skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Some thoughts:

You should let the students run wild on at least one of the projects. Don't limit their creativity. While it would be great if Facebook users were interested in education themed apps, they are not. Just have them make apps based on things they wish they could do on Facebook. Crazy and stupid ideas can actually work, so mind as well not focus them in the wrong direction. The more times they get to try these ideas, the more they will learn what works and what does not.

Successful apps so far are all about connecting people in different ways and allowing self-expression, so that should be emphasized. Multi-player games are also getting big. From what I've seen, tools have not been so successful.

Since presumably not all the users will be adept at design, giving them a run through of various interface/design elements of Facebook's design would help in making better apps that users become comfortable with faster.

Facebook's platform has a number of different bugs and quirks (like its crazy implementation of Javascript) which merit discussion.

Don't forget to talk about other services like OpenSocial, even if it's a Facebook class.
I like the "links" this can save me a tremendous amount of time.
I recently had an additional thought about the attractivity of older men: doesn't it prove quality genes, to some extent? If you are already 50, you obviously haven't died from some disease in your 30ies, like inheritable cancer.

The reason it doesn't work the other way round could be that for men, the quality of the genes of their mates don't matter so much: just get as many children out there as possible, some are bound to be OK (it is not as high an investment as it is for women).

Still puzzling why women can't bear children up to a higher age - forgot why that was. Apparently it is quite unique to humans.
thanks for organizing startup school! it was awesome.
What makes you smug is that you stated that Mac users were different in that they appreciate quality, and thus that people who are not Mac users do not appreciate quality. And, you stated that 80% of Windows systems are running entirely pirated software, which is, frankly, a ridiculous claim.

Paint Shop Pro isn't b2b. It's the epitome of consumer software. Businesses buy Photoshop.

I'm not arguing piracy doesn't exist among Windows users, I'm arguing that you're being smug about being an exalted and holy Mac user which makes you uniquely capable of judging quality and uniquely honest enough to pay for the software you use--unlike the riff raff using other operating systems. Sorry you don't like the term...but that's smug.

I'll admit to being smug and thinking, like you, that Windows users are idiots. But, I take it one further and think that Mac users are idiots, too (and they paid too damned much for their computer to boot). Likewise for most Linux users. Users, in general, are idiots.
Sign up should be at checkout. That's how all online stores work.

This is like making people show ID before they're allowed to browse the store.
We only require you to sign up when you're submitting a personal shopping request (i.e., engaging people to do work on your behalf). Looking at other people's requests and reports is entirely free to unregistered users.

Thanks for expressing your frustration: we need to design that part of the user experience better. Our conversion goal is getting people to sign up and submit a request. We don't want people to abandon the page because they feel tricked into signing up.
Entrepreneurs Beware: Where's Your Health Insurance?
Wundrbar also has a shortcut for yc search. Its yc

yc stuff i'm searching for

Install the search plugin its great.
http://wundrbar.com/static/extras
I believe they were eating American Muffins on their visit to the States. Blueberry or Choc chip was unspecified
Ask PG: What percentage of post YC funding is VC?
Hey, Paul. I don't know if you're comfortable saying or not. If not, that's fine. But I was wondering what percentage of YC graduates are VC funded vs angel funded.
A lot of times, if you just force yourself to smile and be friendly, it starts to feel more natural. Just do it.

What was that one line? To be enthusiastic, you have to act enthusiastic!
Matt didn't say you shouldn't enjoy using Facebook. He said that it's not worth 15 billion dollars, and that many of the things people suggest will make it worth 15 billion dollars are hogwash.
"That’s true, but it’s even more fashionable (at least in tech circles) to say that Facebook is the next Google, or that Facebook is building the social graph which is worth a lot for some unknown reason and they’ll monetize it later."

I submit the comments on this very thread, and this previous thread (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=160408) as countering data points. It's extremely fashionable to call Facebook a spammy, me-too, useless, overhyped social network that has jumped the shark.

At least in tech circles.
I'm always hesitant to bet against anything Buchheit says. But, I really don't get the appeal of Facebook (this is probably why I do systems management apps instead of social network thingies).

I do know, however, that many large companies have historically paid very large amounts of money to know as much about people as Facebook got people to volunteer to give them. There probably is significant value in this information. It's stupid to think that the #2 social network is worth 30 times the #1 social network, but it'd also be dumb to wholly discount the value of all of that data.
wow impressive.
Troll thread
Post any of those controversial topics you would really like to talk about, but don't because we don't like trolls here.
Really? I used to just stand on a corner and yell at girls until one would go out with me. This other method may actually work better. I'll start yelling out my karma score instead.
This makes sense though. By virtue of being users of this site and knowing how them 'puters work, we are almost certainly outliers in the general population. 'Things people want' and 'things we want' are likely to be different.
Thanks.

I hacked together a SimpleDB-alike tonight and played with various index-on-write schemes. I feel a bit better about the situation now. Of course, now I just need to make it as scalable as SimpleDB :)

( Example usage: http://git.jrock.us/?p=MooseX-Storage-Directory.git;a=blob;f... )

You can tell from the test data that I am in a weird mood, though, so time for bed :)
How is it better to leave them some weak justification, even to legally require them, to do just anything for shareholer value, even defrauding or doing wrong to the community as a whole?
Great positive article for London guys, London is after all the center of the world when it comes to music !!! So Silicon valley needs London's inspiration or we will all be forced to be in bowling alleys on Saturday nights... hehe

Congrats guys
meh... wait 'till the actual release day.
Here's a question: when you try to get a girl interested in you, what's going on intuitively?
it's fine. and it does go down sometimes.
http://www.soapboxxer.com/ is better for this sort of thing. Otherwise I'm kinda tired of flamewars/trolls and the like.
I also tried recommending something to a user in the box to the right, and also ended up seeing a sign-up form.

The first thing I tried was to enter something into the "shopping request" form, but I don't know yet what it is supposed to do. So I don't know that it will make people work for me, and hence I don't appreciate the sign-up form. If you require the sign-up before I can do anything meaningful, please show me what to expect in some other way (like a movie).

If I am not allowed to do something, don't show me the option to do it- please!
I would argue that the law is ill equipped (or not the best place) to hammer out the rights and wrongs of emerging technologies that clearly will not go away. The only way forward for the labels is to embrace these 'upstarts' and work with all of them for a few years in profit sharing deals (reasonable ones not like the Imeem deal) and with a little lateral thinking imagine the profits to be made in a world full of content on demand (films included). But due to the nature of the beast, costs must come down 'right down' before they will go back up (legally).

BTW I think GS is ultra slick..

Good luck guys
I like the dopplr facebook app. It let's you know if any of your facebook friends are on dopplr as well as dropping your dopplr status into your minifeed. Simple and effective.
Might be a nice idea, but somehow I am glad that Germany (where I live) wasn't rebuild in that way after WW 2. That also makes me question the project a bit: is the problem really that ordinary houses are too hard to build in the respective regions, or are there other problems that prevent people from getting the act together? I suspect the latter.
When things are going well, Sinatra:

"...
But through it all, when there was doubt, /
I ate it up, and spit it out. /
I faced it all /
And I stood tall /
And did it my way. /
...
For what is a man, what has he got /
If not himself, then he has naught /
To say the things he truly feels /
And not the words of one who kneels. /
The record shows /
I took the blows /
And did it myyyyyyy way"

When things are going not so well, Leonard Cohen:

"I said to myself, 'Where are you golden boy, where's your famous golden touch?' /
I thought you knew where all of the elephants lie down. /
I thought you were the crown prince of all the wheels in ivory town."

(that's Dress Rehearsal Rag)

------------

"And there are no letters in the mailbox, /
And there are no grapes upon the vine, /
And there are no chocolates in your boxes anymore, /
And there are no diamonds in your mine"

(that's Diamonds in the Mine)

You really gotta hear 'em for the full effect.
>for those of us who care about that sort of thing

and for those who don't, I have one open waffles invite right now, first to email gets it
That plus PeopleWare for me.
> I look forward to seeing you again in London in person,

> perhaps at Open Coffee, and maybe we can compare our

> respective CVs.

The CV of the commentator is irrelevant. He's not claiming to be more experienced/well known than you; he is claiming that you are not a well known UK VC.
Myspace Proxy
Online anonymous web proxy for browsing the net anonymously and bypassing school and work filters.
I'm not actually anticipating flames and trolls, just people posting things they think would usually get flamed or considered a troll. Just curious what'll pop up.

It'll all be contained here too so as not to bug the other submissions, and you'll only come here if you expect something controversial.
All the Internet's a game
I like all the intuitions he picks out, but overall isn't the book incoherent in its thesis?
<Donut[AFK]> HEY EURAKARTE
<Donut[AFK]> INSULT
<Eurakarte> RETORT
<Donut[AFK]> COUNTER-RETORT
<Eurakarte> QUESTIONING OF SEXUAL PREFERENCE
<Donut[AFK]> SUGGESTION TO SHUT THE FUCK UP
<Eurakarte> NOTATION THAT YOU CREATE A VACUUM
<Donut[AFK]> RIPOSTE
<Donut[AFK]> ADDON RIPOSTE
<Eurakarte> COUNTER-RIPOSTE
<Donut[AFK]> COUNTER-COUNTER RIPOSTE
<Eurakarte> NONSENSICAL STATEMENT INVOLVING PLANKTON
<Miles_Prower> RESPONSE TO RANDOM STATEMENT AND THREAT TO BAN OPPOSING SIDES
<Eurakarte> WORDS OF PRAISE FOR FISHFOOD
<Miles_Prower> ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND ACCEPTENCE OF TERMS
this is very very cool. did u apply to yc? you should
Putting Technology in India’s Tea
Virtual Hosting With PureFTPd And MySQL On Mandriva 2008 Spring
I don't know if this thread is a good idea, but the timing is certainly good for me. Yesterday, I got modded down to -7 for suggesting that a company like 37signals isn't a startup.

A startup is a business whose primary aim is growth. If you focus on revenue, you do so at the expense of growth, because people prefer free stuff over non-free stuff.

Could someone explain to me why I'm wrong? (I am not saying this rhetorically, by the way. If we assume that this community is as smart as everyone says it is, then I must be wrong.)
Can codebases gracefully age?
just incredible design and interface - many congrats. Mind sharing details about what you used?
Ask YC: What options are available for sharing ad revenue with users?
Is anyone here aware of a way to share a site's ad revenue with a site's users?
Website Promotion Marketing – Low Cost Effective Internet Marketing
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Get to know Firebird in 2 minutes
Online Advertising Is a Lagging Indicator of a Recession
Where is the line between startup and small business?
Q&A with "Stumbling on Happiness" author
Can the Green Movement Save E-Billing?
Macintosh Stories: Real Artists Ship
ComScore: Topix 4th largest online newspaper
Maybe it rubbed people the wrong way right after DHH's talk at Startup School. Six weeks ago, I got 3000 page views (mostly from Hacker News) and 24 karma for an article where I made the exact same assertion (37s isn't a startup), and not one person complained about the characterization:

"Facebook is a startup - a huge and wildly successful one, but until they find their killer revenue model, they’re living off of investment money. 37signals is not a startup - they were profitable from web design consulting while they developed Basecamp, Rails, etc, and now their products fund their business without outside investment. Fog Creek was a startup (living off of Joel’s MSFT cash) until FogBugz took off, and now revenue from that product runs their business. Google is a business, but until they perfected AdWords and Adsense (2002? 2003?), they were like Facebook is now, a really big successful startup. YouTube went from startup to acquisition and never was a business."

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=130757

http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/hacker-vs-engineer...
Because of the way it is spelled:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
I agree. He's the reason I joined tipjoy.
I have to agree with Matt on a lot of points here. As soon as I heard the phrase social graph, my BS buzzphrase filter peaked.

Never been on facebook and I wouldn't say they are worthless, but $15 bill valuation for a second place player doesn't make sense to me. Then again, a lot of other things don't either.
"smug Mac weenie" - take that, Lisp!
I think it's a great idea.

Sounds like fun...
In the case of Darfur, they have at least one well known problem: the Janjaweed/Sudanese government. Think Arab Nazi's on horseback.

My general feeling is that a "Guns for Darfur" charity would be the most useful.

(Note: Godwin's law only applies when invoking Nazi comparisons in non-genocidal situations.)
I've always been intrigued by Firebird, but I've always wondered... who uses it? Does anybody know any medium to enterprise sized users of Firebird? The feature list is pretty impressive, but I'm still not sure why you'd choose it over MySQL or PostgreSQL, even after reading this list.

I guess licensing and footprint aren't that big of a deal to me. Perhaps that's enough for some niche of users?
If 37s is the normal way to run a business, then no one should ever disparage marketing, open source contributions, or consulting as methods to start or bootstrap a business. 37s has ridiculously low customer acquisition costs (compared to competitors) because they

1) have 85K subscribers to their SvN blog

2) wrote a book that sold 75K copies

3) developed one of the most popular open source projects in the world

4) speak at conferences all the time

If you're just writing code, you'd better hope to get bought, because you'll never catch up to 37s as a business.
MyStealthStartup: Responding to tough questions
I'm usually skeptical of things labelled "must watch", but I have to admit, this was pretty fuckin' cool.
By definition, every software works on that model.
Exactly, direct sale = lower customer acquisition cost
we could eliminate money, since computer technology gives us much more efficient ways to quantify transactions.

For example?
"If you focus on revenue, you do so at the expense of growth"

Only to a certain extent - there are many companies that both grow and focus on revenue. And personally I think that this is a much better strategy for two reasons:

1) If you don't get funding or get acquired you still have a business. And since probably less than 1% of startups make this cut it seems like a good bet.

2) If you create revenue from day one your customers are your main priority. If you are always looking for more funding to grow your focus shifts to acquiring capital, and your goals shift accordingly. It is more important to have a whole bunch of freeloaders than to have returning paying customers.
Good point about spam.
Facebook turns your friends into spammers, which isn't helpful.
9 People You Meet at Y Combinator (and what you can learn from them)
That's the extent of my knowledge; you should really find an attorney who understands IP and explain your idea.
Good job. It looks nice and useful.

suggestion: remove "Email us at info at conceptual-clarity dot com" at the bottom of your website. It gives your site unprofessional look. Replace it with a form.
Who is using FB? http://www.firebirdnews.org/?cat=9
Well, just give it to them.

Cut checks, use PayPal, or Amazon FPS.

Accounting would be your biggest hassle. You need to file a separate 1099 with IRS for each person you pay more than $650.
Take a look at what Revver has done with user accounts. Or Jellyfish.

There's usually a float involved which can be fun for cash flow (time between affiliate payout >= time your affiliates need to be paid).

Some companies won't let you / have rules about compensating users. For ex: WalMart doesn't like it, on the grounds that they feel their brand is strong enough to attract people without affiliates having to offer a monetary incentive.
But, all that I actually said to start with was that I was amused that you praised Apple...

He didn't praise, or otherwise judge, Apple.

He made a passing remark on the utility of two particular products. He didn't compare companies, and he didn't compare goodnesses.
Well, the author topic you replied to specifies a pretty clear line: either your focus is growth, or it is revenue. One can agree or disagree, but it's a relatively clear line.
It's cool! I like the site. I like the idea. What group of people do you think will use it? I was thinking thinking this would be great for "unsophisticated" users. When I worked as the webmaster for a large school division in Virgina - I always got ask to help employees "create" things on their computers. It was kind of like putting a picture of your kids on your desk or desktop screen saver. When other people visited your office/cube they always ask about your kids. And the social aspect of your idea might fit in too. If you're interested in testing out the "unsophisticated" users angle let me know - I don't work at the school anymore but I still have inroads to to other similar environments.
I understand what you are saying. I often find myself in situations where I don't have the confidence or care to involve myself in, or to initiate, a discussion.
I spent a few years as a bartender and something I've learned is that you can always talk about the present. There are tons of things you share with another in any given moment, and often they are new experiences. Finding a common ground like that can be a great way to begin.
What is too much porn and how does it harm you?
Yes, I think you have identified the main point. The shortage of available men for 30-something women is counterbalanced by all the 18 year old guys who can't get a date because their female peers are hanging out with college students, and so on up the age scale.
That reply goes under the false assumption that I think legality == good ethics. I never said the m.o. of RIAA is ethical, however legal it may be.
MySocial 24x7: Firefox Companion for FriendFeed
Is Open Access Science the Future?
Maybe they can improve marketing a bit. I read this "Get to know", but it didn't answered the basics questions like what exactly it is. ;-) ....ok, I deduced it is some kind of a database, but why does it exists?
Ask YC: Feedback on pongtracker.com
Bio::Graphics - allows for drawing overviews of genomic regions
imho you should visually show why people should join your site

you may want to use a creative commons css template too, to make your site look a little more professional with minimal work. here's a site that has a listing: http://www.oswd.org/

some ads are fine, but right now I'm seeing the ads more than I'm seeing the reasons to register for your site

there is a bigger question in my head though... are people too drunk to care (as opposed to covering other games/sports)? Though hmmm people would care if you designed your site to be displayed on a flat screen at the bar itself (game progress, stats, ...)
That's true, that they get a lot of publicity for their apps, but that's not an accident: they have worked hard at building up their blog and no doubt paid DHH and others for spending their time on developing open source software. Clearly 37signals realise that marketing is important - and they are good at it.
Don't be disheartened by the lack of response. The product looks extremely impressive, but I suspect many here don't have a use for it.

I like to give feedback by thinking "if I were king of the zoo, I would do <this>". In this particular case, I have no idea what I would do, because the software is not something I need or want to use. So I don't really have any feedback to give you.

However, I can certainly imagine business folk using this tool and being very happy with it, particularly if they are already using Google Spreadsheet, so I think you've got a winner on your hands. Try asking for feedback on the JoS Business of Software forum (http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?biz). There are probably some potential customers there as well.
A better way of looking at it, is if it can't earn a profit it isn't worth doing - because it isn't useful enough for people to pay for.
But how do you easily measure what pages the clicks are coming from?

Oh and if a ton of people were making me 1200 each (@50%) then I wouldn't mind filling out 1099s all day:)
150/month isn't a bad deal for health insurance (Kaiser) in california
It sounds like you've identified someone's "pain." Have you further explored that idea? [A lot of startups begin with a story like yours!]
I can’t believe I’m praising Tcl
but soapboxxer is perfect for that ;). It's all about controversial stuff.
KeyLemon: Webcam + Facial Recognition Software = Automatic Computer Locking/Unlocking
Windows only at the moment though, they appear to be working on MacOSX.
Oil Paintings In Buddhist Caves Predates European Discovery Of The Technique By Hundreds Of Years
No 2020 vision in PM's bionic eye pledge
Float is good. Also usually the deal is "Minimum payout $20" for example.

Reward sites actually make most of their money by relying on the fact that most people earn a few rewards, give up, and never claim because they don't get to the minimum payout threshold.

Not a great business, but that's how that sort of thing works...
Creating More Using Less Effort with Ruby on Rails
Maybe, but for all the hype over Facebook I find it ironic that Amazon probably has more valuable information via Wedding/Baby shower wishlist registeries than all of the social graph in Facebook is worth.
Software Wars [interesting graphic]
A List Apart: Getting Started with Ruby on Rails
Good point but I'm playing with another concept at the moment. When I can I just like to lend a hand to other startups - I was thinking the people I know might like the ClutterMe site.
Cirtex Corp - Internet Web Services
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