skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Free Statistics to Help Your Business
One key step in creating any business is understanding your market and competition. For those who don't have the big bucks to buy the marketing data you need, this is the resource for you.
Tech Startup USA: 27 Web Companies in the Northeast
Because of the virtual ease of accessing information and services from anywhere on the planet, it's sometimes easy to forget that web companies are real entities tethered to Earth-bound locales.
Test your startup idea here
Man I hate captchas! 
Do you guys think captchas are necessary? I think they just ruin the whole look of the website + they annoy users to high hell. Is there any way around the implementing of captchas?
Sound captchas
Ofcourse some sort of captcha is necessary. If you are bothered about the looks, then the real question is what kind of captcha should you implement. You can go for the audio only captcha , or perhaps even a flash based visual one.

Repetitive captcha tests can be avoided if your application limits the frequenzy of submissions made . But this in turn is a larger annoyance for commenting systems.
Stanford: Top 10 Enduring Elements of High-Technology Entrepreneurship
iPhone is a marketing hype, whereas Nokia is a pure cellphone company. iPod made its payoff but not necessary iPhone
Startup: Zero Cash, Zero Experience but Created Product
A peak is produced by both up and down line.. I'm wondering when will be the peak for Google? It seems like its stock is growing or maybe just slow down on growing since it went for IPO. Something out of topic:- Biggest empires in China, Egypt, Rome, or even Adolf Hitler had their falls. When is Google stock's falling? What will be the factors? When the public gets bored of their acquistion without returns?
The Secret...to talking to customers before you have a product -- or even a company
IF the expected utility varies linearly with the number of shares (and thus the expected amount of money received in the end), you're absolutely right. But does it?

For large investment or VC funds, the utility-of-money function associated with any particular investment is almost linear. There's a very good reason for this: As far as Sequoia is concerned, a dollar earned from their Google stock is pretty much equivalent to a dollar earned from their Loopt stock. Not quite equivalent, since there are non-tangible advantages for a VC fund to have many smaller success stories instead of one Google; but close.

As you point out in http://www.paulgraham.com/vcsqueeze.html, founders aren't "rational" in the sense of having the same approximately linear utility-of-money function as VCs: "... letting the founders sell a little stock early would generally be better for the company, because it would cause the founders' attitudes toward risk to be aligned with the VCs'. As things currently work, their attitudes toward risk tend to be diametrically opposed: the founders, who have nothing, would prefer a 100% chance of $1 million to a 20% chance of $10 million, while the VCs can afford to be "rational" and prefer the latter."

There's another reason to think that most people have concave utility-of-money curves: The insurance industry. If you buy house insurance, you are lowering your expected number of dollars (because even ignoring market friction, the insurance companies have to make a profit), but raising your expected utility.
That's a good suggestion; that, plus create_account's idea to confirm that the redirect is headed to the "feedburner.com" domain should reduce the chance of any serious problems.
You're right, they just want the feed, and for the most part (though we do have a number of savvy users who do get the whole hosted-at-Feedburner thing), they could care less about any behind-the-scenes redirection (or whatever) we have to do to get it.
Does the old version of facebook sync still work? I haven't upgraded to the new version yet.

update: I just tried it and it seems to work.
SeekSift uses a reverse captch/honeypot (explained here: http://www.nedbatchelder.com/text/stopbots.html) and it works really well, w/o the annoying user interface problem you've described.
Although often not considered, the greatest flaw of captchas is they make some functionality unavailable for disabled web users (audio captcha for the deaf, standard distortion captchas for those with poor eyesight, flash captchas will also be impervious to screen readers).

I have played with captchas a bit and I think its important to make captchas which rely on thinking and comprehending, not on some facet where human senses are still more acute than electronic sensors (this is a deadend, as computer cycles get cheaper and algorithms improve I don't really believe that human senses will be superior to dedicated electronic ones in well... anything).

My favorite captcha (perhaps my own idea, not quite sure though) is to have something like this "Please enter the missing item: 532 533 534 535 536". This satisfies my requires for a 'fair' captcha: 1. it is delivery neutral (a screen reader, a blind individual, or a fully healthy individual can all understand this captcha), and 2. It is relatively resistant to brute force because the question doesn't contain the answer.

As is stands, the vast majority of captcha implementations are discriminatory (you need to, at minimum, have a choice between an audio and a visual captcha, or use a captcha that is delivery neutral).

The best way to avoid needing a captcha is to build a non-consistent UI (which is to say, to differentiate yourself, hopefully by making it better) that the existing spam algorithms won't recognize. Much like diverse genetics give species resistance to disease, diverse design and UIs give the internet resistance to spam.
This is worth watching. Ron is probably the largest scale and best known angel investor in the world.
http://www.lacolombe.com
Interesting, and good, ideas. I think they could be defeated by a well designed spam bot, but most (if not all) currently used techniques could as well.

I haven't used a screen reader, nor have I looked at their source code, but it did make me wonder if such a setup (with user invisible fields) might still be read by the screen readers (depending on how they convert the raw html into content for the listener).

If I ever get around to fixing my comment system on my blog (I don't really like comments... and thats probably why my current commenting system is passive-aggressive), I'll try implementing these ideas. Good link.
Interesing read. But I think that better to only talking about your idea to your (candidate)customers you should talk about your product to everywhere, the most feedback you get the better. Of course, you should filter the feedback.

I'm in this phase currently, I've been talking with lots of friends, colleagues about an idea and they helped me to polish it, to the extreme that my initial idea and the current version are two completly different products! (But related.)

I think Paul wrote an essay about this same topic, but I can't find it :(
Carlsbad company helps send TV to cell phones
MaxLinear, which has operated in stealth mode since it was founded in 2004, says it has done just that...The company expects to ship a couple million of its radio-frequency TV tuners to cell phone makers in Japan this year, where mobile TV is more available than it is in the United States.
Could be worse things than typing words. Brad Fitzpatrick call this the best CAPTCHA ever:
http://brad.livejournal.com/2331278.html
Startup Tips Month Extra!
Some interesting points.
German government puts up $165 million to start Google competitor
BlinkCart Lets You Create An Online Store Plug-In for MySpace
This is an exercise that's being done just for the fun of it to explore what (for me) were cryptic remarks from people like Graham and Norvig.

I wanted to work on something that would force me to write macros. Obviously, to make the code for "classes" that construct object generating functions like the one in the example will be written by... macros. So I successfully put myself in a situation where macros were the natural answer... and saw what I needed to do. My getting to that particular ah-ha moment was the real message of the post. I can now begin to understand what the experts are talking about.

So I can now use closures and macros to make lisp just as crappy as other programming languages... or I can use this knowledge to learn more about doing things "the lispy way." Trust me when I say that the latter option is my preference.

I'm just an amateur that's excited about these ideas... and that you _can_ do this sort of thing. I'm not saying that you _should_.
Google didn't have any "real" revenue for the first couple of years either...

Facebook's only been around for about 3 years. Give it time.
Yes it works. I think they told him to no longer distribute the app rather than revoke the api key.
This and Quaero will serve as valuable lessons for the governments that sponsored them. You can compete with Boeing this way, but not with startups.

I admit I'm kind of surprised they still need this lesson. You'd think they'd have already learned this from the British government's attempt to set up ICL as a competitor to the Google of its era, IBM, in 1968. Never heard of ICL? Exactly.
It's "Stanford" buddy. Why do so many people put a D in there?
Give Me 30 Seconds and I'll Give You Control Over Your Thoughts
I recently traded my car for a bus pass and I'm getting a lot of reading and writing done on my commute. The only problem is that sometimes when I read in a moving vehicle I start to get car sick. When I start feeling bad I put the book up and immediately start to feel better. Yesterday I went to pull my book out at the bus stop and the very sight of it made me feel ill.
Fantastic point about using the present tense. I actually had the good chance to speak to a potential customer this week and did this (as luck would have it). A very good conversation ensued. If I had merely asked him what he wanted it wouldn't have been so good. This customer is very smart and very experienced, but he's still going to be stuck in a box--"this is the way we've always done it."

Much better to be bold about the feature set, pricing, schedule, what have you, and then measure the feedback.
No, I don't think they contradict one another. The reason is that the most likely outcome is just to the right of the step.

Most startup founders (initially at least) hope to get a few million, and wouldn't risk that to get a few billion. That's the step. And the most common form of liquidity event is a small-scale acquisition that gives the founders just that level of wealth, since otherwise they won't sell. So in the most common (and most commonly hoped for) good outcome, happiness varies linearly with the number of shares.
You seem more suited to the VC side of the table, rather than the entrepreneur side.
Since you're talking about step functions and expectation, the final equation should be framed with a binary parameter in mind: x=0 (no liquidity event occurs), x=1 (liquidity occurs).
Paul - This is Seth Levine (quoted in the USA Today article referenced and appropriately called out in your post). Let me set the record straight. While I've seen plenty of articles come to press that has somewhat inaccurate quotes, this was the first time I've been completely misrepresented in an article. I've written a full post on my views here - http://sethlevine.typepad.com/vc_adventure/2007/07/setting-t.... It's particularly frustrating in this case, as I've spent literally hundreds of hours working with TechStars and TechStars companies in Boulder this summer (and am the lead mentor to one very promising project). I actually believe strongly in the model.

I hope you'll consider posting this response up to your main site with a reference to my post clarifying my views.

seth levine
"Know thy enemy". :-)
Facebook acquires Parakey
IMHO captchas still have their place. Any type of turing test would require intervention by the user. I dunno how low the threshold of annoyance is for most users, but I tend to think that "reproduce this text" produces a lower cognitive load than, for example, "what is 4 + 3." If your text is extremely jarbled that's a different matter... note to self.

Picture matching is a viable alternative and can reduce cog load, but it also increases the time between captcha and the intended action. I use a 3-character captcha. We'll see how that holds.
Ok, if you were misquoted, I'll take that paragraph out.
Wow, this could be as successful as Airbus's biggest plane :)
Startup FastSoft could speed up the transfer of video and voice files over the Internet.
Um, you can't even compete with Boeing this way.

When will other countries understand that: the best role of government is to ensure the rights of businesses and people. If you get that right, the rest will follow. They shouldn't be using tax dollars as venture seed money. They'd be better off refunding it to the taxpayers!
From my experience having a German wife and visiting Europe yearly (which is limited experience but helpful), many Europeans genuinely believe that the government can do things better than private groups. The evidence for the validity of this belief speaks for itself (not valid). In Europe, security seems to be one of the highest considerations in taking action which leads Europeans to have far more trust in large old corporations than in untested and untried new companies. The exceptions to this view are Eastern European countries like Czech Rep, and Poland and Romania, etc.
Setting the record straight (Seth Levine's response)
In response to the statement in USA Today, "...6% is a huge amount of equity to give up for such little money..."
Seth Levine says that he was misquoted in the USA Today article, and will never do a phone interview again.
For the article: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2007-07-...
This is perhaps the exact opposite of barebones seed funding.
Boeing gets billions from the US Military.
To a certain extent, Europe does do socialism better. I'm sure if you could plot the corruption & waste per taxpayer dollar, the US would win.

Former Eastern Block states had a completely incompetent and corrupt government, meaning movement to open markets was the only direction and the results are awesome. Estonia is a perfect example.
That's already covered in the original essay:

"How much of an additional margin should the company need as the "activation energy" for the deal? Since this is in effect the company's profit on a hire, the market will determine that: if you're a hot opportunity, you can charge more."
Since he says he was misrepresented in the USA Today article, I took out the paragraph that linked to it. That has the side effect of making this post mysterious, so in case anyone is confused, the deleted paragraph read:

"Usually people who say we're a bad deal, like Seth Levine in this
article, simply don't understand what we do. If all we did
was write checks, YC would be a bad deal. But in fact the money
is the least of what we do. No VC who has seen Demo Day first hand
has ever said YC took too much equity."
Hmm, how do you do socialism better? Germany, as propsperous as it is, has chronically high unemployment (from 10% up to 20% in some areas) and a huge crisis right now with funding their version of social security (which they are unable to do.) What is really impressive about the Germans is that they actually look at the money they have and think about how that money is spent (in the public realm and private realm) instead of the smoke and mirrors we get here about how much something will cost and how it will be funded. Germans like precision, especially with money, even government money which is great to see, but does not solve the underlying impossibility of success with socialism. Germany is successful to the extent that it is capitalist - the socialist side is what prevents Germany from being as impressive as it should be.
Good point. I think even in America that most people are uncomfortable when they say the free market will lead to the best/optimal/most efficient solutions. Its just they are even more uncomfortable to say that a big government will.

Then again, it looks like universal healthcare will be at least an interesting side-story in the upcoming US presidential race. Perhaps socialism is finding some roots in US politics.
Ah yes, but that is to buy Military products which Boeing is very good at, not to finance a competitor to google.
You'd need only look as far as FEMA to see an example of what a government agency can provide. Do you really want a similar agency running your healthcare? I'd sooner sign up for Google-Health, if there were such a thing.
Go to nearby lake with laptop and fishing rod.

Catch 2 lbs of fish. Clean. Cut into nuggets.

or

go to store and buy catfish nuggets. (Walmart sells $10 for a 5 lbs box).

Mix together the following:

1 tsp black pepper powdered + 1 tsp salt + 0.5 tsp chilli powder + 0.5 tsp turmeric powder.

coat the fish nuggets with it.

heat oil in a shallow pan just enough to shallow fry.

When very hot, place fish in gently. lower heat to medium. cover. after 3-5 mins, flip fish to fry other side. fish must be browned, not black.

if you flip fish prematurely, outer layer will scrape off.

eat with white rice.

(you can buy Chinese rice from Sams Club. $5 for a 20 lb bag)

(Turmeric can be gotten cheaply from an Indian store).
Yes, I was thinking that too. This is as far from traditional VC as Y Combinator is, but in the opposite direction. Which seems a further predictor of doom, because the trend in venture funding lately has been a shift toward the low end.
Personally I was waiting out for Enron-Healthcare. Oh wait. Maybe both systems can fail catastrophically. ;)
Enron's ability to manipulate the system was only possible because the system was not a free market, but a disastrously regulated market. Also, Enron behaved in criminally fraudulent ways, which for a business, is the beginning of the end. So Enron does not provide a free market comparison.
Day One of The Second year of your Startup
Remember Day One of your new startup?

You jumped out of bed, kissed your wife on your way to work, and ran into the office ready to conquer the world.

That seems like a long, long time ago doesn't it?

It's now Day One of Year Two. Today you didn't jump out of bed because you were sleeping at your desk. You responded (3 hours later) to a text message your wife sent you asking if you were going to make it home tonight. You're not worrying about conquering the world today anymore, you're worried about how you're going to pay your mortgage tomorrow.

What the hell happened?

The Road is Longer than it Appears

The first mistake you made was convincing yourself and those around you that it would only be tough for a year. Startups take a long time to become successful, and even though you may read about one that grew quickly, most do not.

You need to recalibrate. Set your horizons for a 3-year window, not a 12 month window.

Realize that it may be longer than that. It's a startup career, not a startup project.

Spend Less Now

If you were like most, you tried to maintain your lifestyle while you eased into your startup world. That doesn't happen. That's like trying to go camping and bitching about not having Air Conditioning in your tent. You're in the wild, you need to rough it.

To do that, you need to cut every last expense you have, and then cut some more.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I can tell you first hand that things are going to get worse (financially) before they get better.

It's time to trade down into a cheaper car, refinance the house (think: "interest only"), and put the kibosh on any idea of a vacation. It's not in the cards.

Remember Why You're Here

You're not giving up your social life for a paycheck. When you started this company it was about more than just a big check (right?).

You started this company because you were passionate about blazing your own trail. You're doing it right now, and it's hard. But don't forget why you made this decision.

Remember today that you're not listening to your idiot boss make horrible decisions and hide in his bureaucratic bunker. You're not working like a slave to make some CEO who doesn't even know your name. You're taking control of your own destiny, and guess what - sometimes that's a very rocky road.
ONLamp.com -- The Power of Google Gears (Part 2)
I would only add: The US system is not perfect ... we are not nearly capitalist enough!
I recommend multi-grain pasta (Barilla seems to be good enough and very tasty). Lots of protein and complex carbs, some vitamins, and fiber. More expensive than regular pasta, but with tomato sauce it's still around a buck or two a meal (depends on how much you eat of course).

More hassle to prepare than Ramen, but not by much.
Insightful. Thanks for exploring random things.. Maybe you'll make a discovery that no-one else has made before.
techcrunch mentioned "...Flektor is custom code built on Flex..." in this article :

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/15/myspace-to-acquire-flek....

Which one might take to imply at least a healthy chunk of it is Flash/Flex/Actionscript.
Has Google Hired Too Many People? The Food Line at the Googleplex Did Seem Rather Long
The message you want your prospective customers to receive
And thats a fact!
I don't see in there where you should prefix everything with "What an oversimplification! You're wrong, wrong, wrong!"

Seriously, would you want this guy making a few million? Not only would he be a douche, but he'd be a rich douche. Imagine how he'd treat his waitresses and waiters then. Or his local cops. Or anyone not as smart as he is, which is, apparently, EVERYONE. I'd even call him a detriment to our society, because the child just seems to act like a Paris Hilton with brains. Smart people can be civil, and it's just silly to watch everyone go "Cperciva you're so awesome! You should do X with your life!" and him go "Oh ho ho, didn't you think I already considered that? I turned down a headhunter yesterday, in fact. Now go make me a sandwich."

The dude's a genius, but he could learn a little humility. But he's obviously not going to learn until some event wakes him up to it, so I'm done caring that maybe one more nice person could exist in the world.
This glosses over an important point: inbiased survey questions are very hard. Unless you've been trained to as nuetral questions (and I haven't), you need to weight the answers less.

A quick example: "do you want X?".
Hell yah, I want X, it's so much better than not-X!
"The reason is that the most likely outcome is just to the right of the step."

"So in the most common (and most commonly hoped for) good outcome [...]"

Isn't the omission of good in the first paragraph a lapsus, i.e., do you mean most founders think success is the most likely outcome? Or do you mean founders should ignore the possibility of failure for the purposes of making these decisions about stock?
I would define "do socialism better", as programs that come closer to the intent, with successful deployment. A concrete example: Scandinavian heath care might fall apart in the US from corruption -- something that isn't a problem so much there.

I'm not saying socialism is a good idea, even in Europe.
You're right, of course.
Food is something you eat every day. In this case, it's pennies that add up-- and pretty quickly. My monthly food bill (when I'm not skimping) is typically second only to rent and taxes.

Consider- 1/4 a box of that barilla pasta I mentioned... 400 calories costs maybe $0.50. Add sauce and you're maybe up to 500 calories and $1.00 for the meal. Drink water, or maybe a cup of gatorade for another $0.50. A meal for around $2.00. Cereal for breakfast is probably similar, $2.00-$2.50 per meal.

Ruling out breakfast, consider 2 meals a day for a month. At $2 for lunch and $2 for dinner for 31 days, that's $124/mo. A $7 lunch and a $10 dinner is $527/mo. In 3 months you'll have saved $1,200.