skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The plugin is friction: I'd rather a user download the plugin to make other blogs as convenient as mine than download the plugin to get any convenience at all.

And I'm pretty sure those buttons haven't ever cost anyone a digg/reddit/del.icio.us submission.
Why not just start with a simple hotness algorithm and evolve it after data starts coming in?
agreed. What he writes isn't a defense of hoarding, it's a defense of newness, which PG wasn't even attacking.
A good idea. However, the part about "pays for itself in 4 years" means it's not for startups.
This article says absolutely nothing about the value of a formal business education.

It says something vaguely negative about the value of business textbooks, the crapiness of which is pretty well established and acknowledged by professors and students alike. See here for a classic example: http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm This refers to highschool textbooks but applies equally well, if not more so, to college business texts.

It's all about the professors. Business is one of those academic fields, like Paul Graham notes, where the best practitioners are not the educators. While this is very true as a generalization, there are exceptions -- mainly: non-practicing educators who happen to be excellent at imparting practical knowledge, and ex-practioners who were once tops in their field. You will find these professors concentrated in top schools, and you will not find them teaching from these textbooks. So there is actually quite a lot of value in a business education from a top school. The well-worn cliche about the value of networking at these institutions applies as well -- and it's not just networking in the abstract, it's learning how to network with people who can get things done, and getting things done for people who expect big things out of you. Just like I'm sure it is in computer science, the value of the education is what you extract from it.
The dictionary defines coolie as a laborer, and it holds true for most entry-level IT professionals. Its not intended to be a racial slur.
I've got a couple coworkers trying to steer me towards business school (MBA, not undergrad), and they said that the real value is the network of classmates that you develop. The courses basically consist of reading lots of case-studies - if you read a lot, you probably do that or the equivalent anyway. But you can't fake the experience of getting a lot of smart, successful people together.

I found that that was also the primary benefit of going to a top private college. My courses at Amherst weren't all that much better than those at a good state school - yeah, they were challenging, and the professors were good, but if you look hard you can get that at many other universities. But almost every single one of my classmates is doing something interesting, whether it be physics grad school or traveling abroad or running a hedge fund or eliminating child soldiers in Africa or writing Broadway musicals or starting a company with me.
Which page on homestarrunner.com? All I can see is non-HTML Flash.
And how condescending you are perceived as can be measured by how many times you say "you"
"You don't know anything, so shut up and listen."
A tie, actually best used in conjunction:

"Practice the fundamentals every day".
--not sure, but I got it from Jamie Andreas I think (guitar guru).

"The doer alone learneth."
--Machiavelli
So I once watched this nutty 70's film series on time management - 43 Folders retro. It was actually pretty good if you could get past the awful fashion. The host, a professor in horn-rimmed glasses and a bowtie, had a piece of advice I found surprising at first. It puts a different spin on doing hard things and I've found it very useful.

He said if something is truly hard to do, put it off as long as possible. But if something is merely distasteful, do it as soon as possible.

The rationale is that if something is truly hard to do, you can spend time thinking about it, researching it, gathering resources and asking others about it while doing other necessary things. Oftentimes, there will be a way to make the hard thing easier or even unnecessary.

But if something is more distasteful than hard-to-do, you need to do it right away. It's worse to put off distasteful things than just get them over with.

Anyway, that bit of wisdom has worked for me. In programming specifically, I also endorse David Heinemeier Hansson's advice: "If something is too hard it means that you're not cheating enough."
Nice thoughts! We share a common goal! :)

I am trying to solve the problem of blog consumption. Blog consumption, by nature is personalized. You have your own set of feeds that you read daily. I have a different set. Which means that whatever feed/post appeals you, might not suit my taste, and vice versa. Thus, community rating like digg etc, is not the right way to treat your blog posts, or in other words, you should not draw your recommendations "completely" from such a system. That's why i intend to build a personalized system, (may be plugged in your favourite reader) for this!.
Wireless Access Coming To The Skies (I can finally work on a plan)
Please don't steal this Web content
Lorelle VanFossen is passionate. An author, travel writer and nature photographer, she also has a popular blog about, well, blogging. Her pet peeve is online plagiarism, which she encounters nearly every day.
An under-the-hood look at Backpack
"A TiVo for electricity" is a very clever line. Puts a smile on your face and yet describes it well. A bit of humor is a good thing when you're trying to sell your concept.
Sorry about that, I didn't realize. Here is a 2.4mb zip file of all eight pictures:

http://www.alexkrupp.com/picture_library/Business_text.zip

They are slightly out of order, but it should be pretty apparent what you're looking at.
Have a look at reCAPTCHA: http://www.captcha.net/

The words shown come directly from old books that are being digitized. So you can stop spam and help digitize books at the same time.
Software is not mentioned under any copyright law. Thus most ownership clauses contracts will NOT hold up in court. And as randallsquared said, most of the time ownership isn't even mentioned. I'm astonished by engineers who think this is some cut and dried issue, like NickB who points out that what Juwo mentions is "illegal" when it isn't. If it was illegal, you could make a reference a law.

Software copyright and ownership issues are murky. If they were clear cut, would Facebook be running right now?

Facebook is a great example. It depends on who you believe, but it appears that Mark Zuckerburg worked on a site that was similar to Facebook, but geared towards Harvard students. For whatever reason, he bailed and started Facebook, which was pretty much the same thing, only with a bigger scope, and better.

If he stole some PHP code, is that unethical? If he stole the idea, is that unethical? What if the guys he was working with were idiots who didn't really care, and were going to only pay attention to their rinky-dink site when they weren't at rowing practice? Is it unethical to grab someone elses idea and run with it when you know they are just going to let it lay fallow?
You boys are taking this wayyyy too seriously... :)
This idea strikes me as a classic hacker's toy: technically good, but not sold well at all to the average consumer (aka "the world").

Why not repackage it as a way to find out when and how your favorite sites update? Like a really simplified RSS reader (either a desktop app or web app) that uses the current technology to let you know when things have changed on arbitrary websites. I could see a lot of people being interested in something like that who have no clue what RSS is.
I think ultimately PG wasn't directly criticizing those who accumulate stuff, either. As I understood it, the issue is the attachment to the stuff, particularly when it inteferes with living a good life.
Speaking of karma, I wrote a little micro-essay about it at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38605 .. I don't know if you'd want to experiment with karma quite like that, but it would be interesting.
An Open/Controllable Social Network?
Fast changes for Venture Capitals and Angels in technology
Wellington Financial, a Toronto-based "venture debt fund", posted yesterday statistics for the VC industry in Canada, for the IT industry. For the first half of 2007, a total of $200 million deals were reported, compared to $234 million in 2006, $460 million in 2005, and $1.2 billion in 2001. The author is alarmed and puzzled on how the figures are so low.
I hope it doesn't feel like a debate, I am just trying to see your side of this because if I felt that what I was doing was unethical or even in a "grey area", I would not be doing it. The reason I keep coming back to this thread is not because I want to win an argument, but because I might be wrong.

I agree with you that drawing the ethical line wherever it is most convenient is bad. In fact, I have discussed or debated ethics online a few times in the past, and I was always in your position, saying that the issue is black and white no matter how convenient it would be otherwise. Perhaps this is why I am so interested in this thread, now that I am on the other end of it.

Anyway, thanks for your insight. Although I am still not convinced that anything I did was unethical, I will think twice before looking at past work again.
Best advice: Not to take one ;)
That's exactly what I'll do.
I'm betting (and hoping) they'll expand to more cities if the Seattle operation succeeds.
This article seems a bit disjointed. Are the 'fair use' clause and the Viacom Youtube suit really related? I don't think so.
"the real value is the network of classmates that you develop."

True unless everyone knows it: what happens when nobody is there to learn and everyone is there to network? A network that doesn't transmit any content (and exists mostly to network) is useless.

I wrote a little about that as it applies to reddit (and LinkedIn): http://www.byrneseyeview.com/byrnes_eye_view/the_tragedy_of_...
It hasn't felt like a debate. Just a real interesting topic. And, who knows, maybe we got one of those chicken leg buffet people to thinking here - this discussion may save someone a whole bunch of trouble years down the line.

Every once in a while, it's nice to say that which goes without saying.
Yeah - I took the whole thing to be a Christopher Guest-like joke.
Irony of online social networks
The Facebook homepage proudly states:

"Facebook is a social utility that connects
you with the people around you."

Isn't that kind of ... anti-social. Social science dictates that the best way for anyone to connect with people around is offline. Meetup, have a beer, dine-out, and talk!
5 Most Common Startup Mistakes
i recommend watching george carlin's video on stuff:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual...
Here's a real defense of "stuff", except I'll state it off-handedly:

Slavery is good...for others.
Yelp API Released
> Even if you're determined to stay private, where will your sustaining revenue come from, especially if you're running a consumer-oriented web service?

The same place it would have if you got acquired. You've got to monetize the thing eventually, right?

You can also cut the same kinds of deals w/r/t synergies that you would as an internal business unit. C.f. HotorNot, TripAdvisor.
I can't tell. I'm finding myself saying .... no ??
Good advice I got from my mentor: "Learn to suffer fools elegantly and silently".
Some Hollywood Types Do Actually Get Web 2.0
Judging by the number of Indian restaurants in the valley, it could actually be true. But I don't have further clues about how to reach this approximation.
Wow, i love that site. So sublime.
I said:

1. I'm not in debt.

2. I'm not looking for investors.

Investors don't fund people from what I've seen. Most fund based on the past experience of the people, how much they like them, how well they can pitch themselves. But investors rarely actually fund based on the people.
Ask news.yc: Are you organized about how many hours you hack?
When working on a project/idea do you schedule your hacking time or do you hack when you feel like it?

How many hours of hacking a week?
Disallowing downvoting for some cases is the best feature of this site so far.
Classic Carlin. Def among his best material.
A few that come to mind:

"Never ever think of yourself as a victim, because once you've done that, you've lost." - One of the Amherst College trustees, on being the first (?) female vice-president at Morgan Stanley

"Control yourself, because you can't control others" - Sunir Shah, possibly quoted from some other source.

"Perfect is the enemy of good enough" - C2 Wiki

"Good enough is the enemy of at all" - Paul Buchheit
"Wakey wakey!"
Kyte.Tv analysis: beta testing of this innovative user-generated video
IMO a fixed schedule is always a better idea, and any hours beyond that are a bonus but in the end it all boils down to a matter of choice or habit. you should follow whatever pattern you are comfortable with
Google spending millions on mobile: WSJ
Guy Kawasaki: CEO of Redfin Says Looking at "Underwear Entrepreneurs" is Counterproductive
I think you might be right. First impressions are important, but maybe you just have to release something that is worth improving upon.
In the long run, never half-ass anything.
"The pencil is mightier than the pen."
-Robert Pirsig on the importance of revision
Choosing to do the harder thing may not always be productive or practical. If I think it will take me 3 years of research to (maybe) solve a problem and bring a product to market, and I know another problem I can probably solve in 6 months with the same potential financial reward, which one should I choose?
Matt seems to be a funny guy with a lot of candor. I like how he does not change just because something has come straight from the horse's mouth.
RIAA's Newest Enemy: The Social Network
None of the examples above were actually first-movers, though. YouTube was beaten to market by Google Video and a whole bunch of Web 1.0 video-sharing sites that nobody's ever heard of. Reddit was beaten by Digg, del.icio.us, and various others. FaceBook was beaten by Friendster, MySpace, Orkut, and lots of other social-networking sites. FictionAlley was beaten to market by Fanfiction.net and lots of boutique archives.
Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
Give honest and sincere appreciation.
Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Dale Carnegie
Web 2.0 Bubble: John Dvorak isn't just cranky, he's cranky and wrong
Problem is that a lot of Web2.0 startups have no real business models. Serving ads & relying on AdSense is not a business model.
'If you continue to do what you do, you will continue to get what you get' -- Anon, Chinese Proverb

& a rather simple one from my Dad:

hard hard hard work!
GPS System to Predict Caltrain Arrivals
well :)

which is more unethical?

the restaurant throwing away perfectly good food into the trash when there are hungry people in poorer countries (or even a few blocks away in the same city) who haven't eaten chicken in months because they cant afford it? (I know people like that).

OR

the "chicken leg buffet" person. He paid full price for his buffet, only his stomach can contain 2 legs, and he does not wish to greedily stuff himself with 6 legs.

or what if he took 4 legs on his plate, and out of a good conscience, cannot throw 2 uneaten legs away?

point: it is hard to judge other people.
If the project is critically important, then you'll probably end up working on it all the time, so scheduling would only serve to help you make sure you're doing the most important things first. In this mode it's all hacking, you're just putting tasks in order.

Otherwise, scheduling is a very good idea for different reasons. If it's a personal project, which means there's no one else to goad you into working on it, then it's especially important to use scheduling to help you keep working. Remember what PG says about personal projects: Always produce. Do something everyday.
Great advice on code instrumenting...
business model deltas, raising funding...I wonder what ever happened to him. Would be a good startup hire...
You bet they do! Have you seen this?

http://www.searchwithkevin.com
Heh, another one along that vein: "Overgeneralization + limited life experience = Advice" -- Paul Buchheit
eBaum's World Sells for $17.5 Million
The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year
Craiglist + YouTube = a mashup called RealPeopleRealStuff
life is too complex for one advice
Best lawyers for startups
I think we had a thread somewhere on the site that had a ranking/list of the best lawyers that work with startups. Anyone know where it is or have any recommendations?
DotAsia Announces Key Partnership with Deloitte, AGIP and Pool.com
Go ahead, post that dumb video online, you could get some work
Official alleges that Facebook failed to detect sex offenders
Report: Google shows phone prototype to vendors
Ajax's Success Could Weaken Web 2.0
UnitedLayer is pleased to announce our recent upgraded IP Transit backbone to 10Gbps+ capable
TED Talk - How to make your consumers happy - Malcom Gladwell (video)
I think this is very useful for startup founders.
News app code and search
I was wondering if YC can/has released the source code for this wonderful social news app. I love its lightweight and simplistic approach.

Also, a search feature will improve things a lot.

Keep up the good work!
Facebook drives the Valley to drink
Elton John wants to shut down the internet.
The business guy did indeed come up with the idea. He found the programmer by putting up fliers all around the Stanford campus.
I got one thing to say:
"You are not your job. You are not how much you have in the bank. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your khakis..."
Start the three-month project. In a year, there will be ten different companies competing over the shorter-term project, and you'll be ahead of everyone on the hard problem.
Interesting axiom :)
I agree that "networking" delivers value, but the academia is very worthwhile, too.

Marc Andreesson's post analyzing the credit crunch that forced hedge fund Citadel to dissolve is a great example of the value of "business education."

Command of that realm of knowledge is completely germane to a web software startup, etc.
moonlighting makes it easy and hard at the same time. I can only work when I'm not working at my day job. I must work when I'm not working on my day job.

I started doing that "don't break the chain" thing. I would say I can spend around 18 hours a week on the project.
I am in a similar situation. Moonlighting too, but that should end shortly as I leave my current company for working on the startup full-time. Surprisingly I am doing the 'don't break the chain' thing too. I seem to be getting about 20-30 hours on my project.
You can get most of that info elsewhere, though. I have no formal education in finance, but I understood everything in the Sowood letter, even without Marc's commentary.

(Really, sometimes I think that money managers would do well to read Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor and nothing else. Many of the complicated mathematical stuff - which my employer makes a business of selling - actually hurts your performance in the long run.)
San Francisco datacenter renamed "364.98 Main"
Often, it looks like the last proponent of Graham left in the finance world is Warren Buffett.
You are not your collection of movie quotes. ;-)
Please help me not get fired by taking this survey
My boss wants a few people to take this survey about how you handle your personal finances.

We created mint.com and want to hear what a few users think about it. We will give you early access for taking the survey..

Thanks!
noah
Ask Startup News: What NorCal or national bank is best for Startups?
Some point of consideration that I've been thinking about are:

1) Easy integration with online payment gateways (authorize.net)

2) Low fees, and good online banking tools

3) Good terms for "Lines of Credit"

4) Good customer service of course

Interested to find out what folks recommend.
i love it too
The real question is, if not materialism, what is the meaning of life?
Prisoner's dilemma in online advertising
Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers
have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.
How do I write a freelance contract for web programming work?
I want to know what to look for in a freelance contract for web programming work and what to include if I have the opportunity to write one myself. I imagine many of you have been in my situation; I appreciate your help.

In the absence of experience, idle speculation will do.
Why investors want protective provisions
Protective provisions let preferred shareholders veto certain actions, such as selling the company or raising capital. They protect the preferred, who are minority shareholders, from unfair actions by the common majority. However, the preferred shouldn't use protective provisions to serve their other interests.
9 million per year...with a possibility of going to Swedish jail. I bet those are mighty fine jails, but I'm still not sure that's a gamble I would make.
Do the Swedish have.. I'm not sure what it's called.. "You can't make something into a law and then convict everyone who used to be doing that" provisions?
I believe it is called "ex post facto".
Good. I hope he retires and stops stealing other people's content now.
sold ads for The Pirate Bay for an average of EUR60,000 per month

Let's see: We could advertise on google and target people specifically searching for a product, and pay as little as 10 cents per click, or...

We could advertise on a criminal website marketed towards people who hate spending money for products and pay 60K Euros a month.

Hmm, think, think...
I can send you the one I used to use. Just shoot me an email if you want it.
> people who hate spending money for products

Correction: people who hate spending money for shitty products. Or they hate paying an inflated price. Piracy is competition and should be treated as such.
whats so bad about table layouts?
Google Uses Crowdsourcing To Create Maps In India
Google has been sending GPS kits to India that enable locals to make more detailed maps of their area. After the data has been uploaded and then verified against other participant's data it becomes a part of the map. The process is very reminiscent of what Open Street Map, the community map-building project, has been doing. The biggest difference is that the data (to my knowledge) is owned by Google and is not freely available back to the community like it is with OSM.
I agree software copyright and ownership can be murky. You're completely wrong about software copyrights not being licensable/transferable via contract. It's the basis for the entire software industry and you're claiming it doesn't even exist. Courts have found software to be comparable to literary works, making most general copyright law applicable. There's also plenty of special provisions and case law.

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#117
It depends entirely on how savvy your clients are. Do some work for a company that has an IP lawyer and you can see the difference. The way it usually works is that you grant them a non-exclusive perpetual license to the software but maintain ownership yourself. If they want ownership you charge an additional 20% on the total cost, or whatever. I recommend contractors having their own contracts drafted by a lawyer and not signing client-provided ones. Much easier to be fair that way.
so i'm assuming that papers like the wallstreet journal will have ads based on investing? did i understand you correctly w/ that?
Designing Portable Social Networks
Al Capone is shouting from his grave at these guys.
Advertising isn't a business model?
To know and worship the Creator.