skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Users vs. Patents: what makes a successful Web business?  
Hi fellow tech. entrepreneurs,
There is this thing I'd like to discuss and get your feedback on.
OK, considering the last 2 biggest acquisitions within the Web industry, a.k.a. MySpace and YouTube, nobody can deny that this business has derived to a new form: this is no longer tech. driven; this is about a company's ability to build a large user base, or let me rephrase it: this game is all about your ability to REACH your targeted users and, of course, KEEP them. It looks like that should be the goal of any tech. founder because this is what account for dollar value, not the IP.
This phenomenon makes other people wondering: how about the company's tech. value? How about the good old patented algorithm? Are we living in a world where proprietary technology does not mean big bucks anymore? Or even worse, has that become unnecessary?

Well... one thing's for sure; neither MySpace nor YouTube patented anything before going online. These 2 applications were module-based meaning that their frames were already available. Their "tour de force" was to articulate a smart vision and marketing strategy to reach their potential audience. On one hand MySpace leveraging on its eUniverse.com network to promote its service, on the other YouTube mastering the art of viral marketing. As opposed to most of their competitors/copycats, they knew how to get big fast, at least faster than anybody else. In other words, implementation is much more important than technology. We can enlarge this phenomenon to non-Web products: the iPod is a good example. Its success is based on the same pattern; Apple's people neither invented nor patented the MP3 player technology, they just came up with the smartest UI ever combined with a strong marketing campaign.

That's why I feel like many VCs are not in line with today's web rules; they almost always look for deep IP (the genius algorithm!!)... like being Google was the ONLY way to be successful.

OK, now the question is how do we get there? How do we get big fast? Well... first, of course, you need to build something that people want (thanks pg), that's how you get many returning users. But also, you need to become a master at spreading the word and reaching your target! I have few ideas on the subject, but I'm far to be an expert...and this is precisely why we are applying to winter 08 funding. As many seed start-up companies, we do not need the money YC offers...actually we need something close zero dollar to get started. All we are looking for is to get in touch with this network of experts "from The Valley" who know how to get it done.

The adventure continues...
This reminds me of the findings of that study which said that tall people were more successful. That's partly because height correlates with intelligence (largely because of nutrition; it's not causal), and partly because, the researchers theorized, taller people had a physical advantage over their peers and didn't get bullied as much. Add to that the tendency for victims to remain victims forever, and you have yourself some strange data.

Am I saying that college athletes make more money because they get more respect? Kind of; it's late and I'm tired. What I really mean to say is that there are a lot of confounding factors.
Salt water as fuel?
Kind of cool, but not giving any numbers for the efficiency means it can't possibly be practical.
It's a shame I can only vote you up once. I agree 100%. The old "if this concerns you, you're done - ship it" doesn't really cover what's going on here.

If this was the most attractive potential feature from an ROI perspective, you're not just done, you sold the company years ago and you're sitting on the beach sipping cocktails, thinking up crazy side projects with the sole purpose of reassuring yourself how pitiful the burn rate is compared to the interest on your vast piles of cash.
Meebo adds file sharing - Is it looking to pounce on Pownce?
Discoveries from the Clever Dog Lab
Netnewswire (lite) until I realized that RSS was an even greater timesuck than this site. I still have it on my dock, but haven't been brave enough to start it up in a few months (the idea of seeing 4359683^34 unread articles when I boot it isn't a big motivator either).
Vienna for OSX
I've got to disagree here. Touches like this are what elevate software from merely functional to great.

Maniacal attention to detail is what separates the great from the merely good enough. Examples? Dyson vacuum cleaners, the original Macintosh, the iPod, probably any product you really like.

The thing about effort like this is that the few days of extra time invested will be shared by every user of the finished product.
Brittle Machines
Why are computers so easy to crash? If a CPU or hard drive dies, the whole system goes down. What is being done to change this?
"I was thinking myself that it would be pretty neat to write a Lisp dialect that compiled down to Python"

That would be an incredibly bad idea. The implementation of SBCL (and CMUCL, upon which SBCL is based) is second to none--it has an optimizing compiler (available at runtime) with code-generation backends for architectures from x86 to MIPS; fantastic support for type inference, inline expansion, modular arithmetic, unreachable code deletion, constant folding, control optimization, generational garbage collection (doesn't python still use reference counts?)... amongst a bunch of other stuff.

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all...

Benchmarks are of course arbitrary, but no matter what way you dice things, SBCL is vastly superior to Python's crappy VM. In the case of the link above, over 10 times faster.
Wired's take on the 700 Mhz Spectrum Auction
As I mentioned in another post, I'm aware of the qualities of SBCL. I know it is a much better VM. That's not what I am concerned about...what I like about Python is its quantity and consistency of libraries and its overall consistency period. Common Lisp just doesn't have that, and SBCL isn't perfect - its full functionality doesn't work across all platforms.

> That would be an incredibly bad idea.

And I'm just wondering...even with SBCL, why would it be an 'incredibly bad idea' to undertake such a project to convert a Lisp dialect to Python?
My favorite Scott Aaronson poem: "H(p) = -plogp - (1-p)log(1-p)"
I wish I had found this in high school.
Kuro5hin Adopts Pay-For-Comment Model
"I have created here on K5 what might be the internet's first 'Walled Ghetto.' An exclusive preserve of dysfunctional social interaction and semi-undesirable content." -- Rusty Foster
> I have a strong feeling that the higher orbitals require more than 3 spatial dimensions to actually be represented.

Why's that?
There's always Seattle, my friend. Mild and sunny summers, nearby skiing in the winters, ocean, mountains, etc.... AND a lively startup community.
now if this was done with plesk..
> And I'm just wondering...even with SBCL, why would it be an 'incredibly bad idea' to undertake such a project to convert a Lisp dialect to Python?

Well...what's the point of compiling Lisp into a language with a slower runtime? If you mean that you want it to compiel to something "pretty", well, the output of a compiler is generally not pretty. It's just meant to be used as opaque object code, not something for human consumption.
I wonder how nasty it would be to do a new implementation of Python in C/C++. Maybe one that doesn't have the GIL, has a proper exact GC, and emits LLVM or something. PyPy seems to be addressing some of these issues.

I wonder what the GIL is actually being used for... I don't see why the interpreter needs so much damn locking.
I use Vienna. I tried using Google Reader, but it's crap. It can't handle HTTP-authenticated feeds, and you can't delete feeds en masse.
"I know it is a much better VM."

SBCL isn't a VM. It's a Lisp implementation with a compiler that generates native code.

Admittedly, many dynamic languages folks seem to find this concept odd. The idea that {dynamic typing, garbage collection, your favourite feature from ruby/python/perl/php} requires a VM unfortunately seems strongly ingrained.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea because it's too much attention to detail. I'm saying it's a bad idea because it's misplaced. They're talking about taking considerable effort to reskin a standard OS GUI component here - they are standard for a _reason_. I would consider this not just wasted effort, but a negative, if I found it in any of the applications I use day to day.

I'm 100% for maniacal devotion to attention to detail. I live it and breathe it in the games I make. I don't tolerate a single frame of object behaviour being out of place. But you've got to focus it in the right place, and that's what I'm saying is the problem with doing something like this - there are just too many improvements that you could be working on that your users will find much more helpful. I've definitely been too fanatical about what I wanted versus what my users have wanted in the past.

That said, the app in question won a user experience award at the Apple Design Awards, so maybe they're right and I'm wrong. They can certainly make amazing software. But even with that in mind, I stand by what I'm saying.
interesting but, what if an attacker knows your email password, then he can control your whole life right? because there is just one password (your email's) for which all your access to websites depend on.

or, should i read this as a joke?
I thought I made it clear. The point of doing that is because you'd have simple access to Python's massive collection of quality libraries.
It sounds like you're the kind of guy with the contacts and skills necessary to make deals, Why not skip YC and go straight for a large angel or VC investment? A large part of what YC brings is business knowledge and contacts for hackers, you probably have that covered.

And while I'm dishing out arbitrary advice, it sounds like #1 is not trying to hire people as good or better than he is. Specific Ruby experience probably isn't as important as the brains and attitude of the hacker. You're going to have to bring anyone up to speed, just make sure they are worth the effort.
Well, if you really want to use Lisp code and Python libraries, and are prepared to write a compiler, why not do the translation in the reverse direction? Write a compiler from Python to Lisp, and bring Python libraries to Lisp.

[edit: irrelevant stuff removed since parent was deleted]
Mark Cuban has officially jumped the shark.
"... I didn't get what you mean by that. ..."

can I run feedity over news.yc? or turn the news.yc site to rss. I gave it a go but couldn't get a result. It would be useful to try because it's a pain scraping lots of different nyc pages.

... try again. Ahh now I got it. The first time I didn't select a category. Is it possible to get an rss result back without selecting a category? (like select your own?) as the categories restrict (reduce the returns). I want everything back.

... now I understand. I've tried to do something that's only found in the "Advanced Refine" menu. Would it be a good idea to add an "Advanced" link at the front page?

... aggh the Advanced Refine cr@ps out on my blocks. I'm trying this bit because I've been hacking with BeautifulSoup pretty much doing exactly what the refine is doing. Its an absolute pain. One idea to make selection of the blocks easier is to parse the html doc, then render the structure as an outline visually (like HTML Validator or below) ....

table tag

+ td child tag 1

+ td child tag 2

+ tr child 2,1

When I was trying to parse pages the ability to see the page + markup overlayed with the structure HTML Validator ( https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/249 ) made it 10 times easier for me to select exactly "what" I wanted to parse.
Nice clip. The bit about the payphones reminded me of an interview with Jonathan Ive where he talked about why they put a handle on the first iMac. He said that making it easy to carry was part of it, but that the bigger motivation was when people saw a handle, the computer immediately became something tactile and open, inviting you to touch it. That really crystalized the all-encompassing nature of good design for me.
> it would be pretty neat to write a Lisp dialect that compiled down to Python, and therefore you could get access to all the Python libraries, a decent VM, and also macros.

Ok, I had started just that. It's called Boa Lisp.
http://nearfar.org/code/boalisp/
http://nearfar.org/code/boalisp/README.txt

(sorry, site will be down for the next few hours)
DefCon 15 Session Videos - Batch III - Uno Mas
36 more videos are up to complete track 2 and 3. Last 25 videos are also coming soon during the next few days.
Where does development mode end and production mode begin? With the Software as a Service model you can release updates to your code on a biweekly basis. That means the code (and potentially the schema) is always changing. While it is certainly possible to be clever and do things by hand this gets difficult to manage when you have a team of developers and multiple development, testing, staging and production environments. At my current job we use an internal tool that does some of the job but most of the time I want to fallback on using plain files for some data storage because subversion will version and merge it appropriately. I was more curious about whether or not others out there are using better solutions.
What is the chance YC's investor day could be opened to the YC community?
With all these people in here exchanging their throughts, sometimes being a little harsh, sometimes with good advice, I begin to get the feeling that the YC News community is transforming into a small extension of the Y Combinator ecosystem, that is actually helping people.

Would there be any chance that startups of people comprising this community that fail to get selected for the whole seed funding process, to go through a new application process and if they meet YC's expectations by that time, to have the chance to be among a number of selections to present during the next Y Combinator investor day?

Maybe with some percentage trade-off if invenstor is found and some other rules like, that you submitted an application to YC?
Postgres 8.2.4 has some significant performance improvements even over 8.1.8. I have been amazed at the performance gains in some slow parts of the application simply from upgrading to the latest version of Postgres. On the other side I'm very disappointed by the lack of real clustering. Slony addresses some needs but to me it feels like a hack. I'm starting to experiment with breaking up the data across multiple database servers. Sooner or later when the number of writes is high enough clustering breaks down due to the size of the replication traffic.
Our current model of the subatomic universe is painfully incomplete. The way that electrons seem to appear and disappear would make a lot more sense if they were moving through extra spatial dimensions, passing information to our higher-dimensional overlords.

What do you think about Heim Theory?
http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg18925331.200/
I wish the government would let us use their enormous machine to test it.
Google Reader but I hate it. Ok it's better than most RSS Readers but still ... the user interface for RSS Readers is just broken
http://id-o.de/2007/09/08/why-does-every-rss-application-suc...
I use that too. Did you have to use some hack to use it as well?

I found that there are errors when I specify the feed directly, while it works perfectly when I use some wget hackery in the command-field.
You leave me guessing..

..it would have a quarter the features?

..it would cost $500, or more?

..it would make it impossible to safely edit configuration files from the command line?

..it would use an insecure execution model for PHP scripts?

..it wouldn't offer a friendly UI for installing Ruby Gems, PHP Pear modules, and Perl CPAN modules?

..it wouldn't be Open Source?

..it wouldn't have comprehensive monitoring with email and mobile alerts?

..it wouldn't allow you the flexibility to choose an MTA other than the default?

What did you have in mind?
Looking more into the details, and for instance the videos, one see that the "inventor" collects water in a small pool next to his house which is full of seaweeds (it happens in Florida).

An obvious possible explanation is that the fuel is just methane diluted to saturation in the water. The micro wave shaking produces the same effect as when shaking a bear, champagne or a soda. I don't know if this is the right explanation, but apparently this possibility has never been checked. Looking at the video it seem that the flame is not lasting forever. This would be normal once the methane is exhausted.

It is totally misleading to say that this guy is producing energy from salt.
If it conveniently replaces an unneccessary pageview I don't see what the big deal is. Everything for a purpose. They aren't universally bad.
i am inclined to agree with you, but. panic is a well-respected software developer, and they make really good user interfaces. i was at apple's wwdc this year, and in one session, a guy from apple put the icon from coda up onscreen, as an example of how to do things right. so i kind of have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Google Reader!
yeah, i totally don't agree with that. this is just noise and distraction, which fritters away the coherency of this site.

if paul graham is able to create a site such as this one that is NOT eventually destroyed by its own popularity, then it may well be a first. noise like this article isn't helping in the least.
Microsoft's Top 10 Reasons Office Beats Google Apps
sam's still right. all kinds of red flags -- "i'll give up my job, but only if things are going well", "i have 2hr/day to spend", resentment already building, etc. it's only gonna get worse.

number2 -- that's fine that you have those priorities (family, steady job), but it seems like you're in denial about the situation. absentee (or remote + part-time, whatever) cofounders are not what early stage startups need. and even if you disagree, your potential investors (e.g. yc) won't. if being remote and working 2hrs a day was a viable strategy for a startup founder, don't you think there would be more success stories that fit that profile? :P

that said, you can still come on board later after #1 gets things going.
Maybe pg can answer your specific question, however,
Ideally you should work on some small projects with your co-founder before you proceed full scale. Usually you'll find out within a few weeks if the cofounder gels well with you. Sometimes (as i found out soon enough), there is a conflict of interest, some people are more dedicated than others etc. Hence, it is always better to work with someone on small projects before you start a company or even apply to YC.... that's what I think.
Thanks - but I guess I'd move to the valley if I decide to. You can feel the startup vibe in the air there - I can still smell it :)
What's the incentive? Seems like they have their hands full with their 'own' companies, and wouldn't want to dilute their brand with more unknown prospects.

What might be cool, on the other hand, is to have an 'open house' for those companies willing to do a more public demo, and/or simply chat with the general public curious about YC. Would probably be good PR.
Jabber/XMPP already has something similar, XEP-0070: http://www.xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0070.html (and there's an openid gateway at http://openid.xmpp.za.net/)

I think doing this sort of thing over IM makes much more sense than email.
Wouldn't it be best to just interface Python and an existing Lisp, using FFI, or something similar?

I'm already using matplotlib and scipy with CLisp, communicating through pipes. I can write (plot '(1 2 3)). The communication between the two is really not a speed concern. Most of the time, Lisp is not waiting for an answer, so on my dual core, the other core is handling it.

For all its power though, writing Python code in Common Lisp feels really clunky. I don't do it much. I wouldn't feel comfortable writing (funcall (dot somedict keys)) for instance. Macros can only help so much.
Glad to see this posted here.

Kim Peek ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Peek ) supposedly reads two pages at the same time, left page with left eye, right page with right.

I hope there is some followup study on split-brain patients.
I "ported" my app from CLisp to SBCL and got a 4x performance decrease. Granted, I must create code at run-time, so CLisp's fast byte code generation probably ends up making the difference. Still.
How would you know what they would want to do?

You try to doubt that there are would be any motives and then you say, it would probably be good PR?!

You question the quality of these startups, like there are no good startups outside YC, when at the same time my suggestion included that there should be the prerequesite of these startups to meet YC's expectations.

And if you call it 'open house' instead of 'open investor day' how that makes it different?! You are talking about the same thing...
Except, if by that term you mean a place for people to gather around and talk. I think thats why they already have Startup School and YC News...

Of course, it doesn't necessarily need to be the specific investor day, but instead maybe one divoted to their YC online community..

The essential motive would be that their YC ecosystem can continue grow outside their boundaries, while giving the opportunity to people that could probably proof capable enough. And maybe minimize the error of the application process.

And I did say, there could be a trade-off in percentage of the company in case it finds an investor through YC.
I'm always surprised by how few people recommend Vienna. If you're on the Mac and you're a power user, there just isn't another RSS reader that gets the shortcut keys right. It even has slight variations on how some of the navigation works, so you can pick what you like most. I use space to go through my feeds, occasionally hitting shift-space to go backwards to something I skipped over. For RSS feeds of sites like news.yc, I can glance over all the articles and hit s to mark the whole folder as read. &#8984;-z undos your last action. I've got 93 feeds, which I guess isn't a whole lot compared to some nuts, but it works great for me.

The only thing it doesn't have is a way to sync between computers, but I don't need that.
A twist ending in a comment thread. Nice work, Paul.
208 MPH Model Plane on a String
New world record, check out the video !
Tim O'Reilly also got his start with a wife and kid already present.
Smooth scrolling in emacs
Norvig, Google's director of research, talks AI
A Scheme Story
John Carmack not as interested in Linux (and OpenGL?)
Why Apple Does Support In-store (While Others Don't)
Reinier and I were at the Apple Store Regent Street this afternoon, admiring the new iPod line (short review to come soon). Besides finding some new details about the iPods that aren't visible in the adds, we also noticed something about Apple's personal approach to offering support: the Genius Bar.
I doubt it took 'forever' to create; I interpreted the article to mean it was low on the priority list, not hard to do. Drawing the custom toolbar was likely as straight-forward as it gets.

First, in the desktop programming world, where you may only have about a dozen gadgets to choose from, you must extend a control, use a third-party control, or draw your own. This wasn't about three pixels, this was about making the program look the way the designer intended it to. There is more to programming than just adding features and avoiding bugs.

If you're a startup, you must focus on programming. If you have customers with high expectations and need to make nice screenshots to impress Mac enthusiasts, you should make the software look as special as you can.
dConstruct07 - My final bits of deconstructivism
The afternoon sessions of dConstruct also contained a lot of interesting stuff which I won't cover in complete detail, but I'll touch on some stuff.
No, unfortunately not