nickkline

Agreed, it's equally beautiful and heart-wrenching. What a read.

Aside from identifying your audience, determining what distinguishes the side project from competing or similar apps, turning those distinctions into decent sounding value propositions & getting those out in front of your potential users... getting a spot on HN's front page is always a good start :-) (but it helps if you have all the other work done first so the visitors understand what the app does when you get the resulting traffic)

You could also try and find people whose input/feedback would be helpful to the project & beg them to try the app...this is usually only effective if you've earned their trust by engaging with them for a while...so it helps to be active with your potential customers ahead of time)

Which creates an environment that extremist groups use to successfully radicalize large groups of people frustrated by the rampant & immoral corruption. (At least that was my biggest takeaway)

Headline aside, I thought it was an excellent story. The company, Unaoil, is the least important point I took away from the article. I can't believe the fundamental connection between corruption and radicalization isn't reported on or discussed more frequently. It seems like the rise in extremists groups is blamed on the 'vacuum' left by an invasion or an overthrown government. When describing the gradual sympathy for the Taliban by "moderate, normal people" in Afghanistan: >"At the top of the list of reasons cited by prisoners for joining the Taliban was not ethnic bias, or disrespect of Islam, or concern that U.S. forces might stay in their country...At the top of the list was the perception that the Afghan government was irrevocably corrupt."

{sigh}...somebody send this to Dan Carlin...maybe we can two Common Sense episodes in one week...that's the only silver lining I can think of...

Open WIFI & unencrypted credit card data...what could go wrong?

Yeah, I measured it as well, but couldn't say for certain, so 'pretty sure' seemed like a safe modifier.

Anyone else read Christopher Moore? Emperor Norton's a regular in a bunch of his books, hilarious stuff.