skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
1. They have some amount of advertising revenue with Twitter Japan

2. Then don't. There's plenty of Twitter-clones out there, in itself it not necessarily a complex software to make -- the engineering challenges would be scaling it.

3. Why VCs investing into it? Because of the team (Evan Williams primarily) and because of the network effect already growing. Unless you are Evan Williams or have a chart showing more and more users each day, your ability to garner VC money is hindered greatly.

4. What's the exit strategy? Ubiquity can lead to some very interesting things. As an utility, it's appealing to a service provider (Verizon, ATT, Tmobile). As a social network, it's appealing to a web company (Goog, Yhoo, Msft). As an advertising platform, it's appealing directly to advertisers (AdSense, SEM, PltA).
90% of the time, there is no lost income because there was never any potential to begin with.

You seem to be making an argument about how rates of piracy are distributed across different products. How does this make the effects of piracy any less harmful?
i think the claim i'm making is that piracy is a wash. some people who otherwise would purchase something now won't, and some people who otherwise wouldn't have now will.

canadian governmental study on music piracy:

http://www.pch.gc.ca/pc-ch/pubs/music_industry/tdm_e.cfm

When assessing the P2P downloading population, there was a strong positive relationship between P2P file sharing and CD purchasing. That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file sharing increases CD purchases. The study estimates that one additional P2P download per month increases music purchasing by 0.44 CDs per year.

When viewed in the aggreggate (ie. the entire Canadian population), there is no direct relationship between P2P file sharing and CD purchases in Canada. According to the study authors, the analysis of the entire Canadian population does not uncover either a positive or negative relationship between the number of files downloaded from P2P networks and CDs purchased. That is, we find no direct evidence to suggest that the net effect of P2P file sharing on CD purchasing is either positive or negative for Canada as a whole.
I can see it being easy to add encryption to a 32 bit part deployed in a pizza box form factor on the bottom of a telephone pole or alongside a train track right of way.

I'm not sure it's that easy when you're constrained to a 16 bit part that can't big bigger than a wallet, has almost no power available, needs to be distributed in volumes of hundreds of thousands or more, needs to cost almost nothing per part, and needs to be one of the vendors that plays well with RF.

Again, this also misses the point that key management and protocol design are more important than the algorithm; it's not necessarily an easy problem to provision keys to 1,000,000 floating devices, nor is it necessarily easy to design a secure protocol that has to run in 1 round trip at 45MPH.

Just some thoughts. Obviously we can agree that this system needs to be more secure. I'm not sticking up for FasTrak; I'm just trying to respect the problem.
gene therapy
How can a law abiding trucking companying compete with all those speed limit breaking truckers: UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS, ...?
I didn't say ROT13, it could be ROTx, or it could have a variable x (as with a big key), whatever... the advantage would be to make it slightly more difficult to find the meaning of the numbers in the card. I know security by obscurity doesn't work, but it's better than nothing.
+1 for Hiragana, Romanji, and English comprehensiveness.
I disagree that it's an inaccurate analogy, but I agree that piracy will reduce innovation in its current state. I'm saying that, as it stands, the fundamental idea of selling something which is free to duplicate is broken.
I doubt you can win a hockey game by skating towards where the puck was a few moments ago.
First of all, as I repeatedly stated in this conversation, I don't want to knock down lawyers. It is just that I have the least knowledge about law, of all things, so the quality of lawyers is the hardest for me to judge. Also, are you denying that lawyers can get VERY expensive?

Your bypass example: yes, as it happens I have repeatedly read that bypass operations are complete nonsene, and there is actually a business of doctors referring patients to each other. Of course if they tell you you are going to die in one minute, there is no time to research the internet about the suggested treatment, which I would normally do.

With medicine I would do so - but with law, we have just learned that searching the internet is no good, because only a real lawyer should be trusted?

I have also had encounters with nice lawyers, who gave me free advice over the phone. However, it also seems common that lawyers don't want to be upfront about the costs they will incur. Also, I am in Germany, things might the different here than in the states.
It can only be described as an ethical dilemma if the underlying assumptions are sound. I don't believe that the way we talk about information actually represents what information is and that is the root of the problem. Pirating music or not is not the question to ask until we work out what it is which is getting pirated.
That's the wrong direction: more selective.

The right direction: Wikipedia with a constitutional bias against deletionism. Only false, illegal, or privacy-violating information should be deleted. Everything true should be welcomed.
personally, I love stock options :-)

they're completely useless, but then again, they're oh so useful. haha.
How Simple Web Design Helps Your Business | How-To | Smashing Magazine
Does traffic play into this at all? Something tells me more people go to that page than to the long tail majority of wikipedia pages.
It also allows for a lot of silly pirate humor that would not otherwise be possible.
Remember what the web was in 1992: a way to share textual scientific documents. How does that change anything? All you can do is change the display format. ;-)

And then people discovered you could embed images in these documents. And you could sell stuff by listing the stuff you had for sale and having people send you money. And you could hold auctions with them, once they figured out how to let you update the page automatically. And you could upload pictures of your dog and send them to friends.

And then folks realized that you could include a scripting language on both the client and server, and let computers handle what website operators had been doing. Update webpages through a form. Let people talk to each other on forums without the webmaster getting involved. Automate those online auctions. Display your email. Search for maps and driving directions. Look for the multi-gig files that were previously available on CDs, and download them via BitTorrent.

So, microblogging. Companies are already Twittering product announcements and special promotions to customers. What if the customers could Twitter back with suggestions? What if they could buy it immediately? What if you could Twitter a picture or a song to your followers and they could listen immediately, wherever they were (isn't Pownce doing that?)? What if someone did a bot that monitors Twitter for mentions of your product, then ran some NLP on them and sent you neatly categorized suggestions for improvements? What if someone clustered Twitter users with some clique-detection algorithm and used that to segment markets?

Hot damn, I may've found my next startup idea. Or maybe I should just apply for a job at Twitter. ;-)
My domain.
Never before has 'looked good on paper' carried more weight.
UI is the Killer Feature
Paypal fees.
>A much better analogy for digital piracy is sneaking into a theater to watch a movie. You are not stealing a copy of that movie, and the theater is free to show the movie to others. But you are stealing revenue that the theater would have earned had you rightfully purchased a ticket.

Some cinemas are set up to facilitate sneaking in: having passed the usher to get into one film, you can then stay and watch any number you like.

This is semi-deliberate: it turns out that they gain more money from people who wouldn't otherwise bother, than they lose from people who would otherwise buy two.

Maybe these people are committing "theft", but it's still a mutually beneficial relationship. This doesn't obviously apply to most internet piracy, as in that case nothing is bought at all, but it's worth considering.
I think it would have been even worse for FasTrak if Nate had got up on stage and said that they tried to pass XOR off as encryption. Then the story would not only be negligence, but also incompetence. There's a plausible story you can tell for why FasTrak isn't secured at all.
consumer

Napster - 15/mo - i like to support the musicians i listen to
Netflix - 15/mo
Rockband songs - 25/mo something around that although not anymore as I'm now boot strapping

Come to think of it, i could easily give up all of those services

business

TollFreemax - 9/mo
ProjectLocker - 5/mo svn repository
Authorize.net payment gateway - 30/mo (not really special, but people *can* use paypal/gpay/aws/ccnow etc freely)

used to run a clothing store (long ago when i didn't know how to build my own ecommerce)

prostores 30/mo

I've also purchased software for my business

boxshot3D - 60
I really don't see how this is useful. Maybe I've become one of those guys who doesn't 'get it' anymore, but I think that twitter is not going to be as big as you think. Yes, a form of mini communication will happen, but in the current form, there will very quickly be too much information. We have finite capacities for processing stuff, and twitter is a rabble of information, which just gets wearying after a while.

To me, the people who are really into twitter all seem to be the same demographic, and that's usually bad news for a technology. It's those same people who used to like Usenet and the IRC that are now using twitter.

Twitter is something that intrudes on your life, and having it does not solve any problems, it adds stuff to what you already have.

But I won't protest too much, because it's possible I'm wrong on this one. I'll just wait and see. But frankly, I still don't see how I could somehow get my mum excited about twitter, even if it had all those features you spoke about.
Until there's evidence someone is actually exploiting this at an economically relevant level, I wouldn't agree the "system needs to be more secure".

And if it is being exploited, using the existing license-plate cameras may be a more effective means of securing the system than upgrading the transponder behavior.
To Hal Varian, the Price is Always Right
TechCrunch and Inquisitr- Year Of The E-zine
Simple Update Protocol: Fetch updates from feeds faster
Sold once for $100.000, what's next ?
How would you behave in such case ?

Excerpt from the comments:
"You're squarely caught in the "successful consultant" trap - you can get out, but it will take some doing.
Psystar finally answers to Apple's suit by suing right back
UI is extremely important, but this article is wrong to say that without it your product is doomed to fail.

The most obvious example that comes to mind is an xterm window. Even on OSX any programmer will spend 2/3 of their time looking at text.

Jer
Citation needed.

I don't really care about design; that's someone else's job. But I bet I can code the backend fine.
that's probably a better translation than the one i was familiar with / alluding to: "Do not try to imitate the old masters. Seek what they sought." also, I agree with the above. points for comprehensiveness!
Amazon Web Services vs. Google App Engine: The Race to the One-Click Cloud
Interesting. Those are free on ESPN now. And, of course, Draftmix :)
"The most obvious example that comes to mind is an xterm window. Even on OSX any programmer will spend 2/3 of their time looking at text."

Isn't that an example of _good_ UI? Much like Pages does a good job of giving you a blank sheet of paper and not much else (initially), Terminal.app does a good job of giving you a command line and not much else (ever).
Is ESPN's insider content that much better than what you get for free elsewhere? If so, that's really saying a lot, since the bar for sports content has risen faster than the price of gas over the last few years.
Disqus (YC 07) is hiring: Back-end, Front-end Engineers
Disqus is a dedicated commenting service used by thousands of websites including blogs, newspapers, and web applications. Our team is small, focused, and passionate about creating products that people love to use. We are building a company with the purpose of making a great impact on how the web is used and perceived.

We're actively looking to hire smart people to join our team. Current positions include: Back-end Engineer, Front-end Engineer, Software Developer Intern, Customer/Community Support

--

Back-end Engineer

+ Very strong with at least one programming language, preferably Python
+ Familiar with JavaScript
+ Good knowledge of several other programming languages, such as Perl, is a plus
+ Other pluses include: Django, PHP, PostgreSQL, years of development experience

Front-end Engineer

+ Very strong with JavaScript
+ Adept with web standards and cross-browser development
+ Good sense of user experience and interfaces
+ XHTML, CSS
+ Pluses: website design

***

Please send your resume or background description (education, experience), and code examples to: jobs@disqus.com

***

Disqus participated in Y Combinator in 2007 and has investment from Union Square Ventures.

More about Disqus: http://disqus.com/docs/company

More open positions on the job page: http://disqus.com/docs/jobs
Paypal's merchant services still have a montly fee.
I remember a casino where the communication between player and server was done using SSL. I compiled a custom OpenSSL DLL and was able to intercept the roulette commands!

Unfortunately whether it was a winning bet was done on the server, and the communication was just sending the bet to the server, and the other way, the result to the player.
yea, I seriously miss insider. It was pretty good, especially for the NBA draft. I miss all those mocks :( As an aside, ESPN basically has the lamest security ever. So we were splitting an insider subscription amongst 4 people. The $12 a year became $3. Woohoo!
It's trivially easy for two smart guys in a garage to create a competitor.

It's difficult to persuade hundreds of thousands of people outside said garage to write the actual content.
Backtype (YC summer 08): Twitter for comments launches
Although the article calls it Twitter for comments I think it is more a Google for Comments.
Interview with David Karp, founder of Tumblr
Sweet! You should start one of those.

I look forward to creating the article "List of random numbers generated by hugh's random number generator on September 18, 2008".
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Now Available
FriendFeed readying RSS accelerator
The articles for prominent VC firms don't have a complete list of their investments. There's 20-something listed for Kleiner Perkins, 30-something for Sequoia, and only 3 for DFJ.
Dell puts Linux and Atom in Vostro PCs for emerging markets
In fact, the "twice as fast" was removed from the ads in Canada and replaced by something like "pretty fast". Also absent from Apple Canada website (http://www.apple.com/ca/)

The "half the price" part is indeed a very annoying marketing trick.
Hacker News Post ubiquity command
Ok, my example isn't the best.

The reason it came to mind is that an xterm window is a perfect example of horrid "UI" that functions beautifully. The interface is often unfriendly with unexpected results, but you can get a lot done in a short amount of time.

Jer
Get a new business model. Trying to 'sell' software is like trying to hug water.
FYI Everyone can add their Hacker News comments to their profiles too -- add http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=YOUR_USERNAME to the list of websites on your account page. Alternatively, you could just do a people search for your username and claim it from there.
Also, how to build a Wankel Rotary Engine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine
why not companies funded by YC?

Because the standard of 'notability' is bogus when applied to something of the supposed scope of wikipedia. It's impossible to apply it with any reasonable consistency, and it always boils down to a few biased opinions, which is why the topic of notability deletions is so sensitive.
Interactive graphic of 10k music lyrics for body parts across genres
See http://blog.friendfeed.com/2008/08/simple-update-protocol-fe...
We've been using BackType in Beta for a while now and it has been an incredibly useful service. They're already a good way to keep up on what people are saying about your business (much like Google Groups) and as they add more blogs to the fold it will only increase the usefulness.

Great job guys.
There’s more than a few ways for small-business owners to make meetings more productive.
Plumbing, and the magic word "it"
Brilliant!

I once tried to implement Minesweeper in SQL; this is even better.
On-Stage: Free Vector PSD Icon Set
Looks awesome...great job!
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and Web Standards
The mistake in this analogy is that the stars in boxes represent things one already has, while the dollar signs represent things one might get in the future.

Causing someone not to get income they might otherwise have gotten is not theft. If it were, giving someone bad financial advice would also be theft.

Because taking something someone already has is so much more serious than causing them not to get something they hoped to get in the future, we have a specially bad word just for this situation: theft. And the RIAA and MPAA deliberately misuse this word in order to make file sharing seem worse than it actually is.
Ironic that they'll remove actual people and companies, yet they retain 100s of pages covering the Star Trek universe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets
I would pay gobs of money per month for this service once they have analytics and cover more blogs. Great job guys.
Cool. Possible to do anything to solve the www-vs-no-www (essentially duplicate content) issues?

(entered my websites then immediately wondered if I should enter them with/without the www as I may sometimes leave that out when commenting.. also searched for a friend and his blog came up twice in the people search results)
Hurricane Safety Guide and Tips | SlashBe
> If a programmer is pretty good at what she does, then odds are she's already got a secure, comfortable, well-paid job.

Especially so if the programmer in question is a Mac/Cocoa programmer. There are few of them around, and chances are they are either working at Apple or doing their own thing.
Ask HN: Any VCs in Toronto, Canada?
Has anyone here ever reached and/or worked with any VCs in Toronto?

If so, can you please share who they are.
"However, they are also potentially gaining a sale from a user who would have not normally purchased their music, but downloaded and decided to buy."

The analogy breaks down because music and other forms of media are just pure information, so there is no reason to buy it if you already downloaded it, especially as the friction of obtaining an illegal copy is reduced to zero.
I'd like to see some evidence or indication that this is deliberate on any level.
Anything they do to improve it's standards compatibility is welcome. Unfortunately I think IEs reputation is so bad, most people who care enough to upgrade will probably use something else.
In the drug context, asking Congress to legalize cocaine or repeal the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 is a fool's errand.

Medical cocaine is legal and has been used for years to treat nose bleeds.
Microsoft's Sneak Attack on Google.
Isn't this what Gnip is doing, except that Gnip's solution is readily available to anyone who wants it?

In fact, I believe Gnip uses XMPP to push notifications to data consumers, which seems even more efficient.

Am I missing something?
those are technically different urls, so we'll have to do something to figure that out. you won't see duplicate comments as a result, just duplicate people.

right now putting both on your profile helps because then people looking for your comments will see them all in one place.

thanks for the feedback
I think John's points also addresses your feeling. He's saying why are you so crazy about just this market. Which conversely means why do you want me so badly when there is a much larger ecosystem of great development going on that you are ignoring
thanks man. I added your blog to backtype :)
Skype for email?
I think the first point is sensible, even though I disagree with it.

I'm not sure I understand how license plate cameras solve the problem, though. How many tens of thousands of license plates would need to be processed per day, and for what pattern?

Also note that the economics are just part of the problem. Other problems include privacy, chain of evidence, and personal fraud damages.
whoa! that was...unexpected.
That would be a short essay. You just have to judge whether they're smart and honest. The reason that's hard is not that you need special techniques to do it, but that it's hard to judge someone during a brief meeting when they're also judging you.

We just tell YC founders to ask us, and that probably is the most effective way to judge a VC: ask people who know him.
Wow, this brings me back. Nothing makes VCs hotter than a nascent business with traction in a hot sexy space. They'll cool fast when they see the world isn't suddenly going to all get iPhones and leave everything else behind, but they are on it like spider monkeys right now
If you're going to get all pedantic about these terms, certainly you must bring up the actual definition of "piracy":

Piracy is a robbery committed at sea, or sometimes on the shore, without a commission from a sovereign nation.

That said, whatever you want to call it, it's hard to deny it's illegal in many places. If you're ok with breaking the law, and you think it's moral to "pirate", then by all means go ahead.
Whoa...those are some pretty nifty ideas. Sign up for a preview of BlueSwarm.com ;-)
What if instead of raining from the sky, bread was atom-for-atom replicated from the original baker's product (bakers only input is "design" -- no raw materials). Would eating the clone-bread constitute theft?
Innovation isn't dying, It is just changing.
Has anyone found anything copyrighted in Pi yet? That would be awsome to share at song by saying "the 1e74 + 2 digit of Pi for 6000 digits."
The article in question compared them, not me, and the rest of the comment is based on my factual experience, not so subjective that I needed a book to verify it.
This comment from the site seems dead-on:

"So the strong statement is great when being talked at by 37Signals, but not when talking to 37Signals."
I should've guessed it from the URL, but a NSFW tag would be nice.
Yes, of course giving away the better corn is "wrong," but it's not theft. In violation of multiple laws and probably legal agreements, yes, but the point of the cartoon is that it doesn't fit the accepted (to my knowledge) definition of theft -- unlawful, physical removal another person's property.
(Incidentally, sorry if that came across as more hostile than intended. Rereading it, it was more curt than I realized.)
http://www.punctuative.com/vcdb/
I remember reading about VC's/angels near U of Waterloo, might want to check that out.
Conclusion: Be in the top 1% of programmers, not the bottom 99%.
Ignoring the impending TLD explosion, all of the good domain names are long gone. And regardless of what you pick, Google is and will remain the front door to your web site; the domain name is now effective largely only for bookmarking, for DNS-level load balancing, and to allow you to survive an IP address change.
i would suggest contacting the guys at b5media.com and talk to them - they are based in toronto and have received funding.
TradeVibes Launched Startup Exchange - Predictive Market for Valuing Startup Companies