skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
yeah agree. Another cool metric is "if your idea can be given away by telling someone" then it doesn't have enough depth" Most simple things are way more complicated when u do them - and thats in the thought of the implementation.

Just look at eBay - a platform for auctioning goods. The depth comes in generating a trust system (how?) then making it easy to list, and for people to send each other goods. Then each of these ideas can be fleshed out. So its not really one idea - its a whole bunch including design decisions, customer acquisition strategies, page element preferences, copy, bug fixing - a whole load.
From following the usual blogs such as Mashable and TechCrunch, I expected some other startups to be included. A few of those 25 happen to be dealing with advertising, targeted or otherwise. It's interesting when a lot of these startups are built on the notion of promoting and selling others' products. Perhaps there will be a steady decline in companies that actually create something new to offer. :)
I believe I mentioned this in the other thread, but I'd like to see my comment after submitting it instead of it just jumping to the top of the page.

An ajax implementation for the comment voting would be nice too. This was mentioned along with some other great ideas, but it's something I'd personally love to see.
The Silicon Valley of Europe is located in...Silicon Valley. No advantage fighting network effects.
i couldn't agree with this more if i wanted to. ideas are commodities, execution is the only thing that matters.
What is your site worth?
(from Digg. Currently suffering from the Digg-effect, but much more relevant to this group than the digg crowd)
Duplicate, see http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=530
Defiance of the &#34;Venture Capital&#34; Model [video] - Panel with Guy Kawasaki, Fark, Hi5, Suicide Girls, HotOrNot
6-keys keyboard really smart for mobile touch typing
New database company
Marked up the article because it's hilarious, but honestly I don't know what I'm getting out of it. It's a panel of 6 people who won the lottery [meaning, in Paul's nomenclature, only 1 or 2 were actually trying to actually build wealth or solve a difficult problem]. Well, there is a lesson- be responsive to your audience, and when they start coming in droves do what they want, and then sell advertising.
Question: top speed on one of those? Faster than a normal kbd? Most macro keyboards (all?) are quite a bit slower. If someone can make one that you can get faster with, I'd be excited.

Question 2: Spam submission?
I should add that this post is a bit hard to follow, but I think it makes some excellent points. Ajit's earlier post on Mobile AJAX adds some context: http://opengardensblog.futuretext.com/archives/2006/03/mobile_web_20_a_2.html
The difference is that it's completely serverside, which allows developers to create "real" webapplications with deep database connections and complete server rights, and not just fun clientside widgets.
The Ajax interface is automatically generated so the clientside experience is a webtop in appearence, but not a limited in reality.
Yeh I posted it mostly for the laughs. Its great to see that they've all become succesful by doing what they enjoy. Theres so many great quotes in this video, too many to post them all here.

"So it all got started when a friend emailed me a picture of a squirrel with giant nuts.."

"I knew it had taken off when my dad was addicted to hotornot"

"We were just two geeks who wanted to meet hot chicks"
I love how the first 18 months of fark's existence consisted of that picture of the squirrel with giant nuts.
I like this idea but I think success may be limited to games that are highly visual in nature. In fact, the same may be said of startups in general: video is better than images and images are better than text. BTW, the Google talk by Luis on these sorts of games is a must-see: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8246463980976635143
VisualIDs: Automatic Distinctive Icons for Desktop Interfaces
A Great Place For Companies To Present Their Projects
He claims that algorithms are not so important, but they are what propelled Google above Yahoo and co. Reddit today is very much in the vulnerable position that Yahoo was in. Someone with a recommendation engine that works well could pull the rug from under their feet.
Is there any way for someone from Europe to get a green card in US if he get funding from YC?
Have you discovered an upper bound? The commonly held belief is that people over X (where 30 < X 35?) can't start startups because they have kids and a mortgage, or they just aren't in-tune with what's hip. Curiously, that excludes people who have "been there and seen that", the best current example being AJAX. Also, those who have taken a few more trips around the Sun also may recognize niches that 19-25 years would never see. My impression is that Y-Combinator is an attractor for the younger entrepreneur.

Full disclosure: I'm in the range above, planning to start a company, and not trolling for Y-Combinator dollars.
Michael Arrington thinks the bbc should be dissolved
Pretty decent tutorial. One of the few that actually explains why certain features in the current web2.0-trend are good.
Subversion Cheat Sheet
No picture?
Human-based genetic algorithm
Will Google take on Xbox Live?
O'Reilly Radar on Y C Startup News
You might want to try http://www.cambrianhouse.com/ as a place to throw ideas around.
Red Herring: Why Web 2.0 Isn't Dead Yet
Command line wiki & distributed cheat sheet
I saw this on reddit earlier. It's an omen.
this seems like one of those ideas that's obvious when someone points it out to you: someday interfaces will have better scenery so we can recognize where we are in our data.

but this particular one seems pretty counterintuitive. it will be deeply weird if in the future we're all sifting through little piles of fractal amoebae to find our files.
Flickr snafu slings porn
IANL but I'm pretty sure YC funding is not enough. But I've heard there are ways to get into (or rather stay in) the US if you go on to raise larger amounts of funding.
Wow, this looks very cool. I wish I had the skills - maybe just a few of them could help?
You can get a 90 visa waiver if you're from most EU countries. You'll need to prove that you intend to return to the EU afterwards, for example you'll need to be employed by an EU company. I'm unsure about a more long term solution. I've heard of some people getting employed by friends in the US in order to get a visa. Might be worth looking into.
Darpa Chief on AI and Monkey Brains
Scott Berkun on Innovation
Idealy we should have profiles with location, url, short description and email address fields.

If that doesnt happen then this cofounders meetup board would be good. Count me in. You can find me via danshub.com or contact me at dan@danshub.com.
A similar users list. Show me all the users who like the same stories as me and comment in all the same places. I've already noticed some users who are similar to me and a nice system for making sure I don't overlook any would be great.
Entrepreneur Special Report
I personally found the video really interesting and it was hilarious too. Following things i liked particularly:

1.Although they seemed to stumble on success by accident it was there adaptability that made that possible, and its not like they just sat still and got lucky (well maybe fark was pure luck :) ). Also other people in there position may not have been able to capitalise on their success, so its interesting to hear how they did that and continue to do so.
2. The comment from Max Levchin in the 50th minute about the fabric of viral mediums was very interesting. Interesting to consider how the internet world is getting more viral and how you can tap into that.
haha sounds like O(y) instead of O(n)
I'm with you. Paul - what do you think about this? Hosting that sort of thing here would foster the entire YC community, but doing it over there means a more select user base of people who are specifically looking for partners to work with.
Friday Code Monkey Song
This is really funny - think of all you are missing by not being a coder for a faceless corporation.
I think these guys are more serious than they seem. I know James Hong is. You may hit something good by accident, but you don't keep it by accident.
It's true that doing a startup right off wouldn't work, but why not meet up with other people who are just as interested and try and form friendships from there?
Feature-itis!  How to avoid.
That was an interesting interview. You sat down with the guy and only asked THREE questions? I can overhear a better conversation than that on the train.
Video of Guy Kawasaki moderating a panel of founders including Max Levchin, James Hong and Drew Curtis
Jonathan Coulton rocks. Check out his other stuff and buy his music at http://www.jonathancoulton.com/
Duplicate I'm afraid. See http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=667
yeah. whoops. looks like i can't delete.
Quick poll: Should I be posting links like this? Does anyone think its offtopic? I dont want to risk damaging the quality of the articles on YC news.
A guide to starting your business
How to make big things happen with small teams
Forget VC Money, Fund Yourself
Ambition: Why Some People Are Most Likely To Succeed
Some creative small business ideas
News at Seven automatically generates a virtual newscast pulled from stories, images, videos and blogs all linked by a common news topic.
It's an Amazon Day (Robert Scoble on S3)
$5000 VCR dissected for the sake of art!
I'm a huge fan of anything that Kawasaki says -- not necessarily for its literal content (though he usually says some good stuff) -- but because he always conveys his message beautifully.

Great video and very funny. I planned on being at CommunityNext, which was just this past Saturday I think, but I couldn't make it. This turned out to be one of the better panels I've watched and, fortunately for me, I missed out being in the audience!

Did anyone here happen to attend? If so, what other great stuff did I miss?
It would be nice to see articles you have commented on as well as ones you have posted in your profile
Coulton's stuff is great. And although this is one of my favorites, it's important to remember that you don't HAVE to be a code monkey if you're a software engineer. I think a lot of students are getting discouraged from the computer science field because they don't want to be pre-Matrix Neo or stuck in the daily grind from Office Space.

You definitely can end up in that situation but if you're smart and passionate, you won't. Being a developer in a startup is an example of that. If you love what you're working on and you're contributing to its potential, you're not going to be that monkey.

Or if there's nothing already out there where you can apply this passion, take the entrepreneurial route. That's likely why we're all here on this site to begin with. :)
If you can't get someone else excited about your product, then you might be approaching it the wrong way. But there are many reasons why VCs might not want to get their hands in. They might deem it as a me-too or as a novelty not worth exploring. But there's no way they can completely estimate the web community. If you have a firm belief that you offer something someone else does not, or you implement it better, do it. Fund it yourself. The true reason you should give up on your idea is if you cannot sell it to yourself anymore.
Google revamps Summer of Code for 2007
Services you'd keep using if they weren't free
Digital Channel
Yeah, S3 has been great for Jamglue -- we use it for both media storage and streaming. You can't beat the price, it's been reliable enough, and we've saved a lot of time by not having to worry about redundancy and scaling.
10 Unconventional But Successful Home Businesses
U.S. Says Hedge Fund Regulation Is `Working Well'
There are a lot of services I use because, in addition to being useful and convenient, they are free.

Despite how much I may gain in productivity or enjoyment from a service, it may stop being so as convenient or approachable when I have to grab my credit card to check it out. But that said, if Google Calendar, Flickr, or Wordpress became pay only, I probably would take the time to sign up for a subscription account.

For those of you entrepreneurs with non-pay business models: Would a user want to continue using your service or product if you began a mandatory charge? How about those of you who already plan to charge: Would your user-base increase x-fold if you decided to make it free?

I think these might be some interesting questions to ponder when you're still in the early stages.
How could the new Harry Potter book be published as an ebook
I hope you're joking. The sums don't add up from first glance. So much for metaphor shear...
As far as implementing basic features go, my rule of thumb is this:

If someone is using your site and he feels he should be able to intuitively accomplish something, it should be there. These features should feel as little as "features" as possible. They should be so ingrained as for the user to feel that it just naturally exists.
The speed is depending on the keys you are using (Ferrari or Ford T) and of your finger velocity (virtuoso or average person). If you have some nice keys : above hand writing. With nowadays mobile phone : equal or above T9.

You will be excited if I can show you the thing face to face. I have no pictures right now (their are not completely finished) as we are in early stage of developing the stuff. But we will provide soon nice ppt.

Thanks for your attention and keep a eye upon the site.
See answer to the point above
I found this to be a nice read. A lot of it extends beyond what many of us are focused on at the moment (just building a truly meaningful product), though it's probably good to keep this in sights.

Read it and saved it for (near) future reference... ;)
A certain Richard Stallman (of GNU notoriety) spoke at my University yesterday on copyright history, current copyright law, and its implications when it comes to technology.

While I can't say I stand alongside him on all of his viewpoints, he makes some interesting remarks about ebooks. He says, and I agree, that ebooks restricts a lot of freedoms as a society. The potential of integrated copyright is huge, citing the DMCA and DRM usage. We aren't free to read and share these books that we bought. The books' authors do not have much to gain from this either as it is the publishers that are benefit.

Well, in either case, I was never a big Potter fan. More of a science-fiction geek, myself.
What makes this VCR in particular worth more than $50?

I must say the pictures are beautiful, however.
I don't understand why so many people think of a "me-too" a bad thing. This way we would have only one automobile brand, only one clothing brand and the list goes on...
It may seem that their ideas were initially as innocuous as they come, but that's probably not the whole of it.

YouTube's Chad and Steve say that they just wanted to create a cool site where you can share videos like Flickr users share their photos. I think it was in the Time article that the low-key third founder noted that it was pretty much in the plans all along to come up with a startup venture for mass proliferation. They achieved just that!

A great idea may bring light to a good business plan, but we shouldn't forget that there are cases where a good idea is born out of a great, focused business goal.
The Web2.0 designation will probably die soon, but the next-generation of the web is here to stay.

This is not a bubble of web products cropping up to ride the acquisition-hype-train (though many are). With the "Web1.0", companies were being formed without solid goals and ways of monetization. The web has expanded so much since then that there is a market for all these novel ideas. If the web community deems a product or service worthless, than those ideas alone would sink and allow the best to stay afloat.

There's no bubble to burst this time, folks. New approach, new media, new web. I'm excited.
Community is vastly overrated, since the easiest way to appeal to a larger group of people is to be comfortably generic. The best tools for a community because they're versatile and extensible, so the community provides value. If that isn't the case for the startup, there isn't a case for community.
The problems lie in DRM, not the ebook itself.
Recently on TeleRead there was an article about starting a website with Creative Commons licensed ebooks.
I also plan on writing another article where I'll explore what a publisher/ebookstore can do -- instead of DRM.

ps I haven't read HP either, just saw the movie...wish I had more time to read (lame excuse)
1. Because nobody can start a car company without hard knowledge and expertise, whereas any idiot who can talk can con VCs into funding a me-too and blind them with hype.
2. Because the Net moves so fast that the me-toos are ready just as the idea is outpaced
3. Because the people who propose the 'me toos" emanate a vibe of conformity and foolishness.... so if the person is an idiot we say "me too" if the person is smart we say "oh that tech whiz."
Ah, there's nothing like rampant speculation following an acquisition. Always fun stuff.

I must say that this is a far reach even as far as reckless speculation goes. The acquisition of AdScape more likely ties in with Google's business as an advertising facilitator. Google is on top of the Internet advertising market and it's time to look into online gaming as new ground.

Google launching an XBox Live competitor? Not as likely... but I'll keep my eyes open.
Why &#34;Me Too&#34; Startups are NOT Always a Mistake
Anyone can be a foolish bozo and try to sell a me-too with hype. But good VCs will be able to see this.

The me-toos that CAN succeed is the one that actually do it better -- they can implement an existing concept in a way that executes better or, in the case of a web service, engages users more effectively.

I just submitted an article from OnStartups.com that talks about this in a little more depth. Maybe this will spur some more good conversation:

See http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=754
I posted this article to extend on another one that was posted ("Forget VC Money, Fund Yourself").

It's important to remember that a seemingly "me-too" site must drastically improve on the execution and implementation on an existing idea if it's to take on an established giant.

Or have better marketing. ;)
TechCrunch20 battles DEMO
You're right. The problem usually isn't in the product, it's usually the problematic current implementation of it.

There's a lot of things to consider and I look forward to that article.
Startupping: a moderated startup community
cool stories, but lots of typos.
A meta-business model that doesn't get discussed enough- and practically never by VCs- is simple revenue based growth. I know business leaders who absolutely swear by it and won't touch anything else. From their perspective, if it's not making money and in the black when it's small, making it 10x that size won't necessarily make it better. It's a well tested and respected business model if you're product and team can pull it off.
The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption
Top ten marketing podcasts
photo.net was 1999, flickr 2004, zooomr 2006...my point is that the pie is so big the many folks can have their piece, because nobody can have it all.
about the car industry comment...most of the folks that made a so called "me-too" car company, was in the beggining of that industry, that is 80-100 years ago. Yes, its hard to make a new brand but Pegani Zonda seems to have done it in 21st century so good that it can compete with Ferrari.
With your thinking people shouldn't be programmers because there are too many of them. <br>

I will just aggree that if you can do it better then just do it.
Art of pitching
How to Start a Business without Money
What's up with all the empty comments? Bug?
Research on secrets of greatness: Practice
How to name your company
9 must reads before launch.  (another oldie)
Classic texts in computer science
A bit about Marketing
Digg Has Unbanned The Bloggers!
Python Web Framework Discussion (with the project leaders)
No web.py but otherwise a pretty good list.
I support this suggestion. I have a bunch of problems I'd like people to solve that might potentially make a great startup for someone.
Great panel. Django is absolutely wonderful. With some more documentation, a surge in widespread use is imminent.
I'd like a way to differentiate the startup tips from other discussion topics. I am really interesting in participating in the community, but I don't want to have to wade through stuff I've already read in my RSS reader. Already the front page is filled with mostly stuff I've already read, which is drowning out potentially interesting discussions.
This article seems way more indepth than it really should be.

It takes naming a company and dissects it into an exact science. A simplistic approach is quite often the best one.

Just pick a name that resonates and is representative of what you offer. Once you analyze all the different aspects of a name, its personality or charm may be lost. It's a plus when the name can be backed by a good story.
still true today, the invite
How does this differ from a Twiddler? http://www.handykey.com/

The ubicomp guys at GT have been using the Twiddler for a few years.
YouTube: From concept to Hypergrowth
still true today, is identity the final frontier?
still true today, sadly
I think a community feature is valuable to many sites if it isn't a tacked-on afterthought that eventually becomes a burden for the users.

Whatever the site may offer, it's *usually* a plus for a user to be able to interact with other users. It becomes a burden when it's centered around a social community that no one seems to use. It's difficult to manage your contacts from so many of your different online identities.
If you make it, they will come....

so don't live in fear, embrace the possibility of ummm.. whats the word i'm looking for here
Harder to say about the upper bound. The factors you mention may play a role, especially kids. I also think need for money is a factor. Most people who could make money have by 40, and once you have enough, you're less willing to endure the pain of starting a startup.

The average age of YC founders is about 25.
OpenCoffee Club - regular meeting places where entrepreneurs can meet with investors and other entrepreneurs in an informal setting
I thought you might have written the server, since their isn't too much fat in the HTTP headers :) You should add a Server header for bragging rights though.

Congrats to you and your team on launching the first Arc app regardless of how much of the stack is written in Arc.
This is a really cool idea...too bad it's over across the pond. There any gatherings like this in, say, the Boston area?
Well you could always just start your own! The idea is you can set up an open coffee anywhere and just tell everyone in your local community.

If you want one in Boston just pick a place/time and tell people. Apparently there might be a few YC companies in the Boston area you could invite..
It sounds like a good idea. I'd love to be part of a OpenCoffee Club over here. I wonder if there will be any interest in starting one over here in Silicon Valley... :P

Has anyone heard of or used Zoodango.com, founded by James Sun? This reminded of that in that Zoodango attempts to connect professionals through real meetings (usually through, say, Starbucks).
Oh, and I just wanted to add: This "article" is one of the best things I've read all day. It was so helpful that I made enough mental notes while reading that I had to transfer them to paper.
The main functionality I would want out of a submit bookmarklet is prepopulating the url field so I don't have to copy and paste it. Showing the submit page in context of the page I am on does not help as much.
Forget VC Money, Fund Yourself...well, if you don't believe in your product to put your own money or time into it, how can you expect someone else to invest in it themselves?