skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Bug report: In order to include a < or > sign in your post, you have to write &lt; or &gt;. This is fine (although a bit cumbersome), but when you later want to edit the comment, instead of placing &lt; in the text box, < shows up instead, so that every time you want to edit the comment, you have to change every < to &lt;. (The same thing occurs with >, too.)

I'm thinking this problem would be easy to fix, but I'm also curious: why can't we just write e.g. < and have it be converted to &lt; at post-time? Of course, it would still need to be converted back at edit time, but I think it would make posting code or html snippets much simpler.

Ironically, I just edited this post for about the 3rd time.
Are the feature requests checked anymore?
I haven't seen a pg reply to a feature request in about 3 weeks, so I just wanted to give a gentle reminder. I understand that he is probably busy right now, so there is no rush, really.

I have given 2 suggestions (shortcut icon and new display order for threads page) and 1 bug-fix/suggestion (regarding < and >), in addition to adding a simple suggestion to a feature request proposed regarding allowing descriptions for submissions (by using the title property of <a> elements). I think that at least 3 of these issues would be somewhat trivial to implement (everything except changing display order of threads page).
there are some other signs they don't really get it, as far as dealing with students. the most obvious one to me is requiring teams to be on site in lexington. first, commuting from boston or cambridge is a pain if you don't have a car (there's certainly no T or commuter rail, maybe bus or bike if you're extraordinarily motivated), and second, the hours of a VC certainly aren't compatible with the hours of a startup hacker unless they plan to have kids roaming around the office park at 2am (right..)

it'll be interesting to see how these summer programs continue to segment themselves to accommodate niches that are generally excluded by yc (techstars/single founders, highland/students, etc., ) most amusingly the "mistakes" :)
Calling me a moron is one thing, but accusing me of having an MBA is really too much.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/macosx_leopard_preview.asp

As far as I see around (in India) we hardly see any Mac PC's or laptops here...
I can't understand why you Mr. Graham must again explain you thoughts. If someone don't want to understand, he won't understand even after ten explanations.
I completely agree with this sentiment, because I feel the same way. This means that the Cliffs Notes response was "old old news" :)
Start with one machine but always communicate with services over TCP/IP and not local IPC mechanisms (unix domain sockets). This way everything is easy to split up, just change the IP from "127.0.0.1" to your new database server, etc.

Also stuff like not storing sessions locally (put them in DB) makes it easy to scale out to multiple web servers.

With some decent memory (1GB+) even a single processor server is plenty to run a sizable site. It's really amazingly what can be done from a single machine these days, given their power and the efficiency of the available tools.
I'm a little overweight too, but I think it's because I eat too much, not because I eat junk. And, at the risk of mapping "hackers and Xers" over every X in sight, I think jward is right: cooking feels noticeably like coding.

Maybe I'm just from Mars (i.e., not suburbia) again, but from what I've seen most parents who can afford to let their kids be nerds also teach them what a kitchen is for. This can be as passive as not making breakfast when they wake up at three on a summer afternoon. My mom never sat me down and said "this is how you make an omelette" or whatever, but she made the information available and I learned it because it was useful.

It's not that people who can't cook must have bad parents, it's just that when you see lot of them in one place you start wondering why.
I was going to say that the answer is easy. But after thinking, typing, and backspacing, I think that the final code will probably be some really really good code because it would have been improved upon so many times. This is based on the assumption that all programmers are about equally good. Otherwise everyone will be using the one best coder's code, with some slight improvements maybe.

Figuring out who gets paid what might be really complicated.
ATL!
I love the analogy here, and I like the insight. Actually, I don't think it gave me any new insight, but he said it in a way that made me say, "Yeah, I like what you said." So, kudos to the author.
I found the images annoying. Feels like the advertisements on big newspaper sites that force you to scroll excessively.
An update on the book. I'm almost done reading it, and I would like to say that it's a really amusing book (not the Anthony Robbins type). Some take aways (I'm not saying I agree with them all. I could agree, but I'm just saying I'm not saying that.):

1) You gotta really really want to make money, more than you want to be happy if needs be. Be compulsively determined.

2) Don't try to cheat the IRS.

3) Delegate. Hire smarter people than you, and pay them very well, but keep ownership.

4) Get rich. Give it away.

5) Timing is very important, more than talent?

6) Execution is more important than the idea. Just go do it.

7) Self-belief is priceless. Confront doubts for facts.

8) Time is the most important thing.
I would like to see a convenient way to see my upvoted comments (in order of most recently received upvotes). The motivation is this: after seeing that my karma has gone up, I'm curious which of my comments was deemed interesting. Currently, I have to scroll down the threads page until I notice one that looks higher than I remember. This is so clearly inefficient and error-prone that I think a software solution is necessary.

This is not completely motivated by narcissism :). I feel that by noting which of my comments are appreciated, I can see which aspects of my writing styles and my thinking are found to be interesting by others.
:-) I'm glad this got posted on here. We are building a product review site & I was super tempted to leave a comment on techcrunch. Alas, our site isn't far enough along, nor is it prepared for that kind of attention.

PowerReviews/buzzillions has a pretty clever business model. Essentially its creating Sheep that $hit grass. It is a step beyond it's competition iNods, which is two steps beyond ViewScore, which are both only marginally more useful than just searching google to find reviews.

But what I (we) think would be a lot cooler, is building a community around and for this tech consumer market.

Our site ( http://revvu.com ) uses a user-driven model for centralizing consumer electronic reviews on the web. Users can submit reviews that they find, or blog, or want to share. Then the community can vote reviews up or down (based on value) per each individual product page. (sort of reddit style)

Votes on reviews effect the weight of ratings, forming a dynamic review score that reflects the opinion of the masses.

We just launched on Monday, so karma is not yet visible. Also, our social network aspect is not in place yet. That aspect will be the key to creating a strong community, creating an addicting user experience, and creating a way to share (read: show off) the things you own & are interested in.

I think PowerReviews is a cool concept, and will probably work for some retailers... but they (like everyone else in this space) don't get "it" yet. Aside from the arbitrary use of tagging, their site isn't really reflecting any of the advancements or evolutions of the way people use the internet today. They have found a business model that seems feasible and built an idea around it in a market that NEEDS improvement. What they lack is a carrot to attract users (those seeking reviews) to care, return, or get involved. Which might be fine for them, if thats not what they want. If thats the case though, suggesting that PowerReview (or buzzillions) "may get the market" doesn't sound very likely.

Anyway, we'd really appreciate feedback on our site. This is a very sharp community. We would certainly be interested to hear from, or chat with, anyone who has feedback/suggestions for us.
I agree with this suggestion, but for another reason. There have been a few times when I'm writing a reply and I stop to think for a moment. Occasionally, during this pause, I will glance up and notice that I haven't voted the article up yet. Unfortunately, when I do vote the article up, everything I have written up to that point gets cleared. I have tried pressing the back button, but it tends to take me back to where I was before I started writing my comment.

I understand that this is an error on my part, but that doesn't alter how frustrating it can be.
Product reviews help common people lookup and see what are advantages and short comings of the product. But i have seen quite a lot of them biased. One such example being movie reviews, its alll hyped and tampered with. Be it movies or products/services, that kind of trust and credibility is need of the hour. There is no guarantee to see and find out if its being rigged. So a better model will be to allow reviews with good and bad points. Allow users to speak up with proof if good features are indeed hyped or to provide a proof which shows its indeed bad feature. As proper proofs come into play, there may be clearcut credibility in the process
Option 1) Work for The Man(TM).

Option 2) Get startup investment.

Option 3) Bootstrap startup.

#1 can rot in hell. #2 is ideal. #3 is painful but always available.
A way to view comments to a submission by the time they were posted, preferably as some kind of toggled option at the top of the page. One use case is clearly in this thread, where finding new feature requests can be very difficult. Another is just keeping up on the comments to my submissions; once a submissions comment thread gets substantially long, it can be difficult to keep up on reading the new comments.

I think the ideal way to reorder would be to consider a comment's post time to be that of its most recent child. This means that when someone replies to a thread, the entire thread will now be the first on the page, with each sublevel ordered in the same manner. Of course, I knew reply to the submission itself would show up at the very top.

This functionality could be extended to the threads page (which relates to a suggestion I made a little while ago) and even to the Startup News page itself, so that we could see which submission has been commented on most recently (because as a parent, its child would have the most recent reply).
37 Signals' Book -- Getting Real -- Free Web Version
Wow, he totally reminds of a spoiled brat who is in dire need of parental reprimand.
You might be right, but it's hard to tell with anyone. People would have questioned whether Steve Jobs was "just lucky" prior to his comeback. And he's one of the only people to have ever really "proved" himself so clearly.
I like your ideas here, but you might want to consider changing the title of your submission.
This is what our site(revvu) is aiming to do. Much like reddit, users are afforded the opportunity to vote reviews up or down, giving more useful reviews more weight and reviews of less value a smaller amount of weight. Eventually users will build karma and legitimize their opinion throughout the community.
Of course, the best way to counter this is to go around downvoting Alex's comments that aren't particularly interesting or insightful. I wouldn't normally do something like this, but in order to make up for 74 (!) upvotes, it might be necessary.
Bachelors degree not enough?
Vinod Khosla is a very smart guy, maybe's he's not referrring to the software industry, but do you guys think there is a limit on what hackers can do with "just a bachelors."

This is sort of related to having a technical advantage on your competitors. How can startups that aren't from cutting edge PhD proposals or started by that rare star hacker (Bram Cohen, Wozniak, etc...) have real and sustainable technical advantage?
What will happen if people form a cartel and hike up or lower karma? How do u plan to take care of this mischief?
I'm hoping that YC will be responsible for converting the VC industry from a hundred $20m deals per year to many thousands of $250k deals a year. The resulting innovation would be staggering.
Or is khosla saying every normal person needs to hone further to excel? I think there may be 1% born hackers. Now how will those 99% get on par and get sharper? Education may be the key. I understand it as a general statement
Mozilla: Why Desktop E-Mail Crucifies the Browser
Paul,

I wish you would provide another funding route for the old hackers who didn't strike gold in 1999 but who don't have the option to work for next to nothing for a summer (even if we're willing to quit our jobs for the opportunity).
"I actually don't think bachelor's is adequate for anything in today's world."

That guy is arrogant as hell.
My advices for having experienced a similar situation...

1° make sure you can prove what part of the software was there before the other founder joined google. This will put a clear limit to what google might claim as ownership. Dito for its contributions while he is hired by google.

2° inform (in a provable way) google immediately of the situation and ask them to clarify the issue with you ASAP.

3° check the laws in play by yourself. Don't rely solely on what google may tell you or on lawyer advises. It cost some effort, but as a future employer you better know the laws yourself on this topic.

As I'm in France the law is published on the web. It is thus easier to do. Don't know what the situation is in the US and your state. I developped an IT system during my weekends and I had to sort the IP issue with my employer. I not only managed to sort it out without paying anything more than one registerred letter, but I also managed to preserve a very good relation with my employer, which I value most. If both play fair and honnest, this comes out naturally. Beware that there are many traps you might be caught in. But don't be paranoid, there are traps for your employer too. It is really worth the effort to learn the IP laws.
The only thing that I would add here, is that Microsoft still has a few cards up its sleeve. Aside from the cash reserves, they hired one important man, Ray Ozzie, to take over Gate's role and departure. Ozzie's knowledge, experience and visionary ability, especially in networking/Internet, means that they are not completely sunk. "If" the Microsoft board gives him the time, money and latitude, to express his creative genius. They have the ability to make a comeback. It's time for a shakeup at Microsoft. It should probably start with Ballmer's departure as well.
Hi! Paul,

You are so correct in your essay. I ditto you. I would say that, the time has come where "USERs" do not want standalone, unstructured or single sing on applications. I say that, its time for eWorking Facilities.

Not to advert, if I could suggest is, please have a look at www.WorkACE.com. Its a smart eBusiness solution, with built in features of Intranet, Extranet, Groupware, Knowledge Management, Business Ecosystem Management, Project/Process Management, Supply Chain Management, Webmail, IM/Chat, Work Flow Management and eSupport, all compiled into a comprehensive and cognitive eWorking facility.

Rgds,
Sushant Madhab
www.qxsystems.com
Yahoo's New Media Device (Sex Appeal?)
mistake, sorry - delete please
Maybe Y-Combinator should include a session on nutrition in their schedule? ;-)
this is a very dangerous strategy. Soon or later they will know about it. At that point they could claim you tried to cheat on them, etc. In front of a judge you would have a hard time to justify such strategy. At best you may say you didn't know, but how could you prove this ? Not informing your employer and clarify the issue with them is definitely a bad strategy.

It is like walking with an armed bomb in your pocket where you could have defused it by clarifying the issue with your employer. Beside you now have the advantage of the first move. Profit from it a wisely.

So before telling anything your employer, better learn how to do it, what you are required to tell your employer, and what you can keep for your self. There are things you can't undo.
It's biggest problem...

Sex Appeal Score: 2 out of 10.
This money doesn't necessarily have to be divided up. The dramatic increase in productivity from these people creating startups instead of just working for a large company should cause there to actually be much more money in tech fields. Right?
Keys to Outsourcing Success (Part 1)
I am guessing though, that choosing to tell students that they are all worthless may have a chilling effect down the road.
Part 2: http://www.startupping.com/forums/showthread.php?t=248

Part 3: http://www.startupping.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268
"You're not free? You're gonna die!"
Yes, we have. But instead of within the site itself, we circulated the screenames of IM chatbots which then directed traffic to the site. Not one of those garbage "eliza" bots either, this was of custom design and worked nicely.

Let me know if you're interested in more technical details.
Fixed Mindset or Growth Mindset?
See the video and Guy Kawasaki's take on it at:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/04/more_on_carol_d.html
This is turning out to be a nuisance with so many similar programs.... I wouldn't apply to those unless they offered something much better ... besides i'm not even in school...
I got 4 words for you...
Developers Developers Developers Developers!
LMAO!
our "lack of healthy food" was a bit overplayed for the article :). we don't quite eat "gourmet-style", but it's not bad, either. dan made some interesting spaghetti/chicken combination tonight, and we don't eat any junk food, or much frozen food...
Which Programming Language did you pick for your idea?
Flex on Rails = ROR + Flex
OT: How does the point system work? I don't seem to understand.... I have a -1 on a post :-D
a demo is important -- we (weebly) had a launched product when we interviewed, and it was very helpful in a "we can focus the conversation" type of way.
Do not simply trust what is stated on the contract. In France the law states explicitely that only more favorable clause for the inventor (employee) are to be taken in account. A contract that would state that the employer owns whatever the employee invents beside its work time would thus be abusive and invalid. You really should check the law and not simply the contract.

If you clarify things with google, make sure you get a definitive conclusion that will be valid even if the google employed founder changes states or country, since law applyable to him may change.
good lord that is amazing!
Lisp (with MySQL)
Its good to be on the right side of this chart. (Nice abstraction and graphic representation)
Block all Google ads?

It might be a viable strategy, but hardly an easy step. If Microsoft simply offered it as an option, it's unlikely that anyone would care.

"Hey users, download this and block Google ads!"

Users say, "What are google ads and why should I care about blocking them?"

Or, Microsoft sneaks a blocker in via internet explorer and enables it by default. If they're lucky, it won't break anything else and Google won't be able to hack around it, but either way Google would sue.
This is possibly the best article on software design I have ever read. I would go as far as suggesting that it gets added to the YC recommended reading page.
I agree that this is being done for more good marketing than really building a "farm team" in which to invest in (like CRV is doing).

Thing is be aware of this Higland Capital prefers business and infrastructure internet plays, I dont think they ever invested in a consumer play ever. Take a look at their portfolio companies to get a sense of what they are investing in.

That being said, Highland is a tier-1 firm here in Boston and VC being followers, maybe Highland will start a trend?
Windows Live Messenger Gets Integrated Into XBox 360
I don't think the point is that all students are worthless, but rather that colleges aren't this huge source of untapped potential that they are popularly imagined to be. This shouldn't really come as a surprise; most brilliant hackers/entrepreneurs know this, which is why they want to leave.

Think about it. All I want is to be surrounded by brilliant people working on interesting things, which college can't provide. Which is why I want to leave. But this same logic shows why funding college students isn't really an arbitrage opportunity. Even if you could figure out who the brilliant ones are, which is difficult, there are too many social and systemic forces pulling in the wrong directions.

(N.B. I'm not claiming to be brilliant myself, only that given the choice I prefer working with others who are.)
Python & Django
well in a way it was good that steve jobs did get pushed out it gave him focus on nextstep and that is the bedrock of why apple have bounced back.
In the narrow sense you don't need ANY degree to be a brilliant entrepreneur. Having an advantage is independent of school. That's not to say that school is worthless, but "advantage" and "business degree" are not synonymous.
"Complete the below application in either a Word document (no more than two pages in total length) or PowerPoint presentation (no more than five total slides)."

~sigh~
PHP, if ROR would be more supported here, than ROR
Is bootstrapping becoming sexy again for web2.0?
Seaside (because I want to implement some heavy desktop-like capabilities)
My current project is in RoR, but I've not ruled out other languages/frameworks for other projects, depending on what suits the task best.
PHP5 (as fastcgi w/ lighttpd and sqlite3)
Social news for smart people via ongoing IQ tests
Did anyone try such a thing?

For example, to vote/submit/comment, you might be required to solve an IQ test type problem first.

These problems might be chosen at random from ones created by other members of the site.
Yahoo Partners With SanDisk to Launch Sansa Connect
The only problem with this idea is that communities evolve. Who gets to modify the test to seek out people with the new, desirable traits? The site creators? Oldest member of the community?

I think the concept of communities being self-policing still holds.
good point. the title is pretty bad. not sure if the current one is any better though, but it seems a little less confusing maybe?

for reference the old title was 'Better methods for filtering "delete me" posts?'

and wow, there is a delete me post just a few submissions above.
We're using http://www.futurehosting.biz/ now for our VPS. This is just a dev server though.

Go to http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ and spend a couple hours there reading. You'll find some sharp folks on our end of things, and also some vendors who hang out and build their brand. Very helpful.
There is no standard test to be used. The questions are created by members of the community. To vote/submit/comment, you will need to answer one of these questions chosen at random.

If you don't get it right, you might have to wait an hour or so before trying again with another randomly chosen question. And if you get too many wrong, you would get kicked off the site.

If many members start to see contributions from people who are not that smart, they could try to make their questions tougher. And so you would have a higher probability of receiving a tougher question.

If many members feel that the community is too small, then they might make their questions easier. And so you would have a higher probability of receiving an easier question.
Your cofounder needs to negotiate this before signing anything, and will need a lawyer.
Suggestion: Time the gentle reminder after the decision is due on which of the 421 applications to fly in for interviews. Lisp does make development faster, but everybody needs to sleep sometimes.