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36,159 | 35,015 |
shahper
|
The Equity Equation
|
rams
|
Sorry for my ignorance, how can one calculate his company value ?
| null | 24 | 72 |
2007-07-23 19:32:33 UTC
|
36,161 | 36,152 |
zach
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
I got a chuckle that you had to link to Adpinion, because practically every page on paulgraham.com has already been submitted.
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 9 | 31 |
2007-07-23 19:42:09 UTC
|
36,165 | 35,824 |
anxman
|
San Francisco news.yc Meetup - Friday, July 27th
|
jamiequint
|
This is the same night as the TechCrunch party ... might be a small amount of overlap
|
We have somewhat limited space so RSVP soon. Looking forward to meeting some fellow news.yc-ers
| 3 | 19 |
2007-07-23 19:49:41 UTC
|
36,168 | 36,096 |
dhouston
|
"I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major Googler" (Song)
|
amichail
|
(from http://lauren.vortex.com/googler-lyrics )"Our data store of your actions makes NSA's look just like toys,"bet their pr folks love that one.
| null | 0 | 3 |
2007-07-23 19:58:46 UTC
|
36,172 | 36,137 |
Alex3917
|
The Real Problem With Alexa (a rant from the founder of Slashdot)
|
damien
|
"It uses a broken methodology to measure the internet and is, for reasons unclear to anyone, regarded as somehow definitive simply because it allows you to compare two sites with a single simple number."As opposed to IQ, GPA, SATs, LOC, Meyers-Briggs, Megapixels, Megahertz, Merit Badges, Horsepower, US News Rank, Karma points, etc.?Someone should really write down some theory on what can be measured and what can't be measured. You'd think we'd have some idea after 2,500+ years of philosophy, but it doesn't much seem that way.
| null | 0 | 25 |
2007-07-23 20:22:18 UTC
|
36,173 | 36,132 |
dhouston
|
The Nike Software Engineering Process
|
mmaunder
|
all of those processes arose precisely because "just do it" doesn't scale. even for a small team, things like functional specs and other plans can save a lot of suffering (e.g. joel spolsky's 'painless functional specs' and other writings -- http://joelonsoftware.com )
| null | 0 | 7 |
2007-07-23 20:23:18 UTC
|
36,180 | 36,178 |
paul
|
e7: a new Lisp dialect inspired by Python
|
paul
|
Also see http://e7code.org/
|
Also see http://e7code.org/
| 3 | 22 |
2007-07-23 20:37:08 UTC
|
36,181 | 36,152 |
Tichy
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
Hm, interesting, but slightly weird concept. If the users are willing to vote actively for their favorite ads, why not let them do it on your homepage to begin with?On the other hand, why voting, isn't click/no click sufficient information to judge the effectiveness of ads (seems to work for Google Adwords)?
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 4 | 31 |
2007-07-23 20:37:15 UTC
|
36,182 | 36,087 |
Tichy
|
Supporting Your Family: So Easy a Caveman Could Do it
|
eastsidegringo
|
In "why is sex fun" I read that gathering is actually much more efficient than hunting (and people worked an average of 6 hours/day - for the society in that study anyway). One theory then stated that the point of hunting was to be a bigshot now and then, which would enable you to seduce more women. It still seems to be the major motivator for making a career today...
|
You've heard the expression "bringing home the bacon", usually used when referring to a man making money for his family. This phrase goes back to the Hunter/Gatherers (or as I'll show you it should be phrased, the Gatherer/Hunters). Women would gather the food and materials that everyone needed and the men would go and hunt Woolly Mammoth and everyone worked an average of 2 hours each day. Now we can have an even better existence and we can do this by supporting our wives.
| 0 | 4 |
2007-07-23 20:42:33 UTC
|
36,188 | 36,184 |
jsjenkins168
|
The Web is inherently an inadequate application development platform.
|
tiki12revolt
|
"What's missing is the support necessary for large-scale application development."This is exactly what Google Web Toolkit aims to solve. But its amazingly under-appreciated and I'm still not sure why.. I suspect the learning curve is a put-off to many developers. Or simply b/c it uses Java, that could also be it."The only way to fix many of these issues would be to strip away the browser, to strip away JavaScript, to change the nature of HTTP and the related conventions."Supposedly HTML5 aims to do some of this. W3C is reconsidering this new standard to address some of the inherent problems being described.
|
Is this even a valid argument today?
| 1 | 3 |
2007-07-23 20:55:09 UTC
|
36,190 | 36,178 |
dpapathanasiou
|
e7: a new Lisp dialect inspired by Python
|
paul
|
If you're in NYC next month (Aug. 14, to be exact), you might be interested in Perry Metzger's presentation: "Otter, a new dialect of Lisp. Otter is strongly influenced by Scheme and Python, with some bits of inspiration from Common Lisp, Perl and other languages thrown in, as well as some strange ideas Perry came up up with on his own."(see the LispNYC site for details on the meeting: http://lispnyc.org/home.clp)
|
Also see http://e7code.org/
| 1 | 22 |
2007-07-23 21:02:24 UTC
|
36,191 | 36,045 |
mynameishere
|
Top Job Interview Questions (Great for introspection)
|
nickb
|
I prefer questions of the genre, "Please implement a hashmap on the white board."
| null | 0 | 5 |
2007-07-23 21:09:37 UTC
|
36,196 | 36,184 |
pg
|
The Web is inherently an inadequate application development platform.
|
tiki12revolt
|
...just like the first microprocessors were.
|
Is this even a valid argument today?
| 0 | 3 |
2007-07-23 21:29:44 UTC
|
36,199 | 36,185 |
nostrademons
|
Is Cambridge the new hub of Northeast startups?
|
herdrick
|
I'd actually extend the "startup corridor" out to include most of the Red Line, from South Station to Davis (and possibly to Alewife, soon). There're a bunch of financial startups in the financial district between Downtown Crossing and South Station - I interviewed at one and work at another. And the Porter/Davis area was the birthplace of a number of yCombinator startups, notably Reddit. Many of them are now in Silicon Valley, granted, but they tend to get started near Davis where rents are low.
| null | 0 | 5 |
2007-07-23 21:40:48 UTC
|
36,200 | 36,152 |
Leon
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
Oh snap! I went to some random PG essay to see which ad agency PG would put up and was immediately disappointed to see an ad for Mortgages, which was entirely off-base for the page, but then an up/down mod appeared! What?! That was awesome! Down clicking made a 'Sorry' box appear and the ad was gone! Huzzah!But still, what will happen when an advertisement that a group pays for is consistently down-modded into oblivion, essentially nullifying any chance for it to appear? How will the YC startup handle the irate company? I know an answer would be that they should change their advertisements, but still, some companies may get angry at the YC startup that the money they payed for advertisement didn't do any good. How will they handle that situation? I'm guessing the advertisements are charged on a per-click bases, but is there a base charge, or tiered pricing for size of initial random viewing of web-pages registered with the company?If the YC startup can't fulfill a promise of at least some level of ad-viewer-ship, then why should a company have their ads go through them?
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 0 | 31 |
2007-07-23 21:42:27 UTC
|
36,205 | 36,152 |
rokhayakebe
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
I wonder when people are going to get it. We have been talking about "IN-vertising" for ever but NO, NO, NO. We still want to guess what the user wants. No software can tell what a user wants better than the user him/herself. I believe we should spend more time and resources providing users with services that let the user initially decide the ads they want. For me send anything that rhymes with coffee, mobility, startups and thick women. Block the other ads. If I feel like buying a car in the next few weeks, then let me pull the firefox or IE plugin and tell it to serve me a few VW Golf ads and listings. Would it be hard to build such a plugin?
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 13 | 31 |
2007-07-23 22:01:28 UTC
|
36,206 | 36,139 |
byrneseyeview
|
C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success
|
yubrew
|
Loved the article, though I have to wonder how useful this "Founders at Home" stuff is -- I read all the time, as do most of my friends, but most of my more entrepreneurial acquaintances don't have the time. It isn't stated in the article, but having a huge library is probably something you should do either before you start or after you sell out.
| null | 3 | 11 |
2007-07-23 22:02:18 UTC
|
36,209 | 36,152 |
rokhayakebe
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
One thing I will give the YC guys though is that you can make some hell of user friendly website. I know what the site does within 5 seconds. Anyone has a few spare hours to spend on my website?
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 8 | 31 |
2007-07-23 22:05:32 UTC
|
36,211 | 36,197 |
ashu
|
Thin Websites Sell More
|
pg
|
i think it would be interesting to see how much of it is dependent on content _columns_ being thin vs. the entire site being thin.
| null | 4 | 10 |
2007-07-23 22:17:27 UTC
|
36,215 | 36,185 |
pg
|
Is Cambridge the new hub of Northeast startups?
|
herdrick
|
No, the old one.
| null | 2 | 5 |
2007-07-23 22:24:26 UTC
|
36,216 | 36,197 |
rachel27
|
Thin Websites Sell More
|
pg
|
Is this true for all industries???
| null | 5 | 10 |
2007-07-23 22:27:22 UTC
|
36,217 | 36,178 |
mattculbreth
|
e7: a new Lisp dialect inspired by Python
|
paul
|
Cool. Interested in PG's take on it.
|
Also see http://e7code.org/
| 2 | 22 |
2007-07-23 22:48:00 UTC
|
36,218 | 36,152 |
staunch
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
It's an exciting idea because it has that magic "Why didn't anyone do this before" feel to it. That's always a good sign. Good luck. I haven't had any coffee yet but I totally missed the voting thumbs on the left, and I was looking for them. Not sure if that's good or bad though.
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 1 | 31 |
2007-07-23 22:49:58 UTC
|
36,219 | 36,176 |
mattculbreth
|
Top social networks for engagement - some suprises
|
jeremyliew
|
I think you have to consider buzz and momentum, especially with the developer crowd. It's pretty clear that Facebook is winning there, and may very well be the only game in town. Let's take these stats again in six months and see where we are.(I say this not even using Facebook very much, but it's pretty clear that the demographics and momentum favor it.)
| null | 0 | 6 |
2007-07-23 22:54:03 UTC
|
36,220 | 35,944 |
mattmaroon
|
Why Feedburner is trouble
|
dshah
|
That's perhaps the most useless and poorly thought out argument I've ever read about anything. I found a anti-evolution propoganda pamphlet in an airport a week ago that was more cogent.
| null | 1 | 7 |
2007-07-23 23:01:28 UTC
|
36,228 | 36,197 |
ed
|
Thin Websites Sell More
|
pg
|
I'm reposting my argument from the blog comments:"Given the screenshot you posted, I wouldn't really buy into your conclusions because you never really adjusted your designs to fit the varying widths. I think I can agree that have a landing page take up 100% of the available width is a bad thing, but it's not because the user is spending time turning their head to read content (that's a pretty poor argument); rather it's because users like to see visual boundaries -- where the content of the site begins and ends. Your widened versions appear to do a poor job of managing the space and as a result look more amateur than the thinner, more condensed versions. There are multiple problems that I can spot right away with your widescreen version -- for example, the user preferred width of a column of text is 3.5", and the right-hand utilities section of the header appears to be disconnected from the rest of the page. Problems such as those, stemming from the design of the page (independent of its width) are probably more than enough to explain the difference in bounce rates."Furthermore, are you arguing that the decision made by CNN, Digg, CNet (et al.) to switch to a native 1024x768 design was wrong? I think the conservative argument you make in your post is quite backward -- online store owners would do better to expand their site designs and provide an enhanced experience for customers."
| null | 0 | 10 |
2007-07-24 00:06:26 UTC
|
36,229 | 36,117 |
bcater
|
Question: Do any of you use a software engineering "process"?
|
mynameishere
|
I once worked on a small software project with two other people, and because the requirements and restrictions were so rigid, we didn't have to do much more than work out a UI - the system itself was pretty straightforward to implement. Thus, we figured out what each of us had done before or had a good working knowledge of and started coding. Currently, I'm working on a much larger project with one other person. Our strategy so far is to try something, figure out why it didn't work, and then try something different. It reminds me of what one of my former math teachers told me: "Whatever you do, don't just stare at the problem. Do something, even if you know it's wrong."
|
I've been involved in different kinds of software processes, and the most effective for small projects seems to be:1. Talk generally about what we want to achieve.2. Mock up some screens.3. Agree on relevant technologies (language, platform, data store).4. Assign responsibilities.5. Commence.
Needless to say, this is not your typical "big company" software process. I've also been involved in more complicated processes that would involve multi-month-long documentation orgies, in which 50-150 page requirements and design documents would be made, remade, and remade (often for code that would total less than a thousand lines, and that was conceptially just a CRUD app).Can any of you small-company types describe your process, if any? What is most effective for you?
| 3 | 5 |
2007-07-24 00:08:21 UTC
|
36,235 | 36,231 |
motoko
|
The Fall of Pancho Villa (a metaphoric warning for cowboy hackers...)
|
motoko
|
The most interesting lesson of this story is the purpose of reserves. I feel like ---especially here at YC news--- the attitude is always "charge full strength ahead! Work 80 hours a week and just release something as soon as possible!"The problem with this tactic is that when you need reserves to seize some unforeseen opportunity, you don't have any. For a startup, "reserves" could be something as simple as extra cash, employees not already committed to an 80 hour crunch, or your own health and morale.
| null | 0 | 2 |
2007-07-24 00:30:41 UTC
|
36,236 | 35,787 |
yongfook
|
Post-Mortem of a Tokyo-based Web Start-up
|
earthboundkid
|
Interesting comments from everyone. A couple I would like to address."god damn, that guy has a lot of pictures of himself in that article"Yes, yes I do. Read my blog and you'll discover that I'm a total narcissist. It's all part of the blog theme."Is this really true, when you take into account startups that fight tooth and nail and still don't succeed? Is it better to start with the confidence, money, and connections of other people and then ride the wave of their support, or is it better to start with nothing other than your own belief in yourself and then fight tooth and nail until you get the confidence, money, and connections of others?"Good point. My point then is that you need all of the above. If you have connections, capital and a good idea - then sorry, you're a carbon copy of thousands of other tech entrepreneurs. What separates you from them? Anyone can always get more capital if you poke around a bit. Anyone can get more connections if you spend more time schmoozing. What you can't simply "get" is an emotional attachment to whatever you are doing. That's something that has to be there from the beginning, I think. That is what I learned from this experience."Problem 1: trying to build 3 apps while doing consulting work (no focus)"Definitely. I absolutely agree. However, we were in no position to argue (much) and as I said in the post, the relationship we had with the supposed investor was flawed."Problem 2: the author was a dick to his only employee (wtf? why?)"Ken wasn't an employee. He was being paid the same as me and provided similar functions, although I naturally took on more of a leadership role, being the more experienced. I'm a dick anyway, but yes, I was hard on Ken because I expected him to help me as much as possible not to fuck up the opportunity I thought we had. But when you are ready to launch and you find that there are lots of basic errors in the HTML or front end code because advice you've given over and over hasn't been taken in, it's hard to remain cool and collected, especially if it's with a mate.If anything, being in that situation taught me that I am not fit to be a boss and not fit to team lead. I am much better working alone, and my individual work speaks for itself. That is why I am now leaning towards solo consulting as the focus of my career.
| null | 1 | 16 |
2007-07-24 00:33:24 UTC
|
36,241 | 36,185 |
tipjoy
|
Is Cambridge the new hub of Northeast startups?
|
herdrick
|
Don't discount those of us in Arlington!
| null | 3 | 5 |
2007-07-24 01:20:59 UTC
|
36,242 | 36,185 |
ivankirigin
|
Is Cambridge the new hub of Northeast startups?
|
herdrick
|
I used to work for a company that entirely guided their office move by "is it still in Cambridge?". Gotta keep that 02138. Too bad they were an SBIR crackhouse.But there is no denying the number of brains here. What did PG say? Silicon Valley has the VCs, Cambridge has the brains?
| null | 1 | 5 |
2007-07-24 01:23:36 UTC
|
36,243 | 36,197 |
mynameishere
|
Thin Websites Sell More
|
pg
|
29 percent of visitors are using 800x600 resolution?Hmm...just over 1 percent of visitors to my site have 800x600. Very different markets, perhaps...
| null | 3 | 10 |
2007-07-24 01:23:50 UTC
|
36,244 | 36,152 |
ivankirigin
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
I hate ads. Everyone hates ads. Why would we take what is largely an automated process (extracting information from a site to guide ads), and make humans do it?With the idea to "make something people want", isn't it a bad idea to make something a minority want and the vast majority will fight against? Especially considering the majority's clicks are all that matter.
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 3 | 31 |
2007-07-24 01:26:30 UTC
|
36,251 | 36,231 |
migpwr
|
The Fall of Pancho Villa (a metaphoric warning for cowboy hackers...)
|
motoko
|
"That's a real un-Mexican thing to do, accusing yourself like that."What a moron... the whole piece is full of nonsense like this.
| null | 1 | 2 |
2007-07-24 02:09:56 UTC
|
36,253 | 36,247 |
pg
|
Andy Rutledge: Quiet Structure
|
pg
|
This is the kind of thing we emphasize at YC. Step 1 in web design: don't have irregularity by accident. Only make stuff vary when you want to draw attention to it.
| null | 0 | 10 |
2007-07-24 02:16:41 UTC
|
36,255 | 36,152 |
Alex3917
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
There was a lot of hype when Seth Godin implemented this idea on Squidoo back in December. I haven't heard much about it since. That's not to say it's a bad idea, but rather that it's not some miracle technology with guaranteed easy money.I thought it had a lot of potential at the time and I still think it has a lot of potential now. The only problem is that until there is a large body of ads you get very scatterbrained results.
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 2 | 31 |
2007-07-24 02:39:26 UTC
|
36,256 | 36,152 |
daniel-cussen
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
I hate ads as much as the next guy. But somehow, I still voted up an ad at the end of a pg essay. It worked on me.The UI is good, the idea is really elegant, and it is well executed.
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 11 | 31 |
2007-07-24 02:40:04 UTC
|
36,261 | 36,139 |
myoung8
|
C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success
|
yubrew
|
correlation != causationodds are fortune 500 CEO's just happen to like to read, it's not a prerequisite for success. journalistic sensationalism at its worst.
| null | 1 | 11 |
2007-07-24 02:52:44 UTC
|
36,269 | 36,152 |
brlewis
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
I would suggest instead of "Sorry" say, "OK, Bye." I think the latter would be more satisfying.I adblock only distracting animated ads. Will they notice a pattern if I downvote according to ad style, or is it only based on ad topic?
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 10 | 31 |
2007-07-24 03:31:57 UTC
|
36,270 | 36,139 |
daniel-cussen
|
C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success
|
yubrew
|
Anecdotes prove nothing.I know a few writers and I know a few entrepreneurs. The writers read their whole lives. The entrepreneurs I know never read all that much. I know a businessman who will only read books if they're bestsellers. I've even met entrepreneurs who have never voluntarily read a book. As far as I can tell, the guys who devote time to reading will never do as well as the guys to devote time to making money.
| null | 0 | 11 |
2007-07-24 03:43:53 UTC
|
36,274 | 36,152 |
nickb
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
http://www.kuro5hin.org/ had ads that you can comment on etc. but it never worked out. These new ads are a step forward with the targeting system.Still, I'd like to know how many people actually care about seeing ads.
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 6 | 31 |
2007-07-24 04:24:53 UTC
|
36,275 | 36,260 |
zaidf
|
Nokia buys Twango for $100M, continues social media sharing push
|
jsjenkins168
|
100M for a site most of us haven't heard of? Beats me! Hopefully they know what they're doing.
| null | 0 | 6 |
2007-07-24 04:36:19 UTC
|
36,278 | 36,197 |
dood
|
Thin Websites Sell More
|
pg
|
The scope of the experiment is so narrow that I wouldn't draw any conclusions based on this, unless I was making a cheaply-designed, SEO-driven, diet-pill selling website. Even then, the difference could be attributed to poor design (irrespective of width).
| null | 2 | 10 |
2007-07-24 05:16:14 UTC
|
36,283 | 35,938 |
menloparkbum
|
Note to Founders: Have Vesting
|
jcwentz
|
My cynical side remembers doing all the grunt work for 18 months at my first startup and then getting sacked to free up my unvested stock for the hopeless flotilla of "key hires" who proceeded to sink the company.
| null | 9 | 50 |
2007-07-24 05:34:04 UTC
|
36,284 | 36,055 |
menloparkbum
|
Andrew Chen: In a year, will Facebook be bigger? Or MySpace? Let's bet ;-)
|
andrew_null
|
You could always just build a bot that adds 20000 MySpace accounts per day in order to ensure that MySpace stays ahead.
|
While MySpace is over 2X larger (109MM instead of 47MM), the Facebook growth in the last month was 22% whereas MySpace's was about 4.3%. If this rate were to continue, then Facebook would pass MySpace in about 7 months.Will Facebook overtake MySpace? How long will it likely take?
| 4 | 7 |
2007-07-24 05:42:47 UTC
|
36,285 | 36,276 |
s_baar
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
I don't have any experience, but this looks like a solid plan. If you mean what you say, I'm sure you'll be fine. Just keep focused!
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 12 | 23 |
2007-07-24 05:56:15 UTC
|
36,288 | 36,060 |
7media
|
Build and here comes visitors do not work? why is that?
|
7media
|
okay lets for instance take a blog which I have coded and designed. I need to make it popular by giving it for free, ofcourse they will have to have their own servers etc. But what exactly will the users want? will they want their blog to be very easy to use, yes. will they want their blog to load quickly and have some and not zillion templates yes. this is the tip of the iceberg, how will i know what they are looking for exactly, the real reason to choose a blog.The only reason I coded and designed my blog is because I was getting tired of wordpress frequent outages and customization. In the process I learnt php and various other factors in setting up to get to know people.
|
Does it mean it will not work without VC funding? And do names matter anymore with names such as Reddit and Digg or is it a word with a .com?
| 4 | 3 |
2007-07-24 06:14:03 UTC
|
36,289 | 36,247 |
gibsonf1
|
Andy Rutledge: Quiet Structure
|
pg
|
A very impressive and convincing presentation for letting graphic form follow function - letting the content rule.
| null | 1 | 10 |
2007-07-24 06:20:08 UTC
|
36,291 | 36,137 |
tx
|
The Real Problem With Alexa (a rant from the founder of Slashdot)
|
damien
|
He is absolutely right: confounding is explained in the first chapter of any book on statistics. Alexa's stats do not fall into "randomized controlled" category of studies, therefore they are pretty much guaranteed to be wrong.
| null | 1 | 25 |
2007-07-24 06:51:34 UTC
|
36,294 | 36,276 |
waleedka
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
That's a big step and it takes courage. Good for you. I like most of your plan, except for one point: Why the 4-month delay? Study and a pet project!!! Doesn't seem like a high priority thing for someone who's betting his career on a startup. It sounds like an excuse to delay starting the hard work of a startup. Plus, I'm guessing that you'll be living off of your savings. If that's the case, then you have a limited time to do the try/fail cycle a few times before you have to get back to a full-time job. I think you should start right away, and you can do your study on the side.Best of luck.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 3 | 23 |
2007-07-24 07:23:39 UTC
|
36,297 | 36,276 |
bootload
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
"... which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy) ..."added an article you are probably familiar with just the other day ~ http://rchi.raskincenter.org/index.php?title=Core_Principles Archys core principles are ... - data is sacred, never lose your work
- train of thought is sacred
- content & commands primal
- never do more work than necessary
"... I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose ..."How about adding mouse support?Think it was in a Woz podcast I heard woz saying Raskin had a thing against mice and liked keyboards better (but everywhere I search I see the contrary - suggested 3 button mouse for mac etc ~ http://tinyurl.com/2lespx )
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 2 | 23 |
2007-07-24 07:48:56 UTC
|
36,298 | 36,100 |
menloparkbum
|
If we were on the west coast, we'd have been funded by now.
|
nabeel
|
4 of the five points are false. I can't comment on the personal network.Cambridge's real advantages over the Bay Area are that the weather is bad and there isn't anything interesting to do (how many times can you go to 1369 or People's Republik?) Given these constraints, you might as well work 18 hours a day. San Francisco has the opposite problem. If I was yc I'd include a provision that the company has to be in San Mateo or some other boring peninsula/south bay hellhole, and not The City. There are simply too many distractions. I've never heard of a startup based in SF doing anywhere as well as the ones based in Silicon Valley proper.
|
The kind lies that we tell ourselves on the east coast.
| 2 | 11 |
2007-07-24 07:49:22 UTC
|
36,299 | 36,276 |
nickb
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Good luck!!!
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 17 | 23 |
2007-07-24 07:49:30 UTC
|
36,300 | 36,224 |
zach
|
Google Gadget Ventures?
|
drm237
|
I cannot read the name of this program without imagining it spoken by Inspector Gadget.
|
It appears that Google is going head to head with seed investors (like Y combinator) with its Google Gadget Ventures:
| 0 | 4 |
2007-07-24 08:01:58 UTC
|
36,303 | 36,276 |
Keios
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Winter 2008 or summer 2009 is too far out. Work expands to fill time after all. If you aim for Summer 2008 you might be able to do this better.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 5 | 23 |
2007-07-24 08:32:48 UTC
|
36,305 | 36,276 |
JohnN
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
sounds like a good plan, good luck
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 16 | 23 |
2007-07-24 09:06:26 UTC
|
36,308 | 36,276 |
jpmann
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Sounds like an excellent justification for flaky procrastination. You can follow this plan and hope the things you learn on the way can be applied to your startup. Or you can take your best idea, work hard to build it and learn as you go.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 0 | 23 |
2007-07-24 09:48:14 UTC
|
36,311 | 36,276 |
Tichy
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Why not apply for winter 2007?
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 13 | 23 |
2007-07-24 10:15:12 UTC
|
36,312 | 36,281 |
rnesh
|
$100 + $12.95 a month for an easy to use, environmentally friendly Linux PC
|
rms
|
From what I've read, it looks great. I almost want to purchase one just to play around with.
|
I like the business model and this review: http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback202.html says that the overall experience with this box is great.Do you think they will be successful?
| 3 | 7 |
2007-07-24 10:35:53 UTC
|
36,317 | 36,276 |
staunch
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
When I've spent time just learning I've always made it a point to consciously learn at least one new thing everyday. Maybe that rule would help you. Good luck..err..you said criticism not moral support..uh...then...you suck.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 8 | 23 |
2007-07-24 11:22:44 UTC
|
36,319 | 36,178 |
jey
|
e7: a new Lisp dialect inspired by Python
|
paul
|
I ran into the author of this a few months ago at a SuperHappyDevHouse party. He's a pre-IPO Googler and is now working on developing this Lisp dialect.I'd like to propose the "Graham-Tiedemann Law": All Lisp hackers who get rich will go on to create their own Lisp dialect./dislodges tongue from cheek
|
Also see http://e7code.org/
| 0 | 22 |
2007-07-24 11:28:05 UTC
|
36,320 | 36,276 |
rchambers
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Good luck! If you have the luxury of not having to work, great otherwise you might want to add consulting in there in order to gain some real world experience while plugging those holes on your resume. If you can't find consulting work then transition some of that "brainstorming for project" into volunteer or internship work in a larger shop to gain experience. My philosophy is to use other company's time and money to gain experience and work on your own projects on the side.If you do have an idea, don't wait for the straight face. Developing a prototype is fast and you can get something ready to show people your idea quickly. Get out there fast and often but the trick is to focus on obtaining funding if that is your ultimate goal, developing your idea can come after the initial money is in the bank but again that all depends on your financial needs.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 6 | 23 |
2007-07-24 11:30:12 UTC
|
36,328 | 36,281 |
willarson
|
$100 + $12.95 a month for an easy to use, environmentally friendly Linux PC
|
rms
|
I am a slightly uncomfortable about all my data automatically being backed up over the internet, and also being accessible to me anywhere I go via the internet. This seems like a real potential security hole.Its great that they are focusing on creating an environmentally sound computer, but its unfortunate that part of their strategy is buying carbon offsets.
|
I like the business model and this review: http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback202.html says that the overall experience with this box is great.Do you think they will be successful?
| 0 | 7 |
2007-07-24 12:18:48 UTC
|
36,339 | 36,276 |
mynameishere
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
I honestly can't imagine quitting a job without an idea of what product I was building. Watch out for this warning sign: A thought enters your head, "Hey, I'll build an online app that let's people organize their data!!!" That'll sell like madhouse.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 11 | 23 |
2007-07-24 13:33:47 UTC
|
36,341 | 36,276 |
juwo
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
how will you pay your bills?
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 15 | 23 |
2007-07-24 13:37:25 UTC
|
36,347 | 36,276 |
Goladus
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Can you afford it? How will you pay for rent and food? Do you have a co-founder? I left my job last April, and barely made it 2 months without income. If you're not ready to start your company right now, then I recommend figuring out what you can do otherwise to improve your situation. In my case, I got a job at a much better company that's close to Boston. I'm learning a lot, I'm meeting tons of smart people, and I'm close to dozens of good schools. Anyway, good luck, and stay upwind.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 4 | 23 |
2007-07-24 14:47:15 UTC
|
36,348 | 36,260 |
danw
|
Nokia buys Twango for $100M, continues social media sharing push
|
jsjenkins168
|
Twango sounds a lot like Nokias own inhouse "MOSH" application
| null | 1 | 6 |
2007-07-24 14:49:12 UTC
|
36,349 | 36,276 |
zeke
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
I would delay quitting. You should be able to gain skills in four hours per day programming outside of work.
Back when I would quit jobs to take care of stuff, I would have two productive weeks, but this would dwindle to days of reading after that. Only do it if you have enough of a goal and drive, or if this can force you into programming.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 10 | 23 |
2007-07-24 14:51:08 UTC
|
36,350 | 36,304 |
mynameishere
|
MIT's: $100 Laptop Production Begins
|
mmpcse
|
One high-quality computer per school might make more sense. The potential Bill Gateses among them would still find it. I have a bad feeling about the potential expansion of the spam and pron markets these laptops might create. I guess it's to be seen...
| null | 1 | 13 |
2007-07-24 15:00:14 UTC
|
36,351 | 36,333 |
youngnh
|
Why You Probably Won't Survive as an Independent Consultant
|
joshua8883
|
So...its not enough to be good at something to make it in business, you have to be good at the thing that you're not good at to be able to continue doing the thing that you're actually good at.
|
Don't take the title of this blog post wrong. I hope you survive as an Independent Consultant... I really do. Yet before you jump ship for the bountiful glory that is independent consulting, allow me to tell you the story of Zed - a person much like you that failed to realize the true evil that lurks behind the facade of independent consulting.Meet our Hero: ZedMeet our hero, Zed. Long ago, Zed was working as a star programmer for a consulting company getting paid $30 per hour while billing out $150 per hour to their client (probably more). Zed used his superior analytical skills to learn that his company is being paid $120 per hour more than Zed is being paid. Thats just ludicrous!So Zed did what any entrepreneurial minded superhero would do - he quit his job and went to work for the client as an Independent Consultant. This move now got him paid $60 per hour. The client paid out less, Zed's made twice as much, and that evil consulting company had been banished into oblivion. Everything is now right in the world. Zed is now living the life as an Independent Consultant - the dream job that's easy to start and nearly impossible to sustain.
But Zed's bliss would not last forever. Little did Zed know, that a new menace was about to rear it's ugly head - An evil force known as "Nu Bidnsss." Our Villain: Nu BidnsssWithin his first year of consulting, Zed was protected (financially) from ever having to deal with Nu Bidnsss. He was heavily sheltered in the warmth of a paying client to whom he could enjoy a prosperous life. Yet like every consulting engagement, the client too eventually fell out of love with Zed. Zed's incredible programming abilities eventually gave the client a product they were proud of, and soon Zed would not be needed any longer.One day, as Zed left a client "wrap up" meeting, he felt a cold chill across the back of his neck. He tensed, turned around quickly and saw the most fearsome creature he had ever laid eyes upon - Nu Bidnsss.Nu Bidnsss SucksWithout a lofty paying contract firmly in his hands, Zed did not know how to attack Nu Bidnsss. Beating this evil beast required abilities he had never learned, like salesmanship, networking, and the Shaolin art of the "Ass Kiss." Zed realized at that moment, that his training was all wrong. Until now he had made a great living by being a star programmer. His skills had made him heavily recruited out of college, highly sought-after in his consulting company, and well-paid from clients. Certainly with these skills he would never have to come face-to-face with Nu Bidnsss. Yet here he was, staring it down.The Fall of ZedTry as he might, Zed could not stop the force of Nu Bidnsss. It quickly swallowed up his savings, his second mortgage, and all of his credit cards. As Zed struggled wildly to defeat the beast, he realized that it was not his ability to work for clients that would save his life, it was his ability to get new clients, that would be his lifeblood. Alas, Zed has no frigging clue how to get new clients.
And so Zed was defeated by Nu Bidnsss. Drained of any of his financial resources, emotional excitement and his seemingly endless list of smart-ass remarks, he was taken by Nu Bidnsss and forced to work in the salt mine cubicles of hell - Big Corporate.- The End -EpilogueThis story is as sad as it is consistently true. Surviving as an independent consultant isn't about actually consulting (it's a given that you can do that.) It's about finding new business.As it happens, most people suck at finding new business. Once the Pixie Dust of the first client engagement wears off, the painful reality of having to beg for business becomes very obvious.If you truly want to build a business as a consultant, focus on the business of selling yourself, not specifically on delivery. If you're not good enough to get yourself in the door on your own merits, your life as an Independent Consultant is going to be short-lived at best. Like our boy Zed.
| 1 | 7 |
2007-07-24 15:03:57 UTC
|
36,352 | 36,276 |
euccastro
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Thanks for your comments. I was aware that the initial delay in starting up can be seen as procrastination. I myself am not sure that's not the case, and that's the main reason why I bounce my ideas here. Maybe my comfy self is fooling me, but can it fool the YCnews swarm? ;) Let me add some more context, which I left out of the already long first post.One crucial reason for quitting my job is indeed to focus on learning tasks I had set for myself. It's lack of focus, not time, what has been dragging me so far.The first task is to finish absorbing SICP. I have read the book and watched the lectures before, but only as a quick first contact, skimming most of the latter parts and not doing the exercises. I've found that even this light exposure has made me a much better programmer. This time I'm going more exhaustively, writing down short summaries of the chapters and doing all the exercises as I find them.As for math, I'm more interested in building some math muscle and intuition, rather than any specific knowledge. I have started reading Concrete Mathematics, by Knuth et al., and I find it very demanding but practicable. With my weak math background, this would take forever, and be too easy to put on hold, if I did it on the side of more urgent obligations. I tried.I have other books and learning tasks in the backburner, but yes, those I can learn on the side. The above are the ones I want to finish before letting other focus consuming projects into my head.I've found that the Archy-like editor project is a good playground for the ideas in SICP. The design is sound and well specified, so I can focus more on the programming part. I plan to use this as my hacking environment in the future.I hope to be done earlier than four months with the tasks above. I'll try and hit two months, but I must admit my estimates are often short by a factor or pi, so a 2x padding seems right for a strict timebox.There are other topics to reply; I'll do so in replies to the appropriate comments.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 7 | 23 |
2007-07-24 15:07:52 UTC
|
36,354 | 36,333 |
wschroter
|
Why You Probably Won't Survive as an Independent Consultant
|
joshua8883
|
I've watched this cycle happen so many times with indy consultants that's it's ridiculous. Of course there are situations where you may be so good that work just keeps getting fed under the door, but it's the rare exception.
|
Don't take the title of this blog post wrong. I hope you survive as an Independent Consultant... I really do. Yet before you jump ship for the bountiful glory that is independent consulting, allow me to tell you the story of Zed - a person much like you that failed to realize the true evil that lurks behind the facade of independent consulting.Meet our Hero: ZedMeet our hero, Zed. Long ago, Zed was working as a star programmer for a consulting company getting paid $30 per hour while billing out $150 per hour to their client (probably more). Zed used his superior analytical skills to learn that his company is being paid $120 per hour more than Zed is being paid. Thats just ludicrous!So Zed did what any entrepreneurial minded superhero would do - he quit his job and went to work for the client as an Independent Consultant. This move now got him paid $60 per hour. The client paid out less, Zed's made twice as much, and that evil consulting company had been banished into oblivion. Everything is now right in the world. Zed is now living the life as an Independent Consultant - the dream job that's easy to start and nearly impossible to sustain.
But Zed's bliss would not last forever. Little did Zed know, that a new menace was about to rear it's ugly head - An evil force known as "Nu Bidnsss." Our Villain: Nu BidnsssWithin his first year of consulting, Zed was protected (financially) from ever having to deal with Nu Bidnsss. He was heavily sheltered in the warmth of a paying client to whom he could enjoy a prosperous life. Yet like every consulting engagement, the client too eventually fell out of love with Zed. Zed's incredible programming abilities eventually gave the client a product they were proud of, and soon Zed would not be needed any longer.One day, as Zed left a client "wrap up" meeting, he felt a cold chill across the back of his neck. He tensed, turned around quickly and saw the most fearsome creature he had ever laid eyes upon - Nu Bidnsss.Nu Bidnsss SucksWithout a lofty paying contract firmly in his hands, Zed did not know how to attack Nu Bidnsss. Beating this evil beast required abilities he had never learned, like salesmanship, networking, and the Shaolin art of the "Ass Kiss." Zed realized at that moment, that his training was all wrong. Until now he had made a great living by being a star programmer. His skills had made him heavily recruited out of college, highly sought-after in his consulting company, and well-paid from clients. Certainly with these skills he would never have to come face-to-face with Nu Bidnsss. Yet here he was, staring it down.The Fall of ZedTry as he might, Zed could not stop the force of Nu Bidnsss. It quickly swallowed up his savings, his second mortgage, and all of his credit cards. As Zed struggled wildly to defeat the beast, he realized that it was not his ability to work for clients that would save his life, it was his ability to get new clients, that would be his lifeblood. Alas, Zed has no frigging clue how to get new clients.
And so Zed was defeated by Nu Bidnsss. Drained of any of his financial resources, emotional excitement and his seemingly endless list of smart-ass remarks, he was taken by Nu Bidnsss and forced to work in the salt mine cubicles of hell - Big Corporate.- The End -EpilogueThis story is as sad as it is consistently true. Surviving as an independent consultant isn't about actually consulting (it's a given that you can do that.) It's about finding new business.As it happens, most people suck at finding new business. Once the Pixie Dust of the first client engagement wears off, the painful reality of having to beg for business becomes very obvious.If you truly want to build a business as a consultant, focus on the business of selling yourself, not specifically on delivery. If you're not good enough to get yourself in the door on your own merits, your life as an Independent Consultant is going to be short-lived at best. Like our boy Zed.
| 5 | 7 |
2007-07-24 15:22:28 UTC
|
36,355 | 36,332 |
wschroter
|
SFBeta - Worth Attending?
|
nanijoe
|
it's a good idea to meet Christian, the founder of the event. he's a very open, personable guy and his networking like a madman out there. if you're in the area, it's worth stopping by.
|
For you guys in the bay area, is this a worthwhile event to attend? I live in NJ, but am in the bay area for work, is this a good use of my time? I plan to transition from 'office worker' to a startup in about 6 months, and am hoping I can get something out of the event that will help me in my future role.
| 0 | 2 |
2007-07-24 15:23:31 UTC
|
36,359 | 36,276 |
edw519
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Find a customer who needs something. Do it for them. This will accomplish 3 things: 1. They will finance your endeavors. 2. You will automatically be working on something needed in the marketplace. 3. You will be focusing on what's needed like a laserbeam. DO NOT TAKE THIS ADVICE LIGHTLY! It's what my first mentor told me. I didn't follow this advice. Boy, am I sorry. It is spot on. I wasted years whistling my own tune.When the project is finished, reevaluate. You may be surprised at what you think then.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 14 | 23 |
2007-07-24 15:43:12 UTC
|
36,369 | 36,276 |
lucaf
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
Kudos and good luck to you!I have one piece of advice for you. Make sure that some of your early failures include other people. Many issues that bring down startups at their core are about people, not technology.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 9 | 23 |
2007-07-24 16:32:32 UTC
|
36,377 | 36,306 |
danielha
|
How many registered domains to settle down
|
rustartup
|
You don't have to register every name that you think of. There are some that are available for obvious reasons, but grab the ones that have any potential. They're cheap.
|
How many domains do one register before making final choice? By registering I mean actually paying for it. Now I've already registered several domains for my new venture and still new names keep coming so am forced to fight them or ... register, just in case :)
| 0 | 1 |
2007-07-24 17:04:52 UTC
|
36,379 | 36,365 |
michael_nielsen
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
Buy a watch with a stopwatch. Turn it on when you're actually doing your work - coding, writing, whatever, and turn it off when you're not. My experience is that most people are utterly shocked to find how little they do in a day.To get improvement, record the results (and a 7-day average) in a spreadsheet, graph the results, and pay attention!
| null | 3 | 23 |
2007-07-24 17:10:48 UTC
|
36,389 | 36,365 |
palish
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
One reason RescueTime looks really cool because it's passive. It seems passive products (Last.FM, targeted ads, RescueTime, etc) instead of active products (Every application that only performs its functions only when you interact with it) could become pretty big. Targeted advertisement is a huge success story.
| null | 0 | 23 |
2007-07-24 17:29:36 UTC
|
36,394 | 36,178 |
palish
|
e7: a new Lisp dialect inspired by Python
|
paul
|
What's PG always say..? Something along the lines of, "If competition springs up around what you're doing, you're doing the right thing"?
|
Also see http://e7code.org/
| 4 | 22 |
2007-07-24 17:44:31 UTC
|
36,395 | 36,378 |
palish
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
Heh.. Good luck. Network effect that strong seems almost impossible to break. Come to think of it, does anyone know of any examples where strong network effect was broken, and how? Not just in the online world, either (although it seems network effect in the offline world is only broken through war).
| null | 1 | 19 |
2007-07-24 17:45:42 UTC
|
36,398 | 36,365 |
zach
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
It's great that there's some movement in this market. I used to keep a work log of all the little problems I ran into so I could remember how I fixed them and analyze my effectiveness. From there I started doing full spreadsheet time logs, but it's just plain difficult to keep up. Technology that makes this unobtrusive is very much needed -- I considered making a Google widget just for my own use but it was clearly unproductive to do so!
| null | 1 | 23 |
2007-07-24 17:52:42 UTC
|
36,400 | 36,378 |
brlewis
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
One big issue in going head-to-head with ebay is that you can't ignore software patents the way you would in most web projects.
| null | 7 | 19 |
2007-07-24 18:03:52 UTC
|
36,401 | 36,365 |
vidar
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
This is a great way to monitor your personal work rhythm but plain nasty when your boss is the one checking the charts and micromanaging.
| null | 2 | 23 |
2007-07-24 18:07:27 UTC
|
36,406 | 36,378 |
cbetta
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
What patents would be a problem then? I think there is real legroom for a product that ignores the eBay sweetharts (super-resellers) and focusses more on the individual occasional sellers that use common sense and trust to make a transaction.
| null | 5 | 19 |
2007-07-24 18:29:27 UTC
|
36,421 | 36,333 |
webwright
|
Why You Probably Won't Survive as an Independent Consultant
|
joshua8883
|
People jumping into consulting also don't realize the costs of:-Self employment taxes
-Business expenses
-Vacation (3 weeks a year)
-Holidays (1 week per year)
-Sick Time (1 week per year)
-Errands (a few times a week)
-Bench time (all of the time between projects)You run the numbers and $60/hr starts to feel pretty freakin' ugly.(note: I was a consultant and built a 20 person consulting biz... And then sold it. I'll never be an hourly consultant again, if I can swing it).
|
Don't take the title of this blog post wrong. I hope you survive as an Independent Consultant... I really do. Yet before you jump ship for the bountiful glory that is independent consulting, allow me to tell you the story of Zed - a person much like you that failed to realize the true evil that lurks behind the facade of independent consulting.Meet our Hero: ZedMeet our hero, Zed. Long ago, Zed was working as a star programmer for a consulting company getting paid $30 per hour while billing out $150 per hour to their client (probably more). Zed used his superior analytical skills to learn that his company is being paid $120 per hour more than Zed is being paid. Thats just ludicrous!So Zed did what any entrepreneurial minded superhero would do - he quit his job and went to work for the client as an Independent Consultant. This move now got him paid $60 per hour. The client paid out less, Zed's made twice as much, and that evil consulting company had been banished into oblivion. Everything is now right in the world. Zed is now living the life as an Independent Consultant - the dream job that's easy to start and nearly impossible to sustain.
But Zed's bliss would not last forever. Little did Zed know, that a new menace was about to rear it's ugly head - An evil force known as "Nu Bidnsss." Our Villain: Nu BidnsssWithin his first year of consulting, Zed was protected (financially) from ever having to deal with Nu Bidnsss. He was heavily sheltered in the warmth of a paying client to whom he could enjoy a prosperous life. Yet like every consulting engagement, the client too eventually fell out of love with Zed. Zed's incredible programming abilities eventually gave the client a product they were proud of, and soon Zed would not be needed any longer.One day, as Zed left a client "wrap up" meeting, he felt a cold chill across the back of his neck. He tensed, turned around quickly and saw the most fearsome creature he had ever laid eyes upon - Nu Bidnsss.Nu Bidnsss SucksWithout a lofty paying contract firmly in his hands, Zed did not know how to attack Nu Bidnsss. Beating this evil beast required abilities he had never learned, like salesmanship, networking, and the Shaolin art of the "Ass Kiss." Zed realized at that moment, that his training was all wrong. Until now he had made a great living by being a star programmer. His skills had made him heavily recruited out of college, highly sought-after in his consulting company, and well-paid from clients. Certainly with these skills he would never have to come face-to-face with Nu Bidnsss. Yet here he was, staring it down.The Fall of ZedTry as he might, Zed could not stop the force of Nu Bidnsss. It quickly swallowed up his savings, his second mortgage, and all of his credit cards. As Zed struggled wildly to defeat the beast, he realized that it was not his ability to work for clients that would save his life, it was his ability to get new clients, that would be his lifeblood. Alas, Zed has no frigging clue how to get new clients.
And so Zed was defeated by Nu Bidnsss. Drained of any of his financial resources, emotional excitement and his seemingly endless list of smart-ass remarks, he was taken by Nu Bidnsss and forced to work in the salt mine cubicles of hell - Big Corporate.- The End -EpilogueThis story is as sad as it is consistently true. Surviving as an independent consultant isn't about actually consulting (it's a given that you can do that.) It's about finding new business.As it happens, most people suck at finding new business. Once the Pixie Dust of the first client engagement wears off, the painful reality of having to beg for business becomes very obvious.If you truly want to build a business as a consultant, focus on the business of selling yourself, not specifically on delivery. If you're not good enough to get yourself in the door on your own merits, your life as an Independent Consultant is going to be short-lived at best. Like our boy Zed.
| 2 | 7 |
2007-07-24 19:27:16 UTC
|
36,422 | 36,304 |
ph0rque
|
MIT's: $100 Laptop Production Begins
|
mmpcse
|
I think the question we should be asking is: how can _my_ app be on those kids' computer (assuming they have internet)? Obviously, it would need to be in their language...
| null | 0 | 13 |
2007-07-24 19:27:34 UTC
|
36,424 | 36,378 |
patrickg-zill
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
It's time for the mice to put the bell on the cat.
| null | 4 | 19 |
2007-07-24 19:34:45 UTC
|
36,425 | 36,378 |
jamiequint
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
auctomatic.com anyone?
| null | 8 | 19 |
2007-07-24 19:36:20 UTC
|
36,426 | 36,408 |
DanielH
|
Interview with Seedcamp founder Saul Klein
|
drm237
|
Quite amusing that the interviewer mentions this article in the interview...http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/361373/will-the-geeks...
|
We recently reported on the launch of Seedcamp, a VC-backed project that will provide a shot in the arm to Europe's technology startups.
| 0 | 1 |
2007-07-24 19:45:58 UTC
|
36,427 | 35,015 |
jmah
|
The Equity Equation
|
rams
|
But it's not that simple. Startups are always measured against their competitors. So even if the 1/(1-n) shows that it is a net gain for me, it may be an overall loss if my competitors make deals that are worth significantly more for them.
| null | 13 | 72 |
2007-07-24 20:02:15 UTC
|
36,428 | 36,152 |
ntoshev
|
Ads on paulgraham.com -- Check the bottom of any PG essay
|
prakash
|
This is not such a great idea, but it probably can be tweaked.First, it needs some automated targeting. Does anyone know how AdSense targets ads? I bet the ad ends up on the pages that would be returned from a Google query containing the keywords. The better pagerank, the more expensive the ad. I do not have in mind a good algorithm for adpinion, but they should figure something out - Google's targeting is really good..Second, upclicking doesn't matter and the button is not even needed. The only way the user indicates he likes the ad should be to click through.Third, do not just count votes. Implement the best open recommendation algorithm from Netflix prize contest instead.Downclicking that hides the ad is good and useful.
|
Interesting YC startup plugging in "relevant ads". Check the bottom of any PG essay i.e.: http://paulgraham.com/writing44.html
| 5 | 31 |
2007-07-24 20:12:28 UTC
|
36,435 | 36,365 |
richcollins
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
working hard != working a lot of hours
| null | 5 | 23 |
2007-07-24 20:30:45 UTC
|
36,437 | 36,378 |
kieranoneill
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
So it's time to replace eBay because you can't add the seller as a friend? Right...
| null | 2 | 19 |
2007-07-24 20:33:13 UTC
|
36,443 | 36,365 |
dhouston
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
rescuetime looks really cool guys. would love to give it a shot (i just signed up for the beta using frenetic at gmail dot com).
| null | 9 | 23 |
2007-07-24 21:08:42 UTC
|
36,447 | 36,436 |
pg
|
Superstition: Startups with derivative names fail...
|
aswanson
|
Generalized version: startups fail.
|
Even if you have first mover, e.g. Feedster, Friendster,...so be original.
| 0 | 3 |
2007-07-24 21:23:17 UTC
|
36,448 | 36,446 |
djworth
|
My First Facebook App - I Want One
|
djworth
|
I entered the text below into the text field on the submission form but I guess that only works for posts where the link is blank.This app provides you and your friends the ability to vote on different Amazon.com products. You can add products via an Amazon Search or an Amazon Wish List.Please feel free to check out the app and provide feedback.Thanks!
|
This app provides you and your friends the ability to vote on different Amazon.com products. You can add products via an Amazon Search or an Amazon Wish List.Please feel free to check out the app and provide feedback.Thanks!
| 0 | 1 |
2007-07-24 21:24:03 UTC
|
36,451 | 36,276 |
pg
|
Just sent my resignation letter and this is my plan.
|
euccastro
|
You can combine filling-gaps and applying-to-YC by building something impressive during your 4 months. Building stuff is both the best way to learn about hacking, and the best way get YC's attention.Better still: build something with someone else, who you can then start a startup with.
|
Hi folks. I've just sent in my resignation letter from my job. Damn you all. ;)My immediate plan is to plug the most obvious holes in my CS and math education. Being an art school dropout, I have plenty of those, but there are a few that I really want to address now, because otherwise I know they will be nagging me at inopportune times.I'll also be catching up on the reading recommendations in the Library section of this site. I've read most of them already, but I'm sure many of them will make more sense now.In parallel to such reading, I'll finish a pet project with no business aspirations, which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy). I plan to use that as my programming editor from then on. I did a couple prototypes in the past and I know I like it. I don't like Archy itself because of its compromise of using alt keys for leaping; I got myself a thinkpad-like keyboard with buttons under the space bar for this purpose. Again, this is something I had put on hold for too long, and I want to give it a chance before I commit full force to a startup. I'll timebox 4 months for this although, in good programmer optimism tradition, I hope I'll be done earlier. After that, done or not, I plan to put out a few cheap startup failures fast. This is much in the spirit of the common advice to novice Go players: "lose your first fifty games fast". I'll just brainstorm for projects that I can execute by myself in, say, one month. At the end of the timeboxed period, if the project is not anywhere near shippable state, I shelve it and move to something else. Otherwise, I throw it at people and see what happens. Then follow up on the ones that get a better reaction.From this I expect to get some basic competence in business (esp. marketing and dealing with users), system administration, and fluency in web programming (my background is in user interface design and programming for a MMOG). I also expect to get something I can show to potential cofounders so they can evaluate my taste and my ability to execute. And who knows, maybe something more ambitious grows out of one of these ideas.My goal is to be able to apply to YC with a straight face in winter 2008 or summer 2009.Please let me know what do you think about this. Don't pull any punches; I'm interested in criticism, objections, and alternatives, rather than moral support.Thanks for reading this far!
| 1 | 23 |
2007-07-24 21:31:42 UTC
|
36,453 | 36,378 |
ivankirigin
|
It's Time to Replace eBay
|
danw
|
A bigger division between stores that sell thousands of items, and more regular users, would make sense.While the information architecture is fine, the site is really ugly. There has to be something functional and beautiful, and not just functional and bare like craigslist.The rating system is idiotic -- an early form of karma whoring where the marginal cost of high ratings is too low. Perhaps it would make more sense to gain a point a per day or hour, and a 10 point rating system, where you need to allot scarce points when giving reviews.The payment problem is solved with PayPal and others, so that is a non-issue. People actually trust it.Better templates that allow for easy and beautiful sales pitches would be nice. Some of the 1996 era junk makes me want to run for the nearest far-more-pretty myspace page.Community would make a lot of sense for particular items, like bobble-head dolls and replica light-sabers. Buyers of one rarely have the other, which beckons for sub-culture. Though I did know a guy who had mock light-sabers and a collection of StreetFighter 2 bobble-heads.
| null | 0 | 19 |
2007-07-24 21:32:14 UTC
|
36,456 | 36,365 |
daniel-cussen
|
Think you work hard? Think again.
|
mmaunder
|
I've always wanted to be able to measure how much time I spend actually working. I wish this wasn't a closed beta.This reminds me of that IBM philosophy, that you can only improve what you can measure. This could seriously help me improve my productivity.
| null | 6 | 23 |
2007-07-24 21:35:12 UTC
|
36,457 | 36,281 |
ivankirigin
|
$100 + $12.95 a month for an easy to use, environmentally friendly Linux PC
|
rms
|
"Green" is such a sales pitch, without much substance. Recycling some parts is important. But carbon offsets don't actually offset much energy usage at all. In fact, in subsidizing other forms of energy, people probably use more energy from them. Even the benefit of a low-energy computer is very small when compared to the biggest consumers of power in the home: furnace, AC, water-heating, etc..But I suppose the lesson is that you can leverage misconceptions.And don't get me wrong -- I love tiny computers. An old MacMini makes a perfect media PC. Bittorrent download boxes needn't be large also. I hope they have a version without the subscription fee.
|
I like the business model and this review: http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback202.html says that the overall experience with this box is great.Do you think they will be successful?
| 2 | 7 |
2007-07-24 21:43:52 UTC
|
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