skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Not sure why anyone but yourself is to blame, and I think it would have been nice for Heroku to give you a discount then, after this post they should go quiet and let you pay. I think this post is bad form.
A lot of big websites run on Wordpress. Modifying the WP core is a very bad idea, you want less maintenance, not more.

How can you be sure the code is atrocious and wasteful? If it does something useful, you can optimize later. You don't need investors or a co-founder at this point. Get your prototype out there, Wordpress stuff seems to sell itself these days.

I will take a look at your code if you like and give you a technical opinion on how bad it is or not. Check out my profile for contact info,
"Any lawyer familiar with copyright and trade mark law can see, however, that printing one’s own birthday cards could, depending on the source and nature of the images used, infringe a number of intellectual property (IP) rights."

In many countries private use does not constitute copyright/trademark/patent infringement.
It's the beginning of The Diamond Age.
I referred to the work of Joe Armstrong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Armstrong_(programming)) written 15 years ago.

Is there something that's written there that's not true? I'd really like if Robert Virding can tell us some insider's stories. I remember also reading Armstrong's 1990 paper "Erlang - An Experimental Telephony Programming Language" where it's written "Erlang is a programming language designed for prototyping concurrent real-time distributed applications." That fits with the "simulator" application from the later paper and also fits to the "research" concept of the language.

I'd be also glad to hear where Erlang beats other languages in run-time performance (not in the aspect of "it's nicer to write in it"). I'd thank Robert Virding or anybody else for that.
Can you name a portfolio that is more forwards-looking than Conway's?
Philosophy.
...And pretty good news for everyone else!
I fear TC is going to dribble this out, one barely-readable slide JPEG at a time.
An interesting recent example:
http://flippa.com/auctions/84185/11000month-Revenue-No--1-In...

A 'lifestyle business' - but fairly "web2 buzzword compatible". And yet, according to the fairly believable numbers they made than $100K in profit in their first year (and about that much LTM also) and sold for only $90K after 18 months.

That's a 'multiple' of only 0.9 ;-(
> 3. What this means is, you can map almost any command in C into a specific command or a few specific commands in assembly.

Is that really true? It depends very much on your compiler and on the optimizations that it uses. I'd say that the level of optimization performed is proportional to the similarity between input and output. Straightforward translation makes for crappy optimization.
It's not backwards, but it is quite broad. It pretty much covers every YC company there is.

Edit: I guess it is backwards. I just contradicted myself. time for bed.
Roughly the same points: we're happy with our current development and lifestyle, we have "enough" money and connections and advisors, although I'd never say never.

To some extent, I like to think about us as some kind of tiny, minuscule Y Combinator: multiple projects that have interconnections between them as time goes, interesting encounters.

Like grandma would say: I would not put all my eggs in the same basket either :)
I typically just remap the escape key to capslock at the OS level. Even though it can through you off like you said, I still find it more convenient than key walks to generate an escape.
I actually enjoyed reading this. The first half is uneventful but builds up to the wacky second half.
You're joking, right? The only people HDCP has been affecting have been legitimate customers. Pirates have had HD video for years.
> you're working to pay the rent at the same time

I gave more thinking to this last year, and asked myself what I could do to change this.

So we moved to a cheap place with the whole family, here we're able to buy a house without mortage (before the move it would have required 25/30 years mortgage + 2 high-paying jobs, to get something that wasn't even close in term of quality/space).

Here goes the rent :)
Are you kidding? This is -awesome-.

My single worst experience with iTunes was when I took the dive and spent that extra dollar to rent an HD movie. Just to find out a $5 movie on my $500 Mac Mini won't play on my $1,000 TV.

I haven't made a -single- Apple purchase since then. That's how badly HDCP pissed me off.
It sounds like you want to get in early on a startup, and if you're not a developer the only guaranteed way is to be a founder.

If you can handle the risks, being a founder coincidentally also has benefit of increased responsibility, greater control, and more equity. Nice bonuses in my opinion.

Learn by doing!
I don't find this poor customer care, really: I consider this normal.

You're talking about "a few weeks": did you check your expenses in the meantime ?

I would put some reminders (google calendar etc) or habits in place to regularly check your expenses.
Those examples would definitely be interesting to read. I'm one of the many people who feels search results have gotten worse, but since I don't have any actual saved search results from 10 years ago it's really hard to say if I'm right or misremembering. Some concrete examples of what Google2000 looked like might be good for jogging the memory.

One example category does come to mind, which is a frequent pet peeve: lyrics searches. They definitely return sort of crappy results currently, but I can't say for sure what they returned in 2000, since I didn't save any results.

Examples:

Imo [joy division walked in line lyrics] should return a page like http://www.joydiv.org/shadowplay/joyd/walkedline.html. Instead it returns a bunch of sites like lyricsfreak.com, sing365.com, lyricsdepot.com, metrolyrics.com, etc.

The case is even stronger if there's actually an official site for the musician with official lyrics. An example of that: [vnv nation fragments lyrics] should return http://www.vnvnation.com/Webfiles/lyrics/fragments.htm, but instead it again returns the usual lyrics-site suspects.

I think my recollection is that I used to get fan sites more than lyrics aggregators in 2000. That might be more due to web changes than Google changes, admittedly, since many of these lyrics aggregators didn't exist in 2000, and hobbyist fan sites may have been more vibrant. The fact that the same lyrics-aggregator sites dominate for almost all the searches seems weird, though; it seems that basically all lyrics searches return "big lyrics site", rather than trying to retrieve a site specializing in the band I searched for.
So I've got 5 down-votes so far for not having grasped a sentence because I'm not a native speaker, right? HN has become a very friendly place, hasn't it?

However, I've investigated further the issue and, as far as I understand, many people forgot to delete their Facebook account, thus the sentence means: the movie will not be forgotten. Am I correct? Thanks.
1) Angels and YC can't really even be mentioned in the same sentence as VC's. Totally different goals and alignments.

4) Not true, many counterexamples, most notably Wufoo.

Sounds like you're doing just fine on your own, though.
I feel like you know this is the right game plan already.

I'm in a similar situation and look forward to the HN responses.

Good luck!
I have given feedback on search for "BMTC" not returning the official website of BMTC (bmtcinfo.com). (2-3 months back). But the search results haven't changed since then.
>. This is much easier to achieve with Clojure STM than with manual locking and mutable data structures.

For easy stuff yes. For hard stuff that is such a grandiose claim to make, if you could do it with any certainty you would certainly be published. Personally, I don't think it's any easier.
Where does Flipboard fall in this chart?

Social? Flipboard is primarily a consumption experience with limited commenting and sharing mechanisms. Granted, those features exist, but are not the key focus.

Mobile? Because it's on an iPad? I wonder if Ron is actually talking about in-your-pocket iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc. and not larger laptop replacement products such as tablets.
This site tilts heavily towards the devs, but there are definitely skills that you can develop to make yourself valuable for a startup without being a technical guy. #1 -- pick an industry you are passionate about and network, get a job in a major company in the space, learn the ins/outs of the industry, etc. Then you can either start your own biz or you'll be a valuable resource for a tech company looking to break in and needs domain knowledge and contacts.
From iPhone to Android: hilarious addendum
Sure. I know I certainly need someone like you for my start up to help launch version 2 when it's finished. I admit, I've been too passive in searching out the right person because I fear it's too easy to get someone who isn't good. While I think I can tell pretty well who is a good programmer, I really have no confidence in determining if someone is a good marketing/bizdev guy.
That's why I played Doom 3, and realized that was made Doom great was the visceral action much more than the theme. Just the feel of running around at literally 100 MPH and mowing down thousands of enemies. Once we left the sprite era, that kind of gameplay died and they tried to replace it with hyper-realism and atmosphere. However good gameplay has nothing to do with realism, it also doesn't really have anything to do with hookers. I don't have high hopes for the Duke in 2011.
There is a similar thing called Nike Plus. It's a community web site with a database of the running data of runners/joggers using Nike+ sensors in their shoes (or Nike+ GPS App for iPhone).

And yes, I find it funny to be able to compare my running times, pace, total running distance, etc. to the people around the world, it's like a RPG game doing real things....

Of course, there are drawbacks. For instance, if the sensor isn't properly calibrated the results can be inaccurate. Not the case with the pure GPS tracking app, of course...
Discontinuous Seam Carving for Video Retargeting[Google Research Blog]
I think that's the "backwards" he was talking about. You're building your links to call javascript, then scrambling later to find ways to make them work without.

The accepted way of doing this is to build your links to point to URLs, then use script to override them with whatever dynamic wackiness you think is helpful. You get all sorts of bonuses by doing it that way (such as ctrl-click, save target as, etc.) without any of the downside you go on about.

And it's not any harder to implement.
I tend to think that part of the etiquette for being early is that you make yourself scarce until just before the scheduled time. Ideally, you also make your presence knowable by the person you're meeting with, in case it actually would be convenient for them to see you early.
Just be sure they know and love what they're selling. The rest will fall into place.
I'm in a similar position. I know enough about coding to hack together basic scripts and manage a tech project, but my main interests and skills lie in marketing and business stuff.

If I were you, I would focus completely on marketing/sales. If you can demonstrate that you know how to drive traffic and convert it into customers, that can be an incredibly valuable asset to an early stage startup.

I've landed several lucrative consulting gigs working for cool startups who had lots of brilliant coders but had no idea how to get customers. Startups, especially those with only tech cofounders usually have no shortage of engineering talent, especially if the application they are building is relatively simple.
But they have a huge shortage of marketing/bizdev talent, and that's where you come in.

Email me (email in profile) if you want to talk more, there are a lot of opportunities out there for people like you and me if you know where to look.
Also note the Research Paper[1] and Project Website[2].

[1] http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrust...

[2] http://cpl.cc.gatech.edu/projects/videoretargeting/
The important point is that a C command will result in a deterministic amount of actual commands.

For example, C won't implement the "raise to nth power" operator (in Python, 210 means 2 to the power of 10, for example), because it can't be done with one assembly instruction, only with a loop.

Even with optimizations, you can reason about your code as if every C command is one Assembly command, and you won't be far off (you can say that every C command is O(1) assembly commands). This is very different from other languages.
Interesting example, as the creator of that site, dangrossman, posted in this thread. You can ask him about the sale.

In that case, any smart buyer will instantly see that there is a sharp downward trend in revenue. Maybe the site is falling in the SERPS, new competitors have entered the market, or, worse, the target market is becoming saturated.

This explains the low sale amount.

Dan was smart to sell before revenue declined too much.
Nike Dunks Low SB Skate or Die
It's a Kindle
Oh, well, it was just a few little changes to the core. Easy to update the installation and make them again I'm sure. Then again, I'm not experienced.

You are right though, I can't be sure that it is atrocious and wasteful. I assume that web content management systems carry a lot of baggage with them. Though, I am aware that I am not using everything WordPress offers me and that it is not a fully optimized site, and you point that out.

Your response is encouraging, as is this article at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1689751 I stumbled across. Thank you very much!
Yes—but saying that "games" improve your cognition speed cuts to the heart of the issue, because a game is, by definition, an artificially-constructed scenario involving time-limited decision-making. It's basically the lab-experiment equivalent to sports/jazz/etc., with all the irrelevant factors removed.
This post is “very Sydney” as they say there. I lived there for 5 years and deliberate lateness was very much a part of the culture – a social signal that your time was more important than someone else’s.

I fondly remember a quarterly kickoff meeting where my boss ripped one of the more pretentious reps a new one as she sidled in 30 minutes late. It didn’t happen again.

Having said that - finding parking, catching public transport (oh God those trains – shudder) and just getting around Sydney in general is a bitch.
Cuba to cut one million public sector jobs
http://github.com/nvie/vimrc/
Blu-Ray on Windows is the single most user-hostile computing experience I've ever had. I stopped buying/renting blu-ray movies because I didn't feel like rebooting 3 times every time I wanted to play a disc, with the software treating me like a criminal the whole time.
If megacorp buys a promising startup and thwarts it, then does this also create a new opportunity to fill the space left by the startup?
> Life is too short to spend your time with a chip on your shoulder. Or, at least to write like you have one.

Not if getting lots of attention is important to your business.
I have an extra one of these if anyone would like it. email me (info in profile).
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I don't know, most eastern european cultures value being punctual and consider being late rude and obnoxious. This was definitely the case during the Soviet era, and that culture didn't value personal productivity nearly as much as the americans do.
I had exactly the same issue with Feedburner's name.
Very enlightening article, thank you! One can always use the extra encouragement in this realm if they are non-technical to begin with.
(sorry, couldn't edit it because of noprocrast)
Haha, let's interview each other's candidates. I can easily determine whether someone is talented at marketing or just BSing but I have trouble identifying the truly excellent programmers vs talentless hacks who are just regurgitating what they learned in intro CS.

By the way, cool startup. Get in touch if you have any questions about marketing it, I used to do pretty decent volume promoting a browser-based space MMO.
I used to be a die-hard NERDTree user until I discovered CommandT. It is solid gold and I couldn't imagine using vim without it.
Did you turn safe search off on DDG? When I gave these queries a go, I noticed that DDG stripped "breast" out of the query. The results seemed much more relevant once safe search was disabled.

Not that I'd want to go around with safe search disabled all the time...
A more interesting analysis might use data on acquisitions to chart how companies do compared to what they do or don't buy, and what they do with the acquired people and technology. That would at least be a start at determining whether there is really money being wasted or not.
However, optical media is declining.

I'm probably not representative, but I haven't burnt a disc in years. It may be the right time to overload the term.
O'Reilly's "Erlang Programming" is the Ebook deal of the day.
There's no limit. Or rather, the only limit is your other investors. If you'd already taken a series A round from a VC fund, they probably wouldn't like the idea.
I fail to understand these two parts:

"In STFUDD ... you don't write anything at first. "
"STFU Driven Development ... its How quickly can we Shut the Fuck Up and write something?"

So, which is it - don't write or write quickly?

I also fail to understand this part:

"we're all full of shit. And that's why you test. That's why you write a README."

How exactly "tests" and "README" connected to "we're all full of shit"?
Am I the only one that looks at that chart and thinks "huh?!? half those spaces are already saturated"?

Sure, that's his manifesto to fund now (ie companies funded today probably were founded chosen 6+ months ago, and those ideas would be fresher then). Plus he gets to pick the cream of the crop.

But would anyone on HN seriously consider starting a startup today based around check-ins or a Groupon clone? Both spaces seem totally done to me - there are plenty of startups in those spaces and so you can only compete on niche (thus smaller market) or if you can totally disrupt with a genius idea (unlikely). And in both of those areas (and others in Conway's list) you have first mover advantage and network effect against you.

Seems to me the trick is to consider what will be on his next list and start working on that now.
I firmly believe that if you don't stop laughing, you'll live forever.
One of the comments state "I don't live in the US", which is my reason too, but let me elaborate a little.

Simply put, while YC seems great, it's just too expensive for me and my co-founders. There is three of us, and if only two of us engage actively in the process we would have to spend over $1200 just for getting to the interview (based on a quick Expedia search, and not including any car rentals, visa fees and the like); and if we get accepted, just getting us over there would spend at least 10% of the supposed YC investment.

It would be great if YC would open a European counterpart, but that don't seem likely as they have closed off even the East Coast one.
Not sure I buy that.

C has a division operator, despite the fact that plenty of CPUs (ARM, for a common example) don't have a divide instruction. Typically, the compiler generates a call to a runtime support library (e.g. libgcc) with division functions for various datatypes, and yes, those functions typically involve some looping.
I would love to learn from YC and work full time on my startup but I have made life choices that mean it would not work for me. Mainly I spent too much money on a house and have a wife and child to support. So that means I need to keep my stable (as much as any really is) corporate job and work on my bootstrapped startup in my spare time.

Would have been nice to be more enlightened earlier in my life but now that hindsight just fuels my motivation.
Easy going Javascript Templates
And so the DRM Cold War continues.
Here is my prediction rant:

I think there are many more interesting implications of cheap-ass, automated, and decentralized manufacturing in general than just in IP. (3-d printing, downloadable and version controlled CNC instruction sets, parts supply chains on the internet, etc.) There will be lots more custom/ private work, there will be pseudo socialist challenges to the big guys who control manufacturing (in the same way that open source software is a bid to take control of software production), there will be revolutions in logistics, and we will see lots of interesting designs created outside the for-profit + mass distribution model.

There will be lots of lawyers, unfortunately.

I think we will also see the encoding of old designs first, just as Linux and BSD and GNU started as fairly traditional designs (and personally, if I were to download any car I could choose, it would be a 1977 Volvo 244).

And in 20 years, the best designs will be the open designs, just like the best software today is rapidly being defined by OSS, for many of the same reasons (i.e. no small minded MBA's getting involved in technical shit they will never be able to understand).

Amish technology will be really important in the process of shifting to open manufacturing (somewhat ironically) since their designs are complex but not crazy, and they appeal to the same DIY hippies as OSS does (I count myself in that bunch).

I also think an open source bicycle is the place to start, not a car, since it is simple but still challenging.

I think about this way too much, actually.
Particularly bad news for Sony
And be sure to pick your friends wisely...
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In an attempt to not be so vague as to be meaningless, it appeared like I was putting words into YCs mouth, which is not what I was intending. It is more simply stated that we have different priorities.

As a result of my experience with VCs, I structured our business so as not to need them, and ended up not needing Angels or YC either. No question the market for tech investment has shifted and YC lead the way, and I would say that I like a lot of what I've seen about the way it is going.

The lean startup is the way to go for web/software startups these days, and YC is a contributor to that trend.
I didn't say they suggested it was a flaw of character (though I've made clear that personally I think it is).

Again, I object to the stereotyping. "You're on time. How American of you!"
For some reason I don't think that will make such a good t-shirt this time around.
Using Google Books To Remove Access To Public Domain Books
I bought my first Blue-Ray the other day and the experience was terrible, I put the disk in and nothing happened.. I tried to play it in windows media center, no ball.. not in VLC.. there was no player included on the disk.

I had to download a 300meg trial of PowerDVD just to play a film I'd already paid for (I also had to update my graphics card for some reason, the computer had been playing HD content for months without needing that).

That will be the last Blue-Ray disk I buy..