skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think it's worth observing when the early birds in these 'obvious spaces' emerge simultaneously.
We had an idea that we wanted to develop and were tempted to apply to a fair number of incubators.
There was, though, the concern that if we did so, we might end up hurting ourselves through the disclosure and discover competitors in our 'obvious space'.
Was a concern we had. Maybe you don't echo it. I'm sure several individuals who believe their ideas are novel will.
Harvard has a terrible engineering reputation
What is Biz Stone doing?
That's true. When there was trouble in the Balkans, Europe was uncapable of dealing with it and had to call Uncle Sam. On the other hand, the EU is good at using its economic muscle. For instance, in 2004 the EU expanded its territory by over 20% without firing a single shot ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_enlargement_of_the_Europea...

To cut a long story short: sometimes (relative) economic prosperity is more persuasive than military action.
I originally had this view of English too, until I took a formal course on criticism in college. Some of the methods are surprisingly quantitative and all of them are procedural. Indeed, many techniques of criticism grew of the the fact that English Professors at universities in the 20th century had no formal method of research, while the counterparts in fields like Chemistry had no problem justifying their existence. I might be more precise in my words above by saying Literary Criticism instead of English.

I agree with you that the direct benefit of these disciplines is not entirely clear; must research needs to be done in this area. One thing that is clear, however, is that the undergraduate CS curriculum is not particularly good at teaching this way of thinking. The closest you can come to achieving the effect of English and Philosophy on your thinking is a well designed CS curriculum focused on theory. I've found that the students here who find theory interesting also tend to be good programmers. Again, all of these thoughts are based simply on unscientific observation, but I believe there is a provable, related truth that might come out of them.
I don't see how you're scapegoating Ruby when you say that you have bugs that could have been prevented entirely by having a type system that lets you check types at compile time.
"In Smart Money Magazine's 2008 Broker Survey, Smart Money named Zecco as one of the worst in the customer service category. [6]."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecco.com#Criticisms
The submitted article says,

"These models suggest that any move away from the SAT or ACT in competitive colleges results in significant gains in ethnic and economic diversity. But the gains are greater for colleges that drop testing entirely, as opposed to just making it optional. (To date, only one institution -- Sarah Lawrence College -- has taken that step.)"

How does Sarah Lawrence College

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.j...

78% Women
22% Men

<1% American Indian/Alaskan Native
7% Asian/Pacific Islander
2% Black/Non-Hispanic
5% Hispanic
71% White/Non-Hispanic
4% Non-Resident Alien
10% Race/ethnicity unreported

37% in top 10th of graduating class
84% in top quarter of graduating class
98% in top half of graduating class

39% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
25% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
14% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
16% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
5% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99
1% had h.s. GPA between 2.0 and 2.49

compare with Harvard

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.j...

51% Women
49% Men

1% American Indian/Alaskan Native
19% Asian/Pacific Islander
8% Black/Non-Hispanic
7% Hispanic
41% White/Non-Hispanic
10% Non-Resident Alien
15% Race/ethnicity unreported

95% in top 10th of graduating class
100% in top quarter of graduating class

or Princeton

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.j...

50% Women
50% Men

<1% American Indian/Alaskan Native
17% Asian/Pacific Islander
7% Black/Non-Hispanic
7% Hispanic
49% White/Non-Hispanic
11% Non-Resident Alien
8% Race/ethnicity unreported

97% in top 10th of graduating class
100% in top quarter of graduating class

or MIT

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.j...

46% Women
54% Men

1% American Indian/Alaskan Native
25% Asian/Pacific Islander
9% Black/Non-Hispanic
14% Hispanic
34% White/Non-Hispanic
9% Non-Resident Alien
7% Race/ethnicity unreported

97% in top 10th of graduating class
100% in top quarter of graduating class

in student diversity?
Uh, if the space is obvious, wouldn't that be exactly when you'd expect to see competitors emerging simultaneously?
I don't know how the project is organized internally, but as a user it seems to me that the Ubuntu guys have no fixed schedule for pushing new updates. I will have updates to a few libs in the morning, then another, much larger update in the evening, followed by another small update next morning. If I don't install the updates, they pile up over time. These days, if I ever end up using Ubuntu, I never update anything unless it's something I need (eg, new version of Python, Emacs etc.).

I don't want new software as soon as it is released. I can do without bleeding edge software. I just want a safe, stable distro.
I really feel for you...going through the college admissions process three years ago was one of the most daunting experiences of my life.

As a Yale student, let me give you some advice should you get the opportunity to come here. First off, it's truly an amazing place. Kids here are brilliant and Yale will give you money to do absolutely anything you're interested in. All you have to do is ask. There's also the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, an incubator for student ventures. Think of it as a Y Combinator for Yale students; you get a 5K stipend to spend the summer in New Haven, work on your project and attend workshops.

With that said, there are a few things you should be aware of. Yale is obviously not known for its science or engineering focus but among many students there's actually a contempt for any subject involving numbers. Most of my friends fulfilled their math requirement with ridiculous classes like "The Pleasures of Counting" or "Geometry of Nature." I am not even joking.

As a science student I sometimes feel like a second class citizen. Science/Engineering classes tend to meet earlier than usual and on Fridays. The buildings are all on Science Hill which is a 10-15 minute walk from central campus. This isn't a huge deal until December when New Haven turns into an icy hellscape for three months.

Finally, as far as entrepreneurship goes, you'll find a lot of kids here who would be interested in co-founding a venture. The only problem is most of them don't have the technical background to put their money where their mouth is.

I'd be glad to talk to you more about this or answer specific questions. My e-mail address is HN User Name at gmail.
I just can't believe that anyone would be stupid enough to do this

Seriously. They're in a hyper-regulated, extraordinarily conservative industry. It would be like your doctor coming over and saying "Hey, bad news chap, you've got pancreatic cancer and have about 6 hours to live" for the lulz.
How did you describe your plans for the future in your application?
My major/career first choices were "undecided", although I sent Cornell, Rice, and Princeton an essay in which I explained how I wished to better the world through innovative engineering startups.

I follow a lot of math competitions, as a math coach. Which competitions were the ones you participated in most avidly?
I narrowly missed the MA Mathcounts team in middle school, and have done well on other less prestigious competitions (HMMT, NEML, CML...), but my AMC/AIME results are probably the best. Unfortunately, my highest AIME score, an 11 (and presumably USAMO qualification), was just this year and therefore probably didn't factor in to decisions much.

What specific behaviors are your high school classmates observing as they come to that conclusion about you?

I focus on my work at the expense of an active social life, and I make an effort to really understand all knowledge that comes my way, rather than just working for grades (if that) and acting anti-intellectual (the prevailing culture). I did lack social skills in middle school, so the reputation carryover could be creating an additional gulf between my classmates and me.
Tuition-free tufts? I'd jump at it.

Anything close to Boston would be pretty cool. I hear there's a pretty strong hacker scene there... but I've never been there myself.
That isn't my point though. Say a policy states that if they lose your data, they will pay you an arbritrary sum, like 1000 dollars.

Then when they lose your data they change their policy to mention nothing of this compensation.

What happens then?
I am flabbergasted that this guy gives the Ext documentation a better grade than jQuery's. I have to use both at work, and I can always find what I need very quickly with jQuery, but with Ext I end up hunting, sometimes for hours. Honestly, for someone just getting into Ext development and not want to use one of the pre-fab RIA stuff, the documentation is among the crappiest I have ever seen, for all its volume.
Harvard has a terrible engineering reputation

Really? Would it be worse to go to Harvard than, say, to the University of Nevada Reno?

http://www.unr.edu/engineering/
'REE' - that is a joke right?
Ask HN: Micro-engineering schools?
My younger brother is in his third year at the US Naval Academy, but due to some recent medical problems, they will be medically discharging him at the end of this semester. His major is Systems and Weapons Engineering and for the past six months, he has been involved with a side project learning how to get small, remote-control helicopters to fly autonomously. He's very interested in micro-engineering and as soon as he gets out of the hospital, he's going to need to start looking into schools into which he can transfer. He has good grades (3.6 GPA, 1450 SAT). If there are people in the HN community that know of engineering programs where micro-eningeering is exceptional, please make some recommendations. I want to gather as much info as possible so that when my brother gets out of the hospital and can help himself, he'll have a head start. Thanks HN.
As a college grad who is now employed at a "top" tech company (although unhappily), I would say that it probably doesn't matter where you go. Choose a place that makes you feel comfortable. Don't choose a place based on any perceived benefit after graduation. Your happiness while there is paramount.

I was fortunate enough to go to a small engineering school with many people who shared my interests (Case Western Reserve). It was a great experience that I will cherish for a long time to come. My school is not very famous and the name didn't help me out in any job interviews, but I got a "good" job just the same.

In my experience, the biggest benefit of a college is having an extensive alumni network and lots of cool companies recruit there. If you want to work for a startup, then even that doesn't matter. This didn't matter for me because the company I work for doesn't recruit at CWRU. I got an interview after applying online.

One thing to keep in mind is that I think I learned more from my peers than I did from my professors. I think that is the whole idea behind a university.
"Why would I want folks representing some foreign power to have any authority over me?"

That's the reality of living in a multilateral world. For an up to the minute example, check out where a lot of AIG's bailout money is going: repaying its promises to the europeans. That cannot but be the result of intragovernmental "pay that or else". Who knows what the "or else" was but obviously coughing up $100B (and counting, rapidly) was preferable.

The EU is the largest economy on the planet. The USA does what the EU says, for anything to do with trade anyway. Wouldn't you prefer the process to be formalised, public, debated, representative?

Anyway, we were talking about war, so here's an example of looking on the bright side of things. Imagine there was such a supranational body, with the balls to say no to, well, anyone. Imagine GWB went to them, cap in hand, asking to invade Iraq. They told him to go jump, as they obviously would. You'd be up, what, 4,000 soldiers and half a trillion dollars in treasure?

A 10-member "war council" is not a bad idea at all.
I love how diversi-crats treat college education as a fungible commodity - if we can just get more minorities into the Ivy League, we'll magically solve all of their problems. Putting someone into an academic environment which is too far beyond his capabilities is a bad idea.
I would bet that most of the University of California schools (and many others) have better engineering reputations than Harvard.

UC Santa Barbara?
UC Davis?
Purdue?
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign?
University of Michigan Ann Arbor?
Claiming that the author was not objective is relevant to his argument.
Fourth biggest: US, USSR, and China were the top three.
It's still Harvard. It ranks #1 in nearly every other subject. A Harvard degree will get you an interview at Google or anywhere I've ever worked. However, I don't think it matters that much for the OP since he (or she) didn't apply there.
PBwiki Web 2.0 Expo Talk (Why To Start a Company)
Exactly, that's why I assume everyone who is on Hacker News is aware of the Linux branch of operating systems, and at least isn't naive enough not to consider them in this kind of choice.
I have one for my service in case I need to remove content or close an account for some legal reason (copyright infringement, illegal activity, etc). As far as proving someone agreed to it, you can't sign up for my service unless you check the box saying you agree which should be proof enough. I am not a lawyer though.
Putting someone into an academic environment which is too far beyond his capabilities is a bad idea.

I agree with this statement of policy. How do you think a college admission office ought to judge what an applicant's capabilities are?
If the deal does fall through, I doubt Schwartz can survive as CEO.
GeN - an open-source system for learning generative models of relational data
Just because there isn't a paper contract doesn't mean it isn't binding. Make sure a lawyer looks at your terms page in addition to writing the draft. I know that I am indemnified completely with my TOS.

Also, IMO just the presence of a clear TOS is a deterrent for all but the dedicated abusers who don't care about prosecution.
William K Black - Systematic Ponzi Scheme - "The best way to rob a bank is to run one"
I am reminded of that "33 bits" blog that pops up here periodically. Every living person is uniquely addressable with 33 bits of the right information. "California" is worth 8 bits by itself. Male gets you another 1. Age within one year is probably 6 or so...

Ah, here's that blog: http://33bits.org/

Its fundamentally changed the way I think about anonymity. (I used to think it might be possible.)
You can improve your experience without polluting the comments.

Consider writing a greasemonkey script that filters domains that contain content that you don't want to see, then share the script with the community.
> I’m still curious as to what might have sunk me at those places.

I'm guessing that you seem too one-dimensional. Admissions committees look for someone that'll add diversity to the campus - not just racial diversity, but diversity of interests too.

I went to Amherst (College, not UMass). Something like 1 in 8 of my admitted class had a 4.0 and 1 in 10 had perfect SATs, but we all had something else besides that. Like my astro-major dormmate who was also a nationally-ranked scrabble player. Or my friend who'd been left for dead at age 10 in Liberia, and had started his own organization dedicated to eradicating child soldiers. I'd worked in an all-teenage dot-com in my gap year before college, too.

Anyway, here's my somewhat heretical advice:

Don't go to college - yet. Instead, if you're really set on tech entrepreneurship, take a year off and found a startup. Take it as far as you can - pick out a market, talk to people in that market, try to design and build a product that satisfies that market.

If you succeed, great - you don't need college. You can always pull a Woz and go back anyway. But even if you fail, it'll teach you lots about what you really want to do. It may not be what you think now. One of my biggest regrets is that I basically planned my college career based on what I thought I wanted to do in my last year of high school, completely ignoring the lessons from my gap year. I could've saved myself a lot of aggravation and made my college experience a lot more meaningful had I adjusted my plans for where I wanted to go and what I wanted to study based on my experience working in a tech startup.

And if you fail - great. You'll look so much better to colleges for having given it a shot. Maybe you'll even get into Stanford or MIT next time around.
I believe both Foodoro/Foodzie and Disqus/IntenseDebate are coincidences, at least at the level of the idea. Loopt/Brightkite I don't know about.

If anyone saw the applications we get, they'd be more inclined to assume coincidence as the default explanation. It's not unusual to get 5 applications proposing basically the same idea.

Incidentally, we've funded 118 startups, not 70. The FAQ only lists the ones that are launched.
UW is still a great school. Some great CS research is done there.
Doesn't the US government have more important matters to deal with? The US is one of those most xenophobic first world Western nations I know of.
Immigration & Customs in almost all countries tend to be despicable in general. It's harder to get accountability from them, since the people they lord over tend to have no voting powers.
what's the deal with questioning people's "agenda" when you could just stick with a technical argument? unless you don't have one.
The crucial difference being, of course, that the intended use of a car is not to kill people in a drunk driving accident, whereas the primary purpose of a gun _is_ to kill people by shooting them.

Not saying it's necessarily right to sue the manufacturer based on the crimes of the users, but let's not pretend there's no difference.
So there are at least two interpretations of this data (I'll admit I skimmed a bit torward the end).

1) The SAT is measuring things other than academic ability/achievement, particularly non-academic cultural differences between a significant portion of the cited minorities and those having more success getting into SAT-mandatory institutions. This seems to be implicit in many calls for diversity.

2) The SAT IS a good measure of academic ability/achiement/admissibility, and statistically speaking, the cited minorities just aren't as likely to have the requsite levels of whatever academic oomph the test is measuring, presumably for environmental reasons.
Google recruits everywhere. I have lots of friends that have interviewed at Google.

Will going to Harvard surround you with like-minded people to learn from and work on projects with? Sure, but probably not as many as some other schools.
Ruby Strikes Back
paper contracts don't mean anything either. Even if you have one and win the case, the other party can just not pay
I have to say I am relieved ... Sun needs to focus on three areas in addition to their hardware:

1. Java - already ubiquitous (ish), Sun gets money for support and software

2. OS and pieces of OS - Sun gives away Solaris, ZFS, MySQL etc., but in return they get support contracts and such

3. Storage (hardware and software) - Storagetek is still selling, and they have SAM-QFS, Honeycomb, and their flash-based iSCSI/CIFS/NFS stack

4. Hardware - Sell me a SPARC T1 or T2 system for under $1000 please, and get your volumes up and people familiar with their performance.
No it's not and it works quite well.
My initial impression of Blueprint CSS Framework
I didn't intend to start a debate about the merits of Harvard's engineering department. I was just using it as an example of a school with an obvious (perhaps the most obvious) brand name reputation.
The TOS isn't meant to protect the users. It's the user's job to protect the users. The TOS is to protect the site.

Say someone uses your site which provides a free service. For whatever reason, the service is disabled for a day. Now let's say a user decides that they were harmed by the service being down and decide to sue. It's a good thing you have a TOS that states "The services offered through this site are provided as-is and without warranty. We may discontinue service or cancel accounts at any time with or without reason."

I understand that there is a potential for fraud from the site, such as when the site decides to add a line after being sued that retroactively protects them, but the burden of proof is on the accuser and there are ways of checking revisions to a site (checking Google's cache or recent edit logs could help to find the truth).
Meh. I was similarly crushed when I was rejected from the Ivy league schools I thought I would be going to. The most important thing to do is realize that most of it is ultimately irrelevant. If your department is top 10, the school wont make much of an impact past that point. Once you're in a decent department the rest is up to you.

More importantly, you actually have no idea which one of these schools is a best fit for you. My focus was Columbia in highschool. You know what I realized now? It would have been a horrible fit for me. UIUC is pretty good culture wise (mostly because of the CS department) and it has far better Computer Science. I didn't even apply to the school which I realize now would be the best fit (Berkeley). But I had never even heard of Berkeley outside of the CS rankings because it's not an Ivy.

Recognizing that you have very little chance in correctly reading your own needs, try narrowing down the college by obvious criteria:

1.) Place yourself in a top 10 department in the subject you want to study.

2.) Make sure the campus culture is at least a decent fit for you (i.e., don't go to a big 10 school if you have an aversion to sports and partying. I personally think the hardcore party people here are jokes, but I have no problem dealing or even being friends with them.).

3.) Minimize the amount of money it takes you to get there. Only make a concession if your upgrading yourself from a bottom half of the top 10 to a number 1.

4.) Make sure the campus is a place where you see yourself living for four years.

Academics + Culture + Minimal Money + Location. It really is that simple. I doubt more than one of the colleges on your list fits into the above criteria.

EDIT: Also, don't beat yourself up over not getting in. It's essentially a coin flip when it comes down to it. I thought I had a pretty kickass profile too, but there you go. As PG has written, it's not in the best interest of the admissions committee to spend the time picking the exact best candidates. And believe me, this type of rejection will keep happening. I just got rejected from a NASA scholarship I thought I had a pretty good shot at. In the rejection email, they suggested if I reapplied to improve on pretty much every aspect of my application! I know my app was better than that. Like I said.. meh. :)
Just so there's no uncertainty about this: we have never, in 4 years of doing this, told a startup we funded about an idea we read in an application from a group we didn't fund.

The explanation for this is pretty simple: the groups we like, we fund.
Why would anyone align their college decision with YC?

edit: presumably, this was tongue-in-cheek(?)
This aint Mac vs. PC -- both incubators kick ass and get capital in the hands of entrepreneurs. This is a good thing.