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ecuzzillo
2007-03-28T03:43:24
null
Or, perhaps more to the point, things that people don't <i>yet</i> want, because they're too new and too alpha. Or things that you don't know how long it will take to produce a product with, but which will definitely one day be useful and people will want them. Robots fall into most of these categories at the moment. I don't doubt that one day people will want tons of them, just like what happened with computers, but I don't think the technology is there yet for an Apple-for-robotics to jump in and succeed as a for-profit company. I hope I'm wrong, and if I'm wrong I hope to be part of what proves me wrong, but that's what I think at the moment.
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lkozma
2007-03-28T03:47:32
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You're talking about Google, right?
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rms
2007-03-28T03:47:51
null
Sorry, I missed the previous link about this and thought I got a scoop. Props to the judge for not going crazy and oversentencing, if nothing else. Though my personal view of the criminal justice system is that pretty much everyone deserves to get off without punishment, because the US system of punishment doesn't make any sense and not punishing someone is better than sentencing them to repeated gang rape.
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domp
2007-03-28T03:48:39
Anyone see Justin from justin.tv on G4?
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pg
2007-03-28T03:51:04
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Consider figuring this out part of the application process.
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domp
2007-03-28T03:51:26
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Justin just finished up on G4. He handled himself pretty well considering the host was sarcastic throughout the whole interview. The "Sex in the City" idea seems like a pretty interesting next step for his company. Anyone else have any thoughts?
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pg
2007-03-28T03:53:11
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Google is welcome to apply.
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Constantine
2007-03-28T03:55:30
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Sadly I don't use outlook!
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juwo
2007-03-28T04:02:20
A better business model for incubators - innovation by collaboration?
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http://juwo-works.blogspot.com/2007/03/better-business-model-for-incubators.html
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[ 6811, 7753 ]
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akkartik
2007-03-28T04:02:35
null
I want to separate what a website owner should do from what he is socially held accountable for. Consider the goatse trolls on slashdot. Slashdot introduced moderation to improve the experience of its users; people don't go around accusing slashdot's creators of writing offensive comments. There is a difference.[1]<p>That is just what reasonable people think, IMO. I can't comment on legal implications. I am not aware of a legal precedent online, whereas in the old media there was stringent enough control of the medium to be able to hold the proprietors responsible for what goes on it.<p>Presuming guilt by association is irrational and often unfair, but that doesn't stop it from happening.<p>[1] If anything, accusing a website owner of writing anonymous comments in his own website would be a little bizarre (I'm not saying anybody made such an accusation).
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juwo
2007-03-28T04:03:52
null
please see <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=6808">http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=6808</a> for more. While writing it I had an idea and blogged it.
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juwo
2007-03-28T04:04:51
null
I wonder if YC has considered this before.
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rms
2007-03-28T04:06:56
Stem cell transplant lets blind entrepeneur see. I'm incredibly cynical and this is truly the only inspirational thing I have ever read
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http://web.archive.org/web/20040401192741/www.senderogroup.com/mikejournal.htm
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[ 6814, 6888 ]
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Andys
2007-03-28T04:07:51
null
The problem with scaling YC is geography. YC is in USA, and we are not. We cant or wont drag our co-founders and girlfriends to YC, so Paul will never get to speak to us or talk to us about our ideas, and we have to waste time funding our own ideas instead of letting YC do it.<p>I actually filled out a YC form once and never ended up submitting it because I knew deep down I didn't want to move to the USA.
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rms
2007-03-28T04:08:33
null
There's also a great Esquire article about Mike. <a href="http://www.esquire.com/ESQ0605BLIND_114">http://www.esquire.com/ESQ0605BLIND_114</a><p>It's forming the basis for a book about him due in two months. There's a movie coming out too.
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rfrey
2007-03-28T04:09:17
Survivorship bias, or Why you can&apos;t say you can&apos;t
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http://rodfrey.wordpress.com
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rfrey
2007-03-28T04:11:20
null
My first ever blog post. Lemme have it with both barrels. Stemmed out of recent discussions about age discrimination.
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staunch
2007-03-28T04:13:35
null
Yeah and which calender? Gregorian I assume? Hard to know for sure!<p><p>
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nostrademons
2007-03-28T04:14:24
null
They should've called it SKI-combinator.
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staunch
2007-03-28T04:16:19
null
Probably based on usage patterns.
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staunch
2007-03-28T04:18:41
null
Seems like such a "me too" move at this point. They should be trying to offer something uniquely great that Google hasn't thought of.
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Constantine
2007-03-28T04:20:59
null
I am not surprised at all.<p>Social networks are an interesting thing, Myspace in particular, on one side you have the people who actually find people who can help them and contribute to some sort of group project, and the other side where people feel popular and find friends, both of these are powerful and contribute to a lot of page views ;)
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aek82
2007-03-28T04:23:26
null
As a young startup founder myself, the one point that really drove me to uproot was the monotony of the day to day life in cubeville. I lasted a little over a year - told myself "what the hell" - and two weeks later.. I quit and started my own company. <p>The primary reasons I left corporate are already iterated in the essay.<p>1. I'm only two years out of college and fairly young, My living expenses are fairly low. <p>2. I was bored out of mind. I now know the real meaning of corporate drone and can relate to the movie 'Office Space'.<p>3. As each day of work passed by, I swear the work made me a little dumber.<p>4. Nothing to loose. Last straw was when the company got bought out, and the CEO jumped ship with his golden parachute. <p>5. I don't want to be remembered as a person who was a [insert job title] at Big Company A.
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staunch
2007-03-28T04:26:59
null
Rub it in? It's a badge of honor in my opinion. rtm and merlyn were both hit by early confused laws:<p>( <a href="http://www.lightlink.com/spacenka/fors/">http://www.lightlink.com/spacenka/fors/</a> )
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dannymo2
2007-03-28T04:27:35
"Overall, the service is excellent!"
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http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/08/08/profile-youtube/
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mattculbreth
2007-03-28T04:28:40
Ask Paul: Is "smart" enterprise software interesting?
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mattculbreth
2007-03-28T04:31:36
null
PG: I laughed along with most everyone else at Startup School after your line about (paraphrasing) "if you're not smart then develop enterprise software, since it's a sales business, not a technology business."<p>Good one, and definitely some truth. I've spent a bit of time in this field and there's certainly the boring factor with some of it.<p>However--I'm assuming you'd find it interesting if people took a traditional piece of "enterprise software" (big suites sold to big companies, I guess) and Web 2.0-ified it.<p>Any comment there?
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rfrey
2007-03-28T04:33:53
null
If anything worth reading came along, I'm not sure how you'd find it on that site... They need to make the content blink or something. Or jitter, that'd work.
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brett
2007-03-28T04:34:31
"You're a Woz. You need a Jobs."
null
http://damienkatz.net/2006/11/the_woz.html
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[ 6861, 6974, 7013, 6862, 6829, 6920 ]
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brett
2007-03-28T04:37:19
null
Today I remembered seeing this on reddit after the last round of YC apps. <p>The reddit comments: <a href="http://programming.reddit.com/info/pzaq/comments">http://programming.reddit.com/info/pzaq/comments</a>
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binarybana
2007-03-28T04:38:23
null
Without seeing the work going into YC firsthand, I can only speculate on the limitations of that end.<p>However, looking further into the lack of quality applicants, I believe strongly that the failures of the public education system are a direct cause of this lack of applicants. In fact, I would be willing to wager that most applicants are some of the few that 'slipped through the cracks' of the public schooling experience with their minds and ambitions intact. To avoid infringement: this is all covered in Paul's oldie-but-goodie article, "Why Nerds are Unpopular." <p>And then you have the even higher end (less direct) influences. ie: the modern world diluting the American dream through the 'satisfaction' derived from a big screen TV and a dozen maxed out credit cards. (anyone feel the urge to reread Great Gatsby?). But thats more the realm of philosophers and sociologists.<p>
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pg
2007-03-28T04:43:46
null
We do sometimes fund expensive projects. Then the focus is not so much to get something launched in three months but just to build a good demo to take to VCs to raise more.
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dfranke
2007-03-28T04:46:38
null
My understanding is that RTM disagrees, and if I were him I would too. How would you like it if the first thing that most people free-associated with your name was the stupidest thing you ever did in your life?
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pg
2007-03-28T04:51:14
The See-Through CEO
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http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/wired40_ceo.html
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[ 7520, 6864, 6867 ]
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staunch
2007-03-28T04:53:59
null
I like to think I'd be able to embrace it by this point. I do sympathize with the traumatic affect it had on him.<p>I feel shame the country I live in treated him the way it did. Geniuses frequently suffer at the hands of lesser mortals.
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binarybana
2007-03-28T04:55:30
null
Interesting, its always a wakeup call to see the amount of real world conclusions that can be gleaned from a (seemingly useless) dataset. <p>An interesting parallel to human psychology as well: often the people you are quite certain have nothing to teach you are the ones with the most valuable lessons for you to learn.
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budu3
2007-03-28T04:59:01
null
I thought that you'd be chaffed at being copied.
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kobs
2007-03-28T05:00:24
null
I chuckled as i read this in my inbox the other day. i really hope no one falls for this
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dfranke
2007-03-28T05:03:42
null
Hi, who are you and where do you hang around? I'm surprised to see another news.yc reader in my department whom I don't know.
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nickb
2007-03-28T05:04:50
null
Be careful not to bet your whole company on someone else's data! Mashups beware!
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budu3
2007-03-28T05:04:53
null
"which should turn out to be extremely successful" - Sounds like the regular marketing BS. Very patronizing.
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dmgreer
2007-03-28T05:07:25
Psychedelically Beautiful 3dSkiMaps!
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http://3dskimaps.com
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[ 6845, 6887 ]
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zkinion
2007-03-28T05:11:47
null
I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!!<p> At startup school, at the end, Adam was giving some advice of making a bold statement at the start, then scaling it down telling you how you're going to get there. That was great salesmanship, and GREAT advice. Most of what I heard during startup school and from talking to other entrepeneurs was vague ideas, just a jumble of thoughts. <p>In business, presentation counts for alot. Don't forget this. Ever.
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zaidf
2007-03-28T05:13:39
null
Like I tell people, it has only been 3-4 years since the social network thing took off. We have very little idea where it will be five years from now. Very little. <p>One thing for sure is that this is not a fad. It is way too big and too outreaching to be a fad. Plus I don't hear people saying "hey I joined a social network" - they just say "facebook me so we can keep in touch."
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jamongkad
2007-03-28T05:15:08
null
I'm pretty impressed with the amount of coverage Justin.tv is gaining. If anything else if worse comes to worse and they don't make it big. This will be a precursor for start ups to build a platform from. But yeah I know I said it might be a waste of time but I think I'll be eating those words soon enough!
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dmgreer
2007-03-28T05:29:53
null
D'oh! I was just doing my profile, didn't mean to start a discussion. But if you must know...<p>Psychedelically beautiful 3d Ski Maps show you at a glance the steepness of the slopes on a color scale that's the same for all ski mountains, so there's no more guessing what they really mean by "beginner", "intermediate", and "expert".<p>
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zach
2007-03-28T06:02:03
null
"Enterprise" software is a market distinction, not a functional class of software, right? Are you asking if the enterprise software market is interesting if you're somehow smart about it?
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nickb
2007-03-28T06:09:18
null
I absolutely loathe Y! Mail's new interface. It's suppose to resemble Outlook and Oddpost (Y! acquired them) folks have spent a lot of time copying it. Problem is that Outlook's UI is not that great to begin with. All that clicking and dragging and split-pane views are so damn annoying and slow. <p>More here: <a href="http://www.sitepen.com/blog/2006/12/18/why-splitpane-views-suck/">http://www.sitepen.com/blog/2006/12/18/why-splitpane-views-suck/</a><p>Gmail has Y! Mail beat even with this storage system.<p>I also don't trust Y! as much as I trust Google... that China incident just turned me off Y!.
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lupin_sansei
2007-03-28T06:22:39
Web 2.0 Media: New Way To Monetize Your Blog - Amazon Context Links Launch Today
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http://www.avinio.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-way-to-monetize-your-blog-amazon.html
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[ 6855 ]
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lupin_sansei
2007-03-28T06:23:30
Main Page - Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
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http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Main_Page
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Sam_Odio
2007-03-28T06:27:10
Did google acquire stealth startup vutool?
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http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/27/whispers-about-stealth-startup-vutool
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[ 6852 ]
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Sam_Odio
2007-03-28T06:30:46
The poor man's blog advertising
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http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/27/new-competition-for-payperpost-humori-think/
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far33d
2007-03-28T06:32:27
null
Maybe this will give sebastian thun more money to make cars that drive themselves!
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annex_hipster
2007-03-28T06:37:59
null
Paul, your essays inspired me to quit my job even though I was looking forward to a nice promotion. A couple of years was enough. I'm two weeks into my startup, which I'm basing on a Paul Graham/Joel Spolsky hybrid model. I'm building up capital by taking on some small- to medium-sized projects while prototyping my real idea behind the scenes with a few collaborators.<p>While my work struggles to find my replacement, I have no problems finding people that A) want to work for me on contract projects, and B) want me to work on their projects (right now there is a queue). I actually work longer now than I did in the office. But I'm not tired. In fact, I have more energy. Additionally, if you normalize my work hours, I am even more productive working on my own. I just generally feel better about myself and am only experiencing "good" stress these days. I encourage anyone who finds themselves agreeing with Paul Graham in his essays more often than not to make the leap.<p>I fundamentally agree with Paul Graham about the change we are seeing. In fact, my little prototype bets the farm on the premise that this change is indeed happening.<p>I'm sufficiently capitalized having had a couple of years out of school to make some money that Y Combinator's funding is, quite frankly, an unattractive proposition. Plus, I'm in Toronto and I love the city. I live/work downtown right near the university. I would not want to move. All this said, is there any chance that you will do a talk up here in Canada?
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noisemaker
2007-03-28T06:46:04
10 MORE ways to create a breakthrough in your life.
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http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/10-more-ways-to-create-a-breakthrough-in-your-life.html
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dfranke
2007-03-28T06:46:28
null
I've been seeing these recently and they're incredibly irritating. They're like Microsoft's ill-fated "smart tags". The moment I come across one of these it's an automatic back-button click.
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far33d
2007-03-28T06:49:17
Trains and VCs
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http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2007/03/27/tim_draper_on_v.html
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icky
2007-03-28T06:57:53
null
I've been going the consulting + startup route, and I already feel the way about "real jobs" as Paul described-- serfs, or slaves. I feel a certain pity for them.
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Sam_Odio
2007-03-28T07:03:53
null
It would seem that - technically - this is due the first minute of April 2nd, PST, since April 2nd begins at 12:00AM(midnight) and ends at 11:59PM.<p>Honestly, I think anyone worrying about this has too much time on their hands.
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Sam_Odio
2007-03-28T07:07:23
null
That doesn't make sense for the founders, though.<p>It would be in their interest to take as little money as possible early on, so that they give up less of the company's equity.<p>Then - later when the business model has proven itself - and the valuation is higher - take on additional capital.<p>You'll be giving up much more equity if you take a million in funding in the first round, instead of the third.
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Sam_Odio
2007-03-28T07:11:10
null
Congrats, vlad, you actually got his name right this time :)<p>You're a riot! --star
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comment
ecuzzillo
2007-03-28T07:20:04
null
Does every pair of founders consist of a Jobs and a Woz? <p>Off the top of my head: Apple: Jobs, Woz<p>(pattern match below)<p>Viaweb: PG, rtm<p>Google: Sergey, Larry<p>Reddit: Alexis, Steve<p>Paypal: Thiel, Levchin<p>It seems not uncommon that the Jobs, if this theory is correct, can also hack, unlike Steve Jobs. I don't know for sure of any counterexamples, but I'm also not very sure of the theory. <p>Edit: GRR! Does <i>this</i> <i></i>use<i></i> <i></i><i>markdown</i><i></i> [now](now.com) too?<p>Edit 2: Good, it doesn't.
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Constantine
2007-03-28T07:25:27
null
Well he is right of course, Woz needs a Jobs, or at least someone who is significantly part Jobs to get anywhere, designing cool things is definitely an enviable ability, but without someone to focus that ability you have the worlds smartest garbage man.
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heriks
2007-03-28T07:27:27
null
A sad thing about life is that after squandering ten years on playing in bands and stuff (point 11), if you eventually do get your act together and go to university and then (point 16) take the default route to a job in a big company, happy to make a living at all; after a while, if you have half a mind, you'll end up realizing that you're getting dumber by the year (point 14), but by then you've also stumbled into a family, and a start-up is no longer a realistic option (point 9, 13, and maybe even point 12 has kicked in). But then it's just 25 years to go until you're retired, just clench a fist in the pocket, produce a smile and keep coding for a salary. Sorry.
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BrandonM
2007-03-28T07:44:33
null
Wow, thanks a lot for the link. As someone who has not fully submitted myself to the blogging craze, I had some trouble seeing what it was all about. After reading this article, I am thoroughly convinced that widespread blogging is a very good thing.<p>I guess the main thing holding me back from publishing my own musings online is the thought, "Well, who is going to care?" This article emphatically declares, "Google will, and all who seek information on you in the future."<p>Google's stated mission "is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." I find it refreshing to discover that a large corporate entity has actually been able to improve the world in a way not even predicted by a typically lofty mission statement, by giving truth a voice.
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nickb
2007-03-28T07:49:48
PayPerPost VC, Dan Rua, defends the ethics of paid editorials
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http://blog.valuewiki.com/2007/03/27/interview-with-payperpost-vc-dan-rua/
1
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0
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story
JMiao
2007-03-28T07:54:46
Back When "Beta" Actually Meant Something
null
http://baris.typepad.com/venture_capitalist/2007/03/entrepreneur_sh.html
3
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2
[ 6876, 6868 ]
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Constantine
2007-03-28T08:20:34
null
Well personally I find that keeping secrets hurts any relationship, company or personal.<p>People are bloody minded bastards when they think you are not on their side, but when you clean up your messes and make them feel included they will take a bullet for you.
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Constantine
2007-03-28T08:21:47
null
Wow, that makes "Not just the owner, but also a client" mean a lot more!
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ced
2007-03-28T08:55:54
null
Hypothesis: "I'd rather work on hard AI problems at Google than create a startup and bitch about how Safari is not rendering my site properly."<p>What do you think? I haven't tried either, but working on cool problems ought to be worth something. Most startup work seems rather mundane.
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6,668
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[ 6923, 6945, 7234, 6912, 7321, 6916, 24583 ]
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cosmok
2007-03-28T09:13:31
Social Search done well!
null
http://sansj.com
1
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0
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story
kul
2007-03-28T09:25:25
Even more Startup School notes (by Kulveer)
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http://www.kulveer.co.uk/2007/03/startup-school-2007-notes.html
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1
[ 7342 ]
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rikard
2007-03-28T09:30:44
null
What if I'd like to accomplish something, like building an operating system or a world wide web, and don't really care about the money. What if I just want to change the world. Should I start a company and if so why?
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[ 7024 ]
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javier
2007-03-28T09:35:45
Web 3.0 Acceleration
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http://slotblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/web-30-acceleration-this-is-beginning.html
1
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0
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story
gaborcselle
2007-03-28T09:39:28
Gabor Cselle: Leaving Google to join Xobni
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http://www.gaborcselle.com/blog/2007/03/healthy-disregard-for-impossible.html
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[ 7190, 6896, 7540, 7267, 7012 ]
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comment
nurall
2007-03-28T09:41:16
null
Another way of looking at this is to realize that beta testers are hard to come by, and one could leverage from the already existing pool of beta testers (53,651). Most startups want to improve their pre-money valuation before going to the VC, the most important ingredient for achieving that is a stable system that is a result of successive relevant iterations of the features. This could as well be part of any Web 2.0 company's road map for the first few months upon going live. It is needless to say that for a VC to be convinced, it is important to have the right kind of users. If there is even a little bit of overlap between the 53,651 web savvy users and the ideal end-user, it is safe to assume that viral marketing will take care of itself. An example that glares in the face is Google. Their systems are the way they are, thanks to their #1 beta testers, their employees. And one could argue that there are other beta testers at various levels, namely the actual end users. This statistic seems to do more good than harm, if regarded positively. The eventual end users of the system could just be an extension of the 53,651 initial users. Go Techcrunch!!!
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comment
corentin
2007-03-28T09:46:38
null
On Eric Sink's blog, the short story of the inventor of a security mechanism testing it on himself: <a href="http://www.ericsink.com/articles/Yours_Mine_Ours.html">http://www.ericsink.com/articles/Yours_Mine_Ours.html</a> (in the section "The Best Dogfooding Story Ever"; but the whole article is a good read).
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comment
aglarond
2007-03-28T09:51:01
null
Zurich, Switzerland - you can reach me over gmail.
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theudude2002
2007-03-28T10:13:25
iPhone Factoids: One Million ... Indications of Interest
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http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2007/03/27/iphone_factoids.html
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immad
2007-03-28T10:58:33
Viral mediums, Viral products, Viral Marketing and Viral=Good
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http://immadsnewworld.blogspot.com/2007/03/viral-mediums-viral-products-viral.html
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2
[ 6882, 6880 ]
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comment
immad
2007-03-28T10:59:27
null
Thats something I wrote a minute ago.<p>Feels like self-promotion to put my own blog post on here, but I am interested in peoples views on it.
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Constantine
2007-03-28T11:11:41
null
This is plain genius.<p>As an infrequent blogger I do know that one of the hardest things is coming up with good and relevant content, and a post about some new web business that is starting up is not only pretty easy and interesting, but a serious cool factor as well.<p>I can see this really taking off, and people even fighting to cover stories first!
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Constantine
2007-03-28T11:14:22
null
Well I do enjoy you using the "Viral=Good" thing. I think a lot of people and advertisers who try to make something viral forget that the entire reason something becomes viral is because people like the content, not because you have some sort of voodoo.<p>If you want to make something viral, make something good. :D
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immad
2007-03-28T11:15:11
Microsoft Accidentally Sends Secret File On Journalist, To That Journalist. Oops
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http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/28/microsoft-accidentally-sends-secret-file-on-journalist-to-that-journalist/
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[ 6886, 6894 ]
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Constantine
2007-03-28T11:30:23
null
Well Alex makes an interesting point, that you would need more skill to get a big return on the little hands, but I still think that if you had a large sum of capital and you were especially good at the poking, that small investments would pay off exceptionally well.
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mattculbreth
2007-03-28T11:30:38
null
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Asking really for clarification on Paul's comment about enterprise software in his speech. I sometimes think we've gone a bit too much B2C lately, and we're missing out on a lot of opportunities to Make Something People Want, with the People in this case working at big companies in traditional enterprise functions.
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Constantine
2007-03-28T11:34:04
null
Hilarious! While it is obvious for a company to keep tabs on how to act around certain news fiends it is amazing that someone would send those notes to the person.<p>This is truly a laugh riot.
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Constantine
2007-03-28T11:42:43
null
Interesting, but my eyes!
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Constantine
2007-03-28T11:45:08
null
Wow. Just wow. That is heartrending, I really don't even know what to say.
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pageman
2007-03-28T12:05:12
null
dear Paul et. al.<p>I'm a Paul myself ... :) Y Combinator is an inspiration for me! I think that as Y Combinator incubates more companies successfully, more and more groups will apply. :)
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dpapathanasiou
2007-03-28T12:11:13
null
Both Zimbra and SalesForce.com are doing it, i.e. taking an "enterprise" product and making it web-available to anyone.<p>And while both still sell to large companies, they also reach individuals and smaller firms, too.
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domp
2007-03-28T12:11:33
Vutool: Stealth Startup of a "Google Earth" from the ground level
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http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/28/whispers-about-stealth-startup-vutool/
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[ 6931, 6996 ]
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dpapathanasiou
2007-03-28T12:14:43
null
Enterprise software has a bad rap because it's such a jaded business; decisions almost never get made for the right reasons, and the level of politics and bs is absurd.<p>From my own experience: unless you're doing something really special (and even then it's not guaranteed), it's tough to convince a large firm to license your product if you're a startup or 2, 3 man firm.<p>The best way, actually, is through the proverbial "back door", i.e. make versions available on the web or downloadable, and get a critical mass of employees within the company to use it.
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[ 7549 ]
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domp
2007-03-28T12:15:40
Toondoo: New startup that helps you create comic strips
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http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/28/and-now-something-a-little-more-frivolous-from-zoho/
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staunch
2007-03-28T12:16:40
null
What's scary is this reveals how Microsoft basically wrote a Wired story. Yet another reason why "blogs" will win out, not even Microsoft can control them all.<p>
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domp
2007-03-28T12:18:13
Can new startup iLetYou compete with Netflix and Blockbuster?
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http://webware.com/8301-1_109-9702400-2.html?tag=blog
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staunch
2007-03-28T12:22:56
null
As comfortable as Google is you're right in acknowledging that there are more ambitious challenges to be had.<p>Good luck -- enjoy the ride.<p><i>"Fortune and love favor the brave"</i> -- Ovid<p>
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Alex3917
2007-03-28T12:33:10
null
"Does every pair of founders consist of a Jobs and a Woz?"<p>I think our school system is very much designed around this idea of "give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day, teach a man HOW to fish and you'll feed him for the rest of his life." <p>Almost everything we learn in school is a HOW question. Hacking is a HOW question. To the extent that school focuses on WHAT questions, it's busy work like memorizing the places and dates of historic battles. WHO, WHY, WHEN, and WHERE are barely touched touched on at all, and that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of questions that don't fit into this paradigm. <p>But there are other questions that aren't how questions. They aren't taught in school, which leads some to believe that they aren't important or don't require intelligence or that they don't even exist. <p>Success in a startup is partly a HOW question, but it's more than just that. After all, the point isn't knowing how to manipulate tools, but rather making something people want. <p>I think the reason why MBAs (deservedly) get a bad rap is because they don't know how to answer the HOW questions, but they also don't know how to answer any other questions either. <p>So I'd say it's not really an answer of one hacker and one non-hacker, but rather that both put together cover the full range of human thought.
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aquarin
2007-03-28T12:50:27
LTR and RTL
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http://aquaviva.wordpress.com/2007/03/20/ltr-and-rtl/
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count0
2007-03-28T13:14:10
null
Greate article.<p>But I have the impression that PG means "to start starup is to launch a web application". right?<p><p><p><p>
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