skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Well, i may have badly phrased that. The success of your business does indeed rely on a very big number of things, and it's multi factorial. Also, your business can fail for multiple reasons.

Also, "original" was certainly not accurate, the current idea and orientation of the business is well enough, you're totally right about that.

But there is still some truth in what i say, in that , if your original idea doesn't appeal to a lot of people, you're not gonna have any success. Your site concept is the foundation, and SO concept is a very good one.

>"I'm also interested by your implicit claim that founders don't deserve credit for their original idea"

I never made that claim, implicitly or explicitly, that's just your paranoïa speaking. Quite the contrary, i believe Jeff deserves full credit for what he did, and for his ideas. I also truely believe Jeff to be a very intelligent human being.

This is unrelated to the fact that i really think his technical level is quite low on everything programming related, at least in what he shows on his blog. That combined with the very blunt displays he makes of his claims is probably the source of all the "hate" you see on technically oriented sites like HN.

This is not to say Jeff is a bad programmer. All you can deduce from his blog is that he likes to banter about things he doesn't truly know. The fact that he's ignorant of some things doesn't set him appart - we all ignore much more than we know - the fact that he talks about it like an expert does .
Good Tips For Faster Websites By Google
Coca leaves != Cocaine

You don't get 'high' from drinking Maté de coca, it actually has less of an effect than coffee.

There are a lot of chemicals and processing that go into making cocaine - it's not just coca leaves.

http://www.cocaine.org/process.html
I'd personally love to see more "shilling" here. That's why I come here: startup people talking about startups. Shake it if you got it.
Well it worked for rats. And looks pretty good for youth. But there need to be caveats.

?How many in middle age will respond to "a few minutes of intense exercise to point of pain" with heart attack?

?What about mental health? Research findings in recent decades suggest something more sustained is needed for the endorphin boost that fights depression.
I remember the major American news sites like cnn.com and msnbc.com becoming more or less swamped and unreachable by the late morning of 9/11. They came back a little while later with static, text only versions of their home pages for the rest of the day.
I guess the straight one. Otherwise he would have given the figure in hours not Big Macs.
Miserable. No discussion of the topic or even commentary. Useless "me too" post.
The wording in the patent is somewhat stiff and ambiguous. Could someone explain in a different way exactly how these shoes work?
I'd love to know, too.

Unfortunately, I strongly suspect it wouldn't be in the company's best interest to associate it with a post about possibly "giving up". Business customers already perceive the product as a risk (or the OP said) and uncovering a topic about it on Google where they can see the founder in tough financial situations won't excite customers one bit.
Perhaps b/c if his potential customers google him and find that he was recently thinking about abandoning the business altogether, they'll be even less inclined to buy from him?
Social Networking an app for self-motivation (through shame)?
Wouldn't you be able to count up to 72, not 60 with two hands?

12 from hand one + 12 * 5 from hand two = 72
Docs sucks.

Prototype's docs are great, btw, but they're going trash them, unfortunately.
Somehow she really believes their business model is taking them in the right direction - they just need to streamline overhead and redesign web site? Does that seem to have worked for newspapers?

For Yahoo!'s sake... I hope they're just pulling an Apple and are actually working at meaningful innovation behind the scenes.
>Three months is nothing in the B2B space.

This is very true.

You can measure whether consumer sites have any traction pretty quickly because you can make changes constantly and redeploy daily. With B2B you need to constantly reiterate on what problem your solving and that takes time.

B2B is something that needs to be built up like an old school business, measured in years not months. But the pay off is much higher the consumer sites.

The main reason why is that its difficult to get into companies and find out where the real problems are. Once you build those relationships and find out - then sales will become easier.

Then you have to deal with long sales cycles. So be prepared with a long runway.
I know Hayward's pretty cheap although it's been awhile since I've lived there (mid/late nineties).
An few arguments for giving up:

You aren't ready, financially, to see through even 1 year of unprofitability. Give up while your credit rating is intact and before you have to fire your friends who might go along with your idea/dream. The market is a disaster for unproven, new offerings that you describe as 'mildly postiive'. Hell for most companies, if you cut a sale -today- you wouldn't be paid until October or later. I'd say that if you give up now you'll have enough time to get a job worth going to work for and get paid in time for your November deadline.

If you shut down now, you can skip a bunch of calender year bs in 2010 and keep it all in 2009. You can stop paying/playing accountant, lawyer, marketer and pr person. You don't have to clean the toilet, do the corp taxes and reporting, ship an mail, vacuum the floor and maintain the copy machine. :-)

Sorry if I seem negative, but not every idea works out the way you might like. Don't send good money and time after bad. I've had two companies fail, both taking time and one taking big old hunks of cash with it. I don't regret it, but I don't regret shutting them down, either. Well, maybe a little....
Well, if this book is meant primarily to be "fun" ( -the publisher), then I doubt that issues like "good sources" is in their priorities.
Truckers and Programmers
Unfortunately my tests have been too basic to give any advice in your situation. Adding data elements has been nothing more complex than adding it to the class. Queries that filter on elements in a single class are trivially easy - but I think there are types of applications that need nothing more. Querying across classes would require more work than the relational equivalent of querying across multiple tables.

HOWEVER, my sense is that bringing a relational mindset to object databases is not going to realize the full potential of them; you have to think about storing the data elements differently.

Object databases seem great for OLTP apps. In particular, ones that require working with individual accounts/patient charts/etc, i.e. query a person's account, modify a data element, and save it back to the db. For something more analytical, like spotting trends in historical data, I'd prefer the full power of an RDBMS and the SQL language that goes with it.
That is a very good point to remember when designing high traffic web applications. Add the functionality to switch the site to just text mode on the occasion of overwhelming traffic like the ones described above.

Any pointers on how to do this?
Do Ads Really Pay Off for Free Games and Software?
imho that algorithms book one of the best algorithms books in existence. It was incredibly useful while I was doing my CS degree and is still useful now.
You don't say what size your client biz are. The larger the company the more likely that their decision cycle is long. From my experience large companies can be 6-9 mths to decide. If possible go for the real decision makers.

Your feedback if "mildly positive" ???? Allowing for the fact that people are usually polite and diplomatic, that is not a good sign. Why don't you find out what you would have to include / change to move them to passionate - hot to to trot ????

Agree with the posts about "The Dip" and persistence. It does take a long time and you don't want to give up 4 feet from the gold seam.
Create a text only template... It's not rocket science.
This is a good idea, but I'm guessing from the OP's comments that he has a B2B model that likely requires personal a personal presence to get it sold.

Great idea for things that don't require that presence though.
Yes, I've often wondered why PC & Mac operating systems consider password management to be optional... and leave it to 3rd party developers to fill in this gaping gap (for the small percentage of general public that know enough / care enough to go that needed extra mile)
> which would give me enough personal income and business income to last until around January 2010

First off, 2k a month could be considered frugal depending on area of the world they're living, etc, even for a single person (especially if not living at home or if it's difficult to find roommate situations where they live) when they may have debts, etc.

Also note that number includes further expenses for his business from November to January (at least). And depending on the business, there's no way you can "judge his frugality" on the numbers he's given.

Even if the costs can be $1k or $1.5k a month, I highly recommend he estimates this out with somewhat conservative estimates (for an emergency issue or two) when deciding how long a runway he has. If it turns out to be 9 months instead of an estimated 8, that's awesome, but you don't want to be in month 9 thinking you've got a month to spare and have your car being repossessed.
And that's the problem with bureaucracies making technological decisions: it's nearly impossible to achieve consistency - and thus the sort of predictability that enables developers to hit the moving target of acceptance by the bureacracy.
On that last point, the fear of bankruptcy is as damaging as the thing itself. You will be so stressed out in the final months you won't be able to think clearly. Whatever your do on the marketing/sales side, your prospects will feel neediness and desperation which instantly overrides any benefits your product might bring.
There are events in this world that permeate the public consciousness.

No there are some events for which Mass Media swarms like piranhas. It's some sort of demonic combination of cheap to cover and lowest common denominator.

The result is a absolutely horrifying. It's death gawking.

Since yesterday the MSM has been all about this admittedly tragic event. And not just the TV, the radio too.

My alarm in the morning is the radio news summary. Except today with all that's going on the world, all that's happening with Iran, the ENTIRE news block was about this.

The reporters were throwing to each other each reporting some detail of the death, with the last sentence being: "Preliminary autopsy results are expected as early as tonight!"

How fucked up is that?

And the radio during my morning commute, yep wall to wall coverage.

Michael Jackson's tragic death makes all other topics seem irrelevant? WTF!

As you yourself say, this is thoroughly covered in every other media outlet. This is not a signal to gawk at this tragedy here as well.

This is sad, but it is NOT important. And it certainly isn't in need of extra attention.

This: http://iran.whyweprotest.net/keeping-your-anonymity-iran/114...

On the other hand IS important and hacker related.
One of the few times I can say, "I don't think I agree with you, but great post anyway."

Nice to have a sanity check amongst all the cheerleading.
A fun little bug
You'll be asking for

..:: "Xxxxx that doesn't Suck" ::..

to be binned next.
Woobius: Online Collaboration for Architects and Engineers (useful tools review)
When I started my B2B company, it took us forever to get sales. As in, about 2 years. We now have a healthy low-medium seven figure sales run rate. So anything in the B2B space -- particularly involving big clients -- will have long sales cycles and take some time to get traction.

However, companies have a lot of money, and typically they will not be that price sensitive, so there could be a sizable pot of gold once things start moving.

I know you won't want to talk about this company in any way that could be tracked down via Google, but if you'd like to get more advice by phone involving the specifics, I'd be happy to help--just shoot me an email. I've been where you are before.
Well, effort isn't everything. See Eric Raymond, for example.
The 12 types of drivers during your work commute
Legally, they did nothing wrong. But ethically and morally? They probably didn't expect the blowback they are receiving now. But I do think it is warranted. When companies do business with oppressive regimes then they reap what they sow. Sure the deal was done probably years before the election took place. But did it not occur to anyone involved that these people, "the Ahmidenijad government", aren't good guys.

20 years ago, Nike got dragged over the nails because the companies they contracted with were using child labor and using inhuman working conditions. Legally, they did nothing wrong but the bad press made them take note that their involvement wasn't 100% guilt free. They paid a moral cost and now go out of their way to remind people that they don't use sweatshop labor.

Hopefully, this will remind Nokia, Siemens, and NSS that there is a human cost in every business transaction.
"In general when most people speak of free speech they are concerned with political speech,"

exactly so. And by that definition the UK does have free speech. As do a lot of countries. Most of the democracies do.

You brought up Hate Speech laws as some kind of free speech exception. I quote "the rest of the world doesn't have free speech".

as for,

"And I do agree that all campaign finance law is an act against free speech."

that wasn't what the article implied so you can't "agree" ;-). But sure you can have an opinion.

You are bringing in some custom vague definition of "free speech" (to claim the USA has some kind of monopoly on free speech) which doesn't stand up to logical scrutiny.

I am done with this thread. (I notice the article is dead too . reminder to self. Don't feed the troll)
maybe that's why a gross (144) was used. Or is it more like 12 x 12?
You Aren't Good Enough
probably it's made up, but things like these actually _do_ happen
Atari violates the ScummVM's license
UPC is 35. Other barcodes had been in use for years at that point.
Note that some things don't scale well. Cooking recipes are one example - all of the ratios matter and the mass/length ratios are different for metric than imperial. (Inches, for pans, and cups, for ingredients, have different relationships than centimeters and liters.)

Screw threads are another example. Metric threads have different characteristics than imperial ones.
Do you need a shovel?
Yes, I thought of that as I wrote my comment. However, I see it as a somewhat separate problem. The pension funds were, essentially, raided. If that were prevented (that dreaded word, regulation), we might still be in a situation where pensions provide a very stable retirement income. Further, preventing such behavior would force the pension providers to own up to and correct their problems sooner, instead of milking retirement earnings as a short term compensation for those problems. Those that couldn't correct their problems would fail. But the pensions would remain intact.

I think what is currently happening with many pensions in the U.S. -- e.g. underfunding followed by default of one manner or another that transfers the pension obligations to the increasingly underfunded Federal government insurance/guarantor program that pays a small portion of their original value -- is criminal, ethically where not (explicitly enough, apparently) legally. But it does not of itself discredit the concept of pensions.

At the same time, I'm no expert in this. I'm open to considering opposing arguments. Let me put part of my point another way: Expecting every future retiree to become an investment expert is inefficient. All that time and effort duplicated across so many people, to manage in each individual case relatively small amounts (excluding that small percentage of the very wealthy).

But maybe it's like democracy; all that work by individuals is necessary to keep the system honest. And when the work isn't done, the system degrades. Perhaps the best we can do is to all hire investment advisors (whom we choose) and to treat no investment, no benefit as "guaranteed".

But, with regard to the topic of risk, this is a lot of individual risk.
I actually am expecting them to utilize the current production planning for a series of tribute shows. Any number of singers would be happy to sing, and it is a waste for all the production planning to amount to nothing.
Well, no, I don't have much information to go on. It just seems like a lot if what he's doing is similar to what many others are doing here. You can get a room in SF for 6/700$, it looks like:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/roo/

And there's probably no more expensive/better place to be for startups. There are places that are more expensive, but at that point, you should move to save money. And like I said, you can get by on less and still be in the bay area, if it's important to be there physically.

So I'm not judging his frugality, just saying that from what little we have to go on, it doesn't sound quite right.

Maybe we could even help him figure out how to save somewhere...
Win7 has some great new tablet features, too.
Wow I'm really surprised. I skip nytimes.com articles out of habit (sick of old-world journalist link bait). I had no idea that there were cool blog(s) hosted on the nytimes.com domain. I really wish the (domain) included subdomain.

Anyway, this is awesome. I wish Jefferson were alive today.
It may also let you see what the pain-points really are and what your competitors' vulnerabilities are.
> I confuses me that anyone can believe that liberalism or technological advance are not universally desirable.

What's "liberalism"?

I ask because progressives in the early 1900s were pretty much all eugenicists. (I'm pro-abortion, but Margaret Sanger was a real piece of work.) Wilson, a progressive, segregated the US Army.
Indeed. Which either means the meme can now die, or it's part of our language.
If I was a programmer I would probably pickup a Dell Netbook, install OSX on it, and use that as my learning tool. I appreciate your objective, but I think that calculator is a step backward. Maybe since I'm not a programmer, I'm missing something.
> I would contend that the point of the RFP process is to make it harder to rig.

Whose point would that be?

The point of an RFP is pretty much determined by its author. It can be to minimize said author's work (by cut/paste from previous RFPs), to ensure that the right people get the work, to give the author cover if the project blows up, etc.
Okay, worst case: It doesn't sound as though you would be facing bankruptcy. You would just have burned through 100% of your savings and be left with nothing. That's still not pleasant, but it's a big difference from being bankrupt.

I also started, bootstrapped, in a very competitive B2B space and it took years to get significant traction and comfortable profitability. However, the feedback I received from potential customers made it clear I was addressing an actual market and that, if I could build a product which suited the market I was targeting, I would receive more than enough profit to compensate for the effort I had expended to build the business. I was, I did and it has, but it wasn't easy.

So, my advice to you would be: Be realistic about your business. Examine your chosen market and identify if the customer base and the pricing you have planned would be sufficient to support you within the next six months. If it is, focus laser-sharp on that market and address it in the best way possible. If it isn't, put things on hold, start consulting for a bit or take on a job to build up your reservoir of cash. I can almost guarantee it's going to take a lot longer to build your business to profitability than you have planned, so just assume your savings are gone.

For myself, I had set aside an amount which I had thought more than sufficient to build a business and it took all of my savings (and a bit of debt) before things were positive. No matter how you look at it that's a hard game of 'chicken' to play, but it's what bootstrapping is all about.
I think the mix is about right where we have it. I don't want to see more submissions shilling products. If you find out something interesting in the course of building your product or growing your business, please tell us about it. If you put a link in your profile, those who are interested will follow.

In my view that's appropriate "shilling" on this site.
I had always wondered how MJ'd done "The Lean". I can't believe I never thought to look it up after the advent of the the internet.
Illustrating SBCL's build process
Get a part-time job. If things move slowly in your industry and you aren't a consumer product with lots of customers, there's no reason you need to be available 24/7.
I take liberalism as a belief in the values of freedom. I would probably argue that it also requires egalitarianism, i.e. equality and universality. I'm Australian so I don't know if the US has different connotations for these terms.

We could spend (and I just may) hours writing about liberalism but it comes down to freedom to do as you will provided it does not impinge upon the right of others to do the same.

In this sense the "veil of ignorance" is also useful as we should select those things that we would wish existed in society if we did not know our position (i.e. we would probably tend to maximise the overall quality of society, and raise the minimum level).
It was a smartphone ... did you even read the text
Argument for Database encryption in web apps
It would need to be pretty darn big. 9/11 came the closest, but everything's a lot more robust now. Obama's victory tracked much higher in absolute numbers (~8.5 million pageviews per minute if I recall correctly), and the internet held up pretty well.

Of course, they were prepared for that one.
Ah sorry I was referring to everything except self marketing. ATM bands get a lot of "free" (hmm) marketing from the big companies trying to sell their CD's. That disappears under a free model - right?
I don't find negative emotions to be a good source of motivation. They can work in the (very) short term. But they do not build a positive momentum.

To remain motivated over the long term, I need the reinforcement of positive emotions. Each step becomes a victory of sorts that encourages me to go further. Setbacks become problems to be solved, instead of internalized self-judgment and low self-worth.

If something produces negative emotions, I will begin to avoid it wherever and whenever I can. If something produces positive emotions, I'll seek out more of it.

I can feel awful about myself but complete a paper at the last minute in order to avoid failing a class (i.e. a very negative outcome). A string of such events does not add up to an academic career.

I can do this shit assignment to avoid losing my job, associated health care benefits, etc. It's not going to turn me into the "go getter" who advances at this company. If I do shit work all the time, with a big grin on my face in order to suck up to management, well, past a certain point I think that starts to become pathological.
For me it's the simplicity of using the most basic tool you can get away with while still improving skills in a meaningful way.

But, you're absolutely right a net-book would be a great tool.
Sounds like a good settlement to me. I don't understand what else he wants.
This is an attack that circumvents a specific anti-phishing mechanism these sites use. So while obviously other types of phishing attacks are possible against these sites, this one is more dangerous and is targeted at certain sites in particular.