skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
It's nice to see Marco Arment pursuing another fine example of the Patio11-esque approach of building a minimum viable product in his spare time, gradually improving and expanding it while keeping the day job, growing his userbase, and then smoothly transitioning into making it a full-time gig, all without talk of crazy hours, scrambling for investors, or even subsistence on ramen.

Obviously this doesn't work for every kind of startup, but it's great to see it working where it can.
I think Chrome one-ups them, actually. It keeps track of search engines you visit, so you can go there now and fill out ones you've already used without browsing anywhere.
Facebook WAS Down
"But a company SHOULD help their customers get their software working because it's good customer support, and because "fixing my problems" may well mean improving their software."

It might improve their software, but most likely it will be a huge expense of time and money. Most of the time, when there is a problem with installation or usage of a windows app, it's not related to the application. Another problem is that there are many people that will blame you for any other number of problems with their computer. I've worked in both tech support and application support for 10+ years.

It's a liability for any company that wants to offer support, which is why they should charge large fees for any type of support.
Analyzing them will help you. What about marketing efforts? If you were in the market first, you should have an advantage over the newcomer (your customers should be thinking of you before they think of the competition). If your name is known to the customer, can you leverage that?
College students are an amazing representation of our culture of conspicuous consumption. People move off campus because (at my school) its much cheaper...and then eat out every night. Why?

Because no one ever taught them that wealth isn't a function of your spending, its a function of retention.
For that matter, so is learning...
Chrome appears to automatically add keywords (the site name by default) when it detects something searchable... good to know.
I built two CNC machines. The first one essentially from scratch components: bearings, plates and beams. And a second higher performance machine by converting a manual machine to servo control. Hardware is fun.
"isn't this the point of the AGPL"

Yes, it's my point. I won't use a license that has such an asinine restriction.
Think of the things that will be super expensive in the future. When things are expensive, innovation happens. This is not to say that you undercut the cost of Product A with a cheaper Product B, but that an entire industry can be rocked by a new technology.

Fundamentally the entire computer industry is built on doing things cheaper than they were before.

So I say: healthcare and energy. Healthcare spending is going to criple us, systemically lowering that will make you a fortune. Incrementally lowering that will make you wealthy.

Eventually we're going to have to replace oil. The definition of "eventually" is the only question. At that point one of the many options will have to actually be useful.
Can we trust Michael Arrington? (AngelGate)
Good point. We recently had a client set their "signup" to FB login by default and I cringed.

Great, simple services but the macro effect that this is going to have on commerce today is crazy.
Make it like awesomereminders.com and people get called and bitched at until they finish their project...
You're telling me--of course this has to happen the day before client review of a major Facebook Connect site whose only authentication is via Facebook Accounts. We had discussed potentially having two types of accounts (Facebook- and email-based), but having two parallel authentication methods just seemed clunky. I guess this is the price we pay for trying to keep things simple...
Full Size Airliner cockpit (Bombardier CRJ):

1 PC
1 Matrox TripleHead(3 monitors-View),
1 Matrox G200(3 monitors-Instruments)

Built some electronic boards to control LEDs, Switches, Potentiometers for Throttle, Yoke, Overhead panel, Central console, etc...

Nice project if you have the time....
I've heard these references to "hitting a wall" a few times now, and it's a bit perplexing. From what I gather, it means that you'll get to a point where you need to understand more about the underlying framework in order to accomplish a particular task. Isn't this a given in any environment? Perhaps in some other stacks, you need to get your hands way dirtier way earlier, so the learning curve is much more spread out. But I don't think I've ever run into an issue with Rails where I've thought "oh no, the framework can't do this... time to start over." It's just Ruby, the entire thing is well documented, and there's a very helpful community glad to answer just about any any question you might have (in my experience, anyway).

That isn't to say that Rails is a panacea, or even appropriate for projects of every shape and size. But if you're building an MVC web app, then it's really well thought out, allows you to be very productive, and in my dealings with it, those benefits don't go away, even as your application grows significantly in scope and complexity. YMMV etc etc...
The product has been out for nearly 3 years[1] and he's been making money for at least half of that.

I'm curious why you don't consider that a startup. What's your criterion?

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2008/01/30/simple-bookmarking-now-avai...
downforeveryoneorjustme was throwing errors when I tried it: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/facebook.com
Awesome quote.It stands true.
I built a side for my POS popup camper. Metal, glue, ants...
They printed the same article 3 year ago:
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/670-can-microsoft-buy-cool-fr...
I agree, and you are right, Buffet started out with Graham but doesn't follow him any longer. (And I did not downvote you.)

I recommended Security Analysis because it is hard reading -- we are on Hacker News here.

If you do not have time or inclination to read Security Analysis (or some other heavy weight text), perhaps you should just buy some index fund instead of picking stocks. (That's what I did by the way, despite having read that book.)
IT Dept. around the world will now get washed with calls, on how the internets dont work.
Who and What is inDinero?
DHH's fantasies realized.
I would occasionally post on the Twitter profile without @replying to anybody to remind us you exist.
I [Like] this.
It's a funny coincidence that this comes right after the recent facebook valuation news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye
Getting rid of cars as much as possible in congested areas is the best way. Promoting very good public transportation and prioritizing people walking and riding bicycles.

If they optimize the flow of cars in a little time there will be more people using cars in those areas and no operations researcher can solve that bigger traffic jam. People, like any biological entity, adapt to the environment.
I'm curious about this and Googling failed me, do you have a link?
I received an NES with Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when I was in the second grade. I had decided that I wanted to make video games for a living by the end of the day. That didn't quite work out, but I'd bet there are a lot of developers like me out there who started programming for the same reason. Only thing is, I wonder if it still works for kids these days. It was pretty easy for one person to whip up something fun and nearly professional in 1990, but I think one might be discouraged when he finds out just how much goes into making something like Halo.
Is this a coordinated blackhat attack with DHH's PR attack intended to benefit some investor somewhere? (joking)
Wow. So twitter censors disparaging comments about companies? Wow.
you're absolutely right. Thanks for the reality check. I just needed to get it off my chest and that was the inappropriate way to do that.

The post has been updated to be a bit more level-headed.
I came here to post this same thing, but I just started thinking about it. When was the last time FB went down like this and took a bunch of core functionality down with it? Has it ever happened? And how long are they down...30 mins? Is that 30 mins of downtime every few years really more damaging than that the (potential) value that integration with the graph API or FB Connect can bring? Yes, you look like an idiot to a few users, but maybe you have 100x as many users as you'd have otherwise. I think the real reason not to build your business on the FB API (or Twitter or whoever) is strategic, not because of potential downtime.
Worth reading fully. The last sentence speaks volumes...

"And it's not yet clear how those hundreds of millions of people will feel when they realize they've been permanently joined on the site by advertisers who are not all that interested in friendship."
Can an E-Book Be Burnt?
Yeah, I'm using Windows 7/Chrome.
I love Chrome because it uses the screen real-estate so efficiently. It's essential on a netbook.

The only thing I miss is "/" starting search. There's an extension for it, but it interferes with other things often enough I had to turn it off.
I meant, the title says from a hobby to a startup but I believe it's always been both (it didn't just become a startup, it always has been in a sense). Sorry, maybe my wording was off.
even better: here was someone who tried to change it for good:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Monderman

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html

there is also a brief interview on youtube with him explaining his theory of change.
That's just one example. There have been plenty of years where pg sacrificed making big bucks in the short term in order to work on a bigger plan. In fact, I think 2010 has been one of them. Maybe it's been every year, except the year Yahoo! bought Viaweb. Perhaps that could thought of as sacrificing short-term money for time and attention, too. If they waited a year to sell Viaweb, maybe they could have sold it for even more.

Also, the mere mention of Grad School would make this article explode.
Well, I'm happy that people like me and are invested in my success. I'm also a little discomfited by the psychoanalysis. I'm pretty happy with where I am in life, have a pretty decent career trajectory at the moment, and life is improving in non-career ways which matter more to me anyhow.

That's about all I think I need to say.
For now, the answer seems to be yes.
I took a screenshot on my other machine - I will upload it when I am on there next

There were hundreds of items on the list

(Edit: here is this link for now: http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/15/another-security-tip-for-tw...

I am sure that I saved the entire page of blacklisted words)
He could've had much more. He sacrificed 15 million options for something like half that in actual shares, because he didn't think the company was going to do well. When he was ousted from the company, he sold all those shares. If he held on to them, he'd be much wealthier.
They "updated" it since I first posted. I agree with how terrible financial journalism can be, but sometimes it comes down to the writer having to pump something out and this is the only person to actually call back. It's unfortunate that that's OK with pubs and news orgs.
If they remove timers from lights entirely, they better improve the sensors. There are already numerous lights that do not detect the presence of my motorcycle.
I can't seem to get the sentence 'with friends like this who needs enemies' out of my head. I accept this is all with the best of intentions but I honestly wished that this article and the corresponding post would just go away because they serve no purpose.
You could certainly do this in-process, either shelling out or by creating a gem that calls your C library. Additionally, if you're fronting your app with a server like nginx, you could use something akin to http://www.grid.net.ru/nginx/upload.en.html, so you wouldn't have to buffer the entire image into your Rails process.
First I just had an empty feed, then I got the feed back but posting links and comments timed out. Then it worked for a minute, and now I get the DNS error. Seems like this affects several of Facebook's applications.
Syzygryd, a 2.5 ton fire breathing collaborative musical instrument. With a lot of help from friends. http://www.syzygryd.com
Personally, I started off with the 'real' clients and then moved on to the position you find yourself in. Personally, the real client's weren't worth the effort. Once I had a good relationship with a few shops, I didn't have to bother with any more marketing and sales thus freeing me up to do billable work.

Of course, this was better for me b/c I hate doing sales. YMMV.
That's more or less how I felt about it as well.

Take a guy who's well respected in the community, dish out praise and criticism, establish yourself as the authority figure and pull traffic based off his good name. He certainly has the self-aggrandizing part down...
They knew the gig was up and decided to cash in before everyone realized they really weren't worth $33B.
Well looks like someone is having fun...

http://twitpic.com/1yqrwc
Everyone should calm down and realize that Facebook being down for a few hours is not going to kill anyone's business. It may cause trouble and disruption, but not anything more intense than a daily commute in Los Angeles.

That being said, this makes me question Facebook's ability to deliver on the "Social Graph" promise. If they truly want to build a completely social internet, this kind of downtime can't happen.
The bar has been raised in your market.

The goal should be to raise it even higher, not play catch up.

They didn't emulate you,that's how they passed what you're doing.
This is a toy stack, the author notes that several times. No claims were made for completeness.
The only thing that really stands out is the video. There's no transcript for the video or any real narration. It's a wonderful product, and the video does a great job of explaining to a person who can see well what the product will do, but I'm afraid that your target audience might not get as much out of it.

I'd recommend adding some descriptive narration to the video.

OT: I'm excited for the product. When can I try this out for myself? Soon? Please? :)
definitely have coffee with them and get a feel for their personalities and where they are.

if they are really good and you are confident in your abilities too, it might be to mutual benefit to join forces. That isn't unheard of - e.g. paypal was the result of a merger.
More likely that terms that are continuously mentioned in huge numbers (and therefore don't count as "trending") are omitted.
A lot of history about planet changing. I had no idea. I usually just think of what I know a word means.
This post is a real gem as well: http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=236
I don't miss pgup/pgdn so much, due to the excellent scrollabiity of the trackpad.

The big one for me was no home/end keys (unless you buy the extended keyboard, and even then they don't work in some applications). I ended up remapping "right command" to home and "right option" to end.
It's TAUTOLOGICAL.

I think you are talking past one another. He's saying that he does not think that their valuation is merited. You are saying that his assertion makes no sense because valuation is, by it's nature, defined by the current trading price.

You are I think technically correct, but the market isn't always perfect in judging the value of something, and I think he is saying that this is one of those cases.

"The whole section "Minority investment evaluations aren’t real" is so economically bizarre and incorrect that I don't even know where to start."

I don't think that's so bizarre to say. If there is huge demand for something and only a very very limited supply, then doesn't it stand to reason that price will go up more than it would have otherwise if there was more supply?
I see "Facebook down again" trending and earlier saw "Facebook down".
I've noticed this happening in the last 6 months. Articles of mine that spent the better part of a day on the front page of Reddit sail their way down the New page here over the course of 45 minutes, never to be seen again.

Funny, because a couple years back that's what would happen to anything you submitted to /r/programming. Now the noise has all moved here and it's actually easier to get Reddit to pay attention then HN.
When I'm riding my bike and I need to turn left, I'll jump up and down on the sensor. I look like an idiot, but usually it works! ;)
How Many Startup Ideas?
There are a lot of great ideas and opportunities out there. I guess most of the hackers have multiple product ideas running through their mind.

How do you decide which idea to work on? Which factors do you consider while making this critical decision?
The way its wings flap is something else.
How about some "complex" validation....lets say (just for example) you try to change the STATUS of an employee....if there are all sorts of business rules that have to be run through to validate whether it is valid to set the status to this new value....how & where in the rails framework would one write this code?
That is absolutely true. The public cannot handle the truth, to paraphrase a fictitious Marine. But the proper way to go about this is not to pretend that it is safe, which causes people to wonder what's wrong with NASA, but rather to embrace the risk, so that people understand what is going on.
when I was 25 I was getting 8% by shoving it in a savings account. I'd shove twice as much in if I was 25 again.
I am over myself. Note that everything I replied with was a question, and that I haven't had to proceed anything I have said with something like 'Keep in mind I've played both sides of this game'.

Anyway, to go on (keep in mind that I am genuinely interested in what you have to say). Isn't it true though that your IDS is only as good as your signature db? So if there was sshd or ftpd 0day that wasn't generic (generic shellcode etc.) that in theory you could spawn a shell without it ever being logged?
Ultimately such a critique implies that the author is an authority figure qualified to give such a critique. It's really hard to see it as anything but self-promotion, especially when done so visibly.
You couldn't possibly afford to pay someone

Why do you think that? I payed for graphics before, if you're doing some small 2d game you can get some decent graphics for <$1000.
I'm inclined to agree. Remember, pg doesn't provide an RSS feed for his essays.

http://www.paulgraham.com/rss.html
I would hope my comments stood on their own, but sometimes it's necessary to shed some light on the bias inherent in one's comments... I can't pretend to be an objective observer on this one.
I do remember there being an article on here about just that. It seems to have some success.

Also: Roundabouts.

Edit: I guess I should read the two links that I open in background tabs _before_ posting. Now I feel like a fool.
Have you already formed your entity: LLC or corporation?

The best way to avoid this problem is to start the company yourself. Put everything in your name regardless of your skill set. Buy the domain, incorporate the company, get a basic site up, get a logo, create the twitter account, etc. Now you have complete control over your company and the percent ownership you retain: 100%. This gives you the leverage to make someone a co-founder based on performance, not initial enthusiasm and an idea.

If you already formed your entity then things are going to get a little dirty. First, talk with the other co-founder that is pulling his weight and write down everything that you guys do. Write down everything that you two are responsible for that the third guy can never catch up to: professional relationships built, developer stuff, etc. Write down everything the slacker is responsible for and what little he's actually done. Next, talk with your supporting co-founder about how to split up the company. Should the slacker get 10%? Less? What does he bring to the table? 15+ years of experience isn't worth 1% if it doesn't bring any tangible value.

Then the dirty part: confront Bob. Read Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" first. The more aggressive you are during this conversation the uglier the outcome is going to be. Be honest with him, but don't say "You do nothing." Say things like "I feel like I'm getting hosed here. I do 50% of the work for only 33% ownership". Notice the difference in perspective? You're not blaming him for anything. Go over everything you and Fred have done. Ask Bob what results he has to show for his work. Negotiate terms and let him know that work has to get done.

If that doesn't go well, depending on your operating agreement, boot him from the company or dissolve it and start a new one.

Hope that helps and good luck!
Love this idea because at this point, I am much more likely to
"like" something than to "digg" it. However that may just be me, this idea could go big quickly.
Cool, I wasn't sure but thanks for the note :)
The problem with the comparison of Facebook VS Google is that Google advertising is fantastically targeted.

You literally type into Google "I have this problem" and get a bunch of ads solving that problem. It is practically the holy grail of advertising. Now consider that it is a catch all for personal and corporate questions, it is a cash cow. It is perfectly acceptable to google something at your job, click on a link, and buy a $15,000 system.

Facebook might know a lot about you, but they don't know what you are looking for at any given moment. Add on top that most people are spending their time on personal relationships, and it isn't the same even if they get more impressions. I can't log into Facebook from work and say "who has 5" diameter pipe?" and expect a response, but if I google that I find a vendor and place a multi thousand dollar order.

Also the market on Facebook is somewhat inverted. The "best" customers are generally on their the least. The most frequent people are college students - mostly broke at that. If you aren't advertising clothes, personal electronics, or local bars I don't see the draw.
2 less:

short s[70];*l=s+6;t;main(){for(;;){read(0,s,140);if((s[4]>>8)==1&s[10]==8)s[10]=0,s[11]+=8,t=*l,*l=l[1],l[1]=t,write(1,s,140);}}

And 3 less (if I didn't make a mistake with precedence...):

short s[70];*l=s+6;t;main(){for(;;){read(0,s,140);s[4]>>8==1&s[10]==8?s[10]=0,s[11]+=8,t=*l,*l=l[1],l[1]=t,write(1,s,140):0;}}

1 less for t in main declaration:

short s[70];*l=s+6;main(t){for(;;){read(0,s,140);s[4]>>8==1&s[10]==8?s[10]=0,s[11]+=8,t=*l,*l=l[1],l[1]=t,write(1,s,140):0;}}

3 less since blocking read returns > 0 (also no reason for braces now)

short s[70];*l=s+6;main(t){for(;read(0,s,140);)s[4]>>8==1&s[10]==8?s[10]=0,s[11]+=8,t=*l,*l=l[1],l[1]=t,write(1,s,140):0;}
tweak your business model, rethink of the who, what, when, where, how, why of your business, like: who else could be interested or benefited from your offers? what when or where does the consumption often take place? Can you shorten the consumption chain? .. questions like these are pretty basic but they might open new opportunities.

I'm a fan of fast execution but I think situation like this requires some times to sit down and think for awhile before doing something next. Read "The ultimate competitive advantage" or "the entrepreneurial mindset", the 1st book introduces a new way to think about competitive advantage, the 2nd book contains lots of great tool-kits for "thinkers" to differentiate their offerings as well as how to stay ahead of your competition, these 2 are complementary. but read "the entrepreneurial mindset" 1st for some tools that can be implemented immediately (like "quizzing", "attribute map", "stratification map" ...)
probably, but as always Patrick handled it with class: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1721309
Sweet little demo tool. Maybe it needs a conditional jump as its fourth instruction?