skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
My son, let me ease your pain:

1) gem install login_generator

2) script/generate login

3) before_filter :login_required, :except => [:login, :signup]

4) session[key] = value
Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'
Why your startup should care about crisis handling from the beginning
I know! It would be the Next Big Editor! He is going to port Emacs to JavaScript and have it work in a browser. Or rather it would be the browser. Whatever. But mark my words, you heard it here for a first time: the Next Big Editor is going to be programmed in JavaScript :)
"Seriously, how many can you name?"

Mark Fletcher (eGroups, BlogLines). Joe Kraus (Excite, Jotspot). Ray Ozzie (Visicalc, Lotus Notes, Groove). Evan Williams (Blogger, Twitter). Reid Hoffman (Paypal, LinkedIn). Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore (Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel). Eugene Kleiner (Fairchild Semiconductor, Kleiner Perkins). William Durant (GM and Chevrolet). Henry Wells and William Fargo (American Express and Wells Fargo).
No worries.

There's no one on YC more capitalist than me. Check my comments ;)

I just think it's shorted sighted for a company not to make it as easy as possible for you to add value to their platform.
Why is it so important that users explicitly invite their friends to use an application?

Isn't it enough that the application shows up on the user's news feed?

I think the main reason that recent applications are not getting as many users is simply because there are now quite a lot of applications and users are sick of trying everything that comes along -- particularly as most of them are not very good.
There's no need to worry, the shortage of programmers will take care of itself. As programmers get more scarce their price will rise, and eventually people will notice and will be encouraged to move into programming (just like what happened during the dot com era). If there's another shake out then the market will weed out the worst programmers and the cycle will start again.

There's enough programming for both high priced productive programmers, and H1B and outsourcing to go round. There's not a finite amount of programming to do, it grows each year as more and more companies decide to get a better website, people decide to socialise on the web more etc.

Frameworks and libraries such as ASP/NET/Prototype/ROR/Catalyst/Web.py and co are making programmers more productive too, which increases what they can deliver for a given amount of money.

The high price of software development will also encourage more startups like Wufoo who can offer forms on the web for a fraction of the cost of custom development.
They Would be Gods: History of the Silicon Valley
I found this mentioned in the wikipedia entry for "Silicon Valley" and it credits Paul Graham as the author.
hyperlinks as bets:  pagerank variant as an artificial game market
When page X links to Y, then the pagerank of X goes up (down) if the pagerank of Y goes up (down).

Would such a thing make sense?

Is it prone to spamming?

What sort of formula would you use for this modified pagerank computation?
I've been speaking with many people that have taken advantage of 221, and I've learned that it's not refundable -- sorry for spreading bad information. However, I can say that there is no catch -- it's just as great an incentive as it looks. In fact, one company I spoke with is working on solar power development, and due to other, stacking credits, their investors are guaranteed a significant profit even on a complete loss of capital. Fascinating and scary.
Facebook's 'platform' (separating facts from illusions)
Well, yes, the "meta" part is just how the actual key is broken down. What may be different is that decryption involves more than just figuring out the values for the key, but also its breakdown.

For example, if the bit length breakdown of each key chunk was 17, 15, 23, 12, 20, 19, 22 you would have a 128 bit key. But its not as "simple" as determining the 128 bits. There are 7 key chunks, and the length of each key chunk and the order of their bit length is essential to decryption.

The same key might be guessed with 6 chunks of different bit lengths. This won't decrypt it and in fact it won't even come close or give any indication that it was the correct key sequence.

So, this is what I mean by a "meta" key. There is an additional "dimension" to the key, this dimension means that there are an additional few magnitudes in the keyspace than simply the bit length.

So, in a simpler scenario, a 32 bit key, which normally would be pretty easy to crack, is much harder if you also have to determine if it breaks down: 5-13-9-5 or 17-15 or 9-32 or 5-7-3-6-11 or... The number of permutations are staggering.

Is there another cryptosystem that uses something similar?
Your post really judges both women and men in a negative way. In my opinion nothing about enjoying celebrity gossip or porn reflects badly on either gender.
Those guys are well-known in The Valley and there's a lot of eyes on anything they do. They'd be risking their reputation as successful entrepreneurs. Staying with their successful site is a way of preventing total failure. Playing it safe.
Paper of the week: The Justin Timberlake effect
Hey there,

-The box that friends see in my profile should include a way for them to answer my questions. Right now, it only includes a question, which is a link to the application.

-News feed: the feed announcement that reads "Shawn asks Hey! Help me out? 3:33pm" should really include the question I asked.

-As a user, I don't really know what questions I might ask that would be better asked here than over email. Some example questions (displayed when I'm at the "ask a question" form) that show why your app is better than email would really help.

Good luck!

edit: formatting
Ben Zander on performance and transformation
well if you can opt out of having applications appear in your news feed then developers lose out on both friend invites and news feed growth - both of which apps such as ilike/slide had access to.

i think that's the point of the article - you can still use fb as a viral platform, it's just as viral for new apps as it is for the more established start ups.
The default is what matters. Currently the default will show apps in your news feed.
Sorry to be a party pooper, but someone beat you to that expansion on his blog comments. He later disabled comments though due to spam issues.
Very good video by the way. It touches on things like implementing buddy lists and filters that are portable across multiple websites.
It took me a pretty long time to get excited about engineering. It's kind of funny, because University really made me dislike education/learning so much that I had to go discover all the good stuff on my own.

In the article, I definitely agree that we need to get more young people excited about programming and other kinds of engineering (I've heard enrollment is dropping in these areas).

I think teachers should show Steve Wozniak interviews in middle schools and high schools. That to me is the true spirit of engineering. It would get kids excited about engineering and show them that it's not just about memorizing formulas and solving homework problems.
What are the downsides of being a single founder (ie. not having a co-founder)?
The way I see it now, it's a harder to stay focused and committed to one vision if you are by yourself. Having a co-founder forces you to choose one thing, define it so that both of you understand it, and then show up every-day to implement it. By yourself, you can always just stop working on an idea and move to something else. You don't have anyone to make commitments to.

I used to get annoyed about working with other people because I would lose some control and would be "bound" to one idea. Now I see that as a potential good thing, assuming the initial plans are solid and the team is solid.
Actually the one thing you can't turn off in your news feed is to receive app notifications. The person who adds the app can turn of sending them, but I can't turn off the flood of app messages in my incoming news feed.

Also, even if you disable the ability for the app to publish items in the news feed, it still publishes the add/remove notification. You have to remove that one manually.

As a user, the cluttering of the news feed is my biggest frustration with the new platform--- I don't care if all my friends add this junk, but I should be able to opt out of the messages with the news feed sliders.
Facebook is way ahead of MySpace when it comes the extent of the integration they offer, but they still have a long ways to go when it comes to the transparency of policy changes and managing their relationship to the developer community.
I find working with people helps to motivate me (not that I am not motivated), but it helps with setting goals and verbalizing them to someone else.

Having someone to talk to about technical issues specific to the problem you are solving also helps.

Investors won't often invest in one founder. They like it when there is two people (what if you get hit by a bus)

If you have a good co-founder you can get more work done, or they can deal with business related issues like marketing and legal stuff or do design (I am really bad at making my applications look good)
iPhones for all Apple employees
That's true ! ! !

I wonder how many users will click YES when asked if they would like application info to be displayed in their news feed?
Do you need someone breathing down your neck all the time? If you do, maybe you shouldn't be doing a startup.

Graduate students write theses single-handedly all the time; nobody tells a PhD student that they need to find a co-author to help them write their thesis. Yes, graduate students have supervisors, but the amount of supervision varies wildly; in my (admittedly extreme) case, I only talked to my supervisor twice between "here's some research I've done, do you think it's enough for a thesis" and "here's my final draft, please look it over before I submit it next week".

If you need a co-founder to do something which you can't do (business, coding in an area you're not familiar with, etc.) or don't have time to do, you should absolutely go out and get one. But I don't think "I'm too lazy to get anything done unless I have a co-founder" to be a very good reason, and I certainly don't think "'cause pg says so" is a good reason.
Because a prompt screen with that question is coming . . .
and the default will be NO.
At least let's hope it is a prompt, Facebook may simply choose to disable it.

There is a perfect storm right now of too many user complaints about application spam, competitors like Hi5 and numerous others circling, and a desire to go public without an ability to do it until the requisite time has past. A lot can happen in that time frame. I think we can expect Facebook to do whatever their user base asks them to do. Why? Because if those user metrics dip at all prior to the exit attempt they are screwed.
If you're looking for a UI Developer on the front end. (Just graphics + layout.) Contact me at jason@jetpacked.com
An alternate for the question would be: What advantages are there for having a co-founder?

Mostly I'd like to read people's opinions and not particularly argue for one side. In my opinion, the right answer depends completely on what type of person you are. Although historically, it seems multiple co-founders are much more prevalent.
Openmoko phone announced for July 9th release
Yeah I agree. Working on something with someone who is excited about the project is a pretty great thing. Combining strengths is definitely a huge advantage too.
I think it depends on your personality.

I really have a difficult time settling on equity, because I have absolutely no faith in "business" co-founders. I really see no purpose until a product is well-developed. You could probably call this a Mark-Zuckerberg'ism ;)

So I have to negotiate the equity with a technical co-founder, but when times come where they don't want to keep up with you, then what? So it all depends on if you can find a strong co-founder or not. If you can, I'd say go for it.

Otherwise, I don't think it's that bad to develop something solo until you can attract some attention. I plan on doing that when I get back to school.
The article makes reference to the fact that once a dating site becomes free, you don't have to scan user content for contact info any more. I think this is a buried lede; free sites aren't just paid sites with lower costs, they have different (and sometimes better) characteristics than their paid counterparts:

1.) Easier to signup - no need to force users to drag out their credit cards

2.) Enhanced anonymity - no need to tie an account to a real person

3.) Simpler operation - the site owner doesn't have to worry that the users are ripping him off/subverting his business model

4.) Lower expectations - how much can a user complain if he's getting something for free?
I think co-founders can both help and hurt you depending on how focused they are. If you are very focused on your startup and working the long hours to make it happen it can be rough when you can't fully depend on your co-founders to get as much done as you expect. It's great to have someone else who believes in your project, especially if they can do things you aren't good at. However, it can create an extra tension when you have to be dependant on someone else getting their work done before you can move on to your next milestone. Just my 2 cents.
Sorry, looks like I missed that.
Good question. I'm kind of wondering what gadgets they have in mind and I guess it's gadgets with a feature set. If you have features, they'll front you some cash to improve or add features.
Hey, Chris, you left out this one: http://web2.0validator.com/

:)

This lots of cool, interesting stuff happening here in the Valley. (No, not that one, the other Valley. Valley 2.0. )
No problemo just user ycsearch or something to find out what other peeps here are using.

In terms of user friendliness Jquery is the best of the bunch in my opinion. Although it is not as popular as Prototype and what not.

Plus I have loads of fun hacking away with Jquery :-) hope you do too if you decide to use it.
Ohh the dreaded "single founder thread" Let the good times roll on this one.

Ok I'm a single founder, when I read PG's essays about singles, I experienced a wave of insecurity on my part which lasted approximately 3-4 months. Whatever experiences I had back then could more likely reflect the experiences felt by other single founders here.

Most YCer's know the game and how it's played. We all know to a certain degree that the odds are stacked against you when you're a single founder. I won't wax rhetoric with you cuz I'm sure you'll find a ton of posts about that.

My point is this when I couldn't find a suitable co-founder I said screw it, I'm building my product by myself with no venture backing whatsoever. If it fails, it fails. If it succeeds then great. You won't know whats out there for you until you go out and let your balls hang out so to speak.
Go out there and build it no matter the odds, no matter what other people think, if you did your homework and think there's market for it. Go do it! there is no better time to test out that idea of yours than now. Open source and low low hardware costs present us a low barrier of entry in order for us to carry this out.

There are alot of naysayers that will tell you this and that. But the way I see it only time and customers/users will tell you if your product is a success or not. And that my friend matters more than anything. Single founder or not.
I don't understand the constant attacks on Rails documentation. There are very few things that I can't find in the documentation provided. Not to mention, if you have a solid knowledge of Ruby, the Rails code itself makes for pretty good documentation.
To counter your argument... I'd say that the new breed of millitant Rubyists has emerged from Rails, rather than the other way around.

That being said, however, the seemingly constant attacks by every person who takes it for a spin and doesn't love every aspect of it does get pretty irritating.

But, I suppose, as long as they're being constructive, no harm done.
"Is that because more and more of web development is done by people without CS degrees who had never heard of MVC before?"

Is that jab really necessary? There are very distinct advantages to getting a CS degree, for certain. But, knowing what MVC is/was and having a CS degree have very little in common.
Once you start behaving like a factory - suck em in and spit out the unprofitable ones - public perception will quickly swing against you. Your position is one where every few months, you have a large number of people pissed off at you for being rejected. Tread carefully, Rumpelstiltskin.
Isn't it too late? :)
But since most people DO think that, CS degree = programming job.
Thank God. I had like a dozen invites for stupid apps.
I think it makes sense that first comers will have special benefits, and those who don't release fast enough will probably face some kind of restrictions. It's the same way for everyone.

On the other hand, apparently some companies had facebook api BETA access for weeks or months in advance to prepare for this.

If all companies had to race to build a product right away, I don't see why it's unfair for facebook to change the way things work after a month into it. But since some already had apps that were ready, it does seem to be very unfair.
My point is only that "what women want" is an awfully broad brush stroke. My wife doesn't want celebrity gossip. I suppose I should have simply said that.
Thanks! I find these kinds of articles much more useful than the Nth article about Rails, because, being a tech guy, it's the business stuff I need to work harder at to do well.
I was referring to the way you tried to counter the generalization about women with one you thought was "worse" about men. Your objection to generalizing just seems a bit silly to me. How are we supposed to talk about the entire female gender, one-by-one?
Joel Spolsky: Management, Doogie Howser and Y Combinator Kids
The Man Behind The "Just Say No to Google" Text
couldn't have said it better than this ...
Here, it's listed as "by others": http://ycombinator.com/lib.html
You're mixing identifying which you like better with being able to differentiate.

PG used a bad example, but I think it'd be hard to argue that it's not true in general. Bottled water might be a better example.

BTW, I can quite easily tell the difference between non-caffeinated diet coke and regular diet coke. There's an unmistakable difference in smell with the non-caffeinated one. I don't even have to taste it. It gets way trickier telling the difference between the various "diet" cokes in the US, Europe, and Asia.
If you actually manage to do the work, the only downside is some investors have a story about how single founders can't hack it.

It's a prejudice. They've decided things already, a priori, without knowing your particular details.

Whether or not a lot of other people can or cannot accomplish something doesn't affect whether or not your or I can or cannot accomplish something.

Additionally, the notion that "not being able to talk your friends into starting the company with you" is a "vote of no confidence" is mistaken, for numerous reasons. For example, these days it's hard to find people to work with you at YOUR start-up because so many people are doing start-ups of their own! Furthermore, entrepreneurial spirit is a personality trait, and people have widely differing personalities. Look at all the awesome Linux hackers that write code 100 times more complex than anything most start-ups have to worry about, and yet who work at Red Hat or similar, instead of starting their own company with their fearsome hacking skills. And not all of us have friends that are into this stuff in the first place.

It just happened that PG's buddies were into hacking Lisp. Other people's social circles may revolve more around music, or gaming, or any number of other interests a person may have besides programming or start-ups. I know a lot of people in bands; if I didn't program, I'd probably be in one too.

Very few people will accept having no life as the price of attempting a start-up. The prospect of staring at a screen all day every day, living with hackers, and eating ramen for months is just not something that has wide appeal. That's not a vote of NO confidence; that's just called being reasonable and wanting a life.

I think most people couldn't go through with it even if success were guaranteed. They'd bail partway through. I think that's normal. To actually do it you have to be somewhat insane.
Who you know is not that great predictor of what you like. Once the invites get annoying, Facebook should limit them, I think this is obvious. You shouldn't hope they will give you a mechanism to spam and irritate everyone.
"Additionally, the notion that "not being able to talk your friends into starting the company with you" is a "vote of no confidence" is mistaken, for numerous reasons. For example, these days it's hard to find people to work with you at YOUR start-up because so many people are doing start-ups of their own! "

Agreed
I used to race bicycles, and that involved a lot of training. Of course, you have to go out on your own a lot, but it was always easier with friends: when you agree to meet to go for a ride, it makes it easier for everyone to go, even if the weather sucks. Furthermore, having more people always made it a little bit more competitive. Sure, you could do repetitions up a hill or something on your own, but having your friend just a wheel length ahead of you, and trying to pass him makes you take out that much more energy (which is actually why racing was the best training).

Point being, that, as a guy working on my own, I recognize that there are advantages to having someone else around. It's got to be the right person, though, otherwise it's just a cargo-cult-cofounder put in place because someone said "you should have more than one person".

Since at the moment I do not have a person in place, I decided to forge ahead in any case, but I'm conscious of the downsides to that, so I keep my eyes open for potential candidates.

It's not just PG who says so. A lot of people say so, including Paul Hawken in the 80ies, in this book, which is quite a good read:

http://tinyurl.com/2dxnoc

But, like most of these other silly threads, I think the process should be like this:

Think about the fact/opinion. Think about how it applies to your situation (in this case, "can I get someone else?"). Deal with it and then move on. It's useless dwelling on it.
ha, socialmoth moth showed up there.
blog.pmarca.com: Now playing: Silicon Valley short attention span theater
AT&T and Apple Announce Service Plans for iPhone
A big quote from the NYT.
The content's worth reading, but the page's style means page up/down skip text because it's grayed out and unreadable near the screen's boundaries.
I find working with people helps to motivate me (not that I am not motivated), but it helps with setting goals and verbalizing them to someone else.

Having someone to talk to about technical issues specific to the problem you are solving also helps.

Yes, it's helpful. I have programmer friends who are happy to go over stuff like this. They don't need to be co-founders to be helpful friends.
If you would run classified ads server what niche and in which location would it be guys?
Saying says: Ask the experts, so I'm asking you :)
The rest of the story has emerged, from the guy who wrote the email (and notably didn't publish it himself). From http://www.phatbits.com/?p=3

" The responses are my personal impressions, communicated to my Microsoft recruiter in the context of a private 1:1 conversation. A few days after I sent my response to the recruiter, I saw an anonymized version floating around and being discussed inside Microsoft. I hadn't realized at the time that I wrote it that it would be distributed widely within Microsoft so that was a bit of a shock. "