skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Practice. Run through it until it's smooth. Great demos that look like they're off the cuff are actually the result of hours of rehearsal. Your passion will shine through, but only once you're so comfortable running through the demo that it has a chance.

Also, make sure you get a good sleep. There's nothing worse than wanting to be calm on stage while being jumpy from lack of sleep.
Ask HN: How to collect TV + online TV viewing behavior?
I'm trying to create a complete Nielsen ratings to encompass every place that shows are watched.

Now, Amazon video on demand, itunes, hulu, clicker and others are not in the business of giving up their data. How can i convince then to share viewing data with a small startup? Can this approach work in dealing with the big boys (Nielsen and Tivo)?
My guess is the natural evolution of all internet communities as their user bases grow.
Wow. Fred Wilson has written before about seed investment as a way to buy rights to a bigger deal downstream, but treating it as a loss leader never crossed my mind. Makes perfect sense for them, since a deal that won't raise bigger money later on is probably not one of their home runs anyways.
I posted this on my blog and to my batch mates but I wonder what HNers think:

I think this investment brings up an interesting point. Angels often portray themselves as being more entrepreneur-friendly with deal terms and often they are.

But VCs care about being the first institutional money and getting more than 20% (usually higher). Aside from that they care about getting people to that point. As a result a VC could care less about the terms of a seed convertible note so long as it converts (which everyone cares about). Many VCs will want the follow-on option but that is not always the case as with Pulse/Alphonso Labs.

Angels cannot really compete with those terms as they will not usually be setting terms at the next level and make a lot of their money off caps and discount rates.

Just something to think about.
All those things are awesome after you have a product and or money to hire.

The people the comment was targeting were "idea people" who I must conclude are useless without any muscle/blood/sweat to turn an idea into a product.
BELLAMY
Want to learn a little bit about when to buy and repair a vacant house? watch this video.
"...for an undisclosed sum that someone will probably leak to Kara Swisher in a day or two."
I was hoping you would trump the leak and let the cat out of the bag yourself on the exit.
Money sent... Thanks again for helping get Web608 off the ground, and taking part in Madison & Milwaukee's tech communities.
I agree with you, however, I've experienced enough of this stereotype firsthand to basically dismiss most business-types immediately. It's just not worth my time to find the "real" business types, for the same reasons pg mentions in his essay [1].

[1] http://paulgraham.com/start.html
Not surprisingly, it is a related problem:

> UPDATE Oct. 5 8:01PM: Our server team is still working to resolve the problem. The issue is related to yesterday’s outage.
I liked your blog post and appreciated the level of detail you put into it. I'm always wondering why things went down and what's going on behind the scenes and I'm sure many other users appreciate it too. Those that don't likely won't mind the extra information.
Not a lawyer, but knowingly infringing on a patent opens one to treble damages: http://www.patent-infringement.org/recover.html

So maybe it’s legal speak for “Regardless of what the patents say, we weren’t aware of them.”
I have a Kinesis keyboard and used a Microsoft Natural before that. If I were looking for a replacement keyboard, I would base most of my evaluation on three things:

- Does it separate out the hands? This one does to some extent, but it looks like less than the Microsoft or Kinesis.

- How many keys do you need to press with your pinky? What I like most about the Kinesis is that it moves many keys traditionally pressed with the pinky finger - control, alt, enter, backspace, delete - to under the thumbs. It's much easier to hold the modifiers down with your thumb because the muscle is so much bigger, and it's nicer to hit enter/backspace because you don't have to stretch your finger.

- Does it have mechanical key switches instead of the plastic bubbles? I don't know how good this one's are, but it's noticeably less work to press the switches and requires a constant/predictable amount of force on the Kinesis compared to the Microsoft and others. This really adds up over a day of typing.
I notice foursquare.com resolves to ec2, was the mongodb that got overloaded also on ec2? Can you tell us in what way did it get "overloaded" (iowait, mem/swap, raw-cpu)?
No. This is probably a dumb question to many people here. I'm asking as I have no idea, because all I know is how to code and build things and nothing about startups or business. However others here have deep knowledge on the subject.

So I'm asking for help and not cynicism.
This is a throw away account, I would prefer to remain anonymous. I work for a digital music startup and am privy to the kinds of tactics and ridiculousness that the major labels engage in on a regular basis. I should note however that I am a developer, not one of the guys that do the deal cutting as primary focus.

For example; they're well aware DRM does not work, but their insistence on the implementation of DRM is absolutely not focused anymore on the idea that they can stop piracy, but that they can implement market segmentation and suck the profit out of the kind of content that people actually want.

Case in point; digital music startup that charges a subscription for global access to a large library of content from the major labels charges a flat fee to the customer and is charged by the record labels on a pay per play basis, thus the effective margin that the startup makes is a function of (average amount of plays per user / subscription cost per month) - price paid to record label for the play. It turns out that if you do not use DRM for your player the record label leaves you around a 10% per play margin (on quite a hefty monthly subscription fee). With DRM it's much much more profitable for the startup in question, they bank on DRM being so repellent to customers that the startup will pay the much higher rate for DRM free.

They also micromanage the hell out of the details of implementation, for example they have a specific set of "acceptable DRM" standards which you must adhere to to be eligible for the rates in question. There have been negotiations running for months with them just to get approval to run the same kind of streaming clients as the web service provides available as applications to android / iPhone clients. When considering implementing AWS for site infrastructure one of the objections raised by the music companies was that "they don't want their music on the cloud".

Effectively it chokes what it is possible to do in the market, inflates the prices, and makes the entire offering far less appealing. It does seem like they're headed for destruction but they seem just as steadfast in their refusal to amend their course.
I saw Fried speak at Chicago CocoaHeads, a very technically skilled audience, about two years ago. His presentation was almost entirely a sales pitch for 37signals products, which I thought was very condescending and a missed opportunity.
Just use Caps Lock as a modifier.
The consensus here is that recruitment agencies are clueless. So why hasn't the internet disintermediated them? This would be a good startup idea for someone.
It's Official: The White House Goes Solar
And of course everyone agreeing with you would be in the highest grade.
I've been doing web marketing for about 8 years now (SEO, PR, product, SEM, viral etc) and I'm currently the CMO of a great small internet company... and I completely agree with you. Even if you're not going to strike off and start a company within the next year, you'll still be able to understand basic structure and constraints of programming. I've done this myself (with decent, yet limited success) by taking advantage of the free Harvard course offered at CS75.tv Watch the lectures (they're entertaining), do the projects and if you catch up now you can even participate & interact with the class... democratization of knowledge at its best.
Great job! I also used GAE to build ThatHigh.com and it's working pretty well.

But like you're probably aware, GAE has a learning curve in addition to python/django/whatever. The datastore, mainly. This is a shameless plug, but I'm the co-founder of Djangy.com and we're in private beta. We're doing Heroku except for python/django. we'll support other wsgi frameworks in the future, but for now we make deploying almost any django app instant and painless.

in private beta now, but email me and we can set something up if you're interested.
Go me thinking, wonder how successful it would be if someone like apple wrote a program to determine people pirating music then sent then somehow got in contact to them with a link to buy, like the Microsoft anti piracy strategy with windows. On the whole would probably be more successful than the lawsuit path.

Another idea for a service, something that scans a computer for pirated music, lets a user select which albums they would like to buy and offers a big discount.
In addition to the above, a real business person can also be someone who is simply able to generate revenue through other means and can pay for development because they have a vision of a product they want to realize.

Though keep in mind that they might not be a good "co-founder" per say since they are likely going to want to own the whole thing as they are paying for development.
really helpful.

Thanks :)
The problem is the "idea people" who can't execute - definitely. I too meet more of these wanna-be's than true hustlers, but the ability to sell and raise funds is VERY helpful BEFORE you have a product.

Hustlers find a way - bottom line.
It is coming to the USA. It is called the SDR.
I suspect this is exactly right. If you make money, they'll send their lawyers in to extort some of it off you.

And so what's happened is that digital delivery of music has largely been via alternative channels such as P2P. And a new generation of music fans is growing up, liking this, and hating the music industry.
"border" not "boarder"

unless that was deliberate....
Google already licensed the patents from Microsoft that Microsoft is now suing Motorola over.
I apologize if I offended you. First thing I would do if I were you would be to check out resources like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, and read Rework by 37Signals. I know that isn't a direct answer to your question, but that's because I think you're asking the wrong question. Can you elaborate on what you want to build and why you need a fleshed out company right off the bat?
I look at where the slash and backslash keys are (along with the pipe and question mark), and I realize I would smash this thing to bits within about two minutes of using it.
Zuckerberg: Non-Evil Non-Genius?
http://hbase.apache.org/
You can see from the page that it has Cherry switches. My current keyboard uses Cherry switches, and I found it to be a vast improvement over previous keyboards (I like it a fair bit more than the IBM Model M, for example).
From the website: It uses Cherry mechanical key switches, with full N-key rollover. And you can choose the responsive curve you want.
that is screwed up.
On a related note, I haven't heard much on here / proggit about MS sueing motorola over android patents, any news there?
That makes sense. Maybe I misread your post as glib when that wasn't your intention.
The technical details were great. And I'm sure other devs can learn from your predicament. But, as a user, you didn't answer the question, "When can I use this again?"

It broke. You fixed it. But, "Can I expect this to work again?" "Reliably?" All I heard was that it was broken.

It sounded a lot like, "something broke, it took a long time to fix."
My barber sends me a coupon at about the time I need my next haircut. That coupon converted me to a regular, even though I always forget to bring it with me. It reminds me to make an appointment with him, not one of the many other haircut options that I consider acceptable. He got my home address by flat out asking if he could have it after I was a walk-in one day.

My wife's favorite spa has also figured out that sending me follow-on ads is a pretty effective sales pitch, as I semi-routinely say 'hey, she deserves another half-day at the spa.' They got my email address from an initial online sale.

I don't get any follow-on advertising from donut places, but there's a local restaurant who uses email to fill out slow nights with some really nice prix fixe dinners. Every now and then one shows up in my inbox, sounds delicious, and I don't feel like cooking, and they make an additional sale. They started doing so after I made a reservation on OpenTable, and our dining frequency jumped substantially.
Yes, perhaps thinking the labels changing their ways (or hoping they do) over time is naive. I'll admit that (but I'd like to say optimistic instead).

What the music industry needs is a platform where unsigned artists can go to promote their music without the help of the labels. This platform could probably act like a label, but better serve the artists and users. It would have to garner a lot of eyeballs so it could effectively break artists into the mainstream. It would have to be smart at targeting a specific demographic of listeners so artists could know where to travel and know they can fill auditoriums. Lastly it would have to be a tech company, so the Platform would be in the hands of every listener.

MySpace might be able to do this if they gave up on the social network thing. There certainly is room though for a new company to have this role, but it is going to be a long and painful process. And you certainly shouldn't do it for short term gain.
And "hey guys, stop using that broken software" is not what they want to tell the people they are spying on.

Can anyone name one case where the NSA has ever testified for the prosecution?
http://www.azulsystems.com/blogs/cliff

Read it all.
I disagree with, "Note 1: If your idea is to build something truly technically challenging, then scratch my advice." If you want to build something technically challenging, you absolutely must learn the basics of whatever field it's in. You will not make a prototype this way, but you will be able to talk to someone who can without sounding like an idiot. You should study until you can prove that your idea is "challenging" rather than infeasible.

As a corollary, be weary of AI. If you are solving a problem with AI that you don't understand, assume the AI won't work.

On another note, maybe the real advice should just be "pick an easier project." I have a technical background but consider myself a hybrid business/hacker going forward. My current project is highly technical; I don't think I'd consider taking on a co-founder who didn't have some tech background.
This is basically a course study in formal languages. What is more fascinating is that you arrived at the same abstraction independently.
It depends what you're looking to do. If you're doing commercial targeted software, they're invaluable because social media etc. often don't move shit. If you're doing a standard consumer play, they might have less effect.
So, this article identifies broad classes of actors ("VCs", "angels", etc) and attributes motivations and patterns to them.

However. there are very big differences in behavior in sub-classes inside these groups. Top-tier VCs, low-tier angels, etc. The types of deals that these groups are willing to engage in differ radically, especially due to the ecosystem and the structure. This stuff isn't particularly apparent until you spend a great deal of time understanding the structure of the marketplace...
Ask HN: Should I apply to YC as a single founder?
Hi HNer's,
I started working on an idea a bit late (and part time) and am debating whether I should apply to YC or not in this round (I actually filled the form partially but have not submitted it yet:)). I would probably get to a prototype level stage (which should be ok based on a question I asked earlier). But most importantly, it looks like I may not get a co founder - mainly due to lack of time (deadline is oct 19). I am a bit reluctant to find a co founder online. I would rather connect with someone already in my network (though I almost ended up typing an email to a fellow HNer who I dont know before backing out).

I am working on an idea related to financial modeling if you care.

I looked at the thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1192158 and looks like chances of getting selected even past the first stage are dramatically reduced if you are a single founder (they state as much in their FAQ). For those who were in the same boat and applied, was it worth it? Anyone else who has any perspective on it, please chime in.

Thanx!
> Now we need to factor in medical, dental, 401K, office space, admin, laptops/desktops/devices/licenses, server space, business card, legal, expected travel expenses and such...

It reads like a joke because of the above list. Those are luxuries. You presumably already have a personal laptop, and a linode instance is quite affordable. Start there.

If you haven't already read pg's bit about ramen profitability, you should: http://www.paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html
I have karma to burn[1], but I'm embarrassed and ashamed that pointed advice gets downvoted (with no discussion) while a platitude is upvoted.

This is an example of why Startup School speakers censor themselves: we bring it upon ourselves.

[1] Especially since it's not meaningful.
see, when an employer starts talking about how they want an employee with "passion" I assume they want a gullible employee who is willing to work more for less pay.

Granted, I want employees who will work more for less pay, too; I mean, who doesn't? but the problem, I think, with asking for and selecting for "passion" is that most employers talk about dedication to the company which, I think, usually leads to getting employees who are willing to fake it. I mean, we all know what the score is. The company is going to get rid of you as soon as you are no longer useful (just like you are going to leave if you feel you can get better working conditions elsewhere.)

I think that the sort of employee who tells you what you want to hear instead of what they actually think is incredibly destructive, and I think quite often that is what you get when you select for "passion" as in company loyalty.

I think you can even turn an honest employee into a yes man and vis-a-vis by responding positively or negatively to criticism. (the hard part is when the guy has a point, but it's not really a priority. yes you say "Good point and I agree, but we don't have time to fix that right now" but you can only say that so many times before it starts sounding like "shut up and get back to work, kid.")

I think selecting for people who are passionate about the technology they work with or about their skill with that technology is a fine thing; but I think it's a very dangerous thing to tell business people to select for because they will select for (apparent) loyalty/passion for the company, which I think is usually a net negative.
It has nothing to do with holes in AES, NSA just has better brute force capabilities than the FBI or any other law enforcement. And while you sit in jail awaiting trial, they take the months it takes to brute force a key.
1. Start selling before you release anything. In fact, start selling before you write your first line of code. Sell your idea to potential customers and see their reaction. Keep engaging potential customers, keep building your understanding of your target market. That's what the business guy should do.

2. Doing 1) correctly will help you to sell empathically. The best way to learn to sell is to begin with a true understanding of the customer's behavior, situation, and pain points, not so much about technique/flair.
Not Enough Time? Try Doing Nothing
"I realized it was basically hopeless to start startups that touch label music"
there's a key word missing in your sentiment. the companies that are streaming music require licenses. there's a number of great companies that are extremely innovative in the music space. the echo nest just raised a $7mil round today. tunecore and indaba are two more varying types that have very nice business models.

from the article:
"There will be no new players of significance to enter the business. Investors don’t want to entertain the remotest possibility of funding any start-up that deals with music"
once again, it's not fair to think of all startups related to music as synonymous with the struggles of the streaming startups. as one who has been involved in the music space for a couple years, i still believe there is potential as more & more music is being produced --> how do we sift through all the noise?
You have some good points. But there is another side to consider...

In my case, in large part I was hired specifically for the customer contacts that I brought with me. So for my company to tell me that I could not work for a competing company in my industry, specifically not selling to those same customers, seemed totally unreasonable to me.

I decided to hold my ground on this one (at the risk of maybe not getting the job) but in the end, my company agreed to pass on the non-compete. Two years later, I'm really glad they did, I hope they're happy too.

If you're hiring sales people now, chances are you'll want people with some experience and or contacts in your industry. That's one of the primary reason to hire certain sales people.

(Also, I am not opposed to companies that require confidentiality from their employees (e.g., IP). There is probably some reasonable legalese that you can write into an employee's contract in that regard.)

Your company's situation might be entirely different but that is my experience.

Happy hunting on the hiring.
Google Research: Poetic Machine Translation
Awesome work making it happen, I know many people who have been professional programmers for years who never created anything outside of their jobs. Love the design too, how did you go about coming up with it?
Reminds me - one of the things on my list is to build (yet another) chore tracker with that gaming incentive everyone's done (earn points of some sort) but avoiding the fault those all have: too easy to cheat yourself.

I envisaged multiplayer action, even just with a wife, for example, where each person would allocate 'points' to be earned and traded for chores. She might be more likely to avoid creating a floordrobe if she could trade the resulting points for dinner out, making me watch rom-coms with her, etc. It's a little juvenile, but I would get a lot of house cleaning done were there sexual favours up for grabs.

What do people think?

Also been thinking that there seem to be few/no decent to-do apps out there with 'dependency trees'. We've just built a house and have progressed to the landscaping - every thing seems to hinge on something else. As an example, we can't put in plants until the driveway is done and can't do that until the water meter has been relocated. Or can't clear out weeds until I've bought fuel for the lawnmower, etc.
it's funny that i would answer twitter because as much as twitter funnels interesting things from my network to me, it also brings all kinds of articles that i'd love to read, but just don't have ample time!