skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Looks like Don has a history of picking winners working for DEC, Forte, Compaq, AltaVista, Napster, Groove, deNovis and now Microsoft. [0]

I love microsofties, they go straight for the throat. The circumspect ex-softies trash MS these days for MS's lack of focus & ability to adapt. This is because MS has lost their core asset, their API.

'... The cornerstone of Microsoft's monopoly power and incredibly profitable Windows and Office franchises, which account for virtually all of Microsoft's income and covers up a huge array of unprofitable or marginally profitable product lines, the Windows API is no longer of much interest to developers ...' [1]

There is still some great stuff coming out of MS, but they hardly excite the next generation of developers of software. Some of these issues revolve around the dollar costs associated with owning MS operating systems & associated software. Cheaper and more open alternatives don't help. [2]

To hear Office, Corporate ownership and X-Box [3] demonstrates to me the developers have left, and marketroids are bleating the 'marketing & business' advantages, where in the past it would have been technical advantages. [4]

'... Defaults. Microsoft will design Windows so as to enable computer manufacturers and users to set non-Microsoft programs to operate by default in key categories, such as Web browsing and media playback, in lieu of corresponding end-user functionality in Windows ...' [5]

And as for Microsoft being benevolent, all I have to do is look at Don's own first post in his blog to see Microsoft priorities in print. [6]

Reference

[0] Don Dodge, 'Linked in Bio'

http://www.linkedin.com/in/dondodge?trk=btn_typepad

[1] Joel Spolsky, 'How Microsoft Lost the API War'

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html

[2] Why is it Windows OS has got more expensive, while hardware has got cheaper? It's not distribution nor the OEM's installing the software. So why has MS consistently increased the cost of owning their OS?

[3] Well maybe not X-Box. But how many developers have access to X-Box tools, can develop for it & release software?

[4] MS did a great job unifying the hardware market from DOS to Windows meaning you just plugged hardware in and it worked.

[5] Don Dodge, 19th July 2006, 'Microsoft's 12 principles to promote competition. Read the comments concerning defaults and MS software settings'

http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2006/07/microsofts_12_p.html

[6] Don Dodge, 'Microsoft's 12 principles to promote competition' Ibid.
http://madeleine.rubyforge.org/ is a Ruby implementation of similar ideas, I believe.
Jacksonville, FL; 1, 21
Good luck, old-timer. You'll have to let us (Virtualmin, ages 32 and 33, WFP2007) know how it turns out. We'd enjoy not being the oldest Y Combinator founders. I hope you're working on something even more boring than system administration tools, too, so we could kill two birds (the "oldest" tag and the "most boring" tag)
Wow, did these guys even read the last paragraph of the article? Almost on cue they give the exact response predicted:

"I already know what the reaction to this essay will be. Half the readers will say that Microsoft is still an enormously profitable company, and that I should be more careful about drawing conclusions based on what a few people think in our insular little "Web 2.0" bubble. The other half, the younger half, will complain that this is old news."
Another reason to not use a DBMS for a search engine is that typical implementations of transaction-oriented SQL databases are a terrible fit for the performance requirements of a search engine. For example, search engines don't need concurrent writes or ACID transactions, or SQL-like query language; search engines want to optimize for large-scale updates, not small, random writes; typical DBMS index structures (btree) don't work well for search engine indices.

Eric Brewer has an interesting paper that lays out an architecture for a search engine that is consistent with DBMS design principles, but differs significantly in the implementation details:

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~brewer/papers/SearchDB.pdf
Get ye to the nunnery. Or, maybe a college campus would be a better place to round up a co-founder. You're gonna need one.
"Literally speaking, 'Microsoft is dead' just isn't true"

Did anyone really think pg was 'speaking literally'?
Wow, great comment!
Good idea - that would be really interesting to see.
He he, great point ;)
"What's such a class other than search?"

Why "other than search"? Seems to me that at least half of the reason Google won was because every other search engined was tarted up with "portal" BS. That's UI.

So, since it's clear to me that search isn't one of those classes, and the examples given ("systems" stuff) is the area my startup is working in and I'm absolutely certain that UI is going to be 50% of the success or failure of our company, I'm not seeing any area where UI isn't vitally important.

One of the WFP2007 groups is working on a new language for mobile app development...and they're spending plenty of time on the "UI" even in that case. UI, of course, being anything that involves a user interacting with your system.

I guess someone somewhere in this thread is treating UI as "pretty things on a web page"...but UI hacking is important no matter what you're doing, if you want to sell it.
Tied how? Certainly not legally. When you buy the computer you buy a license... no court would uphold charging people for something and not letting them have it.

The "shrinkwrapped" license agreements are not really enforcable... at least not in a legitimate (eg: competant) court.
Even more interesting, happs (http://happs.org) combines a number of things: a prevayler-style in memory persistence layer, twisted-style event-driven programming, and SEDA-style non-blocking IO.

It's built in haskell, which really is a beautiful language if you can wrap your head around it. Much like lisp in that sense.
I'd like to have enough money to make a difference in the world.
Don't be silly Bob. Apple is not arrogant nor greedy... unless you're a socialist who thinks that all companies that actually sell software are "arrogant and greedy".

The stallman cult thinks this and they have gone so far as to have protests against Apple when they sued microsoft! That's how twisted their socialist thinking is-- they support the monopolist against the underdog!

If you're 50 years old, get a mac, you'll find that its a hell of a lot easier to use than Linux.

To claim that its "superficial" is to not understand the real advantages of the Mac... alas, I suspect too many people like you reject microsoft and then reject Apple (because of FUD spread by MS or linux fans) and then go back to microsoft when they discover that Linux is a damn hard to administer desktop (for most people.)

I have been using unix for 20 years and I only run Linux in particular situaitons because generally the admin load is just not worth it. Why deal with it when Mac OS X is so much better? So, I use it on servers, but only when I am not able to use apple hardwware (They make great servers too....)

The thing about Apple is, its far better than people think... and most people have never tried it, and yet many of these peopel have a negative impression of it based on propaganda from MS proponents.
He called Apple a "hardware company." Sony is a "hardware company." Apple's killer app, especially in consumer electronics, is software.

He then called Google a "consumer search company." Has he forgotten about GMail and the power of web apps based around powerful search?

I completely understand if Mr. Dodge was taken aback by Paul's essay, but I really do hope (at least for Microsoft shareholders) that Microsoft's Emerging Business Group doesn't actually buy into these "classifications."
Companies succeed despite VC funding, not because of it.

VCs are people with more moeny than brains who are certain the situation is reversed!
XBOX is a closed system for a very good reason -- it ensures a general spec of quality for consumers. Aside from obtaining a license, console manufacturers like Microsoft enforce strict quality assurance measures on developers before code goes gold (manufacturing).

Just think about the open-standard PC, putting aside some obvious benefits like keyboard control: Who wants 50 unregulated, crappy versions of a football simulation game? Additionally, 5-6 patches (normal with PC games) is simply unacceptable for an out-of-the-box, plug-n-play device like a game console.
Uh, the real reason Microsoft is Dead...
'... XBOX is a closed system for a very good reason -- it ensures a general spec of quality for consumers ...'

Sony Playstation is a closed system but i can still program qbasic on it. [0] You missed the point. How do the next generation developers get a taste of developing software for MS's game platform? Get a copy of Windows and start with DirectX?

MS missed the chance to capitalise users from the next generation to create their own crappy games, with some basic MS technology (compilers, languages and editors), pass them around with their mates. I hardly expect anyone to create a game worthy of a gold. But it doesn't mean you couldn't let users try, for curiosities sake.

Reference

[0] Even if it was to get a tax break. I can also use antiquated Linux operating systems and various hacks. Can this be done with XBoxes? I don't know.
Reason #2:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8009043995556715164

Reason #3:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9196554724028857364

Reason #4:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4687264451069658413

Reason #5:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4734578294758407158
The terms1 of S3DFS don't work for me so I suggest people look at MogileFS. I just learned about it recently, so I can't give a review... but it looks interesting.

http://www.danga.com/mogilefs/

1 Will pay good money for software, their prices are ok, just don't like the feeling I get that they will have my company by the balls.
At the end of the article:

"rant, swear, rant, swear...

PS: I could use some help with Apache htaccess files."

Nice ;)
Hey bootload; rather OT, but I'm interested in how you are extremely detailed with your sources. Care to share how you organize and retrieve relevant information?
Lol .... this is getting out of control ... watch some Anti-Trust :-D
Playing around with QBasic on an XBOX doesn't sound too practical, aside from questionable tax tactics. =)

Have you heard of XNA? It's a popular C# framework amongst game developers that allows anyone interested in game development to bring their creations to life on PC and XBOX 360.

As a matter of fact, one of the projects I developed in university is now being transferred to XNA by a friend of mine...some people from the XBOX Live group saw our game and encouraged that it be ported to XNA so they can look into making it available on XBOX Live Arcade.
From pg's Viaweb FAQ:

http://www.paulgraham.com/vwfaq.html

"What database did you use?

We didn't use one. We just stored everything in files. The Unix file system is pretty good at not losing your data, especially if you put the files on a Netapp.

It is a common mistake to think of Web-based apps as interfaces to databases. Desktop apps aren't just interfaces to databases; why should Web-based apps be any different? The hard part is not where you store the data, but what the software does.

While we were doing Viaweb, we took a good deal of heat from pseudo-technical people like VCs and industry analysts for not using a database-- and for using cheap Intel boxes running FreeBSD as servers. But when we were getting bought by Yahoo, we found that they also just stored everything in files-- and all their servers were also cheap Intel boxes running FreeBSD.

(During the Bubble, Oracle used to run ads saying that Yahoo ran on Oracle software. I found this hard to believe, so I asked around. It turned out the Yahoo accounting department used Oracle.)"
Yeah Daves a smart guy but he doesn't want to search, play or read the details on mod_rewrite.

'... The great thing about mod_rewrite is it gives you all the configurability and flexibility of Sendmail. The downside to mod_rewrite is that it gives you all the configurability and flexibility of Sendmail ...' [0]

But then again i don't think I'd wish configuring this software on your worst enemies.

Reference

[0] mod_rewrite, 'Module mod_rewrite URL Rewriting Engine'

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html
"Holding up Apple and Google as the Microsoft killers is curious. Microsoft is a software company. Apple is a hardware company and Google does consumer web search. I have a lot of respect for Apple and Google, but Microsoft killers? I don't think so."

I think that's exactly the point Don. Desktop software, while still (immensely) profitable, isn't the future of software.
Here's the discussion I think you were thinking of:

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=10001

Based on this article:

http://blog.nanobeepers.com/2007/04/07/infinitely-scalable-framework-with-aws/
He he, yeah, I'm sure Sergey and Larry are having lots of sleepless nights over at the googleplex ;)
'... Have you heard of XNA? It's a popular C# framework amongst game developers that allows anyone interested in game development to bring their creations to life on PC and XBOX 360. ...'

Now that's more like what I meant & more usable. Why didn't/don't they ... [looks up XNA on google] ... ahh so they have thought of this ~ http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/xna/default.aspx

Looks like you can run your code on the XB360 via the XNA creators club ~ http://creators.xna.com

'... the XNA Creators Club opens up video game development to untapped creative minds, enabling anyone to affordably build and play amazing game ideas on Xbox 360 systems for the first time ever ...'

Thanks for the heads up. That's why I do not discount MS doing some interesting technology. This is superior to Sony who will not allow you access to key sound & graphics API's without forking out the $200K developers license.

'... As a matter of fact, one of the projects I developed in university is now being transferred to XNA by a friend of mine...some people from the XBOX Live group saw our game and encouraged that it be ported to XNA so they can look into making it available on XBOX Live Arcade. ...'

Good stuff. Just out of interest how is it licensed?
More online Web 2.0 image editing tools: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/free-online-photo-editors/
MS may be past their peak but they're certainly not dead and won't be while they've still got large corporations willing to buy their software.

Some of your arguments just don't hold water, at one point you're arguing the desktop is dead but then oh one of the reasons MS is in trouble is Apple's desktop?

Web based applications may be on the rise but there are plenty of problems with them too, disconnected operation, lack of backups etc. being some of them.

The platform of the future is the phone - you've only got to look at how it's used to fuel innovation in some of the third world countries.
RATIONALE:

The refs are there because I want readers to be able to judge information quality. ~ http://goonmail.customer.netspace.net.au/2005MAR221100.html
Also posting it this way keeps my information intact. OT it maybe, but tough. I'm writing for others to read & judge in the future (as well as the now).

PROCESS:

The organisation bit, is a custom tool I'm writing called nextgen. Most of the references I'm composing are done real-time from various sources. The text is entered into my 'nextgen' blog engine & I simply cut+paste into here.

Once the story is stored (entry + links + tags + image) I can then re-use the text and add the post to other blogs I have. For example the above post also appears here ~
http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/450417776

This is done manually at the moment, but if I store it, I can automate it.

IDEA:

"Who owns you?"

The concept is along the lines of 'capturing & rescuing all the fragments of my on-line identity since '94. I then become the most authoritative source of me. Most people probably do this by default, but my stuff is spread across the web. I want it back.

My own personal supply of data gives me the ability fine grained control of my data and allow

- License: control license and re-license my data

- Mash: combine various different feeds, text, urls, images etc

- Formats: as html, rss, atom

- Re-distribute: news.yc, flickr, twitter, slashdot, blog, delicious, foo

- Code: web API's means I can interact with data not sites

MORE:

You can read all about it here ~ http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157600015450188
I'm not sure you realize the can of worms you would be opening up by feeing up the syntax chain. I agree freeing up syntax is a very viable method for imporving codeing, but it is also very easily leads twards confusion in the minds of code maintainers. The idea is old and has been implemented a number of times, but also it has never taken off because of the major problem with what does "for (x) in Y {;;some more code here}" mean? FYI, I've implemented a flexible programming language. They are a bear to implement. I'm positive you don't want to go there. Think about this. The developer tweeks the syntax translation for the code he is working on. What happes to all the other uses of that syntax in the program?
Looks wonderful. You might want to check on the trademark 'dropbox'. I know dropsend used to be called dropbox but had to change due to trademark difficulties. Otherwise excellent work.
like I said a few weeks ago.. Steve Ballmer is Ringo Starr. He just happened to be at the right place at the right time with talented friends.
That is a new point I have not heard before.
Yes, I think it is important; men-programmers dont have good soft skills. One would have to really know such a person (from elsewhere) to know they are gifted in this area.
Perhaps I should recruit my wife :)
In a recent blog post, I explain why Web Applications are far superior to Desktop Applications. Desktop apps are by and large OS dependent and the economics of running a desktop business are not as good as a web app business.

My post here : http://www.vinnylingham.com/2007/02/top-20-reasons-why-web-apps-are-superior-to-desktop-apps.html

I totally agree with Paul in almost everything, however I don't believe buying up all the web 2.0 companies would work. Microsoft has to actually concede that web apps are the future - they still don't believe that it is!
If you run your web services alone, like me, are you using "I" or "we" pronoun on website and in touch with customers?
Microsoft is dead because we no longer use windows as a platform. We mostly stay away from desktop applications and instead develop web apps. We build on browsers now. They're easier to develop for, there's no need to install apps and compatability is easier (compare porting an app between mac, linux and win to firefox, IE, safari).

Now that getting apps to the users is easier I think people need to tackle the next problem: Mobile. Currently developing apps for mobile is possibly harder than for the desktop. The operators restrict you and the handsets are fragmented and inconsistent. Even with the supposedly crossplatform java has different api's on different handsets.

Perhaps the mobile problem could be solved in the same way as the desktop with web apps. We would need reliable, fast wireless broadband coverage and good mobile browsers that follow the same standards. I dont see this happening for 5 or so years.

Without allowing web apps to access phone api features I'm not sure if this is the best solution. All I can see is that whoever solves the mobile problem has a chance to be a new tech giant.
Tips for Writing Copy for your Website
hehe, "I" thought I was the only one worrying about this :)
I use "we", as me + the company entity. And it will require no re-editing if a partner join or you hire.
a program to chat with dolphins using underwater whistles and that many people can use at the same time (e.g., as a decentralized p2p IM conference session) so that large groups of people can try to figure out in real-time the meanings, if any, in a live whistle exchange. The working prototype has a user guide at http://leafyseadragon.blogspot.com/ - the p2p components are not completed - the prototype is a standalone application (i.e., laptop).
Another telling sign: in the late 90s when trying to raise money for a startup you had to have an answer to the M question. These days you need an answer to the G question. No-one asks the M any more, it's just not relevant.
A Giant Leap Forward in Computing? Maybe Not - New York Times
Also check out http://copyblogger.com, The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy and Triggers by Joe Sugarman.
"The market is a lot more discerning than any employer. And it is completely non-discriminatory. On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." -- http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html
So you are acting as a big company no matter you working alone?
"we" - if you want to be a big dog, you gotta act like one.
Are you certain? This must be new, because before your would get a fresh machine every time. Anytime you boot, AMZ looks at the image you want to run, and they unpack and uninstall it for you, meaning that even a reboot led to a clean drive. Now, there's been some talk about 'shadow copies' where you might even get access to other customers data by simply starting a deep scan on the drive.. but that's hardly persistence.
It looks like this might be a new use for "we":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We

I guess you need to decide whether such fibbing is acceptable in a web service.

BTW, more serious forms of deception can be found in the ESP game:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou/ESP.pdf#page=3

See the sections on "pre-recorded game play" and "cheating".
Almost exactly ten years after John Walker (founder of Autodesk) wrote "Microsoft at Apogee" - http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/msapogee.html . I have to admit I was surprised that no-one mentioned this essay.
Money is never the limiting factor, it's always finding Good people... Cite: Michael Milken, creator of the junk bond industry.

"Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers" and the others along Sandi Hill Road show that it can be made to scale, but the process is lossy.
Microsoft is dead as far as web is concerned, and web is where it's at.
Depends whatever comes out naturally. When I am responsible for something, say getting back to the customer, use "I"; when I'm giving a statement about iJigg in general for example use "we".

-Zaid
Use "I" because it's more personalized. The excuse for using "we" is simply that the service may seem professional; hence, building more trust. That might actually be true, but unless you're building an online bank, it wouldn't matter.

I initially worked on my webservice alone, and decided to adopt "I" on every possible location. I managed to build a dedicated community around the website, and later on decided to use "we" to denote the community as well as myself. Now, when I say "we thank you for participating", I mean "me and the community...".

Of course, if you've more than one founder (like I do now), you should use "we". Be consistent with the terminology in order to avoid confusing the end-user.
A lot of people seem to have missed the point, and this post is amongst them..

So for those who keep missing it...

Once upon a time the trend was to write desktop applications, but because Microsoft had control, was able to kill big players like Netscape, for which they ended up DOJ with MS being accused for monopoly...

Other victims: Java Virtual Machine of Sun was replicated as a Microsoft Java Machine which was incompatible and Sun accused them too.
WordPerfect, Lotus, Corel, HTML editors, media players, and the list goes on...

Microsoft was really scary for anyone developing for MS Windows, because nothing could stop MS cloning your app and just ship it with their OS and killing you instantly.

How is Google now scary for everyone making web apps? ...Can you understand that? You do? Good! Now you understand what Microsoft used to be.