skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The article did not go into a lot of detail about how the development of the geologic timescale contributed to the science of geology. One of the most important contributions of the timescale was giving scientists a framework to correlate geologic events. For example the KT boundary groups the events of a mass extinction, elevated trace amounts of iridium, and the impact crater in Mexico. Before the timescale and radioactive dating, geologic events such as these were witnessed across the globe, but never correlated to be one single event.
Pleasant article. It's easy to relate to the feeling of wonderment the non-programmers have, since, in a sense, on our first big project we're all non-programmers. I wish I could generate the amount of code I used to in those days.

The problem now isn't overcoming the language, or figuring out what to do, it's staying focused on what's really the same boring implementation you've been doing since the beginning. I know exactly what my next thousand lines of code are going to be. I just can't bring myself to sit down and type them out for hours on end.
the same as my favorite editor for everything... vim
there are no movement commands in insert mode (to my knowledge) in vi
Oanda raises $100m - online currency exchange
Been around for 12 years - sounds like they raised money to take on some debt - must have pretty good cash flows by now.
I agree, a Search will be quite helpful
Oddpost -25 million. I remember that very well. Because it was on the cover of Business 2.0 - 'the new road to riches', or something like that.
One option would be to record them, then let the startups themselves decide whether to distribute the videos or not.
Thank you for confirming my belief that putting up with the JVM or the CLR is worth it because you get awesome libraries like Lucene, Nutch, and most other things you want but don't want to write yourself or come up with an unsatisfactory workaround for.

Yes there's Google, but Google lacks transparency and if something doesn't index they won't tell you and there's nothing you can do about it.
jesus. what the hell kind of valuation does that mean?
Cure for cryptic key combinations:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki?CuaMode
Powerset: Move Over, Google
Pass it on then buddy... heuristix at gmail.com!
Well, I would say that I agree with Umair that YouTube did indeed solve a huge personal/social problem (reinventing the stale, inefficient television/video value chain). Right off the bat, too.

I also agree that "large things start small", but which of these companies do you think really have potential to create enormous value for millions of people?

ZocDoc? Zivity?

I'm just playing devil's advocate here...I hope some of these companies really knock it out of the park, but the roster is a little "underwhelming" on paper.
I think that with the figures Paul Graham gave us on Yahoo Store, that acquisition payed for itself around 2 years ago.
Viewdle is definitely not underwhelming...to be fair, I think he was talking about "many" of the companies, not all of them.
Really, what figures? I always figured Yahoo was making more than that... Yahoo Store is expensive and popular.
software is an interesting business, in that you don't have to ask anyone's permission, and there's no real way to know if someone is a real programmer, a fake programmer, or a non-programmer aside from looking at the code and applications they have written/created.

Does it make sense to speak of "non-programmers who write software?" In some ways, it seems like the act of writing software is exactly what makes a person a programmer.

I'm not trying to play games here - I do understand what the writer here is getting at. People who have no background in software, somehow muddling their way into an application, for better or for worse.

But after a while, that ballet dancer who wrote his own ticketing app, or that lawyer who wrote his own billing app,... they become programmers. Maybe bad ones, but programmers nonetheless.
Web 2.0 investment slows
I think the name alone is worth a hundred million.
I don't doubt that you have many other things on your plate but surely there is someone at YC that could do this. Or if nothing else take axod's comment and open it up so that someone on here can do it for you.

Update - Make it part of the Winter YC application. Post the data we need to know and let people write the code for you.
There is a comments system on every page. Just scroll down to the bottom, type in your comment, and hit submit!

I should probably make that feature more obvious.
What an unbelievable press hit. If Powerset's hackers were as good as their PR people, we'd all be using it already.
ycsearch.com is not as fancy, but it is a bit easier to remember. Although, I guess it is just as easy to remember site:news.ycombinator.com, which it is functionally equivalent to.
reddit was - although it was a hard drive stolen.
All I know is what their revenues were. I don't know their costs, so I can't guess how long it took to pay for itself.
"Make it part of the Winter YC application. Post the data we need to know and let people write the code for you."

Are you just saying that because you want to see the Arc specifications? :P
Huge pre-release hype has definitely been shown to be a reliable non-pattern for success of websites.
I remember a few instances of people submitting google searches as stories and within an hour the news.yc story was showing up in the results.
I recently saw a demo of Invention Machine, which does semantic extraction of a body of data. They integrate it with engineering processing tools, and their target market is companies that have a process that they can improve.

The problem with semantic search is that out of context, it doesn't buy you much. Note how many of the demos of Powerset have been on a tiny body of data.

I'm very familiar with the state of art in natural language processing. Invention Machine is pretty good. Powerset seems pretty good.

It is silly to think that Google, with a mass of excellent engineers and folks like Norvig heading the effort, will be beaten because Powerset will go public with semantic search features sooner.

Google certainly has people working on it. Even a marginal improvement on search or adWords relevance would get them millions. Unless they are already a sloth of a big company, there is a reason such features aren't released. My guess is that the techniques aren't good enough yet to take on the entire web.
As much money as those early employees at Google made, it's a wonder this post only mentions three new companies.
i don't want a toolbar. The firefox search area is about all i'm willing to use. It would be nice if pressing ctrl-enter to submit (or something as simple) would just search the site.

It would also be nice to use another key like alt or shift to dictate whether to open a new tab or use the current one.

My guess is that this takes an extension, not a plugin.
Piracy is a pain? Universities sell $10 versions to students.
I think it's pretty common to use "hack" to describe a clever algorithm that achieves what others couldn't.
You can do the same with VMware Fusion... they call it Unity mode.

From my experience, VMware > Parallels.
I don't know if any of the startups are good -- it's very difficult to judge from a few line summary on the web.

My point though is that important products often appear minor or niche as first.
ex is the same executable as vim/vi these days.
That's a good idea, though the startups could just repeat the presentation later in front of a camera, which might be a better idea (they can do multiple shoots, etc).
TechCrunch 40 Session 3: Community & Collaboration
How is that not exactly what I said?
The real secret behind Amazon's success is patient investors
commenting on blogs is a great idea, but you do that to connect with the blogger and making him realize he might need to write a post about you. you don't comment on blogs to get traffic. and anyway, comments have all rel nofollow on them
completely free at my school!
I like these numbers. As someone pushing an Open Source based business along, Open Source businesses selling for huge prices is a nice thing for me to see...XenSource went for 500mil not more than a month ago. Zimbra 350mil. Both sit either side of us on the continuum of applications (and we've got a mail stack with webmail like Zimbra, though not as advanced, and a virtualization management product more feature-laden than XenSource have).

I'm gonna act like I don't know any of y'all when I'm cruising around on my mega-yacht. That's all I'm saying.
Hahah... no but that's a good idea. Shhhhhhush! ;)
Better yet, use OpenID and let somebody else worry about passwords.

(ok, this isn't an option for everybody yet)
kyle is the man.

how about those MIT dropouts? =D
Hrmph - a linkjacking by 37signals...
i tried to add a comment when i submitted this, but it didn't let me? maybe i did it wrong. the company has been around since '95 so this looks more like a PE type investment - they probably have pretty stable cash flows so fund raising is to let them take on some debt.
Interesting. Reminds me of something I set up a while ago: http://imlonely.org/

John.
While it sounds like a good idea, that seems unlikely to work. Why would they put in the extra effort? I think it would be one of those good ideas that get postponed indefinitely.
No sir. I be using SHA256 hashes and per-password salts, ever since our site's launch.
And efficient/revolutionary supply chain management, just like Wal-Mart.
Tip for mobile ideas: Find out what's banned
There are many more.

Here are two:
http://www.mercurynews.com/moremorsels/ci_6627058
http://twitter.com
Yes, thanks. I see that now. Perhaps if you made the fonts smaller and separated the questions from the answers?
There is an echo in the article of Christopher Alexander's view that architects -- professional house designers -- tend to generally make less functional choices in house design than people who design their own homes. The architect's goals may include a desire to produce something that looks stylish, but (s)he does not have to live in the result.

In the case of custom software development -- also home design -- the happy medium surely involves the professional working closely _with_ the client.

OTOH if you have sufficient skills and the time to combine both roles I say: Go ahead and enjoy the ride.
Yes on all counts. I wouldn't want our Demo Day presentation disseminated because it kinda sucked. And I wouldn't do it again, because when I next present I expect a big fat check to follow within a month or so. But maybe I'm just lazy.
At the first Startup School in Boston someone mentioned that Yahoo Store had about 235,000 stores and $5 billion/year in store revenue, if I'm remembering correctly.
The smallest available monthly fee(1) is currently $40 and the smallest transaction fee is 0.75% thus their annual revenue must be greater than (235000 x 40)+($5 billion x 0.75%)=$46.9 million. I'm guessing it's rather a bit more than that.

1) http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/plans.php
Password Security: A Case History
This paper describes the history of the design of the password security scheme on a remotely accessed time-sharing system. The present design was the result of countering observed attempts to penetrate the system. The result is a compromise between extreme security and ease of use.
VMware finally got around to releasing their damn MacOS port? Last I heard it was still vaporware, but a google search shows that it's finally released. Took long enough.
It is unlikely they have 235,000 stores. I would guess at most 30-50,000.
Short story by Cory Doctorow: What if Google were evil?
Definitely. Good suggestion. I didn't think of that. Thanks.

Unfortunately, I'm more of a low-level kernel hacker and math geek (machine learning algorithms, cluster file systems, robotics, etc..) than I am a UI person.

Which is a _major_ problem since the first thing people see is the UI.

And since I wrote my own web server and database, it wasn't really possible to use an off-the-shelf pretty-looking CMS.

So, my current project is a web-based satistical datamining system. And the UI is ... a text box. Which means it will be more difficult for me to f-up the UI. Although, I still might manage to do that.
This is not at all hacker related but hilarious enough that I don't care. Way to go Woz!
Actually, there's a good reason why the UI is so odd:

* My web-browser of choice is Lynx :-)
I was thinking what I needed was a sock puppet, or maybe a website with a name with too many vowels, like ooweblioo. I'm also considering a folksonomy of avatars, or maybe a paradigm-shifting web 3.0 application that virtualizes social dynamics in a new dimension.

Dang! That sounds great! I think I'll call the puppet Bob. Man, I'm almost there.
I just came across http://imo.im which claims to be from a "first 10" google employee.
Intel Swallows Havok
I would but I'm in Linux and I can't boot into Windows...I'm afraid it'll blow up (my video card is messed up and I really do not want to deal with changing the video card drivers)

If there were Thunderbird support I'd be using it at this very moment.
"Make it part of the Winter YC application."

As a way to weed folks out, I guess? Automatic disqualification due to inability to focus on ones own problems?
You're right, I didn't really give any solid reasons for what I said, but I didn't intend to. My point was to state that I, personally, do not like Microsoft, but I am still opposed to the decision that was made against them.
Yes. I'd recommend the SEO press release from PRWEB.COM for $200. The company I work at now, uses it;

We've been syndicated across forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2007/08/07...

and yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20070823/bs_prweb/prweb548843_...

it's very effective, as you can see. It lead on to other things like industry coverage and free links - we've had numerous travel agents cover us on their blogs or podcasts and a Forbes web article actually printed because of our press releases.
AOL Launches BlueString
Barriers to proving P!=NP
I had problems finding stories from before the switch to putting all comments and news stories on item?id=x, because a search would go to a broken link. But the object numbers stayed the same, so if you find a story with a broken link, you can just switch comment?id=x to item?id=x.
Those are all great points so maybe I just misunderstood your service. Is this a general marketplace or does it only appeal to a niche market?

Either way, the social component makes it sound like you'll need to get over the cold-start "hump."

One more thing -- another poster suggested trying to generate a little bit of pre-launch hype. I've never, ever ever ever, seen this work out in a positive way. Once the floodgates open, users are almost invariably disappointed by what's available. The result is that you lose the (critical) attention of early adopters.
So much to do, so little time.
css question
I know this is probably the most trivial thing of all, but are most of you using xhtml fully valid css, or do you tend to hack it? I have hacked quite a bit (okay, cut and pasted from other sites) of css, and written very little (fully valid css). What are other newsy startuppers doing?
I mix and match.

At work I'm valid.(I do this on purpose cause it takes a little bit longer)

For my stuff, I hack.(I do this cause it will still render correctly, as long as I check it on multiple OS and Browsers!)
Would be great to know if this was aggregate $s invested or # of companies invested in.
An example: I'm running a startup from Melbourne Australia and read an interesting comment from someone in the same boat, including details of a meetup type event, a week ago.

I didn't bookmark it because I didn't expect it would be hard to find. But now I can't find it at all.

The poster mentioned Melbourne was the 'artichoke end of the world'. Googling for 'artichoke' on news.yccombinator.com has no results. How frequently does Google spider most sites anyway?
I seldom get asked this question. Its more of "You need to get a job". lol. I just laugh.
css always valid, if you know what you're doing no hacks should be necessary
Wikipedia--idea for heat maps to indicate stability of info
If you're asking me, my email is jpalacio486@gmail.com
Bill Gates' 1976 Open Letter to Hobbyists: "Most of you steal your software." [JPG]
Great article. Goes to show that you need the whole package. Your 100k lines of code aren't going to do it all for you.
Have any of you guys heard of Ooyala?
Techcrunch40: Jason Calacanis is Willy Wonka
Hot New Software for the iPhone
Branson sells Virgin Megastores chain
brand dilution.
This documentary describes the story in a very nice way. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpbevfWrYg0&feature=PlayL...)

This is an 8 part documentary. Well worth your time.

If you want more details I highly recommend the book that came along with the documentary. Earth Story. (http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Story-Forces-Shaped-Planet/dp/06...)
MC Hammer at TechCrunch40
Meetup: http://twitter.com/mtub

bootload's comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=52955
How crucial is a degree when applying to YC?
Just wondering...
iPhone Drives Google Maps Usage, YouTube Lags
These guys are so screwed.
Meeting, Phone call or Email?
How do you guys decide whether to have a meeting, make a phone call or send an email? I think the choice of communication method can make a big difference in how well and quickly problems are solved. I realized today that I have no real method of deciding which one to use other than instinct.
Do they mean cash as opposed to equity? I don't know much about business transactions of this nature, but "in cash" conjured up images of briefcases filled with unmarked bills.
Crunch Crunch - The TechCrunch 20/40 Conference - disappointment so far
I think it depends on the severity of the problem. If the problem is minor, an email should suffice. If the problem is of medium severity, a phone call or a conference call should be yield results. If the problem is very severe, it would seem best to gather everyone for a meeting in order to brainstorm.
And what they mean by "Web 2.0"
Yup. We share an office :)
Here are some thoughts:

-How well do you know the person.

-How important is this task, decision or event?

-How complex is the task, decision or event?

Meeting<---------------------------------------->Email

Don't know person well--------------------Know person well

Important---------------------------------Unimportant

Complex-----------------------------------Simple

If I don't know someone well they are more likely to misinterpret raw text (flame wars are a good example.) If something is unimportant then it doesn't matter if they misinterpret raw text. If something is simple then there is less to misinterpret.
Are you trying to get us to give you ideas so you can apply to YC?
Facebook Launches fbFund with Accel and Founders Fund to Invest in New Facebook Apps ($10 million)
The problem is other people having to have a facebook (or myspace, etc...) account to receive messages from you. Half the people I want to talk to have facebook, almost half have myspace, a few have both, a few have some other social networking service and a few have none. They all have email, and most of them don't consider it outdated.

I realize I don't have much in common with the average high-school/college student, but I suspect many of them get annoyed with this multi-network situation too. Inter-network personal messaging is a solved problem - RFC 821 came out in 1982.
The interesting thing is that Gates didn't stop at this horrible business opportunity.

That's clearly a hypocritical stance. I wonder why he took it at the time if he was so outraged.
We may start to do that, if only to show future YC startups what a good demo day presentation is like.
Setting up a Windows box is a pain. I generally don't do it unless I'm promised money, good food, good beer or sex. Also, not everyone here is a student.
Hack it how?

There is no reason to use hacks if you use conditional comments to deal with Microsoft's abominations one browser at a time. Most of the other browsers will work just fine, and when they don't, I either live with it, or alter the design so they do.
No. I just like ideas. I have my own ideas, I just think it would be cool to get a list of ideas that people have but know they won't be able to work on. To prove this I'll start by listing some of my own. PG says one point of this site is to make you look like a desirable candidate for a start up so if you can list some good ideas or critique others it makes you look good. Ideas alone have very little intrinsic value on their own. The best ones are ones that can make things just not suck.
1. An online radio site that lets you select station by what mood you want to feel.
2. A website like 43things but with a timeline for each goals that tries to hold you accountable for them through social pressure.
3. An online video website that are like demo conferences where people can share their ideas.
4. A social network (or app) where users could do market research and product development for companies and get paid for their work and ideas and it would turn it into a competition.
facebook launches facebook fund - FBFUND
How can there not be any value in this? If not for the practice at least for the fanatical viewing this particular audience will do. And I'm also surprised at how little the companies communicate their product idea or vision. But maybe I'm focusing on the wrong thing.
Crazy Questions at Google Job Interview
You must know the answers!
Yeah, interesting, that one. Wonder why. Perhaps because it costs a lot to do PR on this scale, and there are two routes to that kind of funding: to have built something that already works (Google, Facebook, Delicious), or to have high-profile founders and grand-sounding plans (Flock, Mahalo, Powerset). So a startup with lots of PR but no product must be the second type.
I think another reason for Amazon's success reminds me of the movie, Miracle on 34th St. Specifically it's one of the few online stores that recommends other stores if:

1) Amazon doesn't have the item in stock

2) the other store's price beats Amazon's price

(yes I know Amazon is more of an online mall now, but from the customer's perspective it's really cool)

Another super revolutionary thing that (I think) Amazon came out with first was how customers could rate the quality of the products Amazon sells. Before hindsight, most people thought this was going against Amazon's own self interest; when in the end all of these things together built strong consumer trust and loyalty (a lot of repeat shoppers)
:O Insane.
I was just bustin your balls. Can you elaborate on your 43things-like idea?
I'm curious how this will work. Will they fund small apps and not expect them to create different types of revenue streams, just advertising? What does YC think?
1) a money machine
2) a nano particle assembler that encrypts the dna of its creations with a quantum computer. (does that make sense?)

by the way,did you know that My last startup idea was facebook?
Easy to use operating system for older computer users.
Biofabs: How Do You Like Your Genes?
Then write a code generator.
Makes me tip my head. In what way does it help Google HR evaluate talent by answering these questions? Curious...
God sued for terror acts
Not in the least. The most successful company we've
funded so far was founded by a pair of sophomores:

http://www.inc.com/30under30/2007/4-altman.html

The only advantage of a degree as far as we're concerned
is that it means you're unlikely to chicken out and go
back to college.
They don't care. For $10m they've just secured their $5B+ valuation. This move is all about PR and getting more apps integrated into their walled garden, to increase their valuation.
Email has worked best for me. Allows me to have documentation of the info we all decide on. Too many times someone has mistaken or misheard the information and then we end up starting all over.