skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It is not a bad headline, it is an opinionated headline (based on text from the article). I understand that you disagree with my point of view. Please understand that I disagree with yours, too. The "tangential direction" you are complaining about is the reason I posted the article. I would not have posted it otherwise. You should be glad that people who disagree can still be helpful each other, rather than complaining that your free ice cream wasn't the appropriate flavor.
For those who like these kind of very narrow searches, there is "Surfraw - Shell Users' Revolutionary Front Rage Against the Web"[1].

[1] - http://surfraw.alioth.debian.org
founders- salary for sure. I don't think you can really measure a founder's contribution by the hours they put in. As Founders, its understood we're putting in insane hours. If we were "charging" by the hour, most startups would be broke.

One off work- For development maintenance, some design work,etc. definitely go with hourly. Have your shit together when it comes to specs, design, what the project entails. If things go overboard, you might be kicking yourself. It's also a good way to see if that person might be worth joining the team, without making a huge up front commitment.
RIAA= dying cause. keep pirating, it will eventually push things towards a win win for everyone.
A Tool Physically Hacks Windows
Which is the best place to get started with computational semantics ?Wundrbar seem to interpret search queries very efficiently.
This was a great tool, but with DNA it is absolutely awesome.

Audio processing/production is what got me into programming originally.
What you get when you combine Hillary & Obama
The $316m could accomplish much, but I doubt directly creating a startup hub. The drivers which turn cities into creative class meccas wouldn't be included, and it likely would face the same difficulties as the Middle East's education plans: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/education/11global.html

It would a powerful change if groups like Gates' (http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120113473219511...) began investing in the efforts which have the best chance of the results they're seeking: startups. I'm guessing the startup model is antithetical to what BillsG sees as the answer, which is unfortunate.
Monitor Web page changes with Specto
These are some pretty basic improvements; this is a more complete list:

http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

You can also use the YSlow plugin to rate your pages based on the 13 suggestions, etc
Tables are for tabular data, blah blah blah
The sentiment that ideas are worthless without execution is generally true. This can be easily explained, as "execution" can be broken down into two components: actions, and details. Action is obvious: no action, no product. Details, well, are "where the devil is."

A really good idea will include enough details, that it spills over into "execution." It's not just an idea-market. It's an idea-market where people submit via a form that looks like this, click that button, get scored this way. We will launch it by doing this, talking to those people, and focusing on this sector. We will convert this into physical and monetary value by selling this service.

Now, that may be an idea that is worth something.

While you have described certain approaches, until you have a very sharp focus that describes exactly how to get from point A to B (nothing to full product), which means not just "one way to do this is...", but "this is how we will do it," then the idea really is not "executable."
Python4ply (a Python parser for Python) tutorial, part 1
Yahoo's Sign-in seals against phishing
It also has a continuum and value add component. Think of it like this:

1) A good idea

2) A good idea for searching the internet

3) A good idea for searching the internet with a certain algorithm to rank pages.

4) Using a distributed computing system to make this search scale.

5) Google.

As each order of possibility collapses into the next the idea becomes more and more the execution until its done. At each stage, the value increases as some possibilities are trimmed off and the idea becomes more concrete (or less as the wrong ones remain and the path is derailed).

The primary problem going on in the IP world right now seems to be an unhealthy focus (and over valuation) on the very early stages of the continuum. Patents should be issued at steps 3 and 4 but they are being issued at 2 instead. Thus selling stuff but on the interwebs, becomes patentable and the dissonance caused by this makes it difficult now for those at 3 and 4 trying to get value from the actual hard part.
Boeing: Whiner Extraordinaire
The Root Cause of Email Overload
This is a sign of slipping standards. Why isn't high quality the default?

Why doesn't YouTube allow for arbitrary size video hosting? It seems like it would be an excellent business. It could be modeled on a pay-as-you-use system like Amazon Web Services.

Take, for example, a typical screencast. Not only do I want h264 encoding, but I'd like the video to be around 1200x800. That is so much higher resolution than YouTube can offer right now.
i think it would be a good idea to push what functionality is available on the main page; i trolled through what might be there by doing "a" backspace, "b", backspace, "c". also, more than half of the "sample commands" i handle as keyword searches in FF or as prefix: to google: i think those could be more compelling.

also, minor bug report: "bestbuy ipod" redirected me to a page on bestbuy.com that was empty.

neat implementation though, looking forward to seeing further iterations.
An amazing advertisement: Brought to you by Justin.TV
Guy Kawasaki on Mike Arrington
NASA tests Linux for spacecraft control
DNA is the first thing in a long time that I've seen that I really don't know how they did it! I think usually I've got some guess, even when its outside of my expertise (most hackers do) but this?
Fourier transforms and lots of 'em is as close as I can get. Its magic. I love it.
This is a great article. Key paragraphs for me:

It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.

We know that children's capacity for self-regulation has diminished. A recent study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in which psychological researchers asked kids ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without moving. The 3-year-olds couldn't stand still at all, the 5-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked. In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment. But, psychologist Elena Bodrova at Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning says, the results were very different.

"Today's 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today's 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago," Bodrova explains. "So the results were very sad."
I think this point is overlooked by the article. There is a little too much of the "Little Engine that Could" which tends to encourage entrepreneurs to ignore disconfirming data from prospects. For me, the key point is to decide what failure looks like before you start (and unexpected success, which for an entrepreneur signals that a product deserves more investment, potentially even third party investment in addition to re-directed internal resources) so that you know when to quit. I blogged about this in more detail (and with some good but long quotes from Peter Drucker) here: http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2007/05/25/seth-godins-book-the...
Ohh jeez. That was awesome. You guys are totally breaking new ground on user engagement.
More on Dependable Multiprocessor: http://nmp.nasa.gov/st8/tech/eaftc_tech1.html

The Problem

radiation hardened electronics are extremely expensive and generally are several generations behind the state of the art of their commercial equivalents. Since a spacecraft's most precious commodities are mass (weight), volume, and power, it is difficult to build a modern, powerful, space-going computer system within acceptable mass, volume and power constraints.

Dependable Multiprocessor experiment is to use a redundant-hardware architecture and advanced-technology, fault-tolerant software to provide a computing system able to operate in the space environment.
As a musician (and amateur recorder) myself, I can say that this is truly incredible. Think about it. As this technology progresses there may come a day when a single microphone is all it takes to record all tracks (and sub tracks of the individual instruments and vocals) of an entire band.

If this is the case, the cost of recording could go down significantly. Less equipment is necessary to record the multiple tracks, less time required to "get it right," which in turn means less time to bill for by the recording studio.

How do you think this technology will change the music industry?
Is this the future of advertising on justin.tv? If it is (assuming they don't overdo it), I'm totally for it. I actually kind of want to see that movie now.

Entertainment + Advertisement very rarely go together, but Justin.TV seems to have done it here.
Pretty cool, but you kind of gave it away with that headline.
An interesting analysis. I agree that ideas are valuable, and after considering the issue, probably the only reason they have a market value of zero is because there is no good way to trade them.

I think you are on the right track with your proposed solution, but I think we can improve it:

Basically, ideas are interesting. If you publish ideas, a lot of people would go and read them. So there is your market. And you also note that the value of an idea decreases as it spreads, so that property can be leveraged to generate a competitive market.

So what you could do is generate the ideas and keep them exclusive. Someone can pay to look at an idea, and if they like the idea, they can buy it. If they don't buy, the idea gets released to the public.

I can see why this hasn't been attempted before, because there are some difficult issues that need to be dealt with. I do think that it could be done and made to work, so I might actually play around with this one and see what falls out. ambition, send an email if you'd like to play with me.
Lean is About Quality, Folks
Cutback Cuisine -- restaurants are making changes
Offshore Outsourcing of IT Positions Loses Popularity
Some ideas are so good it doesn't take a genius to implement them. Personally I feel ideas are more important then your team, once you get started others will want to join you... your team will form itself with the right idea and some execution on your part.
Wall Street Firms Building More Energy-Efficient Data Centers
How to install and maintain multiple WordPress blogs easily
Openness is not a Poison Pill at Yahoo
Very, very impressed. Still not going to see the movie, but props to the advertising folks who came up with that.

It's interesting to note what kind of audience they're targeting by observing the screen names and messages in the chat box...
Large commercial Grails site goes live
I don't get it. I went there and it was just some donkey talking.
Linux is already really common at Nasa. This is cool though.
Ah, now I see. I think they might lose a lot of people (like they did me) by not getting to the meat quick enough.
Peer-to-peer networks go legit
Cisco is using Linux virtualization and 40 core CPU’s for its next generation routers
To be effective, I think you have to believe it's a real live stream. A 15 second skit probably wouldn't be that convincing.
Are you kidding or referring to a specific such language?
I.e., PHP is arguably the most popular such language on the server and it's also the most insecure.
I ask questions on YC!
ASk YC: Your opinions on my website. And a few questions.
Hey guys, So I am almost ready to go live, and want YC opinions before I do. Your opinions and feedback(good/bad/ugly) very welcome.

You can login as demo/demo

And now to the questions,

1. Should I launch it in this situation. I ws hoping to launch it after I had some more features. But I am already 15 days late, than the deadline I set for myself.

Why I want to launch it now:

Of course I want real users so that I can not just be coding in vaccum, but solving real problems of real people.(TM)

Why I should wait:

Umm, I do not want to screw the launch. First impresiosn are last impressions.

2. How should I advertise this:

Options:

Social media:
Umm, IMO, this is not a low involvement app, and would require substantial pre sell, before people would like to use this. Plus social media wont really be the people I am tragetting.

Adwords:
The current bid prices for "project management application" is in the ballpark of 5$ per click! Even if I can get an awesome convert ratio of 10%, the cost to acquire a cutomer would be 50$. Ouch!

Advertising on blogs which target this market. Ok I think I will try this.

3. What should I charge for this, and when should I start charging.

When:

I want to offer this for free for sometime(say three months), after that I want to charge for serious usage. But I do not want to give away a lot of hings for free, coz once I bring on a paid plan, there would be backlash, unless there is substantial value add. Also once you set a price, in people's mind you set an implicit value for the product. So keeping this free for a long time does not seem wise.

How much:

Cant really think of an answer to this, before I can think of an answer to "when".

[PS. Sorry about the formatting. I can never get the post to display nicely on news.YC]
It's a great idea. I'll wait here while you execute on it. Then it might be worth something.
If i was my startup, i would pay salary. You get so much more bang for your buck out of your users. Startups work day and night, that would cost too much at an hourly rate.
"Ideas need execution to have their value realized. That doesn't mean the ideas are worthless!"

--Ok. If you say ideas have a real value, then why there is not market for it? Why there is no website where you can sell your great ideas to the highest bidder?

sorry, but ideas are just that. worth 0. It takes hard work and execution to make an idea worth something. Therefore, the execution is the value making part of it. Without it, the idea will just be a day dream.
An idea without execution is just a dream.
How does one account for the data lost via compression and interference?
Not all ideas are worth 0, just ideas that don't provide value in and of themselves. For example, a product idea doesn't provide value to your customer, a product execution / implementation does. On the other hand ideas that are provable or experimentally verifiable have value unto themselves (examples: fundamental theorem of algebra, electricity and magnetism, theory of relativity). This board focuses on product ideas so by and large here ideas are worthless.
For founders and employees, salary without question. Contractors are different and usually paid on an hourly basis or given a retainer that's supposed to correspond to some set number of hours. But if your core team wants to be paid hourly, something is terribly wrong--they either should be given more equity or simply don't have the right mindset.
"...	Wundrbar is the next generation of search ..."

lost me at "enter your twitter username & password". certainly don't need to do this with google, icerocket, yahoo, altavista.
Actually, I hit the back button because I thought it was a live stream... my thinking was that whatever had been interesting earlier (when the link was posted) had probably long passed.
Progressive CSS Enhancement
"... is there any video of the presentations? ..."

Asked of previous demo days, and the standard answer has been "no" - probably due to companies not yet ready for release. I thought the purpose of demo day was to allow VC's a sneek look at the latest YC recruits not a general public launch.
Here's what I think:

An idea by itself is worthless without execution, but definitely worth something with the right execution behind it. So you can think of an idea as a multilplier, where the better idea will give somebody skilled in execution a better output.

To explain:

stupid idea: x0,5

OK idea: x1

good idea: x5

great idea: x10

Now if someone good at execution starts a company with an OK idea he will make, let's say, $1.000.000. The idea is the multiplier, so if he executes a good idea he will make $5.000.000, and if he executes a great idea he will make $10.000.000.

So you can argue here that a great idea is worth $9.000.000 more than an OK idea. But you can also argue that if it doesn't get executed it is worth nothing.

That is the dilemma.
Hourly pay makes sense for disposable employees.

You are likely asking for trouble when applying it in a startup.

A case study from Charlie Munger:

One of my favorite cases about the power of incentives is the Federal Express case. The heart and soul of the integrity of the system is that all the packages have to be shifted rapidly in o­ne central location each night. And the system has no integrity if the whole shift can't be done fast. And Federal Express had o­ne hell of a time getting the thing to work. And they tried moral suasion, they tried everything in the world,
and finally somebody got the happy thought that they were paying the night shift by the hour, and that maybe if they paid them by the shift, the system would work better. And lo and behold, that solution worked .
http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2005/08/ideas_are_just...
"... They've generated more revenue than Google had at the same age ..."

But that's not a really good comparison especially if Tipjoy is dealing directly in money while google was search. Having said that, maybe Tipjoy is onto something because the last micro-payment startup to do something interesting was paypal which started 10 years ago.
Why eclipse formatting sucks
How Internet news should work
"... It's kind of arrogant of the OP to assume that his precious idea (which of course no one else has ever conceived of in any capacity) is so valuable ..."

Exactly my sentiment. Of course the value of the idea can be judged by the selling price it receives. Is it for sale?
Hey hhm thanks for posting this code. It's just the inspiration I've been looking for.. in Perl as well.
Very nice and insightful article. I think it's really the fear of failure that cripples a lot of people rather than any inability itself.
Except that in a democracy, what a government controlled search engine does with your data is more transparent than what a publicly held company (Google, say) does with it.

Of course the EU itself is very far from being a democracy (unlike its member states) so I'm still not thrilled about the idea, but in principle I'm not opposed to it.
Isn't that similar to the prediction markets that are popping up like mushrooms lately?

Also, there are markets for ideas, kind of, for example cambrian house comes to mind.
Not really a new insight, but nice Shakespeare quote.
Startup idea: web2.0 rendez-vous organizer 
I've seen a startup here in France offering a web service allowing customer to pick themselves the appointment date. They login and the free slot agenda is presented to them. They can then reserve the time slot they want or change it later. This avoids blind and long discussion through phone with the secretary. Of course the client is given a password controlled access so that he is identified. This service was sold but was far too expensive. A freemium business model should be offered instead.

Another very useful service is the one provided for free (with ads) by www.doodle.ch allowing for a group of people to converge (by vote) on a meeting date. It is nice to have it free, but in a company we would prefer one without ads and hosted internally for confidentiality. A company would certainly be ready to pay for such an application. Beside I'm quite sure a more user friendly and ergonomic interface could be invented.
This is kinda old news. HD DVD and Blu-ray are dead. Apple have already done away with old cludgy disk drives with the Air, people will download and stream. It's not rocket science.

DVD is certainly my last 'hard copy format'. After DVD, the natural progression is to go digital distribution.
I have been at startups and established small firms with every thinkable permutation of pay, stock, and required hours. Frankly if you are at a point where you are ready to hire people, a FAIR salary (not even thinking of future profits or the potential value of stock options) is the only arrangement that aligns your interests with that of your staff.

Expecting people to work long hours routinely is a great recipe for failure, unless you are doing something totally uninspired and brainless to start with, in which case having zombies do the work is sure to work just as well.
i wanted to write on this from a long time .... thanks to ambition to bring this up ... and thanks to murrayh for supporting it .... can i get email id to contact both of u - murrayh ur email id is bit confusing - can u pls clarify for us ...

Now lets discuss this in detail - i truly believe that idea is always worth something - this is NOT a chicken or egg situation because u just cant execute anything w/o having an idea - u cant have a team in place to execute something w/o an idea - so its clear that idea comes first and then the team and then the execution.

Also idea is not yet traded openly because there are issues in getting idea protected - let me tell u that ideas do get stolen ... trust me !!! What if u put 100 ideas on your web-page and nobody pays for it but still goes ahead uses it in some other part of the world???
But there are ways to deal with this kind of situation - it just requires a motivation and persistence ...

Also people say ideas are worth nothing is because most of the time there is no explanation or analysis or research done to support the idea - also we have a habit to value the idea only when it comes from a popular source else we dont even bother to listen to it. If an idea comes from pg then people will listen to it, but if the same idea comes from a guy on the street then our doubts take precedence.

Conclusion : Ideas are much more worth than what a normal belief is - you cant execute anything w/o having an idea - idea generates creativity - it generates dreams - and If you can't dream, then you can't WIN !!!
I think you are doing a great thing by writing such essays. We are a Bangalore India based startup, and I have been reading your essays for the past couple of years (from before we started our Internet company).
Keep it up!
Optimizing a laptop purchase?
Last night my laptop's wireless card appeared to have died. After some diagnosis, it turns out to be the entire PC card infrastructure. Not a good sign for my primary development machine.

So now I am in the market for a new machine.

While pondering my purchase, I realized I had strong opinions of what mattered and what didn't, of where it made sense to spend my very limited startup budget.

I will list my criteria below and am interested in how others optimize their decisions.
Because ideas are not easily "excludable" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excludability ). How can you sell it if you're giving it away for free on the site? How can you buy it if you can't read about it?

That doesn't mean that an idea has no value, it means that it's impossible to transform into money. Or, if not quite impossible, that the transaction costs outweigh the value of such a market (I'm not convinced of the value of the original poster's idea:-)

BTW, I explained this a year ago:

http://journal.dedasys.com/articles/2007/04/26/ideas-are-wor...
I am happy with my Dell + Ubuntu. Be sure to get one of the discount codes floating around the net if you go that route - they're worth something like $200.