Note that this is a link to Part 1. There's parts 2,3,4, and 5 where the mystery is slowly unraveled.

Recent discussion of the last part [spoiler alert] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47329605 (402 points | 7 days ago | 92 comments)

Aw phooey. I didn't realize it had already made the rounds here. Thanks for the link. I'll go peruse the conversation there.

And there are a few old discussions about the original article and the followups https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=ionathan.ch