skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Calacanis gives good advice. However, many technically-focused founders may find it hard or distracting/distasteful to pursue the hyper-social, big-swagger style he advocates.

So take solace in PG's ViaWeb experience: "Our startup spent its entire marketing budget on PR: at a time when we were assembling our own computers to save money, we were paying a PR firm $16,000 a month. And they were worth it." [1]

Times have changed with blogs and other incremental, low-cash-outlay ways to build buzz. But you can always hire talent to help where you're weak.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
except for the one where he has the swearing problem towards the kid. and the one where elaine and george utter swears under their breath towards jerry. I get your point, but those are great episodes too.
Where I work, people who telecommute or frequently need to do work from home after hours have their internet access paid for. Asking for your employer to pay for electricity seems silly.
profit = total revenues - total costs.

Even accounting for your time, expertise, and effort at market rates, $500 would still make you "profit".
Something reasonably priced with a guaranteed lifetime of 50 to 100 years would sell like crazy.
This is "neat" - and squarespace actually looks like a great service, especially for someone who needs more than a simple blogger site, but less than custom hosting/etc.

BUT! what I'd love to see is what a "regular" user could do in 20 minutes. Learning the context of the app, where things are, what menu items do exactly which function you need- that's the learning curve people need to know about.

I mean, I could probably re-implement SvN in 20 minutes by skinning Wordpress- but that's because i use Wordpress all the time, and have done more skins for the thing than I care to recall.
you can't have windows without walls

http://tinyurl.com/5dtdn3
HTC S710 Unlocked
HTC S710 is Powered by Windows Mobile 6 Standard Platform, Thus it features mobile Office Outlook, Outlook Mobile Calendar, Internet Explorer Mobile browsing and Windows Live. It is also compatible with Exchange Server 2007.
12 New Rules of Working You Should Embrace Today
Keep found things found, search Delicious 2.0 on Google with WebMynd (YC Winter 08)
70ms can really affect the time people spend on a site.
Good to see Sarah Lacy got her numbers wrong again...

mentioning they take a rather hefty cut of a startup for a comparatively small $5,000

Journalist Mathematics strikes again, I mentioned this yesterday..

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=281780

Glad to see Sarah doesn't let me down :)
wtf do you expect? She's a sensationalist. A fine journalist who deserves to work at the National Enquirer or elsewhere!
MIT engineers work toward cell-sized batteries
Aha, indeed. I cleaned up the errant html escapes, resulting in the following pastebin: http://pastebin.com/f1343e50a

That gets the jsLint errors down to complaints about assignments in loop conditions. So no biggie.
EE, bottom-up problem solving; CS, top-down problem solving?

EE's that I have worked with seem to understand system function deeply first, and build around it.

CS's usually mock-up simple versions, get it right, then optimize later.

Broad generalization I know, but do others observe this? Possible reasons: 1) high cost of iteration in most hardware systems vs software. 2) University educational strategy in CS vs EE. 3) Availability of easy-to-use, quality, low-cost tools for software vs hardware.
Yeah, it's a silly title. I'm a bit on a fence about it: it's provocative, and there's a lot of content there, but it seems to have skewed the discussion.
Good point. You'd have to make the darkness control an offset from the initial darkness, rather than an absolute darkness level. Not hard, but you'd need an extra bit of analog circuitry to store the initial value of the toast's reflectance.
I'm confused. Are both 'affect' and 'effect' valid in the case of "... have a huge * on ...".

It seems as though 'affect' was misused there because the usage is also the definition and so she should have written: "greatly affects" or "has a huge effect".
That stuck way out in front for me too. It blew me away.
I got much better things to hide than how much money I make and what I spend it on.
Ayn Rand makes some salient points, but they were hardly original, even in her time. Rand took classic liberalism to its extreme, not realizing that all political systems are compromises between liberty and social power (or collectivism, or democracy, or mob rule or whatever you want to call it). Modern libertarianism is not too popular for good reason: most libertarians assume that if you get rid of government everything will be better, ignoring the fact that human societies have never gone without governments for long. Almost everyone wants to give up some measure of their freedom for safety, otherwise we would all think Somalia was a great place to live. The argument is over how much. Both anarcho-capitalism and utilitarians represent the extreme ranges of the political scale and are clearly unworkable: no one wants unlimited freedom with no safety, no one wants unlimited safety with no freedom.
On this, I'd like to reference another artistic inspiration of mine, guitarist Robbie Basho.

'I don't try to follow the masters; I try to ask the same questions they asked.'
I still favor, "Just because I have something to hide doesn't mean I'm doing anything wrong." It seems to be the most technically correct answer.
JavaScript getElementById Issues and How To Fix
Agreed. Here's an article with much less bias from InformationWeek:

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml...
here is mine, http://hackit.slinkset.com
there's something within tech that will be very, very high returns over the next 10 years, but it's not an obvious industry at this point.

Global market for nanotechnology slated for high growth through 2013

http://www.smalltimes.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Secti...

Does anybody recommend an index fund for this? Isn't it too early to invest in nanotech?
i thought Vista would run poorly on my 3 year old comp since my $300 graphics card committed suicide some time ago and i'm forced to use the terribad onboard graphics. but recently i installed it on a spare harddrive and it runs smoothly, Aero and everything

in fact it runs better than XP O_O i'm sure the 2gb RAM i have helps. i'm guessing the cases of sluggishness that people have been reporting are mostly due to insufficient RAM or older driver issues
It is not just PR, it is also the fact that those funding and promoting him like him, and he took the time, effort, and persistence to connect with them.
Dinosaurs May Be Older than First Thought
It is useful as a media server, but a CDN is a lot more.

"CDN nodes are deployed in multiple locations, often over multiple backbones. These nodes cooperate with each other to satisfy requests for content by end users, transparently moving content to optimize the delivery process. Optimization can take the form of reducing bandwidth costs, improving end-user performance, or increasing global availability of content.

The number of nodes and servers making up a CDN varies, depending on the architecture, some reaching thousands of nodes with tens of thousands of servers.

Requests for content are algorithmically directed to nodes that are optimal in some way. When optimizing for performance, locations that are best for serving content to the user may be chosen. This may be measured by choosing locations that are the fewest hops or fewest number of network seconds away from the requesting client, so as to optimize delivery across local networks. When optimizing for cost, locations that are least expensive may be chosen instead. Often these two goals tend to align, as servers that are close to the end user sometimes have an advantage in serving costs, perhaps because they are located within the same network as the end user. However the value of a CDN is often demonstrated when these two goals do not align i.e. when the best performing servers and network route is located in the furthest geographic distance."
A deeply skeptical look would focus on deep issues. This seems to focus on superficial issues...
probably will fail. Facebook marketplace is pretty much what these guys sound like, and its a failure. And these guys are trying to replicate this w/o the millions of users
This certainly makes sense and it is useful. But that's not the use of auto i was referring to. This one is:

auto func(int x) -> double;

I realize that the above is allowed primarily for this case:

auto func(int x) -> decltype(x);

but from a casual examination the following - simpler and cleaner - notation can quite easily be made unambiguous:

decltype(x) func(int x);

Also, isn't typeof a more natural name for decltype ? Again I realize that the keyword overlaps with existing gcc extension, but semantics of latter is a subset of C++0x one.
No, you're right, it's "has a huge effect on something." She could have proofread.
Turn Your Gmail’s SSL Feature On Now
If you want to get something rolling in your area, maybe hacking society is the answer:

http://www.hackingsociety.org/
Natural Language Toolkit for Python
It odd that no one has commented on all the problems Craigslist has been having. It is inundated with spam. Some categories in some cities have been rendered useless. Take a look at the Craigslist complaint boards. People are abandoning Craigslist in droves. Craigslist today is not what it was three or five years ago. Replicate the Craiglist of three years ago, address spam and similar issues: therein lies the way to make a dent in their market share.
You know what takes longer then 70 ms?

All the js/css/other stuff facebook includes on their homepage (one server round trip each).

Before they spent the millions it takes to bring up another data center they should have read this:

http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/help/#guidelines

Also, I disagree that 70ms makes that big of a difference. People are more used to slow sites then people realize - anything less then 200+ ms improvement in the aggregate and I wouldn't spend a dime (not to mention millions of dollars).
How To Build Your First Facebook App
most libertarians assume that if you get rid of government everything will be better, ignoring the fact that human societies have never gone without governments for long.

Wait, really? You think it just never occurred to libertarians to wonder what would happen if their philosophy were implemented?

Almost everyone wants to give up some measure of their freedom for safety, otherwise we would all think Somalia was a great place to live.

Why are you assuming that there should be a single monopolistic provider of these freedom-for-safety exchanges? And are you deliberately confusing anarcho-capitalism (which Rand abhored) with Objectivism (which calls for governments to maintain police and the military)?

no one wants unlimited freedom with no safety, no one wants unlimited safety with no freedom.

You're still acting as if it is obvious and intuitive that if someone wants something, they want the government to provide it. I think it might be illuminating to replace the government with some other entity, like, say, IBM or the local library, e.g. "Everyone knows we need to provide for people in their old age. That's why I think IBM should take some of my money every time I get paid, and give it to old people." This sounds absurd, of course, but it does bring up the question of why one should automatically assume that a monopolistic government is the only entity that can do certain tasks -- that we should give that stuff up in a no-bid contract without question.
I like the front page, though your copy could use a bit of work as previously stated. It's clean and attractive - colors are pleasant.

One note though - the choice of coloring on the plan pricing page is not as desirable. Dark gray text on dark blue is not easy on the eyes.
Living with humans has taught dogs morals, say scientists
But due to the replication delay, that would mean losing data on the primary, and a long delay on bringing the old primary back in sync with the new (since they have effectively forked). Therefore they would only switch the the secondary if the failure at the primary site was catastrophic -- it's more like a backup.
I've been going to a Hacker meetup for the past few months here in the Silicon Valley. It's totally a refreshing experience to build relationships with the community. I also helps me stay motivated and excited about building my app!

If you guys are interested:

SV Facebook Hacker News Group
http://www.new.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=10089105...

Silicon Valley Hackers and Founder Meetup
http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737/
The 10/120 Rule
I think it was a SE/30 or something in a similar case anyway.
Someone's getting desperate. I mean, hiring a comedian to make your OS look good? That's not a good sign, is it?

I mean, it's an OS, not a gaming console. I don't want it to be funny, hip, cool, or otherwise "in" - if that's what I had wanted I'd have switched to Mac a long time ago. What I want is an OS that... works. But it seems that I'm asking for too much, so now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place (win32 systems developer, who really prefers Ubuntu as an OS).
"Users won't buy the product unless it has a user-friendly, graphical interface. When the breakfast cooker is plugged in, users should see a cowboy boot on the screen"

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/open-moko-software.media/a...
The biggest risk (and most likely outcome) with any tech startup is financial failure. The smart strategy is to do things that will boost your odds of success. Hoarding equity is rarely a good way to do that -- you will most likely end up owning 100% of nothing.
The folks that YC funds, by and large, have no business experience at all, so it is likely well worth it for them. But you can "go to school" (the school of hard knocks, that is) to learn those things YC brings too. That learning process takes time - time you may not have.

I don't fully agree with this, mainly because nobody can teach you business or anything close to business in 3 months. True, YC gives you a gist of how a start up really works and how you need to go through that process but that might not work out for you mainly because there are tons of reasons for success and failure and we hardly know them.

To me YC is like an identity, in a world where everyone is same it tries to make you stand out from others. If you want me to compare YC with Hollywood, the position of YC is something like Godfather. Paul Graham is to Hackers what Don Corleone was for Italian immigrants. He pretty much gives you an identity, mentorship and protection for a tiny company share. Think of the Italian Immigrants if they didn't have Godfather, they would have been badly exploited by the system and would have ended up as nobody's. Paul Graham takes the position of Don Corleone and saves Hackers from being exploted in a big bad world of Start ups and Business by being there for you. This is my personal definition of YC.

Hence the start of YC Mafia.
Sorry, but that's not the case for everyone.

I bought a new PC specifically because I attributed Vista's poor performance to my old PC's poor specs; but the new PC is almost exactly the same performance.... though it's way out there as far as specs are concerned.

Vista x64 SP1 running on a WD Raptor 150, 8GB of RAM, a E6750 running at 3.2GHz - and still terrible performance. XP on this machine flies like crazy, and Ubuntu is great. Only Vista can manage to take so long to copy files to and from my USB drive, spend half an hour to empty the recycle bin, or move a file over the network - it's I/O performance is a serious hole-in-the-tub kind of affair.

(Note: I'm a Windows guy. Ubuntu is my preferred OS/distro; but I'm on Windows 90% of my time thanks to my job (which I love) as a systems engineer for Windows platforms.)
Why not offer something more resilient?

Why force that added expense on people that don't want it? Some people might be using the disk as temporary storage, or something.

Anyway, you can easily back up to S3... so everyone gets what they want.
That looks like glass walls with no windows to me :D
Enterprise 2.0 Startups - Know Your Market
You know, there's a lot of room in the world for people who make sensible business decisions, who don't get caught up in hype, who don't consider their work to be art or poetry or music.

But I hope there will always be room for people who think what they're doing is great and who have an incurable enthusiasm and optimism for it.

If that isn't level-headed, I say fantastic. How very dull and drab our world would be if nobody ever fell in love with technology.
Answer: it wouldn't. You'd go to backups, like you would with any other filesystem.

Nuh-uh! ZFS is magical and not bounded by the "laws of reality". After all, Apple said they liked it!
Yes, I use an RSS feed for comments. ycfeeds.com
I think that's called a "self-fulfilling prophecy".
It was fixed. The script still worked because the field hadn't been resubmitted since the fix.
This bothers me for the reason it doesn't account for learning Squarespace.

If a client saw Squarespace and wanted a design implemented, I will see you and raise your 18 minutes.
I was going to say the same thing, but I tried--to use a George-ism--doing the opposite. If Apple announced they were retiring "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" in favour of something new with Jerry Seinfeld, would I be excited? No, but I wouldn't declare they were desperate.

So... MSFT are desperate, but although this feels like a desperation move to me as well, I don't know if it's entirely fair to say that hiring Jerry Seinfeld is an act of desperation in and of itself.
What is DLM?
I don't think Blue Ocean strategy is foremost about convincing people that only you have the right solution, but rather that you are an 'alternative' solution. You might not be the "best" solution for everyone, but you can certainly focus on being the best solution for a smaller subset of unmet needs.

As I understand it, Blue Ocean is primarily about differentiating yourself in the marketplace in such a way that you get to own your own space. Lock-in may be a consequence of it, but I think that's still missing the point.

Take Apple or Nintendo, for instance. Dell or HP competing with Apple is like XBox or Playstation competing with Nintendo. Nintendo has defined its own space, which it basically owns almost completely. Neither Sony or MS are likely to be very successful at cracking the Nintendo market because of the unique mindshare and approach to gaming that Nintendo has. Most of the time, Sony and MS will be busier competing for the same customers in that space over there.

Apple has done something similar. Competition with Apple tends to be indirect, more often than not. How does Apple continue to grow despite the lousy economic outlook for other computer manufacturers? How was it able to insulate itself?

"Apple" is essentially its own marketplace with its own ecosystem.

Another corollary might be the idea of "opinionated software". If you have an opinion on how something could be done better, well then you may have just identified your target market - your own "Blue Ocean" - and these are going to be the people who have the same unmet needs as you and wish for the same things you do.

"Man, I sure like [insert product or service here], but what would really make it sweet is..."

That's when you know you're onto something.

In any market, you can find gaps and cracks where products and services don't overlap, and possibly never will for a variety of reasons. Those gaps represent opportunities. Most of these may not turn out to be billion-dollar opportunities, but they are probably profitable enough to satisfy most of our ambitions.

No?
I can't believe I let myself get tricked into watching that stupid video. Do the people who say the song is catchy, entertaining, et cetera, actually hear the lyrics? Are they just that devoid of an ear for quality, that they can't tell the lyrics are not only typical bland pop music fare, but actually more poorly composed than the usual by a wide margin? Can they not hear the droning repetitiveness of the instrumental "melody"?

No wonder I don't like listening to the radio. . . .
I haven't read it, but a friend said that it's an inspirational book. Some books give you motivation, some others give you the know-how.
At MIT (where Greenspun's been for a long time) they're together in a major. Which might explain why he's writing about how different they are.
Because it would get more expensive?

Probably you could combine several of these "drives" for more resilience?
it looks a bit wank on the iPhone - you may wanna look into that...
On the other hand:

If there's one surefire way to convince everyone Vista is cool, cutting edge and not liable to get frazzled by life's minor complications, it's hiring a 1990s sitcom star and professional kvetcher! Who, um, very visibly owned a series of Macs on his show.

http://gawker.com/5039828/mac+loving-seinfeld-endorsing-micr...

This reminded me of something that happens with tired regularity in advertising: Company executives hire the spokespersons that they identify with, instead of the spokespersons their customers identify with, because it gives them a thrill to brag that so-and-so endorses their product.

Another distinct possibility is that Microsoft knows exactly what they are doing, which is appealing to an older segment of the market, perhaps the IT managers that dictate corporate standards.

We may laugh, but they may be acting reasonably.
Well, Apple has long made its "bang" by focusing on what's cool. While their products also do just work and tend to get the job done, their cash comes from the fact that it's cool to get the job done the Mac way.

Microsoft's "name" comes (came?) from reliability in the business industry, where code you wrote almost two decades ago DOS 5 would run on Windows XP today (assuming you used their APIs for everything). Windows 2000 was a fast, snappy, and efficient OS that got the job done. Windows XP has a bit more "homey" but as the years passed and the service packs came in, it grew to fit that same role.

Windows has never been advertised as a truly "fun" OS until Vista's "the WOW starts now" campaign; unfortunately, I get the feeling that they're turning to the hip crowd because they've failed to stand out in any other way. From performance to reliability, Vista has flopped (I'm using it now, fulltime) - so they're looking for anything else that may save them some face.

So while it's no biggie for Apple to start advertising through Sienfeld, it is for Microsoft who have never been the sort of people to do this kind of thing.
you really should center everything on the vertical axis. the main paragraph is just kinda hangin out to the left.

Look at maybe applying a little more vertical padding to things like the logo (looks crunched).

Should probably also place more emphasis on the things you want people to do like "sign-up" and "try it out" even if its just making them bigger or bolder than their surroundings.

conversions are more important than aesthetics but you're off to a decent start balancing both
In Ruby, it’s cool to learn all about things that used to be the realm of the academic elite: functional programming, parallel processing, finite state machines, compiler optimization, MapReduce…

What does this have to do with Ruby?
Cryptography: How to Keep Your Secrets Safe
The Evolution of a Team
Internet Eavesdropping: A Brave New World of Wiretapping