skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
This doesn't have anything to do with Lisp. Depending on what they view as fulfilling, some people veer away from difficult problems regardless of the language they are writing in. Working in a "more fun" language like Lisp doesn't make you more likely to avoid doing hard work, nor does writing in a "less fun" language like Java increase your propensity to actually deal with the difficult segments. Its a matter of self-control, and is, unfortunately, an issue for programmers in every language.
Small reviews site packs a loud Yelp
Can I get some YC.News love for My Facebook App?
http://apps.facebook.com/iwantone/
This app allows you and your friends to vote on Amazon stuff.
Aussie Startup Launches One-Stop Shop for Web Searches
SYDNEY - An Australian Internet startup has created a one-stop shop for users wanting to mash up web search results from multiple websites onto a single page.
Google: Strong company, inflated stock price
HBS Cases: How Wikipedia Works (or Doesn't)
Great article - thanks for posting this. When I make my fortune, I will almost certainly build an extensive library where I can sit and read in comfort and quiet.
"What I hope this demonstrates is that some of the most common programming/design tasks (such as compiling/rendering) which can take perhaps 1-2 minutes but are performed 50 times a day can mean a serious waste of time and therefore money. And by using simple Manager Mathematics you can calculate how much is being wasted and use it to justify buying hardware/software which will reduce that time."

So 'manager math' means figuring out the total cost of wasted time by multiplying wasted time per task by number of tasks by cost of time? It takes 'manager math' to say "If you make $50/hour and screw around for eight hours, you'll cost us $400"?

I look forward to tomorrow's installment of Manager Emailing, in which we find that if you write a message, and send it to a particular email address, the owner of that email address will get a message saying exactly the same thing! It's like magic!
I can imagine using multiple colors for various tasks on a single board. I might try this. I use something close to GTD, with a flat text file. I really need a PDA though.
Yes. If its ones and zeros, then it's an IT solution.

There are 7 million small businesses in the United States. Almost every one of them needs SOMETHING readers of this site can provide. Many of them are desperate, but don't know where to turn.

When they pay you for something, you don't have to pay them back and you don't have to give them equity. And you learn 10 times more by doing than reading or surfing. And they will "connect" you to others.

I have learned many technologies by reading, surfing, and playing. It was fun. And it usually led nowhere.

On the other hand...

I learned Visual Basic on the job by converting a local radio station's programming software.

I learned HTML on the job by building intranet reports from flat files for a local office supply distributor.

I learned Javascript on the job by building a front end for a local clinic's call center.

I learned PHP/MYSQL on the job by building mini-apps for several local small businesses.

Starting to get the picture?

I wasted almost no time learning what was cool unless I needed it. And I ran into problems I never would imagine if it wasn't for these jobs. I can't imagine learning anything any better way. I run into techno "know it alls" all the time. After 30 seconds, I can tell they read about it, but never did it. The day I become one of them, just shoot me.
I never understood the point in customized 404 pages. I think the whole purpose is to tell the user the page doesn't exist, as quickly as possible. Since users are used to the standard page, the quickest way to do it is to show them exactly that. When I see a customized 404 page, first I'm fooled into thinking it's a valid page, then I feel disappointed, after I realize what it is.
yc input on rehomer - free, open, disinterested marriage of technology and real estate
The rising popularity of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software">free open source software</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">free knowledge</a> excite my fiancee and me to no end. I imagine many industries can benefit from open and free philosophies. This manifesto explains our attempt to bring some of this culture into the real estate industry. The project is in its early stages--heavy prototyping and feature research.

Thoughts? Concerns? Good idea poorly executed? Bad idea decently executed? We present it to this fine community first; I figure if a bunch of open-minded entrepreneurs hate it, then I am probably off target for any audience.

Regarding the length, I understand it's wrong for the general public. At the moment we are targeting the copy to those people with a twinkle in their eyes--the ones who like to sweat the details and meditate on text. Hopefully those who merely skim it will catch at least one paragraph that turns on a light bulb.

For those who are lazy, like me, here is an abbreviated edition:

Consensus decision-making + free disinterested service + community moderation of listings and individuals + mobile features = the future of real estate established at rehomer.com

If you like the idea, point your real estate friends to the site; we will need legions of bright, courageous leaders to establish new standards of quality, possibly while under scrutiny from powerful competitors. If you dislike the idea, I respect your right to rip into me.
You need to cut out 99.9% of that text on the main page.

I'm sure you have very important information there that probably applies to me, but theres no way I'm going to be able to find it.

If you have more to say, place it in pages off of the front page. Users will go there if they want to find out more.
I apologize if this text is duplicated elsewhere in my post. I've been lurking here since launch but have never posted.

The rising popularity of free open source software and free knowledge, like Wikipedia, excite my fiancee and me to no end. I imagine many industries can benefit from open and free philosophies. This manifesto explains our attempt to bring some of this culture into the real estate industry. The project is in its early stages--heavy prototyping and feature research.

Thoughts? Concerns? Good idea poorly executed? Bad idea decently executed? We present it to this fine community first; I figure if a bunch of open-minded entrepreneurs hate it, then I am probably off target for any audience.

Regarding the length, I understand it's wrong for the general public. At the moment we are targeting the copy to those people with a twinkle in their eyes--the ones who like to sweat the details and meditate on text. Hopefully those who merely skim it will catch at least one paragraph that turns on a light bulb.

For those who are lazy, like me, here is an abbreviated edition:

Consensus decision-making + free disinterested service + community moderation of listings and individuals + mobile features = the future of real estate established at rehomer.com

If you like the idea, point your real estate friends to the site; we will need legions of bright, courageous leaders to establish new standards of quality, possibly while under scrutiny from powerful competitors. If you dislike the idea, I respect your right to rip into me.
"A chain is still a chain, even if made of gold" :)
"OLPC Used to Browse Porn"
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/21/1353241...

probably the killer app in bridging the digital divide :P
Why do we require user registration?
So I've recently been driven nuts by having to register for new services. I just cant justify spending the time registering anymore... I know I wont come back but maybe a handful of times.

The app I am writing is a small video editor and I am starting to change my mind about requiring user registration. It seems like the default these days but I cant see any significant gain to the user from an account on my site. Keeping track of a few video clips does not seem like enough justification... not to me anyway. There is no profile to what I'm writing and there are no friends.

Aside from being able to say I have xx number of users why do we require user registration? Would your usage not increase if it's completely open? Thoughts?

Thanks and my apologies if this has been discussed before and I missed it.
I guess there is some correlation with scratching your own itch first. It's never bad advice to tell someone to build something for your own enjoyment before anything else. So I guess that applies here as well.
It's a phenomena described in "The Bipolar Lisp Programmer" (http://www.lambdassociates.org/blog/bipolar.htm).
Good quote:

the info-based economy just doesn't require that much capital, so investing mammoth sums almost always leads to lower, not higher, returns.

Something to keep in mind when discussing valuations and raising capital.
Neat. My companies website mostly fails despite feeling quite fast subjectively though.
My question appears to have sunk without a trace.

I'm surprised because it seems like an issue many folks should be worrying about!
I was actually pondering about this one time. Do we really need user registrations and accounts? The answer I can give you it depends on what app you're building.

I would say yes if you require your user to save some sort of content online. Giving them incentive to come back to your site.

I always thought that user registration adds friction to any app. I guess it all comes down to how it's implemented and how easy it is to get user from point A to B on your app.(e.g. reddit's way of user registration comes mind) Although the implementation of OpenID should ease that restriction a bit.

In short I personally like the idea of not having to register on your app. Why don't you try it? see if users like the system. Besides it's their opinion that matters anyways. Is seems like a novel way of approaching web apps these days. Hope this helps....
Hmmm that's a point worth thinking about isn't it? I wonder what's PG's thoughts on this...
I see, I miss-read what you wrote. I had thought we were still talking about "ardent down-voters" Yes, in order for them to glean any information from a particular user there will have to be some clicks. And indeed, the most common way that a user uses this system might very well be "not at all".
Warning to Facebook app developers:  mind reading skills required!
When you submit your app to Facebook's Product Directory, it may be rejected with a very vague reason such as this:

"Thanks for your submission of "<appname>" to the Facebook Platform's Product Directory. We have reviewed your application, and unfortunately cannot yet add it to the directory because it is unfinished or under construction. Please fix this problem and resubmit the application."

Now you get to have lots of fun trying to guess what this is all about. In fact, looking through the Developers' group might give you some ideas. Maybe one day you might stumble upon the reason for the rejection. Or maybe not.
Interesting that http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/ itself gets an F grade with YSlow
This type of stuff has to be expected when you're working in a walled garden, which is what facebook platform is...
One of the rumors mentioned in the Developer's group is that you need to supply a post-remove url, presumably to delete all the user's data upon uninstallation of your app. But is that even a good idea? What if the user adds it again? Shouldn't the data be retained?
No, it means that building the site is not sufficient, no matter how wonderful it is, and no matter how much people who use it love it -- you also need to find a way to tell people about it.

One of the most brilliant examples I've seen is ravelry.com -- there's an existing online community of knitters, and the people behind ravelry.com invited a few people to test, and gave them invitations to share, much like gmail did. Shortly thereafter they built a registration queue so that they could scale up gradually. Word of mouth did the rest, and twenty thousand people signed up, either for accounts or on the waiting list.
Specs? Who needs specs?
Zen, Betty Croker, and end-to-end testing
This is exactly how I make a living, for the last 5-8 years, depending on exactly how you count, and some clients will indeed pay 10s of thousands for software that they can't otherwise buy. It helps to be in a narrow industry, of course (mine was digital gold currencies, though I'm no longer doing anything in that market).
Understanding illiterates: people that would rather have "meetings" and "facetime" and "phone calls"
Justin in undies in NYC live for the next hour
EC2 could help avoid the cost of having dedicated servers to handle the potentially massive (and more likely extremely small) traffic from FaceBook. This wouldn't be too hard, just have one dedicated server and a box running a load balancer which would automatically spawn EC2 instances if the average load got too high (and kill them if they got too low).

Although its easy to outline this solution, I do think it would be difficult for a lone individual to develop their application along with maintaining the scaling aspects of it. Worse, I think that the Facebook platform is not a very rewarding venue to pursue for a small company, especially one that would be risking a meaningful portion of their funding on it.
Probably one of our favorites for chat programs on the iPhone, heysan!
If it's over, here's an archive link:

http://www.justin.tv/justin/9086
A chart of Facebook's revenues
The Software Garden: Software Quality Visualization for Non-programmers
I heard from these folks that they're thinking of calling it "I am a Strange Loop"
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36567
Would it be feasible for a competitor to use Ebay's network effects? If users gave an Ebay-killer their Ebay passwords, their feedback could be imported, helping to get the initial activation energy.

A superior auction/marketplace meta-search application could also help kill Ebay. If people preferred to use it, buyers would see auctions at competitors' sites, not just Ebay. Creating a meta-search site might be a good first step for an Ebay-killer.
It's good that you thought this entire thing through and can validate its existence with a lot of words. But no one is going to read it. Worse, people will leave the site. Try to sum it up, even if it only covers a fraction of the "big picture."
Mobile Hi Fi is emerging
You can only offer a limited feature set if you lack true user accounts. Photoflock.com for example relies purely on client persistence to manage the user's upload history. It's a simpler solution than requiring accounts -- there's less friction for a user to begin interacting with your site (ie no registration process) -- but doing things like tracking accounts and providing reliable usage stats is pretty difficult.

Additionally, your users will never be able to (easily) sych between computers and to be honest you'll eventually add user accounts anyway. That's not to say that you'll implement a full username/password scheme, but you will need some sort of server-side persistence.

That's where I'm at in my development right now, and I'm looking at a happy middle ground where the user CAN have an account (optionally) to do things like sync between computers but will vary rarely be asked for account information. My advice would be to sketch out a road map and assume that you will eventually add some sort of user account -- and then architect your site so that when you make that transition your users won't lose all of their data (as will be the case for photoflock's history data).
It probably is a good idea to flag the account as inactive, and move it to separate table to keep the primary table clean. AFAIK FaceBook won't know that you're not removing the data completely, and this will allow you to restore the user if they want to, but not bloat your app with outdated entries.
The Product Tax (adding features can be costly in non-obvious ways)
This is OK but I'd be more interested in seeing where these companies started out -- in a dorm room, around a kitchen table... any place else?
If I understand, you're saying people use your site to do a bit of video editing. In this case, I guess the purpose of registration is to save user state, beyond sessions/cookies. Therefore, you could simply have a 'save' button, only asking for name/pw once it has been clicked. This way its up to the user to decide when/if to register.
No, that essay describes extraordinary people. I'm talking about something that affects ordinary people depending on what programming language they use.
I would suggest the word 'sidestepped'.
I assert that a less fun language does increase your propensity to face up to unpleasant tasks. If your programming language makes facing up to unpleasant tasks a part of your daily routine, you won't "break the chain" by spending a day or a week where programming is all fun and games.

I'm not saying that self-control (a.k.a. passion for doing the right thing) is not an issue if you use a less-fun language, I'm just saying that it becomes less of an issue.
You'd be surprised at how few people think of situations this way. Even managers that can do "Manager Math" aren't the norm.

Managers (smart ones at least) sell their ideas by spelling them out in dollars and cents. The guy wanted new pc's for his staff. In order to sell that he simply calculated how much more efficient they could be in a way that a two year old could understand.

That's his whole point.
How about automatically created anonymous user accounts and ability to later merge into a regular user account with username and password.

An anonymous account would essentially identify a single browser and enable server side storage required for full application functionality.

Should the user later feel like the registration is worth the trouble after all, he could merge one or multiple anonymous accounts into a single regular account.

One thing to think about in advance could be to prepare for merging data from multiple accounts.

I think Amazon shopping cart did something along these lines?
Here are a few valid reasons, from a user's point of view for registration:

1. I want to use your site on different machines.

2. I have no idea when where my cookies go or do, but I know it's good to delete them from time to time.

3. I have information on your site that I consider semi-private.

4. I really like you app, and I like being a part of your community (assuming you have one).

5. I really like the people who use your app. (You've already said this isn't valid in your case)

I wouldn't discount the first three points though.Instead of requiring it, just make it optional and ask why people are signing up during the process. They'll let you know.

Good luck!
Micro-Multinationals: Why Slide and RockYou are tapping global talent pools
I don't think continuous work means continuous productivity. I can sit and stare at my code editor for hours and write little or no code at all.
I am more like a Cheetah. I sprint, take down my prey, and feast on it for days.
Does anyone knows of a good mobile address book backup service?
Thank you both for taking the time to comment. I wholeheartedly believe you are both right, as was my fiancee who told me the same thing. Three consenting opinions is enough to convince me.

But what can I say--I have a bad influence (http://paulgraham.com/articles.html)? ;)
iPhone's biggest hurdle will be businesses. Not start-ups, but big corporations. This is Blackberry's party, and I don't see anyone changing that soon.

That said, I don't think that's really what iPhone is intending to do, at least not yet.

Comparing the two is a little premature, really.
If I find your application useless then I don't want you to retain any information about me.
The New Backpack from 37signals
Interesting, but I don't know if I like the idea of someone befriending me simply because they are "networking" for their business. Then again it makes sense to work with the people you like, so I suppose there is some truth to it.
His point was that to figure out if something is worth doing, you compare the costs to the benefits?

Am I missing something important? Is it a parody?
Someone should add a column to this Wikipedia page about Y-Combinator StartUps: Status
I'd also like to see them ordered chronologically rather than alphabetically, so that we can see the progression through status as the startups get older.
I'd argue that reddit, digg, and wikipedia had enough data to be useful even when they only had 1 user. A single-user reddit is indistinguishable from a blog, but plenty of blogs are useful.

Another way to start your social network is to gradually borrow someone else's. Youtube was immediately useful because links to Youtube videos could be emailed to friends and/or embedded in blogs and other social networks. The site played well with others, which eventually encouraged all blog readers, emailers, and MySpace users to start visiting Youtube directly.

You left out the super-secret invitation-only beta site method, where your first users don't mind the bare walls and the empty pages because they're so excited about being in on the ground floor of a New World-Changing Venture. After your first 10 users put in some data, you let the next 10 in. After you've got enough data that the site seems useful you start marketing in earnest.

A variation is the Craigslist method: use geography to your advantage. Start by building a Craigslist for your office building, then expand to your neighborhood, then your city, and eventually conquer the world. But this might just be a special case of point (1).
I know a few of the major carriers offer this type of service for a monthly fee. I suppose you could look into that, however there's a build in flaw to this model.

If you use a carrier's backup service for your address/contact list, you can only use that with phones from that particular service. For example, you could transfer information from one AT&T Wireless phone to another AT&T phone, but you wouldn't be able to move data from a AT&T phone to a Nextel phone. I've seen some third-party devices out there that will help you move contacts from one service to another, but I haven't seen backup service that will allows for this functionality without manual (hardware or PC software) intervention.
Why do we require user registration? Because the value of an application is usually tied to the community it serves. The larger the community, the more value. Without a login, it's more difficult to gauge the community.

Also, personalization of site. You could do that solely with a cookie, but then when I'm on another computer ...
welcome to the internet.
We want all our companies to have offices like this.
Things change too fast for status to be accurate.
Some are fairly safe bets, though - if a company is defunct, it's not coming back. Same goes if it's purchased. And funding events or major press mentions are probably noteworthy enough to include.
Quick question.. has anyone looked into how much it costs to put your JS/CSS/img files on a CDN? Do big CDNs like Akamai even consider small-volume startups?
If it weren't for visa issues, we'd tap into this pool, too.
"The Customer Is Always Right" is Wrong
This is just a big ad for CDNs
Maybe the point is that you tend to overlook the total cost because of the small cost per event and because you are conditioned to accept the cost as a necessary evil.

IDK, but I do know that managers love those kinds of justifications.
This is what they said about Google before it went public, though.

I'd really like to see that S-1, though. For a company with $100M in revenue to be asking for a $10B market valuation takes a lot of chutzpah. Typically, growth stocks will trade at something like 4x revenue. That would give FaceBook a market cap of around $400-600M.
I'm not sure, but I would check out grandcentral.com
Can you say "freakshow"?

It seems inevitable that Justin porn is next...
I like the idea in general, but it's probably not fair game to make statements that imply something false.