skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
oh i know what negative hearts are... haha

depending on your (my) mood - sometimes there's a post that needs to be unloved. but i think if you implemented that - most posts would be in the negative hearts.

unsolicited feature ideas to keep things relevant(knowing that scaling, etc are way more important):

let me subscribe to people, while still keeping things anonymous. some posts i really like, etc - that can be used to mix in a higher number of their other posts with my main consumption (if you're not already doing this).

similarly - let me ignore people. you could have some algorithm-fu to keep track if i hit ignore on the same person multiple times - for a real ignore, rather than just a bad post.

i also imagine an overhear.us facebook app is in the works? :)
to the OP: make sure your CAPTCHAs don't suck as bad as digg's, which can be preprocessed and ready for segmentation/recognition in three lines of code.
might be the obvious question here - but do you have any friends? (that have programming knowledge). My non-hacker buddies come to me with ideas all the time.
If it is a webapp, the first thing that you should read is about HTML and CSS, then Javascript.

Then start with Python.
Sounds like Andy Warhol.
I'm assuming i'm not the only one to think of this, that would be completely silly, i'm not an idiot. What i am though is someone who thinks it would be a cool little app that if some people would be remotely interested in, would be fun to do, and maybe make some money along the way.
What are net margin and other profitability ratios of your startup, and what is your business model?
Financial ratios are well known for big companies, like Microsoft or Yahoo!, while remain pretty unknown for small startups. However, as recent Xobni's post on P/E ratio, has learned, it would make a lot of sense to apply financial ratios to startup's world, to at least check what you can expect etc. So, what is your net profit margin, and other profitability ratios, and what is your business model?
Not really. For many high-tech companies, the earnings can vary a lot from one quarter/year to the next. If the profit margin is hovering in the +/-10% range, the P/E can vary wildly. Even in a low-earnings period, wall street will typically not punish the company too much if it expects things to turn around soon.

Regarding Salesforce.com in particular, looks like its 2006 profit margin was 9%, but 2007's was 0.1%. The street is still optimistic though, because the company's revenues increased 60%.

For such companies, the P/S ratio is generally a more reliable metric to compare with. Salesforce.com's P/S ratio is 8.8. For reference, Google's is 13.
In the Gmail Genius vs Clueless Manager comparison, I think it's more apt to say that the genius can traverse the tree and 'drill down' where necessary, applying the most effective changes at the necessary level of detail. The Clueless Manager is always stuck at the highest levels of abstraction, and he can only work with very blunt objects. The point is that the largest gains can sometimes come from optimizing disk-seek speeds, and being able to recognize (and correct) this is an advantage over only being able to talk about performance in generalized terms.
no! multithread. you always want to create competition for your deal. it is very likely some sources of funding will say no, and the way to get good terms from the others is to have multiple offers. YC is slightly different, in that the terms are set, but still.
I can't speak to YC specifically, but one normally would want to contact many investors in parallel. The chance of receiving funding from any one investor is incredibly low. If you contact them serially, you'll spend a hopelessly long amount of time raising money. Likewise, if multiple investors are interested in your company, they may jointly invest, which is somewhat common. Plus, you can use the competition to establish the fair market price of your stock.
Startups: Why A Real Market Of A Few Is Better Than A Mythical Market of Millions
I haven't read this, nor am I involved in any real Ruby extension efforts, so take this with a large dose of salt, but:

Usually, if you need to explain why something is important, it isn't.
If you need a plain-English NDA, here's the one we made and used for our startup (it's $3): http://micropledge.com/projects/plain-english-nda
On-Line Transaction Processing? They do that on laptops now? :-)
It is available again on eBay and for 1.5 million it seems a real bargain.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Titan-Missile-Base-Central-Washington_W0...

If I were to get into YC and become rich, I would buy this. Granted it would need a lot of repairs but it is so big you can just take one section and make it really nice. Maybe do a little server colocation in one section, a couple of apartments, school tours during part of the year, but otherwise just keep it peaceful.

I don't want to load up YC Hacker news with questionable articles, but I think this is some pretty hacker worthy property.
That tends to be a true statement regardless of the antecedent of "it".
Jeff Hawkins' "On Intelligence" and Numenta startup
DRM advocates getting nervous about consumer backlash
do people design UI screens with Adobe?
Ideas DO matter if you define "idea" as knowledge about what a particular group of people needs. It's not just about one isolated idea of course. That kind of idea is indeed worthless. It's about your ability to make good judgements within a particular application context.

If you have that kind of knowledge and you are able to communicate with users then please please don't waste your time learning to program. If you have no special knowledge about a particular user community or industry then you should learn to program.
Indeed. I could count one hand the number of times I've heard a Fields Medalist say "And then you carry the one..."
In my opinion, you can design UI with anything visual - even pen and paper.
Yup, totally right. Fixed now. Thanks!
using my past life as a web designer - yes, specifically with Illustrator
Twitter + Etiquette = Twitterquette?
Hmm. I wonder if the continued need to explain the benefits of using Lisp is evidence for or against your statement?
i don't know, i just have never used the web as a tool to get a project together.
What is the best alternative to an RDMS in most cases?
yeah, i do the problem is i am more of a techie computer guy as in my skills in the computer industry are more troubleshooting based ie, if it is broken in some way be it cabling issue or DHCP server, i can fix it, not programming based, a lot of my friends who would be interested in this are so busy with school and things of that nature that they don't really have time to be completely involved in a project.
Is there a filter on PG so that he doesn't auto win? Kind of like how you weren't allowed to pick Gretzky in hockey pools?
I'll add one more suggestion to the pile: shipping is a feature.
Yeah. Thinking too detailed too early on would be a mistake, too. Thinking about disk heads when you have no idea what the interface will look like is a huge mistake to me.

I don't think web developers have to think about disk I/O unless they're Google or Yahoo.
Interesting post. Shame there isn't any discussion of advertising revenue though. Users that choose not to pay can still generate a lot of revenue from advertising.
Companies That Try To Outsource Innovation Will Fail
Buyers in the outsourcing market, which Forrester estimates is topping out at $120 billion a year, were more disappointed in the innovation brought to the table by their provider than nearly anything else...When it comes to innovation, if you have an outsourcing relationship consisting of great communication and naturally occurring collaboration, would this beat a full house of internal departments that don't talk to each other?
Details matter, but when he says the smartest people disdain abstractions, I think he's off. The smartest people talk about certain selected details a lot. Other details are appropriately abstracted.
If you want hard, use Malbolge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malbolge

Wanting to code in a 'hard' language is just stupid. You'll only code in a hard language because it's able to something you want that 'easy' languages can't do, or do as efficiently.
The New College Try
First,

>She cites numbers showing two out of five principals are unhappy with the innovation results delivered by outsourcing.

Which by default means that 3 out of 5 are content.

Second, What does outsourcing have to do with innovation? By definition, innovation is a cost centre. If outsourced tasks are costing more, they aren't doing their jobs.

Seems to me like you can't have your cake and eat it too... are people being sold otherwise?
I don't think most Lisp hackers actually hate OO. It's just that OO has been oversold so much, as if you should use it for everything. I would use OO a lot if I were writing a MUD or a graphical widget library. Inheritance is great. For web sites I generally don't use OO, though.

I think it would be more accurate to say that if you use OO, many Lisp hackers will ask why, in a tone that implies they don't expect a good answer.
Facebook at $10 Billion Valuation, Microsoft to Invest?
I agree. Striking the right balance between abstractions and low-level details, is the mark of a genius. Put differently, the size and nature of the building blocks a person uses, in order to tackle a problem or to communicate with others is, to me, a very good indicator of how smart that person is.

I have been in situations where the balance has tipped far too much in either directions. Far too much reliance on abstractions, without understanding the details and we get the stock, garden variety Business person. Far too many details used in thinking and communicating leads to tedium, and interestingly can come off as patronizing, if its done often enough.
[Mountain View/Vancouver] SocialPicks Looking for Developer who loves stock market
SocialPicks (http://www.socialpicks.com) is a peer-to-peer investing network for stock investors to share ideas, collaborate on research, and track performance of pros & peers. Media coverage includes Techcrunch, Forbes, Washington Post, WSJ, and NPR. We are an early-stage startup backed by angels in the finance industry & Y Combinator.

We offer:

- key role & responsibilities in an early-stage startup

- ownership of core projects from design to implementation

- competitive compensation package

- Management or partner-level role in the future

We are looking for a hacker who have:

- Strong interests in financial markets (stocks, etc)

- Passionate about building a community for stock investors

- Experience in building kick-ass web app that people want in Ruby on Rails

- Knowledge of Javascript, CSS, AJAX

- Large website experience with an understanding of scaling issues

How to Apply:

- Please email resumes and list of apps built: apply at socialpicks dot com

- For extra consideration, please answer this question: How do you make your investment decisions?
This is really critical to understand about why both of these guys are so smart: both of these people put aside dogma and made decisions that were all over the map, sometimes pragmatic and hackish, sometimes very rigorous and disciplined, depending on their assessment of the particular micro-issue they were addressing at the moment. They weren't subscribing to any particular software development philosophy (Big Ball of Mud, XP, RUP, UML, Agile whatever, waterfall, etc.), nor did they just choose the most hyped architecture of the day and blindly stick with it, but freely mixed and matched whatever they thought was appropriate given their perspective on the situation.

In other words, they didn't fall into the trap of thinking that there is One True Way to do everything. They improvised. They integrated their own experience and perspective with the wisdom of others, and made the decision that worked for them.

I try to stay away from religious approaches to languages. What matters more is to get the first version done and get it out. Screw blogs, APIs, tutorials, and books. Create an idea, and make it happen. Try to use as many things as possible (databases, displays, dialogues, graphics, sessions, member area) and just have fun. Simply use google to figure out any thing you don't understand. I learned CakePHP like that and by asking in the irc chat. After a few questions, you learn which resources you should be reading, and you start reading those (like the manual.) Ignore the debates in chat and, above all, DON'T FEEL GUILTY if you ask a question that starts a debate in the chat (he should do this like that, no this is a better way for him, etc). If you're given many ways to do something, use the one people say is the "new" way to do it. Otherwise, pick whichever way is better and move on. Ask exactly what you're trying to do, not a subset of the question, because the intent and circumstances matter a lot.

90% of the code won't be up to standards of hard-core people (who won't actually create anything useful or usable because they're too afraid to move beyond internal composition and out to actually caring about what the user wants to see), but you're just doing this to feel out the language, IDE, and framework. Not every piece of code has to be holy.

Then, create the real project from scratch. It might be the same one, or not. Just keep programming, keep creating.
There's also the caboose edge API documentation. It's updated 3x per day from the most recent rails edge code and has all the private (#:nodoc) methods exposed:

http://caboo.se/doc.html

If you think rails internals needs more documentation and can help, check out the Rails Documentation project:

http://www.railsdocumentation.org/
The system was down, costing the owner $10,000 per hour. No one could get it back up.

A "genius" was consulted, and after snooping around for a few minutes, logged in, and changed one byte. Everything worked perfectly.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" said the owner, "Give me a bill."

The bill was $10,000.

"I can't pay this bill until it's itemized," said the owner."

No problem -
Changing the byte: $1.
Knowing which byte to change: $9999.

Genius is:
a) Understanding that focus MUST be directed exactly where it's needed,
b) Being willing to do it, and
c) Being able to do it no matter where it is.
NASA aims to put man on Mars by 2037
Same for real artists. It's always the details which make the difference. And the reason is very clear: the details are the really delicate part (and the most difficult to grasp).

For someone, all sunsets are equal, and for some other one, every single one is a unique miracle.
Another drawback I just noticed is that if f(x) returns false, you'll get g(y) even if a is true.
PARC "opens up" every 7-10 years.
Microsoft Looking to Buy 5% of Facebook
Photos:
http://www.k7aea.net/Titan%20Missile%20Site/Titan%20Missile%...

The location:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q...

I'm from near that place. Note that the nearest town of significance is Odessa, WA. For some reason the seller is being cagey about the precise location.

More details here:
http://www.k7aea.net/Titan%20Missile%20Site/Seattle%20Times%...

The seller bought it for $275,000 in 1998. This isn't the first time he's tried to sell it on EBay, either: http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/articles/2004/04/08/news/...
3 Rules To Make A Hit Video-Game Movie (Hint: Halo Follows None Of Them)
$1.5 million is too high. He's failed to sell it before for half that: http://cgi.ebay.com/Titan-1-ICBM-Missile-Base-Located-in-Was...
Microsoft quietly unveils Vista-to-XP downgrade
Did you ever wish you had a mentor to guide you?
Dear fellow hackers and entrepreneurs,

Did you ever wish you had a mentor to guide you? I know I do. I do not want to make all my mistakes alone.

So instead of just finding me a mentor - I am working on this - I wonder how one could solve this problem in general and organize some kind of exchange or meeting point for would-be mentees and mentors.

The problems I see consist in keeping up a high signal to noise ratio and respecting the privacy of all parties involved. We will also have to work out the incentives for al participants.

If one could extract a viable business model out of such an exchange - that would be an added bonus. But that's not a requirement. In true P.G. style I try to figure out how to build something people want first.

Matthias.

P.S. Please point out any spelling mistakes - I am not a native speaker. Thank you.
Microsoft..... desparate?
Microsoft Windows Will Be Unbundled:  Computers in the EU will be sold without an operating system
Yeah web bombed the country and had it invaded and occupied (seriously.)
Where to move in the Bay area?
I am thinking about moving to SF, but I am not familiar with the area. Where is good area to live? I want to be somewhere close to shops etc so i can ride a bike to most places. I am not trying to spend a lot money.
Outsourcing to Open-source (Shopify example)
This is potentially terrible advice.

Temperamentally, many people are poorly suited for programming. The OP might be a great designer, writer and bootstrap marketeer who could benefit from a partnership.

I'd advocate for assessing your skills and honestly figuring out if you have anything to offer to a founding team (a lot of skills really don't matter until you've actually built something of value). If not, sure-- learn to code. Learn to design. But if you do have valuable skills, find a partner who has complementary skills and get rolling. If you can't find a partner, it's likely that your idea isn't as good as you thought it was. ;-)
Your analogy is apt. What you (like a lot of programmers) fail to realize is that selling a painting is extraordinarily difficult.

They didn't coin the phrase "starving artist" for fun.
Better? What does that mean in this context? How do you compare a consciousness to a 'supreme state of existence', for value or otherwise? Who can perceive both, to perform such a comparison?

Hate to be unpoetic, but how is a star anything more than a big ball of burning gas? I don't feel humans are 'better' than stars. The only loosely related comparison I can think of is complexity: there is more to know about humans than about stars.
Well, not too long ago I posted my dilemma about me being very business oriented and having design skill, and still not being able to find programmers as they were turned off.

And the majority of the replies I received were ones telling me to learn how to program.

Just because I'm learning to code doesn't mean, however, that I am tossing my other skills away. I find that I have a much much much better understanding of the mechanics behind apps and that at the very least, i'll be able to connect on a much deeper level with another programmer if I were to assemble a team and not take a significant programming position.

You're right, perhaps he may turn out to be an awful coder, but at the very least, establishing a common thread of communication by which a programmer can relay his concerns to a designer or a marketer, and for them to understand, in my opinion, is pretty valuable.
I don't understand what you mean by YC protocol. Are you asking what we advise startups we've funded to do when approaching investors for further funding?
Chat With Mark Zuckerberg At TechCrunch40: The Video
Microsoft May Invest in Facebook At $10 Billion Valuation
I'd say that I only have one philosophy: "Do it right".
Yes. Programming languages are only starting to get more declarative.
> Why not [just use] functions as first class data?

Because they're not. When you copy an object, you don't copy all of its methods; instead, you copy all of its function pointers.
[for sufficiently vague definitions of "idea"]

Upmodded. That is brilliant.

As an entrepreneur, I have very specific thoughts on what constitutes a "good idea for a business." To me, it suggests that you have four things:

1. a keen insight into what a group of people (with money) want

2. you have a means of delivering a solution to those needy people

3. you have a way of targeting those needy people to let them know about your solution

4. you can deliver your solution at a profit.

When I started investing in startups, I learned that my definition of a good idea for a business differs GREATLY from what many are willing to pitch to me as a good idea.
Many people are willing to pitch a very nebulous 'idea.'

There are also certain ideas prevalent in the startup community now that are MOSTLY or SOMETIMES true, but that I think people take too literally or misunderstand.

"Ideas are worthless, execution is paramount." Look, if you have a truly great idea...execution becomes much less important. With a great idea (which implies an actual business model), you can make quite a few execution mistakes and still end up with a great business. If you stumble, investors are more forgiving and will usually find the help you need in the execution area.

"Your final business is almost always different than what you initially intended to do" is another startup cliche that I think some entrepreneurs sometimes take too literally. This pearl of wisdom is basically telling you that you need to be flexible. Being flexible is very different that attacking an industry because it is hot and hoping something shakes out.

"Get the users and figure out a profit model later. It is easy to monetize millions of eyeballs." Again, this may be mostly true for a certain class of business...but it can also be a ticket to FAIL.

With apologies to Mrs. Robinson, I'm actually getting pitches like this:

Entrepreneur: "I have a GREAT idea!"

Me: "Yes?"

Entrepreneur: "Plastics!!!"

Me: "What do you mean 'plastics'?"

Entrepreneur: "They're gonna be huge. Plastics are the future."

Me: "What is your actual idea? How are you going to make money?"

Entrepreneur: "Advertising?"
Lafayette, IN, but Chicago soon
I was expecting more about the use of heap space and stack space. That would be more useful to know about for a programmer.
you're right. i'm sorry i should have been more clear. i was using adsense as an analogy. facebook needs to find its business model X, as google found adsense.

facebook definitely has a potential X that could be as profitable (or moreso) than adsense. but what that is i don't know. i'm sure they do though.
Video folly: Because every founder deserves some comic relief now and again.
ah ok sure. Perhaps it's some sort of dating/matchmaking system. I can see that working, although that's a pretty crowded market already.
or this one: "tu es betes comme tes pieds"

See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=59074
10 billion dollars? My god, if I was a major MSFT stakeholder, I'd be getting the tar and feathers ready.
What statement of mine did you just mathematically prove wrong?

If the super-rich are throwing off the average, then unless they're getting the money by stealing it, that supports curi's and my claim that the most productive people are in the US.
Sorry you're right I didn't make any kind of a case. In making claims I prefer statistics to theoretical proofs. I would rather take a quick look at the statistics of large-scale web apps than make any kind of formalized argument about which is better: PHP or Ruby.

I don't have any numbers off hand(I will find some when I have some free time) but I would assume PHP has 10x more large scale websites than Rails.

That's case closed for me. Although Rails is nice and fun. But if I have to make a business decision today, its PHP all the way.
It's extremely suspicious that he doesn't show pictures of the interior, because he did the last time he listed it. I wonder if something bad has happened to the place since then.
true :)

ok, ideas are easy.
Ideas that could potentially make a lot of money aren't too hard to come up with.
Ideas that could be the next big thing, are also within most peoples grasp.

Still think coming up with the idea is maybe 5% of the work. It's almost as bad as people who register what they think is a great domain name and think that's their website pretty much done now.