skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So parakey is on the application side of the fence when compared to those like YouOS... an interesting idea.

"When people need to call their "computer friend" in 2007 to install a program, scan a document, burn a CD or show a picture to a friend, there is a problem." So is the main aim of parakey to give applications the ability to interface seamlessly with the web? Or is it more about the simplicity of web 2.0 design?
justin.tv on the Today Show
Not the best capture, but tres cool.
Compete Knows How Much Time You Waste on YouTube
What I don't understand is why we treat artists like retards. They don't need to be saved from themselves and they enter into these deals more than willingly. Artists like to pretend that they are at the mercy of the labels whilst supporting the system.
"New web page design principles such as Flash and AJAX are making constant page requests obsolete. One of the most extreme examples of this phenomenon is Justin.TV where you can log on and never refresh the page."
Wow thats pretty amazing.
Imagine you are 50 years old and have never before used a computer. It is impossible to use without extensive training; someone of that age can't figure it out on their own. Making it intuitive is a design problem but it's not as impossible as you'd think. And while they're at it, Parakey is uniting the web and the desktop.
Would you work for a Google-like company that gives you 100% freedom?  You will be fired if you don't make money though.
This is different from pursuing a startup because you are allowed to make use of massive resources and whatever IP the company has accumulated.
The reason is because there was no other outlet that had the ability to make them rich and famous overnight. The major labels controlled all of the media outlets until the internet came along.

Nowadays hardly any band would choose a major label over a large independent. There is no benefits anymore. Anyone can reach that critical mass of users without having to use Rolling Stone or MTV.

The people that sign to major labels, for the most part, want to be rich and famous. They aren't trying to make a career out of their music but more a career out of themselves. If not then they would be playing a local club in New Hampshire on the weekends.

So, in my opinion, it's more about the artists being retards. They see that major labels are a fast track to millions of records being sold. They don't want to spend years in clubs to gain traction. They don't want to sell CDs out of their cars. They don't want to save up to produce their own record. They want to take the easy way out and have someone else do the work. It is their own fault for signing a major label contract that takes advantage of them. If they are incapable of seeing better outlets for their music then they deserve to deal with the horrible circumstances of being on a big label.

Sorry this is so long.
No; people just need to take control of themselves and use offline web apps or desktop apps when they want to work on just one thing without distractions. Plus, the battery is going to last much longer for both phones and laptops that way.
HotorNot goes free: "Free sites are destroying pay sites"
What is the word issue? and what is the solution?
Morfik Patents AJAX compiler
is this an offensive move against google or a defensive move from them?
Soliciting opinions on "high-level" web frameworks
Yeah, as long as there are other Google-like companies that give me 100% freedom that I can go to when I get fired. ;-)
I'm a programmer, but not a "web programmer". I've written code in all kinds of languages in all kinds of styles for all kinds of purposes, but never for the web (beyond basic web stuff).

I'm wondering if people have strong opinions on higher level web packages. Here's the field as I see it:

- Java + GWT

- Python + Django

- Ruby on Rails

- PHP + raw javascript

- Flash (or Apollo?)

Since I'm a hacker, I don't really like hacking things other people have done already, so I'm leaning against the php route, but it seems to be the beaten path.

Opinions? Other options I haven't found yet?
Interesting. I have much respect for Blake and Joe's efforts with Parakey, so my question revolves around the sustainability of building a business around making computers easier to use -- there's GOT to be more to this!

In other words, how critical is the problem of computer usability amongst 50 year olds when children today are being "organically" raised in basic computer literacy?
Google enters DoubleClick sweepstakes; Microsoft must be annoyed
Riches if you succeed and no job if you fail is like a startup.

It's still no substitute for people who want to do real startups. But a good salary during the effort is a great way to attract all the great hackers that need reliable income.

Getting a big check or a pink slip at the end is ideal.
I crawled the MIT facebook and built a friendship predictor that will take guesses at who, out of the people you are not currently listed as being friends with, you actually are friends with in real life. People's traits (age, sex, home state, etc.) are significantly less predictive than how close you are on the [ friendship / class / photo / group ] network. In descending order of predictive power, the most important traits when considering two people as potential friends are:

how many friends you have in common
how many pictures you simultaneously appear in
how many classes you have together
relationship status
looking for (e.g. friendship, dating, random play)
how many facebook groups you have in common
Viddyou Launches Blogger for Vloggers
This article's not very clear on what's going on. Here's the actual advisory:
http://www.fortifysoftware.com/servlet/downloads/public/JavaScript_Hijacking.pdf
I quite agree. On the net, civility and formalty is out. From my experience people has a tendency to confuse civility with formality during face to face situation. Giving ppl the technology to collaborate does not mean they can collaborate as a team From my experience, I have seen people at team meeting never seeing the big picture while focusing on their agenda.
ClairMail, TELUS Offer Mobile Banking to Canadian Banks
You might have a better chance of succeeding within a company though, particularly a company with massive computational resources and accumulated IP. Scalability would be much easier to deal with. There's also the issue with name recognition. Having your service on something like Google Labs would give it lots of publicity. Finally, your service could be added as a feature to a popular service such as gmail say.
Never mind, got it. sheesh that was something. My advice for the last minute submitters. Copy and paste to notepad and save without formatting, then CTRL C, CTRL V to the form.
Making computers easier to use is not our business model, so I'm not sure what it has to do with sustainability. And there's unique technology underpinning our efforts, of course. But I can't imagine what could be more central to a company than trying to create user satisfaction; why do we need more than that?

Second, I was raised on computers. Just because I know how to use them doesn't mean I like using them. In fact, I generally find computers to be a pain in the ass.

Finally, I suspect the problem of usability amongst 50 year olds is a very critical problem amongst 50 year olds :)
Patents are such tricky things. On one hand, they can be incredibly useful tools, encouraging a certain level of design in hopes of reward. On the other, they can be nothing more than an expensive minefield. Shake a patent around and threaten litigation, because everyone at the end of the day will choose settlement. Law is sometimes nothing more than very expensive bullying.

The whole process is designed to be something like a race. Publish a paper about it or article and don't patent it on time? Tough luck! Your own damn article prevents your patent since it's "prior work." What constitutes patent infringement, anyway? Alexander Graham Bell wrote a patent at the time that covered just about any form of communication through an electric wire. Would a keyboard be infringing? A completed patent is still not sure proof of "ownership" - every patent's fate is ultimately uncertain until you really duke it out in court. They're also incredibly expensive things as well, especially for someone with just a great idea and not enough cash - $10k+ minimum, since patent applications are such complicated things and the USPTO sure likes to take its sweet time. Why not attempt trade secrets instead?

If you have a really amazing, great idea to patent, something that "improves the sciences" like they're always harping about in patent law, then sure, go for it. But I don't think they're always necessary. Improvement of a current service alone is worth an attempt to compete, not just a brand spanking new idea nobody ever thought of.
Dear bubble veterans: We get it. Now shut up, you're harshing our buzz.
And boy did the man walk the walk..
The "PHP Optimize This!" puzzle looks suspiciously like work that would actually be useful for Facebook...(minus the quine, which seems useless for everyone involved)
Part of me thinks google is just entering the contest to make it more expensive for MSFT, and has no intention of actually winning this one.
As I'd heard it, the algorithmic piece would only be used in the case where they would have normally (with the crazy questions process) passed over the candidate.

One of the pieces of culture at Google is that everyone wants to make sure everyone there is smart, so they basically send away anyone they have doubts about, even if the person's actually genius-level. The test would be a way to, without subjectivity, indicate some cultural fit that the interviewer by bad luck missed.
There's a lesson here: don't depend on a single factor you can't control.
I think the utf8 one is pretty interesting, still haven't quite cracked it
Skype uses Qt, not Mozilla: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=skype+qt&btnG=Google+Search

I agree that a Javascript-based client-app might not perform as well as a native C/C++ app, but I would not say "could never be developed"...

Adobe Apollo does generate a compiled package (aka "air"). I believe Apollo also generates a native executable file after the app is installed.

PS: I'm not an Apollo evangelist. I just wanted to point out that web-based client apps are not about off-line features.
That would be Y Combinator.
Do you have resource and IP sharing among startups?
Are You 100% Committed?
First thing that comes to my mind: what a horrible name... double-d?!

I like the site's design though!
Ha, I could never work in an environment this structured. How can anyone?
It will be interesting to see which of these two programs produces more successful startups in the long run.
Colorado Startups
This is one of David Cohen's blogs, he is one of the founders of TechStars, a program similar to YC.
Hey, Blake! My previous post was more in response to rms. When I said "There's GOT to be more to this!", what I was really meaning to say is that I'm sure you and Joe have a very good plan for carrying your mission out. Something the general public isn't quite privy to at the moment. :)

I would agree that the problem of usability amongst 50 year olds is very critical to 50 years olds. However, I'm interested in how Parakey plans to deliver their product message (and distribution!) to a mostly uneducated web demographic -- especially a group with a more narrow use case when browsing the web.

It's awesome to see you on here, Blake. :)
Well obviously it happens, seeing how Infogami/Reddit deal occurred. They probably have a lot more than between the average set of startups, at any rate.
So basically something like the classic Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, etc. environment? But you have to make money, not innovation? If that's what you mean, no thanks...
Not really considering they're finally giving users something that should have been established day 1.
I imagine they'll get the message out in the traditional ways: advertising and PR. As far as distribution, I assume long term plans involve customized hardware that would provide for an optimal Parakey experience.
This would not be a research lab. The goal is to create something that makes money not publications necessarily. You can try to do something really novel just as long as it ends up making money.
If you're a Perl programmer, there is HTML::Mason. It's what Schachter used for del.icio.us, IFAIK. I've been using it for some time. It has it's pros and cons. It's a little off the beaten path (as is Perl these days). None of the cool kids are using it. It's not sexy. But, damn, you can just get so much done with Perl. In spite of myself, I keep going back.
Here's the patent:

http://tinyurl.com/2ew52t

On a cursory reading, it looks like a joke. All it seems to say is that they compile other languages into Javascript. There's tons of prior art involving compiling one high level language into another.

IANL, but I think everyone can just ignore this. It would never stand up in court.
I would argue that instead of Django, you want to look at Pylons (http://pylonshq.com/). If you use Django, chances are good that you'll find it does 75% of what you want, and makes the remaining 25% very difficult.
If you like Mason, but you prefer Python to Perl, you might want to look at Myghty: http://www.myghty.org
Even if the initial market goes away once the older generations start disappearing, there is still an enormous market _today_. For their product to catch on, they'll have to design an all around better interface than the current desktop metaphor. For Parakey to succeed in the long run, they need to appeal to power/traditional computer users as well.

I applied to Y Combinator with a very similar idea to Parakey, only entirely web-based. I got an interview last funding round, but PG and company weren't convinced we had solved the design problem.

You can see a quick design demo at www.granmos.com/420 (best viewed in full screen in Firefox). If nothing else, I think it shows how easy it can be to provide a compelling, intuitive experience to an older computer novice. I'm very excited to see what Parakey actually looks like, I see the design as much more important to their success than their cross-platorm development technology.

Blake, one thing that is necessary for you to succeed with people older than 70 is to provide alternatives to the mouse. People over a certain age just don't get it; it's too hard cognitively to translate movement on the horizontal plane to motion on a vertical screen. Touch screens are ideal but expensive. Track balls are better, because they more concretely separate the action of clicking and moving.
In some ways, it's a lot like the kid selling lemonade for a nickel across the walk from some Coke machines. For next to nothing, your expectations can be a ton lower and you'll still feel like you're getting some value. And if these free sites can actually beat out the established players in features and community, they'll basically be dead in the water, 'cause there's no price that beats nothing.

Then again, I heard that when Yahoo! started charging to get into their online dating service, they actually saw dramatic increases in membership due to the added ensurance of reputation a fee provides.
Clarifications:

Whatever package I choose should:

1) be cross-browser with minimal special code.

2) abstract out most database operations when possible.

3) involve writing very little html.

4) be well documented and have some history of real use by users other than the creators.

I'm not afraid to code through any of these issues, however, if someone else has done the work, why should I?
+ Pluggable Framework: Catalyst http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/

+ Database ORM: DBIx::Class http://search.cpan.org/dist/DBIx-Class/

+ HTML Templating: TT2 (Template Toolkit) http://www.template-toolkit.org/
Advertising and PR will not be enough (and just saying these will solve your problem doesn't work either) -- Apple's "Switch" campaign is largely based around the fun, out-of-the-box experience and ease of use. All of that work and they still have a way to go in converting people (especially non-college aged folk).

As far as distribution, a customized hardware solution that will deliver Parakey's software experience doesn't really address the distribution problem. How do you get the mythical machines distribution themselves? Besides, hardware is a very different business with different metrics than the software game...attacking both at the same time would be extremely difficult.

So my question still stands at how would you get the software out to the mainstream, especially those who aren't very web-literate to begin with? I'm thinking about people like my parents who only use their browser to check Hotmail, read reviews, and maybe do some basic shopping. They would certainly adopt a new computing platform that was more intuitive, but how do you get them to do this? The same folks who would greatly benefit from Parakey's work is the same demographic that still uses Internet Explorer.
It was scary to me how quickly I've stopped going to reddit. So much for being addicted.
does a job at facebook pay $250,000 a year? cuz if not, what is the point? you can be a knuckle-dragging caveman at most startups and still get the job done...
I'm not sure what Parakey's doing, but my idea is to use financial incentives to encourage viral distribution. Install Granmos for your parents, your grandparents, the local senior center, and nursing homes. Then, you get a percentage of advertising revenue from all the new users of Granmos that you're helping.
Makes me think of the issues PG raised in "The Power of The Marginal". I think when you're an outsider it seems like those things are huge advantages, but when you have them they feel more like baggage.
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
Very little in life is free.

Today's internet clearly proves that.

Very few websites cost money, and very few websites are free of ads. These ads are a charge to users in the form of annoyance, inconvenience and spam. They ruin a site's layout and distract from valuable content.

Worst of all these ads are EXTREMELY far from being useful. I'm sure most of you have seen the abysmal figures of facebook's 0.04% click through rate. Even giants like facebook and myspace with their millions (or billions) of monthly page views aren't profitable based on traditional ad based business models.

Maybe paid sites are the way to go.

I know i'd be fine with the death of banner ads.

I predict the future holds one last method of advertising (pat.pend.) and then hopefully in a few years someone will be able to introduce a form of micro-payments that will actually catch on.
I think it will only be interesting if Techstars produces more successful startups than Y Combinator. Techstars is a clear underdog.
It is important that a startup understands the technology they are working with. But, it is equally important that they understand the cultural context of that technology. This video does a good job at addressing the anthropologically side of web 2.0.
Web 2.0 -- Greater Initial Investments Required
This blog post by Tom Evslin provides a pretty sobering reality check for anyone involved in a web 2.0 startup. But its not all bad news!
One huge difference with YC is the funding amount. YC essentially pays a low salary for a few months to build a prototype. That narrows the talent pool down to people with very minimal financial requirements (couldn't be more than ~5% of the total Great Hackers in the US).

Google could afford to take all the other ~95% of Great Hackers by paying a high salary until the project is either killed or a success. The big problem is that Google doesn't fire people for failing, they just move them around like most big companies do. They suffer from the "good effort" syndrome, where people are rewarded for "trying" even if when they fail to produce "something users want".
2007: The Implicit Web
This is a great blog post, which discusses the evolution of web 2.0 and beyond.
While the elderly would certainly love an easier computing experience, I think my questions above address the overall mainstream population that have a pretty narrow use case when it comes to internet browsing.

Your approach to viral distribution sounds very complicated.

How do you go about placing ads on something that's supposed to ease the computing experience? On top of that, would you need to login using your account at a specific IP address to gain the "credit" for installing the app? How would the system know who to "credit?"
Sleep is a dumb waste of time.
I guess technically I dropped out as an undergrad. Although, I like to tell people I finished early. Good on you for pursuing your passion!
Indeed that would be interesting. Regardless of their ultimate success, as the co-founder of a startup I have a soft spot for any underdog.
Ben Casnocha
Ben is a 19-year old entrepreneur whose blog has been a huge inspiration to me in my startup efforts.
It's about as exciting as an EDUCAUSE article. Intellectually thin.
It seems like you're looking for a perfect answer as to how Granmos or Parakey could become one of the top three operating systems. I don't have the exact solution, but I know there is an enormous market and I wouldn't need ten million users to have a company worth acquiring. If I knew how to market Granmos to the point of becoming a monopoly crushing success I would probably already be getting paid millions as a consultant. I know Granmos can be successful, even if it doesn't reach the ten million user mark.

PR is a very important way of marketing for Granmos. You can do a local newspaper press release. Write an article about how a college student is making it easy for his grandparents to use computers. Send it to every local newspaper in America. Get new users. This is the kind of thing you can do for free, but professional PR people do it better.

Maybe I could do something really crazy, like giving stock options to anyone who acts as an evangelist or developer.

As for advertising, it would mainly be cost-per-action style ads. Affiliate links for online shops and such. You can do things like pitch a free magazine subscription offer at users. Those affiliate programs can pay $5 per action. Also there's the money you get when someone searches Google through your site. The important thing is to stick to advertisements that have some kind of benefit for the user.

Tracking the referrals isn't a hard problem. You could distribute Granmos live CDs with your new users automatically tracked to you. Otherwise, when a new account is created, fill in the referral box on the signup page.
I wouldn't be surprised if it did actually...
IMHO "100% freedom" is utopia. You don't have 100% freedom even on a start-up. In a corp like Google you have managers, and in a start-up you have customers...

Having said that, if you work for a big high-tech corp (like I did, although I never worked for Google per se), you will find that it is hugely difficult and frustrating to push your own idea through the system.
I like how he uses 'Web 2.0' without getting all frustrated about the term as many do. See: http://blog.nanobeepers.com/2007/02/01/whats-with-the-web-20-angst/

Also, very interesting discussion on the use of 'implicit' user data. Amazon is probably the leader at this - their recommendations for me are so accurate it's spooky.
He seems to knock PodTech in the article - anyone know why?

"Any time one of the rest of us mentions an obvious, actual waste of money (PodTech anyone?), you treat it as proof that the whole industry is doomed for collapse."
I'm so glad these guys responded so calmly and intelligently - a nice contrast to DHH's embarrassing style.
It would have been lame if they had just removed the DRM and upped the price - but the fact that they also doubled the audio quality is probably a good-will move to give the user additional value for the cost. The new audio files will be 256kbps instead of the current 128kbps - most folks are forgetting this in their analysis of the pricing.

And seriously - I think I've been spoiled reading pg articles. It feels like this guy's yelling and spitting on you as you read it, blah.