skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The next big 'micro' thing?
i'm positive about seeing more products emerging that micro-x (or altleast claim to be) a micro version of some existing x.

Carrying on the idea of "less is more", seem to have paid off hansomely for lot of innovative avtars of existing as well as new products. The upperhand you get when it comes to using phones as a platform is also very encouraging. It must be easier to engineer for the phones, when your actual data /content is itself small is'nt it.

So hence this discussion to think/rant on what you think could/coudnt be the next big 'micro' thing 8)

here's a list of a few i could think of that already exist or could become a reality pretty soon...

@micro-blogging
twitter, tumblr, ?

@micro-contacts/ids
microformats have already shown the potential of this , ?

@micro-email
don't ask me why ,but i'm surprised i hav'nt see this already :D

@micro-html ?
perhaps publishing for small dimensions like phones/google IG/netvibes/pageflakes? makes sense doesnt it...

@micro-photos , micro-videos
perhaps an only thumbnail version of a flickr/youtube/etc (again could be adopted for avtars directory or nice drag'n drop playlist editor for videos) . another thing that would also make sense for phones/devices.

@micro-podcasting
starting with Qik, ?

@micro-playlists
i think this is an awesome opportunity. be it a playlist of url's , video's or pictures ,being able to add a to-play while on the phone, and see your favourite micro-info . this would ofcourse need to have a micro-ecosystem of all kinds of data (ie. many of the micro's listed here) ,and being able to see each of them in the same dimensions. be it a biz card - or news or a blog post or video streaming

@micro-novels
already seen in japan via the use of twitter(that too published via phones!)

@micro-calendars
perhaps on the lines of 'google agenda' version?

@micro- ????

Keep Clicking,
Bhasker V Kode
New research project captures traffic data using GPS-enabled cell phones
awdr isn't highly appraised (highly praised?) for its technicality, rather it's highly praised because dhh rubbed himself all over the cover. rails way and design patterns for ruby drift farther from the kiddy pool.
OOP and Django
Sounds great, in principle. Here is what would happen if it actually occurred:

Various big projects of dubious value (particle accelerators, LIGO) will go begging for money. Any candidate who doesn't want to support them will be portrayed as anti-science. The majority of the effort will be placed here (scientists care more about grants than politics).

Standard science issues where the science doesn't fit the party line will be highlighted: evolution, climate change and sex ed. For the most part, science will be used as a club to beat republicans with. They certainly deserve it (1), but not only them.

Non-standard science issues that cut against democrats will be mostly ignored (race/sex differences in intelligence, lawyers suing doctors without scientific evidence, the possible link between abortion/miscarriage and breast cancer) . No one will ask the candidates what they think about Larry Summers or James Watson.

It sounds like a great idea. But I know my colleagues well enough to know that if it happens, it will simply turn into a "give us money, we hate republicans" event.

(1) At various points, I noticed birth control (non-condom) includes the warning "Does not prevent aids or other STDs." Until I heard McCain speak on the topic, I didn't think anyone was actually dumb enough to think it did.
Because people agree with me. And that's why modding is so useless. What you want is new insights being modded up - what you get is people being modded up for expressing well what everyone else is thinking, and modded down for dissenting.

I wish I could say that karma left me cold, but it doesn't - if somebody mods me down I feel insulted, if somebody mods me up it feels like praise.

To get on YC-topic, there's room for innovation here...
That article lists Flock as being Webkit-based, but it actually uses Gecko.
Since consensus seems to elude the discussion here, I've made a bit of effort to distill the analysis.

If you don't want to spoil it, don't follow the link.

http://daniellefong.com/2008/02/10/blue-eyed-islanders-now-i...
Intel Sued Over Core 2 Duo Patent Infringement
Museum 2.0: Data Visualization: Honest, Powerful Interpretative Design
Hmm, actually it might depend on the theme you're using. I'm using the Ollicle Reflex theme (http://www.ollicle.com/2006/nov/28/jquery_netnewswire_style....) and it displays the comments link neatly in the right column.
Why Developers are Drawn to Weekend Code-a-thons
Message to Yahoo: How to Negotiate with Microsoft
Windspire: Propeller-Free Household Turbine Gets Approval
Is that preferred to honing arcane source groking skills?
I can't believe that rendering speed is an issue with modern CPUs.
A warning before switching to the latest nightlies (http://nightly.webkit.org/): Gmail doesn't seem to be supported. Spoofing the user agent to pretend to be Safari 2.0.4 does load the page, but none of the links work.
I think you are totally right given the current state of video lectures--they are like the first movies, just awkward translations of stage plays that don't take advantage of the ways that a film can be different and better. I'd much rather see a lecture in person today, all else equal. But I imagine as innovators take advantage of the digital media, we'll see some pretty cool stuff one day: higher production values, Second Life-style virtual worlds, more interactivity, HD, and Discovery Channel-type content that can better compete with live lectures. Right now, though, we are definitely on that second Innovator's Dilemma line where digital lectures only compete with the low end and non-consumption, the way maybe NAND memory used to.

Also, I agree that community is a big deal, and the number one thing we are missing to really take advantage of all the cool content that is coming out. (But I do think other video-based works, like Lost or Serenity or Star Trek, have been able to support both attention and community.)
Should I (a) google something, (b) read the source, (c) read blogs, or (d) read a book about it?

Yes.
Ditto. It's a real shame that Dick Cavett no longer has a show. Charlie Rose is the best imitation.
Yeah, I posted the above, but I don't believe that current management at MS has a prayer on executing successfully on anything different or new. I sure that there are factions within MS that viewed the obvious lock-in of Sharepoint as the great white hope that would roll back the internet threat and safely lock the 'intranetwork' to MS. Well, they can forget that, except for a few of the 'large client' sheep.

It seems like any new interesting project is always 'Skunkworks'ed, thinking of XBox, Zune, MS Research - "The Project formerly known as 'Half the World's Smartest Researchers (Being Paid not to work ((At Google)))"', LOL.

I really mean 'why', just why are they bothering with Yahoo? I mean, they will just run it into the ground. The "Next Great Idea" (tm), the next Facebook, the next You Tube, the next Slashdot is probably swiftly exiting Yahoo as we speak.
micro-email is known as SMS
All Your Parentheses Are Belong to Us
uTest: Get Paid to Find Bugs
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=84039
Interesting, I'm not running into that problem.
90+ URL Shortening Services
What should release v1.0 actually mean?
I agree with you that the original wording should have rigorously ensured common knowledge among the islanders of their logicality and devoutness, since common knowledge (of a different fact) is what the puzzle is about. But that's a subtle point and not the source of the previous disagreements here.
I messed this up, what I meant is "... from the viewpoint of each of them it would be also reasonable to assume that ..."
Ummm... no it doesn't. Read it again. It lists all browsers, grouped by implementation.
which one is easier?

1) Dealing with WinForms (or WPF)
2) Dealing with C#

vs

1) Dealing with Server-side code
2) Dealing with XHTML and CSS and JavaScript (and compressing them)
3) And dealing with IE, FF, Safari (let's leave Opera)
I can't believe any of my software is slow with modern CPUs.
One of my sister's former coworkers dreams of starting his own oil company. (My sister is a petroleum geologist.) Supposedly he took a bunch of economics and business classes as an undergrad, but he must've slept through the part about economies of scale.

...it doesn't really apply to software though. The software business has significant diseconomies of scale, so it's actually rational for employees to quit their big firms after learning all they can and strike out on their own.
Average share price over the last year is meaningless. Yes, the economy in general was taking a beating, but Yahoo had also come out with disappointing earning and outlook. At any given time, the market does a pretty good job at pricing in all factors to a stock's price.

If the economy as a whole is having problems and a company is at risk of lower earnings, the stock is clearly worth less. Over the longer term, if a company is able to get over those hurdles and achieve the earnings they desire, their value will again rise.

Would you argue that if a company tried to buy Citibank at $40/share that they were trying to take advantage of things? Its current price is $26/share but it was above $45 for the majority of the year. Citi, similar to Yahoo has had significant difficulties that reflect on the potential future earnings of the company. Therefore, these companies are likely fairly valued.

As a result, the Yahoo line that they are "massively undervalued" rings false to me. They have turned down a tremendous premium over their value...Unless they have other courses of action to raise their earnings significantly or they have other offers. My best guess is they are just negotiating and trying to get Microsoft to offer a few more $/share.
Opera has been doing that for ages.

AFAIK Opera 9.5 Beta is still faster than these two browsers.
I actually thought that the most interesting comments were at the end of the interview.

"What the VCs created by not investing in entrepreneurs during the .COM winter, was they created a breed of super entrepreneur... That breed of entrepreneur didn't need money, they figured out how to make a business without a lot of money, and now they don't need the VC's any more and the VC's are freaking out."

He also mentioned that companies that take VC money are actually at a competitive disadvantage over those that do take money. The VCs force the startup to take a big exit, so the VC can make their 10x return on their investment in 5-7 years. But, if a company doesn't take money, they can be bought for a lot cheaper, and are a more likely target for acquisition. A VC backed company is going to be 10x more expensive than a non-VC backed company.
If you have to ask why, you're probably not a hacker.
Second DaniFong. Great interview, listened to the end.
MS Research is completely separate from the product teams. Researchers seem disdainful of product team folks, and vice-versa.

One time over lunch I asked a technical manager about the role of theory in our work. His response: "Remember that time we had a guy with a phD in our group? We wasted so much time on theory and did nothing practical". Everyone laughed, and promptly changed the topic.

Another time I had an interview with their search engine team. I ended up in a fairly heated argument with the interviewer about where innovation comes from. Her contention was that Research should do all the innovating, and throw the innovations over the wall to product teams, and product teams obediently implement. Which I said was... less than ideal. "No hire" =)

Seems to me in Google, product people and theory people are tight, or even the same people. MS's schism approach will never touch that.
I'm a dead-tree fanatic, but I've also found that it's the blog entries (when available) regarding functionality that do more digging than a book (usually) has the time for.

A blog entry is strongly-targeted to the specific issue; that's why there was a blog article. While I can't cut-and-paste from a Real Book (tm) I could just as easily type in a code sample mindlessly, without any thought to how it works, why it works, or its relation to anything else.

I view this as a discipline vs. time vs. curiosity issue rather than the information source, but (as I've been told recently, quite a bit) I'm abnormal.
That is true, not many companies can deliver on a Google scale, and there was a good amount of risk that Google wouldn't have been able to deliver.

Maybe the risks that Google would not have been able to deliver on the scale that they have warrants a return of 400% over two years. However, I tend to believe that the market didn't perfectly understand Google's technology/market placing/placing/potential/strength of executive team/etc and low-balled the upside potential.
> The first sign of trouble is the sheer weight of CLTL.

Was this simply an issue of trying to put (what should have been?) library functionality into the language?

I've never been sure at what point one should stop adding the next keyword argument or handling the next edge case: if things are designed so that it's easy to do only when necessary.

CL seemed to accrete functionality better left to specific use-cases, but re-inventing the wheel sucks too. Back then it seemed like a lot could have been done with CL addons but instead it was pushed into the spec.

(Caveat: I don't remember stuff that happened yesterday, let alone in the very late 80's/early 90's, when I was working in CL.)
What I said that simple was version 1 of good. I.e. a metaphor. I wasn't claiming that the current G frontpage was their first version.
Rendering of http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/10/utest-now-open-for-busi... seems broken on the yesterday's build.
Learn, But Not Necessarily Through Books
beware, it's not ready yet, sign up is a waste of time
I'll still argue that people having jobs isn't, and wasn't, what holds "the framework of society" together.
You make it seem like it's open source thanks to their own good will - it's based on KHTML, the Konqueror rendering engine, which was LGPLed.
The spider's stratagem: how we came to the "second nuclear age"
There's much to be said for a well-written book. I have enjoyed reading through Paul Graham's "ANSI Common Lisp," for example, because reading through an entire well-written book, you can pick up on much more insight than you can simply browsing small chunks of information in weblogs. I can tap into the mind of Paul, so to speak, and see Lisp from his point of view, rather than just get little nuggets here and there.

Similarly, Philip Greenspun's books on web applications... SICP... The Little Schemer series... alas, most books don't provide great insight into a better way of thinking -- but that's a failing of authors, not of books. The book format, used well, is outstanding. So is the blog format. And so are non-blog web pages. They all have their place, but each should be used differently, to make best use of the medium.
This reminds me of topcoder, but for testing
Creating a culture that supports innovative design
Google Trends is the most important marketing / analytical tool to a web developer
Indexing a Career: A Career Path in Pictures
Scribd version is at http://www.scribd.com/doc/2061465/43-06-CareerIndex
Scribd version is at http://www.scribd.com/doc/2061465/43-06-CareerIndex
How MediaDefender got hacked: The Pirates Can't Be Stopped
@micro-to-do

micro-html = widgets?
I'm not expecting PG to plan for hurt feelings. I'm expecting him simply not to go out of his way to hurt feelings. For no particular reason he took a technical time-to-release issue and turned it into a political correctness issue (and therefore made the whole debate around it political).

Simply take this paragraph:

"Which is why, incidentally, Arc only supports Ascii. MzScheme, which the current version of Arc compiles to, has some more advanced plan for dealing with characters. But it would probably have taken me a couple days to figure out how to interact with it, and I don't want to spend even one day dealing with character sets. Character sets are a black hole. I realize that supporting only Ascii is uninternational to a point that's almost offensive, like calling Beijing Peking, or Roma Rome (hmm, wait a minute). But the kind of people who would be offended by that wouldn't like Arc anyway."

And change it to:

"Currently, Arc only supports Ascii. MzScheme, which the current version of Arc compiles to, has some more advanced plan for dealing with characters. At some point (I don't know when) I or someone else on the Arc team will probably figure out how to take advantage of it."

That's all. Say less. Stick to the technology. Avoid politics. Controversy avoided.
I can see this being useful, but what incentives would I, as a developer have, of paying people to find bugs? Especially when they pay me and find the bugs and usually report them anyways?
how 'bout micro-social-networking?
$100 price drop on iPhones and iPods coming in the next two months
No kidding. Trying to compute the odds that a particular hour of your life was spent in the "best" possible way is a recipe for misery, even when it's not an actual symptom of mental illness.

Somebody needs to read The Paradox of Choice.
Ask YC: Why are startups secretive?
Startups tend to be secretive. Some are secretive about their startup plan ('stealth mode'). Most are secretive about for example number of (active) users.

I wonder why that is. There are definitely more ideas floating around than capable entrepreneurs, which suggests that spilling the beans on your idea isn't a big risk. Being secretive about your statistics is even more confusing to me. Is there some sort of upside to valuation that I'm missing?
The Futility of Fighting Media “Pirates”—How MediaDefender Got Hacked
Top Albums of the Last Three Decades
Why Social Ads Don't Work
I don't know if I'm reading this right, but think they aren't competing with "open source" in a general sense, since Webkit is open source. Or maybe you meant "with" in the "using" sense: "It's pretty impressive that Apple can compete using open source. I forgot that was possible."

Or maybe you were just talking about Firefox...
He should have written an open letter not to Ballmer but to Microsoft board. The letter could have been much shorter, while enormously more useful for Microsoft shareholders.

It could have said: "Get rid of Ballmer The Car Salesman and get yourself a real technology-focused CEO"
I think there is a catch 22 when revealing your start up idea. Imagine if you posted it on this site. You'd end up with two scenarios:

- Nobody liked it. Your idea is probably unspectacular.

- People responded well to it. Your idea, which just got validated, is now also available for public consumption. This is troubling because the idea also has a stream of positive comments, making it that much more attractive.

Neither of these outcomes are good, which is probably why start-ups are secretive.
i agree, you can reveal a lotta things after you get traction

teenwag i know did not release a lot of details and kept a lot under the wraps
I had this idea just yesterday... earn 10 cents to be the first to submit a bug.
National Geographic Feature on PlayPump Water Systems
Yahoo to reject Microsoft $44.6 Billion offer, how will Microsoft respond?
If I were him, I would have been hoping they'd accept the first offer. There's a pretty good chance now that MS isn't going to go any higher (especially given what's happened to their stock since the bid became public news) and his shares are going to spiral into the abyss.
Hack like a champion today
Search != Display.

The real comparison is whether ads placed on social sites do worse than Google's display (AdSense) networks.

If they do (and it sounds like they do), it's likely because the majority of social sites don't show up in search engine result pages (SERPs). My understanding is that most/many of the clicks on AdSense come from people clicking search results, and then seeing an ad relevant to their on one of the pages they click through.

Display will never equal search; intent isn't there. The only real money to be made in display is a) via SERPs and b) branding/influence ads, whose effectiveness is not easy to measure, since it isn't about clickthroughs.

And the social sites will need to move either to brand ads or to truly social ad concepts (ala facebook fan pages) that become part of the app’s experience and don’t draw users offsite.
I'm a recent CS grad from UCSD. In our new CS building, there's a sign that pretty much brightened my day the first time I saw it.

Thanks to this guy for putting getting the CS department to put it up:

http://michael-mccracken.net/wp/2007/04/12/hack-like-a-champ...
that seems correct. the same reason the revenue in youtube is so low
Bugs found by your paying customers have a cost even if they appear to you to be free. They increase the total cost of using your software, and in a perfectly fungible world ruled by rationality that's extra money you could be charging them for bug free software.

It also helps with massively distributed software where invidiuals are less likely to report bugs (without some kind of automated bug sendoff tool). Netscape had their $50 bug scheme, for instance.
Why, by 2108 there will be superhuman machines and all... If Google is not the company who invents them, they will be toast.
I try to do this as well. I also have a really strict rule about never doing copy/paste. I always type every last character into my programs. Partly because I'm ridiculously anal about not having any extraneous characters slip in, but mostly because it slows me down enough to make sure I commit everything to memory.
"- People responded well to it. Your idea, which just got validated, is now also available for public consumption. This is troubling because the idea also has a stream of positive comments, making it that much more attractive."

You should add to that what REALLY happens when people respond to it. They start talking about it. They bury you in great ideas that never occurred to you. They sign up to be notified about your private beta. You are incredibly energized and motivated all of a sudden. You are no longer fearful that your idea will totally fall flat. Recruiting gets easier. Good developers who are interested in your problem/space seek you out. Investors (who know all of this) don't think you are a total noobcake. You don't have to invest time or money in stuff like NDAs or other secretive measures.

Stealth mode is 95% of the time totally ridiculous, with the risk of being out there totally eclipsed by the reward. There is the 5% case, I suppose, where you've truly invented something unique rather than just making something suck less.

I'm also absolutely FLOORED by your statement that the "...Nobody liked it. Your idea is probably unspectacular." scenario is not a good outcome. That's a spectacular outcome compared to pissing away months or years building something that you later realize nobody wants.

(IMO)
I can give you two good reasons for being secretive that you may not have considered:

* If you're entering a competitive space --- and particularly if you have a direct sales model with medium-long sales cycle (ie, you sell to companies) --- your competitors can neutralize you without copying your features. All a company with a shipping product has to do is "roadmap" your features for you to lose competitive advantage.

* There's what Joel calls "The Marimba Effect". As long as you keep quiet about what you're doing, your failures and missteps don't count against you. Once you launch, prospects can start to form an opinion that's hard to shake off.

I can't say that these are dealbreakers if you're starting some social calendaring service for pets, or (like most YC'ers) considering some kind of social network code autoindentation product for MzSchemers. But we are not awash in examples of companies that opened up early, launched small, and went on to huge success.