skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Cool, I'll have to give this a try. While the microblogging space is pretty crowded, I think the basic microblogging framework (short messages, ability to follow friends, mobile support, etc) could be re-purposed to do some other cool stuff. Having open source code to play with (whether it scales or not) definately makes it easier to get an idea off the ground and see if it sticks.

A few ideas:

- An interesting story telling format where people can "follow" a story and the author periodically posts updates from the perspective of the story protagonist. Isn't part of the appeal of twitter to follow the lives of friends? Could this same format be used for fictional story telling?

- Mash-up w/ Yahoo Fireeagle and Google Maps and you could have a mobile service for commenting on real world places / businesses and getting mobile updates when friends comment on something or someone comments on something that's near you.

- A twitter for images/photography (make a firefox extension so that users can easily favorite a photo on any website with one click and it automatically gets added to their stream).

Open source apps like this are great because they make it easy to try out an idea without investing too much time in it. Then if the idea then takes off you may want to think about re-coding a more stable version from scratch...
I subtracted sleep. 16 waking hours, 4 TV.
He mixed up locked and no-contract. AT&T will offer "no-contract" phones for $599/$699 but they will still be locked to AT&T. You can use a different plan or pre-paid, as long as it's from AT&T. If you cancel, it's still cheaper than buying a no-contract phone, but you can't use another carrier (until the jail-breakers figure iPhone 2.0 out).
OOPS I forgot to give the link. It is a startup by Aza Raskin and his friends.
The link is http://www.humanized.com
Even if you don't use it do check out the demo. It's nice.
Looks like it's going to get more expensive to cancel an iPhone contract :)
PDF is the base of Mac OS X's UI. Is that a misuse?
Why I'm leaving Forrester
Thanks for that information. It was also right, I hadn't looked to hard.
My understanding is that the whole point of this feature is to identify bad sites. It defeats the whole purpose of the feature if it identifies itself as a robot and site owners can easily filter or redirect the traffic.
I've tried to download the source and all I get is a page that says "It works!".

Has anybody found the source?
As we see global property recession/dip in the real world, will will see this in virtual worlds like Second Life et al?
Eval(’foo=a’, obj.fn); How you will be private in Firefox 3.1
Is "we" Matasano? Maybe I'm missing something, but my immediate reaction based on the website would be to put it into the category of "consulting firm", not "startup".
I think he meant out of the time you're awake - so if you're up for 15 hours a day, 4/15 > 1/4.
Yeah, but those are for layouts. ;)
Okay - so now pretty much anybody can create a web site like Twitter. Do any of the open source apps have a full featured API like Twitter's?

The next step, it would seem, would be to "decentralize" it and get it to "just work" like instant messaging services.

Perhaps then Twitter could just abandon its web site all together and just focus on making its API as robust and scalable as possible?
The good news is that you'll never get over it. In my youth I developed severe, disfiguring calcifications of the scalp, which required surgery. The result was suboptimal, I still have numerous lesions left, and I face a scalp resection to get rid of all of them. I also had a jaw deformity--I didn't feel free to smile in public, until I was in my mid thirties. I was shy 30 years ago, and today I am proud to announce that despite the setbacks, despite never getting married and having a family, and despite the opportunity and economic costs, which have been considerable, and despite the lost time, which cannot be recovered, I am slightly less withdrawn today than I was then. My attitude did undergo a subtle but significant improvement.
The 1 way you need to attack shyness
This isn't my area, but I know enough to say that he speaks the right language and builds on existing results in the field.

So I'd classify this as a serious contender... in the same sense as other serious contenders have been put forward every 1-2 years for the past 50 years, only to be withdrawn after someone points out mistakes. I'd say that it's almost certain that there are mistakes somewhere in this paper -- the only question is whether they're serious flaws or just minor errors which can be worked around.
Is unlocking software illegal in the US?
Does anyone know what "north" and "south" mean in the context of the solar system?
While that may be true at this point in time, there is no telling how long Google's corporate leaders will be in place and no guarantee that their current philosophy and ideals will remain constant.

Once they have your data, they can mine it forever...
Why do you go to the party or bar? I don't attend such things.
To hazard a blind guess: pole the system rotates around + the right hand rule is North

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-hand_rule)
The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion
Personally, I don't think I NEED to be comfortable, as long as I like what I'm doing.

But sitting in a cafe with good music never hurts :)

(I do wish I had cmos' debugging cat.)
I don't. I go to events (usually business related) that I've been invited to. The more geeks in the room, the more comfortable I feel. The more MBAs, the less.
I think I agree?
i hear that there is an awesome easter egg in the -100s somewhere
Ask YC: Just quit my day job to work on NewsCred fulltime. Looking for marketing inspiration.
I finally did it! Yesterday was my first full day of 100% entrepreneurship. Things were taking off and I'm excited to finally be able to give full attention to my real passion. Quite daunting, but exciting.

So now that I'm full time, my few weeks will be spent on marketing and user acquision. Any pearls of wisdom or inspiration for interesting marketing campaigns?
How many people are lurking on this thread?
If done right, I don't think the API would be hard to add in.

The real challenge is making sure that it can scale out to the number of updates and users as twitter has. Making something that looks like twitter isn't that hard.
congrats on the gmail!

I had a very poignant moment when I started forwarding my Pitt email to gmail and realized it was the email address I was going to have for the rest of my life.
Our consulting business funds two FTE devs. We haven't taken a dollar of VC, we have two nice offices, we pay competitive salaries, we offer health insurance and a 401k, and we can turn out products whenever we want. I don't know what you'd call our company, but since you've never made payroll, I'm not sure why I'd care, either.
I find 0 value in Twitter as a "microblogging" application. I know others do, though.

I find value in Twitter where it really shines: SMS integration, Jabber integration and great API.

For my particular use case, Twitter is a (very) different kind of instant messenger rather than a "microblogging" application. For me, none of these apps (dis|re)place Twitter.
At times, I think it's inversely proportional. Quiet is good, but sometimes being in an environment that's a bit rough around the edges is helpful to staying on task, rather than relaxing.
I think it's great fun to read it now. Imagine thinking Meese would still be famous in 2008!

Part of the point of Hiro is that he's a loser and an asshole. There wouldn't be a plot if he started out as a good guy, because he wouldn't find himself mixed up in the mafia and cults the way he did.
Congratulations!

Perhaps you've read this, but this is great advice from Alexis of reddit.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24126/How-to-market-your-website-o...

Contests are a good way to increase activity on your site... free t-shirts for the top5 commenters? Or flash drives or anything really.
Well for one, I've never heard of anyone using it. Social sites are only as good as the people who use them. Well, most of them, anyways.
Interesting - post 1 has comments. no more comments until post 15. which then has the same conversation between pg and dnom as the first post. To top it off, post 17 is the conversation in posts 1 and 15.
Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in northwestern Europe?
Decentralizing and API are coming soon apparently. The decentralized aspect through http://openmicroblogging.org/

Twitter as a platform was a shitty idea from the start. Imagine all blogs/subscriptions handled by one company. A group of big players and then the ability to host your own will make microblogging stable and popular.
i've enjoyed pretty much everything that he has done, with the exception of the Baroque Cycle, Confusion, System of the World series ( great reads, just an awful lot to digest and keep straight).

Cryptonomicon is a geeks must read.
13 Ways for Shy People to Socialize at an Event (courtesy of News.YC's wallflower)
But isn't the solar system (and galaxy) relatively flat? Would it really be 8 billion miles to the heliosheath if you're going perpendicular to the plane of the solar system? Looks like I've got some astronomy to brush up on.
it's the new comments page for me...
I think those 'items' are comments, not posts.
The problem with most of these theories is that they don't prove causation - just correlation. The causation could go the other way. For example, let's consider the argument that it was the growth of institutions that led to economic development. But could it not be that it was economic development that led to institutions? Did industrialization cause the growth or did the growth cause the industrialization?

This is easier to see with more current examples. Why is Silicon Valley what it is and some other parts of the country technological backwaters? Any causal argument can be turned around so that the effect is the cause and the cause is the effect.
The Dilution and Devaluation of Web Content: Focus on FriendFeed
sigh

I get screenshots of Excel spreadsheets... embedded in Word documents. On a regular basis.
Here is a real list, shorter and MUCH higher quality:
1. The Cyberiad
2. Babel-17
3. The Stars My Destination
4. The Sheep Look Up
5. More Than Human
6. Lord of Light
7. To Your Scattered Bodies Go
8. Earth Abides
9. Dying Inside
10. City
11. Last and First Men
12. Slan
13. The World of Null-A
Remember to snag a copy of http://www.adobe.com/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/pdf_reference_1-7.p... for future reference after the standard vanishes behind ISO's pay policies.
It really depends on the site and the niche and what you are trying to do etc.

I'm not sure if a discussion of affiliate marketing is really relevant to "Hacker News".

There are a couple of eBooks I would recommend, but you can get most of that info for free if you read some blogs and forums. Just search for "super affiliate blog" and start your research there.. :)
Are there ways to get and use an iPhone in the US without having to have anything to do with AT&T?
Shouldn't you be able to short it? If you have a good in-game and out-game reputation, would you be able to borrow gold, convert to cash, and then convert cash to gold when your debt comes due?
Thanks for the passionate rant. I'm the guy who's about to make the big decision.

Something I found especially interesting was your point about unfashionable research not getting respect (and funding) in academia, even if it works out. I used to work at Caltech, and the biggest surprise for me was how much time the P.I. I was working for had to spend on grant proposals--and doing the political work to get people excited about his stuff. It struck me as pretty similar to entrepreneurship, actually, but with money coming from a very different source than happy customers.

I'm going to spend today and tomorrow acting as if I canceled my admission this year. Then I'll see how I feel on Friday.
I can't do creative work without air conditioning. Sad but true.
ditto. (thanks for pointing out posts vs. items.)
Nice.

Can I do a "git clone" of your cats?
Ask YC: Has Paul Graham ever made a joke online?
I've never met Paul Graham or seen any videos of him talking. All I know is that he created this site and that he posts here. But I noticed - every single one of his posts is super serious. I have NEVER seen PG crack a joke or follow up on a joke. I have to ask...

What's the deal with that? Is pg like some really humourless guy? Is he afraid of letting his hair down? Or is he like a really stern mentor like in the movie Kung Fu Dragon Master From the Shaolin Temple, where the master is all serious and then the American student thinks he knows kungfu and punches the master, and it turns out that actually the master just removed his underwear...but for startups?
I don't mean to go off topic, but thank you, that's a great site.

Too many books are like padded out Wikipedia entries.

Its great when people on HN, distill a post to its essentials.
GPL3. Blech.
Can't find any information on PDF being the base for OSX UI, I'd appreciate any links.
Personally I don't subscribe to the notion that you need to work 100 hours per week to be successful mentality.

You do need to be serious and work on your start up full time, but you will most likely be able to get just as much done working for 60 hours as you do working 100.

The reason for that is because you can actually stay focused on your work for 60 hours. Don't get me wrong if you actually have something to do, its perfectly fine working for 100 hours. But don't try to force yourself into working a 100 hour week, just to convince yourself that you are taking it seriously.
Convenience Over Correctness [pdf]
I found a bug, you have FOX News listed as a credible news source. Nonetheless, congratulations on cutting the umbilical cord.
honestly i only got half way through - its really long and i cant be bothered to read long stuff unless its really good.

this guys seems really motivated to succeed and not afraid of truly digging in to get what he wants, so of course, best of luck bro!
I'm sure there's lots of legal wrangling involved.
Go to omnisio.com and watch his talk at the last startup school. Then you can choose whether you want to delete this submission or not.
I'm sure the first fifteen were used primarily to populate the burgeoning news.yc
The question I have, of course, is how does one keeps their mental clarity of working even 70 hours a week over a month? For all the workaholics I've seen, most are not able to do so, lose sight of the big picture, and end up doing worse work than if they'd kept a normal schedule.
How can I (tech blogger) get my content on NewsCred?

"2 Cups - We combined that list with the top 100 blogs ranked by Technorati."

I am on the top 100 but can't find my blog on NewsCred.

As for increasing signups.. lower the barriers to entry. Add OpenID (look at clickpass too) and advertise that on the homepage. The quicker your users know registration is as easy as supplying a user name and openid url, they will not hesistate, in theory.
Firstly, congratulations. Leaving paid employment is often a big step to take for people used to getting a wage and usually a vital one in being a entrepreneur.

The most effective form of marketing is word of mouth. Try to do things to get people passionate about your site and talking about it. Find out what draws people to you and run competitions/events/campaigns around those areas.
Yes, you can import them from Belgium (or Italy, or possibly Australia). Due to the laws of Belgium, it is illegal to lock a phone to a single carrier.

Unfortunately they seem a bit pricey:
http://blog.steven.be/2008/06/belgium-iphone-prices.html
Congratulations, it sounds like you have a very successful business -- I'm sure many people here would love to be as successful as you are.

But it still isn't a startup. :-)
It is legal to unlock your phone in the US, as a special exception to the DMCA.

Creating or distributing software that allows unlocking phones is not explicitly allowed under that exception. That is to say, it is illegal according to the letter of the law.
I don't place much value in web 2.0 marketing strategies. There is a difference between the user who would come to your site and stay and use it and the user who would just come in response to a campaign. You need to make sure your groundwork is done first before you start thinking about campaigns.

What value do you provide to users? Figure that out, then figure out what people would find that valuable. Then figure out where you can find a lot of those people, then think up marketing campaign ideas.

There is also a difference between marketing to your current users, and marketing to potential users. Separate the two. The contest idea for the top 5 commenters is really valuable to existing users. and it creates value (content) for you, which helps entice other users. But if you direct it at potential users, you're wasting your time, because they're not likely to join just to comment on something and hope to win something. Most people would assume an existing user would just beat them out for the prize, and they'd probably be right.

So my advice is to do a lot of groundwork first, then come up with an interesting idea that fits who you want to target. Not come with an interesting idea, and then try to fit it into what your research says.

And congratulations by the way, its a big step, so good luck. :)
Hey, I'd just like to thank everyone for helping out and providing your comments and suggestions about our project. We got a lot of exposure just from this YC post and we're starting to shake hands with people who have offered assistance. None of this wouldn't have happened without the help and support of the YC community. Thanks!
"Quartz's feature-rich drawing engine leverages the Portable Document Format (PDF) drawing model and offers Mac OS X applications professional-strength drawing functionality."

http://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/quartz/
Probably not officially otherwise they would have a .gov.uk domain, but I imagine they must be at least loosely affiliated with the government to be pushing this sort of idea.
Yea, I use flashblock myself. I'm of the mind of making a non-flash front-end just because it's not very light-weight. Javascript and CSS could provide the same experience without the weight of the flash interface, but it kinda makes sense to display flash guts in a flash container, doesn't it? :)
Feedback Request: Executive Bored - Support group for people stuck at work
I just opened the doors on a site Monday and would love feedback.

http://www.executivebored.com

Background (read after you check out the site)

I'm a mid-20s city-dweller with lots of accountant/consultant/white collar friends. They all share one thing - they hate their jobs. Also, the sites they used as procrastination fuel in college are definitely not work safe. The old tricks don't work in the office.

A writer friend (he works in HR) and I wondered if we could make something that "took care" of them during the work day so they could laugh about the situation together and get on with work. That's the audience and problem.

That was 12 days ago. Here's what we did since then to road test a solution:

1) Decided to attack with an "open magazine"-style site, a la JPGmag.com and College Humor.com. These sites are driven by a stable of contributors who "seed" the way for members to post their own stuff.

2) Picked Drupal to build it on. It's got the feature-set for a site like this.

3) Grabbed a domain name - Executive Bored,.

4) Thought up content with an eye toward making it easy to post stuff that seems natural in a work environment. You can post stuff you bought at work, links to music you listen to at work, videos you watch at the office, games you play in the office and stories about work, all anonymously.

I added some basic social networking features, profile pages, friending, a few profile fields, ability to track your submissions.

5) I worked away on it in my spare time for a few days. Sunday night we e-mailed friends and family about it. We started posting the next day. Response has been very positive. We're just now telling people we don't know about it.

So that's Executive Bored. Monday we had 70 people drop by. Yesterday we had 200 people drop by. Today's looking like a 250-300 day and another 10 sign ups or so.

Thoughts?
Yea, 'sex' is actually a popular query, but for some reason, none of the SWF files that we've indexed contain the string 'sex'. Believe me, there are plenty of porn-related SWF files out there, so the material is not lacking, just categorizing the data is something that needs to be done.
Technically, they did contact many of the people who run the biggest ruby on rails websites before the announcement, which was kind of them.
There's a 2004 movie called Primer where the main characters made a time machine and the first thing they think of is making money off the stock market(though at lower levels, since their machine can only go back to the point it's turned on)

After that, though, it gets weird.
He clearly has a sense of humor:

http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=35079

I don't know where you get the 'serious' impression. The content on his website makes it seem like he's having a great time, most of the time. And you might notice that he edits out the negative stuff pretty fast, e.g. comments with angry interjections, or the deleted preface (available if you view source) for this: http://www.paulgraham.com/polls.html
All I need is a good computer that doesn't freeze, good chair, good music and some junk food/water bottles and I'm all set.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152428
We should meet up some time. I'll be starting a new job in the Loop in a couple weeks.
Indeed I am framing this as a rational rather than emotional problem.

I think you made a very good point about the difference in the way extraverts and introverts enter new social situations. That really does make a huge difference: just dive in, mess up, and adjust (a lot like, say, running a start-up). That will get the learning process going. I think there's another element, though: that incomprehension of "lite" social interaction.

Regarding the courage hypothesis, here's how I've often heard it put: "Oh, don't be afraid, don't care what other people think, just say what you really want to say." To me, this misses what's happening. What's really happening is simply not having a clue how to participate. A dial tone on the brain. The reason, if I pick up a guitar, I don't play music, isn't because I'm afraid to, but because I don't know how to play guitar. I tried going to bars a bunch (I seem to have lots of social courage), but I didn't really get anywhere until some friends explained various social protocols: posture, how to make physical contact, how to pick out clothes, what to not talk about (decorators in Python, cryonics), etc.

Here's a weird piece of evidence: extraverts have exactly the same feeling of disorientation in our world. Get a strong extravert into a conversation that pursues something in depth (not so much breadth), and they get a dial tone on the brain, too. They quickly bail, the same way introverts bail out of social situations.

Hmm... mild autism. Maybe that's what I've got (and many other shy, geeky people). That's a new angle, and it might be right.

Another possibility: optimal stimulation level.