skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The problem isn't with the domain name system itself, it's with the allocation of domain names.

Recently a huge problem was so-called "domain name tasting", which allowed squatters to register hundreds of thousands of domain names, monitor the traffic (typically from typos, etc) for a week, then return the duds for a refund. Fortunately ICANN is putting an end to that.

I think the best solution would be to raise the barrier to registering domain names. Sure, it's nice that it's convenient and cheap to register domain names, but that really doesn't matter if all the good ones are taken by squatters, now does it?

If you had to either pay a larger fee (something on the order of a trademark registration fee -- ~$300?) or demonstrate you had a legitimate use for a domain, I think the squatters would back off. Of course, ICANN and the registrars don't have any incentive to limit the number of domains registered.

Unfortunately I don't think there's a good way to reverse the current situation, short of creating new top-level domains and enforcing stricter guidelines. Perhaps certain TLDs could be designated for "premium" or "verified" domain names (basically like .edu) while .com, etc remain free-for-all.
I have enjoyed the comments in this post, even if sometimes negative.

For example the PG's and DHH's discussion about definition of a "startup" might seem like nitpicking when taken out of context, but I found it extremely valuable.
I didn't think of that. I went to feature requests and saw lots of requests for search, so assumed there wasn't an easy way to search. But, I'll give it a whirl. Thanks.
Much appreciated - I've done google searches, and it is a bit difficult for me to tell whether the website is sponsored by a hosting company or not.
Just a note: the ads are filtered by Adblocker. Without them, the page looks quite barren.
Concrete examples don't help students learn math, study finds
Database agnostic != database ignorant
Characteristics of DSLs (Domain Specific Languages) for everyday API's
More Advice To A Young Developer
Maybe (I am not a historian). But it is a trivial statement that working harder is the road to success. Also, perhaps as a 30 year old you should hang out in bars at times nevertheless. What is he supposed to write about?

Still - this work harder thing is like the dieting tips in women's magazines. We've all heard it about 1000 times before, but somehow we still need to be reminded of it from time to time.
a very interesting allegory/model that explains it in simple terms and builds in complexity until it helps explain real world economic policies:

http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2008/01/straigh...
What was last month's?
site:news.ycombinator.com is the recipe
also http://searchyc.com
Also, Melatonin is available OTC in the USA and is a much more reasonable way of correcting irregular sleep schedules. The pills are usually 3mg but most doctors recommend taking 1mg which is closer to the body's normal amount of melatonin. 5-HTP (straight up serotonin) would also help with sleep.
RapidWeaver on mac os x. (Similar to MovableType but less hassle).
New Wundrbar Demo
Well, "great personality" is perhaps demanding a bit much. But a lot of people have "made it" without hard work. They get by on their looks, or their parents' connections, or ride someone else's coattails. How much work did Paul Allen put in relative to his net worth? Or YouTube's third founder? Or most investors -- their money does the work, which can return disproportionate rewards.

Sure, Steve Jobs was instrumental in starting Apple, but the amount of work he did to get that first hundred million was tiny by comparison. A lot of salespeople hustle and work just as hard -- just in less effective directions. Lots of middle-aged maids from Guatemala work harder.

Not to mention the sheer luck of knowing Woz in the first place. Or the fact that Jobs did it because he was interested in computers at just the right time and place. A lot of people follow their interests but the industry isn't some gigantic wave.

Plus some things come naturally to people and it isn't "hard". Woz designed the Apple II mostly at night while he was working at HP. Hard for him would have been doing all the stuff Jobs did -- like talking to people! Some people not only socialize easily, it's hard for them NOT to socialize.

A lot of the successes just do what they WANT do, they don't "try hard" to make themselves do something. Bill Gates just loved running his own software company. He could have retired years and years ago, but he wasn't in it to make money in order to do something else. He'd rather run Microsoft than sit on a beach sipping umbrella drinks!

I would venture to guess that most well-known successes just did what came naturally. They didn't have to push themselves, in the way that when you're angry you don't have to push yourself to shout. You just feel a certain way and it's hard not to go along with it.

Probably most of the confusion and inertia here is because people know what they don't want to do (work some sucky job for 30 years), but not what they do want to do.

I think the question isn't "what would you do if you ALREADY HAD millions of dollars", but what would you do if you didn't have to worry about being broke. If all the basics were covered, but no luxuries (like having your own swell bachelor pad), and you were free to pursue whatever type of enterprise you wanted.
Teamwork & "Hot Spots"
What worked for us (http://ReviewGist.com) was what Mike suggested at http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/11/how_to_get_in_t.html.

Essentially: Make is short, not more than a couple of sentences and relate it to something already existing.
Interview with YC company Wundrbar
We all argue from our narrow perspective. Certainly pg did, at least at first, when he offered his own startup experiences as a model for others. Perhaps since then his vision has been more empirically verified. But DHH's advice is basically conservative -- he's just arguing that web businesss can grow like other conventional small businesses -- so it has a fair amount of weight behind it too.
No way could I live without focus follows mouse. His description of the annoyance is perfect.

It's also a good example of why open source matters, even for low level stuff. To make his computer work like he wants, all he can do is ask Apple nicely and hope. Maybe he'll even get his wish because he's famous, but I'd much rather have the source code.
This need not be the case - most newspapers suck because they all try to out compete CNN, which only leave time for a small part of the story with 70% of the facts wrong anyway.
The separation is generally not so clear as the article suggests: take Google search as an example. A powerful algorithm is used to rank the search results by relevance. But relevance is to a large degree determined how often pages are referenced - so it is based on the opinion of the crowd.
Location Based Sevices without use of GPS!
The kernel is actually 2.6.24.
Sorry to say, but thats why most of your comments are down-modded into hell...
I can understand the problem, but isn't there a sort of "gordian knot" solution for this? In other words, can't you "domesticate" autoraise into a kinder, gentler autofocus?

When you keydown and your mouse isn't within the current window:

1. Store the z-positions of all windows (if you haven't already)

2. raise the window you're hovering over to the front and focus it

3. re-send the event

4. set a timer to reset the z-positions of all windows, refocusing the old window

5. if you happen to click anywhere, simply kill the timer and throw away the z-stack.

Hopefully, any animations associated with window refocusing could temporarily be turned off for both z-shuffling events, and in the interstice there could be some smooth "fade-decay" effect that shows that the window is indeed receiving input behind it, but only temporarily. Feels Apple-y already.
The first 3 comments on that post are hilarious
I agree with you but what he said just make sense and many start up wana bee need to hear it. It almost hurts to have to agree with someone like that but the content of that article is still valid.
>But it is a trivial statement that working harder is the road to success.

My preferred despair poster explain perfectly your statement.

http://www.despair.com/incompetence.html
Free Coloring Pages
Free printable coloring pages.
Anyone else think that we should Valleywag ban this guy's site?
QT = fail

YouTube it or something. Seriously.

Looks cool though. It made me want to use Wundrbar--but if I didn't like you guys I'd probably have skipped watching it since I had to wait for it to download first (Linux cannot stream QT without jumping through hoops that it would never cross my mind to jump through).
Definitely agree, there is a big reason all online video is now Flash -- it's just better than the alternatives.
7% is freaking huge. I cringe when I see our credit card processing fees, and they're only about 3%.

I'm sure they'll sell a lot of this service, because they're Amazon, but jebus, that's some crazy high fees.
This seems really dumb from a financial newspaper -- shouldn't they encourage people to buy futures in food as an investment, rather than stockpiling bags of flour in the basement? As it stands written, this article is just creating hysteria.

I'm sure Rupert Murdoch loves this story though.
right but intelligent design is not just a misguided view, if its allowed to propagate its going to hold back scientific progress for ours and future generations so it deserves to follow educatated/intelligent guys like this around with them.
MyPlaylist Offers Free Majority Stake
Need down arrow. Desperately need down arrow. This is the most off-topic crap post I've ever seen on news.YC. Oh, wait...this person has submitted a dozen crap links (and one about crock pot cooking, which pg feels a certain affinity for).
If it wasn't for that one post and pg sending a "don't ignore" signal to the editors, I suspect this account would already be ignored.

Any editors want to out themselves? I'm curious about the editorial process followed. Nick B seems like the most likely of the secret editors, unless it's all people directly affiliated with YC.
The paradox that is Silicon Valley
Yes. I think we as educated supporters of evolution should not support worthless, general writing from someone doing an enormous disservice in America.

Ben Stein is the worse kind of troll. I hope the media ostracizes him and I expect they will. He has completely ruined his legacy with his appearance in Expelled. Though he can probably make good money doing speaking jobs to fundies.
> The Silicon Valley is where people write and distribute free software and hope to make the world a better place for the whole of mankind [and, of course, make millions of dollars in the process.]

I don't think this is true. I think more free software comes from other places where people have more time and less financial incentives to work on commercial opportunities. Europe produces a ton of good open source software, but then it gets commercialized or bought or something by SV companies.
Yahoo! Web Services in Ruby
Cheesecake Recipes
Collection of cheesecake recipes.
Words have value regardless of who said them. It is unfortunate that not everyone respects that. Personally, I until I turned 18 I was incredibly frustrated time and time again because people did not take me seriously, as they would an adult. It wasn't because of what I was saying, but because of who I was: a child. So while I wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. Stein's political views, I stand by the notion that a person can say powerful words regardless of who they are.
I've been a programmer since I was 12 years old, and have over 30 years experience with technology companies - and yes, startups too .. I helped get a few major 90's-era dotcoms up and running and many of them are still at it today.

My experience is this: either you waste a lot of time futzing around with computers, or you make them do the work they need to do and get on with your life. It has nothing to do with how old or young you are, or how many kids you have. I am a very happy Father now - in fact, this is the greatest startup, with the most rewards, I've ever been involved in - and I'm still applying the same fundamental policy to myself as a programmer: get things done, don't futz around with computers, make them actually do the work they're supposed to do.

It doesn't matter what "kind" of person you are, it matters only what kind of things you make. I know 50-year old grandfathers who can kick royal Assembler ass and still leave early at the end of the day, and I know 18 year old kids who put the keyboard down after 8 hours and go do something else instead, as well.

IMHO, this over-generalization about 'types of people' is a real curse. I would say, don't do it. There are no 'types' of people in the computer world, no matter how the ycombinator cultists want to pitch it to the world: there are people who get things done, and people who don't.

Get things done. Get your code written, working, tested, and in the hands of people who will actually use it. If you can't do this, then you will fail. If you can, then rock on .. may your kids, now and in the future, always appreciate this aspect of you as a person.
I'm just curious what happens when the comments get really thin.
There was the guy from Zenter whose wife was pregnant when he went to SF.
New Social Network Will Woo Russian Snobs
I love the micro world of Hackers where Steve Yegge is considered famous. (for me too - I anticipate his essays more than most $100,000,000 budget movies). I'd be surprised if Jobs knows who Yegge is and caters to his personal requests :)
Keeping Your Brain Fit
Web Two-Point Yawn... Conference Fizzle?
Not all load balancing schemes use the VIP concept.

In either case, you are still tied heavily to the existence of a single IP, which greatly limits portability.
Keep in mind that Ben Stein's stance on evolution is not a political view. He is manipulating people into rejecting scientific fact. It is a shame people don't take children seriously, but it is not a shame that Ben Stein is going to be blacklisted by Hollywood.

Ben Stein may say some valuable things in the future and I don't completely dismiss everything he says as wrong -- I just do not care what the man has to say anymore.
Intelligent design is not a theory. It is a direct contradiction to scientific fact. It does not deserve to ever be mentioned in the same sentence as evolution. I'm fine if Ben Stein believes this individually but what offends me is his desire to spread his lies.
Ask YC: Should Apple buy Yahoo!?
To me, the argument in favour of Apple buying Yahoo is compelling. What do you think?
The bad thing about doers is that they're scarce.

And not just in the business world either. Talkers are everywhere and it annoys the * out of me.

(btw - while it's true that you can spot doers and talkers from miles away, I know one guy - only one - that is that rare creature: a talker who actually does as well. amazing)
The bastard child of Google and Apple done in one Weekend
Wordpress (huge fan) but also considering Drupal as well.
If you can't, for any reason, convert to FLV and put up a Flash player, upload the screencasts to Vimeo (http://vimeo.com), skin the player and embedde it on your site - you'll get better quality and will look more professional than a YouTube solution
Lol, good question. Let's keep yhe experiment going then.

We now return to your regular program...
I have a -2 and still can post...I think. Not sure how I go the -2 because I have never posted but only commented?
You're right that the surrounding community is a big part of the value. If stones were themselves tasty, and if they worked to maintain the quality of the other ingredients, I would completely agree with your stone soup analogy.
You can read about my own enlightenment on this issue here, starting with the 2nd paragraph:

http://ourdoings.com/2008-02-12
This is music to my ear as a father of three, 40 yo hacker.
Questionform.com bounce rate (last 30 days, google analytics) 37%
Isis: A [Lispy] programming language for responsive media
Pregnancy Week by Week
Pregnancy guide based on week by week changes
Startup Idea Generation
All of pg's hacker-news comments [using the archived post data]
Wow. This is almost stalker-esque. If you find yourself bidding on his used keyboard on ebay, seek help.
Vengeance is Ours -- Jared Diamond
HubPages: 7 Things We Did to Beat Squidoo (Case of “less is more”)
I enjoy pg's writing. in toto, these comments effectively comprise one giant essay, except that they're more focused. So why not?

In the same way, I don't regret reading Feynman's, Lewis Carroll's, or James Joyce's letters. Thoughtful people tend to write thoughtfully, whatever the context.

Incidentally, I probably would buy Knuth's keyboard.
Skype Boys Raising a Massive New Fund
I absolutely was not saying that as a software developer, you need consultants or branded methodologies to tell you how to do your job. Did you read the article? I thought the point of it was that software "methodologies" are essentially just putting names to solid development practices. If you'd even read the title of the article, you would have gotten that out of it.

What I was trying to express is that at least _some_ formalization of your process is vital, and giving it a name lets you develop a common vocabulary. Then, when you bring in a new person and tell them you use Scrum (for example), if they've used it before, they have a basic understanding of how you do business. If not, they at least have something they can Google for.

The specific point that I was trying to refute is that process is "anathema" to hacker culture. You simply cannot gunslinger your way through a large development effort.

And, I stand by my original statement, in that if you believe that you can succeed with a team of more than 3 or 4 people working on a project with no real process, then you haven't tried (and failed). I know, because I felt that way before I had the experience to know better. I wasn't intending for it to sound condescending, but take it that way if you must.

Thanks in advance! <-- This _was_ meant to sound condescending, though. Sarcastic, too.
Firefox reached 29% share in Europe
I mean - general you do not want to miss them. But for populating your ghost town you can just as well persuade 'virtual friends'.
A Spectacular Failure
Tioti - a special social media aggregator for television
+1week: What I got from startupschool that you missed
It was great meeting the YC crowd. Here's my takeaway that people on HN seem to have missed.
I was up close to a shotgun clause getting "fired." It was definitely better that they had a way to separate. Arbitration failed. It was hell for a couple of months for the rest of the company though because it was unclear who to listen to. The company survived though, and it probably wouldn't've otherwise.

The partner with more access to capital initiated in this case - as you're worried about. The other partner scrambled, found some investors and LBO style loans, and in the end, he "won".

There's obviously issues, but I'm not aware of a better way to resolve the situation while still retaining upside potential from a sale.

If anyone involved is likely to get even a little bull-headed, it seems like a good idea.
Well, as long as "as much money and market share as possible" doesn't equate to "growing as fast as possible." There are plenty of 'conservative' businesses that avoid growing fast like the plague. Risk management and all that.
Computer security | Pain in the aaS
Tech.view | Delivering the bits
Andreessen: Merger would be sad end for Yahoo
Twitter mind control
Semantic video analysis | Finding the right picture
http://friendfeed.com/juzmcmuz
Rating RateMyProfessors.com
It would have been nice to also see the numbers for Bazaar, which seems to be #3 on the list of mainstream DVCSs. I adopted hg for $HOME a few months ago, and it's working great. This was after having used SVN for a few years for the same task. I might have chosen bzr for it's amazing attention to usability, but at the time it had some performance issues with 'log'. Although Git has quite a following, I just couldn't adopt it given its enourmous command set (140+ commands), and manual heuristics for when to repack.
In the early stages, there's so much work to do that if you try to add kids to the mix, you don't even attempt it.

This sentence resonated with me as a father of two. But on second thought, I realize, the root reason I do not attempt it (again, for now) is a lack of finances and stability, not a lack of time. I lack time because I have a day job, and I have a day job because I don't have the money to pursue my own business without incurring lots of debt.

The optimal solution, for me, would be to have 12 months salary saved up, and burn through that while starting my own business. And it wouldn't be a 'startup' by PG's definition--I've learned that control is more important to me than growing fast.
This is a UI issue that can be solved with good search.

When loading a page, the browser can do a "reverse lookup" on the URL through a search engine and display common terms associated with it instead of (or in addition to) the URL. If you're expecting Bank of America, and it shows "sex, porn, xxx" in your status bar, you may not want to click it.
I would have thought there'd be a few more wiggles of false hope just before the trough of sorrow. You know, to make the trough of sorrow that much deeper and painful!
If you can point me at a non-US-friendly vendor that does stored transactions like Braintree's Vault, I'd be happy to work in support for that vendor.
10th match Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians
Fri 25 April
10th match Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians
Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
20:00 local, 14:30 GMT
Indian Premier League Twenty20
Not to dredge up the past, but this refreshingly contrasts with Zuckerberg's encouragement at Startup School 2007: 'If you want to found a successful company, you should only hire young people with technical expertise'. http://www.texasstartupblog.com/2007/03/27/facebook-class-ac...
I'm not sure what problems you are having with Godaddy. You did not mention which hosting plan you have with them. There is probably a good reason for the poor performance and you should understand those reasons before assuming that another provider will fix your problems.

Generally you should probably avoid most shared hosting for business applications because you are at the mercy of bad neighbors.

You are also probably better off using your hosting budget to go for a similar priced VPS rather than a low end dedicated server (assuming lower end of budget scale.) In other words, $80 per month will get you a horrible dedicated server or a pretty good VPS.

BTW, I also use Slicehost.
Live Streaming 10th Match IPL Watch
Date : Fri 25 April 2008
Live Match Start : 20:00 local, 14:30 GMT
Match Type : 10th Match Indian Premier League
Team : Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians
Venue : Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh
Live Streaming 10th Match IPL Watch
The first time I tried twitter:

<fumbling around/>
What's this thing?
hmmmmm doesn't seem very useful...
<type/><type/><type/><type/>

5 mins later. OMG I can't delete the obscenities I just wrote!
SDK Showdown: Apple IPhone vs. Google Android
Stop using Ajax!
writing ones own blogging software has become a "coming of age" experience anymore :)
How Has Functional Programming Influenced Your Coding Style?
Fear not, the dumb old internet can still cope with its traffic
Yahoo kicks off re-wiring project
I'm not a "design-guy" who thinks design guys are not well treated. If you'll notice in the analogy you actually quoted I compared good design to a cover letter. (It's not perfect, but what is?) Obviously if the product (aka the resume) is no good, the best cover letter in the world will not matter. And conversely, if you're product is good enough, you will be able to get away with bad/no design consideration.

-Wade