Linkseed/hacker_news_with_comments · Datasets at Hugging Face

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38,707	38,699	pg	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	Probably to avoid premature optimization. Getting a version 1 done quickly and then iterating works in so many fields besides hacking.	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	1	19	2007-08-02 15:21:35 UTC
38,710	38,639	tocomment	Create RSS from ANY web page	nreece	Can it do homestarrunner.com? I'd love to get an RSS feed of that. Well I guess I'll try it.	Feedity is an RSS generator for web pages without a web syndication format. A true web service (Web 3.0 / SaaS)	1	5	2007-08-02 15:32:25 UTC
38,711	38,699	epi0Bauqu	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	There is a lot of good advice I use constantly that has produced great benefits for me over the years. Here is probably the best:Get enough sleep.Get enough sunlight.Maintain a positive attitude.Know a little about a lot.Do not pigeonhole people.Anger is counterproductive.Keep stress to a minimum.Exercise regularly.Eat healthy.Persistence overcomes a lot.You can't control everything.People don't remember much.	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	2	19	2007-08-02 15:35:16 UTC
38,714	38,627	davidw	Coders at Work	mf	The popularity list is very top-heavy with language dudes. Also, 'created' is a better term for language creators, except for perhaps a really select few who can claim to have truly invented something completely new, and even then... I'd still say creator.	Is Jessica Livingston going to write a second book?	0	10	2007-08-02 15:41:15 UTC
38,719	38,699	samb	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	always wear clean underwear. always.	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	14	19	2007-08-02 15:47:13 UTC
38,731	38,715	abstractbill	What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]	Alex3917	I couldn't see any of the pictures - Yahoo wanted me to sign in.	null	2	5	2007-08-02 16:05:36 UTC
38,732	38,715	daniel-cussen	What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]	Alex3917	And that's how regular people become Pointy-Haired Bosses.	null	3	5	2007-08-02 16:06:13 UTC
38,740	38,699	mynameishere	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	There's this:http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/perm.php?c=101&q=40	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	15	19	2007-08-02 16:14:39 UTC
38,742	38,736	Caligula	Coolie Valley, the Silicon Valley of India?	nreece	Do they realize that Coolie...............................is a racial slur? Also the article mentions "50% Silicon Valley firms are run by Indians",Any of you valley people know if this is true?	IT professionals in India have yet to diversify and progress from being "code monkeys" to "independent IT managers & small-business owners", written by an Indian.	0	2	2007-08-02 16:18:16 UTC
38,746	38,715	byrneseyeview	What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]	Alex3917	I think the problem here is textbooks, not the subject: in a Java course I took, students were required to discuss the moral implications of writing software for judging people's credit (apparently, the problem was that creditworthiness correlates with race).But perhaps business courses are so content-free because so much of business is, too.	null	4	5	2007-08-02 16:23:07 UTC
38,747	38,715	colortone	What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]	Alex3917	Wow, what a useless blog post that was.A MUCH better, less flame-worthy title would have been: "What is the value of reading a 101 level business textbook from 2005?"A formal, GOOD, business education is invaluable, in combination with some domain-specific skill(I do think the pseudo-advertising in the book is appalling)It's not very useful to know about how "business works" without knowing and experiencing a real living value chain [whether it be retail, financial services, web software, or film making, etc].(disclosure, I have a B.S. in finance from the University of Virginia...and an MFA in percussion performance from CalArts...all we did at UVA was read HBR and other intellectually stimulating material and then get grilled on it in full-class discussions...not to mention courses in C++ [viva the 1990's], statistics, and Black-Scholes ;-)	null	1	5	2007-08-02 16:27:00 UTC
38,751	38,739	daniel-cussen	Save electricity by "hoarding" it	nreece	A good idea. However, the part about "pays for itself in 4 years" means it's not for startups.	One company decided to create a device that cuts your electricity bill by 10-15%. How do they do it?	1	2	2007-08-02 16:34:27 UTC
38,752	38,715	jraines	What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]	Alex3917	This article says absolutely nothing about the value of a formal business education.It says something vaguely negative about the value of business textbooks, the crapiness of which is pretty well established and acknowledged by professors and students alike. See here for a classic example: http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm This refers to highschool textbooks but applies equally well, if not more so, to college business texts.It's all about the professors. Business is one of those academic fields, like Paul Graham notes, where the best practitioners are not the educators. While this is very true as a generalization, there are exceptions -- mainly: non-practicing educators who happen to be excellent at imparting practical knowledge, and ex-practioners who were once tops in their field. You will find these professors concentrated in top schools, and you will not find them teaching from these textbooks. So there is actually quite a lot of value in a business education from a top school. The well-worn cliche about the value of networking at these institutions applies as well -- and it's not just networking in the abstract, it's learning how to network with people who can get things done, and getting things done for people who expect big things out of you. Just like I'm sure it is in computer science, the value of the education is what you extract from it.	null	0	5	2007-08-02 16:35:34 UTC
38,758	38,699	palish	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	"You don't know anything, so shut up and listen."	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	12	19	2007-08-02 16:43:20 UTC
38,759	38,699	jraines	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	A tie, actually best used in conjunction:"Practice the fundamentals every day". --not sure, but I got it from Jamie Andreas I think (guitar guru)."The doer alone learneth." --Machiavelli	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	5	19	2007-08-02 16:44:49 UTC
38,760	38,699	zach	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	So I once watched this nutty 70's film series on time management - 43 Folders retro. It was actually pretty good if you could get past the awful fashion. The host, a professor in horn-rimmed glasses and a bowtie, had a piece of advice I found surprising at first. It puts a different spin on doing hard things and I've found it very useful.He said if something is truly hard to do, put it off as long as possible. But if something is merely distasteful, do it as soon as possible.The rationale is that if something is truly hard to do, you can spend time thinking about it, researching it, gathering resources and asking others about it while doing other necessary things. Oftentimes, there will be a way to make the hard thing easier or even unnecessary.But if something is more distasteful than hard-to-do, you need to do it right away. It's worse to put off distasteful things than just get them over with.Anyway, that bit of wisdom has worked for me. In programming specifically, I also endorse David Heinemeier Hansson's advice: "If something is too hard it means that you're not cheating enough."	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	0	19	2007-08-02 16:46:53 UTC
38,765	38,739	zach	Save electricity by "hoarding" it	nreece	"A TiVo for electricity" is a very clever line. Puts a smile on your face and yet describes it well. A bit of humor is a good thing when you're trying to sell your concept.	One company decided to create a device that cuts your electricity bill by 10-15%. How do they do it?	0	2	2007-08-02 17:02:05 UTC
38,767	38,174	nreece	an idea for a start-up	blored	Have a look at reCAPTCHA: http://www.captcha.net/The words shown come directly from old books that are being digitized. So you can stop spam and help digitize books at the same time.	I hate Captchas that make no sense and I routinely feel a reprieve when a catpcha has common lettters in sequence. For example, "dogbat" is easier than "hgzxmp". So how about a captcha that makes use of this. Maybe call it EZCaptcha or something.	1	1	2007-08-02 17:05:49 UTC
38,771	38,639	aston	Create RSS from ANY web page	nreece	This idea strikes me as a classic hacker's toy: technically good, but not sold well at all to the average consumer (aka "the world").Why not repackage it as a way to find out when and how your favorite sites update? Like a really simplified RSS reader (either a desktop app or web app) that uses the current technology to let you know when things have changed on arbitrary websites. I could see a lot of people being interested in something like that who have no clue what RSS is.	Feedity is an RSS generator for web pages without a web syndication format. A true web service (Web 3.0 / SaaS)	0	5	2007-08-02 17:17:22 UTC
38,774	38,687	palish	Is it hot or not? Ranking of user modded content.	ivankirigin	Speaking of karma, I wrote a little micro-essay about it at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38605 .. I don't know if you'd want to experiment with karma quite like that, but it would be interesting.	Reddit and News.YC share a feature: hotness. Users mod up and down -- but hotness is more than total points.How should I do it?Positive correlation with number of votes. Negative correlation with submit time. Perhaps negative correlation with time since mean or median time of mods. Perhaps adjust for rates -- a surge implies extra hotness.How do you make the front page efficiently? I hope not to recalculate hotness for each page view -- but a naive approach might think it necessary given the continuous time decay.A parallel service could periodically troll through the entries from the past N days and calculate their hotness -- which serves the front page. That could be updated and chached in memory inependent of front pageview count.	1	13	2007-08-02 17:26:56 UTC
38,779	38,699	nreece	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	Best advice: Not to take one ;)	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	19	19	2007-08-02 17:34:24 UTC
38,784	38,671	Jd	Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Accuse Content Makers of Exaggerating Copyright	pg	This article seems a bit disjointed. Are the 'fair use' clause and the Viacom Youtube suit really related? I don't think so.	null	0	5	2007-08-02 17:43:49 UTC
38,796	38,699	prakash	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	Good advice I got from my mentor: "Learn to suffer fools elegantly and silently".	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	11	19	2007-08-02 18:29:52 UTC
38,804	38,699	nostrademons	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	A few that come to mind:"Never ever think of yourself as a victim, because once you've done that, you've lost." - One of the Amherst College trustees, on being the first (?) female vice-president at Morgan Stanley"Control yourself, because you can't control others" - Sunir Shah, possibly quoted from some other source."Perfect is the enemy of good enough" - C2 Wiki"Good enough is the enemy of at all" - Paul Buchheit	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	6	19	2007-08-02 18:53:28 UTC
38,805	38,699	adnam	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	"Wakey wakey!"	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	21	19	2007-08-02 18:54:55 UTC
38,808	38,801	palladin	Ask news.yc: Are you organized about how many hours you hack?	Keios	IMO a fixed schedule is always a better idea, and any hours beyond that are a bonus but in the end it all boils down to a matter of choice or habit. you should follow whatever pattern you are comfortable with	When working on a project/idea do you schedule your hacking time or do you hack when you feel like it?How many hours of hacking a week?	1	4	2007-08-02 19:20:16 UTC
38,812	38,699	mdakin	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	In the long run, never half-ass anything.	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	17	19	2007-08-02 19:32:30 UTC
38,813	38,699	mdakin	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	"The pencil is mightier than the pen." -Robert Pirsig on the importance of revision	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	9	19	2007-08-02 19:34:22 UTC
38,814	38,699	nanijoe	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	Choosing to do the harder thing may not always be productive or practical. If I think it will take me 3 years of research to (maybe) solve a problem and bring a product to market, and I know another problem I can probably solve in 6 months with the same potential financial reward, which one should I choose?	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	13	19	2007-08-02 19:41:32 UTC
38,818	38,699	augy	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	Don't criticize, condemn or complain. Give honest and sincere appreciation. Arouse in the other person an eager want.Dale Carnegie	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	8	19	2007-08-02 19:49:05 UTC
38,821	38,699	sgoraya	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	'If you continue to do what you do, you will continue to get what you get' -- Anon, Chinese Proverb& a rather simple one from my Dad:hard hard hard work!	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	7	19	2007-08-02 20:05:29 UTC
38,824	38,801	goodmike	Ask news.yc: Are you organized about how many hours you hack?	Keios	If the project is critically important, then you'll probably end up working on it all the time, so scheduling would only serve to help you make sure you're doing the most important things first. In this mode it's all hacking, you're just putting tasks in order.Otherwise, scheduling is a very good idea for different reasons. If it's a personal project, which means there's no one else to goad you into working on it, then it's especially important to use scheduling to help you keep working. Remember what PG says about personal projects: Always produce. Do something everyday.	When working on a project/idea do you schedule your hacking time or do you hack when you feel like it?How many hours of hacking a week?	0	4	2007-08-02 20:20:10 UTC
38,831	38,699	eusman	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	life is too complex for one advice	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	18	19	2007-08-02 20:56:01 UTC
38,848	38,801	ivankirigin	Ask news.yc: Are you organized about how many hours you hack?	Keios	moonlighting makes it easy and hard at the same time. I can only work when I'm not working at my day job. I must work when I'm not working on my day job.I started doing that "don't break the chain" thing. I would say I can spend around 18 hours a week on the project.	When working on a project/idea do you schedule your hacking time or do you hack when you feel like it?How many hours of hacking a week?	2	4	2007-08-02 22:25:24 UTC
38,856	38,840	twism	News app code and search	nreece	i love it too	I was wondering if YC can/has released the source code for this wonderful social news app. I love its lightweight and simplistic approach.Also, a search feature will improve things a lot.Keep up the good work!	1	1	2007-08-02 23:01:20 UTC
38,862	38,829	daniel-cussen	The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year	horatio05	9 million per year...with a possibility of going to Swedish jail. I bet those are mighty fine jails, but I'm still not sure that's a gamble I would make.	null	3	12	2007-08-02 23:45:54 UTC
38,866	38,828	palish	eBaum's World Sells for $17.5 Million	horatio05	Good. I hope he retires and stops stealing other people's content now.	null	1	5	2007-08-02 23:51:43 UTC
38,867	38,829	mynameishere	The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year	horatio05	sold ads for The Pirate Bay for an average of EUR60,000 per monthLet's see: We could advertise on google and target people specifically searching for a product, and pay as little as 10 cents per click, or...We could advertise on a criminal website marketed towards people who hate spending money for products and pay 60K Euros a month.Hmm, think, think...	null	0	12	2007-08-02 23:52:00 UTC
38,868	38,860	epi0Bauqu	How do I write a freelance contract for web programming work?	falsestprophet	I can send you the one I used to use. Just shoot me an email if you want it.	I want to know what to look for in a freelance contract for web programming work and what to include if I have the opportunity to write one myself. I imagine many of you have been in my situation; I appreciate your help.In the absence of experience, idle speculation will do.	0	1	2007-08-02 23:58:19 UTC
38,870	38,840	twism	News app code and search	nreece	whats so bad about table layouts?	I was wondering if YC can/has released the source code for this wonderful social news app. I love its lightweight and simplistic approach.Also, a search feature will improve things a lot.Keep up the good work!	0	1	2007-08-03 00:06:37 UTC
38,876	38,829	staunch	The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year	horatio05	Al Capone is shouting from his grave at these guys.	null	1	12	2007-08-03 00:48:43 UTC
38,878	38,829	rms	The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year	horatio05	Good for them.	null	4	12	2007-08-03 00:56:04 UTC
38,887	38,764	palish	An under-the-hood look at Backpack	samb	It's insane how much you can accomplish with Rails now, and with these new changes it'll be even better.Yeah, Rails suffers a syndrome of "You can only do these predefined things, in this way", but they're covering more and more ground in terms of what you can do.I predict faders will be a big thing in the near future. People fading colors from one state to another state depending on the context, and fading expansion and contraction of objects on a page, instead of sharp, sudden transitions. Implementing them in Javascript by hand is not fun, so the addition of that to RJS will be great.	null	0	11	2007-08-03 01:45:54 UTC
38,888	38,839	tipjoy	TED Talk - How to make your consumers happy - Malcom Gladwell (video)	Keios	Malcolm Gladwell rarely says anything too revolutionary, but he always says it in such an engaging and fascinating way as to make what we already know seem amazing. The 'tale of a user who doesn't know what he wants' always reminds me of an old Simpsons episode where Homer gets to design his own car. Perhaps that could be a definition for 'popular science': that which is suitable for consumption via the Simpsons.Still, one of my favorite anecdotes from Blink is the tale of the identical ice cream: the same ice cream was wrapped in two different packages, one plain, the other fancy, and taken around to the public for taste tests. People actually reported that the ice cream in the 'fancier' package _tasted_ better. What's great about this story is that it's an excellent way to explain to someone the value of beauty to usability. Given two functionally identical products, users will believe that one is _easier to use_ simply by virtue of it being aesthetically pleasing. I once saw a presentation at a UPA (Usability Professionals Assoc) Conference where a study showed just that - a product with identical information architecture was run through two usability tests: one where the product had a rudimentary look and feel, and one where the look and feel had been touched up by a graphic designer. User data showed that people felt the prettier version was easier for them to use, even though it took them the same time to complete tasks in both versions. Now, as an interaction designer myself, I would hope this argument is never used to dismiss the importance of interaction design and information architecture. We can't use aesthetics to 'put lipstick on the pig,' as one of my coworkers is fond of saying. But if you've taken the time to make a really usable product which meets a user need, imagine how much people will love it if you ALSO make it beautiful. That, for me, is the definition of a "delightful experience."	I think this is very useful for startup founders.	0	6	2007-08-03 01:54:46 UTC
38,891	38,832	epi0Bauqu	Best lawyers for startups	jaed	What do you want a lawyer for and where are you located?	I think we had a thread somewhere on the site that had a ranking/list of the best lawyers that work with startups. Anyone know where it is or have any recommendations?	0	1	2007-08-03 02:09:43 UTC
38,893	38,699	Alex3917	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	"if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy."This has always made me uncomfortable. There is no inherent value in doing hard things. The basic argument is that doing hard things prevents you from doing easy things only because they are easy. However, this strikes me as being very similar to the Monty Hall paradox. Let's say you have a billion options to choose from. To expect that the hardest option would be your best bet would be absurd. So why should it work any better for choosing between two options?	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	4	19	2007-08-03 02:14:19 UTC
38,899	38,828	nickb	eBaum's World Sells for $17.5 Million	horatio05	eBaum's guy was the biggest thief on the internet :( Sad to see him rewarded.	null	2	5	2007-08-03 02:39:15 UTC
38,904	38,699	sanj	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	Never wake a sleeping child. It's never worth it.	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	16	19	2007-08-03 03:10:19 UTC
38,907	38,454	dshah	Where do startup companies find employees?	transburgh	Though it takes a fair amount of time, I've found that a blog is a good place to recruit (as it provides potential recruits some insight into the company).	We're looking for the best strategies for finding people for our startup. What have you found was the most effective?	6	5	2007-08-03 03:35:33 UTC
38,910	38,908	gaborcselle	Xobni's Facebook app replaces Facebook messaging with email	brezina	OMG! OMG! This is, like, the best thing ever.	null	5	53	2007-08-03 03:51:03 UTC
38,912	38,908	alex_c	Xobni's Facebook app replaces Facebook messaging with email	brezina	Very cool, and very simple... I wonder if Facebook will appreciate it though ;)	null	4	53	2007-08-03 04:03:20 UTC
38,914	38,905	drusenko	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	great work guys. my comment on TC got blocked (they must have our IP on some spam list or something), but it basically said: awesome.	null	16	40	2007-08-03 04:24:04 UTC
38,915	38,905	rms	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Cool. Is legal precedent such that this is definitely legal?	null	13	40	2007-08-03 04:26:34 UTC
38,917	38,828	sherman	eBaum's World Sells for $17.5 Million	horatio05	Interesting. I remember their office being vandalized and the war with another site (YTMND?). eBaum does have a lot of stolen content, but guess who got the last laugh?	null	0	5	2007-08-03 04:40:05 UTC
38,919	38,905	mdolon	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Amazing site, beautiful interface. Great work guys!	null	15	40	2007-08-03 04:43:45 UTC
38,920	38,699	dean	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	If you are trying to decide between two things, a good trick is to flip a coin. Assign one choice to heads and the other to tails. You'll find yourself subtly "hoping" for one choice over the other. Decision made.	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	3	19	2007-08-03 04:47:29 UTC
38,921	38,905	mark-t	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Looks great. My one complaint so far is that I can't just choose a directory to upload. (yes, I know why this is impossible with browser features, but it's what I expect from a music player) Oh, and it only seems to accept .mp3 files -- I've got a fair number of .ogg, .wma, .aac, etc. That's probably my computer's doing, though, since it wouldn't be a very good iTunes clone without insisting on .aac.	null	3	40	2007-08-03 04:48:48 UTC
38,922	38,905	zach	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Wow, this is really sharp-looking stuff. I like Flash for this kind of one-window interface - very responsive. Certain other sites have a UI that's like slogging through mashed potatoes. Good work.Say, I'd like to experiment with Flash stuff but I have to admit I am totally Macromedia-illiterate. Does anyone know what tools are used to build apps like this?	null	6	40	2007-08-03 05:08:25 UTC
38,927	38,502	ed	Ask News.Yc: What is social bookmarking lacking today?	twism	The first suggestion that comes to mind is to automate as much of the process as possible. I rarely use social bookmarking sites because, 1) they waste more time than they save, and 2) I don't have the patience to sort through the details of URL submission.See if you can develop a heuristic to determine a user's favorite sites based on their browsing patterns. Convolve that into a set of browser extensions and expose the user data through a web front-end. Make personalized suggestions based on user history. Auto-generate site summaries by looking at page markup (size of fonts, page title), that sort of thing.	I know, i know...they are a tons of social bookmarking sites out now, but they all seem cluttered, slow, and confusing to me. Im trying to get a feel of what features poeple like, dislike or they would like to see implemented. News.YC is sort of a bookmarking app (at least the way I use it).It works great for me because its fast, has a clean layout and it just so happens to deal with web pages I would typically bookmark. but the internet isnt all about startups and entrepreneurship.Any input would be great. Thanks	1	4	2007-08-03 05:36:21 UTC
38,930	38,905	zach	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	I wonder whose credit card is on the Amazon S3 account. They must be very brave.	null	4	40	2007-08-03 05:51:41 UTC
38,931	38,859	tx	Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers	rchambers	This must be (by far) the most interesting and unusual piece of text I've ever seen on ycombinator.	have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.	2	29	2007-08-03 05:57:42 UTC
38,933	38,699	nreece	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	All receive advice. Only the wise profit from it. --Syrus	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	10	19	2007-08-03 06:12:12 UTC
38,934	38,905	augy	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	I am in love. this is making my life better. thank you.	null	14	40	2007-08-03 06:14:25 UTC
38,942	38,938	bootload	Self-employed lead bankruptcies	nreece	"... A total of 59.8 per cent of small businesses with a turnover of $50,000-$200,000 and which were founded in 2003, were bankrupt three years later, according to the Bureau of Statistics study, Counts of Australian Businesses ..."Misleading in a way. Australian small businesses don't really count as tech-startups. But startups do go out of business quickly. The key difference between the US and AU is the real stigma attached to failure is AUS compared to the US. This is one are I really admire about the idea behind US entrepreneurship, "you fail to success". In AUS once you fail you are written off - such is the backwards conservative nature of business (lack of understanding, avoidance of risk. Fear rules.)	null	0	2	2007-08-03 07:06:53 UTC
38,944	38,859	adnam	Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers	rchambers	I hear that The Wisdom of Crowds has good reviews...	have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.	5	29	2007-08-03 07:17:34 UTC
38,952	38,859	brianmckenzie	Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers	rchambers	He's missing the point. User reviews are as much about the reviewer as they are about the object of the review. All the same it's important to remember that there are many people like this guy.	have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.	4	29	2007-08-03 08:13:13 UTC
38,957	38,954	benhoyt	Amazon's Flexible Payments Service -- move over PayPal?	benhoyt	I haven't played with the sandbox or signed up yet, but from the docs it actually looks really good: send and receive money, support for a kind of micro-payments, significantly cheaper transaction fees than PayPal in most cases ... hmmm, cool.	null	0	4	2007-08-03 09:00:25 UTC
38,961	38,859	trekker7	Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers	rchambers	It seems like the author would find traditional, client-based applications more useful than server-side Web applications. The whole point of the latter is to use everyone's data to make software more useful, and if he doesn't care about everyone else's input, there's no need to connect to the Web.	have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.	3	29	2007-08-03 09:28:16 UTC
38,963	38,962	rms	Youtube for high quality video (plug-in install required)	rms	Also see http://www.joox.net which is an index of particularly good videos from Stage6.	null	0	1	2007-08-03 09:29:29 UTC
38,964	38,951	trekker7	Web4.0 -- The Semantic Web	nreece	Some of the example applications he gave kick ass.	null	3	11	2007-08-03 09:40:09 UTC
38,965	38,905	yubrew	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	One of the techcrunch comments said that the itunes UI is patented.[0] Any thoughts on this?Anyways, it's very cool and useful. grats. [0] http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?IDX=WO02061563&CY=gb&#38...	null	7	40	2007-08-03 09:53:20 UTC
38,966	38,905	tcwc	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Looks amazing. And not a single negative comment on Techcrunch?!	null	11	40	2007-08-03 10:06:10 UTC
38,971	38,968	rokhayakebe	Any1 working on/has a "hardware" tech startup?	rokhayakebe	99% of entrepreneurs are working on web apps. Is there any1 here whoz tech startup involves building hardware.	null	3	3	2007-08-03 10:58:56 UTC
38,993	38,905	ivankirigin	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Things to do: -Support other media formats -Open a long-tail store, i.e. letting people upload and give out their work -Make a better uploader (mine seems to be blocked at work)	null	2	40	2007-08-03 13:00:37 UTC
38,996	38,699	gibsonf1	What's the best advice you actually use?	jkush	Perfection is difficult	For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.	20	19	2007-08-03 13:07:46 UTC
38,997	38,905	ashu	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	oh i absolutely love this app. fantastically well executed. i had implemented a version of this - nowhere close to as pretty - for our internal use at CMU (our group still actively uses it), but i am going to switch now. please, please allow bookmarking of songs soon (just noting the metadata of course.) cause there's lots of quality stuff to be discovered soon!	null	5	40	2007-08-03 13:07:57 UTC
39,004	38,859	garbowza	Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers	rchambers	I understand his point, but I think he supports it poorly. Of course a product that has 1 review is not likely to benefit greatly from that single review. But when I buy a product, or book a hotel, I look at dozens of reviews from other people and I get a good sense of the pros and cons of what I might buy. I can then gauge those perspectives against what is important to me. And I find that overall they are almost all correct -- in aggregate.	have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.	1	29	2007-08-03 13:25:14 UTC
39,005	38,967	pg	Perl advocacy, smells like blub.	edu	For me this had the opposite of the intended effect. Before I read it all I was thinking was "You don't hear as much about Perl lately." Now it's "Perl seems to be sinking."	null	1	5	2007-08-03 13:33:25 UTC
39,012	38,967	staunch	Perl advocacy, smells like blub.	edu	I found cromatic's article fairly weak. It's basically impossible to get past the amount of uncoolness Perl has collected and not really worth trying. But I use it and enjoy it tons despite the snide remarks I must endure. A small price to pay in my opinion.It's obvious to anyone being honest that the main reason most people don't like Perl is for the same laughable reason they don't like Lisp: the syntax looks scary at first. Few people really get past that point without coming to at least respect its power.For web development I'm using Catalyst[1] DBIx::Class[2] and Template Toolkit[3] combined with CPAN[4] it's an unstoppable combination. Most of my work is plugging modules together cleanly. My code is small, efficient, and rock solid.I've dabbled with Python and Ruby quite a bit but I just don't find significant advantages and missing CPAN always hurts. It's good that there are lots of people writing Python and Ruby code now. In 5 years there might be enough libraries to make them as useful as Perl is today.1. http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Manual/lib/Catalyst/Man...2. http://search.cpan.org/~mstrout/DBIx-Class-0.08003/lib/DBIx/...3. http://template-toolkit.org/docs/manual/Intro.html4. http://search.cpan.org/	null	0	5	2007-08-03 14:09:12 UTC
39,021	38,951	ivankirigin	Web4.0 -- The Semantic Web	nreece	I like the note about privacy. I believe it -- we need to push for a transparent society. Certain activities will always be easy to do anonymously, but certain capabilities are just founded on identity persistence. I'm curious if there could be a framework that has great persistence of preferences and identity, and maintains anonymity.Another note: it's all just software. That makes it easier to acheive if you integrate systems. It also limits reach. You still need to move your ass from point A to B to C. Most of the time, you'll need to pay attention while doing it -- automated driving isn't part of web 4.0.Also, there is a ton of legwork involved in services. Many services demand people behind them. It would be nice if humans were only needed to thing -- to have and share desires/preferences/thoughts. Right now, only a minority of people have the luxury to do that full-time.	null	0	11	2007-08-03 14:45:13 UTC
39,022	39,020	Alex3917	Disney pays $350M for children's site plus more if growth goals are met	Alex3917	Expect to see 300 million dollars worth of penguin banner ads in the second half of next year.	null	0	1	2007-08-03 14:45:36 UTC
39,025	38,968	ivankirigin	Any1 working on/has a "hardware" tech startup?	rokhayakebe	Hardware is, err, hard. Scaling to the masses means reliability engineering and thoughts given to logistics, manufacturing, etc.Getting a version 1 out the door can be extremely expensive. Perhaps the revolution in China is changing this, making it much easier to build things in 10s and 100s.And any interesting product will also have software. This makes it a superset of software startups.	null	0	3	2007-08-03 14:49:49 UTC
39,027	38,905	luxiou	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone! We've had a few rough patches over the past 12 hours, but we're up and running again (special thanks to the Dropbox team for their help). As a random aside, it turns out we're getting far more traffic from del.icio.us than TC right now.	null	0	40	2007-08-03 15:18:15 UTC
39,028	39,019	paulgb	The 100 Daily Must-Reads for Entrepreneurs (By Category)	drm237	I like how they list 8 productivity blogs. Anyone who is subscribed to 8 productivity blogs is probably not taking the advice.	Missing some important ones, but being broken down by category makes it semi-appealing...	2	6	2007-08-03 15:20:59 UTC
39,030	38,905	whacked_new	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Songs are being uploaded by the second already. Looks like a winner!	null	8	40	2007-08-03 15:21:46 UTC
39,032	38,968	prakash	Any1 working on/has a "hardware" tech startup?	rokhayakebe	nope. but bug labs is.. http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2006/05/introducing_bug.h... http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/07/30/bugLabsInitialRe...	null	2	3	2007-08-03 15:26:53 UTC
39,036	38,905	anson	[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM	immad	Thanks for all your valuable feedback and comments, it is really motivating :). Now some advice I wish I followed... sleep a LONG time the day before you launch ;).	null	1	40	2007-08-03 15:37:51 UTC
39,037	38,976	daniel-cussen	Buxfer + Amazon = Transfer money online (Free till Aug 31)	ashu	"Buxfer may terminate your access to the Website or your membership at any time, for any reason, and without warning, which may result in the forfeiture and destruction of all information associated with your membership."Ouch.Legalese aside, this new deal with Amazon means you guys are currently a free alternative to Western Union and will soon be a cheaper alternative to the same, right?	With Amazon Payments, you can accrue balances in an online account (similar to your Paypal account balance). Transfers involving Amazon accounts are instantaneously processed as well. You can read more about it at: http://www.buxfer.com/blog/2007/08/03/buxfer-amazon-settle-y...Regardless of what this means for Buxfer, we think it's a good step forward in challenging the Paypal monopoly.	0	31	2007-08-03 15:40:48 UTC
39,039	39,019	run4yourlives	The 100 Daily Must-Reads for Entrepreneurs (By Category)	drm237	I would imagine that anyone who has the time to read 100 blogs daily isn't really cut out to be much of an entrepreneur.	Missing some important ones, but being broken down by category makes it semi-appealing...	1	6	2007-08-03 15:50:16 UTC
39,043	39,019	pg	The 100 Daily Must-Reads for Entrepreneurs (By Category)	drm237	There is something fishy about this site. Businesscreditcards.com? And all the pages seem to be lists. Presumably it is an SEO guy who has realized that with comparatively little effort (e.g. by combining delicious tags with feed subscriber numbers) you can compile lists of the most popular sites on some topic.	Missing some important ones, but being broken down by category makes it semi-appealing...	0	6	2007-08-03 15:59:45 UTC
39,051	39,049	samb	The job title of the future for marketing departments is Video Producer	samb	This is an especially poignant post for me today. My company just closed it's first customer via YouTube. The sale closed in less than 24 hours. Considering we sell high-end scanning products our sales cycle is normally much, much longer. A quick demo video cut through the noise. We don't expect that to be the norm, but for customers with red-hot pain, it provides all the information they need to feel confident stroking a check.	null	0	2	2007-08-03 16:26:32 UTC
39,052	38,890	byrneseyeview	7 Years of paulgraham.com (via archive.org)	sbraford	Huh. I found two new essays:http://paulgraham.com/mistakes.htmlhttp://store.yahoo.com/secrets.html	null	0	7	2007-08-03 16:27:38 UTC
39,053	39,048	pg	The Best Products Designs of 2007	samb	I wish they would stop trying to make me watch slideshows. Just give me everything on a web page.	null	0	1	2007-08-03 16:35:35 UTC
39,057	39,056	Jd	Lamenting the Loss of Reddit	Jd	Perhaps it is true that profitability and quality content correlate inversely?	null	3	16	2007-08-03 16:45:41 UTC
39,063	38,976	jamiequint	Buxfer + Amazon = Transfer money online (Free till Aug 31)	ashu	Amazon FPS + Buxfer = Crazy Delicious ??	With Amazon Payments, you can accrue balances in an online account (similar to your Paypal account balance). Transfers involving Amazon accounts are instantaneously processed as well. You can read more about it at: http://www.buxfer.com/blog/2007/08/03/buxfer-amazon-settle-y...Regardless of what this means for Buxfer, we think it's a good step forward in challenging the Paypal monopoly.	3	31	2007-08-03 17:07:33 UTC
39,065	39,059	dannyv	A Guide to Micro Seed Funding (by Dan Veltri, Weebly)	drusenko	I thought this would be of interest to people considering applying to Y Combinator or the other micro seed funding programs - but YC's clearly best. I had to write this for school in order to graduate (on Monday!) so I figured I'd do it on something relevant.- Dan	null	0	15	2007-08-03 17:13:45 UTC
39,070	38,968	aarontait	Any1 working on/has a "hardware" tech startup?	rokhayakebe	I'm doing a plain old piece of software for a start up. You know, the kind you install onto your machine and it integrates nicely with the operating system. Yea, I miss those days too. Sorry, I want to do hardware in the future though.	null	6	3	2007-08-03 17:20:44 UTC
39,078	39,054	Lockheed	My startup idea: ClipArena.com - I made it in one week. What do you think?	vuknje	Honestly, it looks GREAT! and it works great! I love the concept. Kind of HotOrNot+Video mashup. Sweet.[get rid of that "sexy " stuff. Look at dailymotion.com .Now they are working hard to get rid of the porn content.Reason, they didnt care about it in the beginning ]	null	4	19	2007-08-03 17:51:27 UTC
39,079	38,951	natrius	Web4.0 -- The Semantic Web	nreece	Ok, those were some interesting ideas, but please don't version the web.	null	4	11	2007-08-03 17:51:36 UTC
39,080	38,976	hira_khan	Buxfer + Amazon = Transfer money online (Free till Aug 31)	ashu	Sounds like an interesting idea - Whats the user base of Buxfer at the moment ?	With Amazon Payments, you can accrue balances in an online account (similar to your Paypal account balance). Transfers involving Amazon accounts are instantaneously processed as well. You can read more about it at: http://www.buxfer.com/blog/2007/08/03/buxfer-amazon-settle-y...Regardless of what this means for Buxfer, we think it's a good step forward in challenging the Paypal monopoly.	2	31	2007-08-03 17:53:48 UTC

38,707

38,699

pg

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

Probably to avoid premature optimization. Getting a version 1 done quickly and then iterating works in so many fields besides hacking.

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

1

19

2007-08-02 15:21:35 UTC

38,710

38,639

tocomment

Create RSS from ANY web page

nreece

Can it do homestarrunner.com? I'd love to get an RSS feed of that. Well I guess I'll try it.

Feedity is an RSS generator for web pages without a web syndication format. A true web service (Web 3.0 / SaaS)

1

5

2007-08-02 15:32:25 UTC

38,711

38,699

epi0Bauqu

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

There is a lot of good advice I use constantly that has produced great benefits for me over the years. Here is probably the best:Get enough sleep.Get enough sunlight.Maintain a positive attitude.Know a little about a lot.Do not pigeonhole people.Anger is counterproductive.Keep stress to a minimum.Exercise regularly.Eat healthy.Persistence overcomes a lot.You can't control everything.People don't remember much.

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

2

19

2007-08-02 15:35:16 UTC

38,714

38,627

davidw

Coders at Work

mf

The popularity list is very top-heavy with language dudes. Also, 'created' is a better term for language creators, except for perhaps a really select few who can claim to have truly invented something completely new, and even then... I'd still say creator.

Is Jessica Livingston going to write a second book?

0

10

2007-08-02 15:41:15 UTC

38,719

38,699

samb

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

always wear clean underwear. always.

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

14

19

2007-08-02 15:47:13 UTC

38,731

38,715

abstractbill

What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]

Alex3917

I couldn't see any of the pictures - Yahoo wanted me to sign in.

null

2

5

2007-08-02 16:05:36 UTC

38,732

38,715

daniel-cussen

What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]

Alex3917

And that's how regular people become Pointy-Haired Bosses.

null

3

5

2007-08-02 16:06:13 UTC

38,740

38,699

mynameishere

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

There's this:http://www.losanjealous.com/nfc/perm.php?c=101&q=40

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

15

19

2007-08-02 16:14:39 UTC

38,742

38,736

Caligula

Coolie Valley, the Silicon Valley of India?

nreece

Do they realize that Coolie...............................is a racial slur? Also the article mentions "50% Silicon Valley firms are run by Indians",Any of you valley people know if this is true?

IT professionals in India have yet to diversify and progress from being "code monkeys" to "independent IT managers & small-business owners", written by an Indian.

0

2

2007-08-02 16:18:16 UTC

38,746

38,715

byrneseyeview

What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]

Alex3917

I think the problem here is textbooks, not the subject: in a Java course I took, students were required to discuss the moral implications of writing software for judging people's credit (apparently, the problem was that creditworthiness correlates with race).But perhaps business courses are so content-free because so much of business is, too.

null

4

5

2007-08-02 16:23:07 UTC

38,747

38,715

colortone

What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]

Alex3917

Wow, what a useless blog post that was.A MUCH better, less flame-worthy title would have been: "What is the value of reading a 101 level business textbook from 2005?"A formal, GOOD, business education is invaluable, in combination with some domain-specific skill(I do think the pseudo-advertising in the book is appalling)It's not very useful to know about how "business works" without knowing and experiencing a real living value chain [whether it be retail, financial services, web software, or film making, etc].(disclosure, I have a B.S. in finance from the University of Virginia...and an MFA in percussion performance from CalArts...all we did at UVA was read HBR and other intellectually stimulating material and then get grilled on it in full-class discussions...not to mention courses in C++ [viva the 1990's], statistics, and Black-Scholes ;-)

null

1

5

2007-08-02 16:27:00 UTC

38,751

38,739

daniel-cussen

Save electricity by "hoarding" it

nreece

A good idea. However, the part about "pays for itself in 4 years" means it's not for startups.

One company decided to create a device that cuts your electricity bill by 10-15%. How do they do it?

1

2

2007-08-02 16:34:27 UTC

38,752

38,715

jraines

What is the value of a formal business education? [Pics]

Alex3917

This article says absolutely nothing about the value of a formal business education.It says something vaguely negative about the value of business textbooks, the crapiness of which is pretty well established and acknowledged by professors and students alike. See here for a classic example: http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm This refers to highschool textbooks but applies equally well, if not more so, to college business texts.It's all about the professors. Business is one of those academic fields, like Paul Graham notes, where the best practitioners are not the educators. While this is very true as a generalization, there are exceptions -- mainly: non-practicing educators who happen to be excellent at imparting practical knowledge, and ex-practioners who were once tops in their field. You will find these professors concentrated in top schools, and you will not find them teaching from these textbooks. So there is actually quite a lot of value in a business education from a top school. The well-worn cliche about the value of networking at these institutions applies as well -- and it's not just networking in the abstract, it's learning how to network with people who can get things done, and getting things done for people who expect big things out of you. Just like I'm sure it is in computer science, the value of the education is what you extract from it.

null

0

5

2007-08-02 16:35:34 UTC

38,758

38,699

palish

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

"You don't know anything, so shut up and listen."

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

12

19

2007-08-02 16:43:20 UTC

38,759

38,699

jraines

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

A tie, actually best used in conjunction:"Practice the fundamentals every day". --not sure, but I got it from Jamie Andreas I think (guitar guru)."The doer alone learneth." --Machiavelli

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

5

19

2007-08-02 16:44:49 UTC

38,760

38,699

zach

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

So I once watched this nutty 70's film series on time management - 43 Folders retro. It was actually pretty good if you could get past the awful fashion. The host, a professor in horn-rimmed glasses and a bowtie, had a piece of advice I found surprising at first. It puts a different spin on doing hard things and I've found it very useful.He said if something is truly hard to do, put it off as long as possible. But if something is merely distasteful, do it as soon as possible.The rationale is that if something is truly hard to do, you can spend time thinking about it, researching it, gathering resources and asking others about it while doing other necessary things. Oftentimes, there will be a way to make the hard thing easier or even unnecessary.But if something is more distasteful than hard-to-do, you need to do it right away. It's worse to put off distasteful things than just get them over with.Anyway, that bit of wisdom has worked for me. In programming specifically, I also endorse David Heinemeier Hansson's advice: "If something is too hard it means that you're not cheating enough."

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

0

19

2007-08-02 16:46:53 UTC

38,765

38,739

zach

Save electricity by "hoarding" it

nreece

"A TiVo for electricity" is a very clever line. Puts a smile on your face and yet describes it well. A bit of humor is a good thing when you're trying to sell your concept.

One company decided to create a device that cuts your electricity bill by 10-15%. How do they do it?

0

2

2007-08-02 17:02:05 UTC

38,767

38,174

nreece

an idea for a start-up

blored

Have a look at reCAPTCHA: http://www.captcha.net/The words shown come directly from old books that are being digitized. So you can stop spam and help digitize books at the same time.

I hate Captchas that make no sense and I routinely feel a reprieve when a catpcha has common lettters in sequence. For example, "dogbat" is easier than "hgzxmp". So how about a captcha that makes use of this. Maybe call it EZCaptcha or something.

1

2007-08-02 17:05:49 UTC

38,771

38,639

aston

Create RSS from ANY web page

nreece

This idea strikes me as a classic hacker's toy: technically good, but not sold well at all to the average consumer (aka "the world").Why not repackage it as a way to find out when and how your favorite sites update? Like a really simplified RSS reader (either a desktop app or web app) that uses the current technology to let you know when things have changed on arbitrary websites. I could see a lot of people being interested in something like that who have no clue what RSS is.

Feedity is an RSS generator for web pages without a web syndication format. A true web service (Web 3.0 / SaaS)

0

5

2007-08-02 17:17:22 UTC

38,774

38,687

palish

Is it hot or not? Ranking of user modded content.

ivankirigin

Speaking of karma, I wrote a little micro-essay about it at http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38605 .. I don't know if you'd want to experiment with karma quite like that, but it would be interesting.

Reddit and News.YC share a feature: hotness. Users mod up and down -- but hotness is more than total points.How should I do it?Positive correlation with number of votes. Negative correlation with submit time. Perhaps negative correlation with time since mean or median time of mods. Perhaps adjust for rates -- a surge implies extra hotness.How do you make the front page efficiently? I hope not to recalculate hotness for each page view -- but a naive approach might think it necessary given the continuous time decay.A parallel service could periodically troll through the entries from the past N days and calculate their hotness -- which serves the front page. That could be updated and chached in memory inependent of front pageview count.

1

13

2007-08-02 17:26:56 UTC

38,779

38,699

nreece

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

Best advice: Not to take one ;)

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

19

2007-08-02 17:34:24 UTC

38,784

38,671

Jd

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Accuse Content Makers of Exaggerating Copyright

pg

This article seems a bit disjointed. Are the 'fair use' clause and the Viacom Youtube suit really related? I don't think so.

null

0

5

2007-08-02 17:43:49 UTC

38,796

38,699

prakash

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

Good advice I got from my mentor: "Learn to suffer fools elegantly and silently".

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

11

19

2007-08-02 18:29:52 UTC

38,804

38,699

nostrademons

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

A few that come to mind:"Never ever think of yourself as a victim, because once you've done that, you've lost." - One of the Amherst College trustees, on being the first (?) female vice-president at Morgan Stanley"Control yourself, because you can't control others" - Sunir Shah, possibly quoted from some other source."Perfect is the enemy of good enough" - C2 Wiki"Good enough is the enemy of at all" - Paul Buchheit

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

6

19

2007-08-02 18:53:28 UTC

38,805

38,699

adnam

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

"Wakey wakey!"

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

21

19

2007-08-02 18:54:55 UTC

38,808

38,801

palladin

Ask news.yc: Are you organized about how many hours you hack?

Keios

IMO a fixed schedule is always a better idea, and any hours beyond that are a bonus but in the end it all boils down to a matter of choice or habit. you should follow whatever pattern you are comfortable with

When working on a project/idea do you schedule your hacking time or do you hack when you feel like it?How many hours of hacking a week?

1

4

2007-08-02 19:20:16 UTC

38,812

38,699

mdakin

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

In the long run, never half-ass anything.

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

17

19

2007-08-02 19:32:30 UTC

38,813

38,699

mdakin

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

"The pencil is mightier than the pen." -Robert Pirsig on the importance of revision

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

9

19

2007-08-02 19:34:22 UTC

38,814

38,699

nanijoe

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

Choosing to do the harder thing may not always be productive or practical. If I think it will take me 3 years of research to (maybe) solve a problem and bring a product to market, and I know another problem I can probably solve in 6 months with the same potential financial reward, which one should I choose?

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

13

19

2007-08-02 19:41:32 UTC

38,818

38,699

augy

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

Don't criticize, condemn or complain. Give honest and sincere appreciation. Arouse in the other person an eager want.Dale Carnegie

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

8

19

2007-08-02 19:49:05 UTC

38,821

38,699

sgoraya

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

'If you continue to do what you do, you will continue to get what you get' -- Anon, Chinese Proverb& a rather simple one from my Dad:hard hard hard work!

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

7

19

2007-08-02 20:05:29 UTC

38,824

38,801

goodmike

Ask news.yc: Are you organized about how many hours you hack?

Keios

If the project is critically important, then you'll probably end up working on it all the time, so scheduling would only serve to help you make sure you're doing the most important things first. In this mode it's all hacking, you're just putting tasks in order.Otherwise, scheduling is a very good idea for different reasons. If it's a personal project, which means there's no one else to goad you into working on it, then it's especially important to use scheduling to help you keep working. Remember what PG says about personal projects: Always produce. Do something everyday.

When working on a project/idea do you schedule your hacking time or do you hack when you feel like it?How many hours of hacking a week?

0

4

2007-08-02 20:20:10 UTC

38,831

38,699

eusman

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

life is too complex for one advice

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

18

19

2007-08-02 20:56:01 UTC

38,848

38,801

ivankirigin

Ask news.yc: Are you organized about how many hours you hack?

Keios

moonlighting makes it easy and hard at the same time. I can only work when I'm not working at my day job. I must work when I'm not working on my day job.I started doing that "don't break the chain" thing. I would say I can spend around 18 hours a week on the project.

When working on a project/idea do you schedule your hacking time or do you hack when you feel like it?How many hours of hacking a week?

2

4

2007-08-02 22:25:24 UTC

38,856

38,840

twism

News app code and search

nreece

i love it too

I was wondering if YC can/has released the source code for this wonderful social news app. I love its lightweight and simplistic approach.Also, a search feature will improve things a lot.Keep up the good work!

1

2007-08-02 23:01:20 UTC

38,862

38,829

daniel-cussen

The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year

horatio05

9 million per year...with a possibility of going to Swedish jail. I bet those are mighty fine jails, but I'm still not sure that's a gamble I would make.

null

3

12

2007-08-02 23:45:54 UTC

38,866

38,828

palish

eBaum's World Sells for $17.5 Million

horatio05

Good. I hope he retires and stops stealing other people's content now.

null

1

5

2007-08-02 23:51:43 UTC

38,867

38,829

mynameishere

The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year

horatio05

sold ads for The Pirate Bay for an average of EUR60,000 per monthLet's see: We could advertise on google and target people specifically searching for a product, and pay as little as 10 cents per click, or...We could advertise on a criminal website marketed towards people who hate spending money for products and pay 60K Euros a month.Hmm, think, think...

null

0

12

2007-08-02 23:52:00 UTC

38,868

38,860

epi0Bauqu

How do I write a freelance contract for web programming work?

falsestprophet

I can send you the one I used to use. Just shoot me an email if you want it.

I want to know what to look for in a freelance contract for web programming work and what to include if I have the opportunity to write one myself. I imagine many of you have been in my situation; I appreciate your help.In the absence of experience, idle speculation will do.

0

1

2007-08-02 23:58:19 UTC

38,870

38,840

twism

News app code and search

nreece

whats so bad about table layouts?

I was wondering if YC can/has released the source code for this wonderful social news app. I love its lightweight and simplistic approach.Also, a search feature will improve things a lot.Keep up the good work!

0

1

2007-08-03 00:06:37 UTC

38,876

38,829

staunch

The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year

horatio05

Al Capone is shouting from his grave at these guys.

null

1

12

2007-08-03 00:48:43 UTC

38,878

38,829

rms

The Pirate Bay Making $9 Million Per Year

horatio05

Good for them.

null

4

12

2007-08-03 00:56:04 UTC

38,887

38,764

palish

An under-the-hood look at Backpack

samb

It's insane how much you can accomplish with Rails now, and with these new changes it'll be even better.Yeah, Rails suffers a syndrome of "You can only do these predefined things, in this way", but they're covering more and more ground in terms of what you can do.I predict faders will be a big thing in the near future. People fading colors from one state to another state depending on the context, and fading expansion and contraction of objects on a page, instead of sharp, sudden transitions. Implementing them in Javascript by hand is not fun, so the addition of that to RJS will be great.

null

0

11

2007-08-03 01:45:54 UTC

38,888

38,839

tipjoy

TED Talk - How to make your consumers happy - Malcom Gladwell (video)

Keios

Malcolm Gladwell rarely says anything too revolutionary, but he always says it in such an engaging and fascinating way as to make what we already know seem amazing. The 'tale of a user who doesn't know what he wants' always reminds me of an old Simpsons episode where Homer gets to design his own car. Perhaps that could be a definition for 'popular science': that which is suitable for consumption via the Simpsons.Still, one of my favorite anecdotes from Blink is the tale of the identical ice cream: the same ice cream was wrapped in two different packages, one plain, the other fancy, and taken around to the public for taste tests. People actually reported that the ice cream in the 'fancier' package _tasted_ better. What's great about this story is that it's an excellent way to explain to someone the value of beauty to usability. Given two functionally identical products, users will believe that one is _easier to use_ simply by virtue of it being aesthetically pleasing. I once saw a presentation at a UPA (Usability Professionals Assoc) Conference where a study showed just that - a product with identical information architecture was run through two usability tests: one where the product had a rudimentary look and feel, and one where the look and feel had been touched up by a graphic designer. User data showed that people felt the prettier version was easier for them to use, even though it took them the same time to complete tasks in both versions. Now, as an interaction designer myself, I would hope this argument is never used to dismiss the importance of interaction design and information architecture. We can't use aesthetics to 'put lipstick on the pig,' as one of my coworkers is fond of saying. But if you've taken the time to make a really usable product which meets a user need, imagine how much people will love it if you ALSO make it beautiful. That, for me, is the definition of a "delightful experience."

I think this is very useful for startup founders.

0

6

2007-08-03 01:54:46 UTC

38,891

38,832

epi0Bauqu

Best lawyers for startups

jaed

What do you want a lawyer for and where are you located?

I think we had a thread somewhere on the site that had a ranking/list of the best lawyers that work with startups. Anyone know where it is or have any recommendations?

0

1

2007-08-03 02:09:43 UTC

38,893

38,699

Alex3917

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

"if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy."This has always made me uncomfortable. There is no inherent value in doing hard things. The basic argument is that doing hard things prevents you from doing easy things only because they are easy. However, this strikes me as being very similar to the Monty Hall paradox. Let's say you have a billion options to choose from. To expect that the hardest option would be your best bet would be absurd. So why should it work any better for choosing between two options?

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

4

19

2007-08-03 02:14:19 UTC

38,899

38,828

nickb

eBaum's World Sells for $17.5 Million

horatio05

eBaum's guy was the biggest thief on the internet :( Sad to see him rewarded.

null

2

5

2007-08-03 02:39:15 UTC

38,904

38,699

sanj

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

Never wake a sleeping child. It's never worth it.

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

16

19

2007-08-03 03:10:19 UTC

38,907

38,454

dshah

Where do startup companies find employees?

transburgh

Though it takes a fair amount of time, I've found that a blog is a good place to recruit (as it provides potential recruits some insight into the company).

We're looking for the best strategies for finding people for our startup. What have you found was the most effective?

6

5

2007-08-03 03:35:33 UTC

38,910

38,908

gaborcselle

Xobni's Facebook app replaces Facebook messaging with email

brezina

OMG! OMG! This is, like, the best thing ever.

null

5

53

2007-08-03 03:51:03 UTC

38,912

38,908

alex_c

Xobni's Facebook app replaces Facebook messaging with email

brezina

Very cool, and very simple... I wonder if Facebook will appreciate it though ;)

null

4

53

2007-08-03 04:03:20 UTC

38,914

38,905

drusenko

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

great work guys. my comment on TC got blocked (they must have our IP on some spam list or something), but it basically said: awesome.

null

16

40

2007-08-03 04:24:04 UTC

38,915

38,905

rms

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Cool. Is legal precedent such that this is definitely legal?

null

13

40

2007-08-03 04:26:34 UTC

38,917

38,828

sherman

eBaum's World Sells for $17.5 Million

horatio05

Interesting. I remember their office being vandalized and the war with another site (YTMND?). eBaum does have a lot of stolen content, but guess who got the last laugh?

null

0

5

2007-08-03 04:40:05 UTC

38,919

38,905

mdolon

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Amazing site, beautiful interface. Great work guys!

null

15

40

2007-08-03 04:43:45 UTC

38,920

38,699

dean

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

If you are trying to decide between two things, a good trick is to flip a coin. Assign one choice to heads and the other to tails. You'll find yourself subtly "hoping" for one choice over the other. Decision made.

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

3

19

2007-08-03 04:47:29 UTC

38,921

38,905

mark-t

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Looks great. My one complaint so far is that I can't just choose a directory to upload. (yes, I know why this is impossible with browser features, but it's what I expect from a music player) Oh, and it only seems to accept .mp3 files -- I've got a fair number of .ogg, .wma, .aac, etc. That's probably my computer's doing, though, since it wouldn't be a very good iTunes clone without insisting on .aac.

null

3

40

2007-08-03 04:48:48 UTC

38,922

38,905

zach

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Wow, this is really sharp-looking stuff. I like Flash for this kind of one-window interface - very responsive. Certain other sites have a UI that's like slogging through mashed potatoes. Good work.Say, I'd like to experiment with Flash stuff but I have to admit I am totally Macromedia-illiterate. Does anyone know what tools are used to build apps like this?

null

6

40

2007-08-03 05:08:25 UTC

38,927

38,502

ed

Ask News.Yc: What is social bookmarking lacking today?

twism

The first suggestion that comes to mind is to automate as much of the process as possible. I rarely use social bookmarking sites because, 1) they waste more time than they save, and 2) I don't have the patience to sort through the details of URL submission.See if you can develop a heuristic to determine a user's favorite sites based on their browsing patterns. Convolve that into a set of browser extensions and expose the user data through a web front-end. Make personalized suggestions based on user history. Auto-generate site summaries by looking at page markup (size of fonts, page title), that sort of thing.

I know, i know...they are a tons of social bookmarking sites out now, but they all seem cluttered, slow, and confusing to me. Im trying to get a feel of what features poeple like, dislike or they would like to see implemented. News.YC is sort of a bookmarking app (at least the way I use it).It works great for me because its fast, has a clean layout and it just so happens to deal with web pages I would typically bookmark. but the internet isnt all about startups and entrepreneurship.Any input would be great. Thanks

1

4

2007-08-03 05:36:21 UTC

38,930

38,905

zach

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

I wonder whose credit card is on the Amazon S3 account. They must be very brave.

null

4

40

2007-08-03 05:51:41 UTC

38,931

38,859

tx

Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers

rchambers

This must be (by far) the most interesting and unusual piece of text I've ever seen on ycombinator.

have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.

2

29

2007-08-03 05:57:42 UTC

38,933

38,699

nreece

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

All receive advice. Only the wise profit from it. --Syrus

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

10

19

2007-08-03 06:12:12 UTC

38,934

38,905

augy

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

I am in love. this is making my life better. thank you.

null

14

40

2007-08-03 06:14:25 UTC

38,942

38,938

bootload

Self-employed lead bankruptcies

nreece

"... A total of 59.8 per cent of small businesses with a turnover of $50,000-$200,000 and which were founded in 2003, were bankrupt three years later, according to the Bureau of Statistics study, Counts of Australian Businesses ..."Misleading in a way. Australian small businesses don't really count as tech-startups. But startups do go out of business quickly. The key difference between the US and AU is the real stigma attached to failure is AUS compared to the US. This is one are I really admire about the idea behind US entrepreneurship, "you fail to success". In AUS once you fail you are written off - such is the backwards conservative nature of business (lack of understanding, avoidance of risk. Fear rules.)

null

0

2

2007-08-03 07:06:53 UTC

38,944

38,859

adnam

Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers

rchambers

I hear that The Wisdom of Crowds has good reviews...

have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.

5

29

2007-08-03 07:17:34 UTC

38,952

38,859

brianmckenzie

Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers

rchambers

He's missing the point. User reviews are as much about the reviewer as they are about the object of the review. All the same it's important to remember that there are many people like this guy.

have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.

4

29

2007-08-03 08:13:13 UTC

38,957

38,954

benhoyt

Amazon's Flexible Payments Service -- move over PayPal?

benhoyt

I haven't played with the sandbox or signed up yet, but from the docs it actually looks really good: send and receive money, support for a kind of micro-payments, significantly cheaper transaction fees than PayPal in most cases ... hmmm, cool.

null

0

4

2007-08-03 09:00:25 UTC

38,961

38,859

trekker7

Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers

rchambers

It seems like the author would find traditional, client-based applications more useful than server-side Web applications. The whole point of the latter is to use everyone's data to make software more useful, and if he doesn't care about everyone else's input, there's no need to connect to the Web.

have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.

3

29

2007-08-03 09:28:16 UTC

38,963

38,962

rms

Youtube for high quality video (plug-in install required)

rms

Also see http://www.joox.net which is an index of particularly good videos from Stage6.

null

0

1

2007-08-03 09:29:29 UTC

38,964

38,951

trekker7

Web4.0 -- The Semantic Web

nreece

Some of the example applications he gave kick ass.

null

3

11

2007-08-03 09:40:09 UTC

38,965

38,905

yubrew

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

One of the techcrunch comments said that the itunes UI is patented.[0] Any thoughts on this?Anyways, it's very cool and useful. grats. [0] http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?IDX=WO02061563&CY=gb&#38...

null

7

40

2007-08-03 09:53:20 UTC

38,966

38,905

tcwc

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Looks amazing. And not a single negative comment on Techcrunch?!

null

11

40

2007-08-03 10:06:10 UTC

38,971

38,968

rokhayakebe

Any1 working on/has a "hardware" tech startup?

rokhayakebe

99% of entrepreneurs are working on web apps. Is there any1 here whoz tech startup involves building hardware.

null

3

2007-08-03 10:58:56 UTC

38,993

38,905

ivankirigin

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Things to do: -Support other media formats -Open a long-tail store, i.e. letting people upload and give out their work -Make a better uploader (mine seems to be blocked at work)

null

2

40

2007-08-03 13:00:37 UTC

38,996

38,699

gibsonf1

What's the best advice you actually use?

jkush

Perfection is difficult

For me it was in a Paul Graham essay, the title of which escapes me now. The advice was simple: if you have a hard time deciding whether to do one thing or the other, always choose the harder thing. That way, you rule out being lazy.I can't tell you how many times I've used that piece of advice and seen the benefits.

20

19

2007-08-03 13:07:46 UTC

38,997

38,905

ashu

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

oh i absolutely love this app. fantastically well executed. i had implemented a version of this - nowhere close to as pretty - for our internal use at CMU (our group still actively uses it), but i am going to switch now. please, please allow bookmarking of songs soon (just noting the metadata of course.) cause there's lots of quality stuff to be discovered soon!

null

5

40

2007-08-03 13:07:57 UTC

39,004

38,859

garbowza

Please Build Me Something Useful: A Letter To Web 2.0 Developers

rchambers

I understand his point, but I think he supports it poorly. Of course a product that has 1 review is not likely to benefit greatly from that single review. But when I buy a product, or book a hotel, I look at dozens of reviews from other people and I get a good sense of the pros and cons of what I might buy. I can then gauge those perspectives against what is important to me. And I find that overall they are almost all correct -- in aggregate.

have a confession to make. I have tried out hundreds of Web 2.0 applications, and there is one and only one that I use almost every day. You see, the problem with Web 2.0 is that I'm not a social person.

1

29

2007-08-03 13:25:14 UTC

39,005

38,967

pg

Perl advocacy, smells like blub.

edu

For me this had the opposite of the intended effect. Before I read it all I was thinking was "You don't hear as much about Perl lately." Now it's "Perl seems to be sinking."

null

1

5

2007-08-03 13:33:25 UTC

39,012

38,967

staunch

Perl advocacy, smells like blub.

edu

I found cromatic's article fairly weak. It's basically impossible to get past the amount of uncoolness Perl has collected and not really worth trying. But I use it and enjoy it tons despite the snide remarks I must endure. A small price to pay in my opinion.It's obvious to anyone being honest that the main reason most people don't like Perl is for the same laughable reason they don't like Lisp: the syntax looks scary at first. Few people really get past that point without coming to at least respect its power.For web development I'm using Catalyst[1] DBIx::Class[2] and Template Toolkit[3] combined with CPAN[4] it's an unstoppable combination. Most of my work is plugging modules together cleanly. My code is small, efficient, and rock solid.I've dabbled with Python and Ruby quite a bit but I just don't find significant advantages and missing CPAN always hurts. It's good that there are lots of people writing Python and Ruby code now. In 5 years there might be enough libraries to make them as useful as Perl is today.1. http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Manual/lib/Catalyst/Man...2. http://search.cpan.org/~mstrout/DBIx-Class-0.08003/lib/DBIx/...3. http://template-toolkit.org/docs/manual/Intro.html4. http://search.cpan.org/

null

0

5

2007-08-03 14:09:12 UTC

39,021

38,951

ivankirigin

Web4.0 -- The Semantic Web

nreece

I like the note about privacy. I believe it -- we need to push for a transparent society. Certain activities will always be easy to do anonymously, but certain capabilities are just founded on identity persistence. I'm curious if there could be a framework that has great persistence of preferences and identity, and maintains anonymity.Another note: it's all just software. That makes it easier to acheive if you integrate systems. It also limits reach. You still need to move your ass from point A to B to C. Most of the time, you'll need to pay attention while doing it -- automated driving isn't part of web 4.0.Also, there is a ton of legwork involved in services. Many services demand people behind them. It would be nice if humans were only needed to thing -- to have and share desires/preferences/thoughts. Right now, only a minority of people have the luxury to do that full-time.

null

0

11

2007-08-03 14:45:13 UTC

39,022

39,020

Alex3917

Disney pays $350M for children's site plus more if growth goals are met

Alex3917

Expect to see 300 million dollars worth of penguin banner ads in the second half of next year.

null

0

1

2007-08-03 14:45:36 UTC

39,025

38,968

ivankirigin

Any1 working on/has a "hardware" tech startup?

rokhayakebe

Hardware is, err, hard. Scaling to the masses means reliability engineering and thoughts given to logistics, manufacturing, etc.Getting a version 1 out the door can be extremely expensive. Perhaps the revolution in China is changing this, making it much easier to build things in 10s and 100s.And any interesting product will also have software. This makes it a superset of software startups.

null

0

3

2007-08-03 14:49:49 UTC

39,027

38,905

luxiou

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone! We've had a few rough patches over the past 12 hours, but we're up and running again (special thanks to the Dropbox team for their help). As a random aside, it turns out we're getting far more traffic from del.icio.us than TC right now.

null

0

40

2007-08-03 15:18:15 UTC

39,028

39,019

paulgb

The 100 Daily Must-Reads for Entrepreneurs (By Category)

drm237

I like how they list 8 productivity blogs. Anyone who is subscribed to 8 productivity blogs is probably not taking the advice.

Missing some important ones, but being broken down by category makes it semi-appealing...

2

6

2007-08-03 15:20:59 UTC

39,030

38,905

whacked_new

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Songs are being uploaded by the second already. Looks like a winner!

null

8

40

2007-08-03 15:21:46 UTC

39,032

38,968

prakash

Any1 working on/has a "hardware" tech startup?

rokhayakebe

nope. but bug labs is.. http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2006/05/introducing_bug.h... http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/07/30/bugLabsInitialRe...

null

2

3

2007-08-03 15:26:53 UTC

39,036

38,905

anson

[New YC startup] Listen To Your Music anywhere on the web with Anywhere.FM

immad

Thanks for all your valuable feedback and comments, it is really motivating :). Now some advice I wish I followed... sleep a LONG time the day before you launch ;).

null

1

40

2007-08-03 15:37:51 UTC

39,037

38,976

daniel-cussen

Buxfer + Amazon = Transfer money online (Free till Aug 31)

ashu

"Buxfer may terminate your access to the Website or your membership at any time, for any reason, and without warning, which may result in the forfeiture and destruction of all information associated with your membership."Ouch.Legalese aside, this new deal with Amazon means you guys are currently a free alternative to Western Union and will soon be a cheaper alternative to the same, right?

With Amazon Payments, you can accrue balances in an online account (similar to your Paypal account balance). Transfers involving Amazon accounts are instantaneously processed as well. You can read more about it at: http://www.buxfer.com/blog/2007/08/03/buxfer-amazon-settle-y...Regardless of what this means for Buxfer, we think it's a good step forward in challenging the Paypal monopoly.

0

31

2007-08-03 15:40:48 UTC

39,039

39,019

run4yourlives

The 100 Daily Must-Reads for Entrepreneurs (By Category)

drm237

I would imagine that anyone who has the time to read 100 blogs daily isn't really cut out to be much of an entrepreneur.

Missing some important ones, but being broken down by category makes it semi-appealing...

1

6

2007-08-03 15:50:16 UTC

39,043

39,019

pg

The 100 Daily Must-Reads for Entrepreneurs (By Category)

drm237

There is something fishy about this site. Businesscreditcards.com? And all the pages seem to be lists. Presumably it is an SEO guy who has realized that with comparatively little effort (e.g. by combining delicious tags with feed subscriber numbers) you can compile lists of the most popular sites on some topic.

Missing some important ones, but being broken down by category makes it semi-appealing...

0

6

2007-08-03 15:59:45 UTC

39,051

39,049

samb

The job title of the future for marketing departments is Video Producer

samb

This is an especially poignant post for me today. My company just closed it's first customer via YouTube. The sale closed in less than 24 hours. Considering we sell high-end scanning products our sales cycle is normally much, much longer. A quick demo video cut through the noise. We don't expect that to be the norm, but for customers with red-hot pain, it provides all the information they need to feel confident stroking a check.

null

0

2

2007-08-03 16:26:32 UTC

39,052

38,890

byrneseyeview

7 Years of paulgraham.com (via archive.org)

sbraford

Huh. I found two new essays:http://paulgraham.com/mistakes.htmlhttp://store.yahoo.com/secrets.html

null

0

7

2007-08-03 16:27:38 UTC

39,053

39,048

pg

The Best Products Designs of 2007

samb

I wish they would stop trying to make me watch slideshows. Just give me everything on a web page.

null

0

1

2007-08-03 16:35:35 UTC

39,057

39,056

Jd

Lamenting the Loss of Reddit

Jd

Perhaps it is true that profitability and quality content correlate inversely?

null

3

16

2007-08-03 16:45:41 UTC

39,063

38,976

jamiequint

Buxfer + Amazon = Transfer money online (Free till Aug 31)

ashu

Amazon FPS + Buxfer = Crazy Delicious ??

With Amazon Payments, you can accrue balances in an online account (similar to your Paypal account balance). Transfers involving Amazon accounts are instantaneously processed as well. You can read more about it at: http://www.buxfer.com/blog/2007/08/03/buxfer-amazon-settle-y...Regardless of what this means for Buxfer, we think it's a good step forward in challenging the Paypal monopoly.

3

31

2007-08-03 17:07:33 UTC

39,065

39,059

dannyv

A Guide to Micro Seed Funding (by Dan Veltri, Weebly)

drusenko

I thought this would be of interest to people considering applying to Y Combinator or the other micro seed funding programs - but YC's clearly best. I had to write this for school in order to graduate (on Monday!) so I figured I'd do it on something relevant.- Dan

null

0

15

2007-08-03 17:13:45 UTC

39,070

38,968

aarontait

Any1 working on/has a "hardware" tech startup?

rokhayakebe

I'm doing a plain old piece of software for a start up. You know, the kind you install onto your machine and it integrates nicely with the operating system. Yea, I miss those days too. Sorry, I want to do hardware in the future though.

null

6

3

2007-08-03 17:20:44 UTC

39,078

39,054

Lockheed

My startup idea: ClipArena.com - I made it in one week. What do you think?

vuknje

Honestly, it looks GREAT! and it works great! I love the concept. Kind of HotOrNot+Video mashup. Sweet.[get rid of that "sexy " stuff. Look at dailymotion.com .Now they are working hard to get rid of the porn content.Reason, they didnt care about it in the beginning ]

null

4

19

2007-08-03 17:51:27 UTC

39,079

38,951

natrius

Web4.0 -- The Semantic Web

nreece

Ok, those were some interesting ideas, but please don't version the web.

null

4

11

2007-08-03 17:51:36 UTC

39,080

38,976

hira_khan

Buxfer + Amazon = Transfer money online (Free till Aug 31)

ashu

Sounds like an interesting idea - Whats the user base of Buxfer at the moment ?

With Amazon Payments, you can accrue balances in an online account (similar to your Paypal account balance). Transfers involving Amazon accounts are instantaneously processed as well. You can read more about it at: http://www.buxfer.com/blog/2007/08/03/buxfer-amazon-settle-y...Regardless of what this means for Buxfer, we think it's a good step forward in challenging the Paypal monopoly.

2

31

2007-08-03 17:53:48 UTC