skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
to this list I can add a few more reasons: A fairly strong potential for financial ruin; an amazing amount of personal drama; and deep strain on friendships among the founders.

After my last (also my first) company failed - my credit was heavily damaged (and after nearly 4 years it has yet to fully recover), repaying debt can take quite a long time (I spent the last 3.5 years working at a well paying corp job and I was only able to fully settle the debt early last year), and due to bad advice from a (very) expensive accountant the IRS was a thorn in my side for 2.5 years.

But, I'm about to do it again as the experience is amazing and a _fantastic_ education.
A Podcast channel on YC News so we can submit and upvote good podcasts. See here for more info:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29039
Please delete/collapse threads on here for features that have already been implemented.
An Entrepreneurial Take on Health Care
Actually I've been working on News.YC lately. And advising 19 new startups. I can just about remember what they're each working on...
One of the features that is (I hope) coming soon is an actual feature request list, rather than a comment thread used for one.
Sounds like incorporating early would've helped a lot. Don't accept personal debt.
I think anyone who is a general-purpose journalist rather than a domain expert is going to have this problem. Journalists don't actually understand the stuff they write about; no one could, probably; so instead they have a lot of hacks for sounding like they know what they're talking about.

Come to think of it, though, domain experts are often wrong too. Think about programming books, for example. I've now learned enough about several other fields to be fairly sure this problem is universal, except possibly in math. (Though even mathematicians have often been wrong in the sense of overlooking something that to later generations will seem obvious.)

Basically, you have to be a very critical reader. I doubt there's a "solution" beyond that. This is something the very smartest people struggle all their lives to get better at-- to take in all the stuff they're told, and from that figure out what's really going on.
Facebook is not technologically primitive. Unlike some earlier, similar services, it scales. This is no accident, but has to do with clever things like Thrift (go google it). Also, I remember the current CTO of Facebook as being extremely smart even by the standards of the good CS school we both attended.
There is some famous example to do with classification of simple finite groups where a big theorem had been proved over the course of many papers by various people over the years, and then when somebody tried to write a big monograph about it, they found all sorts of holes that took years to close.
started off as an LLC, switched to a C corp 4 months later.

we found it impossible (within the time frame we needed) to sign big ticket contracts, for things like 10k sq/ft in office space (yes, stupid in hindsight), or a cage in a datacenter; for a company less than a year old without personal guarantees.
I of course recognize that capitalism is all we have. It still pains me that politics in the USA are corrupted by corporations and that a billion people live in absolute poverty. Still, the average standard of living is higher now than it's ever been.

I just can't get past this feeling that there's something horribly wrong with our society... from pharmaceutical companies keeping AIDS medication locked away to an invasion of the Middle East to take their energy. This can all be explained through rational self-interest but it's pretty horrific to contemplate. Is there a better way? Will we ever achieve real Globalization?

Can and will global poverty be solved before humanity achieves a post-scarcity economy?
Silicon Valley's Valley
I have found that finding "available" domain names is close to impossible these days... some people get really creative with it though.

Has anyone started looking at european extensions like .es, .pl, .lv etc... ? Domains like imin.lv ha!

How would a foreign extension affect user search results? Would you show up in a US search if you're under .es?
It's no different in other industries. Teams have to pay star players lots of money, even if they later do badly; publishers give big advances to famous writers, and sometimes their books flop. It's just the way the world works, not some specially sinister thing about CEOs.
We focused on making sure our name was memorable and easy to spell. It's a bit goofy, but I'm pretty sure if you saw it briefly in an article or overheard someone talking about the site you'd be able to easily find it later.

And no, I'm not ready to share the name yet. :)
Yep, they definitely wanted to be associated with Google. In fact, if there was a Google Checkout t-shirt they would have worn it. It's clear that they went there to tout the merits of Google Checkout. That being said, it unfortunate the way the Ebay exec handled it. He fell for it hook, line and sinker.
I got really lucky and scored a recently unregistered domain name, hivgene.com (nothing there yet)
'... incomprehensible business names ...'

Cruel but pretty close to the mark. Never thought of it that way. Of course you could use the total utilitarian method favoured by Chinese companies ( I've observed this on industrial equipment & stores direct from the Chinese manufacturers ) of "Stamp Mill #14" or "Foundry #4".

The real problem is the broken domain name system. If you have a company you need a domain name that matches. Yet domain name companies create tools to let you buy names that are similiar to squatters who buy them up. This ties up domain names and hence the problem in name choice.

My favourite geeky product naming technique was Andrew Tridgewell of Samba, RSync who had to think up a word for his new SMB (Server Message Block) protocol. Solution? Simply grep for smb against the system dictionary on his system. Samba was chosen. ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_software#History
It's appropriate that Marc should post this piece today, the first weekday since I quit my job to work on my startup full-time. Just so I truly know what I'm in for.

Can't wait to read the rest of this series. Good times!
Steve Ballmer: Microsoft's incompetent youth
That's one thing most of us hope we DON'T get when we "score".
Upvoted for title.
:) in this case, the "HIV Gene" is something you would want to have
Very low profile TEEN Social network  explodes and grows rapidly killing high profile bubbles :)
So how does a recommendation algorithm get around the fact that interesting doesn't equate to accurate? Oh wait it doesn't. Although I do enjoy the irony of the first publicity for this site that will find the TRUTH is complete bullshit.

Also the implication "we could win netflix we just don't want to" is not very credible.
Coders at Work website is up and open to suggestions
I have about 2000 photos on ourdoings, plus a handful on flickr, yahoo photos and shutterfly.
'... Podcasts are just more efficient ...'

For users, not creators. They take a lot of work to do properly (Doug Kaye, The Secret Lives of MP3 Files, http://pa.gigavox.com/shows/detail1600.html mp3, 54min, 25Mb ) and besides articles are way more bandwidth efficient given their size.
useful:

http://instantdomainsearch.com/
Any recommendations on convincing wives to let their husbands become entrepreneurs?
Flickr & Facebook
Boston Web Innovators Group - July 9 only summer mtg
Why? I don't think it helps the site to segment it like that especially when its not that high traffic.
Like all things, Facebook is not a solution for everything. Look at it as a marketing and exposure medium at best, and anything else you gain (users) is just a bonus.
Think you're getting close to the upper limit of startups per session?
Promise her riches beyond her wildest dreams?
A quick follow-up on "Programmers at work" http://tinyurl.com/3cb2qk would be good. I would add also ...

- Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, (Mac dev team) http://www.folklore.org

- Michael Abrash (Dr. Dobbs & PC Graphics) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Abrash

- Brian Kernighan http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/bwk/
Starting Ruby On Rails:  What I Wish I Knew
'... convincing wives to let their husbands become entrepreneurs? ...'

Find the union of where your expertise domain overlap and complement and work towards an idea from there. Think SixApart (coder, designer ~ blog tools), Fastgraph (coder, game designer ~ games & engine development tools), Flickr (visual design, communication skills) . Lots of startups have spouses in them. It's a matter of finding and aligning skillsets,
Is this uncommon for a startup...
I wonder if gene therapy could make us immune to ALL viral STDs. That would rock. So would girl robots.
The co-founders will ask you to stay for ~12-14 hours per day, 7 days per week for up to 3 weeks at a time without breaks.

Personally, I have 0.2% in the company (vested over 4 years) and don't receive a 6 figure salary, but I'm also very good at the technical work I do.

I'm just curious if this is a very typical thing to see. Is 12-14 hour days for this compensation good? The work is extremely stressful, to say the least.
"Let"? That kind of pre-existing power disparity already says it's doomed.

You need all your support systems Go For Launch or it's a no go. They all need to be behind you, pushing you FORWARD.
As a married entrepreneur, I would never recommend having your wife work with you. Relationships are complicated enough without throwing business complications into the mix. My "trick" was to have a startup that grew organically out of and enhanced my "day" job.
Yould (http://ygingras.net/yould) Uses Markov chains to generate pronouncable random names. I can't reccomend it enough. What do you guys think?
"So when you're rich can leave me for some younger, hotter model?"
It's a super tough thing. I think the startup founder with a successful marriage and a successful startup is the rare exception. They're both full-time commitments and one almost always loses the battle for attention.

Tom Leykis (much hated LA "shock jock") advises (paraphrasing): Do not get married until you've achieved your dream in life.

I think that's good advice to take, even if it's tough thing to face. I haven't see much evidence to contradict it.
Sounds unreasonable to me, unless you're in some kind of predefined "crunch" period.
we are, but this is nearly the 4th week straight ;)
So at this point, you can ask for more money, more shares, or normal hours. Will they fire you if you ask for more? It doesn't sound like you're easily replaceable.
Correct--I'm not an easy person to replace, especially considering my age. I might consider that.
Mmm, maybe Fake Steve Jobs is DHH. :)
Or... not. This increases convenience for everyone, including those using Windows.
Stockholders have very little control over companies. The boards of directors tend to be inbred--CEOs from various firms serve on each others BoDs. So, you get what you get.

I doubt any CEO's salary comes near the theoretical market value of the job.

In Japan, CEOs make much, much less, and they don't seem to be hurting as a result. I'm inclined to dispute the "superstar" theory of upper-level executives. Semel's defining moment came when he decided not to buy google. This is tantamount to a baseball player deciding not to swing the bat--hoping for a ball. Not much of a superstar.
That's a little extreme.

How much do you like the company, the project, and the co-founders aside from this issue?
My personal feelings are strongly anti-podcast. I find them a great inconvenience. I can read faster than people can talk and I can't think or work effectively when someone is talking. Written communication is by far my favorite way of getting information.
Are they working as much as you? If not, don't ask for better compensation and leave them. Nobody can't stand in such conditions too long.
If you're asking this here, I'd say don't do it. Don't presume you have to go for it, especially right now. Keep in mind she may take on about as much of the risks and downside as you do without the personal satisfaction you get out of it.

Colin Powell may not be President of the US right now simply because his wife is not up for it it. But even though he could push her into battle or steamroll her, he doesn't. Just shows that he's a smart guy and model husband -- two traits not often combined in presidents, as it so happens.
Woops, I guess downmodders felt left out -- girl AND boy robots.
Aaron Swartz wrote something noteworthy? If so, it's not web.py.

How about:

- Fabrice Bellard. wrote QEMU, TinyCC, FFMPEG, and an awesome IOCCC entry

- Miguel de Icaza. wrote GNOME, Mono

- Larry Page, Sergey Brin. wrote a program to DoS attack webservers

- Bram Moolenaar. wrote everyone's favorite text editor

- Richard Stallman. wrote two operating systems, one in Lisp (called 'emacs'), one in C (called 'GNU'). authored the GPL

- Bjarne Stroustrup. created C++

- Robert Morris. created the Internet Worm (aka "Morris Worm")
I agree, but podcasts are great when you are going for a walk, driving, or riding your bike.
Well, 12-14 hours a day is pretty much the norm for a startup right?

I am, too, living thru prelaunch of my startup. But think of looking back at yourself 10 years later... you will be proud that you live through this. If you have the passion, this is the time to be.
long urls as in 'http://link-to-site' in the discussion or 'story titles' in the main index?
Yeah, I feel bad about posting big long links like that, and would gladly spend the time to use markdown. I added that as a feature request a while ago (ok, 5 days, but it feels like a 'while ago' in speedy life land):

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27783

The 'SEO links' links do, unfortunately, seem to be effective.

It seems that the comment is old enough that I can't edit it any more to replace, it, either...sorry.
On the other hand, I run a little online shop with my girlfriend, that is getting pretty respectable income: I handle the technical things, and she handles the customer services/inventory/shipping stuff.

It surely beats working for somebody else: more time to spend together, less grunt work and potentially more income too.

You do not need VC/Angel funding for your startup... it is definitely possible to grow your business, have a life and be rich at the same time. Don't be ruled by the 'Tyranny of Or'.
Famous people (not necessary the best coders in their team), story of their life = APress book = Money = $$$$$$$$$$$$

There's no measurement how great a coder is. An inventor, a creator, a leader, now those attributes are better topics to write than coders.
Well... there's a broad spectrum of startup "types" - everything from "supplement my income, maybe replace it in the future" to full bore "VC funded, have to grow like cancer or we'll die".

If your idea fits in the the former class of startup convincing a spouse should theoretically be fairly easy - just set boundaries on time spent on your idea and make sure she gets plenty of time too; but I can't speak from experience here.

If your idea is closer to the latter or anything like a "typical" startup, good luck. An environment like that is going to be hard on _everybody_ in any close relationship with you. In my last startup, one of my employee's marriage came very close to failing due to the pressure... and he wasn't nearly doing the hours that the founders were doing.

Are you sure you'd want to do that to your wife?
I more or less hide it from my girlfriend. No really.

It does help that she works long hours as well, and of course we have no children.
Time to upgrade the server!
Do not get married

Fixed.
Buy a shelved company for a few hundred bucks? Heh, I've wondered how well that would actually work.
I love your last sentence :) you can give it up 1000 times and than try it again in the another way. That's my mantra.
But for everyone no matter how little of the rewards they are entitled to? No.
What is the big deal about the iPhone? Isn't it just another product that may or may not prevail? Why do writers try to make it sound as if the fate of Apple and Steve Jobs would depend on it? Also was it such a huge investment for Apple? I don't think these days building a phone is that much of a problem, at least there are several companies who managed to do it before.
I think the problem is that people would still just use the .com domain, so your marketing investments would simply benefits your competitors.

Which makes me think, what is the default behavior of browsers? Surprisingly many people only type the company name into the url field (without www or .com) - I think then they are at the mercy of msn search?
My rails (not ruby) experience: The deeper you go the more muddled you are; or better: At the end the ratio of rails and your own or third party code is 1:100

The only helpful thing in rails is ActiveRecord, you can also use separately. Distressful is that ruby and rails are by many people considered as the same thing. Those ROR versus PHP versus Java versus whatever-you-want are simply infantile. Please no flame and good luck :)
I recently tried PickyDomains.com, which was a suggestion from news.ycombinator. My task was an "umbrella page" - I am tired of this domain name problem, so I figured I need something like google or yahoo - when they create a new service, they just create a subdomain (maps.google.com, answers.yahoo.com, whatever.google.com...).

What PickyDomains came up with is Artifia.com (since I mentioned artificial intelligence, I guess). So here is my question to news.yc: what do you think about that name? I am not a native speaker, so it is hard for me to judge (sounds good in German, not even sure how it would be pronounced in english). I think the name could grow on me.
how much and/or how many rounds of funding has the startup had? how many employees are there?
Usually the cheapest option is not the most efficient. But usually the next cheapest is.
The prevalence of completely preventable ailments that plague people due to lifestyle is astounding.
How can you argue against the superstar CEO theory? People like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Henry Ford, etc.

People on a Board of Directors fire superstars because they're hard to control and hire losers that are "team players". Just because they implement the theory so horribly doesn't mean it's not a valid one.

I wouldn't look to Japanese companies for any pointers on staying innovative or disruptive. Japan is still all about the status quo, risk-aversion, and bureaucracy. They should be so much further along it's scary and it is hurting them: a superstar at Sony would have created the iPod.
Bite Your Tongue: Eight More Ways To Improve Your Presentations
Ummm...

I'm assuming that the reason that you're doing this is because you own a bit of the company. But, have you run the numbers? For you to make $1 million the company is going to have to have a $500 million dollar exit. So, unless your company is the next Myspace, YouTube, Facebook or Google: renegotiate your compensation, or quit the job and start your own company.
After involving a few startups myself, I've a few advices to give you all:

1. Try hard to make a name that is not more than Three syllables: see how Apple names their names from corporate name "Apple" to products like "iPod", "iTunes", "WebObjects", etc. Chances are, you'll chain your company name with another product: "Apple iPod". So keep it SHORT!!

2. Make sure you speak the name 100 times to yourself, just make sure it is easy to say. Imagine your operator has to say "Welcome to XXX" thousand times a day.

3. Make sure non-English speakers can speak it easily, and not embarrased. So please, no weird "Z" or other tricky accent. If your Chinese/Japanese/Korean/French/Italian friends have no problem speaking, you're A-Okay, otherwise do it again.

4. Make sure you get the name right the first time. It is pain in the butt to change company name later.... bank accounts, merchant accounts, address, and other paperwork will drive you crazy. I learned it the hard way.

On a side note, I run a little online flower shop that is catered to a smaller market in Asia. We named it fleur.hk instead of some super long abc-flower-shop.com names. Well, I can tell you we have the shortest flower shop name in Asia, super easy to remember. No problem getting traffic whatsoever.

So if your company only focus for a specific country, go ahead to use some their .com TLDs.
I'd like to add that Netbeans 6 M9 with Ruby support is the best Windows / Linux IDE I've found so far.

Edit: Link: http://dlc.sun.com/netbeans/download/6.0/milestones/latest/
Your wife or your cofounders' wives? I only ask because you phrase it in plural.
I think it's a highly personal situation, and depends a great deal on the couple. Some people actually enjoy working together - I don't think I would (I'd rather hear what my wife did at work that has nothing to do with my job), and the 'hedging' aspect of someone with a steady job isn't a bad thing, either.

I've tried to get my wife to read as many of the really good articles as possible - some of PG's stuff... I tried to get her to read 'founders at work', but have yet to succeed. It would be a great book though.

It also depends on other things like where you are (kids? now? how many years from now?), what she does, what she wants to do, what kind of life she wants to live, what your ideas and her ideas are about how long it will be before you make money.

I think the best thing is to talk all those things over thoroughly.

In terms of "attaining your goals in life", though, I know that having met and married my wife is higher up there than anything else, and I always try and keep that in mind.
Gerald Jay Sussman, co-creator of Scheme and co-author of SICP.
Expiring domains, dude.

Several hours on Instant Domain Search, eventually finding one that was expiring, slapping down $18 at GoDaddy, and waiting patiently for it to finally be released. That's how we got lalife.com and, just today, localgo.com for our upcoming site.

Okay, actually, we got LALife.com directly from GoDaddy a few months before they started auctioning off such domains. But localgo.com just flat-out expired, was picked up by two domain kiters for a week or so, then was completely available.

There are a lot of names that expire every day. Maybe you don't want hearcon.com, lolmat.com, gotajet.com, gotomit.com or liewell.com (all available since two days ago), but hey, somebody once did for some reason. It's worth considering.

Admittedly, you want to avoid ambiguous sites with expired domains, since you often can't grab alternate spellings. True story: one of my friends is the founder of a startup called Flixor, and I was dumbfounded to discover one morning that TechCrunch had a story on Flikzor. With a Z and a freakin' K! People, people! So you may want to cover your bases as much as possible for the simple fact that names as scarce as they are.

I don't know a good site for searching through expired domains securely, though. Anyone have a suggestion?
What about the people who want to read about coders?
The iPhone has bluetooth right?!

In the worst case, pretty sure it is no brainer to hookup an Apple Wireless Keyboard or even a cheapo PC bluetooth keyboard with it.
What I'd really like is markdown, but I don't suppose there are too many implementations of that sitting around for Arc.
I think it's pretty smart marketing in some ways. People remember that kind of stuff, and it's getting them a lot of attention. I remember at Linuxcare when the head of marketing (who was actually one of the brightest guys at the company, except for Andrew Tridgell of course) pulled some kind of stunt, of which I dont' remember the details, with the implication that Linuxcare was the place to go for Redhat support. Of course we had to pull it, but it got on all the news sites and got the name out.
You really want to own the .com, I think. Some URL's for foreign countries are pretty cool, but if people don't quite remember the name, they're going to attach a .com at the end.
Do you create one closure/session/page? Why not just one semi-permanent closure/page?
Can Yahoo revive its digital dreams?