skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Even though we're using Ubuntu for our server, the Mac UI is well beyond the UI that Ubuntu can offer. If I am able to get things done faster with the Mac machine given its superior UI, then it is worth the extra $$. Otherwise your direction makes sense. My partner also has the Dell Inspiron 9400 and is going to wipe MS off of it and go with Ubuntu in the near future. My problem is that I still need XP to run my Revit CAD app, and the Mac lets me do this without having to reboot - which is a big productivity gain.
I don't completely disagree, but I think references to widely known sources--especially those that are not current (and yes, something can be ageless and not current :/)--belong in comments rather than submissions. It just feels a bit recycled; others may disagree.
Things you really need to learn
The stickiness on Geni is awful. I invited 80 family members and go to log in about once every two weeks now. Most pepole feel that it's very spammy too.
CEOs must be designers, not just hire them
Living in a Batting Cage (or One Example of How Crazy People Have a Better Chance at Success)
I think one of the major differences between younger people in college and traditional adults, is the willingness to do something both different and risky.

The older you get, the more questions such as "why don't I have a stable job?" or "why don't have a mortage and a house?" become stronger and stronger in your mind... and your ideas become more conventional... and your willingness to take crazy risks drops dramatically....
A beer startup that&#8217;s very funny&#8230;
They are meaningful in one way... their number of large acquisitions (the kinds that need to be announced) is growing. It doesn't, however, say anything about the "non-material" acquisitions.
YC News used as a source.
Just like reencoding select Youtube videos and calling it "Youtube" with zero flash support.
Easy way out is that Apple gets the phone profit from sales in the Apple store, plus AT&T's monthly/yearly/(customerly?) tax paid to Apple for the privilege of being the only service, plus AT&T probably buys the phones from Apple. That leaves, for AT&T, the subscription fees, and maybe a little profit from phones sold in store?
"And open and good is what Macs are again"

I can understand "good", but "open" is stretching it...
i think they only care what you build, and if you're smart. the idea of blacklists, or pg holding grudges, etc., is pretty silly.

they're pretty clear on this: if you make something people want (or have a demo that shows that you will), you should be fine for the app.
Designed For Windows
closer to site context:
what are the implications for foreign applicants to the ycombinator fall program?
IPhone: Will the Lock with AT&T cripple this great product like the Mac hardware lock of the 90's?
CRM for SMB - KiBS
With 50+ teams now funded I wonder how much potential competition with existing YC companies will play a factor in acceptance. Especially given that it's likely many YC companies will not have launched by the app deadline.
Probably he is looking for cheap labour. IIT/REC people always prefer startup so i cannot believe his statement about them.
In fact he is not able to sell his dreams to them.
How to create and apply a patch with Subversion
Hey guys, can you check out my new wiki/writeboard for Facebook
ever since 9/11 the green card process has become excruciatingly slow. There are a ton of CS Masters and PhD's who graduated around. that time. Their H1-B visas are going to start expiring in the next 1-2 years. With no way of legally staying back in the US, all these guys and gals are going to go back to India or China, start their own startups, get bought off by Google, Yahoo et al.. and live happily ever after. All YC'ers beware. This is potentially a new set of competitors for you.
The Digg Algorithm - Unofficial FAQ
Meebo is up and running on the iPhone
Part of the appeal of YC is the opportunity to learn from others...
Mafia on Facebook
I just wanted to get familiar with development for the Facebook Platform (cuz it's teh new internets and all), so I put together a quick Mafia app. Right now the feature set is pretty much the simplest thing that could possibly work, so suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Two things I discovered recently:

-The fact that the tax credit is given over five years obviously means that it's not actually worth 100% of your money. Furthermore, you can't claim your state payments as a deduction for your federal taxes. An Act 221 business told me that it amounts to more like a 50% credit, all that considered.
-If you are working on an independent programming project and you pay Hawaii state taxes, I've been told that you can incorporate, invest in your company, pay yourself that amount of money, then claim a 221 credit for your payment. You get 35% of your investment as a credit the first year, so a good amount to invest would be about triple your expected state tax liability.
Ever wonder where the Best of Y.C. go?
Argh. You just had to go and ruin a good jab by fixing the problem. ;-)

Of course, in the reply page, it's still showing up as "TouchÃ©".
How to Resolve Subversion Conflicts?
We usually have the two programmers who worked on that file consult on which lines of code to merge or use, since neither of them knew what the other was coding.

We pushed very short-term changes to the staging server through Dreamweaver "puts". Then at the end of the day, we'd perform an update, resolve any conflicts, and then commit our stuff.

At times, it felt like a waste of time to do all of the versioning and committing, and some of the updates were overwriting some files I had made changes to, without warning me. I wonder if Dreamweaver's integrated check in/check out system is better for smaller teams.
"Public schools in the US are not very good. Rich people tend to go to private ones"

Nothing unique about the US there. That's been the case in all the places I've lived. (UK, Australia, Japan)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31793
wrong. sell when Steve gets sick and cant work anymore
Some good points.

I know the NASA thing was meant to merely underscore a point but I've seen this comparison so many times that it bugs me and I wish folks would stop using it. The average NASA sw engineer develops a ridiculously low number of lines of code a year (I think I read something like less than 100 ines). A 6000 line patch has 2500 page spec.
The dynamics are vastly different than in any commerical software.
A nice article on the process is here http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html . Makes a good read.
To become a very successful startup that makes tons of money for the founders, employees and investors... :)
if we are not even given any feedback as to why our applications were rejected, then it seems peremptory and a complete waste of time. Surely, they could have copy-pasted even one summary line from their evaluation sheets? It is a simple courtesy.
I had never heard of the NASA comparison before, up until about a week or two ago. Liked it and thought it was worth a mention =)

P.S. I added a "bonus" at the bottom of the article, which was the first thing I remember that really frustrated me at the startup I joined.
It has been mentioned a few times below, but I'd love to see search implemented. It'd be useful for knowing what has been submitted, as well as make the wealth of information already on news.yc more accessible.
Overall, it's very nicely done, IMHO. A few specifics:

Your dodge around facebook's "no more than 10 invites at a time" is clever.

That said, your app has the good fortune of being inherently viral -- users that want to collaborate with friends will invite those friends. As such, I would recommend toning down the requests to users to invite their friends. It comes off as being too pushy (to me).

It's quite plain-looking, which is normal for a word-processing application but out of place for a Facebook application. I would err on the side of fitting in with your context -- add more icons next to functions, etc.

Congrats and good luck!
That's a solid point - the above was just my subjective impression.
eh, not really a source, more of a "hat-tip"
Very nicely done implementation. It works as advertised and everything is absolutely intuitive and straight forward. I don't have much of a use case for it myself though.

At first, when I saw "Friend's Documents" and "My Documents", I thought this was like a native Scribd for Facebook. Which I think could be an interesting idea...
Agreed, something like "think more about tech question", or "think harder about innovative idea" would have taken 10 seconds, but have been significantly more valuable to an applicant - and yes, it is courteous to do favors for someone when the effort you put into it is so dwarfed by the benefit they receive.
Thanks for the encouragement!

I just added an icon next to the edit link. I agree it does look plain. I agree that it is too pushy, but until its got self-sustaining growth, they stay there...
Thanks for checking it out anyway...
I thought this was a good article but one of your points touches on one of the reasons why purely engineer-driven start-ups fail: no business sense. I agree that the MBA-types need to stay away from the engineers on a day-to-day basis, but I've seen too many start-ups shoot themselves in the foot because they launch a product without any market research and no understanding of how to make partnerships that will help them scale.

Good luck with whatever you do next.
Apple Developer Connection - iPhone for Web Developers - Optimizing Web Applications and Content for iPhone
...why purely engineer-driven start-ups fail: no business sense.

I'm not sure how you managed to draw that conclusion. His bonus point is that the CTO didn't even do work, that's hardly engineer-driven. And they had a Stanford MBA, who was apparently a drain during product development.

Most successful technology startups are engineer-driven. Google is the ultimate example of just how far a couple engineers can go without any "business sense".
Really good points, thank you. I'm curious, you walked out, but do you know if the start-up ever launched?
WHATWG community (nextgen dev of html & related tech to write/deploy web apps)
WebKit Open Source Project (open source web browser engine - win/mac only)
If you are a facebook app developer, your ears should perk up when people say things like "what's the use case?" or "why would I use this instead of xxx?". I think the general solution is to have a good answer to the question, then tell your potential users about that answer -- for example, on the application description page. "Collaborate easily on class projects! Write a story with some of your friends!" Or whatever.

I didn't mention it in what I said, but I don't think I would use your app either -- which I guess is the ultimate question, the one that matters.
As someone who has interviewed and hired quite a few people I disagree. I don't owe a rejected candidate anything. We both knew the arrangement ahead of time and both agreed it was worthwhile. We gave each other an opportunity and both contributed time to the process. We're even.

I don't think this kind of entitlement-thinking will serve you very well. I recommend ditching it.
Let Your Customers Build Your Business
Starting Off Your SEO Campaign
I found this practical and helpful in remembering the basics.
For clarification, I did not intend this last statement to be condescending. I have begun to immerse myself into the Hacker culture and have noticed that it is very different than popular culture. I think that with your skills and my knowledge of the customer we can make something wonderful.
The Motivation: Are You Giving or Receiving?
Why entrepreneurs want to give equity:

-To deepen accountability in their next-level leadership
-To share the workload
-To increase growth by freeing up their time and creating incentives for revenue generation from others
-To build a future path for the company and a potential buy-out for the entrepreneur
-To keep the company's top talent

Why employees want to receive equity:

-To gain recognition for hard work and tenure
-To gain financial rewards, such as dividends, proceeds from selling the company and job security
-To gain the power to make decisions
-To gain the status and prestige that comes with being a partner

Found this in http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/article/1374.html How accurate do you think this is?
"... Bring a group of your most passionate customers together for an entire day of 'build a biz' and have them rotate from workstation to workstation completing a series of tasks. ..."

Following the theme of "build what people want" but I disagree in someways with this statement. Can we really be more specific here?

- let users loose on entire app, specific features or just tasks?

- how many is a group?

- how often?

- can you use even less people?

Sometimes just observing users figuring out what to, do rather than just giving them specific goal directed tasks has more benefit. They allow you to observe users as they interpret what is going on rather than you giving them directions.

When it comes to testing Nielson advises 5 is enough using this formula
N(1-(1-L)^n) where "N" is usability problems, "L" is 'proportion of usability problems while user testing' and "n" is the number of users. Graphing this yields 'usability problems found' over 'number of test users'. ~ http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html

Joel goes further in his "12 Step testing" and optomises Nielson`s method. Joel reckons you should try to grab anyone (one person, when you have completed some code) who happens to be in the hallway to test your current code ~ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html
"I don't owe a rejected candidate anything"

Not in the sense of owing him an explanation, but in the decent sense of giving him feedback so he can improve.

After all, the candidate took time and trouble - it is a kindness.

An application to YC is unlike an interview; with an interview you usually know what your weakness was, or what the interviewer's hangup was.

If you consider this to be "entitlement-thinking", then does not your thinking seem arrogant?

Actually, your thinking is a sign of weakness.
When the candidate is stronger than you, or your decision was flippant, then you dont want to run the risk of being proven wrong or bested.
So you choose the easy way out.
eBay To Craiglist: Game On With US Version Of Kijiji
re let users loose: --watching what a user does tells me whether i match up with their expectation.

and thanks for the links!
Sorry this doesn't answer your question but you might find this relevant or at least interesting (and just maybe slightly amusing).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8
Actually, if you don't mind, want to post your invitation code? (Or email me, sdrost@gmail.com.) Looks useful :)
I think the reason these kinds of things aren't done very well for a long time is because of existing implementations. Would-be creators do some research and decide the market is taken, not realizing how much room there is for a great implementation.

Geni, Gmail, Flickr, Facebook, and the new Evite competitors come to mind as examples of people ignoring that affect.
I would actually like to give feedback, out of friendliness and not because it's owed. Unfortunately, people with your attitude ruin it for the people that actually could handle it in a mature way.
"watching what a user does tells me whether i match up with their expectation"

True I get this bit, "Where do you start?" I guess what I'm trying to get at is "How do you choose which area a user should look at and why?". Sometimes it's good to let testers work undirected to see what problems they have & what they use most often, first. Other times you might want specific areas of code or functionality tested.

"... thanks for the links! ..."

The Joel 12 step is a classic to read & apply. It's based on reality and works as a quick Yes/No tool to see how good a process is (good old paratrooper Joel). It either works or it's defective & needs to be fixed.
Hmmm, I get it now. It's a tough situation... if I were you I'd just keep doing it like you're doing it now, maybe even lose the wikipedia link (since it could be construed as a hint), stress that it's an incense only and all other uses may be illegal (or not, maybe it would be better to not mention it? IANAL), and let all your sales come from word of mouth.

After all, do you really want to build a business around this? You're playing with fire. I've read a few horror stories about the FDA freezing entire businesses with little or no chance of appeal. The legendary Gary Halbert (RIP) I believe stopped dealing with anything like this in the 80s because of them. But if you sell it as incense only and explicitly warn against all other uses (and IANAL and IDPOOTV so obviously consult one) you could just keep this as a nice passive-ish stream of income that'll grow naturally for years.

You will probably want to delete all of these comments, too :)
It would not seem courteous, believe me. Some fraction of the people who apply to YC are nuts. If you have a web site where you offer money to people who fill out an application form, nuts apply. Are we supposed to tell them they're nuts?
Technorati Loses Three More
Lately we've had a lot of people emailing us asking how to apply, so we got the w2008 application form up. Really there's no reason not to switch to the next cycle as soon as we pick the startups for the previous one.

One the whole it's probably better to update the application incrementally. You'll get more attention that way; we may even suggest ideas; and we're not likely to have time to do that if you apply the day before the deadline.
Does anyone know how eBay's arrangement with Craigslist works and how much they paid?
iPhone features: The facebook app of tomorrow?
Dilbert on Venture Capital
DiveIntoMark slams "Project Zero"
Blasphemy: The Case Against Ruby on Rails
People might ask you first if its ok to "telecommute" from India, before applying.
I was not aware "asking" that may put them into "egregiously broken" category :)
i'm still searching for the PHP Framework and above all searching for the cool :o).

Update: Now the title is more accurate - before it was something like "new cool PHP Framework - Project Zero" ;)
Wooing interns to Silicon Valley (Google vs. MicroSoft)
Web 3.0 No humans required (Radar Networks - the semantic web - PR hype?)
In what sense is DiveIntoMark "unveiling" this? This is an IBM project that Mark is debunking; he works for Google and works on Python stuff, not PHP.
Craigslist grapples with competitor on board (eBay)
Developers cooling on Windows desktop, study finds (Shift away from Windows began two years ago, now accelerating)
Next Palm OS not until 2008 (Linux based - but does it have a chance against the iPhone?)
Yes, you should be candid with people regardless of the circumstances. Doing so makes life more efficient for everyone.
Europeans longing for the iPhone ("Having AT&T...poses somewhat of a dilemma for Apple")
Ebay Free Classified Ad Site Kijiji Is Another Huge Blow To Newspapers
200 $? wtf?
I live in Bangalore. The starting slary for someone just out of school is about 1200 $ as of today.

But yes, this is about 15-20 % of a valley salary, not 75 % so you do have a point.
Diagnostics and venture capital - paradigm shift
that's what i was gonna say
Colleges don't tell you why you didn't get in.

Companies don't tell you why they never called you back after you sent in a resume.

Why would you expect any more from YC?
A rejected YC application is much more like a trivially rejected resume than a rejected candidate who interviewed. Do you think employers have a responsibility to respond to every single resume that they get in the mail with detailed descriptions of where they can improve?

Your complaints sound more like you are sour about being turned down than anything else.
How to survive in mobile content gold rush?
The world has a new richest man, sorry Bill
Who was it at Google who had the sense to clone Overture's business model, I wonder.
I wonder. I have trouble getting my girlfriend to mute the TV during commercials. She finds them entertaining. :( I wonder if other people like "punching the monkey"? shudder
DVD Jon Hacks iPhone: No Activation Required
TestiPhone.com - iPhone Simulator
Bah. Pretty well written article but it's just another "don't like Rails because it's a fad" type deals. I did agree with the part about Rails being ultra-suitable for one type of project (business apps against a relationship DB) and that you run into trouble if you go too far away from it. But that doesn't mean at all that Rails isn't cool as can be.

I'm finishing off a consulting project now with Rails and everybody's happy. For my startup though we're staying with Python and the much lower level Pylons.
iPhone hype meets reality? (The tech industry expects us to soon carry tiny wireless computers)
I've heard that the most common situation where managers have a heart attack is when they have to fire somebody. Saying "No" is stressful, and thinking about doing it courteously is not easy. I know it takes me more than 10 seconds to think about a way to say such things nicely.

And I think being too specific could make matters worse. Think about dating. "You are a nice person, but I don't really like your nose" - helpful? I think not, and the next person might be just fine with your nose. I think the generic letter YC sent (I got one, too) is a good solution. And I could imagine that if you would ask them, they might be willing to give you more specific information.
What are our chances ? We are catering to a business software category and not a web solution. We are developing a product that will solve business problems and is not for general public.
- JS
Video interview with Jaiku co-founder Jyri Engestrom - twitter alternative
Here is why you can not get that meeting you want so bad
Respectance Launches: "Myspace for Dead People."
It wasn't an investment. They bought the stock privately from an early near-cofounder that Craig had given it to.
We've funded those.
I suppose it's bound to happen eventually, but so far there haven't been any collisions. The odds are lower than you might think, because both groups would have to be working on the same thing and good.
Is the meta name="viewport" tag iPhone specific? That sucks!

Give me a Linux phone, please...
I actually got an hiring email from a Stanford MBA who's working out of the Sequoia a month ago. Curious to know if it's the same company/person. =)
He has a point. Rails works for startups and for departmental level stuff. Some larger, well-funded startups are also using it, but not without Java for the complex back-end processing. Good post. Good find.
I was wondering how they managed to embed Safari in there, but it seems like it's constrained to look like the iPhone's form factor. So if there are any quirks between the browsers, you won't see it unless you're running the page in Safari.
Entrepreneur: What's In a Definition?
That's actually funny because I've met a successful angel investor by that name :)
How advanced do prototypes have to be? For example, did loopt have a prototype? If not, how did they demonstrate their ability in embedded systems programming? If they did, did they bring in a hacked up cell phone?
An MBA. The average MBA isn't the kind of person you want, but a really bright MBA can be a game changer if they stay out of your hair.
Helma Javascript Web Application Framework
Collective Wisdom! A Place People Can Vote For What Others Sells!
I guess if someone got skype on it and the price fell, this might make sense to some people. Still nice to know you can develop on it (kinda of) without needing to get a contract.
The more the better, obviously, but you don't have to build anything. We would have funded Loopt after nothing more than talking to Sam about his plans.

I don't remember exactly how far they were along then. I think they may have had a simple app running on phones, but with simulated location info.
Rails For Linux