skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Github is not worth loosing over a copyright spat. Leave that to the folks at Pirate Bay
Congrats! Best of luck in your endeavor.

Well yeah, but even if I don't, being profitable will be just fine. In fact, I'm building my company in one of the worst areas for technology startups: DFW.

True, but you're only a few-hour drive from one of the best, if that helps. ;)
I saw on the news it was going to rain tonight; I didn't realize they meant that in Mountain View it would be raining money.
Storing the CAPS LOCK and non caps lock hashes of a password seems utterly brilliant. I'm tempted to start doing that.
TWO %REAL% GUNS POINTED AT ME

I love this part. It's obvious that, for the first time in the lives of these Anons, sh%t actually got real.

(I don't mind any downvotes you see fit to give me, I have always found it laughable when Anons expect to break the law and suffer no consequences. Whether or not it is a good law has no bearing, that's not how civil disobedience works.)
Why the best candidates on paper may not be the best
Money laundering? Who are you kidding to? In India money laundering takes place in broad daylight right under your nose and I'm sure Paypal's sure would be a drop in the ocean. If you know what I'm talking about. Literally.
That's what makes it so impactful: its important enough that the consequences are irrelevant.

It seems that you place a much higher importance on following the law than I do; I don't disagree with what you're saying, but you seemingly imply that that's a bad thing.

Generally, following the law is good, but I hold no illusions that there's any connection between legality and morality.
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I wish you good luck! Always inspiring seeing others who take the leap...
And the collective of the YC W'11 hopefuls just let out a wistful sigh. At least I did.
...and they said good guys finish last? PG seems to be proving them wrong, every day.
High five, pg!
For a law enforcement agency to investigate the Wikileaks would require Wikileaks to turn over their server access logs, including every visitor to the site for the period of time in question. They would be basically finished in terms of getting dissidents to visit the site or hand over information if they're seen as turning over any sort of visitor-identifying info to any sort of law enforcement agency.
How does one get there prompt to look like that?
I'm pretty certain that I store almost a billion objects into S3 every month (yes: the requests for that cost a lot)... does that make me a noticeable percentage of S3's object count? Seriously now?
> I'm building my company in one of the worst areas for technology startups: DFW

I want to change that. Are you in FW, D or in the middle?
Is there any way to game this?

For instance:

1. I get $150K in convertible debt from Yuri.

2. At the end of YC, my rich friend Joe decides to invest a million dollars in my company at a valuation of five hundred trillion dollars. Yuri thus gets an insanely small slice of my company.

3. Two days later, my company buys Joe's shares back for a million dolars.

4. Now my company goes off to seek actual funding at a sane valuation. Yuri gets annoyed.
In other news carrier pigeons are now used as the preferred detonation device for terrorists.
> Every YC batch should have at least 1-2 big wins.

Can you quantify a big win?
I have reasonably good background in this with a number of successful exits to various publicly traded firms. Drop me a line per my contact info and let me know what your industry is, as long as it isn't directly competitive with anything I'm working on or invested in, I'll sign an NDA and we can talk - if it is in an overlap industry, then the dance becomes a little more complicated. But I'll give you an hour of time and advice for free, and if you want my help beyond that, we'll figure something out.
Hrm I guess after a quick scan I did see some interesting things in there. I'll buy it if it's available on the nook or kindle or as an ebook. I don't really want a print book. (I've downloaded the PDF, but I'm willing to pay for an ebook format).
%cough% There is more to the startup world than just "web" startups, ya know. %cough%

And YC don't limit themselves to just web startups, or even just to software companies, according to the FAQ. [1]

[1]: http://ycombinator.com/faq.html
It's reasonable to have SOME amount of the purchase value vest, but 100% is not reasonable. Common enough to get half or two thirds of it down and the other as earnout milestones.
Yes that's the best way of putting it. YC is seen as a vetting agent that has so much experience in evaluating start-ups now that their ability to separate the wheat from the chaff makes a deal like this feasible.

How long before a major VC steps in to offer a third round for those that get to some pre-set goal to every YC funded company that took the second round too?
Do yourself a favor and bookmark this post to re-read when the demons come.
I've thought about it, but I don't wanna live in New York. :)

PS. Attention California-based hedge funds with strict dress policies! I am available! My email address is not in my profile but if you're that smart you can probably figure it out!
Common wireless devices would probably need a good deal more range for this to work well. It would be really cool, but it'd have to be able to route around entire neighborhoods, or even entire cities if central power was destroyed.
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List of 30 Website Value Calculators Websites
This sounds like a campus placement scene. If you get in a top college, you wont be even interviewed properly or see how you have changed in last few years/months. We will just hire you with fat paychecks.

As shown by history - this does not work in the long run and makes things worse than better.

Dont get me wrong - YC is great, pg and rest of the team do an amazing job of selecting startups. But such blanket offers will mean lesser money available to non-YC companies. So if you are competing with a YC company, you have so much ground to cover.

More money for startups is good, but quality of the startups should be judged almost every 3 months. That is very healthy for entire startup community on the whole.
tldr;

this is just a link to a pdf of the classic (1999) Dunning paper about self assessment. novices don't know enough to rate themselves in skill, and experts tend to rate themselves low. blah blah blah. we all know this by now, don't we?
Is more applications necessarily a bad thing though? Sure they are likely to miss more winners and the application/ interview process is going to be even more time consuming but you would have to think it would translate to a highly quality group.
Not really, I just like nice clothes. And I like to wear nice clothes. And I feel silly wearing nice clothes when surrounded by others who aren't wearing nice clothes.

One could, however, think of it as a discipline thing. If you wear a perfectly pressed suit you're less likely to slouch. And if you're less likely to slouch, maybe you're less likely to be sloppy in your thoughts, so your research might be better.

Then again, maybe your research would wind up being worse because a suit feels so conformist. Who knows? But it would be a worthwhile experiment.
Graph Visualizes Egypt's Internet Blackout
Without a legal protection in place which disallows something like this for deciding the insurance rates, this sounds like something which can get abused.

But I think it is better that is happens in public via an open competition rather then in a private research group funded by an insurance company. At least, everyone will immediately know what can be predicted rather then finding it out through a class action suit years later.
So, the scenario is, when you main wire is cut, your router has different firm in place when lets it talk to your neighbor's router which talks to his neighbor's router which talks to a packet radio router. And that lets everyone's packets go everywhere?

Slow but it seems possible.

The problem I'd see is a government aiming for control would clamp down on the international packet radios immediately and not wait till it want to shut off the net.

Still might be worth a try.
For all the talk from U.S. politicians about encouraging innovation, it takes the Russian to come here and put his money where his mouth is.
Reviewing applications is hard work.

YC now has more partners and a larger network of alumni so that should help a bit with scaling this.
There seems to be a correlation between high performing funds and how fast they move to get into the good deals, this is a very efficient way for SV Angels to move faster than anyone else. They already moved fast before, now it's a tremendous head start.

If it's a bubble, it's a cheap bubble $6M is nothing for most funds.
Good luck to you! I'm at a similar situation, I actually started implementing my first startup a while ago (finally)!
I love your optimism. Getting on with the dream is a good feeling and it's great to get fired up. I work for a major airline and I'm curious about your product.

At the same time, you have a long road ahead. A startup is a major commitment and it's anything but easy. There will be many ups and downs and it can be emotionally draining.

The key is to press on when that enthusiasm (it really does feel great to get started) wears off and it gets tough, and it will. Make it through the peaks and valleys and you might have something.

I hope things go well for you.
I don't think so -- if you choose to strap a bomb to yourself which you know someone else will detonate, then it's suicide.

I am, however, with Fox News on disliking the terminology "suicide bomber" just because it puts the emphasis on the death of the murderer rather than the innocent folks whom he murders. The suicide aspect is really the least important aspect of the act.
Congrats, best of luck. When things get hard, take a step back and remember why you're doing this.
You need a good M&A attorney. But they aren't cheap. Here's my two cents.

You probably want the ability to collar their stock at very least and depending on what you think of their prospects you may ask them for a ratchet in the case of a stock decline. They probably won't give you the latter.

You want triggered acceleration of that vesting if they terminate you without cause. This is sometimes called double trigger vesting (first trigger is acquisition, second trigger is termination). You also want a decent employment contract in the meantime.

They may in fact be in position to say "this is the offer, we don't go back and forth on that" but what that USUALLY means is "this is the PRICE" and the terms thereof do get negotiated.

You need to make sure that you can actually DO those million ideas you have for the future. If these guys seriously acquire you and kick you out in three months, or acquire you and assign you to do something other than build your existing biz, you are probably going to be super disgruntled. An awful lot of acquisitions turn into "ok, that was nice, now do this instead." And hell, they might be buying you JUST to shut down a competitor. Heaven knows that has happened enough.

If you have good angel/VC contacts, this might be an ideal time to say "hey I have an offer, I'm not ready to give up at this point, give me a terms sheet for growth capital on these terms" and run like hell. Keep in mind that this is ALSO likely to be shark infested waters.
Ask HN : How colors affects personality of website?
I'm designing my website, http://www.anujkumar.com, and wondering how colors used in site affects the preception of viewer about site and its designer/owner.

I played with three different color schemes, that can be easily switched using links at the top. Can you guys share how these color schemes affect your perception about site and the designer?

The site is currently under development and low in content - only four static pages. I will add features like social updates, blog etc as and when I get time but any suggestions regarding improvement in site are always welcome.
it's not worth ruining your reputation over screwing a single investor especially in a deal this small. it's a small community and even if you found a way to trick the investor in this situation, it reflects very poorly on you. i'm sure there are ways to game it, but why even bother?

yc is a small network; if one founder screws someone else, everyone knows about it. vice versa.
Oh yeah, and: congratulations!
And because the whole point of a suicide bomb is to send yourself to heaven immediately for killing infidels in the name of Allah. Why would you want to carry on living when you could be hanging around in paradise?
Consider, also, that most entrepreneurs in tech are foreigners (or children of), Vivek Wadwha had an interesting article on that. But those that stand out: Larry+Sergei.

If "The Russian" comes to the U.S. to make an investment is because the U.S. has done a really really good job in terms of policy to make it easy and convenient for foreign investors to bring money to the U.S. now they (gov) need to do the same for talent/entrepreneurs.
You're leaving out the part about getting accepted into YC and then being willing to blackball your reputation and ability to ever raise money to do anything, again.

Who would do that for $150k? To me, this is the equivalent of leaving $20 on the table to see if you can trust your friends.
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What's wrong with coding bug fixes as "if" statements?
Unless there are additional terms at play here (e.g. liquidation preference), this means that unless YC companies raise a series A before exiting, Yuri and SV Angels won't get more than a 1x return (plus interest).

It's hard to believe the math works out here, but obviously a lot of thought and number crunching has gone into this decision. Great news for YC though!
I think you're onto something. The FBI, by raiding everyone involved in this, is taking the risk of setting a precedent whereby protest-DDoS is proved legal. If the ACLU or other organization throws lawyers at this, its likely that it will be determined that the CFAA does not actually make DDoS, in circumstances where the user only activates a DoS tool on their computer with permission, illegal.

It really boils down to whether a lack of access constitutes "damage". Denial of service happens "naturally" all the time, just not maliciously like this.
There's only two types of people in the world: people who chant things and people who do things.
Wrapping the output of crypt() should reduce how many passwords would be compromised if an attacker gained access to the password database. That's the whole point of using digested passwords instead of plaintext.
> But such blanket offers will mean lesser money available to non-YC companies.

They could have bought a boat instead, investing is not a zero sum game, they don't have to spend the money.
In the event of a funding event (or change of control), this $150k turns into $150k worth of stock at the valuation established AT THAT TIME.

Example #1: Company A takes the offer and sells for $1m in 6 months. The debt converts to $150k in stock, netting the investor $150k.

Example #2: Company B takes the the offer and raises $1m at a pre-money valuation of $3m (selling 25% of the company and establishing a post-money valuation of $4m). The $150k turns into $150k in stock at the new valuation, so 3.75% of the company.

Normally, there are various ways (discounts, caps, etc) to reward the early investor for the additional risk they are taking for investing so early.

Basically what this means is YC companies can (if they want) eschew funding at demo day, hold out for great terms, or just get busy creating value and raise money when they have more leverage. This is huge.
Brilliant, keep us posted.
I know people are excited right now, but this is a terrible analogy. Rock bands don't need labels to succeed anymore, and the vast majority of record labels are deeply corrupt. They are consolidating to avoid bankruptcy, and throwing their CapEx funding into litigators and lobbyists so that they have someone to blame when in reality it was their greed and ignorance that brought their downfall.

Does that sound like what's happening at Y-Combinator?
I have two options - to quit or to challenge the culture (and potentially make enemies).

The English bible says "The meek shall inherit the earth." My understanding is that in French it says "The nonchalant shall inherit the earth." You influence culture every minute of every day by your behavior. Doing so consciously will likely make other people uncomfortable. It can make enemies. But "challenging" it is not the only path.

Peace.
Basically he just paid $6M to have a seat at the table and be a guaranteed call when they're raising their series A. I guess that's one way to get in to the early stage game.
I'm fairly sure that they can afford lawyers good enough to close that particular loophole.
absolutely crazy
Apparently they think that this is worth going to jail for.

Or more likely, they thought they'd never get caught.
I've noticed this on Reddit. When you submit a comment it's inserted into the page with a bit of JavaScript but when you refresh the page it's gone. Refresh the page again after a few seconds and it's there.
I understand what you're saying, but doesn't Google News do the exact same thing?

Google News provides snippets of content, and helps people discover the news providing direct links to the original source of news. For Google to deindex a site like celebrifi and while running a competing product (Google News) smells a bit of monopolistic behavior. It's suspect it's unintentional, but Google is going to have to walk a very very fine line as you start deindexing certain sites.
It's only a bubble if the world stops spending money online and every re-discovers network reality television as a hobby.
referring to wikileaks (the circle) as a "typical leaking website": isn't it the transparent thing to just say it like it is?
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My first thought is that there must be a ridiculous amount of money floating around in the capital markets right now...
What makes anyone think there's such a thing as the Anonymous Leadership?

"Anonymous" is just a cloak that some folks put on from time to time. I supported Anonymous when they were fucking with Scientology. I opposed Anonymous when they were fucking with Mastercard and Visa. But it's not in any sense "the same" group.

I could go and rape a donkey and leave a note saying "Anonymous Did This" if I felt like it -- it wouldn't be in any sense the same group that did other things that Anonymous did though.
Which leads us back to the sit-in. You seem to think a sit-in is unjustified in any situation, but at least that part of the analogy holds.
Congratulations! Here's hoping for a great long-term change!
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The white with dark blue looks the most professional to me but is a bit bright for my eyes. The pale blue gives me the feeling you are not to be taken seriously -- you are some cotton-candy lightweight with delusions of grandeur. (The exclamation mark after "Hello" doesn't help.) Even though only the color changed, the site feels a lot more shapeless and ungrounded than the black background. The black strikes me as more of a personal site, kind of like an emo, will not conform vibe. The light blue touches on the black background really don't work for me but that might be an individual thing.

Stuff I have read years and years ago suggests a dark blue (like you have on the white version, not the pale blue on the blue version) is generally interpreted as a "serious, business" color. This may not generalize to all cultures. It may be specific to the US and similar cultures.

HTH and good luck.
Thanks. I've already seen lots of great long-term change. This is just a different order of magnitude than I expected after 10 years of this journey to wellness.
Honestly, I'm surprised that nobody did this sooner. Hell, didn't Conway invest in six of the last round anyhow?

This is sort of like going to the race track and betting on every horse. Except at this particular race track, the horses are all above average and multiple horses can win each race.

I'd take those odds.
Right but this is always a problem running on someone else's platform. To fix it you have to host everything yourself all the way down to the utilities level, where regulations don't really allow them to play favorites.
Sure, why wouldn't it? It would be a US based LLC with the proper US licensing and insurance and hosted in the US.
you almost rescued the analogy, but not quiet.
I understand what you are saying, but the incredible challenges the people have just surviving from day to day erase any sense of peace for me. Give me ads all day if it means my kids are fed, clothed, and educated.
Right. We will just invest in all YC companies. Why bother reading up business plans, checking out markets, exploring new things. YC thinks some one is good, we will put our money. If 10% of YC companies give huge exits fine. As investors - our job is to just provide money. Why bother with research?

And as an entrepreneur, do you really want to take money from some one who might not have enough knowledge about you and your business? Who is relying on a second hand judgement about you and your business, even if that judgement directly comes from pg?
Performance is only the nominator of what defines return.

The denominator is the investment valuation, which is significantly different for YC and DST.
Given how orchestrated tourist trips in North Korea are, I would imagine the only roads you are allowed to see are good roads.
I'm not keeping a tally but I often find myself scratching my head and wondering what PG et al saw in some startups.

My guess is that it's usually a bet on the people, not the idea. If you mentor a founder that eventually starts the next Google, they are going to remember that.
I know they think that I can't code worth a crap because I'm use Windows as my OS.

... what sort of person thinks that? That's just insane.
Has anyone used this yet with large (several TB) music collections? I've played with nearly every web-based media server for the last 10 years or so, and the limiting factor has often been the ability to import large amounts of data.

This looks really nice (feature-wise anyway, could use some CSS love) but I don't want to get my hopes up yet.
Edits welcome. Where did I go wrong?
This is a very fragile (but interesting!) idea. I would focus hard on finding ways to line up a steady stream of interesting (hopefully viral) content... the fragility of the concept all hinges on that. You may literally want to create some pages yourself, or solicit freebies from clever folks, or even pay or otherwise encourage some great content.

As a user/visitor, I'm going to need a compelling reason to visit your site everyday, and "what would happen if the banner ad and the site content switched roles" isn't very enticing. Now, a cool piece of interactive art one day, a great 24-hour deal the next, followed by a free album/song download from a few artists, with a clever game the next day... these are some of the kinds of things that may give you traction. It's got to be "wow this site has cool stuff everyday" not "let's see what ad is up there today".

It's a chicken/egg horse/cart problem, but you're probably putting the cart before the horse if you're thinking monetization and advertising right away. I'd think of it more like "send in your cool stuff and we'll pick the best to display for 24 hours" and see if that works.

Again, great idea, but you have to prime the pump!