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like 4

edw

The Case for case sensitivity

benhoyt

User('ben') -- what does that even mean? Find 'ben' in a database? Create 'ben'? Get the 'ben' singleton? Maybe I've spent too much time in the land of lisp, but I'd like the code I read to actually tell me what it's trying to do.I'm a fan of case insensitivity for pedagogic and typographical reasons. If you watch the H-P SICP videos, you'll see Sussman and Abelson writing code in upper case, lower case, whatever case. `Lambda' and `cond' and `if' are words, not hieroglyphs, and I want to be able to write them, and write about them, without having to do typographically stupid things like starting sentences with lowercase letters.That said, there are times when you may want case sensitivity, but I'd rather create a "I need case sensitive tokens" kludge than deal all case sensitive tokens, all the time.

2007-07-18 19:04:42 UTC

willarson

Does the Google policy of allowing dogs at work offend Muslims? Does Google have dog-free zones?

amichail

Religious acceptance is a two-way street. Demanding that other religions accept your religious tenants is bigotry. As a world with diverse conflicting religions we have to remember that our relationship with a higher power (or lack thereof) is a personal issue: we ought to apply our standards to ourselves, attempts to force them on others end with catastrophe. The typical response to my statement is "What if their religion supports eating babies?" This is what secular government is for, it formulates these things called laws which trump religious preference. The response to that response is "there is no truly secular government." Imperfection is one of the few realities we can count on, condemning a solution for its lack of perfection is insincere. Remember that we're all using operating systems built the Wrong Way.

I'm curious about this. It seems that such a policy would not create a friendly work environment for Muslims.While I'm not Muslim, I would not like to work around dogs or most other pets for that matter (although I would be ok with a fish tank).

2007-07-18 19:11:13 UTC

donna

The Equity Equation

rams

From my perspective it's partically an emotional path, not merely an analytical path. A company that's a startup has an intention, and it's one of these:1. You use resources to incrementally grow a user base and get market share, then sell it off to a bigger company2. You develop technology that enhances a company's market share and pulls users from a competitive company's market3. You lose, and the investor loses a small amount of money The bottom line for me is that the value of your start-up is based on the number of users you can get. It's about your intention X with the assistence of your investor will find the users and people you need. Whether it's a good deal or not is irrelevant if those are not true - take the journey.Whether it's a Mobius or another VC, for me as an entrepreneur, they have not established a community tool to have access to a community that will help grow the start-up quickly. You're not just buying equity in the equation X you're buying into the community's collaboration. The equity value is not just based on "here's some money for X cents on the dollar" X it has to go beyond that.

2007-07-18 19:11:41 UTC

tx

Virtualmin - YC startup in Venturebeat

sharpshoot

Congrats! As a long-time user of webmin I can easily see you being very successful.

2007-07-18 19:58:24 UTC

petenixey

OpenID - Separating fact from hype: Have you implemented OpenID? What's the uptake?

nickb

Right now, I think it's still way too difficult for most consumers to get a handle on. That said, ma.gnolia.com sees 12% of its 4800 monthly signups as OpenID signups and those that do sign up using OpenID are 11% more likely to become active users (11% less likely to be locked out?)

I have a question for those that have implemented OpenID on their webapps. I had a coffee with a good friend of mine that has his own startup. They're working on a consumer app that's become fairly popular and they're growing nicely. Topic of OpenID came up and i asked him how long it took them to add support for it and how many people have signed up using an OpenID. He mentioned that it took them a couple of days to add it in and test it out and fix all the issues.And you know how many people signed up using OpenID? 10. Not percent, just ten people signed up using OpenID in the past 40 days. These guys have about 900+ new subscribers per day.Anyway, if you have a limited amount of time and money to spend on an app, spend your energy somewhere else until OpenID becomes (if ever) more adopted.

2007-07-18 20:02:32 UTC

togilvie

The Equity Equation

rams

This is a nice analysis and good thinking, though it's worth noting that liquidation preference makes the VC equation less favorable. I'm not sure how Y Combinator works, but preference plays a shockingly large role when you run these types of calculations against your hypothetical VC deal.

2007-07-18 20:14:07 UTC

sanj

The Equity Equation

rams

It's not an equation, but for employee options my gut has always been that you get options as a function of how much your improve the odds of the company's ultimate success.Founders get a lot because they take it from zero to something.Senior folks get a lot because the influence it significantly.Early grants > Later grants because the ability to change the trajectory is typically smaller.

2007-07-18 20:51:56 UTC

amichail

Looking for feedback on facebook version of Study Stickies

amichail

Feel free to send me friend requests to test out the friend functionality.

2007-07-18 20:56:20 UTC

yubrew

Looking for a Co-Founder (Boston area)

pbnaidu

There is a Boston Start-up Meetup Group that meets every month. The focus is on anything software/webapp. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/boston-startup-meetup/

Hi,I am developing a travel related Web2.0 web site and looking for a co-founder with programming skills in Java[Spring MVC, Hibernate, AJAX(*), etc] and/or Ruby On Rails. I am also interested in advisers with experience in travel industry.Any pointers to networking in Boston area especially for tech startups would be greatly appreciated.If you're interested please send me an email to pbnaidu@gmail.com.Thanks.

2007-07-18 21:40:50 UTC

motoko

Hungry entrepreneurs eat up Y Combinator's help

jcwentz

Speaking of "Hungry":> If you must live on a diet of Lean Cuisine, try the Swedish meatballs.I don't understand this part. Eating healthy isn't much more expensive than eating poorly. Why sacrifice your health and risk your mental abilities by eating crap? That seems like a stupid investment.If you want to cut back on food bills, lose the energy drinks... especially Red Bull. That's my personal experience.Also, fruits, vegetables, breads, nuts... these things can be eaten at your desk while you work.

2007-07-18 21:48:34 UTC

SwellJoe

Possession of Social Capital With Intent to Distribute

Alex3917

You're a gentleman and a scholar, Alex, and you've got my vote.

2007-07-18 22:11:50 UTC

inklesspen

OpenID - Separating fact from hype: Have you implemented OpenID? What's the uptake?

nickb

How easy is it to spot that openid is supported? If you have to click 'login', and then spot a tiny text link that says 'login with openid', of course not many people are going to sign up with openid.But if you put it right next to the register link instead, EVERYWHERE that there's a register link, and at the same size, and have the openid page explain that the user may already have an openid (from a Livejournal or AIM account, et cetera), I bet you'd see more users.

I have a question for those that have implemented OpenID on their webapps. I had a coffee with a good friend of mine that has his own startup. They're working on a consumer app that's become fairly popular and they're growing nicely. Topic of OpenID came up and i asked him how long it took them to add support for it and how many people have signed up using an OpenID. He mentioned that it took them a couple of days to add it in and test it out and fix all the issues.And you know how many people signed up using OpenID? 10. Not percent, just ten people signed up using OpenID in the past 40 days. These guys have about 900+ new subscribers per day.Anyway, if you have a limited amount of time and money to spend on an app, spend your energy somewhere else until OpenID becomes (if ever) more adopted.

2007-07-18 22:11:55 UTC

uuilly

OpenID - Separating fact from hype: Have you implemented OpenID? What's the uptake?

nickb

I know nothing about OpenID. So I went to their website:This is their tagline: "OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity."blah blah ...user centric... blah How about: OpenID allows you to have one login for multiple sites.This is the paragraph after the tagline: "OpenID starts with the concept that anyone can identify themselves on the Internet the same way websites do-with a URI (also called a URL or web address). Since URIs are at the very core of Web architecture, they provide a solid foundation for user-centric identity."I don't even know where to begin here.This is all a long way of saying that I think the upside of supporting OpenID is very small. It may be a brilliant idea, brilliantly excecuted but few will use it b/c it is so poorly explained. Making users feel stupid is a bad way of getting them to use your stuff. Open or not.

I have a question for those that have implemented OpenID on their webapps. I had a coffee with a good friend of mine that has his own startup. They're working on a consumer app that's become fairly popular and they're growing nicely. Topic of OpenID came up and i asked him how long it took them to add support for it and how many people have signed up using an OpenID. He mentioned that it took them a couple of days to add it in and test it out and fix all the issues.And you know how many people signed up using OpenID? 10. Not percent, just ten people signed up using OpenID in the past 40 days. These guys have about 900+ new subscribers per day.Anyway, if you have a limited amount of time and money to spend on an app, spend your energy somewhere else until OpenID becomes (if ever) more adopted.

2007-07-18 22:13:33 UTC

myoung8

Ask News.YC: How do you handle dispute resolution between 2 founders?

nostrademons

I know another startup that was faced with a similar issue (they have since been acquired, proving that this does, indeed, work)--they decided to split it 49.9/50.1 with the person who thought of the idea first getting the majority.Naturally if you have thousands of shares, just take one from the person who's going to get less equity and give it to yourself (assuming all shares have equal voting rights). Another alternative is to split the equity 50/50, but have the voting rights divided differently. This is a pain in the ass because you have to insert a bunch of (extra) legal mumbo jumbo in the operating agreement for tax purposes.A potential problem is if you both sort of thought of the idea together (i.e. it was an iterative process). Well, then, if you are adamant about a 50/50 split, you can always resort to third (neutral) party arbitration if a dispute should arise, but this is a pain.I would do it 49.9/50.1---one of you must have started this entire process.

My startup has 2 founders: I'm the Woz, and my cofounder is the Jobs. We have been working under the assumption that it'll be 50/50, at least since the 3 founders that didn't do anything left. It's seemed to work well in terms of both of us feeling like we're pulling our fair share and aren't being cheated.However, we just spoke to a lawyer about incorporation and corporate structures, and he said "That'll make for an interesting agreement for dispute resolution." I'm curious how other companies in this situation have handled it. I know Apple brought in Ron Wayne as the 3rd founder to act as a tiebreaker - how did the Reddits do it? Any other examples?

2007-07-18 22:39:31 UTC

cpinto

Programming language choices for entrepreneurs

mmaunder

Agreed on items #1, #2 and #5. #3 is more of an issue on how you design your system than of the programming language itself and you can get away with #4 if you throw other languages into the mix.For example, you can do your website with django or Rails because you need to keep some agility in the frontend but you can use something like Java for background processes. Picture this (it's just a quick example): you can create an online store where the web frontend is developed with one of the aforementioned frameworks because it'll allow you to add new features quickly but when the client puts in an order for something you put a message in a JMS queue and use some j2ee application to process that order because this background process doesn't change much and it may be faster to develop with this technology.

5 questions you should ask yourself before committing to a platform.

2007-07-19 00:31:18 UTC

epi0Bauqu

Ask News.YC: How do you handle dispute resolution between 2 founders?

nostrademons

I personally wouldn't do anything but 50/50. Even if it is 49.9/50.1 you are saying that the person with the higher % is inherently better, and this can leak into the dynamics of the startup in so many ways. Lawyers like to point out things like this, but they aren't the entrepreneurs.I can tell you from experience that if you have the right co-founder, 50/50 is no problem. If there is a disagreement, however minor, you talk it out until one person convinces the other. This pretty much never happened in my case, by the way.

My startup has 2 founders: I'm the Woz, and my cofounder is the Jobs. We have been working under the assumption that it'll be 50/50, at least since the 3 founders that didn't do anything left. It's seemed to work well in terms of both of us feeling like we're pulling our fair share and aren't being cheated.However, we just spoke to a lawyer about incorporation and corporate structures, and he said "That'll make for an interesting agreement for dispute resolution." I'm curious how other companies in this situation have handled it. I know Apple brought in Ron Wayne as the 3rd founder to act as a tiebreaker - how did the Reddits do it? Any other examples?

2007-07-19 01:04:51 UTC

blored

Virtualmin - YC startup in Venturebeat

sharpshoot

It's funny cause I could barely finish the article with all those cash registers ringing in my ears.Seems like ycombinator did it again.

2007-07-19 01:51:35 UTC

blored

Loopt offers its service to Sprint users

jsjenkins168

Sam Altman is one of the nicest Silicon Valley entrepreneurs I have ever met in my life.

Unfortunately you need to be signed in the read the rest of the article.

2007-07-19 01:58:00 UTC

mpresh

public speaking toastmasters meetup at MIT

mpresh

Room number correction: its actually 2-132.-Mike

Hello Everyone,A big part of starting your business and leading a company is being a good public speaker. Toastmasters is a great organization that allows for practicing public speaking in a fun and supportive friendly environment. I would like to invite you guys to come visit the Tuesday Evening toastmasters at MIT which is every Tuesday at 6 pm in room 2-143.Its free to come visit and participate if you want, meet people, etcIf you have any questions, feel free to contact me directly at mpresh@gmail.com.Hope to see you all who are local to Cambridge MA to come and visit-Mike

2007-07-19 02:04:21 UTC

rms

is YC suited for game devs?

cellis

It can't hurt to apply. I think you'd need to have some kind of hook to set you apart from other game developers to have a serious shot at it.

Well, is it? I have an idea for a game and have most of the codebase done. I am an avid reader of YC news and notice that a lot of the posters are into either enterprise software, or social networking/web 2.0 applications. I am a yc hopeful...but wondering if I should be looking elsewhere. What do you think?

2007-07-19 02:08:42 UTC

jsjenkins168

PG's On Lisp in Japanese: less than $40 printed in 2007 - On Lisp in English: out of print $300+

nickb

Damn.. PG, if the book is NLA and there is that much demand, why not print more?

2007-07-19 02:55:17 UTC

cmars232

Hungry entrepreneurs eat up Y Combinator's help

jcwentz

All that promising talent, consumed by cannibals. The travesty!

2007-07-19 03:02:25 UTC

jmtame

The iPhone is a piece of shit, and so is your face.

samueladam

give him time.. he'll get an iphone ;)

2007-07-19 03:10:11 UTC

mdolon

Ask News.YC: How do you handle dispute resolution between 2 founders?

nostrademons

Kill the other partner.Just kidding, I'd follow the advice of others, either involve a third person or have on person carry slightly more weight in the company (in terms of equity).Just an aside, but you know who I go to when I need advice on a dispute or question though? My mom! I swear that lady knows everything about life!

My startup has 2 founders: I'm the Woz, and my cofounder is the Jobs. We have been working under the assumption that it'll be 50/50, at least since the 3 founders that didn't do anything left. It's seemed to work well in terms of both of us feeling like we're pulling our fair share and aren't being cheated.However, we just spoke to a lawyer about incorporation and corporate structures, and he said "That'll make for an interesting agreement for dispute resolution." I'm curious how other companies in this situation have handled it. I know Apple brought in Ron Wayne as the 3rd founder to act as a tiebreaker - how did the Reddits do it? Any other examples?

2007-07-19 04:05:11 UTC

mdolon

The iPhone is a piece of shit, and so is your face.

samueladam

Man how do you come back to a title like that? You can't even say "your FACE is a peice of shit" because he has that covered too!!I like the article too, though it's a little hostile for my taste.

2007-07-19 04:07:51 UTC

pg

is YC suited for game devs?

cellis

We'd consider a game co.

Well, is it? I have an idea for a game and have most of the codebase done. I am an avid reader of YC news and notice that a lot of the posters are into either enterprise software, or social networking/web 2.0 applications. I am a yc hopeful...but wondering if I should be looking elsewhere. What do you think?

2007-07-19 04:27:20 UTC

pg

Value of Angel Networks?

joshwa

Most seem to be pretty near useless. Not one YC startup (of 38 prior to this round) has gotten funding from one. In fact, I can't think of any startup I know that has.I would especially steer clear of any that charge a fee.

I'm in search of an angel/seed investor for my startup, and while I am working my networks, I wonder what people's opinions are of the various Angel networks out there? Many allow direct submission of pitches/business plans, charging a screening fee. Has anyone found it to be worthwhile, personally or anecdotally? New York Angels has a lot of really good people on their board and as members (Josh Kopelman, Esther Dyson). Worth my time/$ to submit a pitch?(disclaimer: YC not an option, co-founder has kids and can't move. Also sending to CRV Quickstart. )

2007-07-19 04:35:12 UTC

thingsilearned

The Curse of The Elegant Languages

nickb

He must not have found Plone!

2007-07-19 04:39:39 UTC

Anonymous314

The Equity Equation

rams

The article ignores how market prices work - the formula presented lets you know the maximum equity you can give up and still get a positive return by doing so, but incorrectly explains why VCs accept much less - the minimum equity a VC can accept and still expect a positive return on their investment can be far lower than the maximum the startup can afford to give profitably. The VCs are subject to competition with other VCs, so in such cases they cannot force the startup to accept a just-better-than-breakeven deal.

2007-07-19 05:15:28 UTC

euccastro

is YC suited for game devs?

cellis

Most of the codebase done and no prototypes?

Well, is it? I have an idea for a game and have most of the codebase done. I am an avid reader of YC news and notice that a lot of the posters are into either enterprise software, or social networking/web 2.0 applications. I am a yc hopeful...but wondering if I should be looking elsewhere. What do you think?

2007-07-19 05:15:59 UTC

SwellJoe

Does the Google policy of allowing dogs at work offend Muslims? Does Google have dog-free zones?

amichail

Don't like dogs? Work somewhere else.The vast majority of offices don't allow dogs. Google allows a lot of things that most offices don't...you take the good with the bad. I've been to the Google offices quite a bit, and dogs are not a major source of annoyance for anyone, as far as I can tell (though, truth be told, I like dogs a lot--though the majority of them are small dogs and I tend to like them less than proper sized ones).Nobody makes you work at any particular office or in any particular type of environment...it's up to you to decide where you'll be happiest. Seems pretty obvious to me, but maybe I'm too much of a free market fanboy to see how oppressive Google's dog policy is for dog-haters.

I'm curious about this. It seems that such a policy would not create a friendly work environment for Muslims.While I'm not Muslim, I would not like to work around dogs or most other pets for that matter (although I would be ok with a fish tank).

2007-07-19 05:21:06 UTC

webwright

Ask News.YC: How do you handle dispute resolution between 2 founders?

nostrademons

I've had 2 and three person partnerships... One person tends to grab the thought-leadership and the others tend to follow (tho hopefully not so much that they don't speak up with great ideas).I would advise having a buy-sell agreement that allows a graceful exit if one person wants out, but otherwise I'd agree that partner selection is 50% of the battle (and letting go of your own ego is the other 50%).For buy sell agreements, the best I've seen, simply stated, is this:At any time, partner A can make an offer to buy Partner B's stake for Value X (whatever they want to offer). The rub is that Partner B can decide to reverse the offer (buying Partner A's stake for Value X) and Partner A is obliged to sell.Hopefully you'll never need such an agreement, but it sucks to feel trapped in a business (or trapped with a partner who has turned into a lunatic or is no longer pulling his weight).So far, every partnership I've had has been an even one, and I've never had to exercise an buy-sell clause like that (knock on wood!).

My startup has 2 founders: I'm the Woz, and my cofounder is the Jobs. We have been working under the assumption that it'll be 50/50, at least since the 3 founders that didn't do anything left. It's seemed to work well in terms of both of us feeling like we're pulling our fair share and aren't being cheated.However, we just spoke to a lawyer about incorporation and corporate structures, and he said "That'll make for an interesting agreement for dispute resolution." I'm curious how other companies in this situation have handled it. I know Apple brought in Ron Wayne as the 3rd founder to act as a tiebreaker - how did the Reddits do it? Any other examples?

2007-07-19 05:27:35 UTC

vegashacker

Lisp Hackers Hit Another Startup Homerun (Flektor)

nickb

I'm really glad I saw this post. I read the original article about Flektor posted on YC today and was really intrigued. So I'm glad that this author made the connection for me to that Lisp company purchased by Sony.For those who don't read the article, note that it says, "Who knows if they used Lisp at Flektor, but I definitely need to check out their product now to see what the quality level is like." So anyone know which language(s) they used?

2007-07-19 05:56:24 UTC

mdolon

Meet Ashton Kutcher, the next tech entrepreneur?

mdolon

Yes, I know he's just Creative Director, but Michael says he's "actively engaged in the business," which is pretty impressive in my opinion.The company seems very promising so far, I love companies that push technology to the next level, or even just make better use of existing ones.

2007-07-19 06:09:22 UTC

thingsilearned

How Open Is Facebook, Really?

garbowza

"history shows that it ends in hubris (e.g. AOL, Microsoft). Facebook doesn't control social networking yet, far from it. But it's feasible that they will in future, if/when MySpace is vanquished."

2007-07-19 06:23:31 UTC

altano

'Making Rails Go Vroom' (but should you have to?)

aston

That wasn't a terrible article, but some of these suggestions were bad. Why would slow performance stop you from using url_for() when you should be caching the resulting html anyway?If you're going to take this approach to performance optimization, you probably should just not use Rails in the first place.

2007-07-19 06:48:40 UTC

Tichy

Real estate site has all kinds of info - Do-it-yourself feature allows users to add data they want

ordersup

I have also been interested in creating a mashup about renting and buying houses, on a smaller scale, though (basically because I also need it for myself).I wonder about the legalities of creating mashups, though - is it legal to just pull information from Craigslist and other pages? I wouldn't mind forwarding my users to the pages I pulled the information from for closing the deal, but it still seems difficult legally.

2007-07-19 08:22:02 UTC

kingnothing

is YC suited for game devs?

cellis

If most of the code is finished, why bother with YC? Go straight to a VC after you get something to show them.

Well, is it? I have an idea for a game and have most of the codebase done. I am an avid reader of YC news and notice that a lot of the posters are into either enterprise software, or social networking/web 2.0 applications. I am a yc hopeful...but wondering if I should be looking elsewhere. What do you think?

2007-07-19 09:47:07 UTC

staunch

Ask News.YC: How do you handle dispute resolution between 2 founders?

nostrademons

What would happen if the 50.1%'er overruled the 49.9%'er on something that was very important? It might very well be the end of the company entirely.When I incorporated my lawyer thought 50/50 was the obvious choice.

My startup has 2 founders: I'm the Woz, and my cofounder is the Jobs. We have been working under the assumption that it'll be 50/50, at least since the 3 founders that didn't do anything left. It's seemed to work well in terms of both of us feeling like we're pulling our fair share and aren't being cheated.However, we just spoke to a lawyer about incorporation and corporate structures, and he said "That'll make for an interesting agreement for dispute resolution." I'm curious how other companies in this situation have handled it. I know Apple brought in Ron Wayne as the 3rd founder to act as a tiebreaker - how did the Reddits do it? Any other examples?

2007-07-19 10:01:36 UTC

kalid

The Equity Equation

rams

Here's a quick calc to help play with the numbers:http://tinyurl.com/yorkoqFeel free to click and change change any of the assumptions as you guys fight it out :)

2007-07-19 10:54:37 UTC

myoung8

Meet Ashton Kutcher, the next tech entrepreneur?

mdolon

Andrew Frame came to speak at one of my classes at Stanford. He's intense and it seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing and where he wanted Ooma to go in a very Steve Jobs kind of way.I think this has the potential to be quite disruptive to the wireline market.

2007-07-19 13:28:06 UTC

staunch

OpenID - Separating fact from hype: Have you implemented OpenID? What's the uptake?

nickb

I haven't done anything big with it yet, but it was fairly trivial for me to implement OpenID support. It has the classic chicken and egg problem. Eventually it will be very useful, if we all get behind it. There's certainly no better option for distributed identity.Some may find it interesting to know that OpenID was originally a weekend hack created by Brad Fitzpatrick. Now it's a big deal and even Microsoft has announced strategy around it. Definitely one of the most potent "hacks to amuse your friends" that I've ever seen.

I have a question for those that have implemented OpenID on their webapps. I had a coffee with a good friend of mine that has his own startup. They're working on a consumer app that's become fairly popular and they're growing nicely. Topic of OpenID came up and i asked him how long it took them to add support for it and how many people have signed up using an OpenID. He mentioned that it took them a couple of days to add it in and test it out and fix all the issues.And you know how many people signed up using OpenID? 10. Not percent, just ten people signed up using OpenID in the past 40 days. These guys have about 900+ new subscribers per day.Anyway, if you have a limited amount of time and money to spend on an app, spend your energy somewhere else until OpenID becomes (if ever) more adopted.

2007-07-19 13:29:02 UTC

Leon

Ask News.YC: How do you handle dispute resolution between 2 founders?

nostrademons

Use a random number generator! http://random.irb.hr/ - a quantum RNG is online, if you get stuck on an issue then a random choice may be as good as any other if both of you are dead-set and won't budge.

My startup has 2 founders: I'm the Woz, and my cofounder is the Jobs. We have been working under the assumption that it'll be 50/50, at least since the 3 founders that didn't do anything left. It's seemed to work well in terms of both of us feeling like we're pulling our fair share and aren't being cheated.However, we just spoke to a lawyer about incorporation and corporate structures, and he said "That'll make for an interesting agreement for dispute resolution." I'm curious how other companies in this situation have handled it. I know Apple brought in Ron Wayne as the 3rd founder to act as a tiebreaker - how did the Reddits do it? Any other examples?

2007-07-19 14:04:31 UTC

chaostheory

Massive patent reform bill passes House committee

chaostheory

ok I guess either the article has recently been edited... I like the prior art and total damages cap, but does this sound right, the US will "shift from a "first to invent" system to the "first to file" system used in other countries"?

2007-07-19 14:07:37 UTC

pg

Techcrunch partners with the competition

rms

Hmm, this shows one difference between the new journalism and the old. In the old model, it was considered wrong for journalists to take money from companies they wrote about. I'm not saying Arrington is doing anything unethical, btw, just that the conventions of blogger journalism are still fluid.

Of course the YC companies get mentioned on Techcrunch anyways.What kind of financial relationship does partnership imply?

2007-07-19 14:12:15 UTC

pg

Ask News.YC: How do you handle dispute resolution between 2 founders?

nostrademons

I don't think they got Wayne as a tiebreaker. According to Woz's interview in Founders at Work, they got him because he knew about business. Woz also said in that interview that he had zero serious disagreements with Jobs. There was one point where Jobs tried to get him to decrease the number of expansion slots in the Apple II, and Woz simply refused, and that was the end of it.

My startup has 2 founders: I'm the Woz, and my cofounder is the Jobs. We have been working under the assumption that it'll be 50/50, at least since the 3 founders that didn't do anything left. It's seemed to work well in terms of both of us feeling like we're pulling our fair share and aren't being cheated.However, we just spoke to a lawyer about incorporation and corporate structures, and he said "That'll make for an interesting agreement for dispute resolution." I'm curious how other companies in this situation have handled it. I know Apple brought in Ron Wayne as the 3rd founder to act as a tiebreaker - how did the Reddits do it? Any other examples?

2007-07-19 14:17:32 UTC

garbowza

Massive patent reform bill passes House committee

chaostheory

This reform bill quite excellent and much needed, as it focuses on limiting patent litigation and outrageous infringement lawsuits. Shifting from "first to invent" to "first to file" actually helps prevent costly lawsuits. Under the current "first to invent," someone who files a patent can be invalidated by someone who claims they invented the idea first, but didn't take any action, which often results in expensive and time consuming litigation. Hopefully this bill makes it through the full vote...

2007-07-19 14:35:44 UTC

create_account

Accommodating Feedburner Redirects?

dpapathanasiou

This is really a non-issue.From the user perspective, you must make that redirect, because they just want the feed, not some long-winded explanation about Feedburner.If you're worried about security, limit yourself to just one redirect, but only if the redirect points to feeds.feedburner.com/something.

I'd be curious to get the news.yc community's take on a mini-dilemma we're seeing at SeekSift.com recently.It's explained in more detail on the blog (http://blog.seeksift.com/2007/07/19/feedburner-redirects/) but the gist of it is that sites which host their feeds at Feedburner sometimes use their own domain for the link instead (there's a redirect the the actual Feedburner URL).We reject the redirect (because it's not xml in either RSS or ATOM format), but it confuses people who don't understand the hosted-at-Feedburner piece of the puzzle.I'm wary of making a change just for Feedburner, but is it something that should be done?

2007-07-19 14:49:34 UTC

ph0rque

Massive patent reform bill passes House committee

chaostheory

After the startup school in April, I had the opportunity to chat with one of the lawyers who had earlier presented. I asked him about the possibility of a world-wide patent system, where an inventor would file once and enjoy protection the world over. He didn't think that would happen anytime soon, mainly because of the "first to invent" system that US uses vs. the "first to file" that most other countries use.I guess that dream is one step closer to reality if the law passes. :~)

2007-07-19 14:59:27 UTC

jsjenkins168

Why using a Mac over a Windows computer makes sense for entrepreneurs (it's a form of self-control)

amichail

Unfortunately using a Windows based dev environment cant always be avoided.. I had to switch back to windows from ubuntu on my home machine because virtually all of the phone emulators are only available for Windows. Sucks I know.

There are few games for the Mac. So using a Mac makes it less likely that you will be distracted by the latest games as would happen with a Windows computer.Even without considering games, there's generally less software available for the Mac in most areas, which again saves you time from trying out all sorts of competing products.

2007-07-19 15:35:58 UTC

thingsilearned

Massive patent reform bill passes House committee

chaostheory

not sure if I like "first to file." It sounds too easy to just write up someone else's idea.

2007-07-19 15:40:07 UTC

cellis

Why using a Mac over a Windows computer makes sense for entrepreneurs (it's a form of self-control)

amichail

Yeah. But i gave up playing computer games. I was a big Civ II fan.No work done.Ever.

There are few games for the Mac. So using a Mac makes it less likely that you will be distracted by the latest games as would happen with a Windows computer.Even without considering games, there's generally less software available for the Mac in most areas, which again saves you time from trying out all sorts of competing products.

2007-07-19 15:43:25 UTC

amichail

Why using a Mac over a Windows computer makes sense for entrepreneurs (it's a form of self-control)

amichail

On a related note:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6127548813950043200

There are few games for the Mac. So using a Mac makes it less likely that you will be distracted by the latest games as would happen with a Windows computer.Even without considering games, there's generally less software available for the Mac in most areas, which again saves you time from trying out all sorts of competing products.

2007-07-19 15:44:46 UTC

juwo

Hungry entrepreneurs eat up Y Combinator's help

jcwentz

will PG please share his chicken stew recipe with us?(If he wants, I can give him one of my recipes too).

2007-07-19 16:05:07 UTC

daniel-cussen

Meet Ashton Kutcher, the next tech entrepreneur?

mdolon

I read the ooma team's management page. This dude is at the very bottom. My guess is that he has a suitable understanding of the phone's workings. Of course, that barely matters; he is there to sell phones.In this sense it's a pretty smart move to make a celebrity a plankowner. I'd even call it _innovative_. They'll probably do well.

2007-07-19 16:50:47 UTC

omouse

Lisp Hackers Hit Another Startup Homerun (Flektor)

nickb

Any bets as to which language this will be re-written in if/when they get bought out? :P

2007-07-19 16:59:53 UTC

mynameishere

The iPhone is a piece of shit, and so is your face.

samueladam

This crappy article gave me a thought. The advantage of not allowing downmods on this site seems to be: It's impossible to actively bury submissions, and so things only rise on popularity. But, at some point, that stops mattering. So, what if, after a certain # of points or after a certain position is reached, a downmod arrow appears?

2007-07-19 17:36:26 UTC

Tichy

MobileRules - it could be you

Tichy

Hm, where is the comment? So here it is again: I just thought the "it could be you" picture was amusing. It seems so stereotypical...

Competition for mobile applications. I haven't really looked at the competition, just thought the "it could be you" picture was amusing. Is that really what is driving us? ;-)

2007-07-19 17:40:15 UTC

webwright

Marketing team brainstorms Facebook app launch (video)

mmaunder

Wow. Somewhere in the world, Paul Graham is weeping. Not once did they talk about what Facebook users WANT or how to give value to them.

Jobster's CEO Jason Goldberg sent me this vid this morning. It's an inside look at their marketing team brainstorming the launch of their new Facebook application. Jobster has received around $48 Million in funding.I'm curious what your thoughts are on the brainstorming process and the ideas they're throwing around. Let me know.

2007-07-19 18:00:45 UTC

ragav

Find a startup co-founder

rbitar

I just happened to glance at their privacy doc:"We may provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Specifically, we may use third parties to facilitate our business, such as to send email solicitations. In connection with these offerings and business operations, our service providers may have access to your personal information for use in connection with these business activities."Email solicitations from third parties ? .. makes me real reluctant to sign up.

A site for finding co-founders: http://www.cofoundr.comYou can search members by skills, interests and location or "pitch your idea" to recruit folks.

2007-07-19 18:08:08 UTC

zach

Marc Andreessen: Best book for tech entrepreneurs this year

toffer

And it's the #69 book (not business book, book) on Amazon.com as of 11:15 AM PDT and climbing fast (it was #115 at 11). More proof of the well-deserved influence Marc already has.

2007-07-19 18:13:40 UTC

joshwa

Accommodating Feedburner Redirects?

dpapathanasiou

Just follow HTTP 3xx redirects (up to n times, so as not to get stuck in an endless loop). "Click here for the real page" or javascript "redirects" are the feed provider's problem, not yours.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http_status_codes#3xx_Redirecti...

I'd be curious to get the news.yc community's take on a mini-dilemma we're seeing at SeekSift.com recently.It's explained in more detail on the blog (http://blog.seeksift.com/2007/07/19/feedburner-redirects/) but the gist of it is that sites which host their feeds at Feedburner sometimes use their own domain for the link instead (there's a redirect the the actual Feedburner URL).We reject the redirect (because it's not xml in either RSS or ATOM format), but it confuses people who don't understand the hosted-at-Feedburner piece of the puzzle.I'm wary of making a change just for Feedburner, but is it something that should be done?

2007-07-19 18:14:18 UTC

jey

Inbox at news.yc. Thoughts?

terpua

Just put your email address in your profile. I already have email, myspace (which I ignore), and Facebook. I don't need yet another inbox.I wouldn't object to a form on news.yc that would send a message via email without revealing the recipient's email address, in case people don't want to put their email address in their profile.

Cool to be able to contact fellow entrepreneurs and hackers.

2007-07-19 18:28:37 UTC

brett

Inbox at news.yc. Thoughts?

terpua

Did this come up after reading the "Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead" article on the front page now?

Cool to be able to contact fellow entrepreneurs and hackers.

2007-07-19 18:29:08 UTC

brezina

Marc Andreessen: Best book for tech entrepreneurs this year

toffer

I only made it 1/4 of the way through the book. I found it sort of boring.However, the idea of customer driven development is a good concept to understand. One idea from this methodology is that you should start charging some customers as soon as you have a product. That way you'll find out what users really can't live without. No one seems to do this these days.

2007-07-19 18:50:45 UTC

plinkplonk

Sudoku solvers vs TDD vs Peter Norvig

gleb

I am not sure how this is relevant to startups? Very amusing post (and comments) but still very irrelevant in this forum imo

2007-07-19 18:56:42 UTC

sabat

Massive patent reform bill passes House committee

chaostheory

This sounds terrible:The other bedrock changes to the US patent system envisioned in the original bill remain, including a shift from a "first to invent" system to the "first to file" system used in other countries.So I do the required prior-art search, pretend not to find anything, and patent an idea that's been out there forever. No one can claim prior art.Great going, guys.

2007-07-19 18:59:25 UTC

mwerty

Hard work is ticket to the rich list of self-made Britons

muriithi

survivorship bias.

2007-07-19 19:08:00 UTC

drm237

Can news.yc provide a 'comment' link in the RSS feeds?

rob

What RSS reader are you using? In IE7 (no one's favorite) there is a comments link. Not sure about other feed readers.

I like how the feed titles go directly to the article in question and not to their own homepage first (like Digg), but I often find that I want to comment on a story I read here on news.yc. This means I have to open up news.ycombinator.com, find the article, and click 'comments'. Can you provide a simple '[comments]' link in the feed body pointing to the news.yc comment page, similar to reddit?

2007-07-19 19:18:25 UTC

drm237

Why using a Mac over a Windows computer makes sense for entrepreneurs (it's a form of self-control)

amichail

If you don't have enough self control to stay focused on the task at hand, it doesn't seem like you're in the right business...not that I disagree about using a Mac, I just think your logic might be a little off...

There are few games for the Mac. So using a Mac makes it less likely that you will be distracted by the latest games as would happen with a Windows computer.Even without considering games, there's generally less software available for the Mac in most areas, which again saves you time from trying out all sorts of competing products.

2007-07-19 19:23:23 UTC

LeeSky

Meet Ashton Kutcher, the next tech entrepreneur?

mdolon

Ashton sounds like a dolt when he speaks (from the podcast). Andrew should give him a script the next time he speaks for the company.

2007-07-19 19:29:54 UTC

ivankirigin

Inbox at news.yc. Thoughts?

terpua

Other enhancements I've been thinking about...Specific RSS feeds:RSS feed of responses to your commentsRSS feed of leader stories (I think the existing one does this)RSS feed of new stories Is downmodding available? Sometimes I see it, but not other times.Leading users shouldn't be based on lifetime, as some people have dropped off. It should be something like mean karma/day over the last month. Both rankings would be useful.I don't think an inbox is needed. Perhaps just an open comment stream on each users page, with the option of privacy. You then should be able to have an RSS feed from your user page.

Cool to be able to contact fellow entrepreneurs and hackers.

2007-07-19 19:35:25 UTC

ivankirigin

Can news.yc provide a 'comment' link in the RSS feeds?

rob

I use google-reader, and the only link is to the target story. Ideally, the RSS feed would allow a link to the news.yc story, which would allow you to leave a comment. Modding should also be in the rss feed, if possible. Buttons are bad in most rss feeds it seems.

I like how the feed titles go directly to the article in question and not to their own homepage first (like Digg), but I often find that I want to comment on a story I read here on news.yc. This means I have to open up news.ycombinator.com, find the article, and click 'comments'. Can you provide a simple '[comments]' link in the feed body pointing to the news.yc comment page, similar to reddit?

2007-07-19 19:45:48 UTC

ochiba

Can news.yc provide a 'comment' link in the RSS feeds?

rob

I'm using FeedReader and there isn't a comment link. I'm not sure if it's specific to FR, but there's no article summary or extract, that would also be useful.

I like how the feed titles go directly to the article in question and not to their own homepage first (like Digg), but I often find that I want to comment on a story I read here on news.yc. This means I have to open up news.ycombinator.com, find the article, and click 'comments'. Can you provide a simple '[comments]' link in the feed body pointing to the news.yc comment page, similar to reddit?

2007-07-19 19:48:10 UTC

joshwa

Can news.yc provide a 'comment' link in the RSS feeds?

rob

you can use the bookmarklet, but this means you'll be upvoting the article, too.

I like how the feed titles go directly to the article in question and not to their own homepage first (like Digg), but I often find that I want to comment on a story I read here on news.yc. This means I have to open up news.ycombinator.com, find the article, and click 'comments'. Can you provide a simple '[comments]' link in the feed body pointing to the news.yc comment page, similar to reddit?

2007-07-19 19:58:01 UTC

nickb

Why using a Mac over a Windows computer makes sense for entrepreneurs (it's a form of self-control)

amichail

"there's generally less software available for the Mac in most areas"Depeneds on the area (graphics, video, audio editing being exceptions) but I tend to agree with that. The thing I found out is that even though there's less choice, the quality of apps that are available for Max are MUCH HIGHER than apps available for Linux & Windows! So it's a definite win-win!

There are few games for the Mac. So using a Mac makes it less likely that you will be distracted by the latest games as would happen with a Windows computer.Even without considering games, there's generally less software available for the Mac in most areas, which again saves you time from trying out all sorts of competing products.

2007-07-19 20:13:24 UTC

adrianh

Can news.yc provide a 'comment' link in the RSS feeds?

rob

Yes! Please do this!I read the RSS feed for news.ycombinator.com, and I don't get to view (and participate in) the discussions as much as I'd like to, purely because the RSS feed in Google Reader does not include a link to the discussion page.I see the RSS feed contains a <comments> element for each entry, which is being ignored by Google Reader. Sure, using <comments> is the purer way to do it, but it's worth adding a simple "View comments" link to the description of each RSS entry, for people whose RSS readers don't support the RSS <comments> tag.

I like how the feed titles go directly to the article in question and not to their own homepage first (like Digg), but I often find that I want to comment on a story I read here on news.yc. This means I have to open up news.ycombinator.com, find the article, and click 'comments'. Can you provide a simple '[comments]' link in the feed body pointing to the news.yc comment page, similar to reddit?

2007-07-19 20:16:22 UTC

pg

Can news.yc provide a 'comment' link in the RSS feeds?

rob

We do. Look at the feed source. If there's something wrong with the format, please tell us.

I like how the feed titles go directly to the article in question and not to their own homepage first (like Digg), but I often find that I want to comment on a story I read here on news.yc. This means I have to open up news.ycombinator.com, find the article, and click 'comments'. Can you provide a simple '[comments]' link in the feed body pointing to the news.yc comment page, similar to reddit?

2007-07-19 20:29:06 UTC

drusenko

Facebook acquires Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt's Parakey

pg

Congrats guys, that's awesome.

2007-07-19 22:29:57 UTC

far33d

Facebook acquires Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt's Parakey

pg

And that was when the facebook economy was born.

2007-07-19 22:31:49 UTC

adamdoupe

Facebook acquires Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt's Parakey

pg

With these guys at facebook, they might be able to take over the world.

2007-07-19 22:37:05 UTC

palish

Closures + Lambda = The key to OOP in Lisp

nickb

Sheesh.. Why? I don't understand why people keep trying to take something which is inherently non-object-oriented (Lisp) and cram an object-oriented mentality into it. Sure, it's nifty you can make objects without using the Common Lisp Object System, but that's generally not how you'd want to structure an actual application, right? Lisp is so powerful you can build and manipulate your own structures at runtime, so you don't need to make objects which represent a concept. Those concepts are represented through utility functions. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I don't see it.

2007-07-19 23:10:23 UTC

danw

Facebook acquires Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt's Parakey

pg

Is this the first facebook acquisition? They're getting closer to being the new google. All they need now is a good way of monetising..

2007-07-19 23:10:40 UTC

nickb

Meet Ashton Kutcher, the next tech entrepreneur?

mdolon

Selling a $400 piece of harware will be extremely hard. SunRocket had a bit better model and they failed. These guys will need every bit of viral marketing that Ashton can produce.http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_21292575....

2007-07-19 23:20:52 UTC

nickb

Facebook acquires Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt's Parakey

pg

I have no idea about their finances and how much money they raised and how much they got offered by facebook, but selling out this early before even doing an open beta is a sure way to undersell yourself.

2007-07-19 23:23:06 UTC

adamdoupe

Possession of Social Capital With Intent to Distribute

Alex3917

I'm not too sure how a great app is poking yourself. Unless you're referring to the world's oldest app...

2007-07-19 23:24:11 UTC

sri

Marc Andreessen: Best book for tech entrepreneurs this year

toffer

"And he's just written and published a book..."It was published in 2005 -- that's what amazon says. Here it says it was published in 2006: http://www.cafepress.com/kandsranch.58024175Also at cafepress it 29.99 and at amazon 39.99. A bug at Amazon?

2007-07-19 23:29:01 UTC

daniel-cussen

What I learned from Hitch Hiking today

crxnamja

I wonder: is it harder to sell oneself as a hitch hiker or a web app?

Scary stuff but interesting...

2007-07-19 23:29:28 UTC

rms

Facebook acquires Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt's Parakey

pg

I am shocked and awed.

2007-07-19 23:29:52 UTC

ashu

Facebook acquires Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt's Parakey

pg

Fantastic!! Congrats, guys...

2007-07-19 23:30:22 UTC

ochiba

A Web Phone Called ooma

drm237

heh, in my home language ouma means 'granny', and therefore ooma and its pronunciation in English is almost identical :)

Business Week telecom reporter Olga Kharif writes today about a new VoIP startup called "ooma." (Yet another example of lousy brand names due to cybersquatters).

2007-07-20 00:01:08 UTC

euccastro

Closures + Lambda = The key to OOP in Lisp

nickb

"when it comes to encapsulation, the very foundation is that all state must be accessible only from inside the object's methods."Screw encapsulation then. Low tech data abstraction gives you most of the benefits without the hassle. (+)http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-Z-H-14.html...(+) Edit: was "The real point is data abstraction."

2007-07-20 00:20:33 UTC

crxnamja

What I learned from Hitch Hiking today

crxnamja

hmm...great question. at least with web app i can get my friends to use it.

Scary stuff but interesting...

2007-07-20 00:24:29 UTC

dfens

How to make the perfect cup of coffee

mmaunder

It's a bit pricey but I recommend a Presso: http://www.presso.co.uk

2007-07-20 00:50:34 UTC

far33d

How to make the perfect cup of coffee

mmaunder

Ok. I hate to reply to this way off topic post, but I'm a coffee geek, so I need to. Peets is crap. It's fresh, but it's way over-roasted - nearly burned. And 10 days in the store (especially because they store them in open air) is still way too long. Find a local roaster. One that roasts light, to what they call a "city" roast. Buy beans every few days, tops once a week. It will change the way you view coffee. Or, better yet, do what I do, and roast at home www.sweetmarias.com (not my site, just where I buy beans) And for god sakes don't put cream in it.

2007-07-20 00:55:52 UTC

ivankirigin

The rise of lighttpd (excellent web server)

nickb

I love it. Though I'm not an expert in optimized configuration of servers. I guess that's sorta the point.

2007-07-20 01:06:37 UTC

willarson

The rise of lighttpd (excellent web server)

nickb

Well, server optimization has been my primary hobby for the past month, and I'd like to make some clarifications about a few things the article says.Saying that Lighttpd supports "CGI scripts, Ruby on Rails, Pylons, TurboGears, Django, Quixote, webpy, Mongrel, Catalyst, Mason, Joomla, AWStats, and so much more" is kind of misleading. Lighttpd can do a few things: it does fast cgi (fcgi support explains about 75% of the examples in that list), it can serve static files, and it can proxy requests to other servers. Lighttpd doesn't "support Mongrel", because Mongrel is another server. What Lighttpd does is use something akin to mod_proxy to send certain requests somewhere else, that somewhere else might be a Mongrel cluster that is running on port 8080 (hence it "supports" Mongrel). That proxying service is where the majority of Lighttpd usage has been. A typical efficient setup these days (YouTube does along these lines) is to have lighttpd accept incoming requests and if the request is for a static file then it serves the request (because it is very lightweight (i.e. minimal) it is more efficient than Apache at serving static media), and if it is for dynamic content the request is passed to Apache, which then passes it back to Lighttpd, which passes it back to the requester (this means that "heavy" Apache threads will be dedicated to a request for a shorter period of time since it only has to communicate/wait for Lighttpd instead of the actual requester). Lighttpd on its own isn't necessarily the best solution (an example from my experience is that mod_python and Apache become more efficient at serving dynamic content than fcgi and Lighttpd as the numbers of requester per second get very high). Usually a combination of a light frontend server and Apache in the backend can provide the best performance (again this is at high numbers, at lower numbers lighttpd is probablly equally or more efficient). As a final note, I'd really recommend Nginx over Lighttpd if you are looking for a light http server to serve static content, support fcgi, and/or proxy to other servers. The biggest reason? Lighttpd leaks memory and has to be restarted occasionally because every couple of days (under heavy usage) it dies. Not a great feature in a production server.

2007-07-20 01:24:59 UTC

pg

Thoughts on 'The Equity Equation'

brett

His argument that you have to pay market rate regardless of the equity equation is false. If a transaction is a net loss for the company, you shouldn't do it.If your situation is so desperate that you feel forced to hire someone (or take more funding) at what seems an excessively high price, then what's really going on is that you're overvaluing the company. If your situation is desperate, your value is low.

2007-07-20 01:35:19 UTC

pg

Valleywag on Facebook's Parakey acquisition

nickb

Facebook has never, as far as I know, claimed to want to be a computing platform. There are lots of senses of the word platform, but sense in which the current FB is a platform is not that one.

2007-07-20 01:52:32 UTC

mynameishere

What if Facebook loses my data?

drusenko

A few applications that built this functionality have been taken off-line by request for TOS violationsSo that's what happened to File > Save As in Internet Explorer.

2007-07-20 02:11:39 UTC