skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
No, I'm saying that's not the end of level design in the same way that using procedures in programming is not the end of game design. It just pushes the design to a higher level.
I like the look and feel of your site. Creating an event is pretty easy.
upvoted for obscure Fletch reference.
Ditto. Ithaca and Ursinus offered me a full ride, and I stopped even looking at schools after that.
Thanks :). The owners moved in to the penthouse in early 2005, and I was lucky enough to get a very good photographer to shoot the building last year (he flew out from California), and he just finished this video last night.

I'm hoping that my startup will help finance a lifestyle like this eventually. :)
Yes. If you're the definitive source of something say, "switching mode power supplies," writing lots will instantly get you to the top of google for those words. Also to note is that the articles on the site probably address other parts, tools and other such things, so contextual advertising will potentially bring in some competitive ads, and thus pay out big, potentially even with little traffic.
Prepare for very long run.
Here's a way you could get people to start inviting without registering. You let them go through the whole thing, and add their own address at the end. They hit send, but the mail to the other people doesn't actually go out until they've finished the registration.

That way, they're more invested in actually going through with it than if they have to register to even get in.
Can't MS just cancel the severance plan after buying Yahoo?
I like the instant feeback thing on the left - very slick!

My only complaint is that it forces you to sign up if you want to view the event details. I can do this with Facebook already.

I'd like to see more details in the "You're invited..." email. That way I could invite people like my parents (who vaguely understand email, but not how to sign up for this kind of service) to quick & easy events.

Forcing a sign up to see the event's message board, or something, might be a good compromise.

Site looks very nice! Very uniform design style - I don't love how all the headings are lower case, but that's probably a personal preference thing.
Only posting and viewing would be free (not contacting each other)! There aren't many portal covering all imp countries.
> I'm hoping that my startup will help finance a lifestyle like this eventually. :)

Aren't we all... :)
New Research Result: Cold Boot Attacks on Disk Encryption
Microsoft to open up some key software blueprints
There is only one thing on the list that I take exception to:
- build and release in release mode.

I can't even begin to enumerate the number of times that having a line number (provided by a debug build with a .pdb file) would have saved hours, if not days, of troubleshooting and debugging.

The 1% (or less) extra processing needed by having a debug build/pdb release is insignificant compared to my time finding and fixing bugs that are hard or impossible to reproduce in the development environment... especially when the customer is breathing down my neck :)
Thanks for taking a look at it. We tried to keep everything simple, so we're glad you like the design.

We're also not happy with the current registration flow, so look for changes to that in the coming weeks!
I know I would have appreciated "nsfw" in the title.
I like it. Design is great!
We agree that our biggest issue right now is probably the registration requirement and we've discussed exactly what you're proposing. Once we can build out our queuing system, we're going to move it that direction. Thanks for the feedback.
Seems like it might be a good idea, but having to register just to see what it's all about is rather off-putting.
Agreed, and see some other replies for our approach. We thought that by minimizing the registration requirements to just an email and password, we are making it as painless as possible for now until we can get a better flow in place. Thanks.
so I'm confused. This is way more than a $200 PC given all the time and effort.

Here's how I'd go about it -- either:

a. go get a dell hot deal for $199 (they had a server a couple weeks ago for $199, no OS)

or

b. Fry's $59 mb/cpu special (built in video and lan), $20 case (microcenter), $15 PSU (frys/microcenter), $65 hard drive (Frys/newegg), $20 memory (newegg, frys).

Seems like a sub $200 computer isn't that hard to accomplish. So again, I ask what is the point of the article?
"You should come try it at our booth at the Game Developers Conference. Then you'll see it really works and we're not lying."

Ouch! I'm no PR expert, but I'd think that lying is one thing you neither admit nor deny. Best to just presume honesty, otherwise you'll wind up looking shifty either way.
Registered, when putting in contact info you should go ajax with it, cause I put in all my data first and then anticipated that it would still be there if I clicked "Add [formofcontact]".

Other than that, it's a cool concept ( i had a similar idea ) and it's very well executed/designed.
so it's renkoo but with a better tumblr-inspired design. that's pretty nifty. definitely need to add on more features but this looks great.
These stories are paid plants by Google. They're the modern day get rich quick schemes.
Kudos for the nice simple styling and layout! A few minor points:

- would be great to highlight today's date in the calendar

- I don't know about the general populus but I never allow any site to import my gmail/yahoo contacts. The address book also links to plaxo. Can't you implement an import yourself?

- would be great to add a google map widget
Wikipedia says Windows 3.1 = 1992

I wasn't paying much attention at the time (mostly working on Unix and DOS -- and playing on my friends' C64 machines), but I do seem to remember being shown a Windows version 2 machine in 1989-1990 -- it was supposed to be MS's state of the art at the time.
What do you think we need to add? It's certainly not done, but I'm curious what everyone thinks is missing and what they would like to see added. Our goal is for it to always remain lean and fast so some "features" will ultimately be sacrificed to keep it simple.
what's the point? are you trying to get into market of international hiring? or what is the goal?
Facebook's fail is going to be epic
Whether Front-loading or end-loading registration requirements is more successful seems to hinge on which is greater: (1) the user's expectations coming into the site (2) how great the user finds the site once he's using it.

If your site has a low value when the user signs up but this value builds as he uses it more (eg. networking sites) then you're probably better off front-loading the registration requirement. My experience.
This sounds very right to me.

Some years ago I had a business doing techno raves and I hardly made any money from it. (lots of beers and girls though) Then I started doing boring stuff, and I realised something important:

The more interesting or cool a niche is, the more people will flock to fill it. Which results in lower income for each business owner. Just look at artists, musicians and DJ's. Lots of girls, fun and beer. But on average, not a lot of money.

On the contrary I know people that are in the furniture moving business that make insane amounts of money. Why? Because it is a shitty business and nobody wants to do it.

Basically it's about supply and demand - the more people that want to pursue a career in a given niche the less the average businessowner will make in that niche.

So you should all stop doing ultracool social network apps and start doing boring ERP systems. If you want to make money that is. ;-)
Great comments, thanks!

- Updating the calendar date item is on the top of the list of things to do.

- The address book uses plaxo for now, but plans are definitely in place to replace it with our own import mechanism.

- As for the google map widget, we currently have a mapping feature using google maps if you enter in a location for each event. Is this what you are referring to?
Maybe he just wanted to show off his workshop skills. And notice that the machine has 2 disks...

But I agree, it was mostly a pointless way of saving maybe $100-200 (edit: not pointless for the article's author of course, I'm sure he had fun with his project -- I just think it wouldn't make sense for the average hacker to try to replicate it).

Edit 2: now if it had been a fan-less design, that would have been more interesting as a DIY project.
Show, don't tell.

I kinda get what you're doing, but a screenshot or infographic would quickly communicate if it was worth the user's time.

I'm not sure whether I think a big "sign up" button would be better than the two big form fields you have from a conversion POV... But it'd be easy to measure/test. Given most of the big boys have a signup button, I assume your way would convert less well.

Having a different color for strong tags is a bad idea. They look like links.
Beautifully designed, except for that damn feedback button. Why is everyone copying what I think I first saw on Draftmix?

It's not easy for people to read sideways.

Put it at the top or bottom of the page so users don't have to cock their head to one side. This seems like a curse of knowledge problem---you and most of us on HN already know what it says because we've seen it before. That doesn't mean it's easy to use, though.
It is a free event, apparently the registration they do is to get an accurate head count. Just show up.
While this is pretty cool, it's been done before in a much better way:

http://www.abrahamjoffe.com.au/ben/canvascape/

Making shapes in CSS is almost definitely the wrong way to go, especially when canvas is available in Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Throw in Google's VML translator, and you get Internet Explorer support too.
Good comment. We'll look into moving it, although I think it might not be as obvious on the top or bottom of the page...
Aha.. cool.. I see the map now!
Another suggestion: Coordinatr would be a great app if all my friends were regular users. However, I am guessing that a lot of people would rather use their regular scheduling tools (Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar) to keep track of events. Those calendars don't have as rich a feature-set as coordinatr but are still the first point of schedule tracking. Anyway, my point is: coordinatr can really set itself apart by somehow integrating with these calendar systems (something like how xobni attaches itself to Outlook, but something simpler)!
Yes I'd definitely write these up more as SEO success stories than adsense success stories.
Agreed with others on having to provide an email address right away. I think it's better to build some trust with the user first, by showing them your site before asking for an email address.

Good luck. I hope you kick evite's butt.
I believe you're referring to me, myself, and I :)
Absolutely agree. The strong tag css has been changed.

We'll look into the rest of the suggestions. Thanks for the feedback!
Is there a sample event that we can see for helping us evaluate your site? Everything I've seen so far looks good.
Uh, People really need to get over that Flickr-style of naming their products. In particular with long names. It just looks stupid.

Good luck, though.
You think the press can't write their own get rich quick stories without Google funding them? Do you really think people don't eat this up?
wow, i have arrived.
I agree, if he'd done fanless or super small (which what he did is small, with the itx and crappy PSU)....

He also must not have kids or a cat, since an open case like that certainly wouldn't fly!
What, you ditched class that day?
New class of attack on cryptosystems discovered (vid included)
I see in the FAQ you guys compare yourselves to email. I was thinking your real comparison is the phone. I'm not sure why I would use this service instead of just phoning someone.

Perhaps I'm not the target market though. Otherwise, good luck to you. It looks like you put a lot of hard work into this.
We're definitely going to integrate with Google Calendar and are currently looking into integration with Outlook and other commonly used calendars. Great recommendation..thanks!
Not epic, just predictable.
Ditto almost everyone else's comments, especially about registering first. I'll also add my (highly personal) opinion about something else:

There seems to be a disconnect between the appearance of the site and the verbage. The design is excellent: simple, straight forward, and very professional. Build by pros who will be around for a while. Something I wouldn't hesitate to adopt.

Then words like "garbage", "vespa with tassles", and "kick in the pants" make me wonder if this is a bunch of script kiddies with a hobby. I know that makes it light-hearted and cute, but after a while, it just gets tiring (and risky to you). Just my 2 cents - who knows, maybe others like that.

Great job! Keep us posted.
My first impressions of the site were good. I like the design. I found it funny that one of the first pages I hit was the FAQ where you downplayed the design.

Anyways, the ui looks and works pretty slick. My only complaint was that when my form submission failed the error message was kind of small and initially below the fold, with no error indications above the fold. Otherwise I thought the site was really well done.
I'll briefly preface my comments with the fact that when I've submitted sites to YC in the past, people have tended to focus on superficial things (IMHO). Maybe because it's easier to do that in a short span of time.

You've got a nice start, so take all of my comments with a grain of salt, of course:

- The front page is generally boring (screenshot? at least a photo of happy people?). I think other people have touched on this.

- There are too many things to click on the front page. Why are there two links to the "about" and "faq" pages? Are these the elements that you want people to focus on?

- In the same vein, there's too much text in general. I think engineers tend to overestimate the amount that people actually read on the web. I don't think you need to "dumb down" your site -- it's just that showing, rather than telling, tends to communicate more.

- The "create event" page is snazzily designed, but ultimately seems more like work than like fun, and it's one of the core interactions of your site.

- You can purchase contact importing scripts online for less than $100; I'd recommend it.

- Random: why have a FAQ if there aren't many users to A Q F? My experience has been that I nearly always guess incorrectly the questions people might ask.

- Why is the "logout" link under "Profile"? I had to click around awhile to find it.

- There's a lot of talk of "friends," but how much do you want to integrate social-networking features into the site? The more friction you have for other people to use the site (eg, if invited people have to "sign up"), the less likely they are to use it.

- General thought: How do you plan to differentiate yourself from Facebook, Renkoo, Evite, Skobee, and many other startups who have tried (and mostly failed) to solve the problem you're solving?

Congrats on launching and best of luck.
no because i don't know how to pronounce 'xobni'
You're right, that was trying to be light hearted about boring topics. Definitely worth modifying if it's coming across in the wrong context.

Thanks for the feedback!
The ShareSpace tag is brilliant. I don't know if you came up with that yourselves or were inspired by another site, but either way nice work.
No. There's tons of people (even a lot of teens) who make very good money via AdSense and other CPC/CPM ad networks by creating useful content websites instead of thinking they need $20,000 from an "investor" to build a techie-related website.
Thanks. What page was that error on?
Oooohhh, "press Control C to copy [the AdSense code], then Control V to paste it".

That's what I've been doing wrong, thanks!
It works great! I was so refreshed, I coded for 5 hours straight before I realized I forgot to come back here.
being able to download a PDF is an order of magnitude better than web-only.
Have you ever said to someone "a bunch of us are heading to _____ for _____. You should come."? This is the kind of situation we're targeting. If you can easily inform everyone you want to at once, we've shaved a good bit of time off of your phone calls.
What's the smallest market size you see a company sucessfully exlore?
I am considering one business idea but the potential market is small. Even if the price per client can be high, I'm having troubles figuring out a reasonable business model based on SaaS.

How niche can a company be in the software industry? Examples are appreciated :)
Congratulations on all your hard work. It's a nice looking, easy to use site. That said, here are a few issues.

1) It has a very silly name. The whole fad of misspelled words has run is course. I think it automatically associates your site with the whole concept of "yet another web2ish site", which simply won't last forever.

2) There is a serious lack of screenshots on the page. Show me what you do and how you do it, before asking for my email. Also, a screencast wouldn't hurt.

3) The calendar doesn't automatically highlight what today's date is. I think it should.

4) You don't seem to support Unicode. This is a huge mistake, which is quite typical of American startups. I created an event on purpose with the name "Questa è una prova". It got converted in an unhelpful "Questa ? una prova".

5) In the list of invitees, you cut the names down to the first part of the email addresses only. So now all I know is that I invited "info", not info at johnsmith.com.

6) In the profile area you only have settings in place for city/state/zip. Again, very American centric. And it's a bad thing (TM).

7) In the confirmation email, if info@reddit.com invites info@ycombinator.com, you send emails that look like this: Dear info, info has invited you to...
Thanks! Other people actually came up with the concept, but we came up with the name.
What would happen if they just said, "Okay, no more access to your site unless you pay 12 dollars a year". Or...no more than 50 page views a day without a subscription, or similar.

Would it be a total collapse? If advertising isn't working, well...
This is precisely the strategy of my company. It is a bit difficult to do anything exceptionally well when you're so divided, but it's encouraging to see others trying the same approach we are.
Digg CEO cracks under Valleywag pressure
Alexa Stops Counting- No One Notices (or cares?)
Yes that instant feedback thing is slick! But I thought it said facebook - and I got a little jaded. It must be me.
i like it more than evite for sure.
there are some little issues but i am sure you will work those out. some of the UE needs work like adding info to the profile. no biggies though. i am looking forward to see how the event ID can be use to show fotos, vids, friends, etc.
No amount of math is going to make multicast happen.

Mathematicians always say that their work has applications in network optimization, but it seems to me that the math itself is largely inspirational; Jain's CUTE scheme (precursor of TCP/IP congestion control, the most important distributed algorithm on the Internet) had fluid dynamics inspiration, but trivial implementation.

I don't like the connotation that mathematics is a prerequisite to study and improve distributed systems. I can name more far-reaching advances, even in routing, from non-mathematicians.
> I'm claiming that whatever I build with natural resources I find is mine.

That doesn't scale. Humanity's ability to find natural resources dwarfs the amount of natural resources to be found on earth. It's not hard to 'find' arable land, for example. Any counterclaims would have to be defended in base of some agreeable concept of justice, or failing that, via violence, actual or anticipated. Violence over resources can happen, and happens, irrespective of ideological differences.
You bring up some very good points, most of which we have been concerned with and have been debating about as well.

Quick Question:
- In terms of too much text, are you referring to the about us and FAQ pages? Or was that an "across the board" comment?

We're taking the approach of a little goes a long way. A lot of sites inundate you with content and functionality...they give you a pneumatic nailer when all you needed was a pushpin. We're trying to give you a pushpin and maybe some picture instructions. As you pointed out, many other sites have failed at this already, so it's key for us to receive and closely analyze user feedback to see if this is indeed the correct approach to be taking.

Thanks again for your candid feedback...it is greatly appreciated!
Thanks for the feedback. We understand the name is silly, but we wanted to get a domain that meant something when too many domains are random madeup words. Coordinatr.com is as close as we could come to getting that point across. If you have other recommendations for available domains, let us know!

The display name is generated based on your first, last name, and email address, so as soon as you enter a first and last name, we change what is shown. This way, we don't have to ask a lot of questions up front.

We understand it is very US centric right now. Our goal is to get it out there and get a user base so we can justify spending more time and resources on improving functionality and user experience.
You spelled "coordinator" wrong
Context Free Art: Art from Grammars
Shock! horror! I might see a picture of a human!
This isn't an attack on cryptosystems, unless you torture the definition, so that SSL/HTTPS is no longer a "cryptosystem", but rather "SSL/HTTPS deployed on Dell Inspirons talking to IBM Blade servers running Apache".

As Spaff points out in the comments on Felten's blog, DRAM reminiscence isn't new.

As another commenter points out, stealing DRAM chips from wakeful computers is slightly outside the threat model for full-disk encryption. The purpose of full-disk encryption is so that Fortune 500 companies don't have to issue press releases every time someone loses a laptop. The new guidance to those companies may now be to disallow "sleep" mode until disk encryption systems get effective at zeroing keys before sleeping.

Problems like this are what motivates things like the Intel TPM.
Most commentators thought Zuckerberg was an idiot to turn down the $1 billion offer. My guess is that they can't wait to have their opinion vindicated.

Personally, I've yet to find a reason to even visit Facebook. I still have plenty of old friends - don't need any replacements yet, nor a different way to keep in touch with them.
Speaking as a human being rather than a L337 haxxor (or however the kids spell it nowadays), I think a photo of happy friends hanging out on the front page would be preferable to screen shots.
any plans for twitter integration?
I think that would be a total collapse. Well, maybe not total, but there would be a flood of people leaving the service, for sure. I, for one, would not pay a cent to access Facebook. I just may copy down information for the people that I've gotten into touch with over Facebook and deactivate my account.

As for page views option, that wouldn't work either. I, personally, don't do more than 10 page views a day and most of my friends are the same. I suspect many people just check their profile, answer wall posts or messages, look at some apps and log out. There is not much there that can hold your attention.

All Facebook can really do now is pray that people still find it interesting. I think the Beacon was their attempt at monetizing the interest. That got shut down, so they're SOL.
What alternatives would you suggest?
This is a great concept and way to get people together for learning and exposure. KUDOS!!

I wish Hacker News comments could show up in widgets embedded in the pages that are being commented. Can anyone help me do this widget?
Bad name. Taking a long word and removing the last vowel just doesn't work. It's not snappy enough, and hard to remember/spell. Unlike flickr it doesn't sound like a brand, it sounds like "coordinator.com" was too expensive.