skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Sure, what entrepreneur wouldn't love that -- smart CS students willing to drop out of a top college to join their company?

I'm sure you've heard that Cortez destroyed the ships his conquistadors sailed in on. If someone will do that on their own, well heck, that's a motivated employee. One who's not looking for massages and free Odwalla, either.
More ranting! Why on earth must you pay for a copy of Visual Studio? Microsoft should be giving it away free with all copies of Windows. Or at least making it free to download.
I could spend 18+ hours a day learning to program but that is just not what I am passionate about and it would take me longer than 1.5 years to get good. I would much rather spend my time designing and working with people, and I would much rather spend my money on servers than rent.
Well hey, now all they need is a YC clone. Or spinoff, like CSI -- who wouldn't want to apply to YC: Hawaii?
..It is.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/default.aspx
how far are you into the planning of this application? and where are you based?

i've been somewhat following this space. i agree there is lots of room for improvement, and i even think it's not saturated yet, that is if you have a flexible definition of a bookmarking application.
It sounds like you're not interested in alternative approaches. I won't bother expounding further. Good luck anyway.
TouchGraph: Visual Search and Browsing
No purchase necessary. Many will play, few will win. Void where prohibited.

But seriously, although this sounds great, nearly all of the Gadgets I see are content, not technology. Are they going to give someone $5,000 to take even cuter pictures of kittens for Cute Kitten of the Day? Or are they trying to go after the market Facebook is courting and get people to make more mini-apps?
Sun Microsystems Planning to Assign Several Full-time Engineers to Contribute to Memcached
Erm, EU residents happily move between countries for work; it's one of the things they're allowed to do without visas. When I was in Paris there were many Irish au pairs there for example. I don't know what au pair is in Irish. ;-) With good rail transport between many of the major cities visiting family back home isn't too onerous.
Given that this law has been in place since 2001, I'm more than puzzled by the fact that the startup world hasn't been shaken by it: I feel I have to be missing something. After all, I understand that startup hubs like the bay area offer irreproducible benefits, but I can't believe that these incentives haven't made Hawaii the center of activity for at least some subset of startups -- capital-intensive seed-level startups, say. And that's not even considering the other perks of Hawaii ;)
You have to be careful when saying "Europe".

Yes, some countries do have bizarre rules. When I worked in France, we couldn't go into the office at the weekend because the whole site was shut down with only security present. We used to hire a hotel conference room instead and work there.

In England it's completely different. Other EU countries may be the same. Typically, whenever some backing EU treaty gets created, sane countries negotiate an "opt out" and ignore it.
David seems to have put the cart in front of the horse and needs to very quickly find some top-notch programming talent.

It would be nice to find top notch programming talent quickly, but I am not going to rush this decision. I need to make sure this person[s] has integrity, good energy, is in a position both mentally and financially to do a startup, and above all if we enjoy each other.

I will email you to get in touch with the developers you know
My email is dbosson@gmail.com if anyone else want to get together.
How to monetize UGC video
I am open to alternative approaches please expound.
Next Big Email...app? Is he going to one-up PB and crush Xobni? :-)

The lack of any big improvements to Gmail makes that seem like an actual possibility.
Next Big [Development] Environment? Okay, I'll stop.
Here Comes Web 3.0
blog.pmarca.com: CEO Crime & Punishment
Every once in a while someone manages to create an especially great implementation of some technology or methodology that really shows its power. That's what RoR has done.

s/MVC/OO/g; s/MVC/FP/g; s/MVC/XP/g; etc.
I'm close to releasing a private beta in a few weeks; but I'm flexible with the concept and will continue to tweak it until it fits. I'm based in Redwood City, CA. I'll drop you an email to discuss this further.
Interview: Daniel Palestrant - Sermo is closed community for physicians only
"Sign up to try the pre-launch version of Heysan IM"

[enters email address]

"Sorry, the beta signup is not available right now, please try again later!"

That was lame... I did find http://m.heysan.com/ on Google though.
Now you mention it, I am not a big fan of the "flat list" organizing principle, as popularized by iTunes. If you can think of anything to better organize bookmarks, you might be on to something. However, I also usually prefer to keep them on my local computer and not to share them with the world.
I thought I was the only one who uses the bookmarks for things to "read later".

Yes, Google let's you label the bookmarks. However, I was curious about the preference for a flat list that some people seem to like. Would a bookmarking site that doesn't have tags nor folders be something that people would like to use?
Well, I guess isolation is much higher barrier after all. Many says it is difficult to find people---for senior staff you are more likely to relocate them from mainland, but people are reluctant either if they have family, or if they think it isn't as easy to find other jobs here as other tech hubs in case if your startup tanks (plus the living cost is high here). For junior staff the only source is UH and some community colleges; there are talented people, but the pool is inherently small.

However, I do know some local startup benefitted by Act 221, hiring local people and doing good. It's just that the law itself isn't a silver bullet.
I didn't dig deep enough, but some of my friends did. If you're curious, I can ask them or introduce you to them. Drop me a line at shiro at acm dot org. I'm mostly in the video game / CG imaging industry. There are some interesting startup in this field here.
If your project really is the next big thing, if you really are in the advanced prototype stage, then you can share more information than nothing at all.

As is said everywhere within the entrepreneur world - ideas are easy, ideas are worthless, your's isn't unique, you are not the first to think of it and there is someone right now working on the exact same thing. It's all about execution - the execution of the idea, that everyone in the world has, is the key to success.

So, all of that just to say - you'll get more offers if you actually tell us what it's about.
_the Russian mafia_

A joke? Or is Levchin a member?
"Please contact us at: info at starbucksproject dot com"

are you making a social network for people who love starbucks coffee? can i tag by my favorite coffee?
http://www.linux.com/feature/114369 is the article. The link above takes you to the index which is ever changing.
You've had a lot of good responses. Why don't you tell us the general type of startup you want to create? That'd improve the advice you'll get tremendously.

My suggestion is that you get your hands dirty. See how much progress you can make. Be tricky: take short cuts, use open source software, use third party services, etc. If you're genuine and inventive in your effort I bet you can create at least a prototype. That's not just sketches on cocktail napkins, it's actual progress towards your goal.
Twitter.com CEO: With open source, it's all about the people
my self
My name is KANIKA . i am 10 years old . I am in class 5 . In ICSC board in india . I like to give test on internet . my hobbeis are dancing ,cycling, watching t.v , helping mother , helpnig the family . my wish is to work hard and be the great person but the great from father of india gandhi ji
The advice is great but based on the site I wonder if it's linked-jacked :-)
I move back in a week and have been telling the same story. drop me an email kzo@kzo.net, always looking to hear what other people are up to.
That's cool. But why not make the full version free?
Indeed, databases are real root of all performance problems. I rewrote a site to use the database much less frequently (mostly just for the initial loading and write operations) and I've been incredibly satisfied with the results.
Haha. Watch out for those trademarks...
What is the rationale behind limiting the iPhone to one carrier?

I used to think there is too much hype around the iPhone, but lately I wonder if maybe it really is a big deal for Apple: suppose the success of iTunes depends to a large part on iPods. More and more phones become decent enough MP3 players to make iPods superfluous. Hence the whole iTunes business could be at stake with the iPhone?
Sure, but there are also areas where the first mover advantage counts, and where a lot of people are capable of executing the idea - some perhaps better than the guy who thought of it.
Nice. I think a lot of us are inspired by PG's writings because he comes across as someone who perhaps was not "born" an entrepreneur, and yet managed to be successful. I know I identify far more with "hacker" than businessperson, so trying to make a go of being the latter is tough. It's always good to keep an eye out for what else you could do well.
I was attracted to Ruby because of Rails, and while I like it a lot, I'm old enough, I guess, to not really get so wrapped up in any one language. I spent all that energy trying to push Tcl over the years.

Rails is great, though, the only things that seem to come close are the Python frameworks, and I think at that point it comes down to a question of taste, and I think I like Ruby more than Python (even though I've used Python since...'99? Before it was popular in any case).
For me? _Way_ too much, it seems.
The future belongs to epaper
"Through their Empower ISV program you can get five complete sets of MSDN Universal (otherwise known as "basically every Microsoft product except Flight Simulator") for about $375. Command line compilers for the .NET languages are included with the free .NET runtime... also free. The C++ compiler is now free. Anything to encourage developers to build for the .NET platform, and holding just short of wiping out companies like Borland."

- Joel (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html)
Just trying to figure out how to get onto the Empower ISV program (plus the $875 per year for us in Australia!) is just proving my point about how hard it is to start developing for MS compared to Google now: https://partner.microsoft.com/

Get a Microsoft Live ID, sign up for the partner program, then what do you do? (Not supported in Firefox either)

How is this going to compete with the ease and speed of Google's offering or even Ubuntu+Lamp/ROR etc. and el cheapo shared hosting?
TurboGears 2.0 to be based on Pylons
This is very cool. We're starting to see a bit of consolidation in the Python web framework space. TG2.0 will be based on the core elements on Pylons--including Paste and SQLAlchemy. Pylons will remain a lower level collection of WSGI tools, and TG will create the high level framework with more of decisions made for you. I'm not crazy about Genshi and XML templating languages but otherwise this is good news.
Notice how I excluded England and Ireland above.
Google Growing Pains
Same here with david. I was attracted to Rails and seeing that it's written in Ruby I decided to take the plunge. I agree with plusBryan that it is important to have many options.

Frameworks have their own strengths and weaknesses inherited from the languages used to build them.

So quit the hating, please I don't get why RoR dudes(not all of them in fairness) love to bash hackers using other languages or frameworks. Although blogs like this tend to bring out alot of passionate if not misguided individuals.

I say pick your tools for the job.
Google's Marissa Mayer on the Future of Search
It doesn't say what percent of the business that $100K would take.
database tables are a flat list, but that doesn't mean that the they aren't organized. I usually search my flat list of bookmarks chronologically and by searching for some keywords.
On a related note, which "Widget" platform is most popular? I want to create a widget for my content eventually. I guess one should just support them all, but perhaps some make more sense than others? Guessing: OS X users are the most avid widget users?
Getting college students to drop out of school isn't difficult.

After all, the less valuable your time, the lower your opportunity cost.
I guess you could map the whole universe to a flat list, that wasn't my point ;-)

With iTunes or thousands of bookmarks, I find that I can't "stumble upon" things anymore - I have to know what I am looking for, so that I can search it. I used to have my music simply organized in folders, and it was so much easier to browse (and still searchable).

Of course the iTunes style allows for new ways of stumbling across music, like "all songs that beginn with the Letter A", but I prefer the "old way" so far.
If the team has no defensible advantage, then maybe it's not such a great idea after all.
I thought you meant that only applied to what came after the exclusion, and not to the first paragraph.
You have something in your head, and you mould every feedback you get to fit in with that concept. First rule of interface design - if people are complaining, don't explain to them how what you have in your head is the best approach, change it so they figure it out.

You needed a lot of time to do a lot of nothing, and if you ever want succeed, you'll need to change that.
Google Maps doesn't fit the long tail
Powerful Visualization Technique Taught In Music Video Mushaboom
Sorry for not being more clear. I mean, that since AAPL hit in the range of $120 after announcing the iPhone, they have plateaued. I think that Wall Street is waiting to see whether Apple can deliver a new product and keep things going on its other product lines without being distracted.
Problem was when I saw a screenshot with details that interested me, I clicked on it hoping to get a larger version. I did get a larger version, but it was a larger version of a different screenshot.
If you know what your customers expect, it's easier to do the unexpected
It is high time India (and Russia, China, Vietnam etc) founded their own angel investors. People willing to risk, willing to believe in their own people.

We rely too much on the generosity of America.

The IT boom in India has been largely, IMHO, as a result of American projects rolling in.

Why cant we generate our own?

All the Valley VCs from India (they are too well known for me to mention) should be ashamed of themselves. The top VC in the world is Indian.

that is why Bill Gates gives $100M and plenty of his time and energy to eradicate diseases in India's children. LN Mittal who is the 3rd or 4th richest man in the world, gives how much to his home country? (no reports of his giving).

Selfishness. that is the bane of India. That is why you have beggars on the streets alongside Mercedes Benzes.

And yet another unpopular post from me. :)
Please note, maxklein, that your feedback is not the only feedback I'm receiving, and your "first" rule of interface design is what I'm doing.

The reason why I'm not changing the page in response to your particular feedback about emphasizing automatic is that it's not coming from a potential customer. Explaining to non-potential-customers why other people would value this feature is not a high priority. Potential customers (people with little free time) will recognize immediately why having something done for them is valuable.

This entire round of feedback is for one change made in response to Paul Buchheit's complaint last time. I've made other changes in response to customer feedback, but didn't ask for news.yc feedback on all of them.
The Startup Game: What women want: Celebrity gossip
Joel's point was that they have to put at least some hurdle, otherwise, they would crush Borland and co, which would be a bad thing, since they provide devs useful tools.

I don't really know whether that's true or not, but it makes some sense.

Plus, MS has 99% control over the desktop, so it doesn't really make sense for them to give the tools away. Or else what, Linux will steal market share from them?
Which Javascript framework you use ?
Defensibility is created by means of demand-side economies of scale: having lots of users, in other words. Think reddit, and digg, for instance. Easily cloned, but reasonably defensible due to the large numbers of users.
Kevin Rose's Latest, Pownce, Launches
Cloud OS still pie in the sky (MicroSoft Web-based iteration still tentative)
Solving the Web security challenge ("80 percent of the vulnerabilities that we see are input validation errors")
iPhone-only Web-Based RSS Reader from Apple
Internet advertising: Going up, up, up
Crazy. How one can manage 3 startup's at once is beyond me. I guess at this point Digg doesn't require much effort though.
We prefer to call it a family.
All of this still doesn't change the facts. I don't one reputable designer (and I know a lot of them) that will volunteer without knowing what they are working on.

To be honest, most reputable designers follow the no-spec rules (http://www.no-spec.com/) and wouldn't work on a project without some form of payment.

Your only offered form of payment is equity in the company - which right now is valued at $0 because no one knows what the company is about.
Nope. Just named it very vague. We first met in Starbucks before started working together.

Its just a code name.
If you're in the advanced prototyping stage you would still be the first mover. Unless it's such a horrifically simply idea that someone else could launch a competitor within the week or two you are working with a designer.
Really? How much can YC scale? We ourselves aren't sure of the upper limit.

One thing I've learned from being around technology for so long is never to bet against the possibility of scaling things.
Yes, we are counting on first mover advantage. We would like to have few more months ahead of our imitators when we announce it :)
Top Web Apps in Arizona
No, getting them to drop out is easy.

However, convincing them they should take a lower salary with you, instead of working for Google, becomes an issue.

I'm walking away from a startup right now because they don't understand they have a lot of competition. 1) other companies, 2) myself. I'm going to startup on my own because the terms are terrible at my current startup.
But you can abstract it all away, with the frameworks that generate the HTML for you. Presumably you're going to be spitting out HTML/CSS/Javascript after some back end processing. You are free to create whatever abstraction you wish in order to accomplish this for you.

The problem with using something like Flex is that it's not available on all platforms and it's proprietary. When you develop for open platforms, you can avoid lock-in and have a higher chance of the technology being available to everyone. If HTML/CSS/Javascript can do everything you need (and I admit that in some cases it can't) and you are using something else simply because it has better abstractions, it seems to me that the lack of abstraction is a consequence of laziness or lack of imagination.
It is not that some one will start working on it without knowing what we are doing. We want to hear from hackers who are interested so that we can further discuss it.

I love YC, been to last Startup School, But hate to discuss our secrets openly here.
The big advertising spender is Proctor & Gamble, which leads at $4.9 billion.

4,900,000,000 dollars to differentiate soap.

I'm surprised Newspapers are still as high as they are. It's going to look more and more like the Geritol and Gold Bond powder presents Lawrence Welk and his Champagne dancers hour. Can Geritol save the NY Times?
If we're going to generalize about what different large groups want, I suppose we could look at traffic stats and probably say what men want: pictures of naked women. Probably by orders of magnitude more than all YC startups put together.
LinkedIn launches a Facebook application
I'll second the syncing across browsers. What I read and search for at work is drastically different from what I read and search for at home so I've ended up with two distinct sets of 'marks and my del.icio.us account is chaotic beyond hope of simplifying the problem.
Simon Willison's talk about OpenID at Google
Here's an interesting article: Bob Garfield's 'Chaos Scenario' A Look at the Marketing Industry's Coming Disaster http://adage.com/print?article_id=45561
There are several great Ruby and Rails books. The only "problem" is that many of them cost more than $0.

Some programmers think that $50 is a lot of money, but that time is basically free. Frankly, these people deserve PHP.
I would love to see something like this for every state. If nothing else, as a list of alternatives to moving to the Bay Area.
iPhone Marketing Campaign--"may be the most successful ever" (likened to 1964 Mustang)
I'm looking for a senior AJAX user centered experience designer programmer rock star with Ruby, Lisp, Fortran, and Rails experience for creating next amazing thing based on Web 2.0, Social Tagging, Virtual Reality, and P2P Streaming technologies.

For great justice.
The sad thing is that I'm pretty sure now I'll be shelling out $500 for the thing. I just can't help myself. I'm justifying it with the 100% increase in my share values over the last year but it's still a rationalization. :)
Upmodded for the AYBABTU reference.
Software companies are building their way to a very material future
The more generic your product is, the more you have to spend to differentiate it.

Coke is just sugarwater. Few could tell it from Pepsi if you switched the can. Nearly all its "value" is brand.
I'm not betting on anything, I just got the impression you guys were close to your limit:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29072

As far as I'm concerned, "it's all good" as they say. YC seems like a cool idea, so if you guys manage to scale it, great! If other people do something similar, that's good too from my point of view.

I'll defer to your longer involvement with technology, but YC is inherently a people operation, rather than a technology operation. I think technology scales more than people in some ways, but like I said, you guys are doing something good, so it's all icing on the cake, I guess.
You honestly don't need the full version to make great stuff. Yeah, there are some features, but I don't use most of them.

..You do live in a capitalistic society you know ;) People make things to sell them. Sometimes there's a specific business advantage to giving something away for free, but I can't imagine that the returns from doing that would be more than the returns from people buying Visual Studio.

Sorry for the harsh(ish) words, but this is America, and you don't get much for free. The ad-driven revenue model is beautiful, amazing, capitalistic communism, but not applicable to everything.
Maybe I'm one of the few, but I can instantly spot the difference between Diet Coke, Coca Cola, and caffeine-free Diet Coke and have done when mistakenly given one for another in a glass. The difference between Coke, Pepsi, and other colas is more marked.

I suspect a lot of people that automatically reach for a Diet Coke every day would also spot the difference.

I get the impression you don't drink it?
Pretty sure that Flex is going to be open sourced "real soon now", which I think will be a real boon.
Vive Le Founder
I'm thinking they're going to bring on successful founders as YC partners and break YC up into teams. All the applications would go through each team, and any team that wants to accept the application is responsible for mentoring them. That will scale beautifully, because more teams lets them accept more applications which will result in even more teams.

But that's just my guess.