skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Start by drawing your ideas on paper in detail. You don't have to be an artist because it's not going in a museum. If you are thinking of making a web site then draw it on paper, page by page. Describe exactly what happens when user clicks each part of the page. Every page, including the login page and about page. Every single page, every single clickable thing, draw it and label it. The more detail the better. You should have enough detail on those pages to be able to hand to someone without saying a word and they will be able to read it and understand it. That level of detail.

Then pay a web designer a few hundred dollars to turn your pages into a static mockup. Static meaning it doesn't actually work yet, you can't login and do stuff, you just look at it. It's just HTML and graphics. It's a facade.

Next you can either pay programmer anywhere from a few hundred to few thousand dollars and wait 3 months for them to build the functionality behind the facade or you go learn HTML, javascript, ajax, and PHP (the easiest programming language for novice web devs) and build it yourself.
And here I had my hopes up... ;)
So many startups gunning for Google; perhaps some should be gunning for Wikipedia -- which I love but seems at risk of retreating into paranoid orthodoxy in response to scaling and spamming threats.
Unfortunately, it is somewhat difficult to develop theories about luck and timing beforehand.
I recommend a very good, slightly obsolete book:

http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/

This is the book that got me into web publishing back when I was like you. It is, as I said, slightly obsolete, so when you finish it you will be an expert on the cutting-edge Web technologies of 1998 (e.g., Oracle). But the step from then to now is not as large as you think. (And, to be fair, the online version of the book has been revised a few times in recent years.)

There is also a New and Improved book that covers much of the same material:

http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/

I haven't read this myself, and I believe that (as a textbook for an MIT course) it may be geared more toward hard-core hackers than the earlier book, which was intended to be readable (or at least skimmable) by non-programmers.

The advantage of these books is that they provide large-scale perspective. I didn't know what a relational database was when I started the book, but I sure did after I finished.
I am strangely reminded of an academic paper that came out, shortly before the (first) dot-com bubble popped, reporting that even after controlling for all sorts of other factors, companies saw their stock value go up after appending ".com" to their names.

Also, of VA Linux, which went public with the ticker symbol LNUX, decided they didn't want to be distributing Linux hardware after all, and changed their ticker symbol to, umm, something I don't remember. (Disclaimer: I used to own stock in LNUX.)
I thought infogami was dead. I say this because I had a wiki there for a year and some of the features weren't working. I tried to contact their support emails about 5 times and never heard anything.
One of the best articles I've ever read on the DNA of successful technologies, ideas and companies. Any involved in a technology company should read, including friends and family. A possible reason some larger companies are finding it hard to compete.
I like it. One nitpick is that when you go to the login page the cursor does not default to the login field. This is kind of expected behavior.

Anyway, pretty useful little app. Thanks!

Edit: Feature added, rock on.
Passe is a poor choice of word, especially with java's sustainable growth. The brand has excellent marketability, it's wise to leverage it.
For a good Philosophy book, Be Here Now by Baba Ram Dass
Chain productivity tool launches.  Accomplish something every day
Fill in the blank: "I'm going to _____ every day." Thinking of something? Great! Head over to the site, and you can make posts about your experiences, share your chains with the world, and meet other people who are accomplishing the same things.

No, the site won't delete any of your data if you miss a day. It simply gives you friendly reminders. :)
Next up: AAPL changes their ticker symbol to IPOD.
"It makes sense that people who understand a medium will have the best ideas for what to do with it."

I think it makes sense to differentiate between ideas and style. For example, many of the most famous guitar players / trumpet players / musicians in general were self taught. I heard an interview with James Taylor where he said he doesn't even know how to read music. And Miles Davis only played like he did because he learned on a broken trumpet.

(This isn't meant to be a metaphor for hacking, but rather to point out that there is something called style that exists outside of the cognitive layer.)

It makes sense that the guys with the most interesting styles were the ones who were mostly self-taught.

At the cognitive level, it makes sense that the guys with the best ideas are those are

A) most familiar with the medium.

B) Familiar with other similar mediums they can draw from.

But a lot of people don't make their money through novel ideas so much as taking other people's ideas and adding the sex. Which seems to be more of a style thing than a cognitive thing.
http://www.cha1n.com
I'll first say, there really is no substitute for an early startup with knowledge programmers working together(simply there is a time and cost advantage to it). That aside, it should not be the limiting factor, that causes you to pack up your bags on an idea you have.

I think a co-founder who puts as much effort in learning the industry and what goes on in the scene is still a valuable asset to have in a startup. Friends or people who just through out armchair ideas and can't match their ideas with whats going on in the industry don't add much value. But when a person knows his idea and knows the industry he can continually add value (beyond the technical level), and when your idea starts to change course from the original (which it often does with startups) he'll be able to adjust quickly with it.

But like trekker said, enjoying and being passionate about the industry will show to your co-founder programmer that you add value especially when you can continually surprise him by showing your still a step or two ahead of him about whats going on in the industry.
The great debate about the future of IPv4 addresses
news.yc hack: highlight discussion-only links (bookmarklet)
Open Source UAV projects giving comfort to the enemy?
You're right, 6.001 is a required course within the major. I'm not citing its internal popularity, really (although folks love the class). A number of other universities have similar courses offered, whereas I haven't heard of any other 6.171-like classes.
Sweet service, you best trust them though, they could log everything, although then I guess their business would fast evaporate...
I thought Mark Cuban was an idiot long before this.
Pingdom offer free subscription and then lose their site
I would have posted the url above but there's no point. Pingdom (www.pingdom.com) started an offer that if you registered whilst using Firefox then you would get a year's free subscription. Unfortunately it seems that this was a very attractive offer and now their site has gone down. Oops.
Hey this one is fun too :)
Fill in the blank: "I'm going to _____ every day." Thinking of something? Great! Head over to the site, and you can make posts about your experiences, share your chains with the world, and meet other people who are accomplishing the same things.

When you add a link in your chain, it's automatically submitted to a centralized place where others accomplishing the same goal will upvote you and cheer you on.

No, the site won't delete any of your data if you miss a day. It simply gives you friendly reminders. :)

I posted that here because I can't seem to edit the initial text.. But have fun!
They say it is secure because all your traffic flows through their server in the clear but they don't look at it. It's refreshingly honest that the site admits this. But GotoSSH isn't as secure as regular SSH and it probably is not as secure as it could be (e.g. a Flash SSH client that implements the SSH protocol on the client side).

But since security doesn't matter in Web 2.0 (can I borrow your Google password for a minute?), this looks like a great service.
'Renewed war in Europe, he predicted, would pass the "leadership of civilization...to America and ultimately to Asia ."'

That is an astoundingly accurate prediction for 1925.
Results 1 - 50 of about 20,800 for "i work at google"
WOW what great insite. I have been telling my boss that I work much better at home with less distractions. Now you have pointed out why that is true. My boss is really against telecomuting. I am going to she them this article.
What will the next generation of social content look like then? Personally, I think the next "big thing" will be trust metrics. Wikipedia's challenges could be solved by a trust matrix.

If users were given trust values (think eBay feedback, but a bit smarter) and then users could in turn rate articles, that would at least partially solve some of Wikipedia's biggest criticisms (the content is unchecked and liable to spam / abuse).

Trust networks like that scale exponentially with the number of nodes (users and articles) so I suppose it would significantly increase the resources required to host something like Wikipedia.
Rethinking The Marketing Funnel
how about allowing me to track more than one project (i.e chain).
Nice work.
Cool! Keep it up!
Someone could do us all a service by presenting a talk called "A Practical Guide To Avoiding Internet Drama on Your Service" and offering advice on structuring discussion, interaction and administration to avoid problems like this.

My #1 suggestion: if you must have an "off-topic" forum, make sure it's clear that it's not the "no rules" forum.
I would argue though that Java is cool now because of the emerging mobile device software sector. Maybe its just me but I find this area very exciting and Sun is doing things right by pushing for a open, unified cross device platform. Proprietary closed platforms like the iPhone are evil. From a marketing perspective, this could be very important in the next 5 years as mobile phone software usage continues to grow.
Just wondering: Did you actually do the paperwork and start a company called "Chain Enterprises"?
I think of the relationship between software engineering and computer science more like the relationship between architecture and physics. Software engineering describes the application of the theories of computer science to solve real-world problems.
Nope. That's YC's thing.. :)
37signals Losing Lustre? Why I Miss The Adoring Fans (simpler is better?!)
You're taking that Seinfeld slogan way too seriously.

If you're stuck for a project idea, why not go on a few dates with the opposite sex (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46129)?
If it is 60/40 by quantity, I bet it is more like 75/25 by cost. But you do say "60% of clothing business". So I guess the cost was already taken into account.
Why not make the chains 'think of a project idea' and 'go on a date'?
Leaving aside the whole question of whether or not credit ratings are reliable (http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/20/magazines/fortune/ratings_ag...), you're right, funds need to be responsible.

But they also need to provide a certain level of return, and right now, housing is not the place to go.

Tech looks better now (because of companies like VM Ware and Blade Logic), and since there is no other "obvious" (for lack of a better word) place to invest, tech funds (including VC funds) will benefit.
I'm recommending the f* chain to my girlfriend right now!

I've been trying to find a way to show her that we've been slipping:)
Touche

:)
AI medicine
Find a co-contributor. Carigslist etc. Put out an ad on the gigs forum. As a dev coming at it from the other angle. I have the skills but not many business ideas. But I also have clear ideas what I'm willing to work on.

If it's just a copy of something existing then don't expect many replies. But an exciting new idea would have many responses.
Excellent advice. This was particularly good: "Everything that is part of a bachelor's in CS can be taught as part of a project that has all phases of the engineering cycle, e.g., teach physics and calculus by assigning students to build a flight simulator"
This is a really good search engine
Uses neural networks to refine results.
JSTZ_OFFSET gets set by the backend from the session:

var offset = new Date().getTimezoneOffset() / 60
if(offset != parseInt(JSTZ_OFFSET)){
new Ajax.Request("/jstz/" + offset);
}
I actually signed up - so hopefully they are not down for long....
PickyDomains.com - You get what you pay for
Lypp: Simple, Free Group Calls
(Just as long as the startup also records music.)
the + looks like a +/- sign

I keep on reading "plus or minus 2 people will exercise"

good work! nice layout ;-)
YC tried highrise. It is not good. I actually went to the trouble of telling Fried what seemed broken about it, and got back a reply saying everybody else loved it, so I must be wrong.
Five Suggestions to Improve Viddler
Thanks. Should be fixed.
Google Phone Spotted, Bigfoot Was Using It
Yeah, this is one of the issues they've had for a while.

There's a fine line between having opinionated software and having stubborn software that doesn't respond to user feedback.
I did it to your six oldest comments
Government hacking seems extremely rare, probably because of the threat of violence common to countries that need it.

Lots of people fail with the categorical error that the problems with poor countries have something to do with what rich countries do to them. Farm subsidies and other wide reaching regulation aside, they are not poor because we are rich.

My main hope for the developing world is in distributed innovation efforts. I love the idea of someone using a bicycle to charge a cellphone, then renting out the minutes and traveling from village to village to sell the service.

Kiva is also amazing.
iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity
What didn't you like about it? I checked out highrise and figured that I wasn't their target market... I just couldn't figure out what to do with it.
really interesting that facebook supports a myspace network on their site...
Vint Cerf, father of the internet, on the challenges ahead
Next: Linux on the IPhone please.

Are there any Linux phones besides OpenMoko yet?
I'm curious about why you didn't like it as well. Could you elaborate?
It's cool but I don't get how the chain-linked fence image works.

Also, how different from 43things.com is this? Why would a 43things.com user want to switch to cha1n.com?
Sure, quite a few actually. The next big one is the new Motorola RAZR2 which is Linux powered.

Here is an older list of some other phones:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9423084269.html
The Latest In Fear: Journalism Professors
You can't be the flavour-of-the-month every month. The article seems a bit like hastily written link spam.
Why Designing Systems is Difficult
Applying Principles of Entrepreneurship to Your Life
So, it looks like a lot of our peers are sexually frustrated.
Hiya! Ours is a bit more proactive. If you're doing it, you can make a chain about it. But 43things a nice place to make wishes, so if you enjoy that better, that's fine :) We really hope that the site enables a success story to emerge.

And yeah, that chain-linked fence texture is going to be the first to go in the coming improvements.
Great points. They make me ask what PG thinks about unit tests: they seem to be like an exoskeleton allowing you to keep just a part of the program in your head. Or are they just a distraction?
And MSFT becomes BSOD
Hastily written? Guilty as charged. As far as link spam, who in their right mind would link to this?
Actually, a lot of really well payed industrial engineers work at McDonald's.
Great essay Paul. Some echoes of your Lisp book and Code Complete!

The only downside to working on your own is that you don't see the bugs that you create through not seeing the problem? Others seem to see what you don't? That solo work needs tempering with some level of review.

I chuckled over the effort spent on 'homers', work done (perhaps even for the company) in a persons own time. Boy does that work get some deep concentration and produce some good results!

Thanks Paul. DaveP
I signed up for 43things yesterday and I found it alright.

This does seem better because you can track your progress.

Good work :D
Great... I bet they were the guys who decided to outsource the pickup windows.
That sounds good. I love jquery its so simple.
Corporate Social Networking Startups Attract VC Funding
I have to disagree with all the hackers in this discussion. Code is super important, but a startup is still a business. Business is a team sport that requires many different talents. If you can't code move out to San Francisco or someplace where startup congregate and find a startup that needs your talents whatever they may be. Learn the ropes and meet people. Repeat. Thats what I did. There are lots of non-technical people who have done well this way. Read Mark Cuban's posts on motivations. He was non-technical and kicked ass.

I moved out to SF as a non-technical biz guy two years ago and now I run a VC backed startup. It can be done.
"Is the corporate world ready for Web 2.0-style social networking? Venture capitalists seem to think so"
Web Site Lets Geeks Trade Beta-Testing Invitations
YAWS: http://www.sics.se/~joe/apachevsyaws.html

Handles 90,000 connections on a box where Apache dies at 4,000.

I didn't see Erlang in that article. I wonder why.
Entrepreneurs Reap Volumes From Research Libraries
I like MSFT -> EVIL
Who's Behind TheFunded.com?
nickb?
What is it with the link spam accusations every time somebody shares an opinion?

Isn't "link spam" what the blogosphere is all about? The guy's sharing an opinion, and being familiar with this blog, and educated one at that.

Enough with this ridiculous accusation already.
read this: http://www.blogmaverick.com/2004/04/23/success-and-motivatio...
Dilbert: Quality at a Day Job (Keep Working on your Startup)
"The networks are designed to let business professionals exchange information such as business leads, job candidate referrals, and new product ideas, or develop networks for groups of people with similar interests and concerns, such as women."

You know those women, always having the same interests and concerns.
my current company still finds basecamp a valuable tool, but that's because we're not large enough to have someone doing fulltime project management. Of course, we don't need anything beyond a glorified to-do list -- which is good, because that's pretty much basecamp's core competency.
We are working on an easy-to-use web app creation tool, and we're looking for real use cases to test out our system. Drop me an email, if you want to chat. If an idea of yours is a match for what we do, we may just implement a prototype for you.
One of the Wikipedia founders has created his own version:

http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Main_Page

The basic idea is to establish experts that review articles and guarantee the quality of the articles in their domain. Seems like an interesting idea.
Apple has "social obligation" to bring great user experience to business world
LOL.....it is amazing how slow corporations are sometimes.
Or, we could stop being xenophobic and call it all outsourcing, and leave "offshoring" to refer to things that have been moved out of the US specifically because doing it on this continent would be illegal or impossible, like gambling, drilling for oil, etc.

Hiring someone else to do remote work is agnostic of location (in general). So, the term "offshoring" seems likely intended only to confuse or inflame the reader based on politics rather than facts.
About bloody time.
Russell Beattie: Java Needs an Overhaul
Anyone know of any jQuery v. Prototype comparisons?
I did too. Maybe it'll all be better after the 24hrs is up.
Fair enough. Perhaps my first sentence would have been better on its own.

I don't think it is unreasonable to note a disconnect between the article's title and the content. I guess I was hoping for something more substantial. Maybe, an educated opinion on highrise vs. earlier products.

Saying something is getting less buzz/blog-hype over time could be said about almost anything.
didn't know he started blogging again. cool.
I keep waiting for someone to start a thread like, "So as a busy entrepreneur, how do I find time to sleep with all the hot women who want to sleep with me?"
Wow, over 400 applications to yield 20 admissions. That's more selective than Harvard or MIT, who each admit ~10% of applications.
Technology stocks swinging back into favor
Good point, but it's still an interesting observation. 37signals was everywhere in 2006, and now, not so much.

I'm not sure how that translates to anything meaningful, or whether it's just that their message has been received by the audience already.

Personally, I think they have reached a work threshold for their team. They haven't expanded all that much from the original core group, (not that they want to) but they've increased the products they service. There are only so many hours in a day.

I'm actually interested in seeing what happens to them in terms of their "keep it small" mantra and the obvious desire - and need, considering their marketing prowess - to introduce new products.
I'm still using Basecamp for some stuff, it's pretty good for distributed teams. I tried Backpack, though, and it has seemed to actually make my life more difficult.
Well, pimpin ain't easy. Although I have tried the GTD system and consulted other productivity blogs, you can't beat the simplicity and efficiency of orgies. If you looked hard enough, I'm sure you could find some relevant documentation on the internet.

edit: for folks with the polar problem, I recommend the gangbang solution
IBM's response to Web 2.0 start-ups: We're Safer
With innovative web-based start-ups changing the business model for how software is delivered, IBM tries to play its cards by playing up its emphasis on security.
Linux on an Iphone doesn't make sense to me - the whole point of the Iphone is the interface built on top of the mac os - so a Linux iphone would just be strange as you would loose the coolness and just have a touch screen. Any clone (coming soon) would be a better platform to use Linux on a phone I think, and probably much less expensive.
Now that has the making of an interesting blog post!

Seriously though, you are touching some key points here.
It's CIO magazine. Anything IBM says is gold, since most CIO's, and the companies they work for don't realize that they haven't been invited to this party.
I'd never keep myself from an Actual Good to mitigate a Possible Evil...
Is this going to be like Bootcamp? In that case, Apple waited to release their own tool so they'd get two Intel Mac news cycles instead of one.
> Ideas have tons of value. In my opinion, ideas are insanely important.

Ideas are also a dime a dozen and everyone has great ideas. Execution is the hard part. And if you don't learn how to do it yourself, you will always have to rely on someone else.
I know, he's a regular Einstein.
still poor thinking (sorry again).

- what about bugs that dont belong to one file; and those that are across modules?

- to edit or reprioritise, you must open up the files again. Imagine making a Project Manager or business guy learn vi, not to mention messing up your code!

I work defects into my status report. It is just another heading - and move them around the categories. (template: http://juwo-works.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-status-report-temp... ).
The idea is great, the execution (and design) is currently really bad. If I was you I would concentrate on making things more "simple" (or hidden). Maybe make a front page that explains the idea and does not present so much "raw" data.