skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I think you are over thinking this.

Sit back, don't put in a bunch of cash. Don't let anyone go in over $1,000(two semesters of books), and you should just ride it out.

In all likelihood you will not succeed, but do not take that as a reason not to give it a try. I learned so much from my college projects that sounded very similar to your situation.

And last of all remember that if you were able to come up with one good idea, there will be more, you are young and have decades of life in front of you.

Get out there and run full speed with this team, do the best you can to make a go of it, and you might find your self succeeding. But, if things do not go as planned, chalk it up to just another life lesson, and try again some time.
On another note, you need to find any EXPERIENCED entrepreneur you can to start building your network. I have learned so much from my network that I think I would have just kept failing with out them.

Every entrepreneur I have meet is available for lunch or dinner once or twice.

You're business school might know some local entrepreneur's and might be willing to make an introduction. There are also local professional groups that should have networking events for you to meet other local entrepreneurs.

And, finally just have fun, entrepreneurs can be found just about anywhere, the race track, your local movie festival, Great America, and even you're local bartender.
I enjoy the autoerotic blog title.
Hahaha... I was going to submit this here but I didn't remember my login password, and to my surprise, discovered there was no way to get a password reminder from the site. So I posted it to reddit instead. Now I found my password, but it was late: the link was posted here too, already :)

I think Hacker News needs: password reminders, and an option for changing passwords.
Is it possible to do a google lookup outside of a spreadsheet? Now that would be very useful for outside apps. :)
The subtle difference between amateur and professional
The greatest thing since =GoogleLookup("bread"; "sliced")
Apple's Leopard Falls Prey to Torrent Feeding Frenzy on Threat Level
Comet brightens by a factor of 1,000,000
What's wrong with that point? Freud says man's libido is sublimated in society for the purpose of getting him to do great things. Since 'free love' undermines the social constructs, such as marriage, that sublimate man's libido, I'm saying essentially the same thing. You want to take this up with Freud?
I liked "The World is Flat", even if I was rolling my eyes a third of the time. Friedman definitely lays it on thick. He presents common ideas as if they are breakthrough concepts, he takes three pages to build up a simple idea, and he repeats himself over and over. At the same time, he makes assumptions that are clearly open to debate without justification.

My difference with this reviewer, however, is that I also think there's plenty to enjoy and think about it this book. I think "The World is Flat" would have made a wonderful 40 page essay - perhaps the kind that gets printed in two parts in the Atlantic.

So my objection is that a 40 page essay was stretched into a 400 page book, whereas I think the reviewer would still object even to the 40 page essay I have in mind.
The reddit thread on this has a very insightful analysis of the project's importance.
Hacker Needed:  CustomAnything.com
Hi Hackers,

If this posting is inappropriate just let me know in comments.

I'm looking for a partner in this project. Simply, I will complete the work necessary to make this website a proper business entity. Incorporation, finance, legal, revenue model, etc. You will create an online application that exceeds all industry standards.

Currently there is a reverse auction script running at customanything.com

Clearly this site is unacceptable in current form, it is just a mockup created by me.

Can you make this site look and feel like mint.com?

If you are interested in this project please contact me at thenewbrookly@yahoo.com

Testing the waters.

Very Sincerely,

Matt
Kiva.org takes on world poverty with its peer-to-peer microfinance marketplace
Asking and listening (imo) will not give you accurate reflections of their true traits. Test them like any other investor would test you for fund-worthiness.

Find out what else they've done to demonstrate they are entrepreneur material. Do a short trial project or two. Pay close attention to how they react to different circumstances during the projects. Challenge their ideas and see how they respond. Ask yourself if you could really work well with them, and if they really improve the odds of success enough to merit becoming a significant shareholder.
Was Joel working for Microsoft during its early history?
.. And not a single screenshot. Ouch.
The Microsoft Machine Keeps Chugging Along
Linux Timeline
The world is a game and my breath is my only anchor.
If they can legally do it, I'm sure they'll re-issue options to avoid that very problem. Not sure what the restrictions are for private companies.
On second thought, it might not be that simple... :)
MicroPlace.com just launched the other day and apparently actually allows you to charge a nominal interest rate so you can get a return on the loan. The point isn't to make oodles of money off of developing world entrepreneurs, but it is a slightly more attractive offer than Kiva's 0% interest loan. If you so decided, the interest you generate from MicroPlace could get then go back into another loan so the cycle continues again. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Yes. He was responsible for VBA in Excel, amongst other things.
I really like the site in general. Great design, great content.

But that "CAMARA CHRONICLES" kills me. Can you guys spell camera correctly, please?
Student's Ad Gets a Remake, and Makes the Big Time
Sorry Aston, that's my last name...our aim is to have one site per country so we decided to personalize each edition!
Thanks for your comment
There's no silver roadblock preventing Lisp from becoming popular. The problem is historical, and the only way to over come it is by brute force or by some random fluke like some new super-popular app is only scriptable with Lisp.

Complexity of implementation? Slowness? Lack of marketing? Unfamiliar syntax?

The answer is more like 'all of the above,' as well as not anticipating the rise of Windows and Unix (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
Startup Marketing Make You Mental? Top 5 Reasons That Might Be the Case.
Cool!

Kara is a bit of a Bozo, but it's good to see anybots closer to business.
Just a clarification...Steve graduated.
Games =-=-= WebApps (pdf)
"Don't Click The Time Machine Button

"... if Time Machine hasn't made a backup yet to visit, clicking the Time Machine button completely borks OSX...least it did for me ... I'm sure now it's making backups that it will be a great feature, but just be warned: don't hit that button on your first day."

That is the first button I would have pressed!
Is the basic idea for third world operators to cheaply run humanoid fronts?

How will you deal with lag in places of the world where internet might not be fast enough but wages are cheap enough?

Or, are you planning on going into dangerous services, and replace a human?

How are you planning on making the bot rugged? Also, exactly how many pixels do you expect to ship? Deployed robots in Iraq send a highly compressed 320x240 color stream -- maybe two.

There is an awesome system by Chatten Associates that might be relevant to Anybots. They have a fast pan-tilt camera with analog broadcast to minimize latency to a tele-operator. The operator has a head mounted display with gyros, and here is the kicker: the gyros control the pan-tilt. This means that the camera looks where the human is looking. It's amazingly immersive. Even a small field of view camera works well.
http://www.chattenassociates.com/docs/bob.html

Network latency is an even bigger problem with this kind of system. Operators vomit with lag greater than ~150ms.
Autocompletion of long variable names allows for easy use of very descriptive names. Something similar to tab-completion in a CLI is very useful.
The problem is that books can be inaccessible. Here are some possible reasons:

-[Cost] You can't afford any books

-[Geographic] There are no libraries or bookstores where you live

-[Rarity] Only 3 copies are extant, and some jerk at Harvard has them all checked out until 2012

If you don't care about books, then no, this probably doesn't directly help you.
Your e-mail address does not appear to be working.
Here's the same search on the timeline search engine that I built with a friend last year:

http://onetimeline.com/timeline?query=linux

Scroll to the bottom to get, I think, a pretty good early history given that it's all automatically generated. Shame we never got around to properly de-duping things though!

It was an evenings-and-weekends project, written in Common Lisp (SBCL) and running on a bunch of ec2 machines.
Microsoft sees progress in getting Windows on XO
Vim does this (control-N control-P)
Without actually reading anything or doing any research, I'm going to guess the decline of the dollar is boosting earnings. The list price of Office hasn't changed overseas, and a lot of that money gets changed to dollars and shipped back to Redmond.
The Open Library is also a non-commercial source of information about books, i.e. an alternative to Amazon.com. See this article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6924022.stm
Evidence Based Scheduling - Joel on Software
Sex With Robots Inevitable
I'd post on Hacker News and see what kind of a response I'd get, if it were me...
Amazon Startup Challenge
Heads up and reminder for everyone:

Apply for the Amazon Startup Challenge by the 28th of this month:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=377634011
Here's the question: is the idea so good, that you'll never have another idea that good? Is this billions and billions of dollars material?

If it is, tell them you want to do another project with them for the class and see how you work together -- if all goes well, then you can work on the first, more exciting project.

If it isn't -- it's just a good idea -- then hang out with them for a bit, work with them on a small project, and go for it for the class. If it breaks up, it was a good experience.
Tumblr is "The Easiest Platform To Share Yourself"
5 Simple Rules of Startup Branding
I should really learn more Vim.
This is the difference between inexperienced and experienced, not amateur and professional.
LOL. The UK version is run by Vincent Camara, its supposed to be clever :-)
I could see doing this if there was reliable third party credit reporting and interest rates starting at 20 percent/year.

Also, how do they make money on this...just through the float? Seems like it:

When my business makes a repayment, can I reloan or withdraw the funds immediately?

No. You will not be credited for your loan funds until the entire loan has been paid back in full, at which time you may reloan or withdraw your funds.

...seems like there would be all kinds of ways to game this.
Basically, except that on OSX you can just drag stuff from one terminal window to another.
Well true, but the same can be said about Apple, Google etc. They all have significant revenue streams outside the US. The reason most people try to explain away Microsoft's ridiculous profits is because they don't like the company.

For Microsoft, the key in my opinion, is their next version of the OS. Vista blows and is selling simply through computer sales. They need to rebuild their OS from the ground up to be secure, fast and user friendly.
Linking to a social news site from a social news site makes the internet cry.

Direct link: http://www.darrenherman.com/2007/10/26/what-to-buy-an-entrep...
Sounds a lot like FDD/Agile-- lots of estimation, and getting a good read on team velocity.
Did u apply? and did u get confirmation email? I have applied and never received any confirmation email.
ASP.NET has this thing called WebParts. Good for widgets :)
"If marketing is what matters, how did Java (in its C# incarnation) displace Visual Basic?"

Java had outstanding marketing. It caught the .com wind in its sails and managed to get the industry press all talking about how this platform independent language was going to replace all the platform specific development environments.
The founding team, like any business partnership is like a marriage. Both are social-economic institutions. Both need chemistry to succeed. Both are really messy and messy when it comes time for the breakup. The child custody fight and the division of the assets may not always be equitable.

Or, the team might do well together, the startup fail, and everyone parts as friends.

There's lots of good suggestions here, and Paul Graham has written a number of insightful essays on the YC library and on his site.

The misgivings might be a simply one of, "Well, if my project is so great ... shouldn't I be more picky about who I want to work with?" It might be some instinct tipping you off. Whatever the case, you'll have to look at both the strategic advantage for you and all the human motivations involved (including your's).

Sorry I couldn't be more specific.
Idea to prevent slashdotting/digg effect
An idea to prevent the digg effect/slashdotting of blog posts.
I wonder what the odds are that the blogger has read the works of the laureates he would replace.

Funny that the ones he keeps the same are all the popular ones . . . Camus, Hemingway, Faulkner, Marquez.

And to suggest that JK Rowling should even be on his alternate universe list is just silly.
...with an emphasis on helping management be rational.
No VC Required : Blog Launched
Delusions of Facebook - Should you be a Facebook Startup?
Accused speeder to cops: My GPS proves your radar gun is wrong
I think Guy's message is not unique. But his passion certainly is.

--Denny--
I'm in a similar situation in that after going it alone for a while I'm now looking for cofounders.

Since I haven't succeeded (yet), I don't have a lot of good advice, save this: it's okay to fail, just don't fail the same way twice. From what I've been reading, most startups simply crawl away and die anyway. So the only risk you're looking at is 1) your startup is successful, and 2) the cofounder doesn't work out. Seems like that is a bit of a long-shot.

I'm not saying the selection doesn't matter -- I think it's the critical factor. What I am saying is that you should learn what makes a good cofounder for you, and that's something you might have to iterate on a bit. Don't sit in indecision wondering what the perfect choice is.

That's my plan, for what it's worth.
The difference between amateur and professional is not very subtle. The professional gets paid, and the amateur doesn't.
Well, if sex is the only place you get wetness, then your life is kind of sad. I mean seriously, every time you want to get a drink of water you have to have sex? Or am I misunderstanding you here?
My take on why Common Lisp is not more popular:

http://programming.reddit.com/info/1z8b8/comments/c1zbhh
AI is the soul of computer science. Computer science is essentially about automating different aspects of our mind, and AI is the field of computer science that comes up with new methods of thought automation. If AI truly ever dies, then computer science is dead.
"More than 80 percent of Vista sales were through sales of new PCs, which shows how powerful that franchise continues to be."

Huh? Powerful franchise? People buying new computers without any choice of not getting Windows shows that Vista is very popular? The only reason people are using Vista at all is because it ships with new computers.
The Future Is Cloudy (Google and MySQL)
Can somebody give a short summary of what Tumblr is? The video is unwatchable for me - they should have used YouTube...
I think they are also for fixing other people's bad code.

If you diligently refactor as you go, by replacing repeated code with functions or macros, you don't need a complicated tool to do it.

However, if you have inherited some code where the preferred reuse method is copy paste, this is much more risky. You need to be sure that you got all of the cases and that you don't inadvertently break anything. This is yet another reason to start a startup instead of getting a "real job" :).
Joel is an excellent salesman! Based on his article I totally want that feature now, and not only did he make it sound great he also made it sound in-depth enough that I would rather pay for it than waste time trying to re-create it. Very nice.
I thought an evidence-based guess was called a hypothesis.

Anyway, my problem with scientific analysis of my work habits has always been the observation phase. I can keep timesheets, but that turns out not to be useful data because I only keep timesheets reliably when I'm full of energy. When I'm full of energy, I'm more productive at everything.
Could Europe's New 'Blue Card' Cause Global Tech Talent To Shun U.S.?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2176/1763508649_857218800d_o....
Past results are no guarantee of future performance

;)
Those are good points, but the fact that there are so few Lisp programming jobs has a lot to do with it, too.
In Search of MyProfits
Could work well in combination with Mylin: http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/ (monitors how long you take for completing your programming tasks).
High school dropout scams VC for $1 million
LinkedIn CEO hints at IPO
Both extremes (not only prurient nymphomania but also the kind of zealous abstinence you're advocating) are bad.

Since you seem to be involved in the Creationism / "Intelligent" Design movement, could you explain why fundamentalist Christians are hell-bent (pun intended) on dragging civilization back to the dark ages, where scripture and Church doctrine are more important than science?

It seems like a giant leap backwards.
Eclipse does more than just autocompletions. It also helps you navigate your code for example.

Nevertheless, I think programming without completions sucks. I think most non-IDE editors also try to offer completions, though. It's one reason I can't stand Rails: all that passing around of parameters in Hashes is fundamentally not autocompletable.
So you create a new function with every token?
Maybe I'll save someone a little searching:

http://programming.reddit.com/info/5z4xs/comments/
arrghh, its thenewbrooklyn@yahoo.com
Seems to me like the difference between bad and good. Experience doesn't always make you good.
"Worse Is Better" is an old article, I think from the early 1990s. Back then Lisp did run slowly. I can remember taking a course around 1989/1990 that had us running the n-queens problem in Lisp. People would start up their n-queens programs on Unix minis and leave them running unattended, to go away for lunch or something. The programs ran for hours. This is the reason why Gabriel talks about scale (memory size) and performance. Today these are not really issues anymore. I can run the same n-queens program on my PC and it'll take just a second or two to run. That's a dramatic difference.
In programming, a subtle change in architecture may lead to a dramatic change in terms of lines of code.
The Scientist
It hosts tumbleblogs for free. What is a tumbleblog? At http://www.tumblr.com/faqs they say: "If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks [or] slightly more structured blogs that make it easier, faster, and more fun to post and share stuff you find or create.

A different take at this YC.news item: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=72996
Haven't received one either.
Dude, check your link.
Chicken, egg?
I suspect the relative slowness of Lisp you've seen was probably due to the transition of porting Lisp on Unix. (Besides, I suspect CS courses didn't teach how to write optimized "faster-than-C" Lisp code.) In late 80s, probably the only system that was capable of productin 3D CG work (modeling, animation, and rendering) were Lisp programs running on Lisp machine, wasn't it? It then be replaced by SGI's introduction of GL in early 90s.
The other post about Linux Timeline inspired a query about robots. There seems to be no scheduled sex with robots in the 2000-2200 timeframe.
http://www.google.com/views?q=robots+view:timeline&vwms=...

Also, they didn't crawl the prediction well enough to map it. It is an interesting visualization though.
I just can't seem to learn my lesson about not bothering to click on Valleywag links with provocative titles. Anyone with more time their hands than I want to write a Greasemonkey script to hide them? You can call it Valleywhack.
tumblr is like blogger, with less features. it helps people setup even more inane things called tumblelogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblelog
And DTrace!
Video Interview: The Xobni team give an inside look at the newly launched startup
Ajax techniques to show movies and slide shows
This article shows how to put an Ajax front end on a simple Web video-hosting application.
Rights of private shareholders
What rights does a shareholder have in a startup? Is the company legally bound to disclose:
- Num shares outstanding?
- Valuations during funding rounds?
- Revenue & Operating costs?
The secret to remembering material long-term
Have you started a company without VC funding yourself? I do not mean to sound rude, but for a blog with such title, you need to have some personal creds on a more informative "About Author" page.

So far the issues you've blogged about are not "real". Those issues (scaling, refusing an offer from VC and going with an angel instead) are good to have.

(1) Scaling IS NOT a problem startups without money face.

(2) Saying 'no' to VC funding and picking an angel IS NOT a problem startups without money face. The reason they have no VC money is because they have nobody to say 'no' to yet.

It's almost like you're preaching about diet to a person who's starving...

Startups without money need money especially if they want to grow. And where to get money - is the question that everybody asks and no blog had ever managed to provide answers for.
Has there ever been a successful business that came about by a guy thinking up a most excellent idea in entrepreneurship class (???) then carefully selecting the proper co-founders and continuing to make ideal decisions until success?

In most stories I've heard or read about successful businesses, the pattern was more like, a bunch of freaks got together, massively screwed up half the time, made a few lucky moves, and kept persevering until eventual success.

I guess what I'm trying to say... is... this seems like the wrong attitude:

"I don't want to jump into this on a high of excitement with people that perhaps might not be fit for it."

If the people aren't a good fit, just dump them and move on. Look at Zuckerburg with Facebook. He worked on Facebook-like ideas three times with various groups of uncommitted people until he finally got it right.
"P.S. Evidence Based Scheduling is built into FogBugz 6.0."

Ahh! Of course...
Someone left the sweater that Matt's wearing at our office. He likes it. If it's yours, you should probably stop by before he becomes too attached.
There is this Polish guy who has been working on repetition spacing for a while. He seems less into usability, though, and I think there is an opportunity here for someone who wants to make this kind of stuff simpler.

http://supermemo.com

(There are some interesting articles on sleep too, if you are not intimidated by walls of text.)

In my experience, repetition spacing seems to work for memorizing stuff. I'm less sure about learning skills- operative knowledge-, as opposed to passive information.
> Beginning in 1981 with Hill Street Blues, single-episode dramas began to weave together as many as 10 threads into their plotlines.

I've no references to quote, but I'm pretty sure soap operas have been doing that many years earlier, perhaps even when on the radio.

It's also true of serialized novels published in magazines even before that.
DRY: Don't Repeat Yourself.

I'm not supporting the grandparent, just putting my 2 cents hoping that this branch dies a graceful, quick death.

I don't have the inclination to address this seriously now, but I have scheduled, for less busy times, some serious rolling-in-my-grave over this.
Dude, you are blowing up my spot!