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Yup. That's how I cancelled Comcast. Me: "I'm moving." Clerk: "Oh, where to? We can set up your service ahead of time so it's ready when you---" Me: "Ireland

Yup. That's how I cancelled Comcast. Me: "I'm moving." Clerk: "Oh, where to? We can set up your service ahead of time so it's ready when you---" Me: "Ireland." Clerk (disappointed): "Oh."

ptaipale 11y ago
There was someone who actually knows what Ireland is?
- scott_karana 11y ago
  > http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/17/the-irish-american-population-is-seven-times-larger-than-ireland/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/17/th... 35 million Americans, ~10%, are of Irish descent. Not knowing would be unusual.
  - JTon 11y ago
    Really interesting link (I had no idea). But the commenter above was clearly being facetious
  - briholt 11y ago
    You're being optimistic. I'd bet the majority of Americans could not identify their ancestral country on a blank map[1]. HN is not a very representative sample. [1] See any survey about Americans and geography ever.
    - newjersey 11y ago
      I consider myself about average when it comes to general knowledge. I couldn't point you Burkino Faso in a map (I am not even sure if I spelled it correctly.) but that doesn't mean I can't tell you roughly about my ancestry. (: Edit: I wish Washington Post defaulted to https. Kind of off topic but is there a reason to support https but not default to it? Browser compatibility issues? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/17/the-irish-american-population-is-seven-times-larger-than-ireland/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/17/t...
      - chetanahuja 11y ago
        "I wish Washington Post defaulted to https" This can't be done because if you just type "washingtonpost.com" into your browser or some algorithm creates links out of plain text (like in an email)... the default is always http:// http:// The internet expects http://yourdomain.tld http://yourdomain.tld to always work.
        ptaipale 11y ago
        I suppose previous poster meant that WP should default to offer its service over HTTPS, i.e. when you first connect over HTTP, the site immediately redirects you to a HTTPS connection. Like e.g. this site (HN) does (connecting to http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://news.ycombinator.com/ gives you 301 Moved Permanently, location https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/ ).
        Symbiote 11y ago
        The better solution is HSTS, which would tell the browser to use HTTPS for the site for the next year. The main browsers come with a list of known HSTS sites, so you'll never use HTTP to access google.com (etc). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security
rb2k_ 11y ago
Same for me when I was moving to Germany. The only question I got was: "Is there a roommate or somebody else that could take over the account?"
vinceyuan 11y ago
Good idea. Next time, say you will move to China where there are state telecom companies only.

Yup. That's how I cancelled Comcast. Me: "I'm moving." Clerk: "Oh, where to? We can set up your service ahead of time so it's ready when you---" Me: "Ireland." Clerk (disappointed): "Oh."

ptaipale 11y ago

There was someone who actually knows what Ireland is?

scott_karana 11y ago
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/17/the-irish-american-population-is-seven-times-larger-than-ireland/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/17/th... 35 million Americans, ~10%, are of Irish descent. Not knowing would be unusual.
- JTon 11y ago
  Really interesting link (I had no idea). But the commenter above was clearly being facetious
- briholt 11y ago
  You're being optimistic. I'd bet the majority of Americans could not identify their ancestral country on a blank map[1]. HN is not a very representative sample. [1] See any survey about Americans and geography ever.
  - newjersey 11y ago
    I consider myself about average when it comes to general knowledge. I couldn't point you Burkino Faso in a map (I am not even sure if I spelled it correctly.) but that doesn't mean I can't tell you roughly about my ancestry. (: Edit: I wish Washington Post defaulted to https. Kind of off topic but is there a reason to support https but not default to it? Browser compatibility issues? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/17/the-irish-american-population-is-seven-times-larger-than-ireland/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/17/t...
    - chetanahuja 11y ago
      "I wish Washington Post defaulted to https" This can't be done because if you just type "washingtonpost.com" into your browser or some algorithm creates links out of plain text (like in an email)... the default is always http:// http:// The internet expects http://yourdomain.tld http://yourdomain.tld to always work.
      - ptaipale 11y ago
        I suppose previous poster meant that WP should default to offer its service over HTTPS, i.e. when you first connect over HTTP, the site immediately redirects you to a HTTPS connection. Like e.g. this site (HN) does (connecting to http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://news.ycombinator.com/ gives you 301 Moved Permanently, location https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/ ).
        Symbiote 11y ago
        The better solution is HSTS, which would tell the browser to use HTTPS for the site for the next year. The main browsers come with a list of known HSTS sites, so you'll never use HTTP to access google.com (etc). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security

rb2k_ 11y ago

Same for me when I was moving to Germany. The only question I got was: "Is there a roommate or somebody else that could take over the account?"

vinceyuan 11y ago

Good idea. Next time, say you will move to China where there are state telecom companies only.