For 10 people? Quite a gimmick.
Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
"This is clearly bait. Pretending this gigabit internet service is available or practical for a startup, much less personal use, is either dishonest or ignorant of the actual situation in Chattanooga." What are you talking about? I do believe you are the one ignorant of the actual situation in Chattanooga. Gigabit internet service IS available to startups. Hell, its available to residential customers. https://epbfi.c…
349.99/mo for residential gigabit service. As for businesses, I couldn't get listings for that, but per my original information, that is also cost prohibitive. Their "30" plan (I'm guessing that means 30mbps) is just as expensive as my much faster cable offerings from comcast. I stand by my original statement. I won't argue with you that your salary in any way disputes the average open source salaries in that area an…
Curious, do you get the actual speeds that comcast tells you you're buying? EPB Chattanooga was the first ISP I had that actually gives me what I pay for..
Re: Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
#13My coworker from Chattanooga assures me that nobody would want to live in those neighborhoods, and that he is sending the list to friends and family to laugh about.
Okay, counter-anecdote. I grew up in Chattanooga. Those neighborhoods range between fine and quite nice.
Most people in Chattanooga live in the burbs, so I feel like there may be skewed perspectives as to what counts as a nice place to live. Downtown can be quite nice by urban standards.
While it might not be the best place for technology in the universe, it's a very nice place to live, and I'm glad that they are incentivizing tech and making the most of their internet infrastructure. It does seem a bit gimmicky overall but the incentives might tilt it to being the best option for some talented people. Who knows.
Re: Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
#14Chump change, and not nearly enough to cover moving expenses for an established and talented developer living in a major metropolitan area.
Re: Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
#15TN could probably be a reasonable startup hub with some work (like this). I don't know as much about Chattanooga vs. eastern TN in general.
No state income tax is kind of a draw -- not a huge factor for the startup employees themselves, but it would be a reasonable place for retired people with some income who could be investors, or for consultants or other people with high current incomes (who might work on startups on the side). I really don't understand why people who travel 80+% of the time don't base themselves in a low-tax state.
I happen to really like the environment, outdoor activities, gun laws, etc. in the state. It's not going to appeal to everyone, and especially not to a lot of startup people, but all they need to do is be really attractive to a specific niche. If 1% of startup people love it, it might be better than 10-20% of startup people just finding it ok. (Conversely, I'd never live in Chicago, but a lot of other people seem to like it).
FedEx having a hub in-state is great, although crime in Memphis is bad enough that I'd caution against living there. Maybe it depends a lot on the neighborhood. Chattanooga is pretty far away, though.
It's close enough to the East Coast to be a reasonable outsourcing/back office location. Proximity to Huntsville, AL is a huge plus -- great educated workforce, etc.
Re: Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
#16I find the particulars of this program offensive and insulting.
"Tag a geek", "geek hunt", "geek move". Geeks are circus performers that bite the heads off chickens. Obviously it doesn't mean talented engineers.
No relocation paid is a sad joke that no one competent would accept. But $1250 relocation expenses is just plain insulting. That won't even pay for gas and a U-Haul in most cases, never mind proper moving. Forgiving $10k of a mortgage but only if you stay 5 years and move to a neighborhood they specify? Absurd.
I'm sure they will attract plenty of naive college graduates that weren't able to get proper job offers in desirable locations.
I know about Chattanooga. It's very fundamentalist and people there are not very bright. It's not a desirable place for an engineer to live.
Re: Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
#17Hm, if you believe Bruce Sterling the place is due to become a hotbed of hacker and alternative culture: http://books.google.com/books?id=M2OpTnzs2PMC&q=chattano...
Someday.
Re: Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
"This is clearly bait. Pretending this gigabit internet service is available or practical for a startup, much less personal use, is either dishonest or ignorant of the actual situation in Chattanooga." What are you talking about? I do believe you are the one ignorant of the actual situation in Chattanooga. Gigabit internet service IS available to startups. Hell, its available to residential customers. https://epbfi.c…
349.99/mo for residential gigabit service. As for businesses, I couldn't get listings for that, but per my original information, that is also cost prohibitive. Their "30" plan (I'm guessing that means 30mbps) is just as expensive as my much faster cable offerings from comcast. I stand by my original statement. I won't argue with you that your salary in any way disputes the average open source salaries in that area an…
Comcast's plans aren't synchronous though. Their 30Mbps package ("Blast!") runs $72.95/mo, but that's using "PowerBoost" which means it's not 30Mbps and only has an upload rate of ~4Mbps.
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/14520 http://www.dslreports.com/faq/15643
The 30Mpbs up and down package in Nashville costs $57.99. It's a deal. All their packages are, 100Mbps up and down for $139.99 is great. FiOS's fastest package is 150/35 and runs $199.99/month.
Update: You also save with packages. It's actually cheaper to get the phone service (1Gbps drops from $349.99 to $317.99) and the TV isn't much more.
Re: Move to Chattanooga, Hack & Get Paid
#19As a Chattanooga resident and developer (I work for Rackspace), this has irritated me since I've heard of it.
I couldn't imagine someone doing a yuppie hunt or a gay hunt... Very embarrassing for our beautiful city for a few unqualified companies and people to represent us this way.
Apologies to all my fellow developers... Don't move here for a job or the internet, neither offerings are as great as advertised.