5 ms·

Is it me or is there much more Australian content on HN these days?

by schappim 7y ago

dwd 7y ago
Basically it's a time zone thing. It's currently 6/7pm on the Australian East coast and America is still asleep.
- chris_wot 7y ago
  We also do a lot of interesting things.
  - whatusername 7y ago
    And we (aussies) all notice and read the Australian articles specifically. I may not have looked at this one if it was "San Fransisco Gang..." but since it was a Western Sydney gang -- I instantly opened it.
    - exikyut 7y ago
      In my case it was because (not knowing the rocket launchers were comparatively tiny, and naively imagining missiles of some kind) I read the location in the title and thought "yikes, if they aim wrong they might hit my house, I should definitely read this." I was walking through Parramatta a couple hours ago, for reference.
  - dwd 7y ago
    The comment above about our Gov doing fucked up things could be more on point. But we do a lot of interesting things, often without the fanfare you see in the SV bubble that's worth talking about.
  - twic 7y ago
    Australia is, to an extent, like a big, dry Florida.
    - exikyut 7y ago
      Dry in some parts. 31°C and "third shower anybody?" humidity FTL.
    - dwd 7y ago
      Sort of, there's a lot of similarities to be said of Florida and Queensland though Australia mostly sits in line with Mexico latitude wise. Hervey Bay is about the same latitude as Miami with the Great Barrier Reef aligning with the Caribbean. Sydney is pretty close to Los Angeles latitude wise, while the most southerly major city, Hobart is about the same as Boston (or somewhere in-between SF and Portland). EDIT: http://www.bytemuse.com/post/interactive-equivalent-latitude-map/ http://www.bytemuse.com/post/interactive-equivalent-latitude...
    - chris_wot 7y ago
      Only Darwin is like Florida.
BigJono 7y ago
This one seems a bit random, but there's been pretty good reasons for Australia to be relevant in the global tech news in the last few years. Our government is burning down as many freedoms as they can get away with in the tech space, and setting a dangerous precedent for other western countries to follow. It can't hurt to have everyone reminded of that every now and then. Also, I'd guess Melbourne and Sydney are probably trending upwards in both startups and VC available, which would result in more visitors here from these parts.
- King-Aaron 7y ago
  > Our government is burning down as many freedoms as they can get away with in the tech space Not just the tech space. Australia has enjoyed a practically hardship-free society since it's inception, and as such people are increasingly and shockingly blasé about the dangerous potential of governments encroaching on various freedoms. I feel the government knows they can do whatever they want to follow the international community, because the general voter here either doesn't care, or doesn't know enough to form an educated opinion on [insert topical subject].
  - jacobush 7y ago
    "Australian government has enjoyed..." (The aboriginal didn't exactly have it hardship-free.)
- xfitm3 7y ago
  Chinese influence.
- skrebbel 7y ago
  It seems to me that Australia is the first Western government imposing some authoritarian-style control on its population. I wonder what the common opinion about this is among people more familiar with the matter than me: Is the geographical proximity to China related to this? I can imagine that Australia might be slowly shifting from the USA's sphere of influence to China's sphere of influence, and as a result could be gradually adopting more Chinese-style governance measures.

Is it me or is there much more Australian content on HN these days?

dwd 7y ago

Basically it's a time zone thing. It's currently 6/7pm on the Australian East coast and America is still asleep.

chris_wot 7y ago
We also do a lot of interesting things.
- whatusername 7y ago
  And we (aussies) all notice and read the Australian articles specifically. I may not have looked at this one if it was "San Fransisco Gang..." but since it was a Western Sydney gang -- I instantly opened it.
  - exikyut 7y ago
    In my case it was because (not knowing the rocket launchers were comparatively tiny, and naively imagining missiles of some kind) I read the location in the title and thought "yikes, if they aim wrong they might hit my house, I should definitely read this." I was walking through Parramatta a couple hours ago, for reference.
- dwd 7y ago
  The comment above about our Gov doing fucked up things could be more on point. But we do a lot of interesting things, often without the fanfare you see in the SV bubble that's worth talking about.
- twic 7y ago
  Australia is, to an extent, like a big, dry Florida.
  - exikyut 7y ago
    Dry in some parts. 31°C and "third shower anybody?" humidity FTL.
  - dwd 7y ago
    Sort of, there's a lot of similarities to be said of Florida and Queensland though Australia mostly sits in line with Mexico latitude wise. Hervey Bay is about the same latitude as Miami with the Great Barrier Reef aligning with the Caribbean. Sydney is pretty close to Los Angeles latitude wise, while the most southerly major city, Hobart is about the same as Boston (or somewhere in-between SF and Portland). EDIT: http://www.bytemuse.com/post/interactive-equivalent-latitude-map/ http://www.bytemuse.com/post/interactive-equivalent-latitude...
  - chris_wot 7y ago
    Only Darwin is like Florida.

BigJono 7y ago

This one seems a bit random, but there's been pretty good reasons for Australia to be relevant in the global tech news in the last few years. Our government is burning down as many freedoms as they can get away with in the tech space, and setting a dangerous precedent for other western countries to follow. It can't hurt to have everyone reminded of that every now and then. Also, I'd guess Melbourne and Sydney are probably trending upwards in both startups and VC available, which would result in more visitors here from these parts.

King-Aaron 7y ago
> Our government is burning down as many freedoms as they can get away with in the tech space Not just the tech space. Australia has enjoyed a practically hardship-free society since it's inception, and as such people are increasingly and shockingly blasé about the dangerous potential of governments encroaching on various freedoms. I feel the government knows they can do whatever they want to follow the international community, because the general voter here either doesn't care, or doesn't know enough to form an educated opinion on [insert topical subject].
- jacobush 7y ago
  "Australian government has enjoyed..." (The aboriginal didn't exactly have it hardship-free.)
xfitm3 7y ago
Chinese influence.
skrebbel 7y ago
It seems to me that Australia is the first Western government imposing some authoritarian-style control on its population. I wonder what the common opinion about this is among people more familiar with the matter than me: Is the geographical proximity to China related to this? I can imagine that Australia might be slowly shifting from the USA's sphere of influence to China's sphere of influence, and as a result could be gradually adopting more Chinese-style governance measures.