SC-IM: An ncurses spreadsheet program for terminal - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im <comment><USER2> Similar is visidata. It's also a vim-like, but is geared specifically at tabular/relational data, so not a spreadsheet app in the strict sense. However, it can access SQL databases, and has a very flexible / intuitive approach to trasformations.

[http://visidata.org/](http://visidata.org/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Looks great. Can it autoreload on file changes? That would make it a great viewer as part of a tmux/$EDITOR sql IDE.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've been using sc a few times. It's great to have an improved version!

> _XLSX file import_

> _Use SC-IM as a non-interactive calculator, reading its input from a > external script._

Wow, does this mean I can use those "computing modules" that customers invariably give me in the form of XLSX sheets (with input and output cells) without having to use one of those huge Java libraries? This is awesome!

</comment><comment><USER5> And the original SC version was written by James Gosling, the guy who went on and invented Java. I happened to attended a talk by him recently. To my surprise, the guy mentioned very little about Java, which I thought to be his greatest achievement. For most of the talk, James just discussed his work in space-communication technology and the development of an autonomous marine- time vehicle in his recent employment. He went on and talked about the IOT devices and felt annoyed that people think that they could shove NodeJS or Python code to a embedded device. It's amazing that I feel like he's still pretty much interested in doing the daily developing/debugging: his eyes were lit up when he talked about debugging the autonomous vehicle underwater in Hawaii.

</comment><comment><USER6> > the idea is that the program can be identified as another vim-like app

Does this mean it supports vim keybindings? There's no obvious information about what keybindings it uses.

<comment><USER7> I found the bindings.

[https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc- im/blob/freeze/src/doc](https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc- im/blob/freeze/src/doc)

<comment><USER6> Awesome, yea those appear to be somewhat vim-like!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> yay, gave me flashback to wordstar. I remember seeing a coming soon poster for total recall the day I tried to learn it on some weird cp/m box I got for free.

</comment><comment> 52-6F-62 Looks like Lotus123!

</comment><comment><USER9> so awesome</comment>


Your prediction of Twitter's future is wrong - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/p/your-prediction-of-twitter-s-future-is-wrong-a401db987e65 <comment><USER2> > Twitter is the greatest social platform ever built. Period.

For you. Not necessarily everyone else. Just saying this because the post is titled that everyone is wrong, so I expected some facts, not just "cuz I said so"

> No other platform gives me a chance to talk to people like...

Tweeting at celebrities (and hoping they tweet back) is not really a conversation.

\-- Don't get me wrong, I like Twitter, but not for these reasons.

<comment><USER3> Celebrities usually have PR teams handling their Twitter. Have fun with the illusion you are talking to the real person, not to a curated proxy...

<comment><USER4> They have and use accounts, but not under real names. As soon as they see any spike in followers, anything more than their few friends/employees which would suggest a leak, everything is deleted. If you are into cyberstalking then you can sometimes find these accounts by tracking a celebs movements against likely tweets. No doubt TMZ has people on this. Since the iPhone fiasco many young celebs have shunned email. Twitter can be a functional replacement, at least for all the inane chat.

<comment><USER5> Why don't they just set those accounts as protected?

<comment><USER4> Because they are lazy. These aren't hardened security pros. Celebs are generally very young, poorly educated[1] impatient and impulsive. By the nature of their work they are also fashion conscious and eager to follow online trends. Tech-specific security features aren't a priority, until they are crying in their lawyer's office desperately pleading for him to to get that picture removed from the internet.

[1] Really. Look into your favourite stars. Many did not graduate highschool, or got an "on set" education for a GED. Child stars and models have to really work at getting any notion of a proper education. Basic reading skills are often an issue on set. This sometimes comes up when applying for work permits, say to work on a film in Vancouver. Immigration officials sometimes baulk at the notion of an uneducated 20yo claiming a unique skill warranting a special visa.

Google "on location education services" for a view of what many celebs grow up with.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > 1\. Twitter is the greatest social platform ever built. Period.

This is like saying "Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. because she had one of the best videos of all time. Period."

> 2\. No other platform gives me a chance to talk to people like Marc > Andreessen, Chris Sacca, Tim O'Reilly etc. Twitter empowers us all. Think > about how much 1:1 time you can get with influencers on platforms like > Facebook or Snapchat. These people won't take the time out to send you a > snap.

Welcome to 2016. This guy apparently hasn't used Snapchat before. I can already see a lot of celebrities using Snapchat Stories to interact with their fans in much more intimate ways than Twitter can ever facilitate.

3\. Facebook is not a fair comparison. But I quit Facebook because it made me unhappy and dissatisfied. Twitter makes me smart.

The reason Twitter is having hard time is because of all the competing products that have surpassed it, not just Facebook. There are hard numbers that tell us Twitter is losing people's attention. One person's denial won't change that.

<comment><AUTHOR> > This guy apparently hasn't used Snapchat before

I have, and I quit. For the same reason that I quit FB for. It wasn't adding anything meaningful to my life.

> There are hard numbers that tell us Twitter is losing people's attention

Can you point me to some, please?

<comment><USER6> > I have, and I quit. For the same reason that I quit FB for. It wasn't adding > anything meaningful to my life.

What is the point of this comment? It doesn't add value to the thread. My point was that it's not just Twitter that lets celebrities interact with their fans anymore. Your opinion is really irrelevant here.

> Can you point me to some, please?

If you've been living under the rocks, there are now messaging apps with more active users than twitter, and some almost catching up. If you're curious just do some google search. 5 years ago "social" basically meant Twitter or Facebook. It is not true anymore.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This doesn't really address the popular prediction - that Twitter is going to continue to struggle with monetization and that user growth will continue to remain flat.

Twitter may be the "greatest social platform ever built," but it wasn't built on a very strong financial foundation.

<comment><AUTHOR> Have you heard of Uber?

<comment><USER7> Yes...what's the connection?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> _Facebook is not a fair comparison. But I quit Facebook because it made me unhappy and dissatisfied. Twitter makes me smart._

How did this even get to the front page? HN needs some better quality control.

Lately been seeing a lot of mediocre medium articles get on the front page.

</comment><comment><USER9> Can somebody tell me why Twitter, Instagram and all the other big social media sites do not offer something like hats (TF2) or weapon skins (CS:GO)?

I am pretty sure there are millions of people who would be totally happy to increase their social credibility with a platinum-twitter-supporter-star in their profile. Make people think that they are not a true Instagram professional without a diamond Instragram supporter badge on their profile.

A basic silver supporter start costs 5$ a year and the exlusive diamond ones go for 100$ a year.

There is not much effort in implementing this and if done right you have a constant stream of revenue.

<comment><USER10> The main reason that sort of model works for valve so well is threefold.

Valve is at best, a medium sized company so its more worthwhile for them to bother from a profit per employee perspective (hats make them a lot of money in a relative sense, but it wouldn't be a notable blip on facebook or twitters radar)

because...

Valves market is almost 100% heavily committed and "entrenched" customers, people that have steam accounts worth $100s/$1000s, there is a good chance that they are already capturing most of the value in the "games hat market" dispite being only a fraction of the total game market.

because...

Valve is an extremely well liked and trusted company by their customers, likely because other players in the gaming space have been exploitative and abusive to truely mustache twirling comicbook villan levels. People have less worry sinking a lot of money into their platform because they both like them, and are generally of the opinion that even if they screw up, they usually make things right. How many people love facebook or twitter as a company the way people love valve? not many id warrent.

It should be noted, hats started off as a thing at valve BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE COMPLAINING THERE WAS NO EASY WAY TO GIVE VALVE MORE MONEY. How many people are lining up to shower zuckerberg with more money?

Its just not in the DNA of a company like facebook to engender that sort of rabbid fanboyism, maybe it was for twitter once upon a time, but they have burned community goodwill by the railcar-full.

<comment><USER9> I think you are right, thx for the input!

One exception I see is Instagram and the whole fitness model industry. These are people who are mostly just famous because they look beautiful amd sporty. Some of them earn money as a personal coach or by offering custom fitness programs. But none of them are truly "professional". I think if Instagram would offer some sort of Diamond-Instagram-supporter-badges those people would invest in this to look more professional. All their fame is based on Instagram so why not show their support? And if one fitness guy starts with it the other have to follow because they'd look "unprofessional" without such a badge.

Also there are tons of rich people on Instagram flaunting their money and for them a Diamond-encrusted-Instagram-Supporter badge would just enhance their prestige. They could easily price the highest tier at something ridicously high like 500 $/year and those people would buy it just to enhance their prestige compared to their peers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Twitter is in trouble if they are on a path to competing with Facebook. They are fine if they manage to reflect on what made them successful in the first place: information constraint and a small(ish) but passionate community.

The culprit is diluting the product to chase after growth. This is a losing strategy. They should instead think of catering to their core users and monetizing. They will disappear overnight should the core exit.

</comment><comment><USER12> Nobody is denying that Twitter is a great tool for a lot of people, the author included. But this pool of people is too small for Twitter's investors. And the way Twitter works currently, the pool looks difficult to grow. Hence all the handwringing about how to make Twitter appeal to a larger audience without losing the power users it already has.

<comment><AUTHOR> The problem is market expectations (which is Twitter's fault). Twitter cannot be Facebook scale. I mean nothing can be Facebook scale at this point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This appears to be an argument that Twitter is unique among the mainstream social networks, which is irrelevant to my predictions of their future. Which of these statements addresses why they're going to stay afloat without being profitable, as users move on, or as advertising's efficacy stales?

</comment><comment><USER8> What if two people make opposite predictions about Twitter's future? Would they both be wrong?

</comment><comment><USER14> I don't see how Twitter makes him smart but Facebook doesn't. I get just as much thoughtful conversation and content from FB as Twitter. This is just one random, insignificant dude's rant.

</comment><comment><USER15> If he thinks twitter is cool, wait til he hears about email!

</comment><comment><USER16> If there is a subreddit for your community, chances are you'll get a chance to engage directly with leading figures in it.

Just sayin'.</comment>


Puerto Rico energy plan introduces MiniGrids to avoid repeat of Hurricane Maria - <AUTHOR> https://www.utilitydive.com/news/puerto-rico-energy-plan-introduces-minigrids-to-avoid-repeat-of-hurricane-m/556645/ <comment><USER2> This is certainly a bold plan. I wonder (doubt, even) if PREPA will be able to execute it.

Segmenting the grid is going to introduce a lot of trade-offs. Smaller segments means that dips and spikes in load are going to create greater differences in frequency, and as such require faster demand response to create the same level of frequency regulation as a larger grid.

Renewables such as solar and wind are already not known for being particularly friendly to grid operations as their output can vary quickly and unpredictably. On a smaller grid, these variances are going to be magnified. They also can't be used for demand response by themselves - you can't tell the sun to start shining on demand.

Batteries can effectively smooth the load by providing operating reserve, but the proposed 940 MW of battery capacity (I couldn't figure out from the original report [0] how much MWh storage they are proposing -- there seem to be some numbers missing) is significantly larger than any other battery-based grid energy storage plan that I'm aware of.

I hope they can pull off this plan, and they are able to make it work for the people of PR as well.

[0] [https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oupTRdHXRHzc6UuKUdmFp9eWKP...](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oupTRdHXRHzc6UuKUdmFp9eWKPR0CZd5)

<comment><USER3> >I wonder (doubt, even) if PREPA will be able to execute it.

Sadly this might say a lot more about PREPA than anything else.

<comment><USER2> After looking it up, I discovered PREPA was privatized shortly after Hurricane Maria. So perhaps they have new sources of capital. Though I'm still not sure (or at least not confident) that anyone with a profit motive is going to invest heavily in Puerto Rico's grid.

<comment><USER4> IIRC the PREPA privatization was more of a gift to some well connected people and less about modernizing or improving the company.

<comment><USER5> There's corruption all around PREPA, just a nasty situation.

[http://ieefa.org/ieefa-report-effects-of-long-running-oil- pu...](http://ieefa.org/ieefa-report-effects-of-long-running-oil-purchase- scandal-undermine-privatization-and-contract-reform-initiatives-at-prepa/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Tesla has been working with Puerto Rico quite a bit on this exact thing:

[https://electrek.co/2018/06/03/tesla-energy-storage- projects...](https://electrek.co/2018/06/03/tesla-energy-storage-projects- puerto-rico-elon-musk/)

[https://electrek.co/2018/04/18/tesla-powerwall-powerpack- pue...](https://electrek.co/2018/04/18/tesla-powerwall-powerpack-puerto-rico- blackout-elon-musk/)

<comment><USER7> Have they actually made any progress though? This seems like they just had a bunch of PR statements and empty promises.

<comment><USER8> [https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2017/10/25/560045944...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2017/10/25/560045944/tesla-turns-power-back-on-at-childrens-hospital-in- puerto-rico)

[https://futurism.com/tesla-announced-six-new-projects- restor...](https://futurism.com/tesla-announced-six-new-projects-restore- power-puerto-rico)

> A lack of energy resources can have dire health implications, so Tesla will > first deploy battery systems at the most critical locations. These include a > sewer treatment plant, the Arcadia water pumping station, the Ciudad Dorada > elderly community, the Susan Centeno hospital, and the Boys and Girls Club > of Vieques.

Doesn't sound like empty promises.

<comment><USER9> Only a hospital in San Juan received a solar panel deployment. The quote you cited is more promises.

<comment><USER8> Citation please.

<comment><USER10> [https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5ca51e99e4b082d775dfec35](https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5ca51e99e4b082d775dfec35)

<comment><USER8> If you read the article, it clearly explains these weren't Tesla failings, but systemic neglect and disregard for the equipment donated and deployed.

Tesla can't fix apathetic government and locals. There's a reason Puerto Rico is in the condition it's in.

<comment><USER11> What reason is that?

<comment><USER8> Corrupt government and an apathetic electorate. Not quite a failed state yet, but getting there.

It's a shame; the people of PR deserve better.

<comment><USER6> You did miss the one serious fact in that a lot of things normal states can do, because they have voting Senators and House Representatives, PR can not do. So they can't change a lot of things because it requires US Congress to let them. US Congress doesn't care as much about PR as the rest of the US, so they're in a hole they can't dig out of.

Making PR the 51st state is one "fix" and the other is to let PR free of US tendrils. They voted last year that they wanted to become a 51st state, but the GOP has no interest in a new state made up of Latinos. Ironically, the people of PR are actually extremely conservative, but that might change electorally given the bile coming from the current conservative party.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's a little depressing how long it takes to complete projects like this, but encouraging that they're even trying. So... I guess I feel neutral about this on the balance. Anyone wanna take bets on how delayed and how much over budget they'll be?

<comment><USER13> Kevin Williamson writing about tunnel repairs in NYC

[https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/l-train-shutdown- repai...](https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/l-train-shutdown-repairs-what- took-long/)

"There was a terrible storm in 2012 that damaged the tunnel; repairs beginning in 2019 will shut down L Train service for a year and a half, etc. What strikes me as remarkable is that none of these accounts contains any half- serious attempt to explain to the curious reader such as myself why in the name of all that is good and holy it is taking all these years to get from Hurricane Sandy to Hurricane Sandy repairs.

Assuming those repairs are done on schedule nearly nine years will have passed between Sandy and the completion of storm repairs. That's twice as long as it took the United States to defeat the Axis powers, twice as long as the Civil War, longer than the time that elapsed between John Kennedy's "We choose to go to the moon" speech and landing Americans on the moon."

<comment><USER14> > That's twice as long as it took the United States to defeat the Axis powers, > twice as long as the Civil War, longer than the time that elapsed between > John Kennedy's "We choose to go to the moon" speech and landing Americans on > the moon."

Implying the United States defeated the axis powers on their own is a bit rich – don't you think?

Disregarding the revisionism of your comment, this seems to be a common argument in discussions like this and I wonder why? Isn't it fairly obvious that those ambitious undertakings were either due to significant political will or being forced by danger of death, whereas repairing a subway most probably carries none of that weight? So those responsible must fight tooth and nail to convince the powers that be of the necessity of the work, probably end up being underfunded anyhow, and of course all this requires the responsible (political) parties care enough in the first place.

It seems like a pretty unreasonable argument to me, but maybe I'm missing the point.

<comment><USER13> I don't think the point was to imply that the US beat the axis powers on their own, but rather to put the timeline in perspective.

Notwithstanding that, you are missing the point. The failure to rebuild the tunnel is at its heart a failure of leadership. We have the technology, we have the money, what we lack are political leaders with will and vision.

In the examples you brought up, FDR led a nation dragging their heels into a war most people were happy to stay out of. He showed leadership and no small amount of political skill to get the United States into a war most wanted to avoid (which makes the 'beat-the-axis-singlehandedly' trope even more ironic.) Similarly with Lincoln and the Civil War. Many people were content to live with the status quo of slavery. And so with Kennedy and the moon landing -- the Cold War was not an existential threat, and the leadership of Kennedy generated the will.

To get a subway tunnel repaired doesn't need a once in a century or once in a generation leader, but it does take some will and vision and political savvy. The venal mealy-mouthed bums we're currently stuck with are simply not up to the task.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I remember reading some study of hedge fund managers that concluded that despite having access to the same market information manager's behavior differed based on their personal experience. More specifically, managers who got burnt by a bubble burst were more risk averse.

I wonder how many nations will follow Puerto Rico's example before they experience a devastating storm first.

</comment><comment><USER16> Any devs interested in this space -- we have a company working on this and hiring; please ping me. Power networks are currently dumb and dataless. This will change!

<comment><USER17> Interesting. I spent several years at a small regional power company where we did some initial work on smart meters. That was probably 10 years ago and from what I understand they're still trying to get it all working on a large scale. Are you referring to something more than smart meters?

<comment><USER16> Yep -- I'm talking about ARM Cortex equipped internet connected boxes -- think residential solar, 5G rollout, small cells -- all on a genuine internet of power.

<comment><USER18> One question, why?

<comment><USER16> Power generators in the future are: 1) more numerous, 2) lower output, 3) more intermittent, 4) more democratized. Therefore communication is more important than it was in the 20th century monolithic model.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Hopefully they were buying some on the hundreds of Sunny Island MicroGrids being auctioned the last two days from the liquidation of DC Solar!

I was _this_ | ... (insert hundreds of more dots here) ... | _close_ to convincing my wife we should buy a lot of 90 - 275W solar panels (several of those lots sold for ~$4k).

The 25kWh 48v batteries look pretty awesome too, but where the heck I am going to put 2,000lbs of battery?!

EDIT: Puerto Rico is installing MiniGrids, which are an order of magnitude or two larger than the MicroGrids powered by the Sunny Islands, but anyway...

[https://cagp.industrialbid.com/m/view- auctions/catalog/id/38...](https://cagp.industrialbid.com/m/view- auctions/catalog/id/3850/)

<comment><USER20> hate me if you want but i think we should call these milli-grids if they are 2-3 orders of magnitude bigger than a micro-grid...

i admit there will be some marketing issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Why try a different solution? Why not just rebuild the existing grid more robustly so it can withstand damage better?

I'm not saying this wouldn't work but changes in kind are generally riskier then changes in degree.

<comment><USER22> Because they've already proven that they aren't responsible enough for centralized control of any critical infrastructure.

<comment><USER23> This is such a strange sentiment. Do you ever hear people talk about states this way. Is New York, West Virginia, or Washington ever "not responsible enough" to have control over their roads, electricity, or water supply? Is any country every said to be "not responsible enough."

But this sentiment comes up quite frequently in regards to Puerto Rico.

I live in Illinois. The budget/financial situation is a mess. People may have opinions about what went wrong. They might say "Illinois really needs to do X." But to my knowledge no one is seriously calling for a national intervention or strong-arming Illinois into privatization.

Can you elaborate on why you think the people of Puerto Rico are not to to be trusted taking care of their home?

<comment><USER24> > Can you elaborate on why you think the people of Puerto Rico are not to to > be trusted taking care of their home?

Not him, but I am puertorican. There's nothing unusual in someone being unable to take care of their home, it happens with some frequency. By the same token, it should not be surprising that several nations fit this bill. I would probably toss most of the southern hemisphere in that bin, Puerto Rico included.

> But that was colonialism!

I tried this thought experiment once: imagine the people of the wealthy global north just disappeared today. Does this mean the problems of the global south are fixed? The answer to this is self-evidently 'no', at least to me. It's useless to ruminate on the past, it is not the global north that create and maintain our current situation. It's ok to admit that it's us that haven't put in a good performance.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Chocolate-Brewing Witches of Colonial Latin America - <AUTHOR> https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/were-there-witchhunts-in-south-america <comment><USER2> Ah, noun gerund noun of adjective noun, my favorite title structure.

<comment><USER3> It would make a pretty cool band name as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's hard to imagine that people found chocolate so appealing before somebody added sugar to it. The caffeine buzz is very mild compared to coffee, and it's quite bitter.

<comment><USER5> Cacao contains other psychoactive compounds besides caffeine. Plus it was often mixed with other possibly psychoactive plants.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I want to take a picture.</comment>


Issue 1 of Hackers is here - <AUTHOR> http://hackerspaper.com/2010/12/07/hackers-is-here/

<comment><USER2> Awesome tag line: "any sufficiently advanced hobby is indistinguishable from a job".

</comment><comment><USER3> Only paper? Hope that's a joke. HN Monthly has a terrific PDF version. Please reconsider, even if you charge a buck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not a joke; it's a project for Newspaper Club (<http://www.newspaperclub.co.uk/>). There may be a PDF version once the costs of the print run have been covered.

<comment><USER4> Charge for the pdf, then, if money is the issue. What's the reason behind newspaper-only?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I see only an option to buy the print version. Is there an electronic version coming out anytime?

<comment><USER6> It feels very odd that they aren't releasing a .pdf version where at least some parts are freely available to gain some initial traction.

I probably won't remember it after I close this tab unless it takes off somehow.

<comment><USER7> +1 - I think I've been spoiled by Hackernews monthly having a pdf and a free html links. I did get some cool new blogs to look at : <http://hackerspaper.com/issue-1/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Seeing hacking articles in a newspaper format reminds me that _everything_ is cyclical.

<comment><USER9> See <https://www.theprintedblog.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've bought the first issue because it looks like it has potential. But I really think you should get a PDF version out fast because its a bit pricey atm and PDFs are a lot more handy.

</comment><comment><USER11> Please consider getting a partner in the United States to both print and distribute these here as well.

I'd love to order, but the UK postage costs will slowly get outrageous.

<comment><USER12> Postage to a UK address is 75p, postage to a US address is £1.50. That's costing you £3 (less than $5) per year more than it would cost us in the UK.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Issue 1, at first I thought it was something similar (or an allusion) to Bug #1 in Ubuntu's bug database.

</comment><comment><USER14> You should get this on the iPad. Looks pretty good.</comment>


Ask HN: Open Location APIs - <AUTHOR>

These days there is a lot of talk about location (4sq, FB places, etc).  I am curious which services out there have open APIs that one can use to create mashups (and just generally query).
I ran across an old HN article -- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=216112 -- which is an interesting start, but being over 2 years old is a little dated.
I guess my question is simply -- what services out there allow location based queries to their data, what rates/limits do they put on them, and are there ways to getting greater access (for instance w/ Twitter -- the firehose vs. normal account query limits).
If there is already a good list, please share that.  If there are some hidden gems, I'd love to hear those too. <comment><USER2> You may check DataMarket from Windows Azure [https://datamarket.azure.com/browse/category/location/page/1...](https://datamarket.azure.com/browse/category/location/page/1/)</comment>


Social Media Cracked the Case of MH17 - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-14/social-media-cracked-the-case-of-mh17 <comment><USER2> Russian/rebel social media also played a role in all this, in a way that's not mentioned in this article.

There are some official and close-to-official social media accounts that are used by the Russian rebels to announce progress (Twitter, Facebook, VK) usually straight from the mouths of commanders and higher ups.

When MH-17 was downed they boasted about shooting down a Ukrainian plane only to find themselves quickly deleting all mention of it several hours later.

Those same accounts also boasted about acquiring a Buk missile launcher weeks earlier, but those status updates were also deleted.

<comment><USER3> Are there any reputable sources or archives for this claim?

<comment><USER2> Yes. Many news sources reported on it.

As for the actual content in question - here's an archive of a tweet of them boasting about having Buk missile launcher, the tweet was later deleted:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20140707150151/https://twitter.co...](http://web.archive.org/web/20140707150151/https://twitter.com/dnrpress/status/483248037629018112)

Here's a screenshot of the VK account where their (now former) commander and defense minister (and allegedly "ex" FSB member) claimed the downing of a Ukrainian plane, later the content was deleted:

[http://i.imgur.com/fi4Zkx6.png](http://i.imgur.com/fi4Zkx6.png)

The Wikipedia article covers all that in depth:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Meanwhile, Russian officials denied the allegation. Officials of the producer of the Buk missile, Almaz-Antey, told a news conference on Tuesday that they had carried out their own analysis of traces found on the aircraft. They said even if the jet was shot down by a Buk, it was an old type that is no longer used by the Russian military.

The official also hinted that the missile was fired from a village in the Donetsk region, where Ukrainian forces were said to have been stationed at the time of the crash.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov called the report an attempt to make a biased conclusion. He argued that the report had failed to take account of the Russian investigations."

From:

[http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20151014_06.html](http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20151014_06.html)

So, even if the truth is out in the open (and given the tweets right after hitting the plane there wasn't much doubt) there is apparently no way Russia is going to own up to this.

<comment><USER5> The report that this article is based on discusses this and concludes: "Alternative scenarios presented by the Russian Ministry of Defense and Almaz- Antey are at best deeply flawed, and at worst show a deliberate attempt to mislead using fabricated evidence."

[https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and- europe/2015/10/08/mh1...](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and- europe/2015/10/08/mh17-the-open-source-evidence/)

<comment><USER6> The Bellingcat guy must like polonium tea. Brave dude.

<comment><USER7> For those who didn't get the reference: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvine...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko)

<comment><USER8> We have a joke in Poland, about Russia's head of intelligence getting scolded by Putin for creating a mess.

\- "Mówiłem, żeby mu dać tylko parę 'rad'!" ("I told you to only give him some 'advice'!")

\- "Rad, polon, co za różnica towarzyszu?" ("Radium, polonium, what's the difference comrade?")

<comment><USER9> A good one, but it only works in Polish.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This all also shows how important (neutral) web-archiving services like archive.org or archive.is are - they work like a free equivalent of a notarized screenshot, as usual .png screenshots can be forged with simple browser tricks.

</comment><comment><USER11> There's good on book on MH17 that was published a while ago: [http://www.amazon.co.uk/MH17-story-shooting-Malaysian- airlin...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/MH17-story-shooting-Malaysian- airliner/dp/151238660X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8)

It came to a similar conclusion as the dutch report, the main issue with the dutch report is it's too little to late and the government had repeatedly delayed publishing it while they searched for a way to indirectly accuse Russia. The dutch report is quite weak in that it won't take the next logical step given the evidence available and accuse Russia of ordering the downing of MH17.

<comment><USER12> They ordered the downing? That's probably not right is it? I thought the rebels didn't realise it was a passenger plane. I don't get why Russia just doesn't say "yep, we supplied it, but we didn't fire it, too bad so sad". Russia aren't alone in supplying rebel forces with weapons.

<comment><USER13> According to most sources, the rebels didn't have the trained personnel to use such an advanced weapon - this is no MANPAD. So, actually, it was almost for sure one of Putin's soldiers to pull the trigger.

<comment><USER14> > So, actually, it was almost for sure one of Putin's soldiers to pull the > trigger.

Surely you mean the retired and very much _ex_ -Russian Army _civilians_ who voluntarily felt it was their _civic_ duty to travel to a neighboring country and voluntarily engage in civil war... right, comrade?

<comment><USER11> no very much serving russian military personnel. get your information right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I"m from the netherlands, and i can say that the dutch report, didnt blame anybody, because the researchers didnt have the 'mandate'. Basically they didnt have the right the blame russia. Its clear from all the facts that this is from russian-sepepratist.

</comment><comment><USER16> How does this:

 _Higgins had played an important role in surfacing the use of chemical weapons in Syria by the regime of Bashar al-Assad_

relate to this?

"Serious Questions about the Integrity of the UN Report"

[http://web.mit.edu/sts/Analysis%20of%20the%20UN%20Report%20o...](http://web.mit.edu/sts/Analysis%20of%20the%20UN%20Report%20on%20Syria%20CW.pdf)

<comment><USER17> It establishes him as a reliable source for verification of civilian casualties, even relied on and confirmed by the U.N.

From the director of strategic communications, UNAMA: "Verification of civilian casualties is a painstaking, long and often extremely difficult and sensitive process, involving multiple sources and sometimes conflicting data and reports."

What he said is an understatement. The 2011 casualty numbers for aerial strikes in Afghanistan started at 305 at end of 2011, rose to 353 by end of 2012 and then rose to 415 by end of 2014. It took four years to get to that "415" number and this highlights that it can take years to get accurate counts. This year's UNAMA report, due soon, is bound to raise this number.

<comment><USER14> Four years and how many person-hours. Is an accurate count really that important? Couldn't 300 with some statistical bounds be used?

Don't get me wrong. I think every life is sacred and a single loss is an incredible tradgedy. But I tend to think spending effort on the living is more useful.

<comment><USER17> Yes, it really is important. I don't mean that in the sense that it's dehumanizing to replace a human being with a number and then round up or down, but in the sense of determining things like: are civilian casualties caused by Allied Forces' aerial strikes rising or falling over the years?

I'll argue that this IS spending effort on the living. UN report is a credible figure, which CENTCOM can't ignore, and that hopefully will result in strategy or tactics change that result in fewer civilian casualties.

Take a look at this infographic, and you'll hopefully spot 2011 in it at once on the top/bottom graphs: [http://projects.voanews.com/aircraft-weapons- released-in-afg...](http://projects.voanews.com/aircraft-weapons-released-in- afghanistan-2010-to-2015/)

It's 2010 that appears like it has greater number of aerial strikes, but that's not the case. Yes, it has some big spikes, but it's actually 2011 that cumulatively has more strikes. Below is the corresponding number of civilian victims of aerial strikes as determined by the UN. The bottom numbers, the casualty numbers, are going down after 2011. Note that the last "15" number came from a preliminary UN report and will be updated soon.

Back to the person-hours you mentioned. Was it worth it to keep counting 2011 statistics, four-five years later? I think yes, because otherwise it's really easy for CENTCOM or anyone else to either miss the correct numbers, or cherry- pick them. If anyone had only cited the 2011 UNAMA report (which was initially reported as 305), it would imply that number of casualties remained the same instead of rising sharply like it did.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This makes me question Bellingcat's work somewhat: [http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/expert- criticizes-...](http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/expert-criticizes- allegations-of-russian-mh17-manipulation-a-1037125.html)

<comment><USER19> Well it is not like Russian state is not known for hiring paid trolls and having a well oiled propaganda machine + control of media whose main duties include seeding doubt, spreading fud, and fueling conspiracy.

<comment><USER18> I don't quite understand. Are you saying that the interview in Der Spiegel is Russian propaganda?

<comment><USER19> We do not know if "German image forensics expert Jens Kriese" who is interviewed by Spiegel was paid off or threatened in one form or another, especially if he happened to come from East Germany where the Soviet backed regime had files on everyone back before reunification.

Spiegel.de != Jens Kriese

<comment><USER18> Now who's spreading FUD?

<comment><USER20> Well, you, right? You started this comment thread by pointing out a source that nitpicks one non-critical bit out of a whole mess of open source evidence Bellingcat came up with, and then suggested we shouldn't trust the site because of that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> One crucial point made in this article which had somehow passed me by is how devoid of credibility the West's intelligence agencies have become. I know it has been known for a while since Snowden, but the implications are far- reaching.

It has come to something when social media can point the same spotlight on whole armies doing things they would rather keep secret as it has done on politicians doing the same.

<comment><USER22> Wait, what?

Western intelligence came to the conclusion pretty early on that Russian separatists were to blame -- only Russia's intelligence still contradicts the content of this article, insisting that Ukraine was at fault.

<comment><USER4> And Russia's politicians and the so-called rebels. In NL there is a ton of activity on various newspaper and news websites trying to discredit the report. Makes you wonder how much of that activity is due to organizations such as this:

[http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-professional-trolls- hel...](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-professional-trolls-help-russia- with-online-propaganda)

<comment><USER10> Here's an article on this particular topic trolls:

[http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/13/russias-reality- trolls-a...](http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/13/russias-reality-trolls-and- the-mh17-war-of-misinformation-buk-missile/)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Help/FAQs/documentation system, like Google's help? - <AUTHOR>

Does anyone know of a system (SaaS or self-hosted) to run a help/FAQs/documentation system?
We're looking for something simple, in the style of all Google's help sites (e.g. http://mail.google.com/support/) - basically a simple CMS, with categorisation and automatic generation of multiple levels of index pages, search, "did this help" style widgets for feedback, list of most popular articles etc.
What I'm _not_ looking for is a GetSatisfaction/UserVoice -style "community-powered" support.
Not rocket science.. but surely a common problem. Anyone know of anything ready-to-go?
Cheers! -- A <comment><USER2> I've seen many startups use Tender App (<http://www.tenderapp.com>) which seems very well designed and developed (by the team at entp!).

Here's an example of their help/FAQ/doc system: <https://help.tenderapp.com/faqs>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, we saw Tender - but they don't have a way of disabling the other parts of the system (forum etc) apparently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> ScreenSteps Live combines a hosted documentation service with a desktop client for quickly creating screenshot based documentation. It also integrates very nicely with Zendesk. You can see an example here:

<http://help.screensteps.com>

Or, here is another example site we set up:

<http://ipad.screensteps.com>

Very simple to use and very effective. You can read a case study here:

[http://www.bluemangolearning.com/screensteps/case_studies/se...](http://www.bluemangolearning.com/screensteps/case_studies/second_street_media.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> Check out <http://www.helpspot.com/> and <http://www.knowledgems.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Look handy - thanks! I'll check these out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you are using ASP.NET you may take a look at Web Application Toolkit for FAQs : [http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jsenior/Web-Application- Toolk...](http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/jsenior/Web-Application-Toolkits- FAQ/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but a fellow HNer (hajrice) is working on questionify.com

They're still in private beta but I know Emil would be more than willing to offer an account. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER7> You might want to give Screen Steps a look. <http://www.bluemangolearning.com/>

</comment><comment><USER8> A lot of open source projects just use MediaWiki.</comment>


Alienable Rights (1992) - <AUTHOR> http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/Alienable%20Rights.html

<comment><USER2> This is what the transition to AI is about: creating an intelligence without our inherent weaknesses.

As much as our biological software may evolve, we are held back by the hardware. There are deeply rooted instincts that cause humanity to make self- destructive choices again and again.

We are a part of the universe that has obtained limited sentience and intelligence. The ideas matter more than the (flawed) platform. I hope we succeed in making something greater than us before we are gone.

<comment><USER3> We're also non-reprogrammable. Imagine if every human had a 2nd brain that could be built, and re-built every second, in an experimental attempt to see if that 2nd brain is equal to the original at everything (size and efficiency included) but then does at least 1 thing better?

The problem is that this iteration takes us decades. Usually 0-6 iterations per human. Pretty damn inefficient. A computer with good enough hardware can probably go from dog -> human in a few weeks.

<comment><USER2> Also, the conditions for success don't necessarily lead to "better" humans. The most successful humans don't seem to be moving us forward particularly well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Too bad those interstellar aliens didn't look into the mind of a zen master. They would be surprised to say the least. :)

Specially when they talk about consciousness.

</comment><comment><USER5> This comes of as pretty pompous and assuming when neither of the diametric constructs (mechanical and biological intelligence) are even close to understood.

</comment><comment><USER6> Be sure and read "They're Made Out of Meat" [0] as well. [0] [http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html](http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html)</comment>


Facebook, others confuse consumers for profit - <AUTHOR> http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_28929705/nate-cardozo-facebook-others-confuse-consumers-profit <comment><USER2> _Starting this month, Facebook will use them to track your visit to every Web page that displays the buttons--even if you don 't click on anything._

As far as I know Facebook has been doing this all along. Perhaps they only made it official this time? Still disgusting, but otherwise nothing new.

<comment><AUTHOR> I believe they used to tracke you only when you clicked on the button.</comment></comment>


Mathematical immortality? Give a theorem your name - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19809-mathematical-immortality-give-a-theorem-your-name.html

<comment><USER2> New Scientist seems to have had an earlier item about this too:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1966519>

</comment><comment><USER3> I feel somewhat sick, inside.</comment>


Ask HN: Should I get a physics degree to become a cryptographer? - <AUTHOR> Background: I'm a first-year undergraduate at a top-5 computer science university.
I'm interested in becoming a cryptographer eventually. I know that lately, the field of post-quantum cryptography is growing rapidly.
If I'm interested in pursuing cryptography, should I be focusing my studies on mathematics, computer science, or physics (for the quantum stuff)? <comment><USER2> Personally I did math, focus on number theory and algebraic geometry. I was also programming a ton on my own, meaning that this is typically not required for a math curriculum, but I feel you really need it for crypto. Feel free to email me if you want to chat more.</comment>


A first crowdfunding review site that lets you filter, sort and compare. - <AUTHOR> http://www.thesoholoft.com/2012/10/20/making-sense-of-the-crowded-space-of-700-crowd-funding-platforms/

<comment><USER2> cool site. this helps a lot.</comment>


Google may have to hand over info about a negative reviewer to a dentist - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/14/tech/google-australian-dentist-review-case-scli-intl/index.html <comment><USER2> The practice in question, is called "asprodontics". The negative review doesn't even appear to be listed right now. Otherwise, it's a solid 5-star reputation.

"Awkward and uncomfortable" is about what I expect out of any trip to the dentist, but getting sued for leaving a bad review isn't. This guy literally just flushed his entire reputation over a single internet review. He may as well have shot a lion.

<comment><USER3> Australia has some very tough defamation laws. It's often called the defamation capitol of the world.

I wonder if this incident has a knock on effect with other anonymous review sites in Australia if you will be tracked down and sued for a negative review.

I saw the review, the best thing the dentist could of done and they did do was reply along the lines of "we do not know who you are and do not have a record of your visit, please contact us to talk". So not quite sure why they took it to the courts which will likely have caused far more negative publicity.</comment></comment>


Co.cycles – Search Engine for Open Source Code - <AUTHOR> http://cocycles.com/ <comment><USER2> Nice :) Would be cool to limit search results to well-commented code only.

<comment><USER3> That's a good idea

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wow! it really aims to directly find great code snippets. very useful!

</comment><comment><USER5> Are you betting on ".cycles" domain to appear in future?

</comment><comment><USER3> Still work to be done, but def could be useful

</comment><comment><USER6> Blow minded!</comment>


The real problem with Formula 1 - <AUTHOR> http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a15183/the-real-problem-with-formula-1/ <comment> k-mcgrady Limitations are placed on development to reduce costs so that more people can compete, and even with that people are struggling. The sport is primarily about racing (that's why most people watch) - sure technology is an important part of that, but not the most important part. And in the last 10 years, despite dominance by certain teams we've had some great racing.

Also, despite the development restrictions Mercedes managed to engineer a car 2 seconds a lap faster than everyone else and maintain quite a lot of that advantage a year later. Smart engineers still have room to do great things. F1 has also switched to a hybrid system, cars have to run on a limited amount of fuel, and tyres are limited posing massive engineering challenges. To dismiss the sport because of engineering rules (which have been in place for many years for very good reasons) and politics (which is part of all sports) is ridiculous.</comment>


Chile Wants Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses, Your Tech Entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/10/chile-wants-your-poor-your-huddled-masses-your-tech-entrepreneurs/ <comment><USER2> "Chile Wants Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses..."

at the same time you have to

"invest $500,000 over 5 years..."

This is NOT an immigration program. It is a foreign investment program. One modeled after the program that China used to lift hundreds of millions, and counting, out of poverty. So it is to be lauded. At the same time, all Chile will get out of the program is foreign investment. Without the fundamental human capital advantages that China has, it will not become a powerhouse. This is the point that many governments misinterpret. The goal of immigration is, in layman's terms, to IMPORT MORE resources. The goal of foreign investment is, in layman's terms, to provide easy access to EXISTING resources.

This is the reason that the global powers are betting on Brasil. It has the most lax immigration program in South America. It has an EXISTING base of companies for those immigrants to work in. And, the obvious, nothing attracts human capital like naked, bronze women dancing on beaches with drums.

<comment><USER3> I know for a fact it is not easy for Americans to immigrate into Brazil. I have a few American friends who've tried and failed... Brazilians call it reciprocity.

<comment><USER2> Well, we started fingerprinting them on entry to the US, and Brasil said "OK, we'll go tit for tat". If you fly to Brasil you will find one set of rules at Customs for Americans, and another for everyone else. That's just payback. The fact remains that for the vast majority of global citizens, getting into Brasil is far less painless than getting into, say, the UK or the United States.

<comment><USER3> I agree, but I'd say in Chile is about the same for everybody though (pretty easy).

For example, my business partner is Colombian, he's been living here for 5 years now with no problems at all. First he had a Visa subject to work contract, but then when we decided to start our company he only had to go change his Visa status and apply for residence. Bear in mind Colombians don't have such a good reputation, in fact in Chile they are the only ones who have to present a Colombian police report of themselves together with their Visa application :S

<comment><USER4> Would love to hear more about living and working in Chile. Are you chilean? How hard is it to find smart people? Is there a local startup scene? Is all of this government propaganda or is there really a thriving culture of risk- taking and entrepreneurship? What about VCs?

<comment><USER3> I am chilean, but just so you know a bit of my background, I went to Berkeley and worked in San Jose at a company in the semiconductors industry.

There is a very good startup community here, there are regular events like First Tuesday and DELM.

It is not hard to find smart and capable people, in fact a few Americans have scolded me for stating the opposite in the past. There's a lot of potential here, checkout bligoo.com, needish.com, betazeta.com, voxound.com, to name a few.

Hvng trbl rplng on my cell

<comment><USER3> Sorry, trouble with my bb.

The goverment is very serious about all of this and it is putting a lot of money and effort into it. They are also putting good incentives for local startups.

The biggest con about Chile is the small and underdeveloped VC scene, but in spite of this, there's a good private investors scene, albeit not as accessible. The chilean goverment is also backing VCs by actually giving them money to invest.

I think you should seriously consider it.

More info? Check my profile.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Chile and Brazil have been on my radar for a little over 11 months now. Brazil definitely seems to have the most exciting long term potential, with it's large oil reserves and it's willingness to actually exploit them, it should do very well as inflation kicks in from western government money printing. I have not crossed Brazil off my list by any means.

However, Chile just seems to fit me better. I already have a little Spanish, but no Portuguese. More importantly, though, I'm a mountain guy, not a jungle guy. The scenery in Chile is comforting to a Rocky Mountain native.

Now ... I just have to convince the wife!

<comment><USER6> Argentina is cheaper and has the other side of those mountains ;) (Where I live right now)

If you look for a local job, perhaps Chile is a better option. But if you want low taxes for personal work and have foreign customers (web entrepreneur), Argentina beats Chile hands down. There's a system called Monotributo where tax is trivial and ridiculously low if your income is up to USD 52k/yr (very good money if you live outside Buenos Aires.)

Oh, and Argentina's system of immigration is one of the most welcoming. "Nearly a million permanent residency applications were filed from 2000 to 2008."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Argentina#Legal_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Argentina#Legal_and_undocumented_immigration_in_recent_times)

My advice, stay out of the bigger cities and go to trendy small villages, cheaper and safe. Return flight tickets to Buenos Aires usually are around USD 130 from almost anywhere.

Also, it's better if you can travel a bit around until you find the best place in South America. In Argentina, 3G broadband costs about USD 45/mo (or less) and you can use it in many places until you settle.

EDIT: The USD 52k/yr afaik is for each of you, and the taxes and things you pay also can pay part of the private health insurance of your choice.

<comment><USER5> A friend of mine lives in Argentina. It just hasn't captured my imagination like Chile. Maybe I like the ocean too much. Maybe I'm too gun shy after it's economic troubles. But I should visit him and get a better feel for it before writing it off.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If anybody is looking into this, and might be interested in a "man on the ground", let me know. My step-brother has lived in Chile for the past 10 years, running a non-profit. He has a Chilean wife and is 100% fluent in the language and culture.

I'm sure he'd be open to consulting with a tech company as an interpreter, etc.

</comment><comment><USER8> Chile is a country for cutting costs. That's true. But nothing more.

It is not a good country for startups. Tech and software industry is supine because there are not hackers not even great programmers. It's hard to find a programmer developing software outside the office. So even though is a great place to be frugal the lack of an entrepreneurial network and advice is going to set you apart.

And Viña del Mar is a great place but Pucón is the best with a lake, a river and a volcano.

<comment><USER9> Hey, I take offense to that! I agree that Chile isn't exactly a tech hub, but don't generalize.

Hackers and great programmers do exist here. It may just be harder to find them. Ironically, a place like hacker news helps with that ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Working in Spain, I know of some companies which outsource to Chile's neighbor Argentina, where labor wages are comparatively cheaper.

I think this will get more common in the future, and in time more and more companies in Spain ill be hiring labor in Southamerica, as the english speaking companies are doing with India.

Considering the poor incentives Spain is giving to entrepreneurship, I can only hope my own country will look at chile's example and help our punished IT industry.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'd be up for a trip to check it out in January.

Anyone interested in doing a two week trip?

<comment><USER12> I'd be up for forming a group trip with the intention of some day moving there at least for a little while. People immigrate to the US in groups why not migrate from the US in a group.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Chile seems like a great place to live while working on a foreign startup (located in another, zero-tax jurisdiction). As a non-citizen tourist in the country, you'd pay no income tax locally. I'd far prefer to live in Chile than the zero-tax places (UAE, Panama, etc.) Of course, a totally virtualized business could be run from basically anywhere on the same terms.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'd certainly like to visit Chile at some point. It has a wide range of landscapes and in general looks like an interesting place.

</comment><comment><USER14> The corporate tax in Chile is higher than in the US if you don't keep the money there. That could be a dealbreaker for some.

<comment><USER3> How much is corporate tax in the US? in Chile it's 17%

<comment><USER15> 15-40% ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_Sta...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_tax_in_the_United_States#Tax_base_and_rates)), plus state taxes as applicable.

<comment><USER3> Looks like it's lower in Chile then (17% flat).

<comment><USER14> <http://www.investchile.com/corfo_det_20080714144946.aspx>

It is 17% but...

 _"An additional tax of 18% is levied if companies distribute or remit earnings."_

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> amazing, thanks for this information :) Being a native Spanish speaker, I am glad that at last one of the Spanish speaking countries is starting to take the lead for growth. FINALLY

</comment><comment><USER17> seems like a very good deal to me if your willing to move and learn a new language. After reading the article Chile is really giving allot of good incentives for people to move and start companies. One thing that worries me is that with these incentives seems like their will be allot of wasteful spending and failed ventures.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm so happy about this news! sorry, but I can't help expressing my feelings here. I'm really proud, and I hope I can help on this Chilean "mission".

Taking advantage of this comment: I'm going to startup school and also to Traweln (<http://www.traweln.org/>), my contact info is in my profile.</comment>