skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Growing up, my stepmother was very big on the power of words, and how you can change people's minds based on how you say a thing. She was right, of course... but to my mind, that seemed like protecting myself from this manipulation was more important (and more ethical) than using this knowledge to manipulate other people. For a long time, I'd practice re-writing everything I heard using words with the most negative connotations I could without changing the meaning of the sentence.

"I gave him a job, and his skills and abilities are helping my business do well."
vs.
"I am profitably exploiting his skills and abilities."

the meaning is essentially the same, but don't say the second one in public. (in my teenage years I tried that, too.. it ended badly.)

Anyhow, I don't spend as much effort on it as I did, but I still think being aware of this sort of thing is an important part of everyone's mental self-defense.
RIM: Problems with 7-inch tablets only exist in Apple's 'distortion field'
"The fact you feel entitled to anything is the source of much grief."

IMHO the younger generation isn't nearly entitled enough, and it's going to result in a lot of violence within our lifetime.
I think "website number" must be a username or password of some kind. You wouldn't use a different address to get to BCC depending on your ISP.
That assumes that every valuation is aiming for the 'quick buck', the x10 return.

It could be that if the angels are less certain of whether a company can balloon, they demand the more exact valuation in the theory of making that a x10 portfolio member..
> This isn't "Apple vs Android" this is "Apple vs Carriers".

That's an academic distinction, though, wouldn't you agree? Android as software is perhaps "truly open" but what about Android as a user experience?

Android, from the perspective of the vast majority of people who will interact with it, is what the carriers say it is.
I would like to think if someone were criticizing my baby they'd email me to discuss first.
Only to keep SL4A updated. It hasn't made its way to the marketplace yet.

http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
Good point. And not that Perez Hilton should by any means be a gauge for all websites' traffic, this is telling:

"The analysts at Hitwise claim that celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton now gets more traffic from Facebook than from Google – more than 7 million pageviews from Facebook alone."
http://www.copyblogger.com/facebook-killing-seo/

Essentially, depending on your (or your clients') business, product, and industry, it may be smarter to optimize for Facebook (or any other site, for that matter) than Google. It all goes back to that big Marketing question: who is the target audience and where do they live?
I've done it for beta apps and some other things I've found on websites. Often there's a QR code to scan to download the file that's not in the market.

Swype keyboard is an example of an app that's not in the market but can be installed via APK. For most users, it's not a big deal, but I think that's mostly because the Market has far fewer rules than the AppStore, so even apps that require root access can be uploaded to the Market.
There is a book formerly called _Toughness_Training_for_Athletes_ that talks all about the practical application of mental toughness. Loehr talks about the importance of finding, maintaining, and controlling your "Ideal Performance State", or IPS, and how being able to harness and control your IPS on command is crucial to being a successful athlete.

I've been fortunate to be able to start for two national championship winning rugby teams, and I give a small fraction of credit for my personal athletic success to some of the lessons in the book.

It's now called Toughness Training for Sports: http://www.amazon.com/New-Toughness-Training-Sports-Psycholo...
This would be huge in helping startups leverage skills and assets from each other. Even people not chosen by y combinator could potentially still receive a majority of the rewards and help that those who are accepted receive. This could be a new step in startup funding/acceleration.

Ashley reddy is a fricken genius.

I would definitely participate in this endeavor. I'll be the first one to offer something. I'm a tax accountant by trade during the day that has worked at pwc and kpmg. I currently own my own firm. I'd be willing to help with tax services and corporate planning.

During the night I'm working on a nonprofit startup for edu. The app will help people discover occupations that suite their needs based on earnings, location, cost, time and interest.

I don't think a 1-2 percent share is going to make anyone forget about their own personal goals and projects. It's honestly more a gesture of good faith and earnesty toward each other's help.

This could also lead to a whole new genertion of mashups that could revolutionize something new.

Lol I sound like a hippy. But I'd be willing to even help gratis just to meet some cool people from hn with similar interests.
Ohohoho. No... if you omit the second parameter, PHP sets variables from the query string in your local scope. Surprise! It's register_globals all over again.
Thanks for those links. It's rather entertaining to see that a pretty good tech site is going to great lengths to make a case for both platforms being basically crap. And it's a strong case. :)
Bouncing around ideas like this is so good for the brain. This is unlikely, but not impossible.

I don't think Zuckerberg is going to allow Facebook to be bought by anybody, he's doing the buying these days.
More Groupon Problems
I'm working on a game -- when time allows -- that lets you build and race vehicles using Lego Technic-style pieces, e.g. gears, motors, belts, blocks, etc. It's honestly pretty easy from a tech perspective (I'm using Python + PyOgre + Bullet for the core of it), but presenting the vehicle designer to the user in a nice way is really tough. I'll announce the alpha here as soon as I have anything, of course.
A few programmers will pay a lot of money, but most programmers seem to be uninterested in paying more than $70. Compared this to photographers, who will almost universally pay $700. The market is much larger.
2. Founders were surprised how harsh our feedback was at times. We may be able to be more diplomatic. But I think the fundamental problem is that this is a domain where, so far at least, many participants fail. So if you're truthful, you're often going to be delivering bad news.

Disclaimer: I don't have YC experience.

In school, my classmates and I too often experienced the opposite kind of feedback: pat on the back, great job, I thought it was fantastic, etc. What little criticism was given usually came in the format of a "compliment sandwich."

Although praise is nice, in general I find that being nice to avoid confrontation or to prevent hurt feelings only promotes complacency and lack of (personal) growth. Not to mention if you tell me something was great when I know it sucks, you've lost all credibility with me.

Don't sugar coat it - I have a pretty good general idea of what's working. I find honest feedback more helpful.
A few weeks ago I bought an "Epic 4G" phone from Sprint. This is one of the Samsung Galaxy S variants. It has a custom GUI called "TouchWiz" made to look more like the iphone and is loaded with Sprint applications including a game demo, nascar related and football related applications that are installed as "system applications" and cannot be removed by the user.

It also has a Sprint replacement for the wifi hotspot tethering so the user is required to pay $30/mo for that feature that is normally native to Android even when they're already paying for an unlimited data plan.

It has sprint logos and music that plays on startup and shutdown that cannot be removed without rooting the phone.

A recent update added a media portal where the user can purchase movies and tv shows from Sprint partners. Also a "system app" that cannot be uninstalled.
How to make wooden gears
I don't get it. A venture capitalist invests in a spread of companies because he isn't 100% sure which companies will win.

However, a founder is 100% sure that his company will succeed. If he isn't, he is sure to fail.

So why would I do this? I'm going to win - I don't need a backup plan. (this is how I see it, that is)
Apple creates good software to sell amazing hardware.

Adobe creates shitty software to sell other software.

Adobe has considerable legacy baggage that would be very difficult for Apple to deal with.
1. This will just lead to more spam. Submit, re-submit...

2. Won't work. They are recognized as new stories and they change quickly. Nobody wants to waste his time with "possibly" uninteresting stories.

The solution is to prohibit people with less than a karma threshold, are new, didn't contribute a lot in the discussions from submitting stories. Also, limit other members to 1 story per day, this will give equal chances to all HN users.
This just leads to another problem though: the first submitter can bury a story by submitting a poor headline.
I'm tempted to agree along those lines. If you turn down billions, why does more billions suddenly appeal to you?
Why You Shouldn't Send your Brand New 27" iMac to MacSales.com/OWC For Upgrades
>Who will win, the super-angels or the VCs?
I see the start-up companies and entrepreneurs the winners here for now. Question is how long this new arrangement with with super angels is sustainable.
If tomorrow's presentation weren't about the Mac Jobs would have had this discussion right a the beginning of his keynote, as he does before talking about any product. He doesn't have a platform to talk about iPhone or iPad this fall, so he gives us talking points via the conference call.
Once a month, HN posts a "who's hiring" thread. You should post this position in the one coming up on November 1.
There is also more property being taxed than in the '70s. My father loves to drive around California and point out all the homes and businesses that weren't around when he lived here in the mid-'70s.
When you are one of two or three people in an open ended back-and-forth conversation, often a 15 minute phone call can save a dozen three paragraph emails (plus the dozen interruptions) over the course of several hours. You get your answer sooner, you have fewer total interruptions, and you spend less time over-explaining, because listeners can instantly indicate their understanding.

Email is a relatively low-bandwidth channel that's inappropriate for high-bandwidth problems. Sometimes, a 5 sentence email is great. Other times, you need phone call. Sometimes, it's worth flying to meet somebody face to face for an hour.
Here you go (I had to type it up for the police report). My friend actually met the dudes at the BART station with a brown bag with a candy bar in it, the police waiting in the wings. All for my iPhone. What a guy...

Me (on Steve's phone): Pick up the phone. And give it back.

thief (the following morning): A man I find yo phone hit m e. Backs

Steve: Cool how can i get it back from you

thief: Sense I find the can i get a reward cause I was gone throw it away but i figured u needed yo phone

thief: its up to u man

thief: hello

Steve: Yeah how much

thief: 250 or 300

thief: I jus. Need the money man am am homeless

Steve: Ok how about 100

thief: How about 200

Steve: Deal where do we meet

thief: Meet me at the am pm in west Oakland ok

Steve: Ok im at work til 8 see you there at 815

thief: Do u know anybody else dat can do it cuz datse a long time man

thief: Hello

Steve: Ok my pal can meet you at ashby bart at 3

thief: I don't have a way man tell to pal to meet me by am pm if u want yo phone i don't have all day man

Steve: My friend doesnt have a car and im in sf till 8 and hes not going into oakland. ashby at 3

thief: ok i need a number tho

thief: Ok tel yo pal to meet me at 19th. Street Bart and I'll give him my number ok

thief: so wsup man

Steve: Hes not going into oakland. ashby at 3 ok. if yeah i'll give you his number

Steve: Ok hes leaving now for ashby 200 ok his number is 510#######

thief: Ok were is he cumin from and tell him to put da money in a bag or something

Steve: Hes coming from north and the money is in a brown bag
When supply and demand don't dictate price, you have to wonder what does. There isn't a shortage of trigger happy kids wanting a job, the military recruits just fine. We overpay because it's taxed revenue so things like customer satisfaction really don't matter. They even call themselves 'public servants'..
> As soon as it costs more, people will be back to circuit-
> switched voice calls (which are higher quality anyway).

In my experience the quality of Skype to Skype calls (Android to desktop) can be way better than POTS.
Angel investing is kind of a fad right now. Everyone's doing it. My gut instinct is that it's at least a mini bubble. In 3-5 years a lot of angels are going to be unhappy about negative returns, the stock market is going to be looking stronger, and they'll shift their money back to stocks and bonds.

Surely this huge influx of angel investors has contributed to the much higher valuations early stage startups have been exacting in recent months. When many of these new angel investors wind up losing money and angel investing is no longer the cool thing to do, those sky high valuations will probably return to normalcy.

These are just my personal predictions, and I could be completely wrong. During his talk, pg said he'd wondered if we might be seeing a bubble and decided that we're not. Who knows? Either way, I think that we, as entrepreneurs, should take advantage of the current situation.
Whoever they are - send some to Australia!! The funding situation over here is a travesty for anything that doesn't have a patent attached to it (in my experience, anyway).
How about the utter failure that was http://one.sentenc.es/ ? Doomed by failed pluralization :'(
I'm not sure if you're suggesting using the contact form to ask him interview questions, or just to setup an interview, but if it's the former that's ridiculous.
First Rickroll in Space
This is exactly right. And these popups can be pure HTML/CSS. See this easy integration with the jQuery tipsy library.

http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ex/tipsy.html
I'm also a tad surprised that people are finding it this difficult to find a job in software. I haven't even finished my degree, and I get at least two requests for proposals through a freelancing site per week (even though my listed rate is fairly high, compared to my competitors, and I'm listed as unavailable). When I went looking for a new job, I applied to two companies. I got a callback from one and an offer (which I accepted) from the other.

I'm not saying this as a way to gloat. I've met plenty of students who are as good, if not better, developers than I am in my department. I've met plenty of them who have better GPAs, more letters of rec, do more extra-curricular activities, have won more awards, etc., yet I basically landed a job because it's the job I wanted, and they're sending resumes to basically anyone that could potentially offer them a job and are getting no where. There has to be a disconnect here. They have to be "doing it wrong."

Build something, freelance, work on a few open source projects (or start your own), found a non-profit, start a club. The barrier to entry for all of those is shockingly low. Hell, if you're living at home, start a company. Chances are it will fail, but it will be something that makes you stand out from the crowd. I would imagine that most startups would be much more willing to hire a fellow entrepreneur, even if that business didn't pan out. And if you get really lucky, you'll never have to find another job again because you'll be your own boss.

I've suggested this to several of my peers that are having trouble even getting someone to call them back, and hardly anyone ever takes the advice. I think the simple reason people don't actually go out there and do something, even if it's just physically walking into somewhere they want to work, is that's a lot harder. It's easy to write a cover letter, stick it on your resume, and send it jobs@somecompany.com. You never face outright rejection or failure; you simply never get contacted. By the time you realize that company isn't going to respond, you've already sent off another 20 resumes.
"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." --Pascal
i think the reddit system of featuring one new story on the front page would be good. Show a story to a 100 users...if it doesn't get an upvote...retire it, if it does show it to another 100...if a story doesn't get 5 upvotes...retire it.
Here is yet another way to tackle this.

If an article is voted for first the first time after time X of not being voted for, it goes back on the new page as of the time of that vote. I don't know the aging algorithm that is used on the main page, but make it be one where the age of the article doesn't matter, but the age of the votes for it do.

This would also handle the case where someone dives through the new submissions page and votes for an article that was posted several hours ago.
Well, you'd have 4 or 5 years of job experience, 4 or 5 years of a salary and no student loans.
To Paul G: What's the ETA on the model convertible note you said http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1655585 you guys were releasing soon?
Ok. Negative points for my last comment justified.

Here is my dilemma:

Our company has created an online application we call "Supertrainer."

The reason we named it "Supertrainer" is because we are providing personal trainers with tools that allow them to separate themselves from all other personal trainers out there. There is a tangible and measurable difference between the average personal trainer and the "Supertrainer," and as we continue development, this concept will become even more so apparent.

My question is... what evidence actually supports the claim for "Super Angels" to call themselves "Super". What separates these guys from all the other Angel Investors I've met, and all the other VC's I've met?

It certainly isn't the amount of money they're investing and it certainly isn't the number of companies they're investing in. Are they "riskier", and if so, how on Earth could you possibly quantify such a thing?

I challenge the name. If I am provided evidence that truly separates a "Super Angel" from the other kinds of investors out there, I may be able to accept such a claim, but as of now, it seems more like an overly hyped PR move.

I love what groups like YC are doing, but calling them "Super Investors" loses credibility in my mind.
Android is no longer Google. Android is the carriers.

If you play their ball game and buy subsidised through their retail outlets and thus subject yourself to their twisted rules. That's a far call from the Apple side of the equation where regardless of how you acquire the device, short of exploiting security holes, you play by their rules.

I have a Nexus One, I bought it unsubsidised up front, it is a truly open device, I didn't have to hack it to get it this way. The fact that Joe Public can be conned by carrier retail sales to buy a different device and be subjected to a different experience is more his problem than Google's. The "unbreakable tying" between the carriers and Google does not exist.
It's basically the same on Reddit. A couple of times I've tried to submit an interesting new story, only to be told that it has already been submitted and I'm welcome to add my vote and comments to some six day old ghost town of an article.
> As of now, few of the startups that take money from super-angels are ruling out taking VC money. They're just postponing it. But that's still a problem for VCs. Some of the startups that postpone raising VC money may do so well on the angel money they raise that they never bother to raise more.

I'm excited that this is the case. The way I see it, a small, focused group of people can get an extraordinary amount of good work done in a short period. The constraints of lean funding, to the tune of the $600,000 Paul describes, seem like the perfect way to keep focused for the first couple of years. Maybe they're an aberration, but my hat is off to 280 North for pursuing just this strategy. Raise a bit of cash, work hard, build cool stuff, stay focused. They got quite an exit out of it, (from any reasonable founder's perspective) but that's almost beside the point that they got to do their own thing without outside meddling. But maybe there are war stories I should hear before I commit to that position.

As soon as someone is shoving several million dollars into your pockets, they're also commanding you to spend it, which always seems to mean hiring people, bloating your team and throttling your momentum. (see Digg vs. Reddit) That sounds terrible. It also lets you delay figuring out how your company is going to actually generate some money one day, which strikes me as counterproductive.

I'd rather retain a nimble position. Communication is easy, focus is non-negotiable.
Apple using up a significant portion of their cash reserves on Adobe is very small-minded, 1990s-era thinking in my opinion.

Apple has a chance to absolutely dominate the next decade or two of computing in the most important mobile categories and become one of the most profitable companies ever. Anything that detracts from this massive opportunity, such as refocusing on much smaller creative professional markets, should probably be avoided.
I can't claim much credit here -- that trick is older than I am. :-)
>> While this is true, never forget that Apples end goal is also to make money.

But they don't design products to make money. That's what separates them from other companies. They design products that people will love.

Apple's goal isn't to make money. Our goal is to design
and develop and bring to market good products. We trust
as a consequence of that, people will like them, and as
another consequence we'll make some money. But we're
really clear about what our goals are.*

Jonathan Ive
Senior VP Industrial Design, Apple

In my experience, this view is shared by all the execs at Apple.

* quote via http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/07/j...)
Blue Googles? http://www.amazon.com/Webkinz-HM333-Blue-Googles/dp/B0022BFV...

Seriously though, "forensic reconstruction of customer mental models" sounds like a blog post I'd love reading, especially if it were an ongoing series.
I agree that there is too much cheesy positive feedback. If both parties are being honest with themselves and reality, negative feedback should be a driver and something that brings about positive change.
I wrote a library that uses canvas: http://github.com/biilly/doodle-js
I've not had a negative experience with YC because I've chosen not to apply, for a specific 'complaint'/'issue' with the program. Not sure if that falls within your interest for this request, so apologies if not.

First off, I want to just say thatI think YC is a very good program for younger developers and/or those who know the problem space they want to develop in but haven't quite worked out the firm business model.

However, my negative experience with the program is that I think the funding for the equity you give away is a very poor deal for founders. $20k/$6k a founder doesn't last long and it seems to me that you could raise similar/more money on much better terms elsewhere.

Sure, you get the incubator program as the 'meat' of the investment but it's like saying working at Google is best because you get the wonderful free lunches... I can get better job + pay elsewhere and sort out the lunches on my own (read: where 'lunch' is the network, connections, feedback on my startup, that YC offers... others can provide that too etc).

I'm expecting this will get down voted because most people here are very pro YC. I am too, I even went to Startup School last weekend. I just wouldn't want to take funding at YC over other angel and seed routes at a better valuation (or even better, delay valuation entirely and take a note instead).