skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Presumably you, because if you are that good, you will be in no short supply for work. Thus, while the less skilled programmer is still hacking away at the function, you are writing new functionality and earning twice as much while doing so.

Also, the less skilled programmer is going to have a hard time winning projects when his proposals are double the budget and four times the schedule length of yours.
Chinese search engines "hijacked" - confirmed by multiple sources
Feedback vs. Feedback
Hi everyone. For obvious reasons, YC does not give any feedback after rejection; this is completely understandable considering the large number of applicants. But I think there is a difference between feedback (what lacks in your application) and feedback (you concept is cool but not a viable business and there is nothing you can do about it). These are 2 different things and I think people should know about the latest so that they don't waste their time pursuing it and focus on another idea.
The adventure continues...
Is there a YCombinator for single inventors in their 30s or for senior citizens?

One of my concepts I submitted am I told by those whom I show it to, that it is an industry changing concept!

Though it maybe ahead of it's time & mobile Internet technology/sector need to be more robust - what I show only is only the basic concept. What do you think?

I use my site everyday driving to and fro work. I used to have satellite radio, but no longer have the need!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq_lkSRDFck
1 person startups would've ruled out Plentyoffish.com (Markus Frind) and Napster (Shawn Fanning).
what's your site?
I believe feedback is a never ending loop. I give you some feedback, you make changes and present them to me, I give you more feedback, you make more changes, come back to me. It never ends. Since Y Combinator has so few spots they can afford to go with the ideas that are best formed and they like best.
Writing Your Last For-Loop - Beautiful Code
Wow, thanks for sharing that observation! What a gem of insight into how easy it is to cross that gray line of usability.

Just a week ago I was watching the Berkely course videos from SIMS 141 on YouTube. This one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbuDzvWr4s featured Dr. Daniel E. Rose from Yahoo! talking about User Experience Issues in Web Search.

Part of the video, which was recorded 2 years ago, he talks about some of their UI research and how they believe they can improve the interface a lot, primarily focusing on keyword suggestions to help people remember what they were really looking for when they might only remember part of it or something related. Ironically enough a day or two after I watched that video they launched this new feature.

Maybe they should have spent more time observing users. :)
Sorry, I use it for personal use.

If you have a Windows Mobile phone you can copy/paste the code from my blog: http://www.techavid.com and create your own site. You will have to gather the proper streams, so Mobile IE plays them.
Many good things look ugly to people at first, because their instincts steer them away from the unfamiliar. If you find yourself thinking, "this is objectively good, but ugly", give it a little time.

Unfortunately, much of what is called modern design isn't objectively good at all; it only looks the part, to people who don't pay attention. Villa Savoye, probably the most famous example of modern residential architecture, didn't meet even the most basic requirements of being a good house--it failed to keep out the elements.
Cool. I wonder if there is room for a competitor in this market or if they are basically perfect. Anyone ever used their services?
Before criticizing a language, understand it. In this case, the author can't even write a for loop correctly:

for(int n = 0; n < size; ++n)
sum += elements [n];

Leaving aside the stylistic question of declaring variables in the middle of a for statement, and trusting that the author knows that the variable sum will never overflow and (if he's dealing with floating-point values) that rounding errors won't matter, the code should still be

for(size_t n = 0; n < size; ++n)
sum += elements [n];

An index to an array should always be declared as size_t, not as int. Otherwise really bad things can happen on systems where size_t is 64 bits but int is 32 bits.

EDIT: Before someone accuses me of being overly pedantic: I've lost count of how many security issues I've fixed which have existed because someone used int where they meant size_t, but it's at least in the double-digits.
If You Are A Frequent Traveler, You Are Going To Love Tripit
Exclusive: Sergey, Facebook investor up to ... what?
Even if people don't like Bush, the man has backbone.
Are there legal issues that prevent you from doing this commercially?
MySpace: the story of its creation. by Brad Greenspan
Story uploaded October 2006 (http://qurl.co.uk/n0tc). MySpace acquired July 2005 by News Corp.
I know from a talk that one of the VCs at Sequoia gave that almost nobody gets funded by them without having been introduced. He said that they were meaning to pay more attention to stuff that comes in over the transom, but it sounded much like I do when I say that I want to work out more.
Ask 37signals: What about research, interviews, and documentation?
Yes, and they throw bolts of lightning from their arses.

Seriously, as much as I like open source software (and I really like it), I can't agree with you on this. I think you're doing raymondism.

There is little innovation in the open source world; it's mostly about making better implementations of things invented long ago by companies or universities. But that's OK because in the end we get good software.
I suspect they would have strongly disliked Markus Frind because he can't write using proper grammar and punctuation. And, even worse, his site is total Microsoft fanboy stuff. Windows, SQL Server, ASP.NET, scaling to tens of millions of users and more money per month than all YC acquisition sums.
I don't know, I read that in a blog-post (or somewhere) about the Chinese language. Wikipedia has an article on it. Given that it was Prussians who first categorized it, it might be a judgement left over from them. It's probably because it's easier, and does away with structure (shrug). Actually no, I recall it was said sort of generally, but 'weak' in the sense of lacking expressive power or something. Ach, truthfully, it's just an impression I was left with with something I read a long time ago. And it /feels/ easier, so that interpretation stuck with me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-comment
History uploaded around October 2006 (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.freemyspace.com/cont...).

MySpace acquired July 2005 by News Corp (http://www.newscorp.com/news/news_251.html).
Shorter people 'have a chip on their shoulder which makes them unhealthy'
What do 16,000 people do at Google?
Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14
Yes, the 50 or more global streams I compiled & listen to are not mine to distribute.

So, being accepted to YCombinator would've facilitated turning this from a personal use site to a commercial one.

There is much innovation to be had here!

Though I am not deterred by the unsurprising no I received from Y, but rather it is just a reminder of my time-line in life.
I too had trouble and it took me like 20 minutes, but I paid close attention to the middle foot shadow and tried to imagine the tip of the foot going in the direction I wanted.

After that I pretty much realized I can control reality with my perception! (Heavy right-brainer here, apparently...)
Markus Frind is a moron who was in the right place at the right time. If you funded 1,000 of him, you'd lose on 999.

As we say in poker, even the blind squirrel finds an acorn some times. Markus Frind is a prime example.
> There is a very good reason why you don't see new Debian releases very often.

Yes, and as someone involved in the Debian project since 1997, I think I have a good handle on them:

- It's free software, so there's not really any pressure to actually do anything.

- Unstable "works" well enough for a lot of people's desktops, so that takes even more pressure off.

- There a huge number of packages to try and stabilize. Ubuntu has done a good job of trying to pick a good subset and deal with that, rather than try and be everything to everyone.

- There aren't really any paid staff to sit around fixing the more onerous bugs, or do any of the unpleasant muckwork that paid people do.

That said, I've had both Ubuntu and Debian boxes that have been upgraded again and again over the years, and there just isn't much cruft at all. I had one machine in the late nineties that had its main disk swapped out 2 or 3 times, was transferred to a new case/MB once, and upgraded the distribution itself 2 or 3 times, and it worked just fine.
I haven't received anything yet. Should I be happy, sad, or just confused?
James Hong Gives Advice to Berkeley Startups
First, of course the principle of least surprise is good, but it doesn't apply here. No experienced Ruby programmer would look at 'a[0]' and think - oh, an index into an array. They know that it could mean many things, depending on the receiver, not the subscript value.

Also in Ruby there is no overloading. Overloading means that a different method is chosen depending on the types of the arguments. That means that in C++, it is not true that "the type of an object and the method name invoked determine unambiguously the method that is called".

In practise there is also little overriding - there seems to be no need. In C++ there is a lot more, and because of multiple inheritance, things can get confusing. (Overriding and overloading are two ways in which OO-languages violate the principle of least surprise).

This means that the reasons why using operator overloading is bad in C++ don't (automatically) apply to Ruby.
Teachers are operating "close to the limit of human capability"? Farmers? Policemen?

Some professions are just more natural for people - programming on the other hand is fairly unnatural.
A lot of the competition is outsourcing - get people in cheap places to do the grunt work of sitting around testing stuff with different phones.
I definitely wasn't defending him, I just think it bears repeating that you should build your stuff with whatever you're most comfortable with.

"What do you know about servers that Yahoo and Google don't?" Well, you'll probably never be Yahoo or Google and you don't have their same requirements, so if you get down with SharePoint 2007 Enterprise Solution Architect Server Plus Pro Home Business, go for it.
Out of 500 applicants per year, a conventional VC might only fund 10.
I don't think Markus is a shmuck at all.
Markus says: "My short description leaves a lot out, but basically I spent every waking minute when I wasn't at my day job reading, studying, and learning. I picked out "enemies" and did everything I could to defeat them which ment being bigger then them. I refused to accept defeat of any kind, and I constantly forced myself to test new things. I never tried to perfect anything it didn't matter if things didn't work 100% as long as it was good enough I would move onto the next thing. In 2003 the dating market was growing 80% a year unlike the -10% in 2006 so growth was a LOT easier. When 2004 rolled around and word of mouth REALLY kicked in and as they say the rest is history."

http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2006/06/14/how-i-started-a...
There were a recent post telling to put the e-mail address on the profile (click up right on your nickname after logging in). If not you'll receive no answer.
Sounds interesting, but how would YC facilitate that - or better - why can't you do it on your own? Presumably you'd need to pay for it, but the cash they give you is not a lot, so you'd need other sources in any case.
I know that the web streaming royalties are pretty onerous and that's if they don't charge you extra to stream to a cell phone. How profitable is it to sell internet radio for $2.99 a month? I think it would be hard to charge more than $2.99 for a great mobile net radio service -- that's what Pandora charges.

Of course, you can try it under the Make Something People Want banner but this is something that is ultimately unsustainable without ads or a freemium model.
The most important thing they do: not work for the competition.
So there are outsourcing firms that have all of the phones and people to test them?
Matt Maroon: Advice for Y Combinator Interviewees
I did that earlier today, shortly after the post went up. Thank you though. I'll contact YC about it.
That's all certainly good advice. Thanks for taking the time share it with us.

Speaking of advice though, a little padding on the left margin of your page wouldn't hurt...
If they can keep finding more and more people that pass their insane hiring process, they will do well to keep hiring them.
>I got asked whether I was worried about the mafia. Seriously.

Seriously, the US Government is much worse. Unless you believe, like I do, that a lot of organized crime in the USA is controlled by the CIA, in which case it is the same thing.
Google's Sitemap Protocol extended to support Code Search
My experience was that Google's hiring process isn't insane at all -- if you're going to hire someone for a technical job, it's crazy to not have phone interview(s) followed up by a day of on-site interviews, both full of technical questions.

My experience was broken in other ways -- my recruiter changed her mind about which job I was applying for three times without consulting me -- but (being assured by Googlers that the problems I encountered were rather unusual) I can't find any fault in the process.
I fervently hope that Bush discussions can be kept far, far away from YC.news.
I remember an article about Japan's premier pro baseball team hiring the 2nd best and sitting them on the bench just so that they don't play for the other team.

Isn't this just what google is doing?

It is a win win situation for them.
So does the Chinese government. The way you say "backbone" can mean anything.
Perhaps insane as in "insanely selective." 1500+ SAT Score and a 4.0 high school and college GPA are very important. Then, I think there are 7 or 8 levels of veto you need to get through. At the end, everyone they hire is truly, certifiably smart any way you measure it.
That is excellent, excellent advice. I wish I could have read that last interview round.
make it two rounds ago for me
...in engineering. They don't apply the same standards in other groups.
Yes.. any idea what percentage of their new hires were engineers?
Evan Williams: Think Less
I swear I've seen this before. They may haveripped this off rapleaf (if my memory serves me right)
I strongly recommend the book Confessions of an Economic Hitman. I was searching to find an NPR interview with the author, where he summarizes the book very well. Instead, I found the whole book.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19489/Confessions-of-an-Economic-H...
1500+ SAT Score and a 4.0 high school and college GPA are very important

I was offered a job; but I've never written the SAT and I didn't tell Google my GPA. Admittedly, the doctorate from Oxford University probably helped, but clearly they don't have any hard rules concerning SATs or GPAs.

Keep in mind that now that with 16,000 people, even if Googlers have the 16,000 highest IQs in the world, they're still only hiring at an IQ cut-off of 168. It's easier to only hire smart people when you're still a small company.
He doesn't mind stepping on people's toes even if it hurts his image/party for what he things is right (dalai lama, immigration, etc.).
You guys didn't see the CIA plane The Web 2.0 caught smuggling drugs about a week ago? Remember that Bin Laden was on our side at one point.
>>1500+ SAT Score and a 4.0 high school and college GPA are very important

>I was offered a job; but I've never written the SAT and I didn't tell Google my GPA. Admittedly, the doctorate from Oxford University probably helped, but clearly they don't have any hard rules concerning SATs or GPAs.

The SAT/GPA scores are part of Google's psychometric for intelligence. In your outlying case, I am sure that was easily proven via other means.
http://eskeptic.wordpress.com/2007/05/31/introducing-the-par...
Who needs conditionals? ;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_boolean#Church_booleans

But really - I agree. Functional programming is easier to explain without resorting to all sorts of helpful lies. At the university I am helping freshmen learn C.
Oh man, I would have loved to attend... To bad I didn't know about it.
Lower Level -- What is my code doing?
The Art of the Ask
C is crazy.
In any case, the State is an organized entity that uses its legal monopoly of violence to steal your money; it's like a mafia, just much bigger.
You can say that again. I've never had my registration on a site deleted within half an hour. Until I tried pofish. Twice.

There's only been a couple of sites ever that pissed me off enough that I wouldn't ever try any site by the guy ever again.
Facebook Monetization of Apps: Peanut Labs for Facebook
It's always "when".

Sometimes, "when" happens early on, sometimes a CEO manages a 20 or 30 year career, and then "when" comes much later when a successor is named. Other times, "when" comes in the form of a sale of the company.

But, it's always when, never if. Part of the CEO's duty is to prepare for the when, to make sure it happens in the right way at the right time.

There are many business books that cover this topic, but "Good to Great" is a recommendation if you haven't read it already. There are a few good examples of cases where the CEO was the entire company, which in the end is a sign of poor leadership and management skills.

All of the people lauding accolades on Zuckerberg sort of surprise me. He has done little more than ride the wave of social networking on a chance. Don't get me wrong, he has done better than others, but so far I have not really seen any indicators of visionary leadership or great forethought from him. And back to my first comment, his recent interview doesn't do anything to enhance his image.
I'd argue that this involves changing the class of the receiver (I think that is what actually happens under the covers).

Also, I think this would count as a mortal sin in production code (but a lot of fun nevertheless).
SVG died over five years ago, way before Silverlight.

It died even when Adobe put its full weight behind it to fight Flash. I think after SVG's failed uptake, was when Adobe decided to buy Macromedia.
Coming soon... I promise.

The actual idea is simple. Natural language as you correctly point out is beyond any clean/perfect theory. Besides it's constantly changing.

An admin needs to constantly patch an NLI system to achieve high recall (e.g. over 90% of the reasonable questions posed can be answered) and high precision (e.g. over 90% of those questions that are answered are answered correctly).

In all cases in which the system answers, it must paraphrase the query back to the user so that they understand if they were misunderstood.

Of course any user will always be able to ask a question that the NLI will fail on. For example asking an inventory database "what's the meaning of life" will not lead to an intelligent response.
Y Not - YC rejects of the world, unite!
Is anybody is interested in moving to SV anyway? After all, weekly dinners and a demo day are not that hard to organize. You might meet potential co-founders, or at least find people willing to discuss your start-up with, share apartments, etc. I'm just thinking out loud here.
I am interested, though I need someone to invite me to US to let me apply for visa.

P.S. That is basically what I was talking about yesterday (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=70071 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=70107)

P.P.S. I am interested to move, to communicate frequently and to share apartments to reduce costs.
Only you can decide if your concept is worth pursuing. At the end of the day YC is only a tiny group of people that know about a few things (relative to the world, or even the VC world at large). Their opinion of your idea or application is by no means the end of the road.

Many many founders who have gone through a more traditional funding cycle will tell you about 1 VC that completely degraded their pitch, and another that ate it up and delivered money in wheelbarrows.

It might also be simply that your idea is highly viable, but just not AS VIABLE as some of the other applicants. Common Angels, for example, might see your pitch and want to buy in.

Look at some of the opportunities Guy Kawasaki has passed on (Yahoo, Google), and what those companies have become.

If you believe in your idea, keep at it. If you're only validated by someone else's opinion, seek traditional employment.
Python v Ruby Celebrity Deathmatch
Ready, startup, go! Services built in cyberspeed
Earlier this month, Brian Dorsey set out on a mission: Develop and launch an Internet service in less than six hours.

The 33-year-old Seattle software developer wasn't looking to set a Guinness World Record. He just wanted to explore whether something worthwhile could be built on the Web in a short period of time.
Improve your vocabulary to end world hunger.
For every vocab word you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice. Interesting concept.
Startup Camp NYC (Oct. 22-23)
This is something I was thinking about after reading the rejection thread.

How many other rejects are still going ahead with the plan to move their startup to SV this winter even though they aren't participating in YC? (or are already there after not getting accepted into previous cycles?)

We'll be there for sure, and would be highly interested in organizing something with other 'Y Not' startups to have some kind of social environment and network and have fun with other groups.
The silicon valley probably ain't a bad place to be but:

- there is this thing called the Interweb that helps communicate efficiently from all over the world (I find amusing the idea that you have to be in a certain place in one country to work on Internet stuff; doesn't sound like "eating your own dogfood" if you ask me);

- instead of all european entrepreneurs moving to the US, why not organize in Europe? Most people want to move to the US because it's easier, with less bureaucracy... yet they have to face complicated immigration issues.

Just because pg is a brilliant entrepreneur who identified a few specific rules to help replicate what he did ten years ago doesn't mean it's the only way. Far from it. Think different.
It's been done already and it alienates users.
Let's just not call it YC rejects ... I know they say that all PR is good PR, but I don't see the point of labeling yourself by one person's turn-down.
> have to be

PG never said "have to", he said you'll have better luck, everything else being equal.

> complicated immigration issues.

This is very true. It was even before 9/11 - search for Torvalds in this page:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E0DC1039F...

> organize in Europe?

That's where the problems start - where in Europe? England and Ireland are probably the most company friendly countries.
Sounds silly... Why would you throw out a number like that? Is he trying to impress investors?
I am basically okay to unite with other European enterpreneurs here in Europe, that's a good idea, too (if I will have no possibility to move to SV)

I still believe in face-to-face communications, they bring so much value!
Well if you weren't interested why did you even apply at all?
Bored? So then it is the job of an employer to keep you entertained? hehe. Maybe.
I'd personally like to move to SV for three or four months
I think he means "Who is interested in moving to SV despite being rejected?"
Do it in Finland. Tons of highly skilled workforce, lots of other startups, etc. I don't think the bureaucracy bit is too much of a challenge, especially when compared to US immigrations.
You misread my post, it isn't a rhetorical question, but an call for action. I've clarified it now.