skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Virtualization is good in e.g. cloud scenarios where the usage is spread out to different machines through out the day. Rather than have 10 machines averaging 5% utilization at all times you can have 1 machine with e.g. 60% utilization all the time. A win.

Sadly, pointy-haired bosses have started putting developers on VMs which is exactly the opposite use case: all people loading their machines at roughly the same time (e.g. I've heard people claim that in Java 1/3rd of time is spent compiling. If you have more then 3 devs....). A fail.
I really don't understand why people get so hung up on the 5-10% thing. This is seriously a bargain, to the point where all the YC founders are arguably actually ripping pg off.

He only gets 5-10% of your current company, while you get his help, a ton of connections, and the YC networks and friendships for life
OOps..Sorry! didn't notice it when I pressed ctrl+A and copied the URl.
I think the Crusades were the worst holy war ever.

There. Problem solved. Unless you wanna kill a few hundred thousand people and go to war for a few hundred years.

(If I'd said "The holocaust", I could've Godwinned this thread, but that wasn't really a holy war.)
Facebook Fake Login Page/Fake Login Script
5-10% is negligible in the face of a 10x or 100x multiple on your potential.
Better yet, find someone that can ship. (And watch Seth Godin talk: http://vimeo.com/5895898)
If you want to hear what English sounds like to foreigners, take a look at http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-english-sounds-like-to-foreig...
I prefer VPSs too, but if you aim wider auditory you should at least try to support web hosting. With RDBMS it is easy. And with NoSQL it is almost impossible. Maybe this is just a matter of time, when NoSQL will be as much widely used as MS SQL for example, then maybe you will be able to use MongoDB in a web hosting.
Is Google Finally Getting into Search Engine Optimization?
I actually think this says something interesting about .NET v.s. open source platforms. The new batch of NoSQL products are being developed almost exclusively in the open source world - they're written to run on *nix (Windows support, if it exists at all, is generally an after thought) and the client libraries that ship with them target the open source languages first. In this particular case, it feels like closed-source platforms are second class citizens.

I'll hazard a guess that one reason for this is that NoSQL systems are mainly designed for scalability, and free operating systems are significantly cheaper to scale than platforms with a license fee per node.
REST is too heavy for my needs. It generates a lot of traffic.
But Google aren't making these devices. They are providing an OEM operating system which can be installed on a device made by another manufacturer and sold branded by yet another company.

It's exactly the same circumstance.
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Hedge fund offers $1bn for Novell
So you want to get the benefits of a YC startup without giving anything in return?
I'm a pretty sophisticated web user and I have intentionally clicked on ads while doing Google searches. Why? Because I was looking to purchase something and I was looking for merchants. The organic listings were either equivalent or less relevant. Perfect example: Sending my mom flowers for Mother's day. I really don't have a favorite retailer I go to. I just go to Google.

Many people make this argument that the only thing Google has really made money from is ads. I take it to be FUD. Many business do extremely well by being really, really good at one thing.
Oh please. It's a big chunk of equity. It's not a bargain and nobody is ripping pg off. It's great that pg is helping startups on terms that both he and the startups that accept the investment understand. Portraying it as charity or martyrdom is absurd, though. YC themselves don't.
Then this new holy war boils down to an good old *nix vs windows holy war, or open-source vs closed applications.
Super simple web scraping with YQL
Thanks for the really great link!
Loved the way the gave the clear and concise approach beginning with "The Market"

Most important part that is often glossed over by entrepreneurs is "GETTING THERE"
I agree, everybody lies, it is human. Should it be expected?

Lying is far from the optimal way. When a company structure starts to mimic a hierarchical army structure then lying becomes one of the tools to maintain it.

If instead of having to lie you manage to create complete openness with people you work with and everyone has an interest in the projects success, lying is no longer a useful tool. Being honest with what you want out of something, what you expect from others and understanding what others need from you is a more optimal way to achieve your goals and keep a balance in your life. This requires complete openness, knowing everything about the business, about salaries, deals, expenses, expectations, capabilities.
This means treating people like adults who can be informed of anything if they want to. No room for "on a need to know basis".
This is hard.

When you feel the need to go to the park on a sunny day instead of compiling that much needed TPS report it is better to go to the park than pretend and lie you are doing the work. Everyone is better off acknowledging we are human and not mechanical beings.
Internet giant Google buys photo editing site Picnik
I would say that you need startup metrics from day one. How do you define success?

I feel that most great ideas revolve around a very simple idea. If this simple idea proves itself in a microcosm and this microcosm is a good example of what goes on all around the world, then that's a good sign.

On the other hand, if you're building feature after feature after feature and just not seeing the core idea catch on, then perhaps it's time to pivot.
Yeah, I have a faint memory of reading about that before Gladwell came out with his book (which I haven't read).

Anyway, putting a number on expertise is purely an academic exercise. The important thing is that it clearly will take a huge effort and "talent" is only a small part of it. The rest is inspiration and transpiration.
Not exactly. In hindsight, maybe my post was offensive, but I did not intend it to come off that way. I am not looking for the full YC package (I'm not sure if my startup is even eligible to apply). What I meant was specifically

- I would like to hang out with like-minded, serious startup folk in San Francisco.

- I would like to meet a seasoned entrepreneur and have a chat about my plans.

- I would like an introduction to a few investors to bounce some ideas off of.

For those three things, I am not willing to give up 5-10% of my startup, which is profitable, and relatively mature compared to YC investees. Additionally, I am sure a full-fledged YC investment offers far more than those three points. ;)
Deployment with, e.g., Neo4J involves simply telling the Neo4J library which path to use for its binary data files at initialization time. It finds a DB if it's there and uses it, otherwise it creates it. Applicable line of code from their wiki:

GraphDatabaseService graphDb = new EmbeddedGraphDatabase( "var/graphdb" );

Of course, Neo4J is an embedded solution. It's quite different than using a separate server application.
I never said it was charity, I simply said that in my opinion the terms are better for the founders. I don't think there's a single YC founder that would disagree with me. And I'm sure there isn't a single successful YC founder that would disagree with me (which is the theoretical point where the equity would come back to bite you).

If your company is already doing amazing or you're already some sort of super hot shot, then of course its not a good deal. Jeff Bezos does not need to go through the YC program. But I don't see a bunch of Balmers and Bezos' complaining about the YC terms, I see a bunch of people that need precisely what YC provides.
At 6% for $17k, a two founder startup is valued at $283,000 by YC. Thats a huge over valuation. Ideas aren't worth a quarter million dollars on paper.

It is NOT a big chunk of equity for startups. If you think it is, you haven't failed enough times to know better. Cause when you fail, you get to keep 100% of nothing.
It's hard to be sure you would have no leg to stand on. It would be an emotionally charged conversation, and misinterpretation would be likely. If the hiring manager, for instance, said anything about a legally protected characteristic (like age or marital status, for example), it could be easily construed as illegal discrimination. One could make the communication written to avoid certain types of misunderstanding, but then you'd give the lawyers an actual document to play with.

There is no upside. Remember that the hiring manager can be sued personally, not just the business.

Finally, consider another factor. Most of the time there are several qualified candidates and one may stand out. That does not mean the others were bad, just that one candidate clicked. It is of negative value to say "Nothing personal, but we really hit it off with Mr. Foobar and not you." Silence is actually better than pronouncing an under-informed judgement on someone based on a series of half-hour interviews.
Short but sweet.

I think the other thing that entrepreneurs should keep in mind is that while you will need to work hard to succeed, don't neglect your family/friends/health. Success will take time and if you neglect these things, you'll either crash before you succeed or end up in a bad spot.
Check this out: http://hnsort.com/
Ask HN: How should I set up an online script review service?
Hey HN, I'm hoping someone out there will be willing to guide me in the right direction.

I'm gearing up to launch a new screenwriting-related website soon. I'll be publishing many articles, but I will also be setting up a script review service, where I ask readers to upload their own scripts, attach their e-mail and pay with paypal. I'll then read and review their scripts, e-mailing their review back to them upon completion.

So my question to you is this: What's the best way to accomplish this? (This being: fill out a user form, upload a file, send all the information to my e-mail, and have them pay). Are there any services out there that could handle the backend?

I'm brand new to this kind of commerce stuff, so I'd be very grateful for any advice you could give. Thanks much.
Hi yeah I do -- ssyed "AT" stanford.edu
The same argument about branches in source control can made about SQL itself. In my opinion, a large number of developers don't know how to code SQL properly and a lot are afraid of it. They end up using an RDBMS as nothing more than a dumb bit bucket -- often hidden behind increasingly complex abstractions. The NoSQL movement, unintentionally, lets these programmers feel superior about their lack of knowledge.

I don't want to argue against the legitimate use of NoSQL solutions. I just don't think there are enough use-cases to justify the hype. For example, an article was posted here last week about using NoSQL solution to store e-commerce orders.
I've got a couple of my own theories about this -

While MIT prides itself in admitting students with passion and interests over those with 1600 (I suppose 2400, now) SAT scores, I think that the truth is that the overwhelming majority of the students who admitted are still the type to overachieve, overcommit, and - most importantly - follow the rules. To get good grades in high school, you turn in all the assignments, complete tasks (as inane as they may seem), and take the tests.

What this turns into, from my experience, is a large set of students who are not natural risk takers. What's more, I'd argue that MIT makes it or made it difficult to take risks and explore on your own. They load you down with work, pressure you into taking on a UROP (undergrad research for the uninitiated), and it's a rare student who has a significant project on the side as well.

In contrast, places like Stanford seem to encourage thinking outside of the box / trying different things. Their culture definitely doesn't seem like it slants toward loading yourself up with classes as a badge of honor, and I think that's a hugely positive effect on the ability of students to find time to dream. It feels like a cop-out answer, but I've finally admitted to myself recently that this east coast - west coast cultural divide (see inmygarage, above) does exist, and is incredibly influential.

So while the students who have left MIT and become successful are well-known and, frankly, represent, their reputation is disproportionate to their number. You don't see* MIT sophomores walking around handing out business cards for their "startup" - and I don't think it'd be such a bad thing if that changed.

* in comparison to other schools
For passer's by, the title of the actual article reads, "Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days".
>>This means treating people like adults who can be informed of anything if they want to.

This is where everything breaks. Most people are not willing to behave like adults, they lie about their illness, when they simply partied yesterday, every end-developer unwittingly lies about time to complete a task and you have to correct him and so on.

In and ideal world (or in some perfect company) maybe everything works as you described (e.g. complete openness and etc.), but in a real world everybody lies.
The Twat In The Hat
It's a big chunk of equity for the money. Now, you can argue YC invests in very early stage, very high risk companies and the big chunk of equity is warranted and that's fair enough. It's still a big chunk of equity. How much equity did Andy Bechtolsheim get for his famous $100k cheque to the Google founders?
There are events in San Francisco almost everyday where you can meet startup folks. Not to downplay YC but the YC community is just a small part of the startup community in the Bay Area.

With regards to meeting seasoned entrepreneurs, just go to events and you'll meet them. Most of them are very generous of their time because they just want to help fellow entrepreneurs.

Just remember though especially with meeting investors that you are one of thousands in the Bay Area that wants a face-time with them.

I haven't really talked to investors. I ask myself why I am worth their time. In my opinion, I haven't done enough to warrant an audience with them. Well, not yet. ;-)
Let's see if you still mention your age in your writing when you are 28 or 29 and still stuck in the grind ;)
Absolutely - to my shame, I only appreciated the irony of re-hashing an older holy war on this thread after I'd posted the comment!
Microsoft’s Project Natal Is Hot. Like Pong Hot
The term "cash flow positive" generally refers to cash flow from operations. A company that closes a round of financing would end the year with more cash in the bank, but no one would call such a company "cash flow positive."
I simply said that in my opinion the terms are better for the founders

Right, I simply said that opinion is absurd and flies in the face of the very idea of running a business like YC. And it is a business, right, we agree on that?

And I'm sure there isn't a single successful YC founder that would disagree

Why on earth would a successful YC founder disagree? They've been successful. This is the definition of selection bias.
IMHO, at least 85% of the books sold at Amazon (for instance) are better not being published at all.

Being obsessive about reading books is nothing but an instance of OCD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_di...).

Not daring of judging the author of this post. Yet, you cannot live this way for too long, it might be good for a while. If this situation become a constant form of life of one, that one is about to go insane.
Entrepreneurship: Don't Read This Before You Try It
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If I could multiply my startup by 100x, I could retire in a couple of months. ;)
If you mean the general public with "people", like consumers that might be true. But there are a lot of companies willing to pay you truckloads of money for the right information.
It's one of several intros that work in a cute way now that we have status update habits (twitter and facebook):

"it turns out..."
"ProTip:..."
"apparently..."

I caught myself using these a lot, and it seemed like every time I used them, I was trying to be cute. Now they are banned.
He has posted some alternatives too

http://github.com/candlerb/string19/blob/master/alternatives...

The first suggestion seems like the logical solution to me however I don't need to deal with this stuff on a day-to-day basis...
Friend, hindsight is always 20/20. We don't know for a fact whether or not Google would be worth billions if they didn't get angel investing, so that example is moot.

But we do know the rate at which startups fail. We see that everyday. If you've been involved in startups, you've experienced it. The problem is, your looking at equity as a piece of the pie, trying to keep as much pie to yourself as possible. The relative size of your slice doesn't matter. Its the absolute size of the pie that matters.
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Hotel Center website - Bled
Is there a non-editorial reason that a new title had to be submitted for this article? The original title:

"Scientists Taking Steps to Defend Work on Climate"

is more succinct, and carries a different connotation than the one invented by retro:

"Climate scientists beginning to admit mistakes and open up their data."
The only ones I know of are Startup at Berkeley and various video game developer meetups. WWDC and GDC are the only two conferences I currently go to. I'd be grateful for any specific recommendations! :)
DBAs don't scale!

If your tool requires people who don't exist, it might be otherwise great but you've got problems.

I'm not even a NoSqlista by any mean, it just seems ironic that you are making a good for nosql - you just need programmers, not DBAs.
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Why on earth would a successful YC founder disagree? They've been successful. This is the definition of selection bias.

Wow. I can't believe I have to explain this.

As I already explained in my previous post, this is simply the only truly useful metric, not selection bias. People care about equity after they succeed, not when they fail. No one sits around crying that they wished they had a larger percentage of nothing. In fact, you know what, I bet pg would be willing to make an agreement with you that after you officially close your company he'll gladly give you that 5-10% back, that way you'll be happy either way.

Go and ask any YC founder who is currently successful, whether its chugging along fine or had any form of exit, I don't think you'll find any of them worrying about those percentage points. The ones who've failed clearly don't care and certainly don't ridiculously blame their failure on YC taking too much of their company. Better yet, they're making use of those same connections and opportunities on the next startup they're working on, and for free this time.
Man, I wouldn't even make it to 28 grinding. I'd probably die of a heart attack from all those sleepless nights and high caffeine energy drinks.
Deja vu.

"and friendships for life"

I've heard this same exact argument from friends who were justifying why they were hazing for fraternities in college. Not a criticism, just an observation.
Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=tar+heel+nc&ie=UTF8&hq...

You can see clearly pictured one of the pink lagoons mentioned in this article. If you zoom out a little, you see scores of them.

Edit: most of the fields you see surrounding them are producing crops that are dangerous to eat due to their nitrate levels (according to the article)
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The for life was meant to apply to all the things listed. The point being, you'll probably form more than one startup in your career, and the connections will be just as good after YC as during.
That does sound like English.
Visit the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View on any evening?
Why would you do this on your phone and not on your computer? He's already sitting in front of a computer with a video camera, mic, and audio output, after all.
Get your business plan read: crunch it to one page
There's a "OK Go Video Release Party/Young Director's Night COMBO Ticket" option for $47 (tix + fees). https://tx1.lacma.org/default.asp (go to special events for 3/5)
The detailed descriptions of the process in this article make for a sort of fascinating train wreck. On the one hand, the sheer scale of the operation is impressive. On the other hand, it seems to have this strange air of shoddiness. When I think of factory farming, I tend to think of a future age of hyperefficient farming, with cows milked by machines and everything precisely regulated. But this seems more like an age of very dense farming that is held together with duct tape and rusting bailing wire, not much of a sci-fi vision. I mean, huge lagoons of pig excrement with trucks falling into them?
Lean Startup meetup

Mayfield Fund/First Capital Entrepreneurs Helping
Entrepreneurs event (great event last night!)

Techcrunch parties

Google Technology Users Group

Startup School

HN meetup (There hasn't been one in a while)

YC/Startup parties (Heyzap, Remail, Vark the past few weeks)

Twitter API meetup

IPhone/Android Meetup

Startup Weekend

Google Campout

Google I/O

and so much more.

Some are paid but all are open to anybody.
I'm not sure that lack of time to daydream is an east-coast/west-coast thing. Amherst is also on the east coast, and it (and I've heard many of the other "little Ivy" liberal arts colleges) encourages you to take a reasonable, balanced courseload and have time for things outside of school. I would say (based on who my friends are at Google) that Amherst and Brown are culturally much closer to Stanford than to MIT, despite being geographically clumped in New England.

The lack of a supportive environment for startups, and consequent lack of risk-taking, is an east-coast/west-coast thing. There aren't very many Amherst entrepreneurs. Most of my classmates did the minimum-wage "life experience" thing before finally going to law school when they wanted to settle down. It's like MIT encourages you to work really hard, Stanford encourages you to find your passion and then work really hard, and Amherst just encourages you to find your passion.
Why Compressed Sensing is not CSI Enhance technology... Yet !
I know one should not do that (self post) but I think this crowd might like this technical insight as opposed to the recent Wired article (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_algorithm/all/1)

The blog post is at: http://nuit-blanche.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-compressed-sensing-is-not-csi.html
You mean reek rather than wreak.

(I apologize if this was just a typo -- I'm not trying to nitpick, but to inform.)
It's a big chunk of equity for the money. That was the point. Either dispute it by facts or don't. But don't weasel around calling me friend, pal.