skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
'we' is the truth because my wife does give me valuable advice and assessment on juwo, on people I interact with for juwo. Even though she has 0% equity.
I have no idea what's going on on that page. Is it a blog? Is it a product?
Well, you know more about your situtation than I do, so I'm not going to second-guess your strategy. But this does sound a little complex -- too complex for YC News to be much help. A $200 consultation with a lawyer might prevent a big headache later.
so tell me, how should I explain it?
should I move the diagrams to the left, or just one column?
i agree with 50 yo Bob G.apple is superficial too. only when they go GPL will they leverage "web x.0".MS is old news.

-monish
Pacific Inn in Redwood City.
I really don't know how you would explain it, because I don't understand what your product is. Whatever your explanation is, it needs to be clear and concise, e.g. "Juwo is the easiest way to organize and share your recordings."

The location of the diagrams on your website is the least of its problems - it is almost irrelevant. I would suggest first getting rid of about 90+% of the text on your frontpage.
"Peace and blessings be upon him"

First we made Paul into Chuck Norris, and now he's a Prophet. This news.yc was a good move for him.
A search box inside skype? Based on that logic, we should be putting internet search boxes inside everything....

What about a search box inside iChat, iCal, and iPhoto too? genius...
Piczo A Social Network - Now Available Also In Spanish, German And French
Free Bug Tracking?  Joel on Software now giving out 2-user hosted FogBugz account ($63+/mo for more than 2 users)
To me the answer is simple: If you are looking to be VC or angel funded yet are just starting out then you should save the money and start an LLC. If you don't plan on VC funding then stick w/ an S Corp.

In 1999 we had an LLC and we converted it to a C Corp just before we acquired funding in 2000. This time around I'm a partner in an S Corp and am self-funding it. If my current situation changes, as someone already mentioned, it will be easy to change over to a C Corp.
Webware: Cool Web apps for everyone
Grouptivity pulls social bookmarking card
It's all speculation at this point. I'm not a user of StumbleUpon, so correct me if I'm off base here, but I can see utilizing SU's site discovery tech for something in eBay's space, such as product or brand discovery.

Even if the acquisition has little to do with eBay's core business, it's easy to see that companies are always looking for expansionary development.
You know, I said that sarcastically, but it actually wouldn't be that bad of an idea...

It'd be really cool if apple integrated search engines into spotlight, iphoto, mail, etc.

For example, it would be cool if when I searched for "startup school" in iPhoto's search, iPhoto also flickr/google image results for startup school....
The first thing I thought when I saw the headline was, "Thank god for hard investigative journalism!"
I agree. I attend one of the top schools where you're weeded out of the system very quickly unless you devote a lot of time to studying.

At least in my school, it's either you're all in (spending 50+ hours a week in and out of class), you barely get by (spending only time in class and minimal time out), or you get kicked out very quickly (spending only the time you have in classes).

I find myself coming up with mediocre grades and only mediocre startup work, when trying to do both :\
A Simple Way to Build Confidence
I wasn't at the startup school either, but in my experience people don't want to have to scroll down just to find things. People will scroll down to follow something they've already started, such as a comment thread, an essay, or a list of topics. They also will scroll down to read a list of blog entries, preferably in chronological order. (Otherwise they'll prefer to follow links to particular articles)

But if there is a variety of different types of content on the page, there should at least be a table of contents to do the scrolling for you.
20 Courses I Didn't Take in Design School
Google Releases StumbleUpon Clone
"The first is a recommendations button on the Google Toolbar that looks like a pair of dice. /Click on the dice, and we'll take you to a site that may be interesting to you based on your past searches. If you want another, just click the dice again and we'll show you a new one. We'll give you up to 50 new sites per day that might be of interest. Just add the button to your Toolbar. (In order to use this feature, you need the latest version of the Toolbar.)"

Now that's timing.
You have to hand it to them for letting people switch back and forth from free 2 user accounts to paid multi users accounts and back FOREVER. Sounds to me like a great way to get people to try out your product absolutely risk free and with 2 user accounts being less than 5% of their user base they really have nothing to lose.

Will we see more of this in the multi user arena?
In one sentence, what is Juwo?
Well, no one would pick the former choice because it's essentially an actual customer base versus stray eyeballs.

But keep in mind that web apps and advertisements are different beasts when it comes to frequency versus reach. For a web app, site, or service - of course you're going to want frequency. When it comes to advertising, the prevailing choice isn't as distinct. I'd contend that reach would have a greater chance of finding potential customers. Frequency can be seen as a nagging effect on deaf ears and blind eyes (the uninterested).
I have no problem with scrolling ... but that doesn't mean you should try and cram more words on the page to explain what's going your website is about or how to use it. The harsh reality is that the vast majority of people won't make it through the first paragraph.

I don't have all the answers ... but try making better use of headlines, images/diagrams, or a quick demo. Somebody should be able to visit your site and quickly know what it is and the basics of how it's used. Juwo sounds like a cool idea, but I don't get that as soon as I hit the homepage.

Some examples of homepages that I like that do a good job of conveying the idea/service in less than 20 seconds (I have no affiliation with any of these):
http://writewith.com/
http://basecamphq.com/
When I visit the site, I have these questions, in this order:

(1) What is Juwo?

(2) How do I get it? (Or get access)

(3) How do I use it?

(3) What can it do for me?

Here's what happens when I visit the site:

(1) What is Juwo? After scrolling up and down trying to make sense of the page, I gave up and just started reading from the top. After the first two sections I still am not quite sure what it actually is. I feel I have to try to piece it together from all the little clues in the text.

(2) How do I get it? As far as I can tell, there is nothing to get. I can't find a download area or login box anywhere. Halfway down the page I see some demos, but I can't tell if that's the actual software or what.

(3) How do I use it? This question is answered, although I had to scroll down to find it and I don't really understand the explanation because I don't know what Juwo is (1) and don't know how to get it (2).

(4) What can it do for me? This question isn't important for me, but it is for some people. A lot of the page is devoted to talking about how the product can help me, however because (1) and (2) haven't been answered, I feel like I'm wasting my time.
Google Rains On StumbleUpon Parade: Launches Direct Competitor
Good point - can anyone recommend a good lawyer who is not outrageously expensive?
I can't tell what it does.

Aim for this: http://wufoo.com
My humble advice...

1. Take this demo OFF now! People are going to develop a SUPER BAD bias of your product that will be hard to overcome even in the future should you improve the UI.

2. Hire or partner with a UI designer who knows usability and design!

3. I'll hypothesize that most people that visit your site will leave without any clear idea of what your product is.
I still have no idea what the hell this is
I didn't even go to design school.
Seems more like Google is pissed than really desperate for StumbleUpon as a business threat. There must be a behind the door story to this. May be they weren't given a "fair" chance to make an offer?
Google acquired Writely.
I would recommend "How to make more room on my book shelf".

Sorry, going to sleep now...
yeh i do know that ;-)

the last words of the article are:
"(p.s. first person to write a comment that says "Paul Graham did not write reddit" deserves a lollipop.)"
FWIW, if I was starting a web app, I would focus on polishing the product based on the feedback of the users I have, to try and maximize conversion/retention rather than exposure.

In my first round of customers I'd look for feedback. I'd make more of a personal introduction; for example, post (with my real name and full disclosure) in some forums that have the demographics I want. Customers you get from press releases are less likely to bother and tell you what made them discard you.

When the time comes to scale up, I would still spend as much of my time improving/polishing the app (p.s.: and the overall experience around it) as I have feedback to act upon. Word of mouth will make you or kill you.
I don't really get that. Corporations don't generally do things because they "get pissed", they do things because because it's economically advantageous in some way or another, no?
This article sure makes the OpenMoko look good:
http://research.operationaldynamics.com/blogs/andrew/software/openmoko/doing-open-the-right-way.html
A few get inspired and work hard because they were accepted and the rest get inspired and work hard because they were rejected.
Newspapers, Yahoo shifting ad platform
Let's say you have developed your own programming language/infrastructure, such as Arc or GOAL or whatever. You want to use your tools for a new venture because they give you a lever your competition doesn't have. On the other hand, if the venture doesn't work out, you don't want your language/tools to be part of the liquidation, so you are not deprived of them in the future.

This is impolitic, but if you were starting a new venture and Arc were ready to be used in production, would you want to put it into the new company and, if not, how would you handle investors? This is a little more than hypothetical since you are using Arc in Ycombinator business, but it seems like a different situation than when forming a company with investors you barely know.
Predictable payoff / $3.1 billion DoubleClick deal follows Hellman tradition
Group Sues Yahoo for Helping China
Better to rain on the parade than before it. I bet the StumbleUpon guys are delighted they waited till now to do it instead of launching before the eBay deal closed.
Google Launches Queryless Search, Guns StumbleUpon
More like StumbleUpon rained on Google's parade by turning down their offer.
I would make the language separate from the company, drawing the line perhaps at libraries specific to the company's project.
That's pretty funny :-)

I'd still recommend the one I did in the post. But you're cleaver. Sleep tight.
Corporations are controlled by people, and people get pissed.

Not that that explains this case.
Reach with frequency has a good opportunity to find new customers, but the lower the frequency, the less the effect. This is where many companies fail in their lead generation campaigns - they look at the campaign as a single event.
Who funds juwo?
Meeting OpenMoko
Twiddla: 1000 Signups on Day One (by Not Making People Register)
Hey great article dude. Really enjoyed it.
What are your tools of choice?
It is actually cool to do a startup following a burst in some ways. I remember early days of my uncle's start-up in 2001 and there was little pressure of making something to sell off in a year or two. You knew if you did a start-up it was either for the long haul or you don't do one. That is an important lesson for hacker entrepreneurs today: just because you CAN launch another idea technically you shouldn't if you already have something promising going on.

Plus it made for nice media stories to "survive" the bubble.

I forgot to mention the current salary is 2-3x what was being demanded back in '01-02 in India.
If you could freely choose your tools for your projects, "what tools (software, maybe hardware) would you use?" [0], [1] The obvious answers are 'the language I'm most proficient in' or 'the language that gives me the most leverage', what's yours?

Reference

[0] I ask this question to myself every once and a while and I was prompted again listening to "Great Hackers".

[1] ITConversations, pg, "Great Hackers, mp3 31m, 11 mb"

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail188.html
want... to... troll... about... religion...
Usually sure. But how many times have you heard a corporation fighting for an acquisition with another corporation and then announce a similar function hours after losing the acquisition battle?

Point is the thing google has implemented isn't even close to StumbleUpon. But due to the timing it is getting labeled as that so it makes even more sense that Google might be trying to make a statement here rather than a stumbleupon killer. Of course it could be doing both but it has already done the former.
I don't like the circular design, it makes the phone seem bigger than it is. The $350 price tag without service contract is pretty good, though.

OpenMoko dimensions: 120.7 x 62 x 18.5 mm |

iPhone dimensions: 115mm (L) x 61mm (W) x 11.6mm (T)
Hence why I ceded that they might buy greatness. They also made an acquisition in this space...
"Om Malik says this is Google lashing out at StumbleUpon and eBay because they lost the deal. Given the timing, I tend to agree."

Puh-lease.
How is competing against somebody evil? The only way you can take customers from StumbleUpon is to create a better service than StumbleUpon does. It's the users who decide who wins in the marketplace, not the companies.

"... Google is proactively squashing any chance that the little guy who is extremely innovative once had. Google is no longer a creative, positive force on the Internet, but a massive corporation who makes up in muscle what they lack in creativity. Start-ups beware!"

Again. Google can't squash a competitor, only the users can. If StumbleUpon is better than Google's Dice thing then it will die the same death as Google Base and Google Page Creator.
That's completely true. I also like the blogosphere more than normal news because bloggers are more credible. Anyway, I'm also happy good bloggers can monetize their work by doing payed reviews and I'll continue to be happy as long as they keep the responsibility to write honest reviews, that can disagree with the product/service/business reviewed.

Besides that, you will be always able to find honest bloggers who will write this reviews in a responsible way, why? because there a lot more bloggers than news channels ;)
Shared Virtual vs Dedicated vs Colocated server hosting - which do you use for your startup?
Just curious why you always quote and reference things in your posts. To me it just feels overly formal and extraneous for the level and type of conversation I expect to find here. It's a lot like shaking my roomates hand in greeting every day.

To answer your question:
Programmers Notepad, WinSCP, TurtleSVN, PuTTY
Microsoft Research: The vision
Classic "that depends" question there. I'd suggesting going to http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ and doing some searching. You'll see some wide ranging opinions on Dedicated vs. Colo vs. VPS.

Go there for an hour or so, ask around. It's mostly a hangout for infrastructure dudes but you'll still learn quite a bit.
I disagree with the premise that Google is only good at making product's that its own hackers use (See aston's points below).

Nevertheless, even if we assume that this is true, many of Google's employees, including tech leads, produt managers, VPs, do give slide presentations. These employees have huge influence on the products and thus its very likely that Google "Presenations" will be more like Gmail than Google Video.
So Paul when you brought this idea up earlier (an OS for a phone), what kind of apps did you envision people writing? What's not out there now that you think needs to be?
But repealing the laws would allow them to compete with each other.
squeeze more juice from your multimedia content
Google's taking pages out of MS's playbook.
me - or more accurately, my depleted savings did. why?
Reddit is for sleepers. We were playing with this last week!
After a lot of testing, we went the colocated route. VPS was the second best option but the memory issues (too little) that we've experienced with two hosts were unacceptable.
are you talking about the website? or the actual software, NP.
Both work for me in Kubuntu on Firefox 2.0.0.3.
I actually really enjoyed this. My first guess is that when we find something complex beautiful, it's because it is tapping into something innate (I would love to write about how music taste works). Also, I thought comment about "how easy something is to use" actually being a measure of how well it is made, is brilliant, which sometimes people don't get. Alas, it's 3.30am and I should sleep.
Also see this video:

http://research.microsoft.com/~awilson/PlayAnywhere%20final%201Mbps.wmv
I didn't propose that startup idea; that was from Robert Morris.
Related: What's a provider that can give me lots of CPU time when I can no longer host CPU intensive processes from my home computers? What about for cost less than a dedicated server?
Why Is Twitter Using A Database In The First Place?
The website. I've no idea what the software is and thus I didn't download it.
Paul Kedrosky: Top Ten VC Lies
'... Programmers Notepad, WinSCP, TurtleSVN, PuTTY ...'

What languages?

'... Just curious why you always quote and reference things in your posts. To me it just feels overly formal and extraneous for the level and type of conversation I expect to find here ...'

Not overly formal but dense. While the 'Internet might not forget', [0] it looses context and meaning over time. This means the things you write now, are going to be around for a long time. So if you are going to write something it may as well be interesting & useful. This isn't 'formalism' gone mad, but recognising that a small additional bit of information makes quick comments, observations, insights much more useful at some time in the future.

I'll give you an example. One post on 'Deep data' [1] I added some comments, cited the source and made some extra observations that would make the overall comment more complicated than it should be. I wasn't really surprised then, checking back over the original sources the author [2] had picked up this post - why? Because I added extra useful information (author, article title, comment, keyword), picked up by google & found & provided useful feedback.

Plus, what makes you think I just leave the comments here? I cross post good comments to my flickr account, summaries to twitter & full posts to my blog. Though I must admit If i had inline links I probably wouldn't need to cite as much :(

Reference

[0] Jay Ward's blog, 'The Internet Doesn`t Forget'

http://www.wardtek.ca/2007/04/the-internet-doesnt-forget/

[1] bootload, news.yc, 'GDrive Google's next big thing?'

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=10792

[2] Joe Gregorio, bitworking.org, 'Megadata Follow-up'

http://bitworking.org/news/159/Megadata-Follow-up
Amazon's EC2!

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2
I'd totally buy one the next time I get a phone, but I can't help thinking that the iPhone is going to kill this.
You keep promoting your site (and without disclosure here) but it still lacks even the functionality of actually accepting submissions, among other basics.

If it was actually useful I'd make submissions and promote the site myself.
I was curious about it too; it's certainly not an easy thing to do, and bootload does it well.

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=10389
Unless you have money to burn, I would definitely recommend against hosting at a colo.

At the last startup I worked at we had no end of fiascoes regarding our colos. The startup bought over a million dollars of servers and then was paying high-priced employees and consultants to set them up at a colo. But then once the servers were all set up, the colo discovered that they didn't have enough power for our servers. Then we had trouble getting out of the big colo contract that we had signed and had to move all the servers and get them set up at yet another colo. Turns out the next colo also didn't have enough power for our setup even after many reassurances at the beginning that they did. So all in all, this waste of resources put us months behind schedule. Then, ironically we got acquired and no longer even needed our setup because we could then just use the bigger company's server setup.

This is another case of 'premature optimization is the root of all evil'. Seriously, we could have done the whole startup with a couple of Dreamhost accounts and launched earlier with a better product and with WAY (millions) more money in the bank. They were optimizing our server setup for HUGE traffic when they should have just been focused on the product.

I'm glad I was able to see those mistakes close up. It gave me confidence to do my own startup self-funded since I knew how low I could keep my burn-rate.

So now, I'm using EC2 for my servers and it's an amazing experience. I set up a custom server image and then can run multiple instances of it for only 10 cents per server per hour. I can kill instances that I'm not using and bring up a new server within 2 minutes. My server bill is less than $50 a month during development and will be about $100 a month once I launch. I'll also have the ability to scale up VERY quickly and cheaply if I need to.

Anyway, that's my take on it from my limited experience. I'm sure there are some guys that are obsessed with doing their own custom server setup at a colo. Good for them. But you have to realize that you'll have much higher capital costs up front and will be exposing yourself to much greater risk. Focus on your product and find a server solution that is cheap, low-risk, and flexible. Remember you can always scale later - but you have to have a reason to scale first! Have the faith to focus on product and don't fall into the trap of an 'intriguing' 'interesting' academic experiment in server setups!
I am going with Media Temple (GS) I can't give you feedback about them yet, but they cost $20 a month and their grid server can grow with your needs...
I think someone is confusing correlation and causation...
Is telling your employer you're quitting to launch a startup a bad idea?
Even if the startup has nothing to do with your current work.
XML + XSLT -> (XHTML, RSS, mail) is a winner.
If it's to pursue what you love and have a passion for, then telling your current employer your quitting to essentially pursue happiness should be absolutely no big deal. :P
My thoughts on my upcoming YCombinator interview
I can see this definitely having more nerd-cred than the iPhone. Hope it works out.
Headin' to California, with an aching in my heart...
So let's say I quit my investment banking job this summer and head to California with $10K in my pocket and hope in my heart. What's the next step? College, a tech job, hanging arround coffee shops looking for cofounders? I have a rudimentary knowledge of PHP and Ruby (I built a photo gallery in the former), an abstract mathematical background, and I love talking in front of crowds. What would you do if you were me?
"(Or if you're a crazed wunderkind like LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick, you invent a memory-based distributed hashtable as a cache to put in front of the database.)"

The cool thing about Brad is that he released that creation as open source -- we can all benefit from his genius, like Facebook already has. Memcached is an amazingly effective way of getting the benefits of SQL storage in a simple, scalable, and reliable way. It's impossible to over-hype how much it kicks ass.