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35,859 | 35,824 | ivankirigin | San Francisco news.yc Meetup - Friday, July 27th | jamiequint | Awesome. I'll look forward to a Boston one. I was even thinking of suggesting it. Miracle of Science bar, anyone?
| We have somewhat limited space so RSVP soon. Looking forward to meeting some fellow news.yc-ers | 1 | 19 | 2007-07-21 17:27:23 UTC |
35,861 | 35,852 | asdf333 | Craigslist Google Maps Mashup | tiki12revolt | very cool. | As it says on the website, perl, google maps, and craigslist | 3 | 7 | 2007-07-21 18:03:26 UTC |
35,864 | 35,787 | menloparkbum | Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up | earthboundkid | Emotional investment is overrated. The reason this endeavor didn't work is:1. foreigners living in Tokyo (I lived in tokyo for a year; hugely distracting, hardly an epicenter of web software innovation)2. trying to build 3 apps while doing consulting work (no focus)3. the author was a dick to his only employee (wtf? why?) | null | 5 | 16 | 2007-07-21 18:43:54 UTC |
35,865 | 35,564 | lkozma | German government puts up $165 million to start Google competitor | jcwentz | This will give a new meaning to the expression "design by committee". | null | 5 | 9 | 2007-07-21 18:50:58 UTC |
35,866 | 35,857 | Alex3917 | C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success - New York Times | joshwa | "Knew when to stop, too--didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?" | null | 0 | 6 | 2007-07-21 18:59:00 UTC |
35,867 | 35,824 | uuilly | San Francisco news.yc Meetup - Friday, July 27th | jamiequint | Outstanding. I'm in. | We have somewhat limited space so RSVP soon. Looking forward to meeting some fellow news.yc-ers | 4 | 19 | 2007-07-21 19:00:23 UTC |
35,870 | 35,863 | pg | Who else thinks VCs are dinosaurs? | mmaunder | I don't. So far the percentage of companies that go public without at some point taking VC money is still zero. | John Cook, one of my favorite Seattleites, has a post on his blog about yet another home office no money startup that got bought out for a few million. There is a growing realization that getting funding if you're a developer building a consumer web application is a very bad idea. | 0 | 4 | 2007-07-21 19:10:45 UTC |
35,871 | 35,852 | uuilly | Craigslist Google Maps Mashup | tiki12revolt | Similar to what we're doing:http://www.uuorld.com/ | As it says on the website, perl, google maps, and craigslist | 2 | 7 | 2007-07-21 19:14:51 UTC |
35,881 | 35,852 | nickb | Craigslist Google Maps Mashup | tiki12revolt | Very nice! Speaking of heatmaps, anyone know some references/code samples on how to generate them? | As it says on the website, perl, google maps, and craigslist | 1 | 7 | 2007-07-21 19:51:49 UTC |
35,882 | 35,868 | Alex3917 | Should Newspapers Become Local Blog Networks? | rchambers | It seems like the most natural model would be pro-am collaboration. For example, investigative journalists publish research and then let amateurs incorporate this into their own publications. This is basically what is happening already, so with only a few tweaks it would be possible to both greatly increase the quality and also monetize the whole process.This complicated three-tiered model seems about as workable as the Ptolemaic universe. Much better I think just to give readers the tools to go in the direction they are already taking on their own. | Chicago Tribune just relaunched its website with, of course, more blogs -- A LOT more blogs -- news, entertainment, sports, living, business travel, with multiple blogs in each category. | 1 | 5 | 2007-07-21 19:52:25 UTC |
35,883 | 35,787 | willarson | Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up | earthboundkid | It seems like the biggest problem is that entered the financing company without a clear relationship defined, and that lack of definition seems like it created an abysmal working environment. I have to admit I am confused how the two developers are maintaining control over the web applications they developed for the company. Something seems a bit off there (they got paid for developing stuff, and then left taking the stuff with them?).Bonus: The name of their company is "Paper-Rock-Scissors" in Japanese. | null | 4 | 16 | 2007-07-21 20:01:43 UTC |
35,886 | 35,824 | bluishgreen | San Francisco news.yc Meetup - Friday, July 27th | jamiequint | I am in too. | We have somewhat limited space so RSVP soon. Looking forward to meeting some fellow news.yc-ers | 5 | 19 | 2007-07-21 20:19:28 UTC |
35,888 | 35,868 | ivankirigin | Should Newspapers Become Local Blog Networks? | rchambers | The killer-app of newspapers is good journalism and reporting from the scene of something interesting. Newspapers fail to do either well today, and wonder why they suffer so much. Bloggers can help -- but not for foreign reporting (aside from foreign bloggers). That is where the money behind news rooms actually would have a huge effect. | Chicago Tribune just relaunched its website with, of course, more blogs -- A LOT more blogs -- news, entertainment, sports, living, business travel, with multiple blogs in each category. | 0 | 5 | 2007-07-21 20:32:53 UTC |
35,890 | 35,868 | jaed | Should Newspapers Become Local Blog Networks? | rchambers | No. :-) | Chicago Tribune just relaunched its website with, of course, more blogs -- A LOT more blogs -- news, entertainment, sports, living, business travel, with multiple blogs in each category. | 2 | 5 | 2007-07-21 20:55:55 UTC |
35,897 | 35,671 | sam | Own the laptops that built reddit.com ("luck not included") | pg | I predict that the laptops will sell for > $10k. (4 days, 18 hours until the end of the auction) | null | 2 | 22 | 2007-07-21 23:20:41 UTC |
35,903 | 35,754 | nmeyer | Why don't most web 2.0 startups use sophisticated algorithms? | amichail | merge sort ftw. | Lack of knowledge/ability? To avoid infringing patents (even accidentally)? Most users won't care? Not important in the problem domain? | 4 | 1 | 2007-07-22 00:33:42 UTC |
35,906 | 35,905 | pg | Ask.com gives users what they want: won't keep data from searches | nickb | This is the first smart thing I can remember Ask doing. | null | 0 | 4 | 2007-07-22 01:16:15 UTC |
35,914 | 35,787 | leisuresuit | Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up | earthboundkid | god damn, that guy has a lot of pictures of himself in that article | null | 7 | 16 | 2007-07-22 02:44:14 UTC |
35,915 | 35,913 | cperciva | What causes your karma to be negative? | abhijit | One of your comments was moderated down: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35836 | I suddenly noticed today that my karma was negative. Not sure what causes that? | 0 | 1 | 2007-07-22 03:00:10 UTC |
35,919 | 35,787 | nostrademons | Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up | earthboundkid | A bunch of quotes in this article stuck out at me, but this one in particular:"How can you possibly have the emotional investment necessary to see things through to profitability, through highs, lows and everything in between, if you haven't fought tooth and nail to get there?"Is this really true, when you take into account startups that fight tooth and nail and still don't succeed? Is it better to start with the confidence, money, and connections of other people and then ride the wave of their support, or is it better to start with nothing other than your own belief in yourself and then fight tooth and nail until you get the confidence, money, and connections of others?My boss is trying to convince me that I should at least have an offer of cash in hand from an angel investor before leaving my day job, even if I choose not to take it. While this is quite self-serving (he doesn't want me to leave), it also sounds pretty rational. I mean, right now I have fairly little validation other than my cofounder's confidence, my desire to use our own product, and my belief that I have the technical chops to get to the point where we can.The article suggests that it's probably better not to have that external validation, and definitely better not to take the money. Is that character-building, or foolhardy? | null | 3 | 16 | 2007-07-22 04:07:01 UTC |
35,920 | 35,891 | spiralhead | Great interview with Craig Newmark (Charlie Rose - PBS) | felipe | I never noticed Charlie Rose's southern accent until now for some reason | null | 0 | 7 | 2007-07-22 04:16:46 UTC |
35,930 | 35,787 | staunch | Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up | earthboundkid | It wasn't even a startup at all. They were lying to themselves that it was. In effect they were employees of an investment firm in some sort of ill-defined incubation weirdness. Everyone involved was pretty clueless about what was going on and what to expect. The investment firm was rolling the dice and these guys were enjoying the learning experience and break from consulting.
| null | 2 | 16 | 2007-07-22 11:43:30 UTC |
35,934 | 35,929 | mattculbreth | Approaching YC demo day - by Peter Nixey of summer YC startup Remember Me Inc | sharpshoot | Cool, good idea. Please post here with any private betas! | null | 0 | 17 | 2007-07-22 12:38:36 UTC |
35,937 | 35,912 | Tichy | Lessons from a Haskell startup | mark_h | Funny, that page reads like Haskell code - that is, I have no idea what the heck is going on there.
| Prompted by this article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35550One of the things that stuck in my mind was the comment about having to earn the right to talk to a customer, before you even ask them what they want or if you can help. (Also, "keep the blue line above the red line"!)The company is http://www.galoisconnections.com/. | 0 | 4 | 2007-07-22 13:46:54 UTC |
35,939 | 35,938 | gibsonf1 | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | Thank you Jessica - a very powerful argument for biting the financial bullet and using real lawyers when setting up a startup with stock vesting. I hadn't actually thought about vesting as an issue before for the founders (as my partner and I are decade long friends) | null | 6 | 50 | 2007-07-22 14:56:32 UTC |
35,941 | 35,935 | ivankirigin | Arrington: The FCC Needs To Listen To Google | pg | It's amazing that everyone I've talked to that knows about this is very excited about the possibilities. And yet, the effort to make things more open might fail. Astounding. | null | 1 | 12 | 2007-07-22 16:24:19 UTC |
35,942 | 35,787 | 8en | Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up | earthboundkid | All criticism of his startup strategy aside, his web apps are beautifully executed. I didn't realize that Jason Fried was the American Yong Fook.
| null | 8 | 16 | 2007-07-22 16:27:31 UTC |
35,945 | 35,938 | nostrademons | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | I'm curious - how does this compare with the buyout agreement detailed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35192. Do you need to have both vesting and buyout provisions, or is vesting preferential to buyouts, or do you not need vesting with a sane buyout policy? | null | 2 | 50 | 2007-07-22 16:45:32 UTC |
35,946 | 35,938 | startupper | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | Excellent point. On a related note how does one legally manage vesting in the case of a merger between two startups? I'm considering a merger with another founder. My startup has been around for a little longer. Any thoughts?
| null | 8 | 50 | 2007-07-22 16:48:12 UTC |
35,949 | 35,922 | cperciva | Snake Oil Cryptography (Bruce Schneier) | lkozma | This is one of the great classics of computing, along with Goldberg's "What every computer scientist should know about floating-point arithmetic" -- just like Goldberg, Schneier takes things which people in the field understood implicitly for years, and puts them into a concrete form understandable not just to specialists but also to anyone familiar with computing. | null | 0 | 3 | 2007-07-22 18:00:57 UTC |
35,956 | 35,938 | myoung8 | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | Would it be possible to "open-source" an operating agreement so that we can actually work these things into our own? | null | 3 | 50 | 2007-07-22 19:47:27 UTC |
35,960 | 35,959 | aaroneous | PG: Thinking of adding a search facility to news.yc? | aswanson | It has been requested a few times: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363I agree with you, I think it's something news.yc really needs. | It doesn't have to be something like pagerank, just a simple text match would work? | 1 | 16 | 2007-07-22 21:01:21 UTC |
35,963 | 35,787 | USERSNAME | Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up | earthboundkid | The core reason for their failure seem to be lack of team spirit. The author clearly considers Ken as a less competent partner. | null | 9 | 16 | 2007-07-22 21:11:07 UTC |
35,964 | 35,944 | gleb | Why Feedburner is trouble | dshah | Kind of loses the punch when you butcher it -- it's "DOS isn't done till Lotus won't run". | null | 2 | 7 | 2007-07-22 21:17:10 UTC |
35,965 | 35,958 | donna | Big mistake launching a startup: make users pay for beta | szczupak | Fully agree, users are providing the beta with their valuable time, offer an exchange as QA testers. | null | 2 | 3 | 2007-07-22 21:57:51 UTC |
35,966 | 35,950 | corentin | Anyone have thoughts on the viability of a firefox os? | brett | There's something called KioskCD (at kioskcd.com). I've never used it but it looks like what you're looking for.
| It's not a new idea. Why not roll a linux distro that boots directly into firefox and then start hacking ff to add on any missing os functionality and ensure the entire experience is smooth? There are plenty of people that don't use much more than their web browser and with Google Docs that number is only going to grow. Anyone know of someone already working on this? | 4 | 6 | 2007-07-22 22:09:48 UTC |
35,967 | 35,953 | natrius | DormItem: 50,000 listings (3,700 a week), how we got there, and where we're going | zackcoburn | I know optimism is nice and all, but what makes you think Facebook isn't going to crush you? | null | 0 | 11 | 2007-07-22 22:17:47 UTC |
35,968 | 35,918 | felipe | Will JavaScript be the next big language? | nickb | I don't know if it will be the next big language, but I strongly believe there is a space for JS on the server side (actually ECMAScript). Why should web developers deal with two sets of languages? (JS on the client and whatever else on the server)I am a long-time Java and C++ developer. More recently I've been actively developing in Flex, and I'm impressed with ActionScript (which now is ECMAScript). I for one would love to use ECMAScript on the server as well (today I use Java EE 5). | null | 0 | 3 | 2007-07-22 22:23:57 UTC |
35,973 | 35,972 | gibsonf1 | YC News Advice Needed: Logo redesigned | gibsonf1 | Based on past feedback from YC news and others, we've redesigned the logo and would really appreciate your feedback good or bad :)Previous discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34741 | Based on previous YC comments and others, we've redesigned the logo and would appreciate your thoughts on it, good or bad. :) | 7 | 3 | 2007-07-22 22:42:33 UTC |
35,974 | 35,938 | jmtame | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | I think vesting is a good idea for the founders (it's in their best interest), but I think if you're asking for someone to commit to such a long time period (ie 4-5 years), then it better be really good equity. Even better than if it were just offered "up front." There are also opportunity costs to consider, so your early employees or co-founders could be off starting their own companies with a lot more equity. So it's probably going to vary by each person, but in my experience, the vested equity has to be really good or I'm not interested.I've been in startups where the vested equity was really low, and I left (I was employee #1). I've also talked with numerous people who thought about joining the same startup, and refused due to a number of reasons, but low equity was mentioned as one of the first reasons. | null | 0 | 50 | 2007-07-22 22:47:42 UTC |
35,976 | 35,959 | daniel-cussen | PG: Thinking of adding a search facility to news.yc? | aswanson | Any kind of search would be great. | It doesn't have to be something like pagerank, just a simple text match would work? | 5 | 16 | 2007-07-22 22:50:01 UTC |
35,977 | 35,958 | brett | Big mistake launching a startup: make users pay for beta | szczupak | Joe Kraus argues that if you are going to charge it's helpful to do it in beta to get feedback on how well you model is going to work.#6 in http://www.brendonwilson.com/blog/2006/04/30/joe-kraus-confe... | null | 0 | 3 | 2007-07-22 23:23:49 UTC |
35,978 | 35,950 | rms | Anyone have thoughts on the viability of a firefox os? | brett | Yes, this is a great idea. I don't use much more than a web browser, though Firefox 2.0 really gets bogged down with complex Flash and Javascript. The rendering engine of Firefox 3.0 is much better in that sense.I've thought about this in great detail. The essential point is that a pure Firefox GUI allows someone uncomfortable with a normal computer to accomplish amazing tasks. Limiting the user interface allows them to accomplish more and there's almost nothing that can't be done from Firefox anyways. It's an idea YC likes, my team got an interview with this idea to get rejected for our lack of a prototype.For now, I'm working on my biotech startup but once that's bringing in revenue I'm planning on coming back to this.Email me, I'd love to talk about this more. | It's not a new idea. Why not roll a linux distro that boots directly into firefox and then start hacking ff to add on any missing os functionality and ensure the entire experience is smooth? There are plenty of people that don't use much more than their web browser and with Google Docs that number is only going to grow. Anyone know of someone already working on this? | 2 | 6 | 2007-07-22 23:27:29 UTC |
35,979 | 35,938 | marrone | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | This is a great post. Something we were just considering in our own startup. Since we are just starting out it is easy for us to just brush it aside with our optimism, but really anything can happen, so after reading this post I am sold on doing it.A side note, the book Founders At Work is an awesome read!
| null | 4 | 50 | 2007-07-22 23:28:42 UTC |
35,980 | 35,958 | sharpshoot | Big mistake launching a startup: make users pay for beta | szczupak | The powerset demo is at an event - where the money is going on putting on the event. Powerset isn't the only company demoing there. This guy just has the wrong end of the stick.Any news.yc'ers going to SFbeta on tuesday? - shoot me an email. | null | 1 | 3 | 2007-07-22 23:32:36 UTC |
35,985 | 35,972 | danielha | YC News Advice Needed: Logo redesigned | gibsonf1 | I haven't seen the old logo, but this is what I think from seeing this current one.- The dot in the "O" sort of looks like a nipple.- I think both words should be in the same typeface. You could still italicize the first word or style it however. The extended "F" from Focus works well.- The lead-in "tail" of the S (lead-in tail? does that make sense?) needs to be reworked so it fits in. | Based on previous YC comments and others, we've redesigned the logo and would appreciate your thoughts on it, good or bad. :) | 5 | 3 | 2007-07-22 23:52:20 UTC |
35,987 | 35,958 | benhoyt | Big mistake launching a startup: make users pay for beta | szczupak | Instead of just not charging beta users, imagine paying them a small thank-you fee ... might be a good way to get early adopters really on your side. | null | 3 | 3 | 2007-07-22 23:59:24 UTC |
35,988 | 35,938 | yubrew | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | How about reverse vesting instead of normal vesting? This may alleviate some of the tax consequences of someone that wants to leave early.http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/07/17.html | null | 1 | 50 | 2007-07-23 00:08:43 UTC |
35,989 | 35,959 | yubrew | PG: Thinking of adding a search facility to news.yc? | aswanson | There's also http://www.ycsearch.com which does a decent job. | It doesn't have to be something like pagerank, just a simple text match would work? | 4 | 16 | 2007-07-23 00:09:31 UTC |
35,991 | 35,972 | ph0rque | YC News Advice Needed: Logo redesigned | gibsonf1 | Personally, I liked the wavy stream in the old logo better, but it's nothing I can justify; I just did. :~) | Based on previous YC comments and others, we've redesigned the logo and would appreciate your thoughts on it, good or bad. :) | 6 | 3 | 2007-07-23 00:35:55 UTC |
35,992 | 35,972 | thomasswift | YC News Advice Needed: Logo redesigned | gibsonf1 | I think its pretty good, I like the different fonts. The lead-in tail of the 'S' looks to have one or two more pixels then the actual lower part of the 'S'.The 'O' - While it does look kinda like a nipple, it also is a designy(word?) way of a target, bullseye or focus point - so I get that and I like that. | Based on previous YC comments and others, we've redesigned the logo and would appreciate your thoughts on it, good or bad. :) | 3 | 3 | 2007-07-23 00:36:08 UTC |
35,994 | 35,972 | vlad | YC News Advice Needed: Logo redesigned | gibsonf1 | I was going to write that you should just hire a graphics designer so you can focus on your startup, but I think the biggest point is that you are targetting the wrong people. | Based on previous YC comments and others, we've redesigned the logo and would appreciate your thoughts on it, good or bad. :) | 1 | 3 | 2007-07-23 00:37:48 UTC |
36,004 | 35,972 | euccastro | YC News Advice Needed: Logo redesigned | gibsonf1 | Two examples of logos designed by successful companies with names made by joining two words:http://microsoft.com
http://facebook.comNote how much effort has been put in differentiating the style of the two words. If you find good counterexamples, let me know. | Based on previous YC comments and others, we've redesigned the logo and would appreciate your thoughts on it, good or bad. :) | 2 | 3 | 2007-07-23 01:44:04 UTC |
36,008 | 35,959 | pg | PG: Thinking of adding a search facility to news.yc? | aswanson | I'm getting one of the startups in this batch to write it for us, using their product. | It doesn't have to be something like pagerank, just a simple text match would work? | 0 | 16 | 2007-07-23 02:37:36 UTC |
36,011 | 35,950 | bls | Anyone have thoughts on the viability of a firefox os? | brett | I think when you say "firefox os" you really mean "browser-based UI for Linux," right? You are already supposing that Linux (an actual operating system) exists underneath.Isn't Internet Explorer + Windows Explorer + Web Folders pretty much doing this already? Windows' Web Folders feature lets you store documents remotely and access them over HTTP from regular (non-web-enabled) applications. Internet Explorer lets you browse the local filesystem and the web from the same browser window pretty seamlessly.It seems that Firefox is indeed becoming an application deployment platform. However, it doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Instead of having one package manager in the operating system, there will be two: one system package manage and one Firefox package manager. There are all kinds of security and manageability problems with that. Already, there are many buggy Firefox plugins that cripple the browser, effectively causing a DOS attack with crashes and decreased performance. This is a good indication that we should not have confidence in Firefox's abilities to manage third party applications. Really Firefox should be in that business at all, since resource allocation and crash prevention are fundamentally operating system features. The right solution is to improve the installation experience provided by the operating system, and have it provide security-oriented integration capabilities for applications (as opposed to to the performance-oriented integration capabilities we have now). This would require the operating system to provide a sandboxed environment by default to downloaded applications. The OS needs to provide a middle ground between the almost unrestricted access given to today's downloaded applications, and the totally restricted access given to web apps; that access needs to be very close to the web app side.With this kind of severely-limited sandbox, we can then eliminate the whole UI of application installation. Instead of installation, we would just have caching. Instead of a list of programs in "Add/Remove Programs," we would just have a "Free up XXX MB of disk space" page. | It's not a new idea. Why not roll a linux distro that boots directly into firefox and then start hacking ff to add on any missing os functionality and ensure the entire experience is smooth? There are plenty of people that don't use much more than their web browser and with Google Docs that number is only going to grow. Anyone know of someone already working on this? | 1 | 6 | 2007-07-23 02:56:22 UTC |
36,013 | 35,950 | mark-t | Anyone have thoughts on the viability of a firefox os? | brett | I have a bit of a conflict of interest on this topic, being a developer for a window manager, but I also have some rarely expressed opinions because of that point of view. So, keep that in mind when reading my comments below.This is an idea I've heard before. I agree that everything in the world is going to the web. File systems will become distributed. Every application you use will come from the internet, with the exception of your kernel and the software needed to retrieve the applications. They'll probably run remotely, too, and just send you the graphics/UI.However, I think that turning the web browser into a window manager is going in the wrong direction. It completely disobeys the Unix philosophy of writing programs that do one thing well. Firefox's role in the future should be rendering and running remote applications. Organizing the apps using tabs, MDI, windows, workspaces, viewports, etc. should be left to the people who are spending all of their time thinking about how to organize applications. | It's not a new idea. Why not roll a linux distro that boots directly into firefox and then start hacking ff to add on any missing os functionality and ensure the entire experience is smooth? There are plenty of people that don't use much more than their web browser and with Google Docs that number is only going to grow. Anyone know of someone already working on this? | 0 | 6 | 2007-07-23 03:30:13 UTC |
36,017 | 35,950 | ivankirigin | Anyone have thoughts on the viability of a firefox os? | brett | I'm amazed that people ignore speed as a critical issue when thinking about web vs desktop apps. I mean, think about why folks evangelize the CLI.I'm fine with persistent information across platforms/computers through server synch. I'm not sure you even need a browser for that for most applications, but it is a convenient platform.But it can't be all web. | It's not a new idea. Why not roll a linux distro that boots directly into firefox and then start hacking ff to add on any missing os functionality and ensure the entire experience is smooth? There are plenty of people that don't use much more than their web browser and with Google Docs that number is only going to grow. Anyone know of someone already working on this? | 3 | 6 | 2007-07-23 03:47:46 UTC |
36,018 | 35,950 | euccastro | Anyone have thoughts on the viability of a firefox os? | brett | What do you mean by "any missing os functionality"? | It's not a new idea. Why not roll a linux distro that boots directly into firefox and then start hacking ff to add on any missing os functionality and ensure the entire experience is smooth? There are plenty of people that don't use much more than their web browser and with Google Docs that number is only going to grow. Anyone know of someone already working on this? | 5 | 6 | 2007-07-23 03:59:41 UTC |
36,021 | 35,899 | portLAN | Three Minutes with Steve Wozniak | andres | > but we never will see a robot that makes a cup of coffee, never. I don't believe we will ever see it.http://www.mrcoffee.com/productmodels.aspx?categoryid=1> We will never ever have artificial intelligence. I'll take that bet. Not much of a visionary, is he?After the Apple II and its disk drive, he basically just... stopped. From the best... to a non-factor. I wonder if the plane accident affected him so he either lost the inclination or the concentration needed to be an engineer.
| null | 0 | 15 | 2007-07-23 04:15:42 UTC |
36,023 | 35,938 | portLAN | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | This is one of those ideas that sounds good when you apply it to everyone else.Personally I want to own my shares immediately. You never know what's going to happen and what technicalities will let VCs/the board/others fire you before you're vested.
| null | 7 | 50 | 2007-07-23 04:45:32 UTC |
36,024 | 35,959 | sabhishek | PG: Thinking of adding a search facility to news.yc? | aswanson | Yeah, thats will be really a nice thing to have for ycnews. Looking for a piece in the archive is
not convenient always. | It doesn't have to be something like pagerank, just a simple text match would work? | 3 | 16 | 2007-07-23 05:12:00 UTC |
36,025 | 35,787 | jamongkad | Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up | earthboundkid | I'll pull a qoute that struck me "It's going to sound cliched and cheesy, but your apps should be an extension of YOU as a person. You should have an emotional connection to the app that transcends thinking about the mercedes it might fucking earn you one day, so that it will keep you interested and give you the motivation to love, care for and improve it."I think there's a PG essay about this somewhere. OTOH I'm bother by the amount of pictures this guy has on his webpage. But I love the way he designs the UI's of his web apps. | null | 6 | 16 | 2007-07-23 05:14:30 UTC |
36,030 | 35,944 | staunch | Why Feedburner is trouble | dshah | It's trivial to move off Feedburner. If Google does anything stupid the whole blogging world will freak and move en mass. I think Winer is frustrated at not having an open alternative to suggest, so he's reduced to fear mongering.
| null | 0 | 7 | 2007-07-23 05:43:49 UTC |
36,037 | 35,972 | gibsonf1 | YC News Advice Needed: Logo redesigned | gibsonf1 | Thank you all for the great comments! What we have now is so much better than our earlier versions. | Based on previous YC comments and others, we've redesigned the logo and would appreciate your thoughts on it, good or bad. :) | 8 | 3 | 2007-07-23 06:04:40 UTC |
36,049 | 35,972 | dcurtis | YC News Advice Needed: Logo redesigned | gibsonf1 | I think the typeface you used is pretty bad, and the line that comes out of the "o" seems unclean when it terminates on the left side; I would suggest you remove the line and dot altogether, and use a thicker, simpler font. Also, and I mean this with the utmost respect for what you do, but those colors are hideously bad. The background is too bright and distracts from the content, and purple is just genuinely a washed out and hard-to-read color.IM me on AIM: quarkfactor. I have some other comments if you want to hear them, too.
| Based on previous YC comments and others, we've redesigned the logo and would appreciate your thoughts on it, good or bad. :) | 0 | 3 | 2007-07-23 07:19:15 UTC |
36,057 | 35,671 | 7media | Own the laptops that built reddit.com ("luck not included") | pg | yeah its not the price but the data that can be retrieved:D | null | 6 | 22 | 2007-07-23 08:42:51 UTC |
36,058 | 35,935 | rms | Arrington: The FCC Needs To Listen To Google | pg | How much better would our society be if most of the frequencies were unowned and available for public use? | null | 2 | 12 | 2007-07-23 08:44:15 UTC |
36,068 | 35,015 | edfrench | The Equity Equation | rams | For me, the question that the startup should ask more critically is around the total dilution-to-exit. If taking Paul's money for 6% now reduces the dilution at some subsequent round from, say, 40% to 30%, then by my reckoning the founders end up with 66% instead of 60% of the final position. Key here is usually a combination of the value-add from the VC, and their ability to underwrite/cornerstone a good part of that follow-on round. (Although obviously this is only relevant if a larger follow-on round is going to be needed!)
| null | 15 | 72 | 2007-07-23 09:50:19 UTC |
36,070 | 36,056 | rms | Fox News left their root image directory for the browse option | 7media | http://www.foxnews.com/images/root_images/
this was the best image... http://www.foxnews.com/images/root_images/071907_velocirapto... | Fox News one of the premier news website has a security flaw, in which they have left their images directory browse able | 0 | 1 | 2007-07-23 10:54:52 UTC |
36,071 | 36,055 | steve | Andrew Chen: In a year, will Facebook be bigger? Or MySpace? Let's bet ;-) | andrew_null | Hmm, that is a tough call.http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?site0=mysp...I think that if myspace starts doing publicity on the level that facebook is though, they still can stay on top. | While MySpace is over 2X larger (109MM instead of 47MM), the Facebook growth in the last month was 22% whereas MySpace's was about 4.3%. If this rate were to continue, then Facebook would pass MySpace in about 7 months.Will Facebook overtake MySpace? How long will it likely take? | 2 | 7 | 2007-07-23 11:01:48 UTC |
36,072 | 36,055 | sprice | Andrew Chen: In a year, will Facebook be bigger? Or MySpace? Let's bet ;-) | andrew_null | I would take the same bet for Facebook
| While MySpace is over 2X larger (109MM instead of 47MM), the Facebook growth in the last month was 22% whereas MySpace's was about 4.3%. If this rate were to continue, then Facebook would pass MySpace in about 7 months.Will Facebook overtake MySpace? How long will it likely take? | 5 | 7 | 2007-07-23 11:08:34 UTC |
36,076 | 36,060 | epi0Bauqu | Build and here comes visitors do not work? why is that? | 7media | Think about it in terms of a Venn Diagram with building what users want as a big circle and inside it is a smaller circle labeled success. What you have noticed is that they don't overlap exactly. What does overlap it exactly is a profitable customer acquisition process. That is, if you can find a sustainable advertising channel that has a user acquisition cost less than your average revenue per user, then you win. If you are very very lucky, this process could of course be word-of-mouth. But in most other cases you are going to have to find or engineer a different type of process.Back to the diagram. In the part of the bigger circle that isn't covered by the smaller one are unsuccessful startups that built something users wanted, but still weren't successful. This area can be grouped into traps that companies can fall into. There are many common ones. For example: (a) building something people want, but just not from you, e.g. because there are too many indistinguishable competitors and you don't win the crapshoot; (b) building something people want, but just enough of them to make a lucrative business; (c) building something people want, but they want it for free and other "business models" aren't lucrative enough. There are others too.I have actually been thinking about this for a while, and am writing an in-depth essay on it, including approaches to overcoming it. However, while I was in the middle of it I got side tracked on a new startup idea :). So this is a preview. The short answer is, in my opinion, don't concentrate on "if you build it, they will come", but "if you build it, how will they come?"(And to anyone reading this, I would be interested in feedback on this basic idea. It would help me make my essay better whenever I finish it.) | Does it mean it will not work without VC funding? And do names matter anymore with names such as Reddit and Digg or is it a word with a .com? | 0 | 3 | 2007-07-23 11:51:36 UTC |
36,080 | 36,055 | staunch | Andrew Chen: In a year, will Facebook be bigger? Or MySpace? Let's bet ;-) | andrew_null | The average stay Facebook vs MySpace is what scares me. MySpace has an _insane_ average stay of almost 30 minutes. Facebook has a pretty embarrassing average stay of 13 minutes that tons of other sites beat.http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+myspace.com?me...One year isn't very long. I wouldn't take that bet. | While MySpace is over 2X larger (109MM instead of 47MM), the Facebook growth in the last month was 22% whereas MySpace's was about 4.3%. If this rate were to continue, then Facebook would pass MySpace in about 7 months.Will Facebook overtake MySpace? How long will it likely take? | 1 | 7 | 2007-07-23 12:21:03 UTC |
36,083 | 35,938 | ivankirigin | Note to Founders: Have Vesting | jcwentz | Who owns the stock while it vests, the company? As far as percentage ownership for decision making (if that even matters -- I don't now), how does that work? | null | 5 | 50 | 2007-07-23 12:38:59 UTC |
36,085 | 36,055 | Tichy | Andrew Chen: In a year, will Facebook be bigger? Or MySpace? Let's bet ;-) | andrew_null | While MySpace is very ugly, it seems to be considerably more interesting than Facebook. At least people can express their individuality on MySpace. The Facebook design, if it were black, would be suitable for funeral announcements. So my guess is that MySpace will prevail. Maybe they can't even be compared, as they do different things.
| While MySpace is over 2X larger (109MM instead of 47MM), the Facebook growth in the last month was 22% whereas MySpace's was about 4.3%. If this rate were to continue, then Facebook would pass MySpace in about 7 months.Will Facebook overtake MySpace? How long will it likely take? | 0 | 7 | 2007-07-23 12:43:21 UTC |
36,086 | 36,060 | ivankirigin | Build and here comes visitors do not work? why is that? | 7media | "Does it mean it will not work without VC funding?"No, it means you need to work on some basic marketing. I don't know enough about this, but the other day at the grocery store I was thinking, "will these people around me want what I'm building?"As for names, reddit means you have read it. Digg means you dig it, in the hipster sense of liking something. They aren't just a name with a dot-com. But don't waste too much time trying to think of a name -- unless you already have a product ready. | Does it mean it will not work without VC funding? And do names matter anymore with names such as Reddit and Digg or is it a word with a .com? | 2 | 3 | 2007-07-23 12:44:59 UTC |
36,088 | 36,055 | crxnamja | Andrew Chen: In a year, will Facebook be bigger? Or MySpace? Let's bet ;-) | andrew_null | i bet you like a gillion dollars. you have no idea! | While MySpace is over 2X larger (109MM instead of 47MM), the Facebook growth in the last month was 22% whereas MySpace's was about 4.3%. If this rate were to continue, then Facebook would pass MySpace in about 7 months.Will Facebook overtake MySpace? How long will it likely take? | 6 | 7 | 2007-07-23 13:04:03 UTC |
36,092 | 36,044 | thomasswift | Learning from Touring Bands: Game business model suitable for other businesses too | nickb | That's a long article. Thanks for the link. | null | 0 | 9 | 2007-07-23 13:34:12 UTC |
36,097 | 36,094 | epi0Bauqu | Writing pesky account management e-mails for your site | picnichouse | I actually think this area is very important, and you shouldn't just grab a generic template. This is one of the only areas where you will interact with your users outside of your site, and it can really make a difference in how users interact with your site. The diction of the emails can give people drastically different impressions about your service. Also, the specific way you layout the messages can have significant impact on what people do with them (delete immediately, click on the right link, etc.). I have been in the position of having huge sample sizes on these account management emails so that I could test different messages. I can tell you from experience, changing one word here or there, link placement, color, fonts, etc. can all have a huge impact. Unfortunately, most people aren't in a position to do useful experiments.Because of that, I don't think it is wrong to essentially start with a copy of a site you particularly like in this area. I wouldn't just pick any site though--I would pick one that is similar to what you want in terms of style and one you believe has tried to optimize these processes. Technically, if an email was really long and you copied it all verbatim, that could be copyright infringement. However, it is doubtful anyone is going to care. And it is more likely that you will change the emails and they will be short so that the copying really won't constitute infringement anyway. | I'm going through the process of writing all the various e-mails our site sends out to users, e.g. "Welcome!", "Reset Password," "Confirm E-mail Address," "You have received a private message."1. Is there a template for these things somewhere? All the little decisions about the best language to use are driving me nuts.2. Is it wrong to (more or less) plagurize the "reset password" kind of e-mail from facebook, myspace, yahoo, or other popular sites? How have you guys gone about this? | 0 | 1 | 2007-07-23 14:10:19 UTC |
36,098 | 35,959 | henning | PG: Thinking of adding a search facility to news.yc? | aswanson | this is why having your marginal language of choice target a mainstream platform like the JVM or the CLR is nice - you can always use all the great existing libraries (Lucene, for example) while only slightly dirtying your code. | It doesn't have to be something like pagerank, just a simple text match would work? | 2 | 16 | 2007-07-23 14:14:03 UTC |
36,099 | 33,886 | dantheman | PG: What's your current take on reddit's comment system? | brett | I'd like to see 2 modderation options.1. The standeard up/down arrow -- does this contribute to the debate, is it a troll etc.
2. The agree/disagree poll. This could be a thumbs up/thumbs down.
| While reddit's comment system is obviously an improvement over Slashdot's, I'm increasingly convinced that the community is more important than the tool.
| 7 | 21 | 2007-07-23 14:17:12 UTC |
36,101 | 36,047 | daniel-cussen | Norvig's Law: Any technology that surpasses 50% penetration will never double again | nickb | That was pretty obvious. I guess it means you can't ride on the coattails of network effects after that point. | null | 2 | 6 | 2007-07-23 14:43:36 UTC |
36,105 | 36,100 | pg | If we were on the west coast, we'd have been funded by now. | nabeel | It's not just the investors here who are clueless. The reporters are too. The New York Times, Newsweek, and USA Today have all written about us, but our own local paper still doesn't know we exist. Sigh. | The kind lies that we tell ourselves on the east coast. | 0 | 11 | 2007-07-23 14:57:17 UTC |
36,106 | 36,047 | myoung8 | Norvig's Law: Any technology that surpasses 50% penetration will never double again | nickb | http://flickr.com/photos/7736808@N03/863738963/ | null | 1 | 6 | 2007-07-23 15:02:48 UTC |
36,114 | 35,015 | SK | The Equity Equation | rams | These comments are very confusing. Paul -- a simple question: doesn't the amount of capital offered/invested have a big impact on the calculation? Sure I'd give up 6% of my pre-natal company for $1 million. But would I for $1 thousand? No. Doesn't your analysis suggest that in both cases the calculation is 1/(1-n)? Yet the ability to add 6.4% value at exit given $1 million is vastly different than if given $1 thousand...
| null | 16 | 72 | 2007-07-23 15:43:23 UTC |
36,120 | 35,015 | innonate | The Equity Equation | rams | So very useful. These are issues we all have to parse through and while you note it's not a magic formula, it's certainly a good one to understand as a young entrepreneur. Thanks.
Nate Westheimer
BricaBox.com
| null | 21 | 72 | 2007-07-23 15:55:29 UTC |
36,123 | 36,117 | epi0Bauqu | Question: Do any of you use a software engineering "process"? | mynameishere | The approach that works best for me is to just start building it :).In all seriousness though, this is truly the case. I surmise that most of us already have a platform of choice. I know I do. So once that is taken care of, just go ahead and start.In terms of how do you start, I think it is most effective to work on the critical functionality path. Just do everything that is absolutely critical to make it functional. In terms of where do you start along the critical functionality path, I approach it from the user perspective. First I need the login screen or whatever. OK, I need to build the ability to login. Then the next thing the user is going to want to do is X, so I need to make X work.With this process you get from nothing to something functional in little time, and then you can just build from there. I have been on projects where we talk it through first, and even spec, but in my experience this is a waste of time for small projects at all but the highest level. Almost immediately when you start building it you notice things you didn't in the talking stage.I'm interested in what other people do, but this has always worked for me. Of course, I like to work alone :). But it has worked with other people too. You just break up critical functional tasks the way they naturally break up. | I've been involved in different kinds of software processes, and the most effective for small projects seems to be:1. Talk generally about what we want to achieve.2. Mock up some screens.3. Agree on relevant technologies (language, platform, data store).4. Assign responsibilities.5. Commence.
Needless to say, this is not your typical "big company" software process. I've also been involved in more complicated processes that would involve multi-month-long documentation orgies, in which 50-150 page requirements and design documents would be made, remade, and remade (often for code that would total less than a thousand lines, and that was conceptially just a CRUD app).Can any of you small-company types describe your process, if any? What is most effective for you? | 0 | 5 | 2007-07-23 16:06:50 UTC |
36,125 | 36,100 | joshwa | If we were on the west coast, we'd have been funded by now. | nabeel | side note-- I am really starting to get miffed by blog/page layouts that are so widget-heavy that I can't view the content until sixteen separate widgets have polled their (slow) servers and rendered. Please let me view the content, and THEN render your widgets! Don't block! | The kind lies that we tell ourselves on the east coast. | 1 | 11 | 2007-07-23 16:22:43 UTC |
36,128 | 36,117 | mmaunder | Question: Do any of you use a software engineering "process"? | mynameishere | I use the Nike process: JUST DO IT! | I've been involved in different kinds of software processes, and the most effective for small projects seems to be:1. Talk generally about what we want to achieve.2. Mock up some screens.3. Agree on relevant technologies (language, platform, data store).4. Assign responsibilities.5. Commence.
Needless to say, this is not your typical "big company" software process. I've also been involved in more complicated processes that would involve multi-month-long documentation orgies, in which 50-150 page requirements and design documents would be made, remade, and remade (often for code that would total less than a thousand lines, and that was conceptially just a CRUD app).Can any of you small-company types describe your process, if any? What is most effective for you? | 1 | 5 | 2007-07-23 16:29:23 UTC |
36,136 | 36,100 | steve | If we were on the west coast, we'd have been funded by now. | nabeel | getting easier != equivalentThis is a joke, right? | The kind lies that we tell ourselves on the east coast. | 3 | 11 | 2007-07-23 16:53:40 UTC |
36,141 | 36,055 | danw | Andrew Chen: In a year, will Facebook be bigger? Or MySpace? Let's bet ;-) | andrew_null | I've noticed facebook always reports 'active' user numbers. Any idea how many myspace accounts are active as opposed to abandoned or spam? | While MySpace is over 2X larger (109MM instead of 47MM), the Facebook growth in the last month was 22% whereas MySpace's was about 4.3%. If this rate were to continue, then Facebook would pass MySpace in about 7 months.Will Facebook overtake MySpace? How long will it likely take? | 3 | 7 | 2007-07-23 17:33:50 UTC |
36,143 | 36,117 | axcesspoints | Question: Do any of you use a software engineering "process"? | mynameishere | We've just launched a consumer oriented website. We started by identifying the key features that were necessary to get to monetization. Then the whole thing was mocked up in Powerpoint with EVERY hyperlink included. From there we developed functional specs for the site. At this point it went off to the developers and we continued to work on the details - which photos, what text to include in which emails etc. We put together an excel spread sheet for QA that allowed us to test and track the bugs. As things changed, we updated the specs so we would have good documentation about what has been modified. Documentation is important because down the road when this becomes a big company, it will be easier for new developers coming in to get up to speed. I'll confess though, that some of our documentation is emails.. which are stored with the requirement docs.
| I've been involved in different kinds of software processes, and the most effective for small projects seems to be:1. Talk generally about what we want to achieve.2. Mock up some screens.3. Agree on relevant technologies (language, platform, data store).4. Assign responsibilities.5. Commence.
Needless to say, this is not your typical "big company" software process. I've also been involved in more complicated processes that would involve multi-month-long documentation orgies, in which 50-150 page requirements and design documents would be made, remade, and remade (often for code that would total less than a thousand lines, and that was conceptially just a CRUD app).Can any of you small-company types describe your process, if any? What is most effective for you? | 2 | 5 | 2007-07-23 17:47:16 UTC |
36,146 | 36,047 | mdakin | Norvig's Law: Any technology that surpasses 50% penetration will never double again | nickb | The universe is not static. And demands and supplies are particularly dynamic. Intuitively I see no reason why penetration percentage can't wax and wane with time due to changes in supplies, demands, populations, behaviors etc.He obviously understands the implications of shifts in demand given his "what you count" argument. Why bother stating a "law" if you can see its own holes?
| null | 0 | 6 | 2007-07-23 18:34:37 UTC |
36,147 | 36,060 | garbowza | Build and here comes visitors do not work? why is that? | 7media | Interesting take, epi0Bauqu. I think many hackers struggle with this concept because we are so focused on the creation, that once the product is created we are not sure what's next. And even if we do know, it oftentimes isn't as aligned with our core skills as the creation part is. | Does it mean it will not work without VC funding? And do names matter anymore with names such as Reddit and Digg or is it a word with a .com? | 3 | 3 | 2007-07-23 18:34:39 UTC |
36,148 | 36,117 | lkozma | Question: Do any of you use a software engineering "process"? | mynameishere | Some random stuff that works for me: 1. refactor often
2. avoid code duplication
3. test everything
4. even if you hate docs, it's good to have some written specs, or even better, some initial tests. | I've been involved in different kinds of software processes, and the most effective for small projects seems to be:1. Talk generally about what we want to achieve.2. Mock up some screens.3. Agree on relevant technologies (language, platform, data store).4. Assign responsibilities.5. Commence.
Needless to say, this is not your typical "big company" software process. I've also been involved in more complicated processes that would involve multi-month-long documentation orgies, in which 50-150 page requirements and design documents would be made, remade, and remade (often for code that would total less than a thousand lines, and that was conceptially just a CRUD app).Can any of you small-company types describe your process, if any? What is most effective for you? | 5 | 5 | 2007-07-23 18:35:16 UTC |
36,150 | 36,137 | lkozma | The Real Problem With Alexa (a rant from the founder of Slashdot) | damien | Probably Alexa is only useful in watching the trend of a single site, rather than comparing sites, or looking at the absolute numbers. | null | 2 | 25 | 2007-07-23 18:46:05 UTC |
36,153 | 36,134 | zach | MA's Opsware bought by HP for $1.6B | terpua | Hmm. That's pretty good, I guess. How many Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers is that? | null | 0 | 10 | 2007-07-23 19:06:40 UTC |
36,154 | 36,117 | palish | Question: Do any of you use a software engineering "process"? | mynameishere | At work, it takes 15 minutes to fully build the application. If the system I'm building is sufficiently small, I go ahead and code it right away and simplify as it's built.If the system is large (for example, I'm currently building something which is around 1000+ lines) I write a functional spec first, figuring out the high level design and a few nitty-gritty lower level things. This helps simplify things because you can see exactly how two pieces that look similar can be split off into one piece. | I've been involved in different kinds of software processes, and the most effective for small projects seems to be:1. Talk generally about what we want to achieve.2. Mock up some screens.3. Agree on relevant technologies (language, platform, data store).4. Assign responsibilities.5. Commence.
Needless to say, this is not your typical "big company" software process. I've also been involved in more complicated processes that would involve multi-month-long documentation orgies, in which 50-150 page requirements and design documents would be made, remade, and remade (often for code that would total less than a thousand lines, and that was conceptially just a CRUD app).Can any of you small-company types describe your process, if any? What is most effective for you? | 4 | 5 | 2007-07-23 19:08:53 UTC |
36,155 | 36,152 | eposts | Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay | prakash | Its plastered all over paulgraham.com, not just the essays. I personally like the ad free version of paulgraham.com :). I wonder if adpinion is another YC startup. | Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html | 7 | 31 | 2007-07-23 19:17:01 UTC |
36,156 | 36,075 | henryw | Exploiting the iPhone | dpapathanasiou | Interesting excerpt from the article:"Does this add credence to Apple's position that 3rd party applications are not allowed on the iPhone for security reasons? We don't think so. Almost all of the security engineering effort on the iPhone seems to have been spent protecting the revenue model, rather than protecting the user (which is, of course, an entirely understandable position). For example, a constrained environment is used to prevent users from loading new ringtones onto the phone, but the applications are not run in a constrained environment to contain damage caused by hackers who exploit them." | null | 0 | 2 | 2007-07-23 19:19:59 UTC |