skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
"... We have arcade games and every employee is given a 30 tokens a week to use on vending machines, air hockey, pool table and other games. It's their choice to use them all at once or spread out over the week. ..."

What tokens, you gotta be joking. How bl%*dy lame is that? The best fun I had at one Startup was playing the pin-ball machine and pool table. More mileage was taken in the press with a single pool table than the cost it took to put them in. More work, ideas & fun were generated around that table & arcade game than any meeting. Except the ones at the pub.
Spatial Navigation and Opera
Do you remember the www.mikerowsoft.com story :)
Problem is, travel often seems so passive to me. Maybe I could get something out of it by blogging about my experience, but other than that? I already have a kind of feeling that the world is a weird and wonderful place. I don't really take western lifestyle for granted. There are plenty of problems to be solved where I live - what do I really gain from visiting some poor weirdo countries, except for some unpleasant diseases?
What is the cheapest and/or easiest way to accept credit cards online for subscriptions?
What is the cheapest and/or easiest way to accept credit cards online for subscriptions?
I've looked at paypal but does that support adjusting subscription plans easily?
I like desks instead of cubicles, if the office is silent (no phone calls). I like to have near some healthy foot (mainly fruit, coffee, milk, water and juices), and a shower appreciated.

Yesterday I was talking with a colleague that it would be also great to have a small room to relax/sleep. Sometimes, when I'm blocked or with headache a quick nap (20-30min) is magic.

Of course, good coworkers is a must!
Have you ever eaten meat? Did it have any effect on need for sleep?
In Virginia you must use a real street address for your office. You also must have a registered agent and an address where the registered agent can be contacted.

Incorporation is a state-level activity, but it's generally the same in all of the states.

Use a parent's address with their permission.
From personal experience, you can't get hired to a news paper or magazine unless you've been published. Yet going to college or university doesn't get you published, teaches you to write in a way editors don't like, and they make you arrogant.

I got a job at 16 by sending out letters, and after I'd learnt the editors style he was saying I was the best writer there and amazed at my age. Right now, if reviewing hadn't destroyed my love for video games and movies, I have little doubt I could have been at a news paper for two years, and I'm only twenty. Essentially I could have been working as a writer for the entire time I "should" have been in university learning "journalism".
Maybe you need to absorb less calories if your diet is mostly vegetable based? Also, some vegetables contain enzimes that help digestion.

I'm no doctor, but even if that particular logic is flawed, I do believe that a diet based on fruit and vegetables does reduce your need for sleep (or rather, that a diet based on processed foods does increase it.) My particular explanation is that such diet is just healthier, so your body has less to "repair", whatever that means.

Just like exercise: you'd think all exercise would increase your need for sleep, right? I find I'm actually more rested with less sleep when I do light exercise (which I admit isn't often enough.)

Eastern medicine is full of dubious explanations about why some therapies work. I don't believe most stuff I read about why Yoga, Shiatsu, acupuncture, etc. work, but I do believe they work. You can only attribute so much to placebo.

Bottom line: stop guessing what should work based on our incomplete knowledge of the very complex system our body is, and just try for yourself. Wake up with the sun, do light exercise, and eat more fruit, vegetables, and generally food that is less processed and more lightly cooked. It can't hurt!
The Web Trend Map 2008
Sorry about the ad-hominem, but I think it's relevant to keep in mind that this is the guy that proposed that you could manifest one million dollars into your life just by declaring your intention everyday.
Founders at work is quite bulky whilst an iPhone fits in your pocket. When you've got 10 mins free on the bus you can whip out your phone and read an interview or two.
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1076392

Feel free to send paypal to x@ycombinator.com

Or tipjoy, perhaps? I also hear sending her wine is a good way to get your YC application an extra look.
I was skeptical of the title. How would this be different than using sexp's to define xml? I read it anyway because defmacro.org never disappoints and it didn't today either.

The concepts that he presents have been around for a very long time, but I've never seen them implemented in a way I really liked. I've already bought into this way.
Forgive me for not directly answering your question.

Are you sure at this point that you need an address?

Maybe you're already past that discussion, and if so I apologize. But I have seen quite a few cases where folks rush out to file paperwork long before it's actually necessary.
When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine. - Picasso

These days I was asking myself about how to clean my LCD screen and was hesitant if that was 'serious' enough to ask here. I was very relieved when I found someone else did.

You admit a few of these mundane questions are 'kind of interesting'. I guess all of them are interesting to some of us.

I see no specific problem with this. I'd let the usual voting mechanism take care of it.
Do you know how many people fit in Old Union? I'm a bit unfamiliar with the place. I'm assuming that it's a place on campus.

I was thinking of doing something the night before Startup School. That way people could get together the night before if they're coming in to town for the weekend.

Just a thought. Ping me at iamelgringo(Pants)gmail.com.
Thanks for the info.
I thought it was, "There is no spoon"
They all kinda suck it seems in some way. I'm working with PaySimple now and the service has been pretty nice, but it was a lot of paperwork and hassle, and now the effort in using the API..

I just looked at ClickBank. http://www.clickbank.com/recurring_billing.html

They were the defacto standard of people selling ebooks, but now they look like they have a recurring option. Their commission is higher I'm sure than a merchant account + gateway, and you have to use their credit card form, but it's probably the easiest to setup and lowest setup fees.
I think cheapest and easiest depends on your situation. I've used FreshBooks[2] with PayPal for some online services. I've also used Kagi[1] too. I'm looking forward to Amazon DevPay[3] when it becomes generally available.

[1] http://www.kagi.com/index.php

[2] http://www.freshbooks.com

[3] http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=342429011
I thought it was - 'there is no cake'.
5.5 hours, out of necessity. I usually oversleep during the weekends. It is a poor compensation, but it is what I can do.
Excellent job.

Would it be fair to say that the advice centers around a few principles?

1. Maximize possible courses of action.

2. Allow the environment (users, VCs, etc) to select the best course at the time.

3. Select the environment most representative of your goals.
Yes! Put down 7 Habits right now! Pick up FAW! Both can change your life. One for the better. The other for the worse.

FWIW, one is full of theoretical fluff from someone who earns through selling books and tapes. Do what he says and you make actually take your focus OFF the ball. The other is about the best of us who have achieved remarkable things. Now which one do you really want to read?

(As far as habits are concerned, I just changed ONE HABIT to be more like some guy named Wozniak. This changed my entire thinking about my project and has made all the difference. I would name the habit something like "Loading all of the details about one thing into my head's main memory at the same time". Reread Chapter 3 to see what I'm talking about.)
So people who live on farms in France don't have the internet? I think he there still might be a flame.
Naw man, I didn't mean it in that way. When you choose twitter as a medium to post those stories, you should know that the whole world can possibly read it. I am really confused where my comment thread is going...?
People are irrational because of prejudices. The best way to overcome prejudices is to live in a culture with a significantly different view of the world than your own. Plus, you get to go a step further and learn there are reasons behind prejudices, instead of just rejecting a belief and its connotations because the believer is prejudiced.

So, I think living in different parts of the world is only indirectly useful. The important thing is to live in a new environment among people with a different culture.
Ahhh, does it underly CoreData?

If it does, I may finally get round to investigating CoreData, providing I can overcome my reluctance to use anything that isn't fully cross-platform.
>I learnt some really important life lessons in college, most of them outside of class.

What makes you think you would not have learned the same things (or equally valuable things) if you did not go to college, but did stop living with your parents?
Loic Le Meur - How I started Seesmic and raised $6 million
Techdirt: Harvard Faculty Agrees To Free Up Its Research
What a strange comment from a hacker. Sounds like something I'd hear from a PHB.

What you call hilarious, many call life saving. I included the soilandhealth.org links for those who may want to learn something without buying a book. Those "golden oldies" are the based upon science that is still unrefuted by better minds than me and you. They are also the basis for many modern works.

Modern nutrition books HAVE to use the weight loss angle or publishers won't touch them. Not because the authors care as much as the public is so myoptic. (Hardly anyone cares about their health until they lose it. But almost everyone cares about their weight.)

Wanna pick a fight, why not start with Dr. Fuhrman? But first read the thousands of supporting documents footnoted on Pages 251-276 of Eat to Live. If you're going to call data that can save someone else's life "hilarious", you oughta be able to back it up.
one of the questions in the widget has a typo: "who get's more action" (for the ill informed, it should be "gets")
Will Microsoft + Yahoo Chill Tech M&A?
I am on an immigrant, and to answer your question, I don't think there is an easy way to accomplish this. Your best, and most legit option is to wait out for the green card.

There might be a way to spin off a company with a citizen, but even then, to work with them on a H1-B visa, the company needs to show some revenue so that as to convince the INS that it may potential need additional employees, especially immigrants.

Please take what I say with a grain of salt. I looked some into this, and from what I understood, this is the only safe route. Good luck, and I will be interested in knowing if you find something that disagrees with me...:D
People need to focus on goals.
~24 hours? Interesting. I've used coffee as a sleep aid: when I really need to go to sleep at X in order to get 8 hours before some important event, drinking coffee at 4 hours before X seems to help me sleep, due to the huge crash between 3 and 4 hours after the caffeine hits.
or http://pickydomains.com/
description: If you need a great, memorable, easy to pronounce domain name that EXACTLY describes what your website is all about - you are in the right place. This is what we do. We find available domain names that are descriptive, concise and are easily remembered. And if we can’t find one, or you don’t like any available domain names we suggest – you don’t pay anything. PickyDomains.Com is completely RISK FREE.
Thers's a reason most successful startups have two or more founders.

You don't build greatness yourself, you do it by leveraging other people.
In my very limited experience the normal work world isn't a lot like college or public school, where all my peers were people my own age. I think learning to socialize with older people is much more useful.
A Security Wakeup Call
I would strongly advise that you don't try to cater to a Danish audience since your name means "dick close" in Danish.

;-)
And Now For Microsoft's Yahoo Alternatives...
Seriously. Imagine if children treated kindergarten with the same attitude that some people treat college with, the trade school approach to education. They'd never get off the dime.
Doesn't matter as long as there's an All You Can Eat Chinese Buffet within walking distance.
Cracking Windows Admin pass with Backtrack2
One of several ways to gain Admin passwords in a windows system, if you have physical access to the system is by using a boot live linux distro like Backtrack2. Backtrack is a pen-testing distro so obviously it is loaded with all kinds of software to help you do security tests in both local and remote systems.
What, no foosball? No better way to end the frustration of a long refactoring session that a cold beer and a Texas pull shot.
plan 9 from bell labs, maybe
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/9.html
The Great Source Code Supermarket
I consider this essay, "The Elements of Style", and "Simple and Direct" by Jacques Barzun to be the Holy Trinity of guidance on clear, straightforward writing.
I like it. It's a simple starting point.

Good Linus quote:

Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You start with a small trivial project, and you should never expect it to get large. If you do, you'll just overdesign and generally think it is more important than it likely is at that stage. Or worse, you might be scared away by the sheer size of the work you envision. So start small, and think about the details. Don't think about some big picture and fancy design. If it doesn't solve some fairly immediate need, it's almost certainly over-designed.
"Our modern day best-and-brightest built Microsoft Windows Vista (TM)."

They also built AutoCAD, ecommerce, Google maps, and put personal communication devices in a billion pockets. (And hacker.news too!)

Not fair to use Microsoft for comparisons in the history of computing. It is an aberation that achieved financial success not through technical excellence, but by building a monopoly with unfair business practices and legal and political maneuvering.
2 chicks
Ask YC: do you have a business plan?
Do you have a formal business plan with budgets, market research, marketing plan, etc. or do you simply have an idea that you work on, hoping that somebody will like what you build?

Personally I write concept papers that discuss what the product is, why it is great, who will use it, and a rought sketch of where the money will come from.

What do you do ?
i think they are doing the question more because of general excitement for their venture, than need of an answer
Playboy To Leverage Online and Mobile for Company Growth
Why 'home server' products from Microsoft, Apple, et al are doomed
Enterprise 2.0: Five Innovations CIOs Shouldn't Miss
To add a bit to the above.

Having done startups with investors I know that formal business plans are invaluable to them, preferably printed on nice glossy paper with lots of whitespace and nice pictures.

But when it comes to actually doing what is stated in the businessplan after you have your funding things seem to change so fast that either you have to spend a lot of time updating it, or else just leave it and go and make your product work.

I tend to opt for the latter.
How Much Does Britney Spend?
From my experience, there is no way to adjust a subscription up or down once it is initiated through Paypal.
Atomic Commit In SQLite
Heres that site I told you about it should me how to master Madden
All Free Def Comedy Jam Videos
Updates on the New Star Wars
For All The Treky Fans
Urban Poetry
The true meaning of Testimony
Rihanna in a Video did you see it
American Gangster released on dvd
Shrek 4 or the tv show?
Hottest Artist Out Alicia Keys
look, there's no pagerank to be had here, so it's really not worth submitting links that aren't relevant. Things that are relevant are startups and programming.
Funding and outside influences aside, writing a business plan is still one of the most important aspects of developing your product. When working on an idea, if my product isn't important enough to warrant a couple days pouring over the market research and putting something together, then the idea isn't worth developing.

This is especially true if you have more than one person working on the project. You need to make sure everyone stays focused on the big-picture goal, and that everyone is equally aware of the target market and projections for the company. You don't have to get incredibly specific in the plan though. Feature changes shouldn't need to be included in updates to the plan. But if your project is changing directions or target market, then the changes should be researched and plan updated accordingly.

That being said, I almost always leave out financial projections until later in the game after v1 has been launched, because even most investors will know that this section is complete BS before that point.

Oh, and all of this should of course be filed under "IMO".
"I love seeing a document get bigger and bigger, more detailed and with more things written inside."

I love how it's sprinkled with Microspeak as he describes this soul-draining bureaucracy: "cool", "great", "passion", "innovate", "exciting". They're really passionate about meetings, emails, and bigger and bigger documents over at Microsoft.

And on being able to start with a blank page for this spec that he's spending so many hours in meetings and writing emails to put together, rather than having to fill out a form, he says, "I don’t know about you, but I really love this kind of freedom!"
The Battle of The Century
There's a little bit of politics involved, but he says some interesting things about Microsoft and Google.
I don't think they have that option, but I haven't looked in a couple years.

I generally try to stay away from PayPal, because they're not a bank. Their user agreement states that they're not liable or responsible for "lost" funds, and I've heard of people getting burned by that. If you use them, I would advise withdrawing often.
Ask.YC: Spammers have finally hit News.YC -- what do we do about them?
DNS Blackhole anyone? Here are the top 10 newest stories at the time of writing.

1.
Hottest Artist Out Alicia Keys (aliciakeysvideos.net)
1 point by 1podgirl 4 minutes ago | discuss

2.
Shrek 4 or the tv show? (eddiemurphyblog.net)
1 point by 1podgirl 5 minutes ago | discuss

3.
American Gangster released on dvd (denzelwashingtonblog.com)
1 point by 1podgirl 6 minutes ago | discuss

4.
Rihanna in a Video did you see it (rihannavideos.net)
1 point by 1podgirl 7 minutes ago | discuss

5.
The true meaning of Testimony (testimonyblog.net)
1 point by 1podgirl 8 minutes ago | discuss

6.
Urban Poetry (defpoetryjamvideos.net)
1 point by 1podgirl 9 minutes ago | discuss

7.
For All The Treky Fans (startrekvideosclips.com)
1 point by 1podgirl 10 minutes ago | discuss

8.
Updates on the New Star Wars (starwarsvideos.net)
1 point by 1podgirl 10 minutes ago | discuss

9.
All Free Def Comedy Jam Videos (defcomedyjamvideos.com)
1 point by 1podgirl 11 minutes ago | discuss

10.
Heres that site I told you about it should me how to master Madden (xbox360cheatsblog.com)
1 point by 1podgirl 13 minutes ago | discuss

*

user:	1podgirl
created:	18 minutes ago
karma:	1
Paypal does support subscriptions. But yeah, it is pretty rudimentary.
Picked it up about a year ago, and I've read it twice now. I lent it to my partner when we went into business together... she hasn't returned it yet. I don't know if that's a good sign or not. :)
I really feel like it's inevitable that stuff like this is going to catch on in a major way.

I think that an app that would allow people to create one-off games and polls could be even more popular.

Nice work!
Best Practices for XML Internationalization
YouTube's Tweaks: Analytics, "Sharing"
Authorize.net seems to be the bigdaddy in the space, and in my experience they're a pain to set up, but service is fine once you've obtained an account and wrapped your head around thier Extensive but hard to navigate documentation/API.

They also offer options of writing your own form and CURLing them to submit the data, or using one of thier forms, and they offer pretty good payment tracking (including search by cc data, and quickbooks files).

Not sure about thier price point, but the few credit-card processing businesses i've worked with have all chosen it prior to my involvement, so i assume it's a good 'safe' choice.
I was just about to submit an entry on this but you beat me to it :-)

If it persists it should definitely be adressed - one of the great things about this place is the high signal to noise ratio and I would hate to see that drop.

But since PG basically invented bayesian spam filtering I am sure that it can be solved. If he isn't too busy doing arc that that is. ;-)
Color matters
authorize.net supports subscriptions. it's pretty easy to manage, but I don't know if its the cheapest (it's at least reasonable for our needs, and easy, which is more important than cheap to me most of the time.)
BeautifulSoup is amazing. Django is as well (if that counts)
I highly recommend
Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft
http://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Micr...

Fun drama like a C++ programmer spending months to get a simple window to appear on screen (e.g. building the Win32 API). Dave Cutler from DEC throwing things.
the man asking the guy to sit down is saying it in a way "i know you are right, I was wrong, there is no other way to say it because I am so stubborn everyone hates me, but lets do business"
You are implying there is some relation between the price of Windows and the amount of work that goes into it. Given the size of their war chest, one could argue that they already charge much more than their software costs to produce.
Easiest way is to just ask really simple technical questions in the submission area as a captcha.

Not sure which technical questions would be 100% answerable to everyone around here, but it is Hacker News.
I think the point of the Vista comment is to illustrate the theme of patenting fairly obvious programming technology, not to take a shot a the "modern day best and brightest."

Microsoft reputedly engages in a fair amount of this kind of inane patent activity.
pg's pretty good about killing spammer accounts as they come... if it becomes a problem, new users could have a probationary period of one approved submission before their submissions show up. and a reddit style filter on submission volume below a certain karma would prevent a spammer from filling up the new page.
Great idea. And not a bad one that would be applicable to CAPTCHAS as a whole. If non-technical. E.g. ask the user like 'What color is a US Dollar Bill'
Your assuming everyone get's out in 4 years.

He said 200 - 400k which IMO is not unreasonable at the high end. Tuition @ $44 per student + living expenses @ 15k/year + lost wages @ 21k / year = 80k / year * 5 years = 400k.

IMO the problem is at the low end if you take 3 years to get out of a state school with a free ride you are only talking about (10k living expenses – free room and board + 21k lost wages) * 3 = ~93k.
Delicious Cake. I must eat it.
Port City Java.
Btw, is there human moderation at News YC? If not, maybe provide the ability to the top 10 leaders to delete such spam links.