skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Car makers have a very low profit margin. Toyota has about 7% (and that's very high for cars -- GM has like 1%). Google has about 30% profit margin. There's definitely a lot more money in cars in general (in terms of revenue), but Google's net income for 2006 was $1 billion more than GM, despite GM having about $197 billion more in revenue. Having high revenues doesn't mean you're making a lot in profit, which is what counts.
Geez. You scared the shit out of me. i was thinking "Facebook"
"There has to be more money in selling cars than in selling online text-ads". Now that was funny.
Seems like Google is bigger than the rest of the players on the web. http://fishtrain.com/2007/10/30/google-worth-more-than-rest-...
Though, GM is probably not the best example...it's bleeding cash at the moment, and has even had negative earnings some quarters.

If you want to play the profit game, compare Google's profit to Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobil, and CitiGroup. We're not even in the same league here. In fact, we're not even in the same order of magnitude!

Again, Google making that list (and having a high market cap) is much more an effect of it's expected growth (and high multiple) than it's actual present value as a company.
I think the trick here is not the technology or the pricing: appealing interfaces and lower prices are doable. I think what's challenging about this is the barrier to entry to becoming a player in this space. That is, how do you get races and camps to get on board, and to ensure others will follow? It seems like this david-vs-goliath effort is how to build relationships with customers and really drive them to your site. Lower prices are definitely a start. But it might take a lot to build up the brand.

But seriously, man, all the props to ya. This idea clearly comes from frustration with the current competitors and a 'damn the man' attitude. Good luck!!
1,000 invitations to WooMe
Google needs to buy Toyota while the valuation is still high.
LOL, no offense, but that's just silly. Even with the ridiculous valuations of 15+ billion floating around, that wouldn't put facebook in the top 500, let alone top 5.
Install X11 on your Mac and set it to run in fullscreen mode. Then install xemacs or whatever and you're set. When you're in X11, fullscreen programming. When you Cmd-tab away, OS X goodness.
English as Internationalization
English has borrowed liberally from other languages, so it's no surprise that English spelling and grammar are inconsistent and vague. As more non-native English speakers use English for business, correspondence and study, English will change, in ways that are hinted at by this alternative edition of the English Wikipedia.
that made me feel really small
It's not just procrastination. It's marketing.
MTV/Adobe Air Hacker Contest
10 Ways To Go Viral
Please leave a comment in then article with another example that you can think of. It'd be nice to get a giant list of viral successes :)
Yeah... sometimes, more so than the execution, it's about having money or someone who wants to give you money. If you had 10 million dollars you could start making your own line of "Extreme" caffeinated breakfast cereals/health foods.
Sorry! Wasn't my intention.
I think language has a lot to do with it. To do the same thing in Python, Ruby, Scheme or whatever there is just less to think about. This frees up your brain to think about algorithims and little else. C++ is jammed with distractions.

It's not that dynamic languages make a problem super easy, but they do help quite a bit.
I'd love to hear what you think the problems with Active are. My email's in my profile.
Interview with the founder of Killerstartups dot com
Our YC Interview Demo - we just launched it
So our team wanted to start on a new app after we got the interview notice, and we decided to launch it today. We'd love to get your feedback on it before PG grills us.
The monitor! The monitor!
Looks more like a letter from Mandriva to its users/shareholders ("look at us, Microsoft is bullying us"). Microsoft couldn't care less.
Usability, cost advantages to reduce price, value-added services, etc.
On the buy page, I would prefer if you don't redirect me to the profile of the pet I just bought. It would be a much faster interface if I could just keep buying. Also, I can buy a pet I already own from the "Steal this pet" button on my profile.

The game itself is oddly compelling, especially for a game where the mechanics haven't quite been sorted out.
The cost difference is incurred by the race director (or event management firm), though, not the consumer. A $1 difference over 20,000 registrants is a big difference IMHO.
I would too. It was just quick a dirty to do it that way. We'll definitely be changing that very soon.
Wow, that really is colorful, isn't it!
You applied to YC, or got the interview?
We're interviewees.
Killerstartups looks pretty good.
So our team wanted to start on a new app after we got the interview notice, and we decided to launch it today. We'd love to get your feedback on it before PG grills us.
Note: This is going to come across crappy, but please don't take it that way. I'm actually curious.

Care to share anymore of your ultimate goal? From the outset, I don't see anything too compelling, and I didn't really expect YC to jump on the Facebook App train. Is there more to it that you're holding back on for now?
Nice analysis
Yeah I totally understand. This app is pretty tangential to what we're doing, but I think it's too early to talk about that. Our goal was to see if we can design, develop, and launch a Facebook application in a week.
Cool. I didn't expect you to be able to say much at this point. I wish you luck, and keep us updated.
I think that's potentially a great idea. Active.com is a pretty big website, so you'd have to carefully decide which parts of its functionality are important and which aren't.

The social networking pieces sound pretty cool, but I wonder if people would actually use them. I guess there isn't really anything like that already, and big endurance races can be pretty social, so it could turn out to be really useful.
Yeah the steal this pet link is a limitation of the Facebook profile FBML unfortunately.
Selling friends--hilarious concept.
This makes me so sad. Sour grapes.
Can you add a search feature to the "Find Pets" page? Paging through 60 pages of friends isn't exactly my idea of fun...

I think you should be able to use one of the built in fb:friend-selectors with some ajax to make it pretty slick.
This isn't what we applied with, if it makes you feel any better.
Yeah that's coming. Took longer expected to deploy so we couldn't get everything in in time.
Great idea. And, unlike most Facebook Apps, it has potential for continued use after the first time. Best of luck.
Thanks, we tried to make it as fun as possible (and as quick to develop as possible!)

Although news.yc is really upsetting the gender ratio right now =)
Filespots Web 2.0 Online File Management: Emulates Vista in a browser
Sprint in talks with Google on mobile apps
Well, Flex is not exactly Flash. If you're looking to do true flash development using open source tools, check out the MTASC compiler.

And for a specialized (free) ActionScript IDE I suggest SE|PY. It's integrated with MTASC, has better syntax highlighting than the eclipse plug-in, and is my preferred tool of choice. (Even over Flash's built-in editor -- which does a mind-blowingly bad job at managing screen real estate.)
Thanks for the tip! I'll be quieter about my delight.
If you want a tiling WM, ratpoison runs just fine under X11.app on the Mac -- and you can have it replace the standard Quartz WM via .xinitrc
MTV get off the AIR! :)
Leopard, of course, with 4 spaces and xcode split-screen, Ubuntu 7.10 running under parallels. http://tildeslash.com/images/screenshot.png
From what I can tell, the key to these niche social networking sites (of which yours isn't exclusively one, but sort of is) is to find an existing network of people and replicate it online.

It seems like you've found a great application of this idea... especially if you have loads of potentially sticky customers coming to your site every so often to register for races. I don't use Facebook, but if I had to register for courses through it, I'd probably have an account sooner or later.
Just nitpicking here, but Citigroup turned a loss this past quarter due to mortgage-backed security writedowns. I think Google actually turned a respectable profit.
I agree that the tough part about this will not be the build but developing the right strategy and relationships. A simple app will go a long way if you know where to put it.

I have some contacts in this area and ran at a pretty high level. If you want some help, my email is in my profile
Regatta Central works pretty well. Once you create the roster for your club or school, you just choose an event and then check the names of the rowers you want in the boat. I haven't used it in about five years, but I assume it has gotten even better.
How Not to "do PR"
That's a really good point hwork. I think there's a way to deal with it.

If Active is what everyone's using, create an interface for your service as well as the Active service, give people a simple interface to Active as a way to introduce them to your service. Build on top of Active so to speak. What you really should try is to build on top of ALL other services and make a better interface to them. That's not an easy task but it might be required to win the market.
This idea is taken from Joel Spolsky's essay "Chicken and Egg Problems"

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000054.html

You should definitely try it, the idea is good and the market is there and you seem excited so go.
Ok some feedback

1) The scrolling back and forth to buy one pet is annoying. I want a shopping basket for buying pets
2) You could be way more aggresive with my minifeed. Saying Sumon has bought Irra K as a pet in my minifeed would be awesome for virality
3) Where is the box within my profile? It would be cool to see what pets i owned in my profile widget. Then have a link saying buy them back and make cash! That would get people adding this app.

Its a good start - and having a celebdaq equivalent for facebook would be awesome. Study fluff friends for some more inspiration.
Miro kicks Joost's ass
Cost (Why there is no search on YC News)
email me bkmrkr at yahoo.com
Silicon Valley Crash Course: 14 Startups In 28 Hours
Downloading now. If you're wrong then die. Free beer otherwise.
$200 Ubuntu Linux PC Now Available at Wal-Mart
http://www.goladus.com/images/wokr1.png

Cygwin, firefox, emacs, C, yacc, putty, outlook, python. (There's php in one of the emacs windows)
Startup roundup: Zooof, WikiCompany, TV4B, Wakoopa, MoodViews
Agreed, MTASC has been a huge time saver for me over the last few years, I can't recommend it enough for AS2 development.

Another free AS IDE: http://www.flashdevelop.org

I've not used it a great deal (I use FDT with Eclipse), but I thought it was worth mentioning as it does support AS3 too. Windows only though.
Difference between data structure and ADT?
I was reading my semester book fro data structures and algorithms.I am confused between adt and data structure.what is the exact difference between them?
+ can anyone give explain it with a suitable example?
How should I structure a partnership agreement?
I'm sure there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there who have experience with this, and many others who are looking to do the same thing.

I have built up a complete application myself, no funding/company, etc. I am bringing on a co founder who will help make this a reality. I'm willing to go 50/50 with him. But, as we've both discussed, we need to create some type of agreement (pre company formation/stock/etc) that protects me so if he can't just walk away with 50% of the company and do none of the work. How should this be set up?
I think there must be a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Pure art or math might be top-down (McCarthy). You might be more of a bottom-up person.

Or did McCarthy create LISP from tinkering with code and seeing the inadequacies in what already existed? I'm afraid I don't know as much about the history as I'd like to.
wow.. this is super lame
i'm sure YC and you guys have the next google in the making.. super awesome powerful app man that will have investor crawling to YC's doorstep.. awesome choice YC! what a great foresight!
so my constructive criticism was not accepted by the YC moderators .. they decided to take away my feedback ..

so I better start saying ONLY GOOD THINGS here.
_Start_Sucking_Up_
WOW.. Matt your app is the most revolutionary web 2.0 and profit machine that I've seen.. The design is so awesome that you can just live by it. I'm sure all your users would be WOW by this awesome design. They will return every 5 mins to this awesome site just to take another look at this cool, nice, awesome, sweet design. Best YC's pick so far.
_End_Sucking_Up

ok happy YC moderator.
Please go see a lawyer. I highly recommend it to avoid a lot of pain later.
Where did you buy this cute little home on a graduate stipend? There are certainly some places where you can. I heard from several students who did this when I visited Wash. U. in St. Louis.

But I ended up in Cambridge, and here there's just no way.
The State of Office 2.0 and its Future
Hi,I'm a lawyer (in the UK) and you do need a legally binding agreement in place to protect you. I'm sure someone at Y combinator can recommend a decent lawyer over there. You should not have to pay a great deal for this, but it is best to have it done professionally so that in the worse case scenario (that you guys fall out with each other), you're legally sorted from the outset. Its probably not a good idea to try and do this yourself. I do mean that sincerely and not in a patronising way at all, you want to be able to focus on your start-up and not be worrying about what would happen if things went wrong. Good luck.
This is a market cap ranking. Even Microsoft ranks on this list. Put it in perspective: if you define big by "actual revenue" (as the Fortune 500 does), Microsoft doesn't break the top 40. At ~10Bn+ in revenue, Google wouldn't make the Fortune 100. Sort the Fortune 500 by profit and Google still isn't in the top 20.

Market cap is a measure of the market's expectations for future profit. But it's not a reliable one. Where's Qualcomm and Tellabs now?
Like the guy says, just because it works doesn't mean it's not a joke.

More telling, there's absolutely no data on reliability presented. If it was meant to seriously be used, that would be the first thing you'd want.
The 2008 IT Salary Guide
$5 million More For 5Min, Following A Painful Angel Round
Open Social: screencast and screenshots
Life After Text Links: ScratchBack
I heard the founder of Active.com give a talk a few months ago. It turns out that their main source of revenue isn't the registration fees, it's the T-shirts that they sell to race participants!

Unfortunately, that suggests Active.com could easily lower or eliminate the $3 charge to drive competitors out of the marketplace.
Over A Year Later And Windows Vista Is Still Not Worth It
Why can only root listen to ports below 1024?
Seth Godin on College Education
A Prayer to Google
Coding Horror: The F5 Key Is Not a Build Process
Here's mine:

http://www.stanford.edu/~brianrue/workspace.png

I just alt-tab between Zend and firefox/konsole; at work I run another screen of Firefox off my windows laptop. I don't know how a lot of you can live with so much clutter on your screen, it drives me crazy.
Jobloft.com (Dragon's Den drama) acquired by OnTargetJobs
If you remember the entertaining jobloft.com saga:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=54937

This is where it ended up. (No amusing youtube video this time).
Schneier: The War on the Unexpected
When was the Last Time You "Visited" Your Site?
So, you built an application by yourself, with no funding or help,and you're willing to give up 50% of the equity just like that?

I'd also recommend seeing a lawyer. Additionally, a partnership may not be the best idea if you don't know and trust this second co-founder. I'm no lawyer, but it sounds like an LLC might be a better choice. You can vest his shares over a time period that you feel is appropriate, and include a clause in the operating agreement that discharges him if he fails to perform the duties required of him.

Again, I'd go see a lawyer. It's not worth the headache later on.
ScratchBack: Hahaha What The F*ck?
You don't need a lawyer. You need common sense.

Why do you think you need to give someone 50% of YOUR company? Is your product ready? How much more work will it take before you are ready for revenues? And when you are ready, how long will it take before you generate enough profit (not sales) that can support two full-time employees? Is this person an employee or a co-Founder? Are you giving this person 50% because you cannot afford to pay salary and are you giving this person 50% because you need his intellectual contribution in addition to effort? Or are you just looking for a companion? And if this is a co-Founder, will you need still outside funding (VC or angel) once the person joins you?

In other words, lawyer cannot protect you if you don't know what you want. Work the problem backwards. Think about building the company and not the product. Focus on what the company would look like six months from today, two years from today, five years from today and then think about how to get there, with or without this new partner/employee.

Think about these questions first and then worry on the legal details.

--Denny--

Denny K Miu

http://www.lovemytool.com/blog/startup-for-less.html
The Dragon's Den is the worst 'VC' situation in the world. They are hilarious though.

A friend got on the show just because she is an attractive girl, she didn't even have a business idea when she applied.
An abstract data type is the specification of an interface; it's a set of operations whose behavior is defined.

A data structure describes how data is organized in memory.

Let's imagine a stack ADT with two operations: push and pop. We can decide to implement this ADT using, say, an array or a linked list. In either case, its operation will be the same (that is, you'll get the same results; but its time and space properties may be different).
Miro vs. Joost - Head to Head Comparison
does that mean in an adt the implementation is important and the the realization is hidden and in data structure the result as well as how it is obtained is important.?
The thing you want is called vesting.
It is at the same time astounding and unsurprising how wrong our security policy setting bureaucrats are. I work with bomb disposal robots. I'm no security expert, but I understand a bit about the field.

Not only is the edifice of security extremely inconvenient and abuse-numbing, but it doesn't actually accomplish much of anything.

Take a CD. Break it in half. Now you have a plastic knife. The idea that we need to suffer through half measures ignores the most import premise in security: you're only as strong as greatest vulnerability.
Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress
Cal physicists make a radio 10,000 times thinner than a human hair
How to choose a JavaScript framework
5 Things Yahoo Search Can Do That Google Cannot
Google Open Social vs. Facebook Platform (aka: Open Standards are for Los... um, Underdogs)
he was right.
I agree with the additional comments below, but whether you incorporate as an LLC or set up as a partnership or carry on by yourself, if you are going to ask someone else to join you (leaving aside the exact legal nature of your relationship)you must protect your intellectual property rights and if you carry on working with someone else and don't get the legals sorted there are risks.
Yes. I understand it may seem crazy, but here is my justification...

What I've built is a web app. That's all it is right now. But around it needs to be built a company, a marketing plan, PR, etc. To me, bringing someone experienced who will lead handling that on board is a necessity, because, otherwise, I'll I have is a heap of code and some pretty JPGs.
Rule of thumb: If you think you need to graduate from a top college, you're probably right.
I will probably go. That bar looks incredibly cool.
For 90% of the population, what Yahoo! can find is definitely good enough. I mean, come on. Yet Google gets 900x more props than Yahoo! Way too much credit being given to their work. I'm so sick of people asking me to "Google" something. Isn't that so 2004?
David Soskin and Hugo Burge of Cheapflights on building a $400m online business
Thanks for the perspective. I believe I've done it backwards, in that I know what skills I have and lack, and what this partner can bring to the table. To me, it's entirely worth splitting the company, as they'll do the lion's share of bringing it to market. What I am interested in is what needs to be put in writing to ensure that I am not giving away half the product, but actually splitting the work, capital required, etc. If I should go straight to a lawyer, then Ok :-)
Why the British Love Facebook
a funny article about why us brits love facebook
Hm the profile box should be there .... we'll take a look.

Minifeed stories are coming, couldn't fit that in to our schedule on time.
You seem to imply that abstract data types and data structures are in some way similar (or related). It's not the case; an ADT is not a kind of, nor an alternative to, a data structure (and vice versa). They are different things for different purposes, just like an algorithm isn't the same thing as a data structure.

I acknowledge that their names can be confusing (both contain the word "data"). "data structure" isn't a bad name; we understand that it's about how data is organized. But "abstract data type" is less clear, indeed.

edit: I think I found what may confuse you: I guess it's a visualization problem. When you're visualizing a data structure, it probably looks like boxes connected to each other with arcs. And I think your book has nice pictures for ADTs, too (stacks, queues, etc. drawn using boxes and maybe arcs as well). Whereas it's clear that an algorithm is very different from a data structure because it's described using pseudo-code. Forget the graphical representation for ADTs; think of them instead as a list of "rules" of the form "when I dequeue something from a queue, I get the last item that was enqueued".
Thanks Samantha. My thoughts right now is to structure our relationship now, while there really is nothing more than the product. Then, as the company forms around it, we'll deal with the more complex legal matters later.
This privacy/security issue to me is the most important issue of our generation -- especially with the huge datastores everybody is building.

As a libertarian, I want to be completely left alone by government. If I act odd then that's my own business. In fact, eccentricity in thought and action are things we should praise, not report.

I do, however, understand that there is going to have to be some uncomfortable trades to make the modern world function. A retired politician once asked, "Nobody wants to record and mine behavior, but lets assume that right now there are five guys in this country with a lethal, contagious disease that they have been trying to spread to as many people as possible. We would really need instant access to everything they've done over the past week or two, and it would be too late to try to pass some kind of law to create a database to get it. Do you collect and mine that information beforehand, preparing yourself to save millions of lives, or do you make the decision that individual privacy is more important than all those lives?"

To me it's a tough and complicated issue. At the end of the day, I'm willing to put up with some degree of false positives, even if it involves my detention or arrest if it supports the greater good. False positives are always an issue with any system. The question is whether the current security system is appropriately tuned to the security threat. Does it do more harm than good?

Beats me.
A place in the sun: British founders migrating to Silicon Valley