skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Ask YC! What can I do to prepare myself to start a company.
I believe that my career at a big software company is coming to an end. I am still a valuable member of the team that I work in and totally not motivated by the day to day job.
I have several pet and personal projects that I work on at nights and weekends to keep my startup hopes alive.

I've dreamed about starting my own company for the last 10 years and that's the only single thought I carry with me every day, day in and day out.

I've recently visited a start-up in Los Angeles (where I live) for a job opportunity and I came back with the feeling that I can do a better job than what the founders were upto.

I am technical (software architect at my company) and can work on my own thing. It's just that currently I do not have any projects that I am passionate about.

My question for you guys and for which I need advice is:

I have 3 weeks of vacation that I cannot take and travel (my wife's work cannot give her vacation).

How can I best use it to start something on my own.

1) Work on a project
2) Travel locally, meet with fellow entrepreneurs and learn.
3) Attend seminars.

What would you think would be the best way to spend my time before I quit this job and start something.

Regards,
Pras
I left a company that used Trac effectively and joined (for a short time) another one that used SharePoint. Total suckage. Glad I got out of there.
see I just cant figure out everything it does. the interface isnt horrible, its the experience.
I think it massively sucks. I work with it every day. It is a slow beast. It does have widgets for blogging and wiki pages, but even the simple task of blogging is painful with it. One of the things I've heard, but not explored myself, is that at the back-end is a giant SQL-ish database and every page and site created with it is something like a single record, so security administration is nightmare as it is not nearly granular enough. I'd like to learn otherwise. At the same time, it seems MS is committed to SharePoint, so I'm sure there will be ongoing improvements. Honestly, most of the time I'd rather have WordPress and a good Wiki in-house. At the same time, I think I'd be hard-pressed to identify a competitor to all SharePoint has to offer (workflow, document management, check-out/in, integration with instant messenger, etc.).
Enleiten: A Social GTD
This is definitely a real issue, I was able to demonstrate cache poisoning in my Rails app because a plugin does this. I fixed it by only caching pages with explicitly valid Host headers, and by re-writing the Host header in nginx if it looks invalid.
There seems to be a lot of these flashcard applications. Another I just came across is active-flashcards.com.
4) Short answer: make something people want so much that they would rather have your product than their money.

Long answer: Ignore other entrepreneurs and start looking for customers. What you want to do is get face time whenever feasable. Find out how they can possibly get by without your great system and do your best to determine where that solution is letting them down or making them suffer. Adjust your idea accordingly and present it to them. There's usually some politics involved in any significant purchase so try and find out things like which people really stand to gain and lose when your customers adopt your product. Then try and find ways that will turn the losers into winners. Be sure and validate your assumptions about who the decision makers are for the kind of product you're planning by finding out what else those people bought into or vetoed in the past. Stay focused and do your best to really verify the market for your system is there.
By the way, I love the walking man. What gave you the idea to combine ASCII art and animated GIFs?
It's quite easy to say 'SharePoint Sux' and move along. However after about 3-4 years of Sharepoint consulting, I feel qualified to say "Sharepoint can suck" :)

Sharepoint is pitched as the consumer facing glue for your enterprise.

You need document templates?
You need to discuss a project?
You need to collaborate about something?
You need to have a workflow around tasks/forms/documents?
You want a company portal for all information?

It is the definition of "Enterprise Software" and is pure overkill for the small business unless you are using the free WSS version that comes with Windows Server 2003.

That said, there are some very cool things that you can do with it when you integrate MOSS with Office 2007 like multiple shared calendars and task list integration.

You will have to ignore the magic behind the scenes though!

Oh... one more thing... skinning Sharepoint to something less than boxy is very difficult, especially if you have a large portal.
1. Network extensively. Not just with fellow tech entrepreneurs -- you should also make friends with the local small business community in general. They've done this the hard way, they've been where you'll be, and they have useful friends.

2. Scratch an itch. If you can build a product yourself, you're in better shape then most of the funded startups out there. If there's something you want to do online, the odds are that you can both a) do it right, and b) find enough people on the the internet who also think that you're doing it right to make some money.

3) Figure out how to cut your expenses to the bone, now. Ideally, and this may be tough in LA, adjust your lifestyle down to the point that you and your family can live on your wife's salary. Sock the money away somewhere you won't touch it, but that there won't be tax consequences if you do.

4) Get laid off. Ok, that's a reach, but trust me, there's nothing quite like walking out the door with your finances already in order, your vacation paid out and severance in the bank, and still qualifying for unemployment to be able to bootstrap a startup.
Have you tried browsing without js? Doing without flash is considerably easier. There aren't that many apps written in js either.
I had this question many times. I think is better to have a tech co-founder, because you need to tryout your product and make buzz on the market. Then, the right people for marketing and business plan will come to you.
I saw a diagram for Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Resolving_disputes). I typed the title into Google search engine and found this article. This is going to make my life better. Thanks!
Ask YC: Projects that inspire you
Hi YCers,

Sometimes I stumble upon projects / startups really excite me.

Years ago, I was really excited about del.icio.us: so clean, so nicely developed. Now it's been overrun a bit, quality has gone down.

Today I stumbled upon http://weewar.com - So NICE! Well developed, so clean, just sexy.

I'd like to know, what are startups out there that really inspire you, that are really just the cream of the crop - the small little % of stuff that really matters to you?

I've been doing my own startup, and I can't say it has fulfilled me. I'm in a process of turning it around, asking myself what I really care about, what really inspires me. That's why I wanted to check with you guys / girls, what really inspires you.

Thanks, Rob
More spammers now selling semi-real stuff
In my experience it's a heavy handed solution meant for big problems (like serious enterprise work with hundreds or thousands of users). While you can do a lot with it, little is simple or straightforward.

Chances are if you don't immediately see how it'll solve the huge problem you've been having, it's not for you. Things need to be pretty bad before it will seem better, but at that point it's great.
RIAA suddenly walks away from old, contested P2P case
> "We point out that programming teaching is useless for those who are bound to fail and pointless for those who are certain to succeed."

Maybe colleges would stop forcing people to take intro programming courses if they believed that and just skip to the more interesting language design courses.

Oh, and the pdf link: http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf
It actually does store everything in a huge MSSQL database behind the scenes. From an administrative standpoint this is wonderful because there is only one thing to back up.

Security is pretty good. You can usually set permissions on a per page or per item basis, but it's a pain to do so.
When I showed my mom my iPhone last year, it was the first phone that she could easily figure out how to make phone calls with. She also figured out how to send email and listen to music, all within 15 minutes of using it for the first time.
Sharepoint makes it easy for end users to create database driven websites.

Sharepoint enterprise deployments are rapidly growing for the same reasons IE grew so fast and Google Calendar killing Kiko; Integration.

Sharepoint integrates with Outlook, Word, Active directory, IIS, SQL server, ASP.net.

An added benefit is that you host your own data, which many enterprises seem to love.

Show me a web site creation platform that integrates into the MS world like Sharepoint and I'll show you some rich founders... hint hint
Bullshit alarm!

Are we really going to state, as educators, that some people just aren't cut out for thinking rationally?
Best part: "There is a test for programming aptitude, or at least for success in a ﬁrst programming course. We have speculated on the reasons for its success, but in truth we don’t understand how it works anymore than you do."
See Gmail. Google will do it better. Moreover, the integration with Google Apps/Docs automatically increases its versatility for someone already using Google Apps
Some people aren't cut out for the particular style of thought needed to write algorithms in a programming language, yes. Or at least some people require disproportionately more instruction to succeed and thus are likely to always fail in a college intro programming course.
What math courses for programmers?
I am airly good at programming, I know a few languages and frameworks.

I am not a professional yet however and I will go to college a bit at least.

What math courses are essential to programming/computing?

I'm thinking:

Linear algebra(used in machine learning neural nets)
Matrix-stuff(graphics?)
Statistics/probability(good for everything, used in machine learning etc)
Graph theory(search etc)

More?
Nice, now I can write lean lua programs and still occasionally access the good stuff in python's libraries when the need arises.
"...Yahoo trumpeted data showing their results were better than Google's. Well, the Google team was quite amazed, because their data showed just the opposite: their results were better than Yahoo's... It turns out that Yahoo's benchmark contained queries drawn from Yahoo search logs, and Google's benchmark likewise contained queries drawn from Google search logs. The Yahoo ranking algorithm performed better on the Yahoo benchmark and the Google algorithm performed better on the Google benchmark."

Really? That's hugely important.
Why, subterfuge! That way whenever anyone accuses them of having a disinformation blog campaign, they can point to their open source project to deflect blame. Wheels within wheels.
My biggest criticism of 37 Signals is how easy they make selling simple products out to be. It's hard to imagine their success without the onslaught of positive attention rails has given them.

That said, this protectionist deliberate misinformation theory is pretty absurd.
http://hellomynameise.com
http://friendfeed.com , although I believe it solves a problem by slowly creating another (noise)

What I would really love today is an Intelligentsia. Something similar to a closed and secret community of smart people (which you find here) who share ideas, links,thoughts, solutions to our everyday problems. Think of it as a closed, secret invite only HN.
Are we really going to state, as educators, that some people just aren't cut out for thinking rationally?

Sarcasm?
Tweet2Win: Innocent Game or Secret Plan for Spam?
The Golden Rule of Data Manipulation
It depends whether the ISP's bottleneck is the last mile or the border. Also, Time Warner outsourced their Usenet service a few years ago so all the traffic goes over the Internet to Virginia.
Great article about such a simple issue that so few get right.

His "Golden Rule" is:

"It is always easier and more flexible to combine data elements rather than to break them apart"

So he calls for storing each segment of a data element in its own column.

Author does a good job of identifying the problem. I would have liked to have seen a few more examples of proposed solutions.
rememberthemilk.com is pure cream, pardon the pun. It's a perfect example of a tiny, talented team building something people want (and love), without any fuss.
I can assure you that backing up SharePoint is a bit more complicated than a single database backup. There's a bit of a left hand/right hand problem at Microsoft when it comes to this product. The SharePoint team seems to go out of their way to make SQL Server-based backups painful, and they ignore the high availability technologies built in to the DBMS. You'd think they were trying to be database agnostic.
Make sure you have at least 6 months expenses set aside.

Find a customer with his hair on fire with a problem you'd like to solve.

Hack away.
I have to say its not the project which inspires me. Its the people behind the project.

That being said I do enjoy reading about facebook progress in the world, quite inspirational.
Non-technical stuff like having a clue on how to actually make some money, maybe some domain expertise so you can actually solve a problem instead of just doing something cool? Yeah those can wait.

Hackers who dismiss the importance of being able to pull together and organize this type of work are just as bad as idea guys who think they can just get anybody to do this "really simple thing"..
Searching for list of online businesses
Hi.

I'm curious. Has anyone run across, or compiled a list of online businesses? Any thoughts on where to acquire this kind of list?

I'm fairly certain that the major search engines/ad networks have this information, but I'm wondering if this kind of information is accessible in a db/cvs format somewhere?

Thanks

caliventures@yahoo.com
97.3% ?

They oughta send a $2.56 check to everyone they let down.
Go find someone who could be your co-Founder(s). It takes two to sustain a fire and a third to light them.
http://wufoo.com/

http://www.weebly.com/

http://geticeberg.com/

http://wordpress.com/

All sites that let the user build something of his own. I've always been fascinated by this approach.

All very clever and very cool.

(Now all we need is a site that lets the user build a site that lets his user build a something of his own.)
Actually I think they subsidized it to compete with the Blackberry and Palm phones. Most phones are subsidized to entice users to sign plans. With this price decrease it will be easier then ever for people to justify getting an iPhone. Apple is going to capture a huge chunk of the smart phone market because of this.
Malware Silently Alters Wireless Router Settings
wow, lots of 37signals fanbitches on here.
I'm a big fan of MOO.com

They've got some really cool products and a really slick web site.

I sometimes use them as a reference for my own web apps, which is basically a nice way of saying I've stolen ideas from them before. :)
The business types really love it, and they may have perfectly good reasons, but it's just terrible for developers. It's proprietary, enormous, and gets in your way... the last three things a hacker wants to see in software.

Any wiki (I like DocuWiki) will be worlds better for a development team.
Open-Source iPhone MobileMe Competitor, Funambol
you weren't downmodded for agreeing with the story, it was because your comment was substance-less. nobody here wants to read "me too"-type things, it's just a waste of time.

if you've got something to add to the conversation, by all means, do so. if you've got nothing to say but "me too," just mod the story up and move on.
Maybe someone who fails this test won't pass a class their first time through, but I find it hard to believe that any test can determine that someone, given time and practice, cannot be a programmer.
Moss 2007 is better than Sharepoint 2003, but not completely there yet. It has some flaws and customers often needs to do quite a bit of customization to satisfy their needs and requirements.

Moss 2007 is a virus, since it ships with some versions of Windows 2003 Server. People just start using it.

Lastly it pays my lunch and bills.
At first I was like another link to another business book about blah blah blah but after reading the short summary you provided. I must say sir if I could upvote you thrice I would. Looks like an awesome book! I tend to put more weight on age old principles than the conflicting advice I get from most blog roll submissions here. Thank you!
... and even if you are willing to fork out 100 bucks for the key, Apple probably won't give you one. According to their own numbers, 25k people asked for one, they handed out only 4k keys, and won't be giving out anymore until some unspecified point in the future.

ALSO, I've heard from other parties that if you use the key to install apps on an iPhone, you can't make calls with it anymore. A current limitation of the SDK development process that will likely be fixed in the future, I bet.

In other words, you don't want to buy an iPhone because you think you're going to use Xcode to whip yourself up some simple apps and install them on your phone. The situation right now is suitable only to hardcore types.
What’s The Best Way To Stop Smoking?
If you’re looking for a challenge to prove to yourself that you’re strong and full of will power, just try to quit smoking. They say the average person tries to quit smoking five times before they actually quit. With those odds, the chances of quitting smoking are slim to none.
I think that can be done with heroku.

http://heroku.com
Definitely 1), but a combo of all three (and others suggested here). You really answered your own question

> "How can I best...start something on my own" ?
A - Start something!

but if you want some more encouragement and guidance along the way, you'll find it here.

There were some good suggestions to a similar question made here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=183128 that you should read as well.
Having 12 people working on this full time is just as ridiculous as sitting on 3 mil...
Short answer: difficult for developers to effecitvely build something lightweight that runs fast. It's just plain slow. @rman666 said it best regarding blogs/wikis/bookmarking creation: impossibly slow.
Coming Tuesday, June 17th: Firefox 3
If this service requires 3 million marketing dollars to take off, maybe indeed it's not that great of a product to begin with...
Whether it's a blog or a network or a community tool addon thingy, what you need most is to let people know that their contributions are both need and likely not redundant to others. Polls can get the ball rolling, but they are a gamble. Nothing is sadder than a three-day-old poll with two votes. Nothing is stopping you from boosting those numbers behind the scenes, though.

Don't expect people to chime in in a reaction to a specifically popular or unpopular opinion. "Me too" and "Screw you", despite their popularity in popular spots, are no fun to write and won't be written, even if strongly felt, in an empty room. Expressing a unique, rare, and non-antagonistic opinion, and then asking for others, is more likely to get reactions than "I like music, do you like music?" or "Taxes suck, am I right?"

Also, invite pride. If people have profiles or pages, let them create something that they can point others too. Allow for long, weird contributions.
http://www.plurk.com/

Why? Because they have a service that exists in a field that is hopelessly dominated by a single competitor (twitter). But they think they can do it anyways, and in many ways have created a superior product.
Remind HN: Father's Day is Sunday
I know many of us are super-busy and absorbed in projects, so I thought I'd post a quick reminder for those who celebrate this holiday.

Still have a few days left to think of a way to show your dad your appreciation. I usually can't think of anything and end up getting him some golf balls (lame). This year I think I'll take him to a baseball game...
> W.B. actively goes out to seek and create value

I would dispute this. Berkshire Hathaway is essentially an insurance company. Look at revenues. Buffet relies on the peculiar accounting tricks of global insurance and his special relationships in the industry to line up unusual access to ultra-cheap capital at opportune times to seize value opportunities. Buffet is not just another billionaire investor with sharp analysis. He has a bag of special tricks and special relationships. He is just a speculator, not a value creator.

The main point I took away is that speculation is a zero sum game, which is practically a truism. Getting returns above the general rate of growth requires outsmarting other investors and pocketing their losses. Total returns are constrained to the general growth rate. You are quite right that many people win at this zero sum game.

Buffet seems to endorse the fraudulent popular idea that everyone can fund retirement from the stock market by sharing in the general rate of return. In reality the stock market has historically barely beat inflation and equities investing is really pretty much a straight-up zero sum game.
A class on queue theory is great background for network programming.
http://www.tinyurl.com

They're not really a startup since they only accept donations, but I loved the idea so much I made my own version which does not randomly assign a string but instead allows users to pick their own phrase:
http://www.oneryng.com
I really like http://37signals.com business model. for me the basic thing that inspire me will the how the business model uniqueness :)
YC applicants who are internationals
Hi,
I am sure this question has been beaten to death many times.

If you have been a YC applicant or attended the YC program, have you had any internationals in your team? Are you an international yourself? How did you get the appropriate visas etc to stay on?

Thanks
I don't know if it's the same way with AT&T, but when I wanted to get service from T-Mobile with my own phone which I owned free and clear, they STILL made me take a multi-year contract. So the only difference was that I didn't get a free phone from them.
To be fair, most of them don't work very well.
Top airports to avoid
Haha is it really me?

(Is "is it really I?" correct?)
Firefox Mobile = (could be) WOW
For me it was not an issue of complexity. We use trac internally and we contribute to other projects that have similar guidelines for contribution (namely Twisted Python).

But the Django trac is quite hostile. Often your patch will be closed as a duplicate by a later patch. Sometime that later patch addresses a related but different problem. It's hard to get someone with "responsibility" to address the issue, even if the patch is fairly well done and rationale well documented.

When I say "continually fight" I mean that the bug is closed with some bogus explanation, and I have to go reopen it and provide yet more explanation, only to have it closed again. Months later someone smacks their forehead and says "Oh! Well in that case I'll commit this now". I feel like I've been treated like a child who just learned HTML and not a developer trying to make contributions to the project.

In comparison, Twisted bugs involve dialog, but the Twisted team doesn't go around closing bugs because they don't quite get what you're doing. They have strict code guidelines and policies, but at least they treat you respectfully the whole way through. It's not a fight. They also recently went through and committed many changes that had been abandoned by their authors or that the authors did not have time to finish tests for. This shows that they value their community's contributions a great deal.

Django is a great project in many ways, but it has a lot of room to improve with release and community management.