skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Thanks for the advice!

I'm taking the first two weeks off from work, and my mother-in-law will be here, so I'm hoping that I can really spend more time with my wife and new baby without sacrificing on the startup. Plus, the project's schedule should be such that my role during that time will be diminished somewhat and my partners will be working a bit more.

I don't want to say that I'm completely prepared for LAB (life after baby), but I'm as prepared as I can get.
I don't really know my way around IRC, but thanks for the idea!
Now, for me too. So I deleted the submission.
Yeah, I'm already starting to feel it and am working on ways to cut back at work -- especially with baby coming.
There is a #css channel on irc.freenode.net with lots of people in it. Basically, you want to be polite, don't repeat yourself, don't dump code to the channel, and don't get pushy if no one answers. IRC is a great way of finding people to talk with on all kinds of technical subjects.

I'll take the opportunity to repeat that there is also a #news.yc on freenode, although very few people use it.
Maybe Gigabyte vs Gibibyte ;)
Have you heard of rss? ;)
But your right: normal people propably don't use stuff like rss. But now you have to make these people discover your site and the need for it.
It needs capabilites to browse startups and persons.
Barack Obama posts a question on LinkedIn
His question: How can the next president better help small business and entrepreneurs thrive?
It sounds just like advice from brilliant Paul's essay "How not to die". As for me I was sure that Last.fm's founders will get rich, because you have to if your users love you. It's a law)
I'm just about to launch my online application - basically online storage using S3 with some pretty front end functionality specifically for the aerospace industry...I'm basing my monthly price plan on the amount of files uploaded (with a markup and covering an estimated maximum usage) but I'm also thinking maybe I should price it like most products and price per user with an enterprise "unlimited" package..anyone had any similar experiences where your costs were based in part from Amazon S3?
I think you should charge for the additional value of your app first. And add a small but fair cost to your expenses on managing user's data in Amazon S3. But in this case you should base your price plans' on features and functions first.
My answer: "This one is simple: if anything, make sure that net neutrality remains intact. If net neutrality has bitten the dust by the time the next president takes office, I hope he or brings it back."
Yep - a real world example of what pg was talking about at http://paulgraham.com/die.html.

If you have the idea the trick is to hang in there long enough with it to monetize. I think having a good co-founder can help during the crisis points you'll undoubtedly face.
Of course, there's always the path to starting up without going to YC. You just might not be a good match for YC. Doesn't mean that you can't be successful, it just means you're going to have to find alternative routes to success.
Very nice. I think using OpenID for auth is a great idea. The site does seem a tad sluggish, but maybe it's just me. Anyone else see this.

Nice UI though... Great work
At first glance at the title, I thought this was about putting up shares in a private auction to increase the pool of potential investors.

Then I thought it was about a startup hacking away to make it easy to start a mutual fund, from a regulatory perspective. I think there is already a YC startup about something similar, but it would work by the startup being the fund, with funding for purchases coming from sub-investors / users. The site would then be a social network around picking the best investors, or becoming one. The benefit for the pickers is that they could receive commissions, where the real money is.

Then I read the article. It makes lots of sense. One problem is getting people to contact, which is one huge benefit of YC. The format described almost perfectly matches demo-day.

I think it's been mentioned before, but experienced investors together in a room with an inexperienced entrepreneur could cause collusion among investors, right? How to avoid that?
A great piece of advice I got -- and tried to give.
[Seriously OT] Led Zeppelin re-forming for concert
I'll understand if this gets whacked, but I've known few hackers who weren't big Zeppelin fans.
iMoondo Video Classifieds
Could be, if it fails, she will dump you. if you succeed you will dump her. Just a thought.
Hey everyone, this will be my first post. Just wondering what some fellow startup guys and gals think of my team's website. It's set up for video classifieds - pretty self explanatory but its basically a synergy of Craigs List and YouTube.
Announcing the Amazon Web Serivces Startup Challenge
mazon Web Services is launching--right now--the Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge, a contest for entrepreneurs and software developers that will award the winner a first-place prize of $50,000 in cash, $50,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits, mentoring sessions from an AWS technical expert, and an investment offer from Amazon.com.
I have enough YC.news karma by now! What can I buy with it?! :)
QNX Opts for Open Source (Sort of)
Freelance Comunities:

http://www.rentacoder.com

http://www.odesk.com

Forums:

http://www.webmasterworld.com/category21.htm

http://www.thescripts.com/forum/forum143.html
It's slow just because it's hosted on quite low-end server, while we are in the early stages. Now we're profiling and optimizing out slow parts, as well as thinking about hosting upgrade/scaling on several servers.
My opinion: it should have been observed in nature if it really exists.
Open Project : SQL Warrior
Open Project : SQL Warrior Forum
Amazon Web Services $100,000 Startup Challenge
At least it's not 78 resources.
> Oh well, I wouldn't trade it for anything!

I wouldn't either, but being really honest, I'm not as sure as you are about it. Being a successful entrepreneur, being independently wealthy, and being free to spend my life how I see fit has been a dream of mine since before I liked girls (and that was quite early). My wife is aware of how I feel and I picked a good one, so I'm fairly certain I can have my cake and eat it too. It remains to be seen if that's true.
Agreed. Using jpegs for what are essentially screenshots makes me sad.
jpg is for photos. png/gif is for other graphics.
I view being married to the right person as a more fundamental building block in "the life I want" than being rich, which is sort of a crap shoot in any case. At Linuxcare, we were probably a month or two away from an IPO on the heels of VA Linux (I was probably looking at good 100's of thousands, if not a million or two, had the market remained at those levels). Then the market turned, and the company folded (partially because they did some other things wrong, like hire some really slimy individuals). Easy come, easy go, as they say.
At home I used Pegasus Mail until a year or two ago, when I switched to Thunderbird. At work I use Outlook. I don't have a strong preference for either.

I check email on the web only when I absolutely have to. I like the gmail interface, but still vastly prefer to download my email.

If I can get emacs configured, I'll start using that. I get hundreds of emails a day and at any given time I only care about maybe 5% of them. But it's a different 5% every day and sometimes I want to be interrupted. I need to be able to change my filters on the fly. With Outlook, you have to pull up application-halting dialog boxes and click through several different UIs to change them.
Yahoo! Mail is both slower and uglier than Gmail. It also forces you to a nasty ad page when you login. Other than that, not bad. I say this having both open on other firefox tabs.
PikiWiki: Drag and Drop Files onto Collaborative Pages
I agree, although if you could login to multiple accounts simultaneously this might solve the problem.
Also, "to go" would be more accurate.
Usenet is not dead.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.infosystems.www.authorin...
Ilike. You need to get out there and kick major butts and get the most content you can get. Maybe you should get hot colege chicks to post on "meet people". gr8 job
An Invitation To Technology Startups
Business-technology startups have a new channel for getting the word out about their products and services. InformationWeek will begin highlighting startups each week in a new section of the magazine called Startup City. Emerging tech companies: Tell us about your bright ideas!
Hooray for same sex relationships.
Fast, scalable, and simple ... reliable Network IO
Least alarming headline ever. "The future: An excess of women".
Thoughts on editors (Emacs in particular)
Avoid the fate of the frog
Google for Educators: MapReduce in a Week
I would not abuse my s.o. for the bills. At least offer terms your s.o. would accept with a random investment.
But you know?
Study compares Reddit, Digg, and Del.icio.us to mainstream news sites
Thank you for reminding me why I don't post on internet boards. When the cheap shots fail, the personal attacks begin. It seems like it is always easier to make yourself look good by hacking apart somebody else. I was hoping this board would be a little better than that.

For the record, I'm not saying I could do anything. I'm not saying PG or anybody else stays up at night worrying about my participation or lack of it.

You know nothing of my lifestyle, and you don't know me. I didn't post in here to make any kind of comment on YC, PG, or anybody else. I only wanted to point out that the cost of living is a factor for other people in whether they participate or not. That's it.

BTW, it's not a question of "is it enough to meet YC's goals" It's a question of whether it is enough to meet both parties' goals. That's the way business works -- both parties have capabilities and needs. Business is when there is a trade between these capabilities and needs. It's never a one-way street.
Want an Amazon Investment? How about $25k Cash? Amazon Launches Web Startup Contest
That is a very useful link!

Thanks!
15 things you always wanted to tell your designer
Since in my job I have to quote hourly and daily rates to people, I always keep in the back of my mind a rate for "barely living", a rate for "swimming", and a rate for "comfortable living". I'm always aware of the amount of money it takes to pay the mortgage, lights, car payment, etc.

That's the thing about getting married and having kids: it makes your life a lot more complicated. Personally I don't mind living out of an apartment and eating noodles for 3 or 4 months. I could even skip a couple months on the mortgage if I had to. But when they start taking away things your family needs to survive, like a house, then that's not eating steaks, that's starving. While I have no problem gambling my family's assets on my business, I don't feel it is morally right to actually lose everything they have.

Now if it was just me, that's a different story. At one point in my life, due to a fire when I was in my 20s, I lost everything I had. In a way, it's a totally liberating experience. Most people really don't need all that crap they surround themselves with every day.

That's why I replied to the article. I can see both sides of the story. Most young single guys don't need a lot of money (especially with Web applications) to make a go of it. The numbers get bigger with a wife, and they get even bigger with kids. That's not wanting Filet Mignons, that's just life.
Don't forget that Phthalates also increase your chances of being gay. Apparently in some South American countries the number of gay men is starting to mess with the census numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalates
Jeff Bezos is in the game?
its plaxo pulse minus plaxo
Don't forget that the existence of gay men helps the ratio even more. Pretty soon it's going to be 10 does to a buck.
You have to make your idea ("in whole or in part") public if you become a finalist-- you're required to make a "finalist video" to post online to be voted on.

Votes don't count towards judging, though the judges will be aware of the votes.

Incidentally, is there any data available as to the survival/success rates of startups who won these types of business plan competitions?
I have had a lot of CSS problems with IE6 (and solved it all), maybe if you tell me what the problem is I can help you.

;)
Larger numbers of women and perhaps gay men will reduce the incidence of violence in their communities. I also see a business opportunity. Marriage tourism. Internet sites and planeloads full of men from places like China and India, where female children are undervalued, should be easy to monetize. Its like global warming. In Saskatchewan we see nothing but upside.
I always recommend Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML
Is the best way to learn CSS!
The boiling frog story is illustrative of humans, not frogs.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/frogboil.asp
Google founders trade research chores for Moffett landing rights
I went the easy way, my girlfriend is my cofounder!
But of course we are both worried about what the stress of creating a startup will do to our relationship...
dConstructing the morning sessions
PG, have you thought of buying or leasing an entire apartment or condo complex and putting YC founders up in that? Besides economies of scale there would be efficiencies in putting together people with common goals.

There's a reason so many startups form in grad student housing.
I agree. I think you hit the nail on the head.

But you can't do both at the same time. Good one-on-one consulting (or anything, for that matter) requires you to be 24/7 thinking of your client and their problems, not yours. Perhaps other guys are better at multi-tasking among completely different things. To me, you've got to pour your heart and soul into it, or it's not worth doing. That's just the OCD-kinda guy I am :)

My biggest problem isn't the savings, it's the team. I chose to live in a really rural area, which is great for kicking back after getting off a jet from somewhere, but really sucks wind when it comes to meeting and forming teams. I'm waiting for one of these YC groups to help us hermit schmucks out with some good team-formation software.
What is TC50K?
I don't get why this study is trying to draw big conclusions through comparing stories published by mainstream news outlets and stories that are popular on social news sites heavily, heavily skewed towards geeks.

As the cliche goes... apples vs. oranges.

The guy doing the study even says this about the inherently different foci of the two:

"This technology bias was partly down to the fact that it was early adopters of technology that lead the way when it came to 'playing with the potential of the internet to empower users', said Mr Rosenstiel.
I'm just impressed that you managed to snag the url Readr. I think that alone might be worth a few thousand users. :)
I don't think I'd want to seek funding from any source described as a contest.
Why does the West innovate more?
Apparently he hasn't heard of Ruby. But see also: http://paulgraham.com/usa.html
The 50,000 people in the audience of TechCrunch.
DefCon 15 Session and Panel Videos - Batch IV - Final Batch
Done! The last 25 videos of the DefCon 15 sessions and panels are now up on Google Video as well. All 125 videos are now available for watching, absolutely free. You just saved $499.00. Enjoy!
"We don't need hackers to break the systems because they're falling apart by themselves," (NYTimes)
What can the government ever do?

1) Generally, do nothing and so cause no harm.

2) Specifically, subsidize a particular business, and so do harm that is beneficial to said business.

3) Regulate natural monopolies. (viz, there is only one shortest distance between two points, and so that is typically where the highway has to go.)

4) Regulate natural commons. (viz, prevent toxic waste dumping, radio wave jamming, etc.)

Only #2 is a serious vote getter.
dupe http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=53723
I don't understand the lack of folders complaint. Labels achieve the same thing, and more flexibly, even, since the same message can show up in various places, and its read status is what it should be.

I use evolution for work email and use its "vfolders" extensively. They have a different name, and they predate "tagging", but they're really the same thing, and difficult to live without.

In gmail, I would prefer proper threads instead of "conversations", but in practice the difference is minimal.

The crappy editor is its biggest problem, but even that can be worked around.
I wonder if they've thought this through. No really promising startup would go through all this just for a 1/n chance of $50k.

This is structurally different from raising investment. An investor tries to fund (as far as they can tell) all the good startups that approach them. Here there is only one prize. Which means the better the applicants, the more likely you're wasting your time applying.
The Hacker News community would do well to minimize discussions about optimal editors. It just isn't that interesting or important.
I would like to add one more thing...
The startup/company should already be using their web services. I am not sure if they consider a good idea that potentially could use their web services.
I am not sure I understand: seems to me all work you have to invest initially is to fill in a one page form? Making it among the finalists, even if you don't win the grand price, you get some exposure, get to present to VCs, and hopefully have some fun. Where is the downside, except for having to make your idea public?
His criticism seemed to be of the genre "I don't like your team". Perhaps that's valid criticism to an extent, but the fact is that Spielberg himself started off with a pretty lowly resume. And what are you going to say? "Okay, you're right. My team blows. I'm replacing them with million dollar producers tomorrow."
Actually our plan is the opposite. To run YC with just 4 people we try to outsource everything. We don't even own our own servers. We'd never want to own apartment buildings.

The reason startups form in grad student housing is the grad students, not the housing.
that's a good read. he doesn't get into it too much, but the danger in declaring fund-raising season and going for broke is that if you blow your wad on the 6 VCs you know in 3 weeks and none of them bite, you just cashed in all your connections. of course you should continue the dialog with them and ask what you they would like to see over the next period for them to be interested...but then you have a wish list from 6 vcs who might not know what's best for your business.

the ultimate marketing making move i have heard of is this:
1. give 3 firms your materials, including the amount of money you want to raise and the valuation you want to raise it at;
2. tell each fund that you have given the same materials to 2 other funds and that you are going to only take on the 2 funds that respond first.

this can work very well. the upside is that you create leverage and massively cut down on negotiations if it works. downside is that it can blow up in your face. if your company isn't as great as you think it is, VCs could get pissed and tell you to screw, putting you back at square 1 with some potentially burned connections.
...and you don't need a good product to make your users love you. Orkut, for example.
Grand Prize $50,000 Cash

Prizes for 4 Second-Prize Finalists

$5,000 in AWS Credits
A professionally developed video, filmed at their place of business, and posted on Amazon's website
Exposure and promotion on Amazon.com and AWS websites
Promotion in contest press release and other press activities
Airfare and hotel accommodations in Seattle to meet and present to Amazon and Judges Panel
Featured at the AWS Start-Up Challenge Awards Dinner in Seattle, WA with Amazon executives, industry leaders and VCs

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=377635011
The form might only take a day; the real time suck is for the finalists.
Too many old examples,of course the West produced Newton and the fundamentals of modern science but if the West disappeared today China, Japan, South Korea, India and all the other countries would not stop scientific research.

To get basic research done a country has to be rich, in a poor country only applied science gets any budget. And basic research has been a state financed thing for the most parts of history. Or if you look back a bit more a privately financed gentleman hobby.

The table has turned now in many societies there is enough money,talent and a society liberal enough to allow a real science environment.
That is brilliant thing because every new researcher speeds up development and benefits the whole.
"An investor tries to fund (as far as they can tell) all the good startups that approach them."

Is this your strategy with YC? There has to be some limit (x) on the number (n) of companies you can take on, making YC a x/n for 5000 + 5000founders, no?
OOXML: nice little standard? [PIC]
Moderately off topic, but FWIW, I went to visit these guys recently:

http://www.lovelysystems.com/category/home

They're in the western end of Austria, and the firm was founded by one of the Last.fm guys. I don't think YC.news has many readers in this corner of the world, but they're looking for good people, and it seemed like a nice environment.
When I consider the time spent in thinking about a line of code and typing it into my editor, I couldn't agree more.
Or poormanatee to follow zach's adjective + animal line.
My bf is of your creed too. I've to vie with a laptop but both of us know his priorities. I guess understanding is all it takes.
>> I don't drive a Toyota or shoot with a Canon SLR because they don't work.

A poorly written article in my opinion. It revolves around the viewpoint of the author, without any facts or figures.
The YC way seems to be working rather well.

I think grad student housing does help focus. You can get meal plan and not have to spend time going to the grocery store so much; you tend to interact much more with other people who are also focused on similar problems and random friends don't drop by and try to drag you off on some irrelevant adventure.

I have a problem with that sort of thing. I have to be a bit brutal when I'm really deep in something. The keeping-in-your-head essay really hit the nail for me.
And I thought the word "wogs" went out with top-hats.
How is this different from realpeoplerealstuff.com?
Isn't Summer Founders Program a glorified contest?
New Social Sites Cater to People of a Certain Age
It's a poorly constructed sentence. I think he meant "I drive a Toyota / shoot with a Canon and it's not because they don't work."
I think the food expense is pretty high too. At the very least get a brita filter or something and carry around bottled water to drink. Some people do eat a lot more though.

And it's worth noting that cooking for yourself doesn't always save time. After you consider preparation and cleanup, sometimes it consumes more.

It can also be stressful if you don't have a nice kitchen, or if you have to share your kitchen with others. Although probably one of the benefits of having founders living together is optimizing your kitchen.
The usual is more like 20-30% override for advertising networks. Still a fair chunk of change though.
Surely you can share ballpark figures :)
Reinvigoratea's Snoop: Real-Time Web Analytics
Social Graph: Concepts and Issues
I agree with both of you, but I think it is wise to choose a good editor when you start. If the editor is any good, it can help you and reduce the time it takes to program, so more time is spent on thinking than typing. I'm sure you don't use Notepad or Nano.

But, yeah, dead topic to me, I already chose my editor and could care less what someone else says, only if it's about a new one, then I may care.
I was at Defcon this year. I must say that technical content in all but a handful of talks was non-existent. From what I hear, it wasnt always like this. It has degenerated into a sad reflection of the conference that it once was.
Love, e-company style
"e-company"? What is this 1999?