skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
1. There's something very wrong with the English/German translation. It's frequently not finding the German equivalent and just printing the English word. e.g. It claims that the German translation of Cook is Cook.

2. When presenting a word like Cook you really need to distinguish between nouns and verbs. There's a big difference between der Koch and kochen.

3. You don't present the gender of any of the words. This is very important if you are to learn almost any language other than English. You just can't make the adjectives etc. match if you don't know the gender (and there are words that change meaning with gender: e.g. le tour and la tour in French).

4. I think it would be very helpful to have the words actually spoken outloud by your widget.

5. My experience of learning a foreign language to fluency is that there's no substitute for speaking to people. For my first months in France I was constantly asking people in shops, the street, etc. to explain bits of French to me. For example, I'd pick a word in a newspaper headline and ask the baker what it meant. This really helped. Currently I'm learning German and find myself asking people Wie sagt man X auf Deutsch? a lot.
Why Things Cost $19.95
Oops, didn't mean to seem to be endorsing them. In fact I haven't read the site.
Google launched and showed off an example application that rips Campfire's look and feel off. As for whether it was a "pioneering new chat interface," that is hardly the point where ripping off design is concerned.

It's just like ripping off the layout and visual appearance of a designer's portfolio web site. There is nothing pioneering or innovative about the way designers make web sites to display their work, but there is design in the chocies they make and there is value in those choices.

If design doesn't matter, Google could and should show a chat application with a completely different look. If design does matter, then they are executing a blatant rip off.

Is it illegal? Wrong? Lame? You can decide for yourself. But it is still a rip off.

update: This is my last word on the subject. But I will say the following: there is a very well-known standard of "obviousness": The Clean Room.

Perhaps this application was made in a clean room, or something close enough: if the people making it weren't familiar with Campfire and arrived at almost the identical design from first principles, then of couse I am happy to withdraw my statement and accept that the design in "obvious."

Perhaps they have already spoken up and assured the world that it is just a coincidence that their app is so similar to Campfire. But I am not convinced that a particular design is "obvious" if it is executed by someone who studied another design first.
Thanks for comments. We (=learnitlists.com) plan on improving the widget, now 2.0 version is being developed.

I would especially appreciate your thoughts about the user interface. Is the widget easy to use?
Can you work on a startup on your own during OPT? What do you do after, if you can do the startup during OPT?
Saying Pylons has 'been largely ported from Rails' is inaccurate, this only really applies to the webhelpers.
Google clones 37sig: "Borrowing ideas is fair game, but copying an entire app is wrong."
Great Idea: learning another language without much effort, certainly need improvements.
Question how do you make money?
I think you're doing the right thing by doing a startup. Keep fighting the good fight.

You have to do what makes you happy, which may not be what makes your mom happy. Remember, it's you who will have to live with your choices in life, not your mom.
PragDave: Fun with Ruby 1.9 File Encodings
Right on! You've got some competitors :)
Ask Me About My Flux Capacitor
Turns out most people are statically typed.
Did Google rip Campfire off? Absolutely.

OK, let's be sure we're all talking about the same thing. When I hear that company Foo ripped off product Bar, I think that Foo has made an unethical clone of Bar's design or Bar's actual copy/code/content. By this definition, releasing a piece of software with Bar's exact feature set does not constitute a "rip-off," but merely competition.

This doesn't look like a rip-off to me after an admittedly brief look at the interface. I'd believe it if someone, without looking silly, could actually enumerate a list of Campfire design elements Google "ripped off." To me, Campfire's interface looks minimalist and elegant; HuddleChat looks rather like a wireframe. It seems silly to say that the two apps have the same look and feel.
you missed the fun:

macbook-pro-2:trunk raganwald$ ruby -v
=> ruby 1.8.6 (2007-03-13 patchlevel 0) [i686-darwin8.10.1]
macbook-pro-2:trunk raganwald$ irb
irb(main):001:0> lambda { i = 100; x = 0; [1,2,3].each { |i| x += i }; i }.call
=> 3
Yes, and best of luck to everyone. Remember, if you have a great idea that you're passionate about, don't let not being selected deter you from working on it!
there were 10k beta developer accounts, they're gone now (i missed it too), but i added my email address so i'll be notified when there are more
Flickr Video Launches
Linux has no problems with drivers, no, none at all. It's just that all those drivers seem to have a problem with Linux.

(Hmm... Could that be because they were compiled on Windows and use the Windows API? Nah, can't be.)
</sarcastic rant>

Actually, the driver situation for Linux has improved drastically since before. I mean, my 3d-accelerated nVidia card still crashes the X server every so often, but at least I have drivers for most of my hardward. (Although I've had some problems with webcams...) Anyway, good luck to this project.
PG as "Dear Leader" ?:-)
Hmm. It's brutal but not "wrong", by which I think the poster means "unfair & anti-competitive".

The point of this platform is to make it easier to write applications. They proved it by cloning the poster child for the last prod-hype-tivity platform, RoR. Life goes on.
yes... and?
Community, or not community: Y Combinator backed exits in black and white
How many startups are applying for YC these days?
Glad I looked back at this thread. Thanks for the tip - I will check it out.

Edit: I seem to recall sldb works better with SBCL (which I'm not using). Perhaps that's my problem?
Hg misses some of the most key features. For example, most people find git's robust inline branching support to be an incredible boon for their workflow. Hg's implementation of this feature is poor by comparison.
seems like they have taken the whole startup culture seriously and made them into rules. Really really bizarre.
I think the natural defense to forced precision calculations is to simply round everything up (never down). If it's $19.35, you round up to $20. In fact, I've even gotten to the place where I really only use the most significant digit, rounded up, in my rough-cut financial judgments. If I see a car priced $14,000, my subconscious says to itself "I would never spend $20,000 on a car!". It doesn't always work, and there is a time to be more precise, but this sort of order-of-magnitude internal bartering with myself helps keep my more compulsive self in check.
The Real Strategy Behind Google App Engine
I've got chance to meet Dmitri at the Drupal meetings in the bay area. He's a good and smart kid.
Musing about artificial scarcities and abundances
I don't know, does this article even say anything of substance?

Multi-core systems work very well with the LAMP stack’s multi-process paradigm. With the chip industry now focusing primarily on multi-core as opposed to hyper-threading technology, the benefits of multi-threaded environments such as the JVM are not substantially realized on today’s hardware. Instead the multi-process paradigm delivers more stability and reliability.

That makes me think the author doesn't even know what he's talking about.
Rediscovering Arcade Nostalgia
Some day I will finish converting my ms pacman cocktail cabinet... some day.....
Just read digg.com everyday.
I'd say if your entire app can be cloned in a day, it's fair game. Hardly rocket science.
It's hard to deny though that they've taken a cue from Campfire. Even its name calls up associations with campfires.
1. Not too useful for lower-level Japanese (many many people, myself included) without providing optional readings for the kanji. (The workaround is a browser extension like RikaiChan.)
2. Front page is cluttered
3. Didn't want to register, did anyway
4. How do I get it on my iGoogle page? It wasn't clear after about 15 seconds, which is way too long. It should have given me a choice just after I hit "go".
Wrong in the sense that is not how you make your platform attractive to developers. What happened to "do not be evil"?
Also: when you click to show the answer, it shouldn't fade in. It should show up instantly. Fading out is okay. And the animation at the top that starts to play every time I open the page? My GOD, it needs to go away. It probably won't last long on my iGoogle page because of that. If it's an important part, at least keep the transitions snappy. Fading == visual distraction, use if VERY sparingly.
funny how Zoho is the 2nd worst.

Odd for a company making $ 1 million profit / month.
Bill Bryson points out (can't remember which book) that pricing something just below a round figure (eg 0.99 or 4.99) would force shop assistants to ring up the purchase in most cases where they'd be given a dollar or a five dollar bill, rather than just pocketing the cash. So initially, it was a way to enforce honesty on employees, and the other benefits became apparent later.
Yes, there's no defensibility in functionality.
Comment that turned into a blog post:

http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/can-ycombinator-be...
Is Google App Engine HuddleChat a Campfire Rip-Off?
This is actually not what "clean room" means.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Cute, but according to the article it applies only to attempts to log into an MIT realm.
Chris Shipley" TC50 is a "start-up beauty pageant" DEMO is a "business accelerator"
Some might prefer money over flattery :)
Attendance at 9:30am? LOL.

I love my birth country but some things we just gotta learn, like trusting entrepreneurs to work when they like(DOH).
Video on Flickr
What about objections? Specifically, what about implicit objections of the form "What about [thing you did not mention but by implication ought to have, in light of which your argument is incomplete and/or inelegantly articulable and therefore as good as refuted for the purposed of this forum]?"

Also, do you not believe in refutation by reductio ad absurdum? I'm thinking your system is liable to classify a reductio as a mere contradiction, if not "mean."

And how about "meta" comments regarding the framing of the issue or whether an assumed issue really is an issue or can be addressed properly prior to some other issue?
I was quoted in the last paragraph of that article, and agree that the Games were a great idea. Seems like most of the people who came already had a favorable impression of Google, so in some sense, they were preaching to the choir. But they weren't too overt with the recruiting, and made it an enjoyable event. They actually made us sign an NDA promising we wouldn't talk about the puzzles, so I can't really comment much on that. Overall, it was everything you'd expect from Google: challenging puzzles, off-the-wall activities, wacky Googlers, and good food.
If you're an Emacs user I would recommend Muse mode. It uses some special markup but it can output HTML, LaTeX, PDF and another format or two. It's also like a Wiki with the links.
>does anyone else work under actual guards?

Workers at money printing factories?
Clearly it's because they're from Harvard.
Trac is also good. http://trac.edgewall.org/
Why We Need Web Apps on the Desktop
Wow.. this is pretty impressive.

It looks like it's using the canvas element for drawing stuff.. does anyone here know much about using canvas?

Would it be fast enough to draw a few hundred triangles a second? >:)
> There has always been a class of ruling super-elites. Always has, always will be. Period.

Depends on the culture and technology level. With primitive technology in certain cultures, there's a "big man" who still has to farm his own yams but who gets a little more input generally -- however, he doesn't actually get to order people about. Then you get a little more technology and some bigwig is bossing people around.

I think we will come out the other side where technology is so advanced that nobody really needs to depend on other people, thus we will be independently equal, and thus, not be ruled over. Not to mention, with nonbiological intelligence, the difference between any two humans intellectually will just be noise.
Together, he and I are worth one billion twenty-four dollars and eighteen cents.
When he went tits-up was it dark meat or light?
Online Sales to Grow 17 Percent in '08
The Disappearing PC Benchmark
Really?! If one of the example apps for your platform is a clone of an existing -- and profitable -- service, your platform's suddenly super-attractive to this developer.
I did. My thing is Streem: http://streem.us

I'm pretty confident in the idea but from what I know about YC I can see a few reasons why they'd be reluctant to select me -- I'm the sole founder, I'm more of a designer than a coder, and the amount of work I've done already makes it unclear what I need another three months to accomplish. I had a lot of fun filling out the application though.
It doesn't look as if Google did it in order to take 37signals' customers, just to show off AE. At worst, the guys who built it were making a snarky point about how easy it would be to knock off Campfire.

However, if that was their point, they didn't make it. There are a lot of things that are easy to copy, but hard to design. Copying a page of Shakespeare doesn't prove much about his skills or yours. The work was the thought that went into it, not the physical writing.

So much for the theoretical point; as a practical matter, slavish copying doesn't pay either. All you get is a snapshot of the thing you copied, without the thought behind it.
This is expected with the housing market downturn. Less Buyers == More Renters == More demand for rentals = higher prices.

I'm not sure if there's a direct corollary between housing rentals and commercial rentals either.

Plus if you're a startup move to Brisbane/Daly City/Anywhere on the peninsula - somewhere not the city. Its almost foolish to be in the city proper.
What about issues of design? Even if the individual features are easy, it is hard to get the right mix and in the right spots.

As an analogy, is it OK to copy a font and call it your own?
Get PG's Ansi common lisp all the functions have been documented in that.
very good; evidence that something doesn't have to be perfect to be impresive
Thoughts on Google App Engine
Java Background Task API (2 of 5) - Task API in-depth
Why wouldn't sales tax make it roughly the same price either way?
We did and we'll be pursuing it regardless of whether or not we get accepted in to YC. Although, like everyone else, we'd prefer to get accepted.
IPhone SDK and Java
interesting, many good restaurants charge full dollar menu. Like 7, 9, 11. You never see something like 8.99 unless it is a chain.

Maybe b/c, they realise their clientele is:
1. Smart enough to do the rounding up themselves.
2. Want to look more sophisticated by showing they are not using cheap tricks to nickel and dime customers.
is heroku dead?
Having looked at campfire it looks like just about every other webchat system I have ever used going back to 2000. What is it exactly about the design that sets them apart? All the elements are the exact same from what I can see.
Combine JavaScript and CSS for improved performance
I'll concede that 'thin air' is probably an oversimplification, for the purposes of this essay.

My point is that the company sells new shares up to the amount authorized, to raise money. In my experience, the authorized number of shares is a minor point; the board/majority shareholders will increase it if it's ever a limiting factor.

Before those shares are sold (issued), they don't really exist -- nobody votes them, they're not compensated if company is acquired, etc. Hence, the simplified "thin air" description.
I checked out Streem, I like the design style. I think your home page is great, but then again I am partial to highlighting =)

Have you thought about a browser button or bookmarklet?
Yes, music.

If not accepted, will pursue ninja assassin career.
Hmm...maybe you should have applied with "ninja assassin" as your idea. I bet pg would sponsor your ninja training if you gave him 2%-10% of the money you made from assassinations.
My point was a tax point not a "rights" point -- if you exercise (and are bullish and can afford to), then you have the advantage of getting the long term capital gains timer going which can be hugely advantageous.

Stated differently, I've much more people screwed by the inverse case -- they DON'T exercise, the leave the company, they have 90 days to exercise vested shares or lose the options, the fair market value has crept up, and they end up with a huge AMT tax hit to keep the stock they worked for.
I'm not sure I understand your question, but I think this might have been in those glorious days before sales tax.
She's actually taking AP Computer Science A (as opposed to AB, which is the course getting axed). They're both taught in Java.

I'd much rather the course be taught in a language more amenable to teaching computer science (Python, perhaps?). But if it must be Java, better some CS education than none at all.
Glad you like the design. Yeah, bookmarklets are a popular request. A few other missing features are more important right now (post editing, account deletion), but it's definitely on the list.

Awesome Highlighter is a cool idea.
okay, call me a luddite, but even after reading about this supposed solution to the tangled update problem, i'd never use it. too complicated for me.
Prolly worth noting that all of the "value-based" exits were basically talent acquisitions of essentially just the founding team (though the Auctomatics had a couple employees).

I think the effect we're seeing here is that it takes more than a year to build your company up to a multi-million dollar valuation. Community sites have the upside of being able to show traffic numbers as a proxy for value, but ultimately no matter your space, if you want a $15 million exit, you can't sell out six months in for $2 million.
So what do you do for version control?
@izaidi:

We should talk. I'm more of a developer than a designer, with a little marketing mixed in. A recent project is www.searchartgalleries.com

I'm working on an idea that has some commonality with streem. I was wondering if you'd like to talk to see if we could combine forces. Email logan \@\ henriquez.net
Dog Computer Interface
Missing Money: A Vertical Search Engine For Unclaimed Funds
I'm confused about something. Mediawiki's PHP so, no luck?
does anyone remember or is still using irc?
37 signals: "let's make some simple apps that can be copied in a couple of days, dumb down the design, then get our fanboys to cry foul when people 'copy' us".
Can't the same be said about just about anyone with sufficient assets? Seriously. I'm pretty sure if he wanted to realize the value of his stake in fb, there would be willing buyers. See bebo.
http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sustain...

Should I send a copy of this to 37 signals? I thought this was business 101. If you don't have a sustainable competitive advantage you will undoubtedly suffer. 37 signals doesn't have said advantage.
How Much Progress Have Psychology and Psychiatry Really Made? A Freakonomics Quorum
Something over 500
Absolutely true. Communities take time, no matter how fast you can code. Value takes time, too, but if you work really fast and sell really cheap, you can seemingly be in business and sold out in six months.

I think it'd be really interesting to know just how much all of the exits were worth.
7 Business lessons from the Legend of Zelda
Wall Street Losing Patience with Yahoo
Oh come on...enough with the negative points :( ... I just hate the idea of third grade programs! YC is one of a kind and it should stay that way!!
Yes, I use it daily both at work and at home (still my favorite type of chat).
I agree! Seems more like a scout camp :D ... sundays off if you are on schedule?? It's a startup....you're never done!
Most of those value based companies sold to community companies. A community company generally needs to get quite big before they are an acquisition target, but if they do get that far than the customer base makes them worth a lot. I generally think reddit was a bit undervalued - being an internet front page is something they never really exploited.
I think the problem is that we are notorious for slacking off!
trying to source some Atari System I upright cabinet art for Road Blasters for its 21st birthday...
Evidently. I don't know why they bothered with any code at all let alone the dotimes stuff. Anyone who could get that code to run wouldn't be fooled.
Lending Club Puts Hold on Lending Activity While It Sorts Out Some Legal Issues
We applied with what we think is a pretty big idea related to learning. We've been working on it since last Sept and we can probably launch an initial version around the start of the YC summer session. Our initial launch won't contain the big ideas yet though (we're hoping YC wants to join forces on those :).

Just showed it off today to a guy that runs a local new media group and he was totally floored. That made us feel pretty good, although we're still so nervous to find out about YC tomorrow! Good luck everyone!
I actually did.
Sure, for the purposes of the essay it works fine. I just didn't want people to misunderstand the process of dilution. This site is geared towards hackers - many of whom are or will be founders. They will have to deal with significant ownership and dilution between investors and other founders. I thought it was a good idea to clarify how stocks work for them.

Also, the board of directors can't exactly increase the number on their own. They have to get permission from the state to do so, since it could have an effect on ownership. If I had a 49% stake in a company, the 51% couldn't authorize and issue themselves more stock to keep me from getting control, but they could dilute my ownership by bringing stock out of treasury or issuing stock from their authorized amount.

A last note, I believe that most companies issue stock compensation directly out of their treasury stock, so if you'll be getting a good deal of ownership, it will probably be from that stock pool. Take that into account to figure out your ownership percentage.
Why do you hate MSFT? It makes sense to pursue your dream! What does that have to do with taking a job at MSFT vs any other company?
Seriously, I hope they are kidding with the rescuetime thing! Have they given birth to a new form of slavery??
Must be April fools?
Great submission. The thoughts by Dan Ariely are especially insightful.
I use it just about every day. I've found it pretty crucial for working with the bleeding edge trunk of certain open source libraries.
Does anyone know if the emails go out one-by-one, or en masse or what the usual is? I'd like to minimize the scope of the checking-email distraction tomorrow.

Good luck to all!
More competition for low-cost laptops
Seems like there must be better terms to use for these two types of businesses. Community-based makes some sense, but "value-based" is almost meaningless without the long description attached.

I do like this subject. Nice post. It's an interesting thing to think about. I certainly came away feeling like doing a community-based startup takes a lot more guts. Seems like a more fun thing to do though.
Yes. I've got a really stupid marketing idea for FOSS. My really stupid marketing idea is to actually do some.

I've got a lot of strikes against me. I'm a single founder of a company that needs three partners, with different areas of expertise, to be viable, and I'm not a programmer. Nevertheless, whatever I hear from YC, I'll be appealing for partners in a few days.