skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Yeah, I was kinda tired of having to rely on things like the may report and freswater venture has been defunct for more than a year now so I thought I'd start it back up.

Its not all that hard to keep updated. If chicago's startup community is ever going to become good there needs to be a way to keep track of it all
I like it. I would love to see a web-based easy to use game-builder. I wouldn’t use it myself, but I think many people would and I would enjoy playing other peoples’ games.

The major drawback is that it is technically difficult to implement.
Introduction to the Lambda Calculus [pdf]
Environment is not state? I'm afraid we have different definitions of state, then.
sorry for sounding like an a-hole

I don't believe you did. If you want to see want an a-hole sounds like, look through my comment history.
5 years? If you count from when FSFS became the standard (2005?) it's really more like 3 years. I think Subversion will probably remain the standard for your 'average' developer, and Git will make huge inroads into the more elite/distributed teams, since it's the default repo for the Linux kernel. I don't really see the point of learning how to use tools that other developers are unlikely to use -- CVS, SVN (which is almost identical to Perforce), and git have compelling projects which use them. Most others don't.

If you use SVN in a group, you should also use Trac, btw. It's fucking amazing. looks at Trac Hacks Holy mother of god, someone went and wrote a plugin to make Trac play nice with Git and Perforce (AMZN and GOOG use p4). Well, that's pretty sweet -- no effort required regardless of repo. And apparently they added a continuous integration dashboard, Bitten (http://bitten.edgewall.org/wiki/Documentation/index.html). I love those Edgewall guys. Makes me want to go back to workaday development... almost.
There is pretty much not a single startup in this session that isn't directly attacking a large market or has plans to expand into a market orders of magnitude larger.

There isn't any video. If you're curious about one in particular, contact them. They're all stand up folks.
RescueTime & 8AWeek are actually pretty different. I use both. Try them out.
Their first release definitely sounds like Zenter, so I'm very interested in hearing how they might differentiate themselves.

But the main focus of the companyis this Javascript library for writing desktop apps, so that seems very much not-Zenter.
This sort of knack for "clever, yet simple" pervades his code.

http://search.cpan.org/~mjd/
Which company had the best demo?
NodeBox: Python Graph Visualization Library.
Does it have anything to do with the IPhone SDK?
Depends on the type of documentation, but I'm a fan of LaTeX since there are so many tex2____ programs out there that'll convert LaTeX to whatever format you want.

The learning curve is steeper but the flexibility is high.
As harsh as it may sound, the ideas are a penny a pound. Unless you have a proven track of generating and implementing viable ideas, your soliciting of the partnership at this stage is completely unappealing.
Indeed -- if I hadn't seen 'plover.com' in the URL I would not have bothered to read it. But MJD is one of those people who is pretty much always worth reading.
This isn't any worse than the crapware that we already get forced into having pre-installed on any new PC we buy. Not that that makes it ok mind you.
Yeah, this is crap, and honestly, it's more typically French than German.

I suppose the political logic was something like, "What's hot right now? Google. Why don't we have one? Well, let's fix that."

On the other side, doubly so in Berlin where I'm based, there is significant funding for startups available especially once they start creating jobs. We're planning on tapping that once we get far enough in. At least as best as I can judge, Berlin's one of the hot-spots for startups in Europe right now.
Lightbox is ruining my user experience
there's an open source format (not software) that is pretty comprehesive (though at times repetitive): http://readyset.tigris.org/
completely agree! I have listed some revenue generator ideas somewhere in this thread.
I would also have an offline strategy where we could bundle some of the best on a cd compilation for added revenue generators. also release the best ones on xbox live through xna. this would spread the word as well.
This must be sarcastic, right?
I'm not giving up!!! ;-)
yeah. I would love to have a couple more programmers to work with, but at this stage, I really dont have a track record to show them. When I get some of my projects off the ground I'll be looking for co-founders with the same passion...
What if every entrepreneur had to tell the truth?
Yeah, "Make something people want". If you don't also keep that in mind, you can end up spinning your wheels for decades on a problem nobody really cares about. Eg. Xanadu, Chandler.
It would be great to get all the Y-combinator folks involved in group projects. Like a group section. Ppl apply to each project and the team leader chooses the developers out of the bunch.

Then they can submit their project to the start-up program, and try to take it to the next level together.

Im more of a strategy/design marketing guy with a programming ability, and I know there are hackers out there with complimentary skill sets. Just an idea!
This is CueCat all over again? Except that the hardware for reading the codes isn't junk sent out on venture capital. It's just every already existing camera phone.
"apple made a big mistake in trying to control the iphone market by locking the phone and having only one service provider"

Apple doesn't think so, and the market doesn't seem to either. iPhone is selling great.
interesting, I didn't know other countries had something similar.

The fallacy, of course, is that you don't get to legally copy any music even though you pay. Basically it's just a subsidy to the music business.
Web site offers peace of mind - for eternity
I currently use Scrivener, MultiMarkdown, TexShop, MacTex and OmniGraffle if I have a diagram or two.

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html is a combination outliner/editor for OSX. Most of its features are focused on allowing you to manage a lot of different bits of a larger document. There's a full XSLT generation engine inside it so you can get it to generate just about anything you want if you're willing to roll up your sleeves a bit.

http://fletcherpenney.net/MultiMarkdown is a simple markup syntax (derived from Markdown) which Scrivener supports.

Scrivener and MultiMarkdown together generate HTML or LaTeX from the base document, so you need to use something like http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop and http://www.tug.org/mactex to get something worth printing.
Then what will we do in 584 billion years?

We obviously need a more robust solution.
I get so excited to see whats coming out next from the YC womb. I'm very excited about InSochi and tipJoy especially. I can see non-profits and charities even using tipJoy . Pretty hip stuff!
I'm really interested in TipJoy, it sounds like they finally came up with a system for micro-payments that could work.
All of these comments and suggestions make me so much more passionate about the project. I really would like to start development. I love you guys (not in a gay way - not that theres anything wrong with that)
From the "Throw Money at the Problem" dept.
Because it's dumb not to. For me there's very little difference between doing something I love and work. Working long hours devoting intelligence and passion to something you don't own a part of seems like wasted effort. I no longer want to be a sharecropper.

I've also realised my brain is punishing me for not. I've had many ideas, the better (I think) it is the more I can't stop thinking about it. Strengths, weaknesses, market, how, competitors, growth strategy, ... I find I can't sleep, the insomnia won't stop. I tend to resolve this by throwing my brain a trinket and throwing myself into my work (coding). I think the only way this is going to be resolved in the long term is to actually do something about these ideas. I've hit a point where I've got to know. I think if my brain is either satiated or knows it's ideas aren't actually that good it will stop keeping me up and scheming.
what percentage of breakout success storieson the Internet did NOT start as hacker projects? Facebook, google, yahoo, etc. All started that way.
It looks like people have already picked the low-hanging fruit here, so here are a few things not yet mentioned I try to do that I don't see others do often:

I use tools like Libero[1] to express service logic directly as a state machine.

I generally try to build and maintain a simulator for whatever I'm working on with tools like SimPy[2] and Spin[3].

I try and use Excel spreadsheets to build mock-up GUI's.

I try and make it so that all database access occurs behind service API's. Before I have the basics worked out I don't even bother with an actual database and instead just use memcached[4] and a file of initial data.

[1] - http://legacy.imatix.com/html/libero

[2] - http://simpy.sourceforge.net/

[3] - http://spinroot.com/spin/whatispin.html

[4] - http://www.danga.com/memcached
This guy is a tool - yes, let's all live our lives in the most bland utilitarian manner. Friends are just an investment, so if your current ones enjoy drinking at all, just get rid of them and invest in new ones

I also enjoyed his 'art of talking to strangers', which was solely about picking up chicks

My mental image of him is something like:
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/ellis.jpg
How to use git / github with capistrano
Yes, but not as big as the difference between having paying customers and not having paying customers.

You made it over the biggest hump. Best wishes making over all the rest of them.
+1 for Pick
Cringley doesn't seem to have much of a track record with these predictions of his
>After all, if you acquire 100 million users but only 0.1% activate, and you have a site of 1 million active users, your ComScore numbers might look nice, but you're right about to jump the shark!

I'll take 1 million active users.
Lessons learned from improving Google Code web site performance
I think you could modify scuttle or pligg to do that in an afternoon or two...
Having recently worked at Yahoo as a front-end engineer, I can say that those rules actually are quite good.

For those who haven't seen it yet, the list referred to (put together by Souders and his performance team) can be found at:

http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html
Thanks a lot for the links. It brings into perspective what those sites are missing,from what i can tell, that would make this idea more viable. But I do have to disagree with you on a point.

I do believe that a widget based game maker can make original games as long as its open enough to allow creativity. From a programming stand-point this directly affects usability, but I would approach it from a design position.

Imagine a standard 2d side-scrolling platform engine. Characters have a bunch of predefined states. Users must only choose which states they want their character to have(selectable through a survey or wizard). What differentiates Mario from Sonic is only a few actions difference.

They are mostly distinct in design. Allow users a "bone man" with pre-made animations and abilities. Users can build the look with our online editor. then the designs are applied to the appropriate section of the "bone man".

Background tiles and objects can also be skinned or selected from pre-made props.

Right now at my 9-5 I am working on a children's virtual world and the most time intensive process is asset creation. This would also be the case in the stated idea. Animations, character states, and npc's and props would have to be developed over time, and can also be user submitted to speed up the process.

I would do 2d games

a puzzle game (standard scrolling, adjustable rules)

a fighting game (actions ability and looks would be adjustable to name a few)

a side scroller action game

a racing game

and others.

All of these would have premade "bone man" animations stock that can define a player's personality and skill set.

The custom design is the key in my opinion. i personally would love this.
Swastikarchitecture
Say you've designed a cross-shaped building, but it looks dull. So, you add an extra wing to all four points. This way, you've neatly created four near-courtyards with one building. Sound like a neat idea? Well, look at the satellite images that Google Earth makes available to every Internet user and you'll realize you've just built a gigantic swastika. Avrahaum Segol, the same Israeli-American researcher who last fall helped publicize a swastika-shaped barracks at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, is now demanding that the Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home in Decatur, Ala., become less swastika-shaped. Mike Giles, counsel for the Methodist Homes Corp. of Alabama and Northwest Florida, says it might not be able to afford that level of money, and is looking at inexpensive modifications. (The Navy said it would take $600,000 to alter its barracks' design.) Wesley Acres already received a $1 million modification to hide the shape following complaints from a state senator in 2001. Sadly the addition of two wings did little to hide the offensive shape, and in some ways accentuates it.
From WSJ.com:

Say you've designed a cross-shaped building, but it looks dull. So, you add an extra wing to all four points. This way, you've neatly created four near-courtyards with one building. Sound like a neat idea? Well, look at the satellite images that Google Earth makes available to every Internet user and you'll realize you've just built a gigantic swastika. Avrahaum Segol, the same Israeli-American researcher who last fall helped publicize a swastika-shaped barracks at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, is now demanding that the Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home in Decatur, Ala., become less swastika-shaped. Mike Giles, counsel for the Methodist Homes Corp. of Alabama and Northwest Florida, says it might not be able to afford that level of money, and is looking at inexpensive modifications. (The Navy said it would take $600,000 to alter its barracks' design.) Wesley Acres already received a $1 million modification to hide the shape following complaints from a state senator in 2001. Sadly the addition of two wings did little to hide the offensive shape, and in some ways accentuates it.
Make sure to zoom in a bit, it's to the left of the pop-up.
I think Will Wright's Spore is going to knock this space wide open. It's not web-based, but it is multi-platform and web-enabled. Spore focuses on procedural user-generated content and sharing it across devices as diverse as phones, Nintendo DSes, Wii, PC, and other platforms. It's not completely a game creation toolkit because it doesn't offer the in-depth control that programming offers. But it's related in that Wright's philosophy is to provide an open-ended 'toy' which enables players to create their own game. As a gamer and hacker myself I look forward to seeing this trend develop further.
isn't this part of what what open source is for? you have the interest in an idea being completed, but you don't have the resources to tackle it ... or necessarily the expertise ... so you start an open source project, you rally some contributors from groups / companies / schools that might benefit from it (or benefit from contributing it) and off you go ... right?
I can't wait until your project debuts. it sounds great...
Tree Lists as a Default List Data Structure
Tipjoy seems to be gaining in popularity: It's already being filtered out by some enterprise firewalls (unfairly, in my opinion) being labelled as a Pay-to-surf site!
POD. Learn it in 10 minutes. Generates all formats. Embeddable in code, if appropriate.

http://perldoc.perl.org/perlpod.html
I think reformatting with the install disks when you first get a new machine is easy. You disagree. Why don't we agree to disagree and leave this thread behind.
0) Use a dynamic language with garbage collection.
"I can't speak to the affect of one programming language or another on the way people think [...] my language is Java [...]"

Ahhh, there it is.
I don't have an account and hence can't see the comments... mind pasting the good bits here for me?
Top 10 Reasons Why Java Sucks Ass
And in response - http://www.javalobby.org/java/forums/t101687.html
Why this post sucks ass:

10) Java does not have DHH
TaffyDB JavaScript Database adds logical sorting and JSON parsing
Version 1.2 adds a bunch of JSON support and logical (file system style) sorting. Also includes bug fixes and public utilities.
"subsidized businesses (they prevent monopolies, which are bad)"

I always like it how the biggest monopolist ever (in my native Germany monopolizing or near-monopolizing by force education, transport, health care etc) is so eager and capable of "preventing evil monopolys" out of other peoples funds. Very protective. I feel so secure. shudder

;)
why not share it with a select group of people and find some that may want to partner to make it real? I have been in the same boat, not finding the right people to partner with.
I just realized that "(or, How to entirely miss the point)" is from the point of view of the submitter, not the article.

Why submit an article written by someone who criticizes that which he doesn't even grasp the basics of when you're fully aware of his irrelevance?
Your statement is true, but that is not what he meant. He meant, "I found out that I am better than the Peter Norvig".

Fuck, I've turned down job offers. Where's my lollipop?
It's not the latter.
Glad to hear you're excited about Insoshi---just be sure to note the spelling! (We own the domains for a bunch of misspellings, just not the one you used. :-)
Where is the moon?
This is what happens when something that should essentially be a technology demo takes on a life of its own.
Ten Sites for Finding Wonderful Things
As counterpoints, myspace, flickr, and digg were not hacker projects.

edit: removed google from the above list.
doesn't even worth it to comment
Yes. There is an obvious lack for a program that takes an elf binary in it's input and runs it. I've spent a while trying to find it too.
You've clearly never had to use UK public transport. Living there for 5 years made me appreciate just how awesome transport is in Austria. Market forces don't seem to work for trains. I think infrastructure is one of the few things (the only thing?) that is better off regulated.
Wundrbar is the next generation of search (YC Winter 08)
16 with my help. enjoy
This post has one problem. It's not funny. The various assertions are mostly prima facie nonsense, but that's okay if we're dealing in humor. But there's no humor. Just, "Blah, blah suckz ass FTW"

Take it to the youTube comment section, please, Obie. Until Ruby has its ebay, its amazon, and its nuclear power plant control system, just shut the hell up. It's so far from being superior in a practical sense that it's not even competitive. Bullshit doesn't make it otherwise.
Ask YC:  What would happen if people bid on keywords using pagerank as currency?
Would this result in an improvement in search engine rankings?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google

Hacker project:

"Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page, a Ph.D. student at Stanford.[1] In search for a dissertation theme, Page decided to explore the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web, understanding its link structure as a huge graph.[2] His supervisor Terry Winograd agreed and Page focused on the problem of finding out which web pages link to a given page, considering the number and nature of such backlinks to be valuable information about that page (with the role of citations in academic publishing in mind).[2] In his research project, nicknamed "BackRub", he was soon joined by Sergey Brin, a fellow Stanford Ph.D. student and close friend, whom he had first met in the summer of 1995 in a group of potential new students which Brin had volunteered to show around the campus.[2]"
I use and love Ruby and Rails... and I can tell you, this is no way to win people over to our side. I didn't find it funny either...
To all of those who wrote about what it takes to build a successful startup, I challenge you: is there another golden rule of startup success that trumps my Golden Rule?

I don't think this is very clever. While "don't give up" is important, it could also be "don't forget to breathe", or something like that. It's not enough just to keep trying if you are not doing the right thing. I think there is not a Golden Rule, there are many smaller rules we all have to use to be successful (well, actually, as there are many different paths to success, there are many possible sets of rules-to-be-successful as well).
Yaw, but what a tremendous freakin' waste. Work on the bottom part of your funnel FIRST and improve that conversion. Hrm. There's a blog post here somewhere. I love playing counterpoint to Andrews unhealthy obsession with the top of the funnel. :-)

(Hi Andrew-- I'm just poking fun!)
I've accidently downmodded once or twice in the past something that I intended to upmod. I compensated by upmodding another comment by the user I agreed with. I suspect the same has happened to me, as I can find no reason for a downmod of this, at one point it was downmodded to zero: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=93671
But even if I say this, I liked the article. I just didn't like the assumption that "don't give up" as a rule is an order of magnitude better as a rule to success than any other one.
I'm late in finding out what happened. Sorry to hear about your voting rights. It's like a Democratic primary without Michigan and Florida having input, we need to work something out....
It's not so much the market forces as the way the privatisation was structured, and the perverse incentives that were created. The tube is a good example - there are multiple maintenance firms, line management firms, Transport for London, the unions, etc. All of them have competing agendas, which doesn't fit well when they are providing one product. I would be happier with a public monopoly than the current situation, and would accept a private monopoly instead of both, contingent on them getting the incentives right.
To GWT or Not To GWT
I'm thinking to use GWT for my future projects because I like what I'm seeing. It also has solid integration with other Google APIs + offerings (like Google Gears).

My only concern is the HTML output. It seems to me that the output has tons of divs. Certain widgets use Table based layout. It certainly feels like doing ASP.NET.

While the JavaScript output is highly optimized, maintaining the HTML seems to be a little bit out of the question.

While I don't mind to learn JavaScript, I have the feeling that it'll take some time for me to learn it before I can actually use those frameworks (jQuery, Prototype, etc) for serious/professional work.

Any thought on this?
I know that this article is crap by just the Bayesian inference from an expletive being in the title. Very easy filter to run, in linear time.
Announced at PyCon today: Find a random person nearby for lunch
My favorite is TipJoy. The problem was in the air, PG himself teased everybody with it, but yet nobody took the trouble of actually tackling it. Neat approach, nice execution. Bravo!

Another big one, I think, is SnapTalent. The existing system of finding people to work is pretty much an "offline approach" ported over the net. SnapTalent actually uses the technology to improve the effectiveness of the process. I only hope that their users (companies) will be smart enough to recognize the potential. If I were monster.com (are they still around?) I'd grabbed these guys immediately.
Have you seen the videos of the previous Startup Schools? Hundreds of people show up. I'm impressed that they provide breakfast!