Delicious Founder, AOL Exec Launch Hacker Angels - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/06/delicious-founder-aol-exec-lau.php <comment><USER2> Y-Combinator, with 100% less funding! ;)

In all seriousness, if these guys can actually find the time to reply to the avalanche of queries they're about to get, then more power to them for lending a hand where it's needed.

<comment><USER3> On <http://www.hackerangels.com/> they say:

       Let us know what you're looking for, and please include a prototype if at all
       possible. This is an informal association and not a fund. If inclined, we may
       provide feedback, advice, mentorship, hacking, investment and/or serve as
       advisors or independent board members, on an individual basis.

Why do you assume 100% less funding? They have all had successful exits. It seems like an approach that's at least as flexible as YCombinator and perhaps better able to nurture over the long term.

<comment><USER2> I was just teasing, captain serious.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I saw Roy Rodenstein speak at a BarCamp in Boston and chatted with him for a bit. Seems like a very cool guy. No ego, he had come off a successful exit and was just happy to share his wisdom with the audience.

It is an interesting approach, kind of a twist on the old line "If you ask for money, you'll get advice. If you ask for advice, you'll get money."

By not focusing on being a "fund" they will probably find a bunch of smart hackers working on interesting stuff who may not fully understand the commercial value of their projects, build trust and a working relationship, and ultimately find/help build good investment candidates.

<comment><USER5> I was introduced to Roy about a month ago. Awesome guy with no ego and no agenda who just wants to help. He also took the time to understand the product and logic behind it, which is something few people do. Seriously it was a relief from the usual people we've been pitching lately. Combined with joshu, gabe, jim young, and jeff miller this is a real win for startups.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm not sure what they expect exactly.

On one hand, as a hacker myself, I like the idea. It's as free-form as possible. Which is exactly the right spirit of hacking: no forms to fill out, no rules and procedures.

On the other hand, they are bound to end up with thousands of weird requests. Sorting through those will be a lot of work, in order to find a handful of gems, I'm afraid.

But I hope it works out for them and trickles down to the entire hacker community.

</comment><comment><USER7> Wish they didn't put me first.

<comment><USER8> You know how it goes in the press, the easy to recognize goes first in the headline. ;)

Congrats mate. If I was still investing I'd join y'all.

<comment><USER9> I guess I shouldn't be so serious, but I would guess that more people know about AOL than delicious...

<comment><USER8> It's all about context.

On RWW Start the startups with exits are the headline grabbers. Delicious carries much more clickthrough appeal/legitimacy than AOL. Always lead with a grabber.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> AOL? What _do_ they do these days?

<comment><USER11> Only 56 million uniques a month and craploads of email users.

<http://www.quantcast.com/aol.com>

<comment><USER12> Interesting part of that graph is huge drop in uniques between March and April of 2010. Any context?</comment></comment></comment>


Story of Linked In Founder - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-small-business-marketing.html

<comment><USER2> Direct link to article: [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870422400457448...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704224004574487750190885402.html)</comment>


5 months, 45 startup lessons learned - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2011/05/24/5-months-45-startup-lessons-learned/

<comment><USER2> What did you think about it?</comment>


How a new bill would reduce the number of angel investors - <AUTHOR> http://stevewelch.tumblr.com/post/550696649/washington-knows-better-than-entrepreneurs-angel <comment><USER3> Why are there these restrictions (the existing, lower ones) in the first place? The Wikipedia entry for accredited investors seems to suggest it's to "protect" people from losing all their wealth through high risk investments, but that seems spurious considering casinos aren't limited to the rich.

<comment><USER4> My guess would be that they want to stop pyramid schemes and the like with this kind of legislation. Not that I agree that the government should be controlling how you invest your money, but people can be naive when confronted with a good swindler.

<comment><USER5> A good swindler... like a state lotto ticket salesman!

<comment><USER4> While I agree lotteries are a voluntary tax on the poor, I haven't seen anyone advertise a lottery as an investment (i.e. a vehicle where there is a possibility that the original capital can be recouped with profit).

A lottery or casino is gambling in that everyone that participates understands that the bet is lost on the outcome of a single event. Pyramid schemes, ponzie schemes, and other similar scams imply the inevitability of a long term return on investment which is impossible to occur due to the nature of the transaction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Title is a bit misleading since the "how" doesn't come until the middle of Steve's letter. Here it is:

<quote>

First, the bill would redefine who would be qualified to be an angel investor. Currently individuals with either $1 million in investable assets or $250,000 in income qualify as accredited investors. The new bill would change this to individuals with $2.3 million in assets or $450,000 in income. According to the Kauffman Foundation, this would eliminate 77% of accredited investors. This single handedly would reduce the amount of capital available to early stage businesses and stunt our much needed job creation.

In addition, the new bill would require any company attempting to raise angel investment to seek SEC approval, which would take up to 4 months. As an active angel investor myself, I can say with certain that companies in this stage can rarely wait four months for funding. They will simply be forced to close up shop.

</quote>

</comment><comment><USER7> Investing cash will create new jobs, spending will preserve existing jobs and saving cash will destroy jobs.

</comment><comment><USER8> Can someone please explain why it's preferable to raise money from an angel than any other citizen, besides connections/networking advantages? What's the legal reason behind having "accredited investor" status - what can an accredited investor invest into that a civilian cannot?

<comment><USER9> Angel is a legally meaningless term. Some investors provide benefits beyond cash in certain cases while others don't.

> What's the legal reason behind having "accredited investor" status - <USER2> > can an accredited investor invest into that a civilian cannot?

Those are two separate questions.

The reason is to "protect" investors.

Companies can accept investment from accredited investors in certain situations but not from unaccredited ones. These situations involve registration, disclosure, and other things.</comment></comment>


'Plague, Inc.' developer never expected reality to look like its video game - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bv8g8z/plague-inc-developer-never-expected-reality-to-look-like-its-video-game <comment><USER2> This is one of my favorite mobile games, and kudos to the developer for donating so much (hundreds of thousands of dollars) to charitable causes during the pandemic.</comment>


Ask HN: How did Amazon hear me say I needed masking tape? - <AUTHOR> 	I haven't used the internet to search for masking tape at all recently. Last night, I asked a relative if they had any masking tape around. The closest devices around were a Roku smart TV, an ipad, and that relative's iphone, none of which have ever been logged into or associated with my email address, and my phone was down a hallway, perhaps in listening distance. Lo and behold, a few hours after saying masking tape, Amazon sends me an email listing masking tape sellers. Now, my phone might know my email address. Despite never logging into my email on my phone, I signed up with T-mobile using that address. I know Alexa is always listening and recommends products that it hears people discussing nearby. But I don't have Alexa. Is this an extremely convenient coincidence, or what might be the explanation? <comment><USER2> Most likely you were looking at things on the internet that implied a need for masking tape.

For example if you looked at blogs about home remodeling and interior painting you could be generating signals of intent that suggest you might be in the market for masking tape.

It's not as obviously creepy as "AI wuz listening to me! OMG Skynet!".

But it is creepy that intelligence, vast, cool and unsympathetic is working to create a model of you to help its masters intercept your every purchase impulse.

</comment><comment><USER3> Are you saying there was no device running Alexa near by? Then this sounds like a coincidence to me. I remember there were similar anecdotes regarding Facebook, but nobody has made a convincing case that they were actually able to listen in on conversations.

Also, what do you use the masking tape for? Maybe Amazon could infer you would need it because you searched for related items before...?

</comment><comment><USER4> "I know Alexa is always listening and recommends products that it hears people discussing nearby" -> this is not true. [https://qz.com/1121880/the-technical- reason-why-alexa-cant-l...](https://qz.com/1121880/the-technical-reason-why- alexa-cant-listen-into-your-private-conversations/)

</comment><comment><USER5> >I know Alexa is always listening and recommends products that it hears people discussing nearby.

Just curious but is this even a known fact?

<comment><USER6> Alexa devices wait for a wake words and that happens on the device itself. It doesn't analyze anything else.

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201602230#GUID-1CDA0A16-3D5A-47C1-9DD8-FDEDB10381A3__GUID-420F1812-F241-466A-A381-64D43D015778)</comment></comment>


Reactive Extensions (Rx) is now Open Source - <AUTHOR> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ReactiveExtensionsRxIsNowOpenSource.aspx <comment><USER2> I'd like to give Rx a try (javascript mainly but .Net too) but it seems like a very large API to learn, and there seemed to be a lack of good resources last time I looked.

Can anyone who's used it comment on their experiences or point me to some useful resources?

<comment><USER3> I found this book to be pretty good: <http://www.introtorx.com>

I'm not a .NET developer, but Rx was still one of the more interesting things I learned this year.

<comment><USER2> Sweet, thanks! I haven't seen that one before :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> There is also a nice series of video with exercises about Rx in Channel 9 -> <http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Rx-Workshop>

</comment><comment><USER5> This is really quite exciting for me. I've used Rx.NET a bit, and for sure will be using Rx++ for my next project. Having it open source is just icing on the cake.</comment>


Ipod Touch: $399, Firmware Upgrade: $20, Getting Suckered by Apple: Priceless
 - <AUTHOR> http://www.crowdspark.com/2008/01/16/ipod-touch-399-firmware-upgrade-20-getting-suckered-by-apple-priceless/

<comment><USER2> AFAIK the $20 firmware upgrade exists because tax laws, not because Apple likes it that way.

Proof: it was different before, and Apple got in legal trouble.</comment>


You're in for a suprise - <AUTHOR> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/download-ie

<comment><USER2> I've had enough of your surprises, Microsoft.

</comment><comment><USER3> It shows IE8 download for me? Is that 'cause I'm on XP? Or does it show that for everyone and is that the thing.</comment>


Ask HN: when should and shouldn't you open source a project? - <AUTHOR>

I am thinking about open-sourcing a website of mine (or part of it) upon launch.
Alternative question: which Github projects would you work on for around 6 months with no guarantee of payment, and why?
Alternative question 2: what open source projects have you worked on that have had unexpected benefits?
Alternative question 3: what makes an open source project enjoyable to work on? <comment><USER2> I've found that open-sourced websites are less helpful to me, as a developer interested in a project. They're just so complicated- there's a lot of institutional knowledge involved in just _navigating_ the project, much less going into the code and learning from it (or using part of it). It works great in the case of "oh, I'm a user and there's a typo or bug here, let me fix it for you".

Rather than open source the entire website, there's a number of companies that open source very specific _components_ of their much larger website. By focusing in on a very specific use case, it's easier to 1) comprehend, as a newcomer, and 2) contribute back to. You're also forced to write the library internally differently since you know it'll be open source and will need to stand on its own (so no hackish, dirty implementations on your own site!) In many cases, this "forced abstraction" makes for much better code for yourself.

I really like the latter approach. It's what GitHub does with Grit or Resque, or Shopify does with active_merchant, or Intridea does with OmniAuth. But note that releasing specific components doesn't prevent you from releasing your whole site as open source, either... you can certainly do both (which may be the best of both worlds!)

<comment><USER3> Well said.

Another benefit of open sourcing specific modules and libraries is that you can share your complementary code without exposing or commoditizing your core technology. Github is a perfect example of this - they open pieces that are helpful to other developers, but not enough that somebody could clone their site or compete with them.

<comment><AUTHOR> Along this line of thought, it'd be good to see a permissions feature in Github - some parts of a project are shaded out basically depending on who's viewing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> OP: "It is a Django site using Pinax and GeoDjango. ... simple and edgy design"

Actually, this sort of site it really useful to people, especially if it has a better design than default Pinax.

An unexpected benefit is that if a lot of people use your software, than a small percentage of them might be willing to pay for improvements and support, which you can push back to the core and use to support further development.

This is what is done by Eldarion, the contract shop that includes core Pinax developers. This is also the business model used by Chris Wensel, who developed Cascading.

</comment><comment><USER5> Rule of thumb : If it makes you money, close source it. Otherwise, open source it.

You only stand to benefit from getting feedback on your code.

<comment><USER6> There are other benefits that come from building a community around an open source project.

For example: Shopify open-sourced ActiveMerchant, a core component of our product. Even though our competitors use it, we still derive a lot of benefit from the community around it. Many of the gateway implementations that are used in Shopify were written by ActiveMerchant contributors. Every time someone implements a new gateway, we can add it to Shopify in a few minutes.

<comment><USER7> What is the bar to get a payment processor included into Shopify? Do you test it rigorously or just look at the commit history of the project to see if it's up to snuff?

<comment><USER6> To get into ActiveMerchant, it has to be clean code with passing unit and remote tests.

We've got pretty much all of the gateways that North American businesses use, so to get a new gateway into Shopify it generally has to service a region that doesn't have good coverage with our current gateways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The only reason I would not open source my project is the ugly code I wrote.

<comment><USER9> Thats a reason you should opens source your project. Solicit feedback, and become a better coder...or realize help you to realize that _all_ code is 'ugly'

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Thanks for posting this.

My partner and I have been thinking of open-sourcing our site Scriblink.com, which is the leading online whiteboard. It's a Java app (how old is that) but still the dominant way people access online whiteboards. We dont care to invest time in it anymore but it brings in some good revenue. Another thought was to donate it to the MIT media lab. Sounds like the general consensus here is that open sourcing isnt really that effective though. Any other thoughts on what we should do?

</comment><comment><USER11> A question for you then: why do you want to open source this project?

<comment><USER12> The real question, as Cave Johnson would put it is not "why ?", it's "why not ?".

<comment><USER11> Because it is a _lot_ of extra work (answer questions, talk on mailing list, write docs, create a website to host it all, ...). If you don't put in the work, I wouldn't even call it open-sourcing, then you're just slapping a license on some code. If you do want to open source it and put in all this work, which you could spend coding instead, then the question becomes what you're hoping to get out of this :)

Knowing why also makes it easier to answer your question.

As for your questions: the most enjoyable open source projects are the ones that provide useful code. Useful to others, that is. Is your code useful to others (like, say, Wordpress)?

<comment><AUTHOR> It is a Django site using Pinax and GeoDjango. It is hosted on Linode and Github, the code is documented and a lot of time and energy has been put into it. It has a really nice simple and edgy design. Music/touring/concerts/fan- analytics/ticketing is a cool yet highly competitive area, and I don't want to take the conventional startup route. I'm not sure the conventional startup route will work.

I think it could be an interesting way for people to get involved in a startup without the stress.

<comment><USER13> > I think it could be an interesting way for people to get involved in a > startup without the stress.

I think I see where you're going with this. You want to "open source" part of your project to get help, but you want to retain control of the commercial aspect of the project in case "it has commercial possibilities". This is just infantile and demonstrate that you don't understand how open source works.

<comment><AUTHOR> It'd be more like Red Hat or SugarCRM. Now take your insults and shove 'em.

Correction: even those aren't good analogies because they are self-installed. But open-source and commercial do mix: everyone's in it for a different reason.

<comment><USER13> > Now take your insults and shove 'em.

Not only infantile, but rude as well. I predict great success for your open source endeavor, not.

<comment><AUTHOR> As I said, shove 'em where the sun don't don't shine, hypocrite douchebag.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I open sourced my recent app, multiplayerchess.com (github.com/azer/multiplayerchess.com). I believe that there is no disadvantage of open sourcing the source code of a website or app, with WTF public license.</comment>


PlanMy.Travel wants to solve travel planning woes with human expertise - <AUTHOR> http://www.tnooz.com/article/planmy-travel-planning-startup

<comment><USER2> I used to go to travel agents, and loved the speed at which they could construct the most complex of itineraries but disliked the inconvenience of visiting their building at their convenience (9am-5:30pm Mon-Sat) and the lack of specialist knowledge about the place I was visiting.

Then I tried specialist tours, and loved everything except the control over the itinerary once there.

Then came the internet and it made the convenience work, and it allowed us to built our own complex itineraries. But now we faced hours of research to find what is worth visiting, and what isn't.

Recently I moved back to travel agents but now favour specialist ones.

Specifically, I use companies like this: [http://www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk/](http://www.journeylatinamerica.co.uk/) where every member of staff have lived or visited the destinations they serve.

I go in, sit down, and if I ask about Chile and the person in front of me hasn't been they go fetch a couple of people who have been.

I guess my question is: Have you just invented the specialist travel agent "on the internet" and "with the crowd"? For how is this different from anything that anyone could've done already?

That cynicism aside, I do think there's a big potential in being the gateway to such specialism as it can be hard to find the best agents for a given place.

<comment> aashishg-pmt >> Have you just invented the specialist travel agent "on the internet" and "with the crowd"? For how is this different from anything that anyone could've done already?

It's not. We're just making them more accessible, easily discoverable, and leveraging the power of an open marketplace so the best ones can thrive. We're also giving them collaboration tools (think of it like a google docs for trip planning) to help them give structured and organized advice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> [http://www.voyando.com](http://www.voyando.com) is in a similar space but with a different proposition (less focused on info, more on the transaction).

It's in private beta atm.

</comment><comment><USER4> Not sure how big the market would be. I feel that a lot of people can get enough "knowledge" from [http://wikitravel.org/](http://wikitravel.org/)

<comment><USER5> Better to use [http://wikivoyage.org/](http://wikivoyage.org/) than wikitravel. It's a fork after there were some complaints about the owners of Wikitravel.

<comment><USER6> What happend? Is the content the same?

<comment><USER7> Like any fork, the content was the same at the time of the fork. Obviously the content is no longer the same.

[http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Wikivoyage_and_Wiki...](http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Wikivoyage_and_Wikitravel)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A bit off topic, but this is the first site I've seen to the use the .travel extension in quite some time.

Why not just pick up the planmytravel.com?

<comment> aashishg-pmt Short answer: because it's taken and expensive.

Long answer: [http://blog.planmy.travel/post/61015163485/planmy-dot- what](http://blog.planmy.travel/post/61015163485/planmy-dot-what)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The page broke and was stuck at /index.php when I tried to ask a question. Come on folks! I wouldn't want to type out my whole query again.

<comment> aashishg-pmt Ouch, sorry :(

We are in beta and this is the sort of feedback that's really useful. We'll be fixing the flow so that we ask the user to sign in before they enter the question - that way its less likely to cause this problem. Sorry again about that.

<comment><USER9> No problem. All the best!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Hey! First, Great idea! Quite impressed by it. How do you guys differentiate from other players?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Ashwin. So the main thing that differentiates us from other players is the philosophy that we have towards travel planning which we summarised in one of our blog posts: [http://blog.planmy.travel/post/65971193858/what-do- instant-c...](http://blog.planmy.travel/post/65971193858/what-do-instant-cake- mixes-have-to-do-with-travel)

<comment><USER10> Awesome! Excited to check out your new product!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> really like the idea. good stuff guys!

just want to know how do I choose who is a good travel planner? for example if her profile states she is a food + wine expert, can I get a glimpse of how does she think about them? like links to their blog posts etc?

<comment> aashishg-pmt A travel planner's profile has a "Blog" tab where they post their travel experiences, tips, etc. This is mainly meant for showcasing their travel style and preferences so users can understand them better.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Please recommend the best tools to build a test plan management tool - <AUTHOR>

I have mostly worked on hardware testing in my professional career and would like to get onto the software development side. I thought working on a practically usable project will help motivate me and help acquire some skills. I have decided to build a test plan management tool for the QA team I work in (We use excel sheets!).
The test plan management tool should be browser based and should support this: There would be many test plans, each test plan having test sets, test sets having test cases and test cases having instructions, attachments and Pass/fail status marking and bug info in case of failure. It should also have an export to excel option. I have a visual picture of the tool I am looking to build but I don't have enough experience to figure our where to start.
My current programming skills are limited to C and shell programming and I want to pick up python.
What tools (programming language, database and anything else?) would you recommend for me to get this done? Also what are the key areas in the recommended programming language that I should focus on to build a browser based tool like this?
Thanks. <comment><USER2> At $previous_job we were using RT to manage the spec -> dev -> QA -> deploy cycle. For each new task a new ticket is required. Project managers and team leaders split this ticket into smaller sub-activities (new tickets children of the original one) and assign them to developers. Each developer is responsible for including testing instructions in a ticket comment, and providing the references to revisions relevant for the test. When a developer is ready for QA, he passes the ticket to his project manager, who can test and decide if the activity is ready for QA. At the end of the process, QA receives a single ticket, with a set of dependent tickets each one with instructions about how to prepare the QA environment and do the test.

On top of that we built various tools. A web-based kanban board displaying the status of each task, command-line utilities to make developers' and QA guys' lives easier (for example, there was one adding comments to tickets for every commit; or another allowing PMs and QA to fetch the list of revisions needed for a task), and so on...

To build the tools we used RT::Client::REST, a Perl client for RT. Given the REST interface, though, I think you can find something for Python or any language you plan to work with.

</comment><comment><USER3> Programming language matters little for something simple like this, just choose a scripting language like Python, Rails, PHP etc. Set up your tables in MySQL or something. Good luck!</comment>