an innocent mistake.

Then I get to the startup he co-founded. Except... wait. The dates here don't fit with those on his resume? Hrm. Start-date was some 6 months after the company was founded.

I tracked down the main founder's email and sent him a brief inquiry, with a fairly vague wording, asking about the time discrepancy, and asking if perhaps this was some unusual situation and that he was in fact a founder. I got an initial response asking for clarification, to which I responded. No response to that. So the founder didn't even want to say "yeah, he was a (co-)founder."

At my employer, he had taken a truly _beautiful_ codebase written by ThoughtBot and absolutely wrecked it in the space of 2 months: He refused to gain any significant understanding of Ruby, Rails, or Angular. He ripped out Angular in favor of his own templating library. He reinvented ActiveRecord associations, incorrectly because he didn't like that the column name had to have `_id` at the end. And all the while he would rail in front of the entire company during demos about how "stupid" various tools were. "HighCharts is such a broken library -- you can't even remove a series from a chart once you've added it!" / "Wait, that seems ridiculous. Are you sure?" / "Yeah, I scoured the docs and found nothing. Googled it and found loads of other people having the same issue. I'm gonna have to blow away the whole chart and recreate it whenever there's a change!" / "... I just found the method right here while you were talking about it, and here's a jsFiddle showing that it works as expected."

I also found out he'd introduced his templating library without clarifying that it was created by him (he just announced it as a good tool he'd "found"), and had done so at at _least_ one other company.

Given the damage done, here and apparently elsewhere, I'm seriously inclined to blog about it publicly -- name him, so that any potential employers who google him will have access to some very relevant information.

Perhaps you could write a blog post that makes a point of outlining who the founding team is? A "founders" page doesn't help because one expects that a departed cofounder would be scrubbed from it, but a blog post may raise alarm flags for more people. You wouldn't even have to name him explicitly -- just _not include_ him, or mention him indirectly ("we hired a contractor to do X").</comment>


Saturated fats no longer the true enemy, experts say - <AUTHOR> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/saturated-fats-no-longer-the-true-enemy-experts-say/article26513320/ <comment><USER2> I wish people would stop trying to boil down diet into platitudes. The truth is much more complex.

Specifically, research has demonstrated that some saturated fatty acids are particularly egregious, while others are innocuous, or even healthy. For instance, a lot of research has shown palmitic acid to have negative health consequences, while stearic acid is neutral and shorter chain saturated fatty acids like lauric acid may actually be beneficial. Additionally, there are conditions on these observations; for instance, palmitic acid is only bad under some circumstances - e.g. when consumed as part of a diet low in certain monounsaturated and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Finally, these findings are almost certainly population specific to some degree, so if you have a different genetic background from the study population, it might not apply to you at all.

The only true way to figure out how to properly eat is to track metrics of health that are meaningful, log what you eat, and adjust your diet based on changes in those metrics. It can also be helpful to look at what people who are very healthy/fit eat; the diets of people in "blue zones" and natural bodybuilders are good case studies.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's nice to see something resembling common sense in the media on food. There's been far too much "avoid this" only to be told the opposite a decade later.

I've tried to ignore all the food claims as I've gone through life. If we do anything it's to prefer basic foods over processed. The longer the ingredient list, or the more packed with sugars, the less likely it is to go in the trolley. I never switched from butter and full fat cheese as the alternatives taste terrible, the other half tried low fat spreads for ages, but hated them.

As we've done more cooking and baking we've rediscovered how poor most of the mass produced ones are. Especially bread and cake.

At 50 after the age related checkup, my blood work was excellent. Proves little of course. I still got the lecture on low fat though! I suspect everyone has to get it.

<comment><USER4> I saw a TV show a couple of years ago about which nation's national diet is the healthiest. I admit I don't remember them giving sources for their claims, but France was high up the list of healthiest, even though they eat a lot of saturated fat. The point is they eat real food rather than processed food.

I also read recently that the French have one of the lowest rates of heart disease.

<comment><USER2> Having looked at the data a lot of different ways, I'm fairly certain that the health of the French is a result of low stress levels and strong social connections. Your mental state plays a huge role in your health, to the point that someone who takes slightly better care of their body because they worry about their health will end up less healthy than someone who is carefree and relaxed.

<comment><USER4> If you're correct, I'm screwed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Whenever pop-science articles use phrases like "no longer the true enemy", I always roll my eyes. The science coming out says that they were never the problem, not that they aren't anymore. There's a difference.

We've always been at war with Easttransfats, right?

<comment><USER6> Science is nuanced, complex, and always in progress. That does not and never has translated into the kind of simple dumbed down slogans and "war on ..." objectives that work in politics and public opinion influencing. Huge impedance mismatch there.

I mean some things are simple. Smoking is pretty unambiguously bad for you. But nutrition is _not_ simple, and is probably individual due to genetic factors.

<comment><USER7> > Smoking is pretty unambiguously bad for you.

Stress is a killer. Smoking can reduce stress. Nothing is simple.

<comment><USER2> Except that smoking has a very small impact on stress, and a large negative impact on your health in other ways. Additionally, for people addicted to cigarettes, much of the stress being relieved may be caused by the addiction in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Unfortunately, health and diets are not like new and fashionable programming concepts - there is no quick hack and no one way that turns everything on its head. Processed foods cause health issues. Saturated fats definitely cause health issues. Processed sugars definitely cause health issues. You may have heard this before, but whole fruit, vegetables, greens, starches, beans, lentils and nuts - are the healthiest foods for you - as shown by science, population studies, metabolic ward studies, randomized double blind placebo studies and studying the habits of longest lived populations.

<comment><USER9> Fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and animals products. These are _food_.

But the idea that "saturated fats definitely cause health issues" is shaky at best, and downright _causing negative health outcomes_ at worst.

We can have our fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and animals products, and drown them in as much butter, coconut oil, lard, etc, as you can stand to eat - which generally isn't a lot, so long as you don't burn those fats, and your health will _improve_ over any other eating plan.

We know this because every. fucking. person. who does it (and doesn't have a liver / gall bladder problem, or some other clinical malabsorption problem that needs to be fixed first) reports improved well being, mental clarity, improved energy levels.

<comment><USER10> Maybe an exaggeration - not everybody. Some feel lack of energy, don't digest nuts well, get gas from legumes, get fat off of fruit.

<comment><USER9> Sorry, yes, good point. I didn't mean to imply everyone should all of those things though it was written that way.

Of course restrict or eliminate those which don't work for you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> what is the definition of processed in this context?

I can think of several examples where applying a process to a food does not make it something we should avoid (i.e. when a butcher chops meat, he/she is processing it).

Where do we draw the line between "safe" processed foods and "unhealthy" processed foods.

<comment><USER12> Well, like commercial "whole grain" bread. Which is basically white bread with the grain shells (bran I think it's called) added back in. Where if you had actual whole grain bread, the flour wouldn't have been through chemical processing and a roller making it as easily digestible as sugar.

<comment><USER13> Yea, same thing is true of commercial milk. Apparently they skim off all the fat and just add it back in to make 1%/2% etc. Who knows, they may even do it for whole milk so that the percentage (and taste/texture) are consistent cross batches.

Not inherently a bad thing I suppose, but feels wrong because it's such an industrial process.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> So they agree that there is no evidence saturated fat causes health problems. Then they assert you should not eat processed food but fail to even assert a link to any specific health problems. Then they mention antioxidants which, if they had been paying attention, they would know was merely a hypotheses that was invalidated many years later in long term studies.

Why do people insist there must be a single magic diet which will immortalize us, despite never finding it? What are the Bayesian priors on this? Bizarre

<comment><USER13> I can't remember which paper I read it in, but it said the amount of oxidation that happens normally as your body functions significantly dwarfs the amount of antioxidant effects you can get by eating antioxidant containing food.

Seems like common sense you can't eat your way out of aging.

<comment><USER15> Isn't "oxidation" pretty much how our cells function? Stop that, stop living.

<comment><USER14> The idea was that your body produces free radicals, molecules which are highly reactive because of an unpaired electron, caused a lot of damage to the body. The antioxidants sopped these up and prevented the damage. That was the hypothesis

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I don't get why fried foods are still demonized. If you use, say coconut oil or avocado oil and stay under the smoke points (so the oils dont break down), what's the problem?

Maybe there's an assumption that this means commercially prepared fried foods, which may use soybean oils that aren't cleaned/changed regularly?

<comment><USER16> It's mostly the anti-fat bias, with some justifiable concern about high calorie content, as frying adds a possibly huge number of calories, mostly as fat (and breading!).

[http://www.livestrong.com/article/504208-how-many- calories-d...](http://www.livestrong.com/article/504208-how-many-calories- does-frying-add/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> So what other things is the media duping us on right now, that in 10 years will be shown to be B.S?

<comment><USER18> Here are some current mainstream media misconceptions regarding health and nutrition. Admittedly, most of these are already acknowledged as wrong in the same way that "all saturated fat is bad for you" is wrong, with the exception of #2:

1\. Lots of cardiovascular exercise (eg running) is good for you.

2\. Anabolic steroids are extremely risky and will likely kill you dead.

3\. You need to eat throughout the day.

4\. Whole eggs are bad for you because of the cholesterol.

5\. Salt is bad for you even if you don't have high blood pressure.

6\. Lots of protein is bad for your kidneys.

7\. Unfermented soy is good for you.

<comment><USER13> 8\. A calorie is a calorie

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Part of the issue has got to be the oversupply of specific, yet mostly useless advice. Should we really expect people to decide to consume any (almond, peanut, olive, coconut, sesame, palm, soybean, corn, safflower, etc.) oil based on the relative amount of saturated fat?

I've tried to explain what polyunsaturated fats are to my mom, many times, when she's trying to decide to use olive oil or something else. The news stories on TV, Dr. Oz, Oprah, etc. have convinced her that's worth worrying about.

I'm much happier with simple, broad advice. "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." (Regardless of how you feel about Pollan.)

<comment><USER13> I always hear the platitude "don't eat too much". I don't think I've ever heard of anyone who "wants to eat too much".

It's like telling people "drive safely". Nobody is trying to get in an accident.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> it was 2007 i first ran into the issue that the conventional wisdom was there is no link between consuming vast quantities of sugar and a bodies inabilty to process sugar, but rather the foods we have always consumed in large quantities.

Its a very strange kind of relief to see the tide turning and a wider body of people beginning to believe they got duped.

I really think the food industry needs to be regulated more like the pharmaceutical industry. production line food should face the same stringent tests that production line simple molecules for human consumption always have done.

</comment><comment><USER21> So, if the new advice is to avoid "processed foods", what set of characteristics about processed foods make them bad? Is there a specific pattern? High in triglycerides? Preservatives? Artificial colors and flavors? Out of whichever things are "bad", is it individually, or just in combination? What kinds of "badness scores" would each item/combination get? What kind of individual variability is there?

<comment><USER22> As someone who is obese and working on it, my suspicion is that it's mostly sugar. If you look at "processed" foods you'll see tons of sugar, which is both very bad and not very filling. One thing different from home cooked sugary treats is lots of spices and additives like salt and MSG that make you feel more hungry and thirsty which keeps you eating more of the high sugar non filling processed foods in a vicious cycle.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> My favorite piece of dietary advice: stop stressing over what you _shouldn 't_ be eating and focus instead on what you _should_ be eating. We can argue about fat, sugar, and carbohydrates and which is worse till we're blue in the face, but the simple truth is that if you're getting most of your calories from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, then you needn't waste any mindshare on this debate.

<comment><USER24> _most of your calories from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains_

Well no, that misses the point. Everyone's diet has _some_ macronutrient ratio, whether that be high-carbohydrate, high-fat, high-protein, or somewhere in between.

It's fine to ignore the debate and just do what works for you personally, but that doesn't make a high-carbohydrate diet (which is what you're suggesting) obviously good general advice.

<comment><USER25> Can you name a single Blue Zone that doesn't have a "high-carbohydrate diet"?

<comment><USER24> Did you mean to reply to me? I hadn't commented at all on the virtues (or lack thereof) of any particular macronutrient ratios, high-carbohydrate or otherwise.

My point is that the appropriate response to a debate between any given X and Y isn't "no need to consider the facts because the answer is obviously X".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I don't know what the truth is but after being diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol for the first time, why should I take chances? There is no harm in cutting back on red meat, fried foods, and saturated fat

<comment><USER13> The harm is that you may end up replacing those foods with ones that may actually be to linked heart disease. You still have to eat a certain number of calories, so replacing red meat/fried food/saturated fat with say, bread or rice (which are low-fat) might actually increase your risk.

<comment><USER26> Yeah that goes without saying - part of eating "heart healthy" is cutting back on carbs, sugars and sodium.

<comment><USER13> I guess another way to put it is "I don't know what the truth is" is somewhat inconsistent with "there's no harm in cutting back on".

For instance, if someone said "drinking water decreases your sodium levels", and you said "there's no harm in cutting back on water", you'd be making a mistake.

I also think the full verdict is still out on what "heart healthy" means.

In your specific case, it could be family/genetic disposition to high blood pressure/cholesterol, environmental factors, or diet.

If it is diet, and you were eating more than the average person's amount of red meat, fried foods, and saturated fat, perhaps it will help you to cut back on those things, but you would need to do that for a while and keep everything else constant and see if things improved. If you weren't eating "lots" of those things to begin with, it's not clear reducing them further would make a difference.

I think this is why nutrition is so hard, it's almost impossible to really control all the variables and our objective measurements are lacking. For instance, "high cholesterol" doesn't tell you anything about the size of the cholesterol. High blood pressure may just run in your family. It's really hard to determine the effects of our diet.

<comment><USER26> True. But in my particular case I spent over 10 years eating like crap but exercising like crazy between being a part time fitness instructor and running that covered up a lot of sins. I cut down on exercising, got older, and it caught up to me. I acknowledge that it was all my fault.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I am not satisfied classifying the extremely broad category of "processed foods" as "bad". Technically olive oil is a processed food, so is milk and frozen meat. What about Soylent? It's very much a processed food but is probably much healthier than the typical processed foods out there.

<comment><USER9> Give it a more charitable reading, perhaps.

We all know what is meant by "processed foods" \- we're talking about packets of chips, soda, biscuits (both sweet and savoury), most 'breakfast cereals'.

When people refer to "processed foods" they don't mean to include all packaged food. Many packaged foods and long shelf life products, are fine so long as your also eating at least some fresh food.

Putting 5 apples in a plastic bag with a barcode on it a processed food does not make.

<comment><USER10> I'm not so sure. That phrase is bandied about with no definition ever advanced. None is given here either - just 'we all know'.

Well, folks have been eating cooked food for 40,000 years or more. Been threshing/separating grain from chaff for nearly that long. Does that make it all 'processed'? Probably not. Then what does? We've certainly become adapted to any processing that started that long ago. So what is the issue with it?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Both saturated fats and processed foods are the "enemy". Seriously.. you are risking heart disease and to some degree cancer if you believe 50 years of life saving science. If you wish to choose to believe a handful of studies funded by the meat and dairy industry, do it at your own risk to your health and the environment for our children.

<comment><USER28> You prefer to believe studies funded by the sugar industry?

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar- ind...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry- shifted-blame-to-fat.html)

<comment><USER8> Isn't sugar part of "processed food"? As in.. processed sugar.

<comment><USER28> I was referring to the way you happily dismiss research by the dairy and meat industries, but seem to readily accept '50 years of life saving science' which was originally based on research funded by the sugar industry to shift the blame on heart disease away from sugar and on to saturated fats.

<comment><USER8> Wow.. those sugar industry must be really loaded to have funded 50 years of research. Sure part of that wasnt funded by government as well?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Kim Jong-Nam Was Killed by VX Nerve Agent, Malaysians Say - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/world/asia/kim-jong-nam-vx-nerve-agent-.html <comment><USER2> If we are talking about V-Series Agents, we might as well talk about the secret Soviet Program to develop additional V-series compounds[1] that would be undetectable by the west. It is important to note that there are many vectors of entry for a V-series agent, and in this case, evidence points to an atomized version, as opposed to the dermal administration which is more common among this class. An atomized version targeting the respiratory system and not the dermal would explain why two women attempting to aid "with bare hands" would not have been harmed.

Beyond VX, there exist a plethora of other analogous chemicals, namely the G-Series[2], VE[3], VG[4], VM[5], VR[6] and VP[7]. A notable commonality among these compounds is that very little is known about their effects outside of military research (ie not shared).

Given the military nature of these compounds, there is a reason to believe that this was a military assassination.

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

[2] Sarin is a G-series agent [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin)

[3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VE_(nerve_agent)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VE_\(nerve_agent\))

[4] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VG_(nerve_agent)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VG_\(nerve_agent\))

[5] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VM_(nerve_agent)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VM_\(nerve_agent\))

[6] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VR_(nerve_agent)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VR_\(nerve_agent\))

[7] [https://books.google.com/books?id=DQw2hVGe0aMC&lpg=PA72&ots=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=DQw2hVGe0aMC&lpg=PA72&ots=eYb1G3m7Cl&dq=%2B%22vp%20nerve%22&pg=PA72#v=onepage&q=+%22vp%20nerve%22&f=false)

<comment><USER3> > not the dermal would explain why two women attempting to aid "with bare > hands" would not have been harmed.

Can you explain exactly how they carried out the assassination without harming themselves?

Each had two different compounds on their hands (or one with a rag?) and they touched his face in sequence. Then only on his face did they combine to become the nerve agent?

What about the last girl who touched his face, how was she not harmed? Was it because he had to inhale it?

<comment><USER4> At least one of the people involved claims that she did not know it was an assassination. After this VX revelation it makes even more sense for actual assassins use this tactics.

>Suspect in North Korea killing 'thought she was taking part in TV prank' Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, duped and 'not aware it was assassination attempt by alleged foreign agents', says head of police

>Indonesia's national police chief, Tito Karnavian, told reporters in Indonesia's Aceh province that the Indonesian woman, 25-year-old Siti Aisyah, was paid to be involved in pranks. He said she and another woman performed stunts which involved convincing men to close their eyes and then spraying them with water. "Such an action was done three or four times and they were given a few dollars for it, and with the last target, Kim Jong-nam, allegedly there were dangerous materials in the sprayer," Karnavian said.

>"She was not aware that it was an assassination attempt by alleged foreign agents."

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/17/suspect- north-...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/17/suspect-north-korea- killing-thought-she-was-taking-part-in-tv-prank-indonesia-siti-aisyah-police- kim-jong-nam)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting tid-bit from Wikipedia [1]

 _In fiscal year 2008, the US Department of Defense released a study finding that the U.S. had dumped at least 124 tons of VX into the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of New York /New Jersey and Florida, between 1969 and 1970. This material consisted of nearly 22,000 M55 rockets, 19 bulk containers holding 1,400 pounds (640 kg) each, and one M23 chemical landmine._ [25]

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent)#US_VX_stockpi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_\(nerve_agent\)#US_VX_stockpile_elimination)

<comment><USER2> Yep. And who knows what the affects of that were. But I do not agree with the claim that this is interesting in this context as it seems irrelevant to the discussion.

<comment><USER5> > But I do not agree with the claim that this is interesting in this context > as it seems irrelevant to the discussion

The discussion appears to be on the topic if we assume the topic is VX or nerve agents in general. I assume this is in line with your intention for posting a series of Wikipedia links on the subject in this thread, which I found both relevant and interesting.

The reasons why I suggested that the dumping of large quantities of nerve agents was an interesting fact is an inquisitive person may ask themselves -

\- Is the product still down there under the ocean?

\- What could be the environmental impact?

\- What were they thinking at the time to dump such a hazardous material? Why didn't they use alternative means to destroy the material?

\- Was this standard practise back then? If so what other deadly man made products are under the ocean?

\- If they are still working to eradicate 5,950 tons of nerve agents in a single storage complex in Russia, how much did that country dump back during the cold war and would we actually ever find out? TFA says the 5,950 tons is only 14% of of Russian chemical weapons [1]

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_(nerve_agent)#Worldwide_VX_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VX_\(nerve_agent\)#Worldwide_VX_stockpile_elimination)

<comment><USER6> >Was this standard practise back then? If so what other deadly man made products are under the ocean?

[https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1wa1lrqxQpPqPXwnkmJ...](https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1wa1lrqxQpPqPXwnkmJ0fu9WMLDg&hl=en_US&ll=31.13111925331858%2C44.054968499999944&z=2)

<comment><USER5> Your link certainly addressed the question! Thank you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There is a fascinating BBC-documentary about chemical warfare history and the british Porton Down military research facility, hosted by Michael Mosley [0]. There is a part where the researcher actually makes sarin and VX right in front of Michael in a fume-hood. They literally watch the VX-liquid condense out of the vacuum distillation apparatus right in front of Mosley and the camera team. [0] [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07hx40t](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07hx40t)

Edit: Program available here until mid March: [https://tv.nrk.no/program/KOID23002916/mosley-og-de- kjemiske...](https://tv.nrk.no/program/KOID23002916/mosley-og-de-kjemiske- vaapnene) If you can VPN to Norway.

<comment><USER8> You can also download the program with youtube-dl without a VPN.

<comment><USER9> Checked out how youtube-dl does it. Remarkably, nrk.no is satisfied with a faked X-Forwarded-For header.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Does VX explain how the two women survived despite using bare hands to administer an apparently skin-absorbable poison? It has binary agent formulations, so each women could have one half on her hand and avoid any contamination by swiping very fast.

<comment><USER11> > While addressing a spellbound audience of young officers, he would sometimes > partially immerse one finger in a small beaker of pure VX for a few seconds. > Without interrupting his lecture, he would then amble to a nearby sink and > casually wash the deadly chemical from his finger. The teaching point was > that VX could not enter the skin instantaneously, and that accidental > exposure of a small area would not be harmful as long as the site were > promptly and thoroughly decontaminated.

[https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Warfare-Secrets-Almost- Forgo...](https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Warfare-Secrets-Almost- Forgotten/dp/B01FKTZP3W/) \- Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten: A Personal Story of Medical Testing of Army Volunteers, by James S. Ketchum MD

<comment><USER12> I'm grateful for the edification, but dude, that's a very specific reference from a >$100 (text?)book on a very particular subject. I'm afraid to ask about your background :P

<comment><USER13> Library Genesis.

<comment><USER14> Thanks for the elaborate answer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The Rock came out when I was 13 so needless to say, I'm a big fan.

I absolutely thought VX Nerve Agent was fictional until today.

<comment><USER16> Not VX, but don't you remember this as well: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway_sarin_attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway_sarin_attack)

<comment><USER17> I actually ended up in the same article because VX is related to オウム真理教(Aum Shinrikyo), the group that was responsible for the gas attacks in Tokyo. They were also manufacturing VX and are the only ones on record to have used it to commit a murder, until now I guess... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aum_Shinrikyo)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I had thought it was going to be a fentanyl or carfentanyl aerosol spray, I suppose that might have rendered him incoherent sooner though. The use of VX seems like bragging really (as if the act wasn't already adolescent enough).

<comment><USER19> Oh yeah... like using Polonium to kill Litvinenko... this is all about sending a message.

<comment><USER18> Indeed, and the message was "I'm insecure about my position".

<comment><USER20> Someone insecure who does not retaliate is of little concern. Someone who can retaliate or do away with people in remote places using extreme methods is more about saying, "don't cross me or I will get you" and insecurity is kind of irrelevant at that point. It's more I don't want to get on this woman/man's bad side.

I'm also not sure it's plain insecurity. I'm sure there are people not too far removed from him who if they could, would try to get to him -however, he goes to extreme measures to ensure he neutralizes possible threats when identified --including relatives and "old hands".

Although, being such a tyrant (insecure as he might be) why doesn't anyone of the people at his core who live in fear for themselves and everyone else just go on a final mission against him? It's not like he's the only one armed --plus he'd have to remain awake 24x7.

<comment><USER19> It's probably a rare person who is sane, intelligent, capable of detailed planning, and willing to potentially have a really nasty and protracted death. It seems to me that far more often you have people who are deluded in some way and don't perceive risk (bad planners, may not be particularly mentally fit), rare cases of extremely violent mental illness (not sane, bad planners), the highly motivated fanatic (good planner, sane, tends not to be the most intelligent).

You need a lot of elements to come together to murder someone who is well protected and expects to be the target of violence, while having a state to protect them. The scary thing is that of course, sometimes, this does happen; when it does there is very _very_ little that can be done to stop it, short of you aforementioned 24x7 sleeping cycle.

<comment><USER20> It reminds me of the Stauffenberg plot. And then there are the bodyguards who got Indira Gandhi --they did not care what happened to them, they "cared" about carrying out their mission. Although, it's quite possible both were equally motivated but one was just not lucky enough to carry things through.

<comment><USER21> The Stauffenberg plot is pretty much evidence that assassinating somebody protected by a large force is really, really, hard.

Not because that plot itself failed. But because it overshadows the truly impressive number of other attempts at Hitler's life, all failed: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassination_attempts...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assassination_attempts_on_Adolf_Hitler)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It's not available right now, but I recommend a BBC doc "Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility"[0], in which they showed nerve agents like this being created.

[0]: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07hx40t](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07hx40t)

</comment><comment><USER23> I wonder if they used this binary combination: O-Ethyl O-2-diisopropylaminoethyl methylphosphonite and sulfur [0][1]. Not sure if that would be consistent with one being in a spray bottle.

[0] [http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/831901-overview](http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/831901-overview)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QL_(chemical)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QL_\(chemical\))

<comment><USER2> It will likely never be known what compound, but the "spray bottle" tells us that the agent was targeting respiratory system, not dermal. However the use of V-Series agent is a strong indicator of military assassination as almost all research on these chemicals is confined to secret military research. The Russians have admitted to the synthesis of more than 100 more novel V-series nerve agents.[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novichok_agent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novichok_agent)

While I'm not convinced a binary compound was needed in this case, it is an interesting theory!

<comment><USER24> "the "spray bottle" tells us that the agent was targeting respiratory system, not dermal. "

I'm not sure this follows. If the cloth was impregnated with one of the binary components and the other was sprayed on the cloth, then VX would be synthesized right there in contact with the skin. I don't know that you could be sure a lethal dose would be inhaled in one or two seconds.

<comment><USER25> I imagine NK is the sort of regime that doesn't have moral qualms about testing this on, say, political prisoners, before using it in an actual assassination attempt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Doesn't North Korea has ICBM missiles capable of reaching Italy or Washington DC?

A missile full of VX agent is scary to me. The most North KOrea can fit on a missile is a warhead as powerful as Hiroshima's but a missile full of VX could potentially kill everyone in Washington DC

Plus think of all the implications of transporting VX through international borders. Did China accept having North Korean agents transporting VX in China? Did they smuggle it through fish boats?

<comment><USER27> North Korea launching a weapon of mass destruction on anyone on this planet, would ensure North Korea ceases to exist. They are just nonsense posturing, and empty threats. In the end we say yes, yes, grand wizard of NK, you are the best. Then we give them some money, and wait for their next silly display.

<comment><USER28> >North Korea launching a weapon of mass destruction on anyone on this planet

This will mean that China has ordered them to do that. It will not happen in any other way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Is the chemistry of VX well enough known that countries without access to it can recognize it when they see it?

<comment><USER30> It is. See the various Wikipedia links given here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13720517](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13720517) \- it also contains the chemical structure. That's actually one of the things which makes chemical weapons far more dangerous than nuclear weapons - it is comparatively easy to produce them without much specialized equipment.

<comment><USER29> Well, that's terrifying.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Some other famous chemical assassination attempts: [http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/a-look-at-assassination- attempts...](http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/a-look-at-assassination-attempts- involving-chemicals-1.3288236)

</comment><comment><USER32> As a side note, in some poor, largely rural countries, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in insecticides are the most popular suicide agents.

</comment><comment><USER33> How did they find the agent? Do they have a list of thousands of agents to test against, and do they work down the list one by one? How does this work?

<comment><USER24> My guess is gas chromatography mass spectrometry, which yields a characteristic signature for many compounds.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Does this remind anyone else of The Interview?

</comment><comment><USER35> WHY?

Why kill people exotically? Why not just use a simple garrote with a thin wire? 10 seconds done, the head would be practically off. I am _sure_ you could get a weird pair of head phones past security. If you poison someone with polonium/exotic nerve agent doesn't it _narrow_ down the suspect pool?

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

<comment><USER36> Because slicing someone's head off requires you to be there, next to them, as it happens. You're standing next to the body as it gargles and bleeds everywhere and security will descend on you in a big way.

Wiping someone's face then bailing is something that the target will shrug off as 'some crazy' until some time later it kills them. This buys you time to get out of the place before anyone realises the full extent of what happened. Hence why they're back in Pyongyang, out of the reach of any law enforcement.

Pyongyang doesn't _really_ care if the world knows it's them or not. I bet they care much more if they lose their highly trained assassins, though.

<comment><USER37> I would even say it cares that other dissidents notice and understand exactly who did it. Had this been a robbery or some car accident it would not have been as effective. The message is "we are coming after you"

<comment><USER38> I remember a long time ago ('97) there was a major defection from the North Korean camp to the South.

Couple days later, in Seoul, the North Koreans assassinated some other guy who'd defected 10 years earlier.

Not only is the message "We're coming for you," but also "you can never feel safe again."

<comment><USER39> I believe you are talking about a distant relative or nephew of the North Korea's Kim family. I believe the victim was actually shot to death in front of his home by someone with a pistol, which was a big news...

Touch choice. Stay in North Korea and be dragged off to labor camp or get executed. Or defect and get assassinated years later.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> so quick to assume this was done by nk.

</comment><comment><USER41> I disapprove of assassination but I've got to admit this one scores 10/10 for sheer style.

<comment><AUTHOR> Certainly the attempt to kill Castro, of all people, with an exploding cigar should rank higher. Just imagine how that CIA brain storming went:

A: "We're tasked with killing Castro. Again. Any ideas? Anything? Nothing is stupid! Castro! Go!

B: "Cigars"

C: "Boom!"

A: "I see we're in mind-melt here. No wonder the western world trusts us with their lives during these troubling times"

If you insist on actually successful assassinations, and score it on cruelty as well, using Polonium should win. The victim doesn't only die a miserable death. It takes two weeks during which they can still give interviews, know they're going to die, and even knows exactly who did it.

<comment><USER42> And for sheer elegance, I'll give it to the assassination of Georgi Markov by being poked with a ricin-tipped umbrella.

<comment><USER19> He was dead the very instant that ball was shot into him... he could have realized what had happened that _instant_ and no one could have saved him; it really was diabolical.

<comment><USER43> Are you dead? If you got a knife and cut out that section of skin/muscle fairly quickly is it too late?

But it's terrifying. Also that video of the CIA people testifying about the heart attack drug. I find the 'we dont know' if it was natural vs assassination scarier as nefarious people are more able and probably willing to use it. When you see all the type of things the CIA was up to 50/60/70's there must be some crazy stuff we'll never know about.

<comment><USER19> I honestly don't know about how quickly you'd have to cut out the affected region, or even amputate the limb. My guess is that if you were _very_ lucky and it missed all major blood vessels, you'd have seconds to act decisively. Maybe.

As to the rest, yeah definitely. Just consider the B2 bomber. I always wonder what's hidden away being tested in the same way that was.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Lessons Learned Going from Zero to $30k/Month in a Year - <AUTHOR> http://groovehq.com/blog/first-year <comment><USER2> You know, I skimmed the article and liked it, and thought "hey, I'll check out GrooveHQ.com, see what their deal is" since I haven't heard of them before.

And I get to a page where the only way to learn more is to watch a video. Instant turnoff. I'm in a quiet place, I don't want to make noise or plug my headphones in just to have any idea what it is you actually do. Please consider that people might want to read something about you on your signup page.

<comment><USER3> I've said this before, but they wouldn't do it if it didn't work. Just google "video engagement vs. text engagement". It really does increase conversions and alleviates a lot of confusion. It doesn't excuse the need for descriptive text, but rather complements any online offering. Seeing is believing.

I agree with this sentiment, I too avoid video, but it is a very easily digestible format for a lot of people. Think about Leap Motion, would it have nearly been as interesting without the impressive video showing you why it's interesting?

<comment><USER4> That's their choice, obviously. I hate being forced to watch a video, and when I land on a page that only has video content I leave.

<comment><USER3> I used to do that too. Now I squash my overwhelming desire to leave and I give it a shot. Almost everytime, I leave with a much better understanding of the product.

<comment><USER5> But are you better for it, or have you just spent more time of your life watching what are, essentially, ads?

<comment><USER3> I honestly think I am getting a quicker understanding than skimming a bunch of text and letting my brain fill in the rest. So sure, I'm better for having taken the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great post, really made me take a deeper look into the product.

I wasn't disturbed by the short video which explains most / all the features, but I can see the need of also having them as separate web pages (also useful for SEO).

My main concern is that there is no free version at all, even for smaller teams / startups (1-2 members) and I don't know if it's possible to import data from other customer support SAAS.

<comment><USER7> Glad you enjoyed the post! re: free version-We have a 14 day free trial and are always willing to work with other startups on price. Ping me at firstname.lastname@example.com and we chat more...

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've had a quick read, and I think this is a pretty comprehensive post and I suspect it'll be useful in the future. Especially inclusion of "a bunch of other posts to read on various blogs in a spreadsheet" \- that's awesome.

Another thing that's awesome: "There's no magic bullet".

Thanks for a good read.

<comment><USER7> Glad you liked it! That spreadsheet was my favorite easter egg :)

<comment><USER9> I especially liked the way you frankly talked about the fears that we all have, and then gave concrete resources, more than most might easily find. Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _There's no way to make smart decisions with that sort of self-doubt.

Fortunately, it can be overcome. There are so many entrepreneurs who are smarter, more experienced and more successful than I am. Much of their wisdom is available for free on the internet.'_

This is exactly why now startups straight out out college are getting successful. Students, who are mature enough have an ocean of knowledge and experience on their click. I can understand that experience can only be gained, but a wise is one who learn from others mistakes. You can not commit all the mistakes in your single life.

Earlier people used to avoid funding to fresh entrepreneurs, but today "unexperienced" ones can easily "evolve" and become immune to some common traps startups experience. That is why it is said that if you really want to change the world, read and read a lot.

[http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman- fut...](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future- libraries-reading-daydreaming)

</comment><comment><USER11> FYI: in the sentence "Simplifying our onboarding quadrupaled our completion rate" (one of the images), "quadrupled" is misspelled.

<comment><USER7> good call, definitely gotta fix that one. Thanks for the heads up :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Funny, we're already recycling tech company names. Any one remember the cool group collaboration tool (until MSFT bought them) called Groove[1]?

I think the former Groove inspired a lot of what became Web 2.0 productivity tools. It was definitely at the forefront of such.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_Networks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groove_Networks)

Edit: I should add, good article

</comment><comment><USER13> I went to the main blog page, but completely missed the link to this article. Instead I was looking at the iconic images as the table of contents, looking for the latest article. The "intro" of this article didnt look like a link to a longer article, and there was no underlined link to click, so I didn't try to click it. May be a use ability issue?

</comment><comment><USER14> Thank you for sharing. This has given me good ideas to follow through as I try to build up my product. How much resources (capital wise + hours) did you expend? You say in earlier post, 250K bootstrap fund. What percentage on this particular effort?

</comment><comment><USER15> Interesting you're spending at least 10% of monthly revenue on BounceExchange. Does it provide ROI? The product looks great but the pricing is another matter!

</comment><comment><USER16> was there initial funding or everything bootstrapped?

<comment><USER7> Self-funded with 250k.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Thanks for sharing. I believe the experiences you have learnt can help me along my way building my own startup.

</comment><comment><USER18> No Doctype on this page: [http://www.groovehq.com/users/sign_in](http://www.groovehq.com/users/sign_in)

If this is rails, just add the doctype to the layout you are using for devise sessions. Easy to overlook. Not smart to be missing in production.

<comment><USER19> Shouldn't be an issue, a doctype declaration is optional in html5. Are you aware of anything not working correctly without it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Thank you for sharing!

<comment><USER7> Glad you liked it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Fantastic series of articles. I like that you included strategies you've used and actually uploaded documents for the public to see. Keeping it real is the only way to go.

I'm tired of articles written by someone hard working, trying to abstract all their efforts into a certain few points relevant to really their own situation only. The most you get out of these is an ooh or ahh. These types of articles are unintentionally predatory to wannabe entrepreneurs, which in reality, only serve to boost _your_ revenue and traffic.

I want to hear specific conversations you've had, email exchanges, social strategies you've used, things you've read that have literally _changed your life and perspective_. Give us a peek into your mind and how it works. Not one off points you thought of on an evening and decided to make a blog post. Spend a month, two months, three months, a half year gathering data, and make a post full of integrity with defined goals in mind. Outline a path you took, tell us where you went wrong and why.

Looking forward to more in this series.

OP what do you recommend as reading material? Any books/authors that helped you?

<comment><USER22> Too often on HN, a "How My Company Did X" post doesn't include how Company actually performed X. They're typically generalized stories about platitudes. Kudos to Groove for following through with a concrete series of steps they performed that helped them accomplish their goal.

<comment><USER7> Thanks! We promised to bare it all :)

<comment><USER23> How many extra customers would being number 1 on HN bring? Would love to hear if you ve got such a number.

<comment><USER7> Post coming up very soon about that affect :)

<comment><USER24> Looking forward to it.

There are a lot of well-intentioned opinions here but it'll be interesting to see if there's any correlation with your real-world data and conversions.

I -for one- am really interested in following your growth but I'm not in the market for a support service (yet). I'm not your customer, why would you care what I think about your UX and whether or not you should have a video lander?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Reddit readers manipulate AdSense - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2007/11/20/crowd-finally-gets-it-they-can-group-up-and-manipulate-adsense/ "Redditers are calling everyone to click on Rudy Giuliani's paid ads simply because they cost him money." <comment><USER2> Conversion tracking will show a drop from 10 percent to .001 percent and the ad will be turned off. Daily budgeting prevents serious loss. Google puts more thought into this sort of thing than reddit and its cute little arrows.

<comment><USER3> Google doesn't do conversion tracking for you.

<comment><USER2> [http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=google+conversion+trac...](http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=google+conversion+tracking)

<comment><USER3> We're talking about CPC ads here and you know it.

<comment><USER2> Okay, you might want to actually look at some of those links. Just in case anybody else doesn't know what conversion tracking is, basically:

1\. User clicks on ad.

2\. User does something advertiser considers significant, aka a "conversion", like going to a download site or a credit card entry page.

3\. Google tracks that occurence and crunches the numbers.

4\. Advertiser can make decisions about what ads to run based upon how many conversions they get. Thus, if political ads never "convert" to donations, it's obvious they should be removed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I doubt this is as big of an issue as the article makes it seem, either for Google or candidates.</comment>


Ask HN: Can a startup succeed with terrible code? - <AUTHOR> I am the 10th employee and 3rd fulltime software developer at a startup which has so far seen some success. We have regular revenue from around 10 customers (a few of whom are fortune whatever-hundred), we have just gotten a small grant from the state we are located in and we are in talks with multiple VC funds, and have been attempting to push back our initial rounds because we believe our valuation is steadily increasing.  The other two devs have been here since the beginning, and I just joined in July. I have about 3 years of professional experience, and in my opinion, our codebase is garbage from top to bottom. Adding or fixing any feature is a monumental task requiring collaboration between all three of us, and there are sections I don't bother touching without asking questions first. Furthermore, any request to refactor is mostly rebuffed by the fact that it doesn't add immediate value to the users we are beholden to for our immediate survival. How common is this? Should I jump ship, or will any other startup be just as bad? Do successful startups have good code, or is it all just about the final result for users?<p>Tl;Dr Do most startups which get funded/bought manage to produce good code, despite the pressure to produce features? <comment><USER2> It's all about the priorities.

For a startup that's still searching for the product-market fit, the code you write today may have very short lifespan and the features you're building today may end up being totally reworked (or thrown away!) next week.

The entire product is a throwaway Spike ([http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/spike.html](http://www.extremeprogramming.org/rules/spike.html)). The code quality matters only as long as it works and can be used to test whether the feature in question gets you more users.

So basically what you're doing is intentionally creating a mountain of technical debt so that you can move super-fast, with the intention of only paying it off after you know the code will be needed.

Once the product-market fit is achieved and the featureset stabilizes somewhat, it makes sense to start cleaning up the codebase.

That's the benefit. The problem with this approach is that if the tech debt catches up with you faster than you can figure out the product-market fit. In this case it gets harder and harder to move and instead of going faster you go slower, and it can kill you.

<comment><USER3> > Once the product-market fit is achieved (...)

> it makes sense to start cleaning up the codebase.

This is very optimistic assumption that people will actually clean the codebase at some point. From what I've seen technical debt can stay very long time. Temporary hacks can become permanent.

Spikes/prototyping can be quite effective, but to be effective in writing spikes/prototypes a team must be disciplined to rewrite/refactor later. And from my experience teams are often not very disciplined and pile of spaghetti code begin to grow...

> The problem with this approach is that if the tech debt

> catches up with you faster than you can figure out the

> product-market fit. In this case it gets harder and harder

> to move and instead of going faster you go slower

Yeah. This is what I've seen. Even in startups quick and dirty code can be developed over months. And in such long time pile of spaghetti just piles up (people can make quite a mess in days. Imagine what they can do over months...).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's all just about the final result. Doesn't matter if the back end is in PHP or C or Go or Rust or Haskell or whatever. Doesn't matter whether one uses Qt, React or pure JS or backbone or anything else in the client. What matters is whether the customer gets the product they want.

That said, if you aren't happy there, look for someplace else!

<comment><AUTHOR> That's what I'm trying to understand. Do successful companies all have devs working at 20% efficiency because of mistakes made in the past that there is "no time" to fix? Am I just not cut out for this industry if I take pride in my work and can't see myself writing shitty code forever?

<comment><USER4> Not all companies are like that. Startups in today's Bay Area are disproportionately likely to be.

Also, pride doesn't pay bills. That's definitely a consideration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Normal from what I have seen</comment>


A true UX tool: A call for a tool that goes beyond prototyping - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@JuliusHuijnk/a-true-ux-tool-9e892b0dc1a5

<comment><USER2> Hi, author here. I'm working on a follow up article that will include feedback from the main UX tool makers. I want to get more perspectives on this topic. If you have any input for the follow up article, let me know.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you find a designer? - <AUTHOR>

I'm seeking a front end web designer for a bootstrapped startup.  I notice a good number of the 'weekend' projects posted have great web designs, how did you find your designer or did you do the design work yourself ?<p>I'm a strong backend engineer, but web design, UI, CSS etc.. is just not in my bag of tricks. <comment><USER2> Dribbble.com is fantastic, clicking on the user to find their personal website makes it approachable.

There is also Forrst.com, though the quality has been slipping over the past year but they have a directory of designers.

Don't forget builditwith.me who make it incredibly easy for you to search for designers specifically.

If it's a startup and the budget is small then finding a like minded individual is your best bet, who is willing to help out or potentially swap services, rather than approaching a freelance designer directly.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1\. I use dribbble.com in most instances. 2\. Find the style you like and approach them either using the Hire Me feature, or if you click the designer's name, they often have a personal site with contact details on. 3\. A good tip is to word search a design similar to what you are looking for, e.g. for a photo app, search "photo". 4\. Make sure you have a clear design brief when you contact the designer. This should include examples of URLs that you like. 5\. Shoot me an email if you want an example (username @ gmail.com).

</comment><comment><USER4> Another option is sending me an email ;)

My portfolio: www.heynico.com</comment>


Ask HN: If you had a free month to learn something new, what would it be? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> erlang and/or Go I already have used c/c++ for 25 years, and python for 7 years</comment>


Genetically engineered biofuel bacteria - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110526141511.htm

<comment><AUTHOR> Amongst the many doomsday scenarios we hear about all the time, I notice that people often miss how rapidly we are developing our ability to 'hack' cells.

Given exemplar bacteria in the Gulf that both consume and secret oil it seems a modest step to a bacteria that does this on command with various precursor agents.

In the referenced article the scientists are finding ways to make post processing simpler.</comment>


Nobody 'stealing' your jobs, you spend too much on wars, Jack Ma tells US - <AUTHOR> https://www.rt.com/business/374289-alibaba-us-jobs-military/ <comment><USER2> The plutocracy, who runs things behind the scenes, decided long ago that the rent extracted from the outsourcing of industry could finance their imperial war machine.

Perkin's _Confessions of an Economic Hitman_ [1][2] is a good read.

The US' problem with China is that they think long-term... Their leaders long ago realized they needed to industrialize, and started with whatever low-tech jobs western companies were willing to give them. Now they are demanding western companies share their crown jewels with Chinese companies (requiring that much of their high-speed rail infrastructure be manufactured in-country, etc).

Similarly, the US' problem with Russia is that they play chess, while US politicians play checkers.

I think Señor Trump is smart enough to know that the Imperialists are America's true enemy, but that Joe and Jane American don't realize the full extent of their government's "Economic Hitmen" activities. Hopefully he'll rename the Department of Homeland Security to something that doesn't imply imperialism. Similarly, hopefully he'll order the department of defense to reimagine itself into a department concerned with the country's defense, rather than being obsessed with the ability to destroy anything anywhere on the planet at a moment's notice.

[1] [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1576755126](https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1576755126) [2] [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1626566763](https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1626566763) (just learned there's a 2016 edition)

<comment><USER3> For all the political chess, Russia's economy is still smaller than Italy's, despite having a pretty good setup in theory.

Russia is able to make noise and do things to Eastern Europe, but the government's moves seem to be much more about preserving the current government rather than advancing the interests of the nation as a whole

For example: how does annexing Crimea help Russia? Was that one navy port worth it?

A calculated risk, perhaps. But they seem to be bad at math.

<comment><USER4> Don't forget the gas resources in the calculations. Well worth it, for Russia.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/world/europe/in-taking- cr...](https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/world/europe/in-taking-crimea-putin- gains-a-sea-of-fuel-reserves.html?_r=0)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Didn't read the article, but RT (Russia Today) is Kremlin's propaganda channel[0] and it's links should neither be trusted nor shared.

0\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Propaganda_cla...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_\(TV_network\)#Propaganda_claims_and_related_issues)

<comment><USER6> Are you implying that Jack Ma did not really say that?

<comment><USER5> No, I'm implying that sharing of propaganda channels should not be encouraged, because it makes them look legitimate.

<comment><USER7> What about CNN, BBC and Western propaganda channels? Are you The Ministry of Truth?

<comment><USER5> CNN, BBC and probably all of Western media channels have their agenda, but none of them is straightforward propaganda with direct control by government as RT is. Don't make mistake here, there are no RT counterpart in West, despite RT trying very hard to "prove" otherwise.

<comment><USER8> Propaganda for a state that controls hands-on and directly will be managed hands-on and directly.

Propaganda for a state that controls via economic incentives and backroom greasing will be handled via economic incentives and backroom greasing.

I'm a South American living in Canada and I honestly find this effort of yours to get people to stop sharing RT hilarious. I watch american channels (or Al- Jazeera) for news about Russia (or the Middle East), and vice-versa. This works well.

Hillary Clinton lost largely because the New York Times, your paper of record, assured people that she had in the bag and that they could stay home. Now people want to blame Russia for "hacking the election", and it's been reported so poorly by the New York Times and The Washington Post that 50% of liberals polled now believe that Russia hacked the vote tallies themselves. [0]

This is very similar to how in the wake of 9/11, the ignorance about the difference between Iraq and Afghanistan was exploited to rally support for war in the former. Or how the torture report was buried.

Take a step back and look at try to look at your posting in this topic objectively. You're fear-mongering and shaming, and not being persuasive.

I encourage everyone to read this article by Emily Bartlett Hines about "How The Times Failed You" [1]

[0] [https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/12/27/belief- conspiracies...](https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/12/27/belief-conspiracies- largely-depends-political-iden/)

[1] [https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/01/how-the-times- failed-...](https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/01/how-the-times-failed-you)

<comment><USER5> _" Take a step back and look at try to look at your posting in this topic objectively."_

I happen to live in a country that's bordering Russia and can see first handedly what damage propaganda causes, especially to minorities here. So sorry, I can't "step back and see objectively". Propaganda is a weapon and should not be tolerated as such.

<comment><USER8> I'm South American so I have first handedly seen how American propaganda works. It may be different from Russian propaganda, but your plea that people stop sharing RussiaToday, in absence of equal pleas against The New York Times, comes off as ignorant. You may be scared about Russian military aggression, but I beg you to compare how much military aggression the US and Russia are both engaged in right now.

By the way, I decided to share the well-argued, well-cited article about the issues with pro-Clinton New York Times reporting on HackerNews, it got three upvotes, and then it got flagged to death.

Consider that we may both be between a rock and a hard place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> $5 trillion USD on war on terror, and the world is not safer than before. with $5 trillion you could buy Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook etc.

<comment><USER10> Like most government "wars" on a problem it has turned out to be an expensive effort to make the problem worse. I agree with the theory that this is by design; if a government program actually solved a problem then the funding goes away.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Does this even make sense? How does "employing millions of people for a war" become "job loss"?

<comment><USER12> War doesn't have a lot of returns.

Let's say we spend $100 mil blowing up a neighborhood in Iraq vs $100 building a building in St Louis. Both employ people during the act. But the building in St Louis will be worth something at the end of it. And it will most likely facilitate more commerce. Same with building a highway.

<comment><USER13> You're forgetting to factor in all the other countries who look at how the hegemony can spend $100M on blowing up a neighborhood like it's nothing, and therefore decide to kowtow to the demands of the powerful, lest they suddenly come down with a case of terrorism themselves.

<comment><USER12> Great. Azerbaijan will do as we want. That's gotta be worth at least $50 to GDP, right?

I'm being snarky, but what is that X-factor actually worth? And should we then factor in all the people who will hate the USA and do their damnedest to maim & kill Americans?

I don't have numbers, but this doesn't seem like a winning argument.

<comment><USER13> Have you read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man? Look, they have the money figured out, they're not likely to do something unless they feel they're going to get ROI, and I don't mean ROI for you and me, no no no no. You and I are just on the hook for paying for the welfare checks delivered to these corporations.

Libya was toppled because Libya was key to keeping the West out of Africa, since Gaddafi fell, Western bases can't be built in Africa fast enough. Also, since the fall of Libya the people still haven't had their water works restored, oh but magically the West have graciously given the Libyan people the World Bank and other globalist institutions.

Also, maimed westerners == propaganda material and job security. How have you not figured this out yet?

You don't have the numbers, because your TV ain't gonna tell you them.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Case for Reparations - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ <comment> floody-berry This has 11 points and no discussion, while seo blogspam about ebay hits the front page? That is beyond pathetic.

</comment><comment><USER3> More interesting than the article is this tidbit at the bottom.

"Comments for this thread are now closed."

How often are comments turned off on Atlantic articles?

<comment><USER4> how is that interesting? it could easily make sense given the content.

<comment><USER3> It's interesting in that they know this idea is so divisive and unpopular that they have to prevent the possibility for people to directly respond to it.

This isn't about preventing some racist trolls from saying a few sarcastic "Thanks Obama" comments and to make a few jokes about black people. That happens in any long comment thread that's even closely related to race - <USER2> those comments are always down voted and criticized.

What's more interesting to me now is that the "Comments are now closed" box is itself missing. So they're so insecure that they can't even let people know that they're being censored.

Some frank discussions of slavery and race and all associated factors of American history are warranted. I can praise them for speaking about this issue (even if I disagree with many of their ideas and conclusions) but I have to be critical of The Atlantic for not allowing this discussion.</comment></comment></comment>


Prenda Law's Trip To San Francisco Turns Out Badly - <AUTHOR> http://www.popehat.com/2013/04/23/prenda-law-trip-to-san-francisco-turns-out-badly

<comment><USER2> It would be nice to have some TL;DR on popehat, I don't always have the time for the full _Law and order_ episode :)

<comment><USER3> It would be nice to have a tl;dr on the whole case. I don't really know the backstory here and popehat doesn't seem inclined to recap.

<comment><USER4> Prenda Law's escapades in the past:

1\. Sloppy detective work to look for people torrenting porn

2\. Fish for quick settlements from these people

Several of the accused have decided to fight back. In doing so, there have been revelations that Prenda has many problems.

1\. It's not clear that Prenda has the right to sue on behalf of the copyright holders.The holding company it claims to represent seems to be founded on forged documents, and temps acting as corporate officers.

2\. Prenda's not willing pay for a bond for one case, and wants to terminate many cases and absolve itself of any sort of expense associated with them. The judges involved aren't going to set Prenda walk away so easily.

Edit: Thought this was using markdown, derp

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If April 26 is "World Intellectual Property Day," I declare April 27 to be "World Imaginary Property Infringement Day." A Merry WIPID to all, and may you all enjoy a bountiful harvest.</comment>


Melbourne Launches World-Class Free Wi-Fi Network - <AUTHOR> http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/melbourne-launches-world-class-free-wi-fi-network/ <comment><USER2> Melbournian here: I'd hold off labelling it world class just yet, Also worth noting is that the network is completely insecure - the entire network has no password on the WPA2 SSIDs at all so your traffic is unencrypted and ripe for the taking for anyone that wants it, it's not only bad practise - it's down right irresponsible and misleading.

Couple that with the fact that the ISP backing most of it is notoriously shaftey - engaging in anticompetitive behaviour and been screwing over Australian citizens for decades, are one of the most expensive ISPs to peer with in the world and have a terrible support track record.

<comment><USER3> > Also worth noting is that the network is completely insecure - the entire > network has no password on the WPA2 SSIDs

FYI, even if it had a password, if everyone knows it, they have access to all your traffic anyway.

<comment><USER4> Correct me if I'm wrong, but WPA2 should have individual keys for each client, so that you cannot read the traffic of other connected users.

<comment><USER5> They do, but if you intercept the handshake that occurs every time someone joins the network, and you have the network key, they get that to.

<comment><USER6> That doesn't sound right. Doesn't WPA2 include some form of Diffie-Hellman during the handshake? Doesn't prevent MITM, but should prevent snooping

<comment><USER7> Nope: [http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/5927/why-does- wpa-...](http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/5927/why-does-wpa-psk-not- use-diffie-hellman-key-exchange)

If you're in PSK mode, it's assumed you're trusted. Perfect forward secrecy wasn't a target of PSK mode.

Also, if you're going to do a DH exchange and give the key out to everyone, there is no point in having the key in the first place, just do a plain old DH exchange.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is this "free" Wi-fi used to track the physical location of wifi enabled phones, like many other public wifi networks?

Will Australian police need warrants to query this network for location data?

Can the NSA access the location data from this network through the 5 eyes network?

 _" The model works by providing free access in exchange for users' personal and behavioral data, which are then used to target ads to them."_

[http://theconversation.com/the-heavy-price-we-pay-for- free-w...](http://theconversation.com/the-heavy-price-we-pay-for-free-wi- fi-52412)

<comment><AUTHOR> _" Will Australian police need warrants to query this network for location data?"_

would the data be held by the ISP and inspected under the existing legislation?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Luxembourg city has this since almost 2years and it's pretty awesome. It's available in the whole city center, it's fast enough and there's even a premium offer. So many people are transiting here for business and offering a free wifi is a clear comfort offered to travellers!

Big up to Melbourne for doing the same !

</comment><comment><USER10> I stopped taking it seriously when they said "250mb cap". What the hell are you going to do with that?

<comment><USER11> What are you doing with your phone? I have a 1.5 GB a month data plan and only very rarely go over that.

<comment><USER12> Some people use their phones as their main computer.

<comment><USER11> I'm guessing many of those people have a 'real' internet connection at home and at work which they'll be using most of the time.

<comment><USER13> 4G LTE nowadays is often faster than the average non-NBN broadband at home or work though.

<comment><USER7> non-NBN?

I get 85mbps pretty consistently from my cable provider, which is faster than I get on LTE.

<comment><USER13> How about upload? I only get 2.5Mbps uplink via Bigpond Cable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > World-Class > 250mb cap.

Haha. Practically every free Wi-Fi network over here in the UK is unlimited.

<comment><USER11> Perhaps, but at least in London free Wi-Fi is hardly ubiquitous. I found that walking down an avg. street in London I did not av access to free Wi-Fi. If they can blanket the city with this then that would be pretty handy even with a 250MB/day cap.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Adelaidian here (another Australian capital). Our city has had free Wifi provided by a competing ISP, since 2014 [1]. For many years now (as long as I can remember) they have also provide free Wifi at the Adelaide airport.

I'm very happy to hear something similar has been launched in Melbourne. I visit there regularly and as most of my social arrangements are via data (messaging or email) it is always great to have access to Wifi. The trade-off between security and utility is one I'm comfortable with, as more layers of security can always be added.

I'd be happy if the splash pages weren't quite so intrusive - but I guess either there isn't a good way around this, and/or it is the necessary price for something that is otherwise free.

As an aside, the customer service of Melbourne's Wifi provider is indeed famously bad, while Adelaide's is famously good. Who knows what the future holds though.

[1] [https://hotspot.internode.on.net/partners/adelaidefree/](https://hotspot.internode.on.net/partners/adelaidefree/)

<comment><USER16> You know TPG own Internode, right? ;)

EDIT: To be fair, it's only recent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Mobile data plans are quite cheap in Australia lately. Lots of competition and lots of gigabytes thrown in. For this reason I don't know who the market is for free wi-fi when most people have enough mobile data anyway. I suppose tourists without roaming might use it, or anyone who has used all their data and too broke to pay the 2 bucks to top up.

</comment><comment><USER18> I reckon it'll be less than a day before this network bogs down due to the sheer volume of Instagram photos of lattes.

</comment><comment><USER19> They're hinting/implying that there'll be no captive portal - that makes it 1000% times more useful and friendly, even with just a small data cap. If only it extended to the airport - their stupid registration system is a PITA.

</comment><comment><USER20> Another Melbournian here - for the little it's worth I'm disappointed by the Government getting involved in something it oughtn't (from the perspective of a minarchist-Objectivist), and it's _also_ an awful network from a technical perspective.

I really wish the Government would just limit itself to, you know, Governing, and stop a) breaking markets and then b) appointing itself to "fix" the resultant problems with public money.

Finally, calling it free is misleading - taxpayer funded would be much less like propaganda.

</comment><comment><USER10> In London we have stations where there's over 150MB throughput on a device uncapped. Hardly 'on par'

</comment><comment><USER21> I don't understand what "world-class" mean, is it just a buzzword or does it convey any information?

<comment> ryan-allen World class internet in Australia is a flaky 5 megabit per second.

<comment><USER22> Too true

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> ... _[for parts of Melbourne and with no timetable for a city-wide rollout.]_

Good press release :/.

<comment><USER13> I guess the "future" locations on the map [1] will be turned on by the end of this year?

Not exactly great, for example there's almost nothing planned along Swanston Street.

[1] [https://www.vic.gov.au/wifi/find.html](https://www.vic.gov.au/wifi/find.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> my god, stop complaining about a new free wi-fi network</comment>


Is it right place to look for Job? - <AUTHOR> Hi,
I am Usman from Pakistan. I have a good hands-on experience of more than a year working in Big Data Analytics and Science.
I started out as an intern that means I started from the basics and now I am confident I can handle intermediate-advance level problems.
I am actively seeking a remote position in data science. Can anyone suggest me where I can turn?
I work with R scripting, Azure ML and some other tools.
I am also an opinion writer. One of my analysis on terrorist attacks at educational institutes appeared in one of the largest circulation of Pakistan.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1222915
is there a possibility?
I can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com <comment><USER2> There I an official "Who wants to be hired?" post the first day of each month. You can try to post there, because it was only a few days ago. (And be alert to post in the post of next month.)

Last editions:

Ask HN: Who wants to be hired?: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822021](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822021) (38 points, 5 days ago, 103 comments)

Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer?: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822020](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822020) (98 points, 5 days ago, 137 comments)

Ask HN: Who is hiring?: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822019](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822019) (343 points, 5 days ago, 446 comments)</comment>


Google Chrome Omnibox Search Extensions for Developers - <AUTHOR> https://code.google.com/p/developer-omniboxes-for-chrome/

<comment><AUTHOR> Howto:

        git clone https://code.google.com/p/developer-omniboxes-for-chrome/
        Open: chrome://extensions/
        Enable Developer Mode
        Choose path to [the-repo]/src/client/[the-addon-you-want]
        Add it
        Repeat</comment>