skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
How to kick off your site on no real budget without spamming?
I have a web site (http://www.themovietracker.com) that I launched a few weeks back. I've had previous sites and generally you start out forcing your friends to join and then you slowly work out to other methods (ads, fan pages, etc.) but usually devolves into soliciting random people to check it out. This generally leads to someone accusing you of spamming.

How do you kick off your site, without spamming, and with no real marketing/advertising budget? Please help!
I think there may be a loophole.

Without naming any names, there was a law based start-up (with lawyers on the board and founders) in the US that wanted me to work for them for free for a while, and then maybe be hired as a salaried employee.

I declined the offer since it seemed like a poor deal and the company was in dire straits, but they told me that they had at least one person work unpaid for several months before being hired.
My attitude is that you find what you're looking for. SXSW is definitely connecting with an audience, and which audience it connects with will change over time. If you're drifting out of the core audience, then admit that, accept that, and move on.

Personally I had a blast. And I had some very interesting conversations with some of the very folks he was complaining about. I'm glad they were there, found it relevant, and enjoyed themselves. They will be back next year, and that is a good thing.

However I am more of a back-end person. It was fun, informative, entertaining, but mostly not particularly relevant for me. So I'll likely take my own advice and not come back. (Though I may change my mind if I'm lucky enough to be asked to be on a panel again. And there were some very good sessions.)
As the parent said, e.g. MySQL and Linux weren't as good or better than the closed alternatives when they gained traction. They were however cheaper, and open often has the quality of cheaper, since it's often simply free. Cheaper often wins over better. Hell, MySQL still isn't as good at the big closed databases.

And this applies to HTML5 video: Theora is cheaper than h264. So Gruber's argument doesn't seem to hold.
Some HFT is Good, Some HFT is Bad, But the Market Structure is Ugly
http://blog.themistrading.com/?p=701
I've updated it to log this data, if it helps!
My vps in the Newark facility is cruising along just fine.
* Good friends with the man who was the head of the Missile Intelligence Agency during the Cuban missile crisis. He also worked with Von Braun on the Saturn V rocket. (Interesting story, by the way.)

* Turned down a potential offer to Westpoint.

* Achieved the 99th percentile in Standford Achievement Test every year I took it (5 years), each in different subjects. However, I don't have the grades to support it.

* Touched the Stanley Cup.

* Learned PHP when I was 13. C, C++, Java, etc. came soon after.

* I'm a programmer by trade, but I am going to school for management.

* I've recently become friends with several of my childhood heroes.
I have a counter-point. 3 years ago I was using SDCC C compiler [1] for a 8051-compatible microcontroller. I checked Wikipedia for some background and found that SDCC article [2] was deleted.

[1]: http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Device_C_Compiler

And you know what? Deletion is not the end of the world. I just re-created the article from scratch and after 3 years it's still there! Here's what I wrote in the talk page:

= Why re-creating the article =

I know this article has been deleted before. But I believe there are strong reasons to recreate it:

* Small Device C Compiler is included in Debian starting from 2002, and FreeBSD starting from 2004.

* It has good statistics on SourceForge (highest rank is 41 at Aug 2006, stable 6000 downloads per month).

* It is mentioned in 5 books according to Google Books, and has about 70 hits on Google Scholar.

* It is the only open source C compiler for popular Microchip PIC16 and 8051 microcontrollers.

And a final note: I am recreating the article from scratch.
> typical response

What's your sample size?
Facebook was a dorm room project, which you could argue originally fell into the 'non-startup' category. There are many, many examples of how your vision at start may be entirely different than where you end up, and its often difficult to see how that path looks when you are standing at the starting line. "Stuff happens" when you execute.

Also, the quality of a start-up should not be measured against scale potential. How a VC sees the world is deeply influenced by their own goals of 10x returns. A cynic might say that VC's promoting this view do so to produce more fuel for their business model.
I donated to Wikimedia in past years. I shant be doing so again. It's not that this particular article is something I care about, but I'm not going to use my money to support something that's increasingly working against the spread of human knowledge.
Apple is a company that has billions in cash. Any amount of money lost because of this won't do anything to their bottom line, something like 0.01% maybe less. The amount of free publicity and props they got from that action however are worth millions, I mean, just read what people are saying on this thread, they're all praising apple. How much do you think that's worth as publicity?
Well, after that much of an XML binge, it's going to take them awhile to go through detox. We just have to be patient and loving and make sure they get the help they need and are kept away from the bad influences/vendors.
Ask HN: Best technology for web development
What do I need to learn for doing web development? the generic kind, say for a typical library or a movie theater. I am a programmer and have experience with application development(C++, Java, SQL, etc), but have zero knowledge of web technologies. Just thought asking HN would save the effort of looking them all up and comparing them myself.

Thanks.
Strange life experience: I've juggled 5 balls on the flight deck of a 747 while 35000 feet in the air over India.
I hope this lawsuit goes on because Hulu was obviously an created for the purposes of the lawsuit. I.e., it was created to destroy the argument that the content companies brought this on themselves because they are slow to innovate and to bring their content to the net where their clients want to see it.

When this lawsuit ends, Hulu will likely switch to a pay model for many shows.
Facebook client library in Clojure
There was a time when Gecko wasn't a very good rendering engine. And that was a time when practically nobody used Gecko-based browsers; it didn't really take off until it started to surpass IE.

The useful analogy here is that Gecko had all sorts of room to improve and ultimately beat IE, but Theora seems to have little or no room to improve to the point where it'd match or beat H.264. Which means Theora will likely always be a fringe codec, just as Gecko used to be a fringe browser engine.
'The Times' reveals paywall plans to staff
I imagine that compresses pretty well with RLE.
Four ways to make money "selling" free mobile apps
Are you suggesting an intervention?
Sure, you can see the object, but the effects only last 17 nanoseconds (expected to be 100 nanoseconds eventually), so you still can't see the quantum effect. Props to the researchers on making such a large object dance to quantum mechanics, but the headline still manages to make the breakthrough disappointing.
Omar Ramos-Lopez, Laid Off Employee, Remotely Disables 100 Cars
Yeah, most discussions I've read on this boil down to "it's what I learned first." Seems to be a familiarity thing.

What bugged me about PS is that it's really hard to manage all the panels and subwindows. They end up covering what I'm trying to see, and moving them around efficiently took way too long. I prefer the Gimp's docks and tear-off menus, which collapse quickly and respond nicely to my window manager shortcuts.

On the other hand, looking at my co-worker's CS2, it looks like photoshop has moved towards that behavior some... so I'm probably out of date. It's been several years since I used CS on a regular basis.
sigh no, i wasn't trying to insult you. i was just wondering how you could have missed all the Apple news in the past year.

it wasn't an unreasonable question, i just didn't feel inclined nor did i have the time to list everything that you could found through google.
I thought that was the norm where in the bay area? no?

I always aim to come at work at 10, yet always, I end up coming at 10.20-10.25.

I am always punctual and late at the same time. The Mediterranean clock on me still running even in the west coast.
Gruber ignores costs, that’s right. Probably should have mentioned those somewhere in his argument.

But, just so to make that clear, cost does of course not win by default. If something is bad enough, paying for the alternative could be the better thing to do.
A prime numbered cycle means that the cicada rarely meets a predator (since any predator would have to be synchronized to 17 years, for example) and mass emergence would overwhelm any predator around.

I think that's half accurate. They meet many, many predators - hence the great numbers overwhelming predators, as you point out. Their numbers are so great that all existing predators can gorge themselves, and there's still plenty left to mate.

Rather, their prime-number periodicity reduces the likelihood that a specialized predator will evolve. Many predators eat them, but none of those predators have evolved to specifically eat those cicadas.
Javascript. Learn it asap. HTML obviously and then use what you know already for SQL and Java/C++ to code the backend. You already have a lot of the framework for it having done application development.
Bccthis brings private email app to BlackBerry
They did it for Al Gore too when he got one a Nobel - http://db.tidbits.com/resources/2007-10/Gore-on-apple.com.pn...
Early Emails Between YouTube’s Founders
Now I'd like to know more about what general uses there are to these beasts. I see the point for simulating fluidsn etc., but out of climate researchers and aerospace engineers, who needs these sort of tools nowadays? sincerely wondering.
Stock Market Trends as Realistic Mountain Ranges
Not to mention a lot bigger problem set. 256 points is laughably few nowadays.
Not sure of your level of knowledge, but the LAMP stack is a good place to start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAMP_(software_bundle)

For the scripting language, you won't go far wrong with Ruby on Rails (pleasure to use) instead of PHP (potentially heartbreaking).

Also, it's considered good etiquette to have your basic research done before posting help requests on forums, saying things like "save the effort of looking them all up" smacks of laziness, fyi. It's not like a Google search can be compared to running a marathon or something!

Hope that helps.
Wolff: Ruperts’s Mad As Hell, Newspapers Are Over
How to meet important people in Silicon Valley : Thomas Korte
The Idea Guy/B strikes again...
I wouldn't call it a repost if it was on Reddit, but I had seen it before. I'd even bookmarked it in delicious, June 19, 2008--so it's a good bet it was on reddit that week. :)
Exploiting the Bluetooth Spectrum as Material for Space Management Strategies
In our consulting company we have noticed that a lot of the ex-employees become our customers. Somehow, we have built good relationship with them and when they go and work for somebody else they call us.
But I never saw it the way they put it in the article. It really is a good idea. Embrace turnover and get the benefits.
Sounds like a perfectly cromulent investment idea.
probably the easiest thing to do is to find some relevant blogs and drop them an email asking for a review.
I enjoyed this article, since it confirms the impression I have of my son. Nonetheless, I don't claim to have good evidence for that mental model, and this article doesn't present any.

When the stakes are high and the reality is complex or hard to access (or sometimes beyond all comprehension), a topic is ripe for superstition. The supernatural. How best to run a nation. Managing the global climate.

And I realized recently . . . you know what meets those criteria perfectly? Parenting.
There is a section on filaments at the very bottom of this page:
http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect20/A1.html

I think that's what he means by spokes.
You are defining "good" as "feature rich", which are different concepts.

For example, MySQL wasn't and isn't as feature rich as the big closed databases, but it solved many problems as well as they did, and in many cases with less overhead (learning curve, administration, hardware requirements). So, in a way it was better than the alternatives, and that's why it gained traction.

Compare to H.264 vs. Theora. Theora is just an alternative, it doesn't solve any problems better, it is just "open", which most people don't care about.
Put another way, “open and better” is a recipe for success; “open but worse” is a recipe for obscurity.

This is equivalent to: "better" is a recipe for success; "worse" is a recipe for obscurity. Openness is irrelevant.
The idea of negative|imaginary mass has been studied in more depth, particularly in the context of general relativity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotic_matter
Oh yeah, just one thing: If you could pay a secretary cash ($17,000 a year maybe), why would you give them precious stock? If I was running a company, I would pay cash in anticipation of the stock becoming more valuable.

I refer to the $9 million paid to the 'UI designer'. (but a PS - I kind of refer to the Microsoft millionaire secretaries).
See also: is the magnifying glass a symbol for zoom or for search?
I don't know what good an archive of zeroes is, unless he's also got an archive of ones to draw from as well.
Yeah, this is so common (most of all among hipsters) that it must just be an effect of human nature. I remember how amusing it was when Nirvana unexpectedly hit the bigtime and all the indie types who had been raving about them as gods suddenly were forced into "Nirvana sucks, they sold out" mode. Cognitive dissonance in action!

If other people steal the emblems of my identity (by liking the same band I like, or going to the same conference I do), it's as if they're stealing my soul. Worst case scenario, I might have to admit that I'm not that different from the average guy. That's a bitter pill for a lot of us, especially those who were raised with or otherwise acquired the idea that we're exceptional or superior.

An interesting irony about this is that the ego dynamic underlying it all is so primitive and so identical.
Gruber ignoring cost when it's often one of the strongest benefits that fall out of openness strikes me as disingenuous.

And yeah, cheap doesn't always win if it really sucks. You could make an argument that Theora sucks that bad, especially when you consider the lack of hardware decoders. But that isn't Gruber's argument at all. His analysis here is really off base.
This has nothing to do with Hulu.

Two things.

1) Viacom removed its shows from Hulu earlier this month. [1]

2) Hulu is going under paywall, announced few months ago. [2]

[1] http://paidcontent.org/article/419-viacom-taking-its-laughs-...

[2] http://www.businessinsider.com/hulus-paywall-on-the-way-afte...
There's a good aphorism: "People quit their managers, not their jobs."

OTOH, I don't agree that "software is software everywhere you go". I've worked in specialties like games / computer graphics, and that kind of work is inherently more interesting to me than for loops and sql statements style dev.

This isn't to say that less sexy areas can't have really good tech. They just often don't, and the exceptions are usually the leaders.
Excellent post. In the parameter-space of all startups, there do exist cases for capital-efficient startups that do raise and deploy significant funding.
No, it's not. Given the choice between "better" and "worse", you (and Mozilla) would always choose "better". However, if the options are "closed and better" and "open but worse", you might choose the latter.

Openness isn't irrelevant; it's Mozilla's reason for choosing "worse".
That sounds like a horrible decision. If there's any way you can scrape together even like $400 for a cheap, but actually functional and fairly fast, computer, do so. It's a poor workman who blames his tools, but partially because a good workman will realize when investing in good tools is well worth it.

It sounds like that's taking a significant productivity hit on you, which is not worth it.
First Clay Millennium Prize goes to Grigoriy Perelman
The full press release is here:
http://www.claymath.org/poincare/millenniumPrizeFull.pdf
In college we used to do nasty things to the PBX system. It was smart enough to detect and prevent forwarding a number to itself -- if you did it using the internal 4-digit extension. But if you forwarded to yourself via 9+direct-dial-number, it couldn't detect that.

So we'd forward the phone that way, then call it from another line. You'd hear a sequence of clicks, progressively quieter (why? isn't it all digital?), and then it would just stop, presumably because all external lines were used up.

Farther off topic, the phone system had a weird feature: dialing #*5 would say back to you 3 (apparently) random digits. This was good for chemistry lab, if you needed to fudge some data and wanted to introduce a believable error factor into it.
It's a symbol for obtaining refined detail within a certain subset of the whole. The description matches both, yeah?
A prime numbered cycle means that the cicada rarely meets a predator (since any predator would have to be synchronized to 17 years, for example) and mass emergence would overwhelm any predator around.

I don't understand. That sentence doesn't explain why it can't be a non-prime number like every 16 years, or every 18 years. It looks like part of the argument is missing.
But how many 100 employee companies would opt for using a shared logo? Because this is the only thing that makes 99design different from other ready-made logo stores.
The layout of the original post was different, and it was probably not an the daily wtf. (As far as I can remember.)

But 2008 does sound about right.
Theora is cheaper in some cases, but usually all codecs appear "free". Apple and MS have already paid the H.264 license fees (for other reasons), so the incremental cost to support it in the browser is zero. Likewise, most people treat encoding and streaming as free even if they're legally supposed to pay.
Thank you. The biggest items helping me with this were 1) never enrolling in high school, 2) RPI gave me credit for coursework I had done but had not officially received credit for outside the system, and 3) careful management and fine-tuning of graduation requirements, along with a slightly higher than average courseload. It would have been nice if I'd thought ahead a little more as I was not well prepared for grad school applications, with my second year being my senior year.
Ah OK, the full explanation is in the linked paper:

The present work is based on the hypothesis that the cycle length is a prime number in order to optimally escape predators. For example, a prey with a 12-year cycle will meet—every time it appears—properly synchronized preda- tors appearing every 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 or 12 years, whereas a mutant with a 13-year period has the advantage of being subject to fewer predators.

So it has to do with the number of available (different) predators, because their populations also go through cycles. Link:

http://www.cims.nyu.edu/~eve2/predprey.pdf
Probably because Karl was willing to do it without a co-founder status.

I think the same way you do - that I'd never join a startup unless it were my own. I also used to make the same mistake - I thought that everyone else thinks the same way as me. In practice, the opposite is the case. Most people who want to join startups aren't willing to bear the load of fundraising, staying for months on a brink of death, doing recruiting, or management, or secretarial work, or a million other things a startup founder does. Being an excellent engineer or an excellent manager doesn't automatically make one an excellent founder.

Bill and Rich are world class at what they do - founding, growing, and running a company (and everything that it entails). I don't know Karl well, but he is probably world class at what he does - engineering great web applications. If Karl is willing to keep doing engineering for a certain compensation, there is no sensible reason for Bill and Rich to make him a co-founder (and conversely, if Karl doesn't want to deal with all the things founders deal with, there is no sensible reason for him to seek a co-founder status).
From experience, I can tell you that all things being equal, a good design and pleasant usability experience win you business from your competition.

My company built its own online quoting and ordering platform from the ground up - Smartpress.com. There are many sites out there that let you buy printing online. Ours is clean, fast, pretty, and gives you instant quotes on all products. I'm not pimping our site, but these features of our platform have won us customers. We know because that is what they tell us. The design attracted them, and equated to conversions.

We have our own designers in house, just not web designers. So, we paid good money to a contractor whom we know very well, and worked closely with him. It was worth every penny.
Well suppose it's not a prime number then if you have some predator whose cycle is a factor of the cicada cycle then it's going to meet up with the cicada every time.

Suppose you have an 18 year cicada, it has factor of 2, 3, 6, 9 so any predator that peaks every 2, 3, 6 or 9 years can synchronize with the cicada and be around to eat it.

But if the cicada has a prime numbered cycle then it greatly reduces the chance of synchronizing with a predator.
That's kind of a confused response. Openness is irrelevant to whether users will adopt something, even if it's relevant to Mozilla. In other words, Mozilla cares about irrelevant factors.
This fork could be, articles as they appear it Wikipedia, plus other articles that weren't accepted. However, what about deletionists affecting the edits of existing articles? Swiping Wikipedia's history, and keeping your articles in line with that would be a serious pain.
NewProg v1.0 (Programming Language)
Ever wonder what a Threadless t-shirt sale looks like at the server level?
Thanks for asking -- Ryze. We don't do a lot of P.R. on it these days, so many don't know of it, but in those first years it was mentioned multiple times in NY Times, Wall St. Journal, industry pubs, etc.
P.S. a big part of #2 was Johns Hopkins U's CTY program, plus courses I sat in on at Skidmore College, to give them some credit.
Spot what part of the problem you can leave out [1995]
So you've got this little website you run from your dorm room at college. Something to let all your little friends chat back and forth.

I not only don't want to invest in your little 'startup' but don't ever call me again young mister Zuckerberg.
I think it all comes down to being useful.

- Join conversations about movies (on blogs, forums, review sites, social networks), but contribute to those conversations, don't just advertise your site. It won't help you, it will just annoy everyone.

- Start a contest and give away small prizes for the best weekly/daily review or movie list.

- Work on your SEO: friendly urls, movie categories, better descriptions, titles etc. It won't get you too far, but it might help a little.

- Make a monthly/weekly list of recommended blog posts on movies, they will be notified you linked to them.

- Search on twitter for people asking for movie recommendations and interact with them.