skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
PG - first this is a great site. I'm addicted. But, here are my (personal) feature requests:

- Give us a way to send feedback without spamming the home page! (like I am...)

- Add user comments to the RSS feed

- Allow member-to-member messaging

- Search box?? Yes, I know "site:news.ycombinator.com" on google usually works, but a built-in search would be better. This would reduce the number of duplicate threads, since we could search before submitting.

- Voting history? I upvote useful links, then months later forget the URLs when I need them

What does everyone else think? Any other feature requests not previously mentioned?
Cool talk. It's a great book, really inspiring.
Kick some ass guys!!!
I am looking for an invite also. cigarryan at gmail

Thanks :)
I'm running at home off a DSL circuit. I host using a mixture of virtual FreeBSD servers under Parallels on an Intel Mac Mini and two real servers. It works pretty well for low traffic web sites, but the VM's need to have a real hardware NTP server to keep their clocks syncronized. I also run NFS on real hardware. It works surprisingly well. Watch how you allocate VM disk I/O across your physical disk spindles. I have three physical drives plugged into the mini.
I'm in the top 30, applied, and did not get an interview. I think the main issue was that my cofounder is still in college and uninclined to drop out.
Check out http://nycs.bigheadlabs.com/ for search. Daniel Ha did it. It's pretty damn sharp.
Our company is among the oldest, if not the oldest, funded by YC with 32 and 33 year old founders. We are both hackers. I learned today that Joe Hewitt is getting close to 30 (and he thought he was the oldest of the bunch before today).

Also, Paul has mentioned several times in the past that the mean age of the companies they fund is climbing, and he's thinking 24-ish is the right age to start thinking seriously about a startup (finished school, had a real job for a while, so you know how much it sucks to work for someone else).

Most of the founders who were in WFP2007 are hackers. Some are more hackery than others (it's a quite wide range...some are famously good hackers, while others have only picked up a programming language, probably PHP, in the past year or two). But, even the ones that aren't hackers by nature have become hackers, to some degree, during the program...in this early stage, it's the biggest part of the work that needs to be done. When you have a launched product, the job becomes more diverse and other skills become as important as hacking, but before that, if you aren't able to contribute code or design, you're probably not serving your team very well.
Some good groups were there today. Most of the ideas are solid and the teams seemed pretty smart. Of course, in some cases, I don't believe a two or three man team could possibly pull it off...or even get to a prototype in 3 months with 15-20k. That's something to be cautious of...over-reaching is far more likely to kill you than being too humble about what you can achieve.
If you watch the video closely the story is a little different from that. The hired management forced Sandy out by threatening to quit en masse if she didn't leave. I got the impression that Don Valentine actually wished she could have stayed.
Interview, huh? I'm after my Certificate of Wizardness [0] and still fighting those trolls down in Hall of Mountain King and making my way to the Swiss Cheese room.

I heard if you try real hard and solve the puzzle 'XYZZY' [1] and you sure to make it. This is ADVENT isn't it? [2]

Reference

[0] Adventure, 'Here's where it all began...'

http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/a_history.html

[1] rickadams.org "Magic word 'XYZZY'"

http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/c_xyzzy.html

[2] I asked pg about what metrics yc was using/going to use a while ago while they where demoing the image selection tools (forget the yc company name) & he mentioned something along the lines of using numerous sieves the most important being high correlation (of various measurements) with the best. This involves mainly human judgement & all in 48 hrs & it doesn't scale. No refs as search is useless.
Yahoo seems to be in a better position even if they do have bad leadership at the moment. Their brand doesn't poison anything they acquire. Imagine if Flickr was owned by Microsoft...I can't even imagine Microsoft even attempting to buy them!

Jason should stop daydreaming about being either Yahoo or Microsoft and get back to making good stuff as these posts say: http://www.backpackit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2050 and http://forum.basecamphq.com/forums/3/topics/163
B players get hired when A players make mistakes. B players also start the company sometimes. Look at Larry Ellison.
beat me to it Sam. I think this is huge news. Am I the only one?
What do you wish you could do with S3 that currently isn't possible?
I'm puzzled by the reaction of "$5k per founder for 5% of equity?!"

I've been eagerly reading about YCombinator and it seems to me that they are offering a great deal more than money. It appears that the value of their consultation, connections and the other founders you end up spending time with are probably worth far more than the 20k-ish they invest in your company.

I can't imagine not taking their deal if I had an appropriate startup. 5% of equity in something that is currently completely speculative in return for what appear to be world class consulting and networking services? If they maintain their current success rate, I think it's safe to say that far from being expensive, YC is spectacularly cheap and leaves a lot of money on the table. Which is probably why they are getting 1400 applications for 10 slots.
I got very excited with S3 first came out, but I found when designing several schemes to make some profitable use of it, I'd find prohibitive limitations in its functionality. Is it just a fancy cache, or could it/should it be something more? What would you add to it, if you could?
First, choose the right programming language for the job. Languages are tools not religions as some would have you believe. Then, buy the best book on the language. Do your research, every language has the one "must read" text. Finally, with book in one hand, computer in front of you, and optionally a pot of coffee brewed, get hacking. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
I'd be interested in seeing your app.
PodBridge Raises $8.5 Million for Podcast Advertising
Ah, but you get to control who you merge with. On a small scale this might be useful. I suspect the biggest problem will be negotiating equity partitions. It's much harder to do so with strangers than with friends.

Hmm, that might be one of the key skills of VCs..
I read what you wrote and my finger was sweeping down to click your up arrow. Then time slowed and the realization of what you're doing hit.

Why do you torture me like this? It's not humane.
Celebrity news and gossip
Random Page Redirect For Wordpress Blogs
Microsoft Live Spaces Rolls Out New Features
Digg Releases Public API, San Francisco Tech Crowd Parties Hard
ScrewTube Targets Racier Online Video
Picnik - edit photos the easy way, online in your browser
SimpleWeather Skips The Clutter
GigaOM Â» Wanted: Google Phone Manager?
GigaOM Â» Video reasons for Google-Marratech deal
GigaOM Â» Qwest Nacchio found guilty
GigaOM-- What if Redstone Googled Murdoch?
Credit goes to Jason for that (cofounder).
Paul wants to keep it simple. You want too much
There's a feature request link at the bottom of the main page.
I use smugmug for all my photo needs. You send them email, you get a real human response. Great service, great prints, great people, great looking site.

This is a very cool program, it's worth building something simple to get the account!
Do you think successful startup founders spend as much time as you on YCNews?
Do you think you may be closer to success if you spend less time on YC News or Digg? Maybe use that time to clean up your messy code. Just a question.
SEOs Are A Part of the Problem
Man. don't you know that you can use Dapper to create your own RSS feed of webpages. That's why they ain/t doing it. DIY
rotflmao!
Good luck guys! Imagine in your head nailing the interview and you'll be fine

Remember to be flexible with changing your ideas

Cheerios
YC news is really the best thing that has happened. You know when I got rejected from Y, I was upset. But learning from the rejection, I finally found a 'hacker' to add to the team and now we're brainstorming away.

So yes, the Y, its news and 'rejection' was a very good thing. Not to mention reading some really great comments from the community itself.
The book was very well put together. I learned the most from the HotMail guy.
1. Would I have fun working on it?
2. Would people use it?
3. What's been done and how do I make it better?
Facebook? They look ok.
Touche.

Anyway, very few people can spend literally all their time immersed in code and maintain their productivity. (I've heard that Bill Joy could, which may be why he invented an OS and made a billion dollars). For most of us, we're less productive if we try to code round the clock for days on end. This applies even to very wealthy people like Bill Gates (hobby: reading biographies of famous leaders) and Larry Ellison (hobby: yacht and fighter jet races).

news.YC is a better way to fill that downtime than, say, watching TV or playing WoW.

Besides, I've already spent all evening cleaning up my messy code, fixed like a dozen bugs, and am currently banging my head against what appears to be a bug in Web.py. A small break is called for.
Agreed. Hotmail is a great one. Levchin/PayPal is also very informative. Woz is more lovable than I ever knew. Ars Digita is an excellent case study in horrible outcomes (everybody came out rich, but still, it sounds ugly and painful). Joe Kraus of Excite/JotSpot is always interesting, and I read anything about him I come across...he's like a perfect study in how to keep your head in a startup.
ok. you are an exception.
I got an interview last time but not this time, because I'm banned for life from Y Combinator. :)
You're a correct to a certain extent but as you can see from the comments, they also want to work with and learn from smart people and they want to be fairly compensated, (equity, stock options etc). I think Google has gotten the mix almost right. They're working on interesting problems that affect many people's daily lives, they've got smart people working for them which attracts more smart people, they offer fair compensation. They give employees the flexibility to try out different things (and pet projects). Mind you, Google's culture is not perfect and they'll have problems retaining and attraction top talent as they grow larger and more bureaucratic.
You're right. The big players might be hesitant to open up their OSs but from what I hear even they know how bad their platforms are. I think some crazy team will take OpenMoko and run with it which will cause the big guys to sit up and take notice.
"Yet if this guy insists on getting funding before ANYTHING else, he might just be an excuser or nonbeliever hoping the funding will validate his idea."

Possible, but it's also possible that he justs doesn't know that any other way is possible.

I came into an existing startup as the first technical cofounder. There had been a lot of previous design work, but no implementation. The plan had been to do a bunch of UI mockups, flesh out the design, write a business plan, and pitch it to a bunch of VCs. When one of them gave us money, we'd hire a bunch of programmers and implement the darn thing.

The first week after I joined, I started demoing. It was really crude at first - just a login screen in a barebones layout. (Heck, the product is still really crude - when we launch, it'll be yet another commodity CRUD-site, and it won't be until some months later that we'll have a useful differentiator.) But it was working code, and it got better every week.

The effect was pretty incredible. The cofounder who was all pitch-to-VCs-and-hire-developers ended up learning Dreamweaver and coming up with a kickass layout. And then he learned Flash and started out fleshing out large architectural areas, actually writing some Flash code. We applied to YCombinator, got turned down, and decided we're gonna go for it anyway.

Oftentimes, people just need to see that yes, this is possible, and that you can accomplish a significant amount on your own without waiting for a miracle to occur.

I'm a big fan of the "flywheel effect" mentioned in Jim Collins's books. It's basically "Start doing the right thing anyway, no matter how useless it appears. Keep doing it, no matter how useless it appears. People will eventually realize that you're going to succeed anyway, and start pitching in. Then the flywheel starts spinning faster." Many folks expect venture capital because they never hear about startups that succeeded without it; if you show them what's possible on your own, then you often get both the cofounder and the venture capital.
GigaOM -- Wanted: Google Phone Manager?
stop it or we'll come to your house and tell your parents
How Steve Jobs calls the tunes
Big money in little screens
Q&A with Tim Berners-Lee
Desperately Seeking Bulgarian Programmers
The Virtual Meeting Room
Jobs: $1 in salary, nearly $1 billion in stock
The GravityZoo OOo porting project
Month-Long Dive Into Web-Based Apps
GigaTribe: Private P2P
Thanks for the tip. I wasn't aware of dapper. But, if your logic holds - then why does any site bother to create RSS feeds anymore?

Regardless, tried using the site, wasn't able to make an RSS feed of articles and their comments. Maybe someone who's more familiar with the service could do it, though.
Niiice. I guess that shows how often I scroll to the bottom of the main page :)
Tim sold his soul to Bezos long time ago. Remember when he called for 1-click patent to be overturned? And then Bezos talked to him and Tim dropped the whole thing. And Bezos is now a permanent fixture at O'Reilly conferences.

And now this...

Tim has no credibility with me.
checked their site and nothing for downloading, no linux software. More waffle than product ~ http://www.gravityzoo.com/products/downloads.py

But the idea is worth the read ~ http://www.gravityzoo.com/products/overview.py
Public library geeks take web 2 to the stacks
While reading this, it reminded me of the startup school crowd. Thought I'd post it just for fun :)
Adam and I watched 30 minute segments of this movie over dinners during our summer in Cambridge. Over the 3 months we probably watched the whole movie 6 times. They did a great job with the characters and it is really inspiring to anyone who is trying to building a truly big company. It also really makes you love Woz.
3D scanning and printing within reach?
Is Python or Ruby better as a first language?
I like flagging spammers and people who submit every blog post they write.
Why do you think this is too much?

It seems a search box or better RSS functionality is pretty basic. If not, then huge props to Jason for developing a News.YC search on his own time.

It looks like on the features request page, a lot of other readers want this stuff too...
How does this compare to the age distribution of applicants?
38, Started multiple companies in the past, worked for a dozen startups to boot, my co-founder is also my life partner, no kids, no roots.

Going to live in bulgaria or somewhere like that, live cheap, grow fast, hire local talent.
If you're a founder and you're vesting, you already have failed math and really should go work for someone else. :-)

Seriously, you founded the company and earned the shares... you paid for the investment when you were dilluted by the shares issued to the VC.

Any VC that asks you to re-vest is just double dipping, wants more power, and wants to be able to more easily push you out of the company.

The people behind venturehacks are VCs, they are posting from the perspective of wanting to be able to double dip like other VCs.

(and anyway, its 2007-- you don't need venture capital.)
I'm curious how this will be different from pornotube...

It's surprising that this got written up in TechCrunch, when there's no real site there yet. There must be some pretty big names behind the project.

I've personally seen techcrunch decline to write about sites with much more substance... you know, like an actual beta - and gasp - actual users.
added this because It seems a cool thing to be able to write code that creates things in 3D ~ a good app would be CAD.
This is big, assuming it catches on. Even if it doesn't at least Slide isn't still relying completely on finicky distribution channels like MySpace.

Now where are the public profile pages for the rest of the widgets?
What would you do with $5M anyway? Would that cover your salary for a year? Or for 50 years?

I'd like for people to realize that venture capital is not a fantasy, it is a nightmare.
IF they were doing that much business, they shouldn't have taken venture capital--- but they, like most entreprenuers and people who get bad advice-- don't account for the real cost of venture capital.

That real cost is $24B in this case.

A quickly growing business can get funding from a variety of sources, many of which will take %6 payment, not require %600 and force you out of the business.

....but it sure is interesting to see all the different ways that VCs try to screw people-- re-vesting is something I saw in the past, and it didn't make sense to me then, but I have since come to understand just how asinine it is.
I've been subjected to meetings without chairs. The problem is, there are some people for whom standing is not much of a burden and they go on and on. So, I was forced to stand there at this daily mandatory meeting while people talked about stuff that was not relevant to the work I was doing for 30 minutes.

If you want to have a standing meeting, that's fine, and it can be good-- but I think the rule should be no meetings can ever be mandatory, and anyone can leave any meeting at anytime. If the person calling the meeting doesn't have an agenda compelling enough to get people to show up, then the meeting shouldn't happen anyway.

I will no longer stand (literally) for mandatory meetings. (Which is, just another of the daily things I am thankful for about being my own boss.)
Did you see Nozbe.com? That is the most GTD-centric TODO list I have seen. I also found it to have some good user interface ideas, like drag-and-drop reordering of lists.

But, there is also RememberTheMilk.com, toodledo.com, and many others. Toodledo.com has a nice comparison table of the biggest names in this space.

IMO, the biggest problem with most of the entrants in this area (Backpack being the exception) was UI clutter.
Yay, capital gains tax.

http://valleywag.com/tech/greed/the-grotesque-1-salary-251104.php
Python is, because Ruby sucks.

In all honesty, both are great. People who use either love their language and will pretty much tell you to start with the one they use. Both are free and have good tutorials online with large user communities you can go to for help. Spend a few hours with both and see which one 'feels' best to you and go with it.

I'm a Python guy so I'd recommend Python over Ruby. I just find it easier to read and that makes it easier to understand.
Maybe it's the image they suggest in the description: "Paris Hilton meets Larry Flynt." I'm not sure what that culminates to, but good things don't come to mind
'... I've heard that Bill Joy could, which may be why he invented an OS and made a billion dollars ...'

'... I can live without NFS, Java and related technologies. I'm not sure if I can live without vi ...' [0]

Well actually no. Bill cashed in his shares early and while he lives in Aspen he's by any means is not as cashed up as say McNealy or Vinod.
But neither McNealy nor Vinhod Kholsa wrote 'vi' and thats worth more than money.

'... banging my head against what appears to be a bug in Web.py ...'

web.py hey, keep it up it's a great famework.

Reference

[0] register, 'Bill Joy's greatest gift to mankind the vi editor'

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/11/bill_joys_greatest_gift/
I've just unsubscribed from the venture hacks feed. Two articles of bad advice in two days... and I am not interested in getting VC money anyway.

Too much time would be spent debunking their self-serving misinformation, and nothing to be gained....
I concur, and I'd add that I think Python is better as a first language. The basic language features in Python are all fairly intuitive, and the syntax is about as English-like as you're likely to get. You don't run into weird stuff like all the __methods__ until you do more advanced programming, at which point you'll be ready for them.

Ruby has a bunch of added concepts like sigils, blocks, weird operators, redefinable methods, metaprogramming, etc. These aren't terribly hard to understand if you've been programming a while, but they can be a little overwhelming for a newbie. I'd say Ruby is more suited for a Lisp or Smalltalk refugee that wants something a little more practical, not for a complete newcomer.

In terms of actual programming power, they're both good. Ruby is a little bit more flexible and provides a few more shortcuts for common operators, but anything you can do in Ruby can be done without too much trouble in Python.
Also keep in mind that Python has much better (quantity and quality) libraries.

Compare, for example, SQLAlchemy to ActiveRecord. Not even close. Heck, you could even compare Django's ORM or SQLObject to AR and they too tend to be more impressive.

In my mind a beginning programmer benefits as much if not more from quality libraries than a veteran programmer.
I'm interested to see what people say here.

I've been using S3 for some time; my primary complaint is the lackluster performance. So my request would be additional caching to accelerate things far away from wherever the S3 data center is.
Your claim that no-one uses Windows anymore is a bit, eh, out of touch with reality. Even though many web designers and web programmers use Macs, the majority of businesses still run Windows on their desktops.
Why is everybody on Yahoo's case? I don't know much about their leadership or their ad revenues, but I know their products and I think they are not bad. Google has YouTube and Google Earth, but Yahoo has del.icio.us, flickr, yahoo answers and lots of other things. So I think it's not fair to claim that Yahoo is totally missing what is currently going on with the web.

When I go shopping for physical stuff, I very often end up in a big store. Why? Because it is most likely that they have everything I want. I think Yahoo currently has more products than Google, so in that sense they seem to be in a better situation than Google.

That said, the question is a no-brainer: would I like to have 40 billion $ in the bank? I sure would.
I don't get it - just because they allow users to create friends list, they think they will be the next MySpace?? What about users expressing themselves, I think MySpace offers music, photographs, blogs, whatever (they could probably add a slide show feature within a day, if they don't already have one). What if people have more to their identity than slide shows?

Actually I think most people don't think about themselves in terms of slide shows, so no, Slide is nowhere near to MySpace.
So come on, tell us the story behind this at least...
What he's saying is "Well, you'd be miffed too if you were in this situation." And okay, I might nod along trying to identify or understand -- to a limited degree. I'm just not convinced, especially with all of Amazon's moves of this nature. This lawsuit is just bad news any way you cut it.