skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
'... Given a choice, a truly smart person would prefer to work for a cool starup vs Yahoo! Brickhouse. ...'

Probably making the choice of sticking around for the stock vesting period. If you are ever asking yourself a question about someone, especially web/software related go to the source [0]. Here is what 'Fake' had to say not long ago about startups v's the SoftCo's of the world ...

'... Having worked at startups for my entire career, I had never worked at a company larger than 100-150 people. On a normal day, we would walk around patting ourselves on the back for how brilliant we were, how innovative, how fast we could ship, how much attention we paid to our customers, how WE were the rock stars and the people at those big companies? slow, dull, stupid wankers! ...' [1]

and goes on to explain that innovation is happening at large companies but needs to build a process withing the corporate framework.

'... But then I started working at a 10,000 person company and began to realize we weren't all that after all, the real Peter Framptons were the ones innovating at big companies. You build something brilliant while simultaneously serving literally billions of customers? Party on, you TRULY rock. ...' [2]

So this is what Fake is up to. Working out a process within the context of a large company to allow continual innovation. After doing a startup, waiting for vesting and having access to working capital and authority to execute it seems a natural progression.

Reference

[0]
Katerina Fake, 'Big Companies, Small Companies, Innovation and Brickhouse'

http://www.caterina.net/archive/001049.html

[1] Katerina Fake, 'Big Companies, Small Companies, Innovation and Brickhouse', Ibid.

[2] Katerina Fake, 'Big Companies, Small Companies, Innovation and Brickhouse', Ibid.
Great minds think alike!
I wanted to try to submit some links to this site, but decided to pass on this one because of FOUR major problems with their study:

1) although the study excluded color-blind people from participating (???), they mislead people into thinking it's a great color scheme for the general population

2) they said the color combinations differ for common fonts besides Arial, so it's not a good rule of thumb

3) computer LCD monitors could very well make green text on a yellow background very hard to read even for people with normal vision

4) The effects of reading very long pieces of text were not tested

Reasons #1 or #3 alone means I would not use that color combination without further testing with color-blind people as well as on older LCD screens. (Note, the study is down at the moment so I can't double-check what I said.)
Go with RightCart so you can release sooner and charge as soon as you can. (I don't know anything about the product.)
Thats all good, but I can't move paying customers from RightCart to another platform. I will have to get them to re-enter their billing information when I swop to the new billing system. I guess I could run two concurrent billing systems and just stop using the one the first one for new customers and keep billing old customers using rightcart.
So, is anybody applying to YC with a plan for a business in Second Life?
Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life
ABSTRACT

Linden Lab is the producer of Second Life, an online world with a growing population of subscribers (or "residents"); currently, the community has well over 140,000 residents from 91 countries. By providing residents with robust building and scripting tools, Linden Lab enables them to create a vast array of in-world objects, installations and programs. Since its early stages, Linden Lab has allowed its residents to retain full IP rights over their own creations, thereby insuring that their contributions to the community remain truly their own.
I noticed that news.YC isn't letting me log in using opera 9.1 on OS X. I can't figure it out.
The costs of annoying advertising
I think this is going to backfire. Some of the start-ups they want will say no just because they are waiting on YC, then when YC turns them down, TS will have missed out on one of their top choices who now will have to seek a THIRD source of funding.

Smart money is for that third VC to pick up YC's 9th through 16th choices, and any of TS's top 8 that turned them down waiting on a YC acceptance that never came through.
This memo is very enlightening!

I've just read a book where the author is a successful entrepreneur, but a greedy sod too. He stresses that ownership is not the important thing, but the ONLY thing that matters. Taking into account that he started up in the 70s and it wasn't a technology company, he got away with owning 100% of the company's equity - and still does today.

I've never heard of this happening: all the best technology companies (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, HP etc.) split the equity at the very beginning fairly evenly.

Is this even possible today to own a company outright with web startups, or is it even a good idea?
Could you provide some links to this? I'd be interested in reading about it.
About Gmail Paper
Performance Tuning MySQL Server Environments
How To Set Up A Load-Balanced MySQL Cluster
Ruby Engines Performance Benchmarks (Yarv,Jruby & others)
I think this is as hard as you make it. Only key for me when I start a venture with multiple people is how trustable and logical the partners are. That way you know if you ever have to re-do the ownership at any point, you might not get exactly what you want but you will still get something very close to fair.
Why not ask them to re-enter their billing information?
I think this could cause me to loose customers
I would tend to stick with PHP if it was a web based service or application. PHP is a lot simpler to work with when you compare it with java. PHP 5 has started filling in all those gaps in programming which often gave it the aura of a script kiddie language. Its leaning a lot more towards object oriented programming. PHP was designed for the web... java was modified for the web.
Distributed Apps Framework
It just looks horrible. Usability is not plan readability. There's an esthetic component to it as well.
I have been working with Distributeds for a while .. ever since the RPC, the arrival of Java RMI , CORBA DCOM and now .NET. I dont know but for some reason I like working with .NET a lot more than I would have liked working with JAVA's RMI. I admit its been a while since I worked with RMI in java but I dont think it still matches up with the lease manager idea in .NET. anyone care to comment on that?
No she's not. Salim Ismail is leading Brickhouse: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/14/salim-ismail-to-head-yahoo-brickhouse/

She'll lead 'strategy'... whatever that means. I think she'll leave very soon. She was demoted afterall.
YC Deadline: Does the "midnight" mean between April 1st and 2nd...or 2nd and 3rd?
Lisp, obviously.

(Happy April 1st!)
"Each instance predictably provides the equivalent of a system with a 1.7Ghz x86 processor, 1.75GB of RAM, 160GB of local disk, and 250Mb/s of network bandwidth."

I'm not seeing where you can't host that DB on EC2. It might not be the optimal platform, but my guess is that EC2 will do a pretty good job for the money.
Isn't there a bit of a privacy issue here? If your site involves logging in, wouldn't TapeFailure record the user typing in their username and password?
See:

http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=6777
It's this sort of tradition that helps build corporate culture, and helps people feel like a group a friends doing something, rather than just a job.

Dilbert often mocks team rituals, and things that help unify people, but it these little things...

There's been three companies that I've worked at that tried to bring peopel together-

The first, a 500+ person monolith did the traditional Company picnics- It helped to connect people together, but it felt generic. It felt like anyone could have been doing that because, well, everyone was ;)

Years later, when I was working at a Video Game company working on a 3d shooter, we brough everyone out for paintball. It was Fun, and it meant more because it was more about what we were doing.. It wasn't just generic company stuff- I remember some of the programmers talking about shots they made in the paintball, and how they could implement those in the engine.

Later still, I worked at a startup. Working at a startup we were all closer to one another- We often put in long hours to try to get the next revision out, or the next round of bugs squashed. While we haven't done any massive outings yet, we've developed out little in-house traditions. We "always" go out to Foo for food, or "always" do Halo games after a hard night of code.. It doesn't matter that it's easy, what matters is that it's what -we do-..
We develop out own little in-jokes, and it helps everyone to feel like they're on the same journey, rather than just in the same office.
Since ideas are nothing without great execution, what are some good ideas?
Good point. Different kind of challenge, I say..

I'm just saying there are inherent hurdles to innovation in a bigger/public company - no matter how innovative the company is.
1) The data is not persistent -- meaning, if your server dies, you loose your database with it. Rebooting the server gives you a clean slate.

This theoretically can be addressed with a complex backup/redundancy model, but frankly, it's not worth the trouble. Alternatively, you can use a distributed filesystem based on S3, but the performance will be poor. Long story short, your database is your bread and butter, and EC2 simply can't provide the basic services required to run a DB efficiently.

2) Dynamic DNS. Extra headaches, simply not worth it.

EC2 was not designed for persistent data storage, it's a compute cloud.
Why You Have to Work for a Startup
"Equity is like shit. If you pile it up, it just smells bad, but if you spread it around, wonderful things will grow." - Jerry Kaplan talking at Stanford

http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?author=22
The case for a relative popularity meter
2nd and 3rd
Not as annoying as the ACM charging people to read articles. I bet that doesn't last too much longer.
I disagree that most ventures fail because of problems between founders. That is fairly common, but the commonest cause of failure is that the product is a dog.
darn, I just rushed to have my application done by tonight. Oh well!
There is certainly not enough attention on this subject, yet it should be a real concern to entrepreneurs.

Basically, you need to be aware of other means needed to kick-start traffic, especially if you have a site who's user experience depends on the other users. The first problem is the chicken or the egg problem, and further on you reach the problem of getting the site into full blown disease mode.

Guerilla marketing, giving incentives to users (paypal), and ethical to semi-ethical spamming (myspace,facebook) are not out of the question. Theres a big difference between using these tactics to get initial traffic, to actually basing an entire business model off of their continued use.

If you have a niche site, or one that isn't as catchy, you're probably going to be doing all and even some new methods of kick starting that aren't even known to you yet.

SUMMARY: Getting a techcrunch article or some alpha blogger love doesn't always fix chicken or egg problem problem and you might very well be doing some of the methods stated above. On the bright side, this can create a minor "barrier of entry" and can keep other startup founders from emulating your idea over night.
well said. I took danielha's advice and made my personal deadline 11:59 on april 1
Students give up social networks for Lent - CNN.com
Magic Ink: "Pretty much the best software design paper ever written."
was an official application account released? not worried, just curious
curious as to know if an official application count has been released thus far for the Summer of funding 2007 program.
How did you answer the final application question?!
We don't only accept 13 startups. There just happen to be 13 in the current batch. Our policy is, and always has been, to accept as many as we think are good enough.

And incidentally, that claim about funding hundreds of companies is characteristically bogus. That number must come from all the investments made by VC funds during the time Brad Feld et al worked for them. That's like claiming that because you worked for Microsoft for a while, you wrote millions of lines of code.

And even so the big winners they "point at" are not much more valuable than the companies YC has funded, despite the fact we're only 2 years old.
I'm not applying to this cambridge based YC, but I'm going to apply for the next bay area YC. I'm not going to have an entire business built in second life, but will use it as just another way get traffic/users (new approach to online gambling). You might want to make your idea seem more "robust" and not entirely dependent on another platform.
Center Networks got some invites for this company so if you want to try it out go to the link and ask for one.

http://www.centernetworks.com/we-have-tapefailure-invites-to-the-private-beta
How to handle the first VC meeting
The only reality that counts is what's already in the prospect's mind. Coca-Cola came before Pepsi, so even a century later, it continues to dominate the market. Aside from being displeased, YC shouldn't feel threatened by TechStars; Y Combinator is ahead of its competition by leaps and bounds especially since it was first in their prospect's minds. For startup founders and bloggers, TechStars will always come off as the "clone".

There is understandably some heat between us and the replicant. Wouldn't it be a good idea to just send David an email (David[@]coloradostartups.com) to reach some common ground? This might just be an opportunity to expand Y Combinator beyond Boston or Mountain View.
Get a Tapefailure beta invite
Changes over at Topix
I noticed a lot of people were digging this startup. Center Networks just posted that they have some invites to give out.
Kevin has discovered the universe's greatest civilization: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Attractor
It's an interesting attitude but I think she's wrong. A big company is already serving billions of customers so they have a lot to lose. If a big company launches a service and its not an immediate success people will attack the brand. Also you get a lot of exposure at an early stage and the users aren't as sympathetic.
Magic Ink (oops, dupe)
Every market is going to have multiple players (Pepsi vs Coke, Microsoft vs Apple, Goldman Sachs vs Fidelity, Google vs Yahoo); competition is healthy and usually indicative of a solid market. While there may be some heat between YC and TechStars because of the Application Form, they're both great additions to the Venture Capital Field.

Both teams have great members and mentors; PG being at the top of the list for YC, Brad Feld being up there for TS. An aspiring serial entrepreneur will do well to learn and be accepted by either company, of that I'm sure.
"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." - Van Gogh

Images of galaxy clusters always sadden me. Our insignificance in the Universe is laughable.
I actually care a lot about the last question. It often makes me give an application a second look. I don't think the other 3 YC partners care very much about it though.
Hehe, that's a fun site.
I talked about choice and the sensory overload it often causes. We have reached a point where the only type of cell phones we can't buy anymore are cell phones that are just a phone. The suppliers, however, cannot be held responsible for this. Afterall, they are simply trying to satisfy the users constant demands. So eventhough this mental toxin often makes us feel miserable, it is preferable by consumers over having less choice. And this fascinates me.

I am contemplating writing an article about choice and relating it to Web 2.0. Here is an excerpt from another article I wrote that relates to this: "...if a choice is present, perfectionists spend a ridiculous amount of time over simple decisions. Such is the mentality governing users of today's social networks. We are caught up in a web of choices; indeed, the core reason behind MySpace's success is that users rule. MySpace might suck, but it gives its users ample of choice. Once a user has invested an hour of their life customizing their profile, they are not likely to leave the site anytime soon."
Caterina established Brickhouse at Yahoo! and hired Salim Ismail to run it. Brickhouse, of course, is a product of her strategic role at Yahoo!
Remember, there is no reason to feel guilty about having future expansion plans above and beyond what you are offering right now. You absolutely do not have to tell them ahead of time, "by signing up, you may have to switch billing systems by the end of summer" in the sign-up application. There is no need.

Instead, just mass e-mail them the link and directions to do so when the need comes (if ever.) People are used to typing in their name, address, and e-mail into forms.

Remember, the second time around, you are no longer asking a new customer to commit to you. Your customers already know you and your service, so 100% of them will gladly follow simple directions to update their address information. Trust me.

I would spend the extra few days working on the main product or service instead, until you need to use the more complex shopping cart.

Please let me know what you think!
Well it's not that hard... Normally smart people don't realize that they are smart because they have higher standards and often if they reached those they set them even higher. So from their perspective they normaly never reach their own standards. The problem is that smartness and self-confidence often seem to be diametrically opposed.

The point is: Don't hesitate too much and learn to deal with your doubts (especially if you start a startup :o)).
Yeah the methodology I use to decide between Auth.net and PayPal is if the stuff I am doing is for part-time or longhaul. For parttime thing PayPal or some 3rd party is cool.

But for longhaul, you might as well spend the extra week and learn the art that you will eventually have to. And dealing with merchant account is indeed an art and study of its own.

Another thing - when you have an intermediary like PayPal you are more at risk at your money being frozen for some stupid reason, This can happen with merchant account too but never as often as I have come across torturous PayPal or 2checkout stories.
Sweet! Now we need a social network JUST for these people. Of course we'll call it Anti-Social Network Support Group.
Summer jobs at Parakey
http://www.likebetter.com/quiz/results?quiz_id=1029869490&user_list_id=6

Does anyone remember The Spark's gender test? It's a specific case of this kind of test: http://community.sparknotes.com/gender/ (use bugmenot.com for login)
Revenue earned vs. number of ad spots on a site is probably an inverted parabola; after a certain point is reached, each successive ad spot actually reduces revenue along with pageviews.

As a side note, here are several good case studies for adsense users:
https://www.google.com/adsense/success
Awesome piece, thanks for submitting. Has implications too for managing a team.
"Great ideas can be implemented badly and fail; stupid ideas can be done well and succeed; key is to settle on a great idea and implement it well."

Copy me someone:) Please?
It is sort of ironic(and of course, debated) that the concept of viral marketing came out of a VC's mind:)
Facebook open-sourcing Thrift, their software framework
Use what you know best. I don't like the feel of writing Java personally and never had to take any Java programming classes to force me into it. PHP on the other hand is very easy and natural to write, but the code can end up damn ugly. I also haven't looked into it too much, but I think Java beats out PHP for performance speed. Both have pros and cons.

If it were me I'd suggest Python. I need to look into web.py some more, but I currently use Django for most web things. It's easy to write the code and doesn't end up looking like ass so it's easier to maintain.
Topix lost me when they went forth with the domain change and lost tonnes of search engine traffic overnight. And to top it off they tried to blame the search engines for it - that too in a national newspaper story.
I am way more curious to hear about the best answers to this one you've heard from this or previous rounds. Someone should remember to ask again after the 10th.
Are you kidding? The whole reason to go with YC is all the advice and help they give you. What kind of advice, connections, and overall support can these Techstars people give you?

Folks, this is a local Economic Development Committee quasi-government operation. They are there for the good of Colorado, only secondarily to make money by funding successful startups. This is bad because their interests are less aligned with you than the YCs', because they aren't (apparently) putting much of their own money in this, because it's more important for them to make Colorado look good than to actually succeed, and because those picked to run this thing are politically connected first, competent second if at all. One of the main four people is a politician for Pete's sake: http://jaredpolis.com/ . Run don't walk.
Question about co-founders. Say one guy came up a good idea and has worked on it for some time. He wants to find a co-founder as you suggested. But how should the two co-founders split up the pie? Is each having 50% reasonable? If not, will the new co-founder accept a less share? How do you value the past work of the 1st co-founder and the new value that the 2nd guy brings in? It seems stupid to argue this when nothing has achieved, but this delicate and sensitive issue has impeded many cooperations. Your insight is very much appreciated.
Ask the Wizard: Venture Terms - Liquidation Preferences and Participation
wow Blake Ross is actually on here. I hope you make a googolian dollars out of Parakey...you deserve it! :)
It's interesting how these social networks have become vices to so many. I think a lot of people who initially found true value in these sites (staying connected) have to now make conscious efforts to break away. It's getting crowded in the social network space, but there's still room for services that are superficially desirable but don't leave a sour taste in the user's mouth after 3 hours of usage.
Sonopia: create your own mobile carrier
Definitely heard about this before, but it was good to see examples. Also one thing that was glazed over at startup school (and at the other ones I listened to) is that it is an exclusive or sort of thing because these terms are specifically for a "subpar exit". Preference and participation OR conversion to common stock. Now it seems obvious, but before I was kind of thinking, "participate percentage-wise? don't they get to do that already because they have stock?"
There seems to be agreement that better investors are much less likely to ask terms like fully participating preferred or a 5x preference multiple which are more onerous for founders. At what point then do you worry less about the terms you are getting and more about the investors you are getting such terms from?

Along the same lines, if you're having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for VCs, should you take that as a powerful sign that YOU are doing something wrong? Are there examples of good teams with good ideas that just had to take crappy terms from crap investors and lived through it to succeed?
It's quite ridiculous. A bit sleazy, even.

( a popular read for the unfamiliar: http://www.nhplace.com/kent/PFAQ/acm.html )
Facebook Thrift - scalable cross-language services development framework
ah. you beat me to it, just realized.
Rails 1.2-stable vs. 1.1-stable Performance Report - the new one's slower
A side comment; after rechecking after I submitted, the system seemed to chew up plus signs and ampersands. After I submitted and rechecked again, pretty much everything after an ampersand sign was erased, including the sign. I don't know if this is an issue.