skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I've got a better plan for my future: I'm going to grow old and die.

(Unless, of course, fate intervenes and I don't grow old. But I intend to keep planning to grow old right up until the last minute!)

It's a classic plan, and well tested. Lots of prior art. Lots of examples to learn from, and a lot of infrastructure and literature.

You folks can find fault with my plan if you want. But here's the thing: You're going to follow the same plan, whether you're willing to admit it or not. [1]

Further reading:
http://kk.org/ct2/2007/09/my-life-countdown-1.php

[1] I'd offer to bet, because my odds are really, really good... but tontines are illegal for a good reason. ;)
The central core is concrete cast in place and does not move. The floors hang on "rails" attached to the central core and rotate around the core riding on those rails.
While people are reading this, just wanted to say that I haved fixed it so you can be logged out of Clickpass and still use the Clickpass dropdown to log in to news.yc with your own OpenID.

We are going to do some stuff to make that even easier going forward. Let me know if you have any issues with that...
Yes, sometimes its good for the niche communities to have less exposure otherwise its inevitable to hurt the community. There are lot of jerks lying around to spam the community, but who knows the results can be surprising, too. I wonder though how Hacker News would deal with this excessive exposure and how many of the sites the techcrunch has hurt until now?
Adobe Launching Free Version of Photoshop Online
first and foremost, if you don't feel comfortable undertaking a project like this, for all of the reasons you listed, then don't. if you're going to do this, you need to jump in head first. asking if your situation is "worth" it is a value decision that would have a different answer for each individual person. if its not a good fit for you, then don't do it.

having said that, if you do go for it, make sure to set them straight. you might not need an official business plan, but you do need to at least have a road to profitability written somewhere on a napkin before you get started. it needs to be shown that it can be done. make sure the startup follows a good path and make sure that your investors/partners understand what needs to be done. introduce stability so you can maintain a stable paycheck.

and i think its been said elsewhere on YC, so i'm probably stealing the idea, but being a startup founder doesn't mean that you can expertly produce the startup from start to finish by yourself. it means that you have the knowledge and leadership required to make sure that the task gets completed. if you guys need better coders, hire some freelancers or new employees.
You said that you do not necessarily have faith in the idea or people. That says it all. There is no commitment from your end and it seems that you really don't care. So, don't just jump in for the heck of it, or just for the sake of leaving a 9-5 job. If the founder himself is not committed enough, this startup would go nowhere, no matter how much funding you get...
Thanks for this good thread and our team could run into the same problem. We would like to know, if its pivotal for any startup to start from US to gain a good success?
Super soaker inventor invents new thermoelectric generator
good points. Thanks. I am actually from canada and i have insurance covered here. I can afford working up to 6 hours after work to work on the venture everyday. The only challenge I have it I do not have the luxury to take 3 months off during the period.
So I want the address marker to be there so you have a reference that you can easily find.

Double clicking to remove works in Firefox and Safari for me. Which OS/browser are you using?

Good tip on the iframe directions. Done.
Great post
Coding Horror: I {entity} Unicode
How To Survive In An Online Business
we've seen that investors also care about your passion/interest in the problem and the genesis of the problem (are you solving it for yourself or just chasing dollars?).

I would't get too excited about your consulting experience (unless you're building software for consultancies). Being a consultant and shipping software products are pretty different. One of my cofounders and I both built pretty sizable consulting companies over 5 or 6 years. So far every investor has utterly ignored that and was way more interested in the startup we previously built and sold in 6 months. One actually expressed suspicion of founders with consulting backgrounds.
The article referenced here by WIRED is 5 years old...
Django (Python) - http://www.djangobook.com/en/1.0/chapter20/
Productivity Variations Among Software Developers and Teams: The Origin of "10x"
Steve McConnell just wrote something about this:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=147916
I have used <a href="http://www.capify.org/">capistrano</a> to deploy both php and rails applications, it works with merb, and probably camping and rack.

You need it check into some sort of SCM, then setup some ssh keys and put in your server settings. Then you can deploy it out.

It does take a little getting use to, but it helps greatly once you set it up correctly. It's a build and push to server sort of setup. It's great.

On the python front, i wouldn't know, but the newer capistrano seems more open to different types of code-bases.

If capistrano doesn't suit you, you can always build up some nice rake tasks that automate it for you.

just my thoughts :)
How to combat "Trojan Inside".
Focus and Fear of success - the biggest monkey on your back?
Find a production method that is cheap...

The properties of aerogel include:

- The lowest density material known to man

- The best thermal insulator known to man

- Structurally extremely strong (but brittle)

If you can produce this stuff cheaply you would have to be an extremely poor entrepreneur not to make bundles of money.
Anything can kill you:: Anything can be your killer: Anything?
Anatomy of an Icon: Inside the Apple IIc
I was a little confused by the "program size" metric. I'm schooled in the "less is more" when it comes to code you have to write, so when he said the Excel team was better because they wrote more code, it took me a second to figure that that was supposed to be better.

Am I reading this right?
Sophisticated worm code that couldn't be decrypted
Thanks for your response! So working at a consulting company implementing web-based applications doesn't count? I totally agree that it is not like shipping software products, but our startup is building a web-based service. Previous experience with a startup is something neither one of us have, is this going to be a huge factor?

Could you elaborate on "suspicion of founders with consulting background"? When I say consulting I don't mean management consulting, I'm referring to system integration firms such as Accenture, BAH, IBM, etc.

Is there anything one can do to offset the lack of startup experience?
Thanks for the feedback ... the idea that these folks haven't thought things through as much as I would in their situation is scary but I guess not a deal-breaker as long as they can lead.
Perhaps I was being a bit dramatic in that I have no faith in the idea or people -- it is more that the idea is so ambiguous that I am weary of trusting it.

If the idea eventually resolves to a more solid plan, I would certainly be committed to it. Thanks for the feedback.
Thanks for your quick reply! In your opinion, do VCs shy away from teams with no prior startup experience? and or if they have consulting (system integration) background?
I strongly disagree with Point #2. How we interact with our environment contributes greatly to how we perceive the world. Intelligence that is synthesized outside of natural processes (I think the term "AI" is paradoxical when describing super-human intelligence) will require means of interacting with the environment in the same way we require our bodies.

It would be evolutionarily advantageous for a superhuman intelligence to devise better ways of grasping/flying/swimming in order to expand upon the existing knowledge base that it would acquire. Also from the perspective of experienced-based knowledge having a "body" would be invaluable.

In other words, reading books and doing thought experiments do not contribute to our intelligence as much as these things in combination with experimentation and interaction with our real world through what our bodies can manifest. If a super human intelligence does come into consciousness, then it's possible that it would see the advantage of this...

Could you please elaborate upon Point #1?
I certainly wouldn't go so far as to label it a troll post at all- Keep in mind, PG et all encourage apps that are intentionally small in scope, such that they have a reasonable change of being finished in a 3 month cruch-and-run marathon.

There are a lot of great apps which fit this model, but they DO tend to be smaller in scope- The constraints of the model force uses to focus on their core feature offering, rather than adding everything under the sun, to appeal to as many users as humanly possible.
I've thought a lot about this as well. From the outside looking in, it feels like investors would much rather fund entrepreneurs with previous successes or an existing hot product. I can't really blame them, but it makes the job of the first-time entrepreneur that much more difficult in getting off the ground. Which makes startup programs like YC all the more important.
What Common Lisp Conditions (Exceptions) are Really About
The No-Tech Hacker (Forbes)
Come on! don't get offended so easily, this is just an argument. I didn't mean to hurt any Y Combinators and would like to be very much a part of this.

I do think reddit have strong business model and generates more quality contents than Digg, for this I have backing from zdnet (http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=99). And Ofcourse reddit is a very much success and my favorite. Look at this data going head-to-head with StumpleUpon (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/stumbleupon.com+reddit.com/...)

In terms of backing my argument, if you think reddit have gone far than the Digg I think you should look at the compete data (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/digg.com+reddit.com/?metric...)
and this argument backing that, reddit isnt that viral(http://socialnewswatch.com/digg-versus-reddit/). My point is it could have been more viral with little more effort and more to it that no other startup came close to Reddit and Scribd (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/scribd.com+reddit.com+loopt...)

And I could very well turn this post off, if everybody favors with this.
Amazon probably provides PTR records for all of their IPs. You can check with the host command on Linux:

host 10.1.1.1

You'll also want an SPF record for your zone:

http://www.openspf.org/

DomainKeys are being checked by some webmail providers, but it's only a non-spammy characteristic at this point, not mandatory for delivery. As long as nothing else about your message is stupid (e.g. RFC compliant SMTP server, reasonable DNS records, and you aren't sending 100 per minute to addresses in the same domain), it'll go through.

I'd suggest using whatever Python library will allow you to send using a real SMTP server (or just pipe your email into the mail or sendmail command, which use the local smtpd to send, by default), like Postfix or Sendmail. There may be a standalone library that is actually RFC compliant and handles error conditions properly, but it seems unlikely from a historical standpoint (most such libraries, particularly in the PHP world, are renowned for epic failure). As long as Postfix or Sendmail are configured properly, your mail will be RFC-compliant and will look far less spammy than those coming from a half-assed implementation of the spec.
PHP has Phing, which is based off of Ant (from the Java world).

For Ruby, there's Rakefiles and Capistrano for web app projects. There's also Vlad the Deployer which is more lightweight. For Rails, there's a continuous integration plugin which you could use to monitor your unit tests.

If it's not a large project, you might consider just writing your own tasks to automate the process (ssh'in and svn up or hg pull/up). But if you need the ability to rollback or to make sure all your unit tests pass first, go for Capistrano or Vlad.

People have used Capistrano for Python web apps too.
If you put an old harddisk in a new computer does it boot to the same desktop? If you say "That does apply to people because..." then Ray counters that we'll find out if this is the case within our lifetimes.
Depends on your bandwidth requirements. For somebody without traffic, absolutely not. Slicehost blows them away. That's why I use Slicehost:).
no problem.

this sounds like a heavily technical project. before jumping in to it, you should assert majority control on the direction of the project. not necessarily ownership or anything, but would you want a team of lawyers with no piloting experience flying a plane? no, the pilot should be at the wheel, making the directional decisions.

such is this project. a developer should be in the lead of building an application. you're the developer, so make sure that they understand that while you'll seriously consider everything everyone says and bow to others in their areas of expertise, the final decisions lie with you because at the end of the day, you're building an application.

that'll probably make you more comfortable :)
I hope it does get built in Chicago - that'd be a fun one to watch get built!
any blog entries or anything describing what you did and what led to your shut down?

I hope to avoid learning this kind of thing the hard way...
What part of "execute" don't you get? Hehe, that's exactly what it means: Get it done. On time. With quality.

It's deceptively simple. Can your team (no quotes) do it, and do it well?

Who cares if you are a brilliant programmer... Can you deliver what is required, or are you going to build a gold-plated, incomplete product? That's what execute means, and it's really freekin hard to get that into people's minds: Get it done, do it good enough, don't do it perfect. Perfect ain't for startups, it's for time-wasting hobbyists.

As for the MBA or whatever big university name or title or whatever: It doesn't matter squat. "Harvard" on your resume might get people's attention, but ultimately what matters is "can this person execute?" I have seen some brilliant people without an education do extremely well... And I have seen collossal failures out of people that look like the top 0.1% on paper.

It all boils down to execution: Getting it done. Can this guy prioritize correctly? Does this person know what's important for launch?
Crary - A new Erlang lightweight web server
If you're in San Francisco today, don't forget to come to the justin.tv office (36 Clyde Street) to see Peter talk about Clickpass. Talk starts at 12:30pm.

If you're not in SF, Peter's talk will be broadcast at http://www.justin.tv/hackertv
The examples, facebook and digg, had a much smaller scope when they started than many YC startups have...
YC Advice: Travel
Discuss your personal stories of how travel has influenced you.
Finding political news online, the young pass it on - International Herald Tribune
Sounds like a reasonable question, with a perfectly logical explanation. A reasonable (if misguided) question.

Huge companies with huge success are very uncommon - that's why we can list them off the top of our heads. YC invests in a lot of companies, but not many in terms of the total number of startups in the world. So lets say that out of 10,000 startups, 1 gets huge (Google, Facebook, etc), 9 get big (Digg-sized). That's 1 in 1000. YC has invested in ~80 startups (call it 100 for easy math sake), which is 1% of the "market". 100 tries at 1 in 10,000 isn't great. Even if you say that YC companies are 10x more likely to succeed (not unreasonable given the training, motivation, selection bias, etc), 100 shots at 1 in 1,000 still isn't that good.

Becoming huge requires a lot of things - including luck and timing. No matter how much value YC adds, it can't add those two things. What it can do is increase 1) the odds of success and 2) the expected value of that success (0.1% chance of $1B, 99.9% chance of $0 isn't very appealing).

I think pg's goal isn't to create billionaires (although he wouldn't mind). His goal is to help smart hackers solve "the money problem" so they can have the freedom to pursue other productive pursuits they wish. Look at what he, rtm, and tlb have done since they sold Viaweb (Arc, YC, HN, Harvard prof, awesome homemade robots). None of that would have been done if they were working at Google for $110K/yr.

Trying to solve "the money problem" in a couple years shows an excess of ambition, especially since programmers earn decent coin in the corporate world.
A farmer creates something. What do you create? You happened to be the first person to think of registering a certain domain name, and won that lottery. Well done.
Atlast, i was looking at Picasa the other day wishing that it had an upload to flickr button.
It was worth it to me. It's the kind of book you give to a kid who is too brilliant than his own good: smarter than the teachers and authorities around him yet still treated like a second-class citizen and never an adult. All of my friends loved the book. You might be able to find an ebook of it lying around somewhere -- check it out before you import it. You can also read the first n-pages on Amazon.
RE #4: He (the clone) may not be you, but it will surely think of himself as himself, and after the fork and you go one living different lives, who's to say he's wrong?
You wrote "about applying to YC and other similar programs" do you know any other firms which do the same what YC does? If so, please post some info! thanks!
Well, you'd have to remap all the sensory inputs (computers don't have that problem since they have standard interfaces). For instance, if you got put in a smaller body you'd keep reaching for things and coming up short; you'd have a different sense of balance; speech would be hard since mouth and vocal cords would be different shape and quality; lots of things like this. The brain is extremely adaptable and could theoretically learn to do this (esp with something like rehabilitation therapy), but trying to do it all at once would be a tall order.

Basically instead of a computer's fixed API, you are continually negotiating a new interface between brain, body, and world with every action you take. Keeping it updated isn't hard but starting from scratch takes lots of trial and error (just watch a baby grow and you'll see what I mean).
Great! Thanks.

Can you please point me to some how-to about acting on incoming email using Python? I look far and wide but couldn't find much.
Yes, I think initial scope is less of a concern, the way it evolves with time and adapt to user need is very much important for the success.
So last month you had sex with your girlfriend 9 times. Where's the baby?

Same argument. No lack of ambition. Just give it time.
In many threads people suggest traveling. Lacking motivation? Travel. Depressed after a startup failure? Travel.

I always agreed and have been positively impacted by traveling throughout my life. I just returned from a trip to Asia that reenforced this.

As always happens, I reached a point where things were starting to go poorly. My motivation was lacking, I was developing tunnel vision and overall was just not that excited. A short trip of a week and I am revitalized. I have an abundance of energy, motivation, and the whole flight back I was writing outlining my plans for the next few months.

So go travel. Now. Get it out of your mind that you don't have time, the break will pay dividends. You can't afford not to.
I dont even know how to downmode someone. How do I?
Python: Bitwise NOT and List 
I realized that instead of using negative numbers to access elements of a list from the end, we can just use bitwise NOT. That looks more symmetrical (and hence beautiful).

For a list x:

First element is x[0]

Last element is x[~0] (instead of x[-1])

You can use x[~0], x[~1], x[~2]... (coz ~0==-1, ~1==-2 etc)

Did you guys know this already or is this my fresh insight? If it is the latter, YAY! :-)
Are there any other YC funded start-ups doing online photo editing? I only know of Snipshot.

I can't see myself switching right now - I'm used to Snipshot's interface and prefer it sometimes over CS3 (for the smaller jobs).
I think of Picasa and wish they had an OS X version.
So basically YC is in the "micro-loan" business???

If so, then I think the original premise of the comment is valid and interesting ... that "YC startups are less ambitious (perhaps by design)".
I didn't know that, but I don't know that it really is that helpful. I prefer the Pythonic way of sticking to one method and having anyone be able to understand it.

Good little hack though, if it works for you go nuts! (but document it somewhere and be consistent)
If you boil down what the brain really does, it chooses actions based on experience and inputs. If we want an AI that will operate in the real world, then yes, it will need some sort of body so it can learn how the world works (physics simulations are nowhere near as complete as the real world is). If we want an AI that makes financial predictions, then streaming in stock prices, financial reports, news data, etc is enough input and no body is necessary. An AI that isn't going to produce any physical action doesn't necessarily need to learn physical movements, etc.

Having said that, physical environment simulations are ahead of where AIs are right now so they're a good place to start.
What About “Maybe”?
Zementa Brings a Semantic Layer to Your Blog
OK, fish, I'll bite. I read your reference, but he never came out and said what he ACTUALLY DID during those 6 months. Is there a "rest of the story" or is it inferred?

Nice link. Really got me thinking. Maybe the subject of a future thread...
Anyone seen one of his talks or ppts?
Anyone else get those creepy cult feelings?
Anyone?
so is it much easier to use EC2 as a server now that IPs don't change? IE, you don't need dyndns and/or a load balancer? I wouldn't mind hosting a site of mine on there..
A newborn baby, I strongly suspect, contains very few algorithms.

Few, but they are meta-meta-meta algorithms like "Try something. If it makes me happy, do it more. If not, do it less." Then it builds up more advanced rules and patterns to act on later.

Incidentally, humans have much less "firmware" (like the kitten hating the dog) than other animals. That's why our young are vulnerable for so much longer, but also why we do so much more as a species - we learn our environment rather than being pre-programmed for it.

Having a kid and watching it grow is very instructive for anyone interested in the only successful experiment in creating human-level intelligence.
Being able to execute means not chasing after shiny objects and being able to say "No". A favorite quote from Steve Jobs (on innovating):

[I]t comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.
My Favorites at Under the Radar
Re: Is there anything one can do to offset the lack of startup experience?

Contribute to an open source project.
wait so you get to leave the 9-5, make your own rules, and get paid more?

how is this not a win-win.

best case: you take control and make this startup work

worst case: you fail and go back to your old job, richer
What's next, calling spammers postmen?
Lessons learned from Digg-style traffic spikes
Presumably the internet is big enough that there is a small community with no overlap with your essays. Hard to find if they are small.