skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Just totally randomly. One day, it was booting up fine. Yesterday, I got a Windows update which restarted my computer. When it booted up, blue screen. Hmm, that's odd. Try again. Blue screen. Blue screen. Rising anger...

I'm fed up with Microsoft products. That's all for me.
New look Alexa (their answer to Statsaholic)
Rails feels like magic to me. Too much stuff gets done for me, and as a control freak that makes me uncomfortable. Django seems much clearer and cleaner. I know why things happen and if I need to I can easily change, alter, or fix something without worrying that the magic will break.
A University with a design department. Make some friends, chat up some people, and ask nicely. It will end up better than if you did it yourself, be fairly cheap if you're nice, and be a portfolio piece for them.
"The 'we win by killing' days are passing"
http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Django-Development-Done-Right/dp/1590597257

The book is coming in a month. One big reason why there aren't a lot of Django books out there is because instead of trying to make money off of books, they focused on writing high quality documentation to begin with. That book that's coming out is free online as well: http://www.djangobook.com/

The reason there are lots of Rails books is because there's a lot of hype around it. That doesn't necessarily mean the community is more supportive.
Good luck on your hunt :) If you need any help or advice just ask! Don't buy extra ram through Apple, they gouge you hard core. All the macs are really easy to upgrade the ram in, except the mini.

As a side note I'd recommend any web developer working on a mac look into Parallels virtualization. It's really slick and having a windows environment is nice to test IE and the like. I haven't used VM Ware for OS X myself so I can't comment on if it's as good.
IronRuby for the CLR (.doc 444kb)
the article explains MS's dynamic language runtime a layer above the common language runtime for dynamic langauges ~ http://www.wilcob.com/Wilco/IronRuby/microsoft_ironruby.aspx
Reading that article, I can't help but feel like the reporter had decided what he would find before he actually looked for it.
The wording is very strong, and the imagery is picturesque, it just doesn't really seem to square with what I've read here and in pg's articles (that the input and advice they give is important, but not controlling some how doesn't conjure the image of a bootcamp in my mind...).
Toss a coin.
I personally thought it was the best article about Y Combinator that covered everything from start to finish of the ones posted here before. I think the bootcamp analogy refers to how fast everything happens over a period of a couple of months when you first join the military, after which it is usually less hectic. That's a good way of explaining Y Combinator to MSN readers, even if startups continue to have hectic lives for a longer time than that, while somebody could go to an officer school for 13 weeks and then go straight to being responsible for 20-200 adults much older than they are, while startups are still trying to get going. Other than that, I think the article explained very well that most people came up with their own ideas.
I got rejected by the YC and it still annoys me ever now and then, but the article is good and right. Ok maybe sayuing billionaires is a bit too much, maybe most of them will sell for a few millions but if you think about it when they start they second with the money form the first, they will have better chances at making billions. GO YC. And next time invite me to San Fran
How to scale your rails app, by Scribd (a YC startup)
"Exactly who is in Guantanamo or the secret CIA prisons, and why?"

Well, not you, and not anyone you know.

The mere fact that you're comfortable posting this stuff on a public site, under your own name, demonstrates that you have ZERO fear that someone will break down your door tonight and take you off to a "secret prison".

To be quite blunt: you don't even believe your own bullshit.
billionaires? LMAO!
'Could you explain? ... I would like to know too'

probably means submit to stumbleupon and increase in visitors due to greater audience.
"Google buys a startup once every few days"

yeah, if "few" is 40+ days.

Only 9 acquisitions in 2006, 5 so far in 2007:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_acquisitions
I'm quite impressed that Steven Levy wrote about YC. I know him from "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", and "Artificial Life" - two of my favorite books.
Google to focus on software: CEO
Seth Godin's new book calls Paul Graham the "best in the world" [PDF]
The link points to the manifesto, which is sort of the spark notes version of the book. I bought the actual book today and read it in an hour. Awesome.
this talk was given at the silicon valley rails meetup a couple days ago.
Linux is free, you know.
Check out http://www.djangobook.com/ -- we're posting the book online, for free, as we write it. It will always be available for free online, and we're planning to continue improving it even after the print version is published. We're perfectionists. :)

Also see our docs, at http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/ .

Disclaimer: I'm a Django developer and coauthor of the book.
As a European living in the USA: the USA is much less free than any country in Europe. But not for lack of noble laws, in which the USA excels, but rather, for lack of public education that would entitle everyone to be aware and enjoy such freedom.

Add to the above the blatant lack of equality in opportunity: if one's family is not focused in providing an environment (and usually the funds too) to foster a high education --by which I don't mean a university degree--, one is screwed forever.

In short: high schools and undergraduate degrees in the USA suck big time (only at grad school does one see a proper, comparable level to Europe), and parents wander clueless as to what is important to create self-sufficient, independent and free adults.
Here's Schneier on why not: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/05/1933_antispam_d.html
"Who's Afraid of Google?"
Surprised that Zenter turned down a Google offer. I wonder how low it was?
It's a good decision. You can run any OS you want on OS X and its rock solid stable.

Welcome to the buried on Digg.com. :)
Online ads versus privacy
Ex-Comverse lawyer going to prison for options backdating
So where does he mention Paul?!

BS, attention/karma grabbing title...
Yeah, but hardware and your time to get all the stuff working is not (well, in my case it is not). If you have lots of free time, Linux is indeed free.
I think you're playing down how much better the search results were between Google and Altavista & Co. I agree the next Google could come out of left field, but my comment is directed toward the author's headline, implying that his company is "the next Google." I may have misinterpreted what he meant, but that's what I was speaking of.
I think we've been through this in previous threads: that list only covers acquisitions which were high-profile enough to get media coverage, or which were high-dollar enough to be itemized on Google's quarterly report. That only makes up a small portion of them.
Rails has a good marketing team. This is coming from a Railser. Not to mention, news.yc needs a search feature cuz this topic has definitely come up a few times in the past. BigHeadLabs needs to make their url sticky.
He also did "Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh", which is one of the best (partial) corporate histories I've ever read.
It's in the last page of the hardcover book, but not the PDF.

The title is attention grabbing, but then again I suspect his name is in the book to for the very purpose of grabbing attention. :-)

edit: god forbid anyone actually read the book/manifesto for the purpose of learning something.
try ubuntu fiesty fawn!
Ubuntu really isn't difficult to setup at all on most PCs.
I've had my share of bad experiences with Apple products/computers. You are just trading one corporation for another - I think you should seriously consider getting a decent piece of hardware from any PC manufacturer and install Ubuntu on it.
We're so young that we all have a very long time to make billions of dollars. We have a lifetime to get there. It also gets easier as the dollar becomes more and more worthless.
Critical Lesson: "Was it worth starting a startup when competitors could easily copy him? The answer in such cases is almost always yes." -- Being Copied (Paul Graham) Apr 2006
I think this is one of the most important lessons you can learn. When you have a really great idea it's easy to feel nervious about how obvious or simple it is. I think a lot of great products are never built because of that effect.

Your real competitive advantage is having a clearer vision of the problem and being ridiculously more passionate about solving it.
Reading that article, I can't help but feel like the reporter had decided what he would find before he actually looked for it. The wording is very strong, and the imagery is picturesque [...]

This is just how reporters work... after all, they are out to sell a story.
Internet Pornography Stats
Low millions probably means low ones-of-millions, which is non-fuck-you money in return for a situation which you'd probably want to say fuck-you to, at least if you believe the general sense around here that Google's status as the ultimate hacker's mecca has begun to fade.
I am looking for a job. Any startups out there with open positions?
If you already have windows hardware, Ubuntu will autodetect all your hardware automatically. I've installed it on both my desktop and laptop, and it detected everything (wireless, sound, video, you name it) without a hitch. Insertion of install CD to up-and-running time: about 30-40 minutes.

So, even if your time is expensive, it still takes less time than it does to go get a Mac.
Mozilla and The Evolution of the Browser
I wrote this in Ruby & C (for the prime finder) and it runs equivalently fast (under 1 second)
scribd link to flashpaper version:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50745/seth-godin-mentions-paul-graham-in-his-book
yeah he doesn't actually mention Paul in this pdf, it turns out
"As a European living in the USA: the USA is much less free than any country in Europe."

Not according to Freedom House. The US and most of Western Europe are equally politically free: http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=15

And economically the US is freer than any country in Europe http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm

"lack of public education"

What are you talking about? The US has more than enough public schools.

"Add to the above the blatant lack of equality in opportunity"

Urban Myth. The per-capita GDP in the US is higher than almost every European country. Around $10,000 more than France, the UK or Germany. So your average US citizen is 30% wealthier than your average European.

Income inequality (assuming that's a bad thing) is only slightly lower in the US than Europe too.

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

Also the US has a much higher proportion of the population with University qualifications than most of Europe too: http://www.oecd.org/document/31/0,2340,en_2649_201185_33710751_1_1_1_1,00.html

"In short: high schools and undergraduate degrees in the USA suck big time"

Could you back that up with some evidence?
Dude Logos are so 1990s, just write the name in bolder and bigger font that is it.
What about Perl/Catalyst?
Please provide information regarding your location, skills, etc.

I'm looking, I'm just not sure if you're what I'm looking for.
I was actually pretty impressed w/ the django book, even in its unfinished state. I also "get" django more than I get rails, so I'm definitely attracted to it (after quick looks at both).

My point was just that there's so much behind rails right now that it sure seems like any issues with it scaling will get worked out more quickly than they might with other frameworks. There's also already an ecosystem of 3rd party apps around it.
The Beauty of Perl 6 Parameter Passing
The $2.8 billion figure is laughable. As if there was any way to track the flow of porn money. Even an accurate estimate is ridiculously difficult because of the way the money is processed.

I have a feeling if YC started funding p0rn startups they'd wipe out a huge swath of the crappy sites that exist (and make tens of millions). At least people wouldn't question the business models of those companies ;-)
Far33d,

You learn better by not buying a book and start coding.

As said before Django is very logical.

I read "Learn python in ten minutes" and just tried django.

http://www.poromenos.org/tutorials/python

As Adrian said, the online docs and books are very helpful and you can ask anything to the django users group :

http://groups.google.com/group/django-users/

You can also check out some code here :

http://www.djangosnippets.org/

http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/CookBook
Lol. This was kind of a joke, but it's true.

It only applies to sites that have viral content in nature.

Basic formula:

Create (or find) some pictures, videos, etc that are extremely viral.

Submit them to StumbleUpon (or have a friend do it). Try a few different sets / pieces of content until you find a formula that works.

Note: spamming SU with crappy content won't work. Your stumble only takes off if it's actually given thumbs up by other users, which in turn causes it to get shown more often.
Does anyone code Smalltalk any more?
I got Founders At Work a few days ago and saw that one of the guys (not Paul Graham, I think) used Smalltalk for an early version of their site...
Is Flash penetration that high? Based on the few "Mum at home with laptop" type people I know they're very wary of installing anything onto their Windows XP machines and they don't know the latest Flash plugin is any different from all the other things hammering to be installed.
This is not reddit. Be polite.
I don't know smalltalk, but got interested lately because of the 100$ laptop, which seems to build on squeak. Also there was some interesting framework for multiuser virtual worlds, I think it might be Croquet (also based on squeak): http://croquetconsortium.org/index.php/About_the_Technology

So I would also be curious to know if smalltalk is still worth checking out.
Actually, older people have a higher chance of becoming or already being millionaires, as long as they've already been an entrepreneur for 20 years. While your attitude is helpful when you're first starting out ("it might take me 10 years to make millions, and that's fine!", which is the attitude I had/have, and it's important), the older people actually realize they don't have as much time, and will use their connections and experience to launch a company in 6 months. So, older entrepreneurs have three advantages--connections, experience, AND time pressure. So I think if one wants to compete with ALL entrepreneurs, including those that will inevitably try to copy your ideas and those started by non-technical founders who have resources, thinking that one has 20 years to become a millionaire is not going to be helpful. I think for a young person, having the ability to work on a new idea all day, PLUS thinking that they have only 3 months (the same a 60 year old would think) to launch a web service, would be a useful paradigm. The advantage of 24 year olds is that we don't have money tied up and don't have to shut it down if it doesn't work out after 3 months. Also, it's not like Y Combinator companies have something better to do with their time, and can continue to improve their idea even if it doesn't show any profits, taking advantage of publicity that 24 year olds can get just for being 24 years old. But, the idea must be done (in other words, released) as soon as possible--a week, a month, three months from now. So, while you take one idea and try to spend ten years to make it work, you have to be on the lookout for better opportunities that might only take you one week to do.
You missed the point about MS's release of .Net.Aimed to reach over and better Java style. MS sales even targetted co's using java for development offering $'s to switch to .Net. What was left out in their design was the sheer easiness to reconvert .net back to source code using off the web debuggers. My point being, ofcourse they would die. If you can't give ulitimate development tools, how can you expect them to stay ahead of teh pack.
You're a little out of date. Try Ubuntu 7.04's live desktop CD on your Windows laptop and just see if it all works. If it does, install and save a bundle on overpriced Apple hardware.
"If people turn us down," PG says, "as far as we're concerned they've failed an IQ test."

Has anyone read Axelrod's The Emergence of Cooperation? Looking at the above quote with that book in mind, I'd say that PG is trying his best to establish his reputation as a bully. Yes, probably all founders would be stupid to pass up on his offer, no matter how low. However, given that, at the offer stage, he has already spent some time (and money) for the interview, he's partially invested in the startup. Thus, he would also be "stupid" to reject a counteroffer that was somewhat more favorable to the founders. But then he would ruin his reputation as a bully, and open the door for more negociations. So he won't negociate at all. It's his best strategy.

It's not necessarily a bad thing for us, as long as he still makes a fair offer, but the way he says it makes me cringe. He's using the applicant's ego. Who here would like to fail PG's IQ test?
The dollar recently hit a 26-year low against sterling and an all-time low against the euro. Just about everything is pointing to a lower dollar. US growth is disappointing (YC excepted ;-) and is set to underperform Europe [IMF]. US rates are expected to be cut later in the year whilst the UK and Eurozone are set to rise. The UK rate is already higher than the US, normally a predictor of bad things to come. US inflation is a bit high which lessens the dollar's appeal as a holding asset.

The US deficit, still 6%, is depending on the sale of US Gov. bonds. Oil producing nations are buying, and so are Asian central banks because they want to see their exports look cheap in USD. (Doesn't China hold USD1.2 trillion?)

The dollar looks set to drift lower. If holders get concerned they have too many and dump some of their wedge it'll plummet.

Interesting times. You could all be millionaires real easily. ;-)
One my friend codes aviation simulators in Smalltalk.
MySpace announced Friday that it has begun implementing new technology to combat members' unauthorized use of copyrighted content.
http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=12718
Big Guns Jump on Open-Source Bandwagon for New Web Apps
Add Microsoft Outlook To iGoogle
ezboard, a 1998 startup, used Smalltalk for their bulletin board service. They did really well for awhile but have been declining steadily ever since 2003. Apparently they couldn't figure out how to make money from the sites with heavy traffic. After some unpopular decisions about pricing and advertising, many of their biggest customers decided to host their own boards instead, using solutions like vBulletin or phpBB.

ezboard had several different subscriber levels. The free version caused your board to be so full of popups and other intrusive ads as to be almost unusable. It was worse than Myspace (and Firefox wasn't very popular yet). The first paid level let you turn off the popups but left the banners, including a huge banner at the bottom so that if you hit the "end" key to see the latest comment you'd wind up with a banner in your face and would have to scroll back up to see the comments. The premium level let you turn off all ads, but it was more expensive to do that than simply hosting your own solution.

They still exist, but I haven't really been paying attention. I'm not sure if they still use Smalltalk or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezboard
Thoughts on Mozilla (swf)
Sun and the rise of the authoritative IDP
DabbleDB is a startup using Smalltalk.

http://dabbledb.com/
So StumbleUpon is easier to see results from than Digg or Reddit -- which is useful info.

(Of course you can always get to the Digg front page by doing something like "10 Nude College Babes Who Read Digg". There's a certain formula.) ;-)
Very nice. It definitely looks like the scribd guys have a clue.

Scribd is still still running on just one web server. That means they're not at the stage yet where they can just throw machines in to handle growth. That's a pretty significant step. Their one web server just happens to be so damn beefy that it can handle a lot of traffic. It will max out at some point though.
When the hype dies
Flipping Pad
Referrer Widgets Brought To Life
Objects of Desire
The way Google does it, it's almost hiring, just with slightly bigger starting bonuses, and a different interview process. None of the normal trappings of acquisitions (integrations and fuck-you money spring to mind) are there.
Worrying _too_ much about language efficiency when it comes to web programming is clearly a case of premature optimisation.

Well, sometimes it's a question of a choice between upgrading your hardware and optimizing your code (or even re-writing in some other language). Which is cheaper? I'm into it right now, haven't decided yet ;)
Same here... please provide some info on what your looking for and your skills
I'm afraid you're just falling for the hype. Apple has done an excellent job at promoting their image as the hip and secure operating system. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts a few months in. I ended up returning my new mac.
It's very secure. Based on FreeBSD (I think?) how could it not be secure?

The problem with their hip image is that corporate users aren't hip and probably won't go for it. And that's about it, otherwise, Macs are quite solid machines and OS X is fantastic. Whenever I use OpenOffice I want to puke just because Apple Pages and KeyNote look and work great.

Why did you return the Mac?
I've gotten all my hardware setup easily with both ArchLinux and Ubuntu. Both take less time than driver installations in Windows.
Cool: paulgraham.com #4 result on Google for "startups" and #5 for "startup"
Are Repeat entrepreneurs guided by a 'deeper force'?
smalltalk is a joke.
don't waste your time on it.
nice language. but dear oh dear. it's all about the libraries.

stick to the language with the most libraries for the domain you are tackling
The fastest way to search the Internet -- no mouse -- SearchMash.com
Just type 'into' the web site. It will read your keypresses and fill the query box for you. It's run by Google.
Presentation is nice, but I would like to suggest a feature for you guys. Instead of that terrible flashy frame, why don't you by default show documents in HTML? Browser handles scrolling, selecting and picking font size much better.

If I want to print or store PDF, I see "download as PDF" button already.

Also, what's with the popups? I have not seen them because my browser blocked them, but there appears to be some critical functionality that relies on popups being allowed.
Do you believe that repeat or successful entrepreneurs have the golden 'touch'?
One YC-funded startup is using it.
Save your money - Ubuntu for the win.
Again my point was less about the usefulness of books and more about the number of books as a somewhat useful proxy for a measure of momentum and size of user community.