diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ad7f0e7..f434863 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -20,15 +20,73 @@ Check prerequisites
 just check-status
 ```
 
-Setup the underlying AACT database including downloading historical data.
+Setup the underlying AACT database including downloading both 
+the AACT dump and historical data.
 ```bash
 just create
 just select-trials
+just count=1000 get-histories
 ```
+replacing the 1000 in `count=1000` with the number of trials you want to download.
 
 ## Advanced Usage
 
-## TODO
-finish advanced usage
-add a section describing networking
+If you need to reset the db without downloading the AACT dump
+```bash
+just rebuild
+just select-trials
+just count=1000 get-histories
+```
+
+
+### Description of all the `just` recipes
+
+# Background information
+
+This is designed to run on a linux machine with bash.
+If you are using a shell other than bash you should be aware of what
+is needed to run all of this using bash
+
+If any of the discussions below don't make sense, talk to your sysadmin,
+a local linux user, or reach out to the author.
+
+## Just installation
+
+I use the command runner `just` to automate/simplfy setting up the 
+docker containers and running many of the python scripts.
+It is similar to `make` in many ways but is designed to do less.
+
+Just can be installed from https://github.com/casey/just/
+
+## Python installation
+
+This requires python 3.10 or above due to the use of match-case statements
+in the html parser.
+
+Check which version of python you have by typing `python --version`.
+If you do not have the required version, I would recommend installing 
+the conda python manager and setting up a conda environment with python 3.10.
+Instructions for doing so are on the internet.
+
+## Docker and Postgres
+Docker is a tool to manage and run OCI containers. 
+What this means in regards to this project is that docker makes it 
+easy to setup containers.
+
+Install docker based on instructions for your linux distribution.
+
+### Docker networking
+
+I have the docker container for the database attached to a 
+network called "pharmaceutical_research" because I have a 
+container with pgadmin4 running on that docker network.
+This can be adjusted in the dockerfile.
+
+I also have the database container open on port 5432, the typical 
+postgresql database port.
 
+### Database logins
+I have choosen the database user of *root* with a password of *root*
+because I don't really need this database to be secure.
+If you do need to think about the security of your database I would recommend 
+you start by changing these.
diff --git a/history_downloader/downloader.py b/history_downloader/downloader.py
index d664d4e..10b878b 100644
--- a/history_downloader/downloader.py
+++ b/history_downloader/downloader.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
 from multiprocessing import Pool, Value
 import math
 import time
-
+import argparse
 
 def get_highest_version_number(response):
     """
@@ -225,11 +225,30 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     """
     Main!
     """
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Download historical data")
+    parser.add_argument(
+            "-c"
+            ,"--count"
+            , dest="count"
+            , type=int
+            , default=10
+            , help="Specify how many studies to download (default 10). If you want to download all of them, just enter some number higher than the total number of trials selected." 
+            )
+    parser.add_argument(
+            "-H"
+            ,"--host"
+            , dest="host"
+            , default="localhost"
+            , help="Specify the hostname of the postgres server (Default: localhost)"
+            )
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+
     #instantiate a database connnection creator
     dbc = DBConnectionCreator(
             dbname="aact_db"
             ,user="root"
-            ,host="will-office"
+            ,host=args.host
             ,port=5432
             ,password="root")
     
@@ -238,7 +257,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     with dbc.new() as con:
 
         #get list of nct_ids
-        nctids = reserve_trials(con, 150)
+        nctids = reserve_trials(con, args.count)
         print(nctids)
 
     
diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index ad6ea43..037ef23 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -16,11 +16,16 @@ docker_container := `docker container ls -a | grep aact_db | cut -f 1 -d " " | t
 #Various paths for docker stuff
 docker-compose_path := "./AACT_downloader/docker-compose.yaml"
 
+#Number of historical trials to download.
+count := "100"
+
 
 #check for necessary dependencies
 check-status:
     docker --version
+    #check if python version > 3.10. 
     python --version
+    python -c 'import sys; exit(sys.hexversion >= 50859504)'
     curl --version
     echo "current docker containers:{{docker_container}}"
 
@@ -79,7 +84,7 @@ select-trials:
 
 #Download trial histories based on registered trials of interest.
 download-trial-histories:
-    cd history_downloader && python ./downloader.py
+    cd history_downloader && python ./downloader.py --count {{count}}
 
 #Check if you can connect to the db
 test-db-connection: