Live data from Hacker News

The US Department of Defense isn't sure where Damascus is: statistical proof

usvsth3m.com

1–10 of 13 posts

Re: The US Department of Defense isn't sure where Damascus is: statistical proof

#3
This reminds of a situation years ago where a friend of mine downloaded a bunch of archive material from a certain security disclosure site while at work.

Within a day the site had proudly proclaimed that they were being "investigated" by his agency.

Re: The US Department of Defense isn't sure where Damascus is: statistical proof

#6
Within 100 miles: not as great as I'd like, but I do take some pride in the fact that I got inside Syria (my guess turned out to be right around Homs).

That said, is it really appropriate to be using a physical map to find political entities?

Re: The US Department of Defense isn't sure where Damascus is: statistical proof

#7

Within 100 miles: not as great as I'd like, but I do take some pride in the fact that I got inside Syria (my guess turned out to be right around Homs). That said, is it really appropriate to be using a physical map to find political entities?

No, I couldn't even locate where I live on that map. :)

Re: The US Department of Defense isn't sure where Damascus is: statistical proof

#8
Their app sucks. A geographical map without the political boundaries makes little sense, and their zooming blows to a point that I'm surprised anyone bothers with it.

Show me how many US citizens can place Kansas City or Atlanta on the same map.

Re: The US Department of Defense isn't sure where Damascus is: statistical proof

#9
I knew exactly where Damascus was, but they put me down as barely making it inside their 200 mile cutoff, at 163 miles away. I think this is more about bad UI design. I got a hand cursor rather than a pointer, making it difficult to be precise, and I never noticed the zoom logo in the upper left.

Plus, with only 65 DOD responses, how significant is a deviation of only 4.5% from the norm?

Post reply on HN