skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Arbitrage is not in itself bad or deplorable.

No, but it is annoying because it ends up producing lots of junk on the internet that doesn't really contribute to people finding the information they want - it actually puts another layer in the middle in many cases. I have no problem with advertising, when combined with something of actual interest or value.

> If he were not, then the advertisers of the ads he was making money on would have been advertising where /he/ was advertising.

Or he was just exploiting a temporary hole in the market, in which case, good for him, but he has no right to complain about getting shut down by the same market.
The blog is our #1 recruitment tool, accounts for a significant amount of our inbound services sales activity, 100% of our product inbounds (we're saturated now), and probably more than 50% of our press activity.

Everyone in the company writes. We run the site loosely like a "real" publication, with an editorial calendar. We have a few semi-effective management tricks for keeping posts on schedule.

In the future, the blog is going to account for 100% of our open source software releases (I'm releasing something significant on it next week), and an increasing amount of our research work --- we're going to publish more things on the blog, rather than waiting for events like Black Hat.

The big difference between our blog and corporate blogs is that we write about our space, the technology we work with, and the news in our industry, but almost never about the company itself.
I have an iPhone, and I have multiple Macs. It frustrates me that I cannot seamlessly move media between these machines and my iPhone. Last time I tried, Apple wanted to wipe all music currently on my phone before it would put music on from another computer.

I may not matter to Apple, but this is an example of DRM degrading my experience after I paid them lots of money.
Interestingly enough, this article just popped up on the delicious popular list so may be relevant to you.

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fd0n/35%20Founders%27%20Pie%2...
If they can do everything you can do why are they talking to you?
I guess that shows you how much that freaked me out.
Oh man, what I could do with only a few hundred thousand dollars of pure development and UI work.
3 Reasons to Go ‘All Angel’ : Fort Worth Startup Blog
Great reference. Any thoughts on how to make sure everyone feels like they get a fair shake? Maybe consensus on the values in this spreadsheet is sufficient?
It's pretty much a glorified website directory, and not a great example of the types of sites that have a legitimate beef with Google's heavy-handed tactics.
iTunes DRM doesn't inconvenience the typical iTunes customer. DirecTV content protection doesn't inconvenience DTV subscribers. Blu-Ray BD+ doesn't inconvenience most Blu-Ray customers (almost none of whom "back up" their DVDs).

That's a big part of why they work.

The trouble I think most people have in analyzing DRM is that it's not an all-or-nothing problem; it's an economic one. There will always be cammed copies of first-run movies for sale on the street and circulating on BitTorrent. But as long as it's easier to buy than to copy --- at least in the first 2 weeks of a release --- DRM is working. To achieve that, DRM vendors just need to make the cost of a break more expensive than those first couple weeks are worth in piracy costs.

I don't really have a horse in this race. I'm not sold on DRM either. I've worked professionally on both sides of this problem. What I think right now is that CS types are underestimating the next generation of DRM systems. Software and content protection is getting more sophisticated. It also dovetails more effectively with systems security than it did 10 years ago. We want locks on our platforms so they don't get enrolled in botnets; those same locks will help content providers enforce contracts.
I dream of finding an angel like Ron Conway on the East Coast. It feels like most former consumer web CEOs and executives are on the west coast.
It frustrates me too, but let's be honest: we've accepted this frustration because the end user experience Apple provides is superior to the "open" alternative. We don't have a right to that experience; it's a product that Apple sells, with terms and conditions.

I'm responding to an argument you didn't make, but it's an argument that I think is hovering in the air around us.

It's hard to argue that the typical consumer --- the only one Apple should rationally care about --- is influenced by these issues. The iPhone is spectacularly popular, just like the iPod before it.
The difference being you don't have to be on the official carrier deck to sell an app for BlackBerry/Symbian/Windows Mobile. You have to be on the App Store to sell an iPhone app.
If you need the approval of the platform vendor to ship an app, then it isn't a platform
I think you make too many assumptions with no basis in facts. It speaks amore about you than the OP.
Has collective bargaining ever, ever, ever succeeded in the computer industry?
seems like this applies to many new "platforms", for example Facebook.
That's a good question, I'm currently working through this problem aswell.

Perhaps give each team member their own table where they would fill in what their perceived self-ratings are, but also how they would rate other members and what they would set the weightings at before sitting down to seriously discuss it.

I think this kind of exercise might help people understand where they fit within the new organisation too.
People usually don't care enough about it - for employee/employer relationship it's employee's market anyways as good coders are never out of work and its easier to vote with your feet.

Now if App Store were to monopolize the mobile app market (in terms of revenue prospects) then it could be a different story - people might start caring.
Those are great rules.

Was Matasano arranged like this from the outset, or did you grow into it?
Dani,

I really enjoy your essays, you've got a very interesting blog. Keep up the good work. Hope all is well at LightSail.
When this ad sounds like every other post on http://sfbay.craigslist.org/cpg/ then I'm not sure what to think.

When I was much younger and eager, dealing with posts similar to this always ended up wasting time. So, sure, I'm might just be making an ass out of myself.

But I would love for the OP -- who, mind you, has no discernible history to this community -- to prove me wrong rather than you to quip about my writing.
I'm still not sold on ido... I'm trying it out again, but thus far there are enough annoyances that I don't think I can activate it full-time. I may, however, use their completing read function standalone tho for other things I do.

So far, I've found that autotest.el + file-cache + ffap + some advice for ffap (see my emacswiki page) does 80-90% of what I need on a daily basis.
Wow, I wasn't aware that they were denying apps that are "similar" to other apps already approved. That eliminates the evolution that comes with capitalism. Very bad.
> HN is the perfect place to find people like this/us.

I think the best way to find people here is to get to know them through the site, over time, not with an ad, although I don't really care if the odd ad appears here - it's not really damaging, as it's easy to ignore, and doesn't attract the wrong kind of people.
We can start here: http://searchyc.com/finding+a+cofounder

Then we can quote PG: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=77149

I don't think HN is a good medium for finding cofounders. This is a place for discussion, and true that's indicative of people's perceived intelligence, but it's not indicative of their real life personality and work behavior.

MAKE FRIENDS. MEET PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE AROUND YOU. Put your face into the game. That is the most tried and true way. And if you live in Bumfuck, Egypt, then get the hell out of Dodge and find the way to San Jose (did I use enough idioms in this sentence?).
Android FTF. I used it, and it was pretty terrible. If you think the iPhone is slow...
Oh my god, that Craigslist category is awful!

I only clicked on one ad, the very first one listed -- http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cpg/839620808.html -- and it's worse than anything I could have imagined!

"Want to build your portfolio? ... I have a vision, a blog and a domain name but need help creating/setting up and showing me how to maintain my web site. It will incorporate Web 2.0/Web 3.0 features so you'll get a chance to showcase your skills. ... Compensation: no pay"
I, for one, do not welcome our Craigslist spamming overlords to this site.
The question that keeps on hitting me when I see posts along those lines is whether or not these highly publicized instances are remotely representative of the way apps submitted to the app store get treated.

Could someone clarify this? If this is just a corner that keeps on getting highly publicized, well the app store hasn't really been around that long as yet, so is it really that unreasonable?
Actually, you should be happy keeping X/Y or more: thus giving away up to (Y-X)/Y.
> So Arrington walks into a bar and...
How is the risk of Yammer any greater than all of the IM networks people use at work?
Seriously?

OK. I'm in. But I need 55% ownership and a 75k/yr Salary + benefits. Also, I prefer to do the business side, so I'll go ahead and file all the papers and then hire you as an employee (dont worry, you can still be silent, minority investor too, but I'm afraid I cant give you any real voting rights). :)

With that out of the way -- there is a lot of discussion about whether hacker news is a great place to find co-founders. To be honest, this place is probably chock full of awesome co-founders, both technical or business. But the method of your request is all wrong.

Great partnerships are sort of like relationships. Its about give and take, its about strengths and weaknesses. I hate to say it, but you arent going to have any idea about that from a post on here, and its a horrible way to start an enterprise. $10 says you get 6 months in, realize you have different visions for the company, and one of you walks, leaving the other with a pile of shit and a lot of bills. Nevermind, you can keep the $10. You're going to need it.

To be frank -- You would be better off using this place to ask for advice on a more specific topic -- perhaps something you are weak at. Then look through the responses, find the ones that strike you as the smart, intuitive responses, and ask those people if they mind having lunch with you. Rinse, repeat 20 times. Then you will start to build a network. Have a beer with those people occasionally. Talk about similar interests (I guess for you, your idea in enterprise software...). A natural choice for someone who COULD be a partner will filter itself out. And you'll be better off, because you will actually be at least ACQUAINTANCES with that person, so you'll have an idea if they are shitting you or the real thing.

[Sidebar -- If you are equally as capable in business and technical side, wtf do you want a partner for? You need employees and investors.]

Sorry to be a downer on your idea -- but your methodology stinks as either someone who is lazy or a liar, and neither of those make good partners.
I agree, complaining about it won't change it unless apple has a genuine economic incentive.

personally, I don't see whats particularly troublesome about the current policy. Granted, I'm focusing moreso on cooking up apps that are genuinely distinct in functionality to minimize the need to focus on marketing to begin with.
Free Ti-89 Titanium Calculator to a good home
I've been cleaning through some of my stuff/junk today, similar to that old PG essay about having too much stuff. Now I sit at my desk typing this with a mint condition Ti-89 Titanium calculator by my side. I've finished all the math courses for my degree so I haven't touched it in years.

I was going to sell it but I'd rather not go through the hassle of posting to CL and having to meetup with someone.

Tell me why this calculator would come in handy for you and I'll gladly send it to you, complete with manual. If you're overseas, I might ask for a bit of paypal $ to help with shipping.
Google's heavy-handed tactics.

I don't agree with this, I think Google has every right to provide it's main customers (searchers) the best possible product that they can. If anything, removing sites like these actually cut into Google's profits.

I have no problem with directories that are trying to drive legitimate, organic traffic to their sites, nor do I have a problem with any kind of web directory - I think that anyone who is adding value to the net should be commended.

I just think that if their whole reason for existence is to convert inbound adwords clicks into outbound adsense clicks by using scraped content, how can that possibly be valuable?

Most people here could easily replicate this site in the space of an afternoon and have the content up within days - grab an RDF dump from DMOZ, insert those URL's into any off the shelf spider and capture meta data from those pages and mash it up = instant spam site, does it add value? Most definitely not.
Because something like a corporate sametime network behind is storing data out on the cloud for some little company to hold to ransom?
I played with both.

Android looks like a serious threat. The big question is how will google treat the Android developers.

Phone vendors don't like developers massing around with their devices, users do like it.

The vendor that will reach the finish line first will be the one that will produce a stable product with a solid API where 3rd party software won't damage the phone performance.

If my theory is correct at the moment RIM (Blackberry) are in front.
not really that surprising, if you follow techcrunch you can definitely see that they value $$$ above else. The way they see it, is that someone got $$$ their idea got validated.

Thats why they cover YC startups so much, because PG does the leg work of verifying that the ideas have merit and its worth reporting on it
I'd be happy to take it off your hands. I've got a few more math classes to go, and the higher-level CS stuff. I don't know how much that requires an 89, but symbolic integration/differentiation never hurt anyone. AFAIK it would be useful for crypto stuff, which I've been thinking about getting into. (Andrew Guyton, 5th year CS @ GT)
I'm in Pre-Cal AP at my high school, money's tight and I would love to accept your calculator. The ones they provide at school for free don't have good graphing utilities :/.

Anyway, thanks for the consideration, it's nice enough to see someone offer such thing for free. :D

Edit: Money's tight at my house, but indraneel24 sounds like he needs it more. Please exclude me from this for his benefit. Thanks!
I tried ido a few times, but never really liked it. I felt like it was jumping ahead of me, often in directions I didn't want to go.

I like Icicles much better. It offers lots of features like ido, but I actually need to press a key before they happen.

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/Icicles
it sort of reminds me of that post a few months back, where the guy's business was going very slow so he got some VP from a sector leader and 3 months later he had to fire him because the guy was just doing such a horrible job.

Granted in that story I believe the guy was getting paid..but here its even worse, since you'll give up a chunk of your company and there is zero guarantee that the guy will live up to his resume.
I'm not sure I get the comparison between Outlook and Facebook. I see Facebook as a service teenagers and young adults use to keep in touch. I see Outlook and as an e-mail and organizer mainly for business users. From that perspective I'm not sure how exactly Facebook is affecting the use of Outlook at all.

Am I missing something?
The money primarily goes to salaries. The more VC money a startup has, the more temptation there is to hire a team of "seasoned" VPs of ... something, at the tune of $150K+ per employee per year.
I'd love to see AIR get more traction, but I rarely hear about it these days. Why?
"MAKE FRIENDS. MEET PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE AROUND YOU"

This is how I found my cofounder.
pstam! i'm starting my second year at UCLA, studying chem engineering. i have a couple more linear algebra courses and an upper div diffy eqn class to go. i currently have to go to the computer labs and pray there are computers with the right software available. with the TI I could get my work done in my appt and not have to pull allnighters in the computer lab.

I remember last summer going through your back to school lists before I left, and the only essential item I couldn't afford was the calculator. Take care man.
I'm a out of state Georgia Tech student double majoring in CS and Math and don't have any calculator at this point.
An armchair astronomer discovers something very odd
A friend of mine has observed that using blank business cards generate a far higher callback rate for him than preprinted cards. (Of course he writes his number etc on the blank card as he hands them out.)

What industry is your friend in out of interest? I think that how ones business card is presented says a lot about that person, for example a person who is into design might seem strange having a plain standard white boring business card.

Similarly a person who has a typically white collar job (accountant etc) would do well with a more classic or professional look card than something with vivid colour.

Just looking through my business card file now, I don't remember half of who these people are, but when I come across a fantastic card I have that instant recognition of who the person is, the card acts as a visual cue.

Completely unrelated, but have a look at some of these if you've never seen this, it's a photoset of fantastic business cards on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics/sets/7205759410438...

Might also work for getting dates. Though you probably should not use a business card.

That depends on the woman I guess as there are no doubt some women out there that would or wouldn't date a man depending on his job title (and the implied financial status that goes with it)

EDIT - actually still looking through my file I came across one of my uncle's business cards I got my hands on several years ago. His company is not glamorous one by any stretch of the imagination (his factory makes custom wooden crates/boxes for shipping) but his card instantly stands out. It is actually made out of a thin sheet of pine which was then printed onto and I think that it is not only appropriate given his customer base, but it's the kind of card that you remember and I don't think too many people end up throwing them away.
The Fibonacci Spiral and the Nautilus (or, don't believe everything you read)
Someone does:

http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2008/05/never-hate-only-eve...
Maybe we should give it a chance to launch and iterate a bit.
Not what you are looking for, but inaccesible documentation is my biggest irritant. I'm talking to you broadcom and a lot of USB peripheral chip vendors as well. And now the PowerVR keepers.
That post is awful, but the other 6 out of 7 for today are reasonable requests. I would not call this an "awful category" just based on that.
I will say this Digg-style: AppStore FAIL.
1 out of 7 posts on that link asks for someone to work for free for them. Ok, that's audacious.

OP however has not expressed or implied any such things or even inequality. The way I read his post is that he is looking for a partner of equal strength, and supposedly share. He's even willing to relocate. How is that demeaning to the prospect partner?

Your assumptions are based solely on your _other_ experience and are rather unfounded.
Here are a few:

- Local startup gatherings

- Open source projects

- Former jobs

- College / grad-school

I'd never post something like this original post because it puts you in a situation you don't want to be in later on -- choosing a co-founder isn't something you can do as a snap decision after you meet them. To accomplish the same goal as the original poster, I'd ask something like:

"Hi, I'm based in Toronto and considering leaving my current startup to start my own. Any one got any local startup-related events they'd recommend? Or want to meet for a beer somewhere and share tips on the local scene? I'm also going to be popping down to SV in three weeks to check out things there -- any must-not-miss events?"
What're the problems that Outlook solves?

- Email: communicating with people

- Email attachments: sharing files

- Address Book: storing contact info for friends, coworkers, and acquaintances

- Calendar: keeping track of events you've promised to attend

- RSS feeds: keeping up on news that you're interested in

What're the problems that FaceBook solves?

- Messages, Wall, Notes, & Chat: communicating with people

- Photo & video sharing: sharing files

- Profiles: storing contact info for friends, classmates, and acquaintances

- Events: keeping track of events you've promised to attend

- Newsfeed & shared links: keeping up on news that you're interested in

That's why Microsoft is scared. ;-) The market is different, but the tasks are exactly the same - and as FaceBook users get older, they become the market that previously used Outlook.
What Is A Platform? Dave Winer Knows
I'm in Pre-Calc H in high school, an my father has been out of work fo a few months, so money is tight. So while everybody has fancy 84s and 89s, I'm stuck with a school issue, really old and slow TI-83. Also, I want to get a computer science/ business degree when I go I college in 2.5 years; both math intensive degrees. Oh and my dream school is MIT haha. So yup I'd love an 89 - besides, I've been reading pstam.com for two years now ;)
My startup is building our company around the blog: We have started to blog each day about different things that career-minded college students might find interesting. The writing has a Gawker-like flavor to it and the plan is to build up some sort of loyal reader base so that when we release our app, we will automatically have users.

Shameless self promotion here: http://findthepulse.com/blog
i literally didn't know about a single one of those top 50 companies. what a bunch of nonsense.
Classical music downloading: a tale of two sites
A look into the funding of the TC50 presenting startups.
com'on, i highly commend this guy here. it is plain out impossible to be convinving in a few paragraphs, and he said enough to attract people who might also be looking for a great guy
More likely, as Facebook users get older, they'll grow out of Facebook and realize it's just a silly website.
yup, agreed. you just need to throw in an exec summary
Speech recognition and other assistive technologies work well enough that if he wanted to use a computer, he could (see Stephen Hawking for an example).
Because if you want to put the physical CD into the actual trash you have to get it out of the computer first...
As a funny sidenote -- I still hang onto my TI-89 as it's something that I can cary off with me to a location that's not my desk when I'm holed up with a pile of scientific papers and a spiral notebook. It doesn't have nearly the same distraction factor as a laptop. (The TI-85, on the other hand, could probably go. ;-) )
It worked in Amelie, and real life. :-)

Also, recall the quote by Jacques Cousteau in Rushmore, written in the book's cover...
GNU Smalltalk: The Smalltalk for those who can type
Good point. Regardless of when HTML5's specs are nailed down, it will still be quite a long time before they're implemented in browsers.
Instead of sensational posts, I'd like to see more developers working on useful tools we can use now, like BlueprintCSS.