id
int64
0
12.9M
type
large_stringclasses
5 values
by
large_stringlengths
2
15
time
timestamp[us]
title
large_stringlengths
0
198
text
large_stringlengths
0
99.1k
url
large_stringlengths
0
6.6k
score
int64
-1
5.77k
parent
int64
1
30.4M
top_level_parent
int64
0
30.4M
descendants
int64
-1
2.53k
kids
large list
deleted
bool
1 class
dead
bool
1 class
9,000
comment
boomstrap
2007-04-05T01:28:02
null
What down arrow? (came from reddit)
null
null
8,926
8,926
null
[ 9085 ]
null
null
9,001
comment
jganetsk
2007-04-05T01:30:33
null
Look at the prices for S3:<p> <i> $0.15 per GB-Month of storage used. </i> $0.20 per GB of data transferred.<p>So, that means Dropbox is going to have to resell S3 at a premium for the added value of these nice Coda-like features. Would you pay a premium for these Dropbox features? Maybe, I don't know.<p>Also, what's the typical use case? How much bandwidth/storage are people going to consume? Because, if I store 100 megabytes... my bill will pennies every month (going on S3 prices). You cannot transact pennies per user per month. If you could, then you've cracked the micropayments problem wide open. Maybe there would be a base fee? Like $5/month or something. Would people pay that much for online storage? <p>I don't know how other revenue generation models can be applied. Advertising? Selling a user's data to other businesses? (What's the privacy policy?)
null
null
8,969
8,863
null
[ 9124, 9006 ]
null
null
9,002
comment
mattculbreth
2007-04-05T01:34:23
null
You know what's cool about this is that they didn't just hand it off to the designer and say, "go manually pick some colors". They actually thought about a programmatic approach they could take. It seems like they had some good knowledge of colors and the way computer draw colors, but they still weren't graphic designers themselves.
null
null
8,891
8,891
null
null
null
null
9,003
comment
mattculbreth
2007-04-05T01:35:17
null
These guys are at least providing entertainment.
null
null
8,968
8,968
null
null
null
null
9,004
comment
mauricecheeks
2007-04-05T01:35:32
null
danw - just wanted to let you know that video has been passed up the ladder :-)<p>I think Tiny Pictures is really happy with the UI of the mobile application for Radar. Its pretty slick... if you haven't seen it yet, you can see the CEO give a demo to Robert Scoble @ <a href="http://www.podtech.net/home/technology/2622/demo-of-photo-conversations-on-radarnet">http://www.podtech.net/home/technology/2622/demo-of-photo-conversations-on-radarnet</a> <p>This photoriver concept is definitely a cool of viewing pictures on the phone though. <p>(disclaimer: if u view my LinkedIn you'll see I currently work for radar)
null
null
8,667
8,638
null
[ 9793 ]
null
null
9,005
comment
ph0rque
2007-04-05T01:36:04
null
You know, your app is something that I've been wishing someone would make for some time now. Congrats!<p>Here's a suggestion for a future revision: give the ability for office documents to open with online office apps when clicked on in the public folder.
null
null
8,863
8,863
null
[ 9034 ]
null
null
9,006
comment
ph0rque
2007-04-05T01:38:01
null
How about making up to X GB free, and come up with a tiered charging plan for more than X?
null
null
9,001
8,863
null
null
null
null
9,007
comment
vlad
2007-04-05T01:48:11
null
Drew, this is awesome! All of the features you mentioned are exactly what people need.
null
null
8,865
8,863
null
null
null
null
9,008
comment
mauricecheeks
2007-04-05T01:53:49
null
I saw an incredible banner ad the other day:<p>"Click on these features to upgrade this Honda Civic" (picture of honda + some words to click on)<p>Each time you clicked a feature the Civic was being upgraded & transformed into a VW Rabbit. <p>It was GREAT!
null
null
8,937
8,937
null
null
null
null
9,009
comment
jganetsk
2007-04-05T01:56:57
null
It's hard to categorically state whether data should be free or not. A great book to read about this is Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591841380/),">http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591841380/),</a> which describes many cases of data being made free in order to elicit insight from the masses.<p>I think an interesting space, in particular, is those companies that distill large amounts of data into small relevant sets. Google is the first example that comes to mind, but search is not the only approach to this. Another example is YC's own LikeBetter, who sneakily collected lots of training data before launching this PAT thing. You can now figure exactly how your individuality personality compares to thousands of others, based on these millions of clicks they've receieved.<p>Are Google and LikeBetter making data free, or the opposite? There are trade secrets involved there, but we might not consider that "data". You can see interesting views and presentations derived from the data (search results, or personality tests), but you can never see all the data at once... nor would you want to.
null
null
8,906
8,906
null
null
null
null
9,010
comment
inklesspen
2007-04-05T02:00:35
null
God, I hope not.
null
null
8,922
8,922
null
null
null
null
9,011
comment
RyanGWU82
2007-04-05T02:00:59
null
Fair enough. I probably took your comment a bit too literally. $1000 is not enough to move cross-country, but it probably <i>is</i> enough to relocate for three months. :)
null
null
8,964
8,711
null
null
null
null
9,012
comment
staunch
2007-04-05T02:07:18
null
Second Life needs their "Neo".
null
null
8,890
8,890
null
null
null
null
9,013
comment
dawie
2007-04-05T02:07:27
null
Down is new
null
null
8,926
8,926
null
null
null
null
9,014
comment
jganetsk
2007-04-05T02:10:14
null
The ML family... you get a type-safe language and all the benefits of functional programming... and both OCaml and SML are only between 1-2 times slower than C.<p>And you get the benefit of the static type checker, which catches 90% of bugs.<p>I know pg doesn't like static type checking, but I respectfully disagree.
null
null
7,875
7,859
null
null
null
null
9,015
story
omarish
2007-04-05T02:13:06
New Technologies "That Actually Work"
null
http://yeahsystems.com/blog/?p=7
1
null
9,015
0
null
null
null
9,016
comment
far33d
2007-04-05T02:15:42
null
Thought: Arrington has been touting SSE for over a year, and still, no one has built anything compelling with it: <p><a href="http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=54">http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=54</a><p>certainly, the first thing one could do with this is create blog software that allows you to submit comments via SSE. There are a lot of great ideas surrounding bi-directional RSS, I'm surprised no one has done anything with them. <p>
null
null
8,962
8,741
null
null
null
null
9,017
comment
shbrown
2007-04-05T02:15:49
null
It would depend on the job I was trying to hire them for. But if I had to choose, I would choose ability to implement over having high-level ideas. That's my job anyway, and honestly I believe execution is more difficult than having high-level ideas. <p>In practice, I try and hire people that have blogs wherein they showed knowledge as well as serious and deep thinking about the type of problems I want to hire them to solve. <p>The only person I've ever truly thought did an excellent job I hired this way. I didn't know him. I didn't look at a resume. I had one conversation with him. I just read his blog, and I could tell from his writing that he would do a good job. Actually, his blog was just his fiction writing and he was a UI designer and coder but I could still tell from his thinking. He was so smart--a structured, logical, deep and creative thinker. It was clear to me that he would do a good job. He did. I tend to be a perfectionist, and he was the only person I've ever hired that did a perfect job. I had absolutely no criticisms about him. He always exceeded my expectations. It was amazing. I love working with the best people--nothing is more fun. <p>If they didn't have a blog, I'd tell them to write down their thoughts every day for a few weeks and then I'd read it. I believe that you can't tell anything about anyone except how they behave over time. People lie and misrepresent themselves. But it's pretty much impossible to misrepresent yourself over a period of time. <p>I might try and give them a few of my problems to work on as well. But, if someone isn't the quickest thinker and can't answer a problem I give them in an hour-long interview I really don't care. What if they're amazing problem solvers but they just take overnight? One of the smartest people I know is like this. <p>With a blog, or writing over time, you also get a sense of how well they can articulate their ideas--if they have amazing ideas but they can't articulate them well, then the quality of their ideas doesn't matter. If for some reason they're terrible writers but still smart, you can just have them create a podcast. If they can't do either, then they can't articulate themselves enough to be useful to a company.<p>Watching their thinking over time, you can see how many ideas they generate, since you don't just want people that will only solve the problems you have. You want people that see things you can't and generate ideas themselves. <p>I don't care about how well people fit in. A start-up isn't a clique of best friends, although you certainly need people that you can be bluntly honest with and can be bluntly honest with you. It's better if you like them, of course, but I'm never trying to build any kind of culture except a culture of excellence--well, excellence on deadline. <p>Another thing I've always wanted to try is just to hire someone for two weeks and give them non-critical tasks to do. I could see if they met deadlines and how they actually worked. The best way of finding out if someone can do something is to watch her do it. <p>
null
null
8,848
8,848
null
[ 9051 ]
null
null
9,018
comment
inklesspen
2007-04-05T02:19:18
null
You say "our data", but whose data is it? Remember the big furor there was over AOL releasing search queries for some of their users, even after they attempted to remove identifying marks? Many users of your site will think it's "their" data, and depending on the legal/PR climate, they may be right.
null
null
8,906
8,906
null
null
null
null
9,019
comment
jganetsk
2007-04-05T02:20:01
null
I don't think ISPs are very happy right now.
null
null
8,780
8,780
null
[ 9234 ]
null
null
9,020
comment
schoudha
2007-04-05T02:21:01
null
If your speaking about Facebook's API then that the decision on whether to use it is highly dependent on the purpose of your site. Personally, I would think very carefully before branding your site as a Facebook addon. <p>You might be referring to Thrift. In that case, it's only useful if you want to do cross-language services. I don't think an early-stage startup needs this sort of architecture but I guess designing for scale never hurts. <p>
null
null
8,956
8,956
null
null
null
null
9,021
comment
mukund
2007-04-05T02:21:06
null
Getting a sort of ranking or statistics helps in appreciating things
null
null
8,946
8,946
null
null
null
null
9,022
comment
jganetsk
2007-04-05T02:25:07
null
It's all fake except for the part where you say "Cobol and Fortran are useless." That, of course, is real.
null
null
7,223
6,918
null
null
null
null
9,023
comment
mukund
2007-04-05T02:26:07
null
Well if one has heard of this "I was born Intelligent but Education made me Dumb" ... then PG is right in advising "dropping out of school" :D So i agree with the first part... No idea about quitting the job part as i dont have a job :D
null
null
6,918
6,918
null
null
null
null
9,024
comment
BrandonM
2007-04-05T02:28:51
null
You might want to check out FUSE for Linux. There are various programs built on top of it which allow remote filesystems to look exactly like local ones. Two that I use are curlftpfs and sshfs. It's really nice to be able to perform any of my computer's programs on these remote files, and it looks very similar to what Dropbox accomplishes. Of course, you would need to have an FTP or SSH login somewhere, but you can get free FTP access from e.g. Lycos, so that shouldn't be an issue.<p>In short, I guess I'm curious what separates Dropbox from using a free FTP service which is connected either through Windows' built-in Network Places or Linux's curlftpfs. There are obvious differences, but are they enough to warrant fees?
null
null
8,884
8,863
null
null
null
null
9,025
comment
zaidf
2007-04-05T02:30:00
null
I am not sure if there are enough people that care/realize the importance of this. I personally do. <p>Fortunately for me I had great English teachers in high school that designed their classes around effective communication rather than fancy writing. I still drop them an email every now and then to get their advice on how I could communicate a given idea more effectively.<p>Other than that I love Orwell's paper on English(<a href="http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm)">http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm)</a> He makes great points that every blogger can learn from.<p>-Zaid
null
null
8,971
8,971
null
null
null
null
9,026
comment
nickb
2007-04-05T02:33:28
null
They made a pretty good deal, on the financial side. No participation!<p>Board structure is awful! I'd shop around for a better deal.
null
null
8,858
8,858
null
null
null
null
9,027
story
omarish
2007-04-05T02:34:52
YC/TS Results coming out soon. How about a backup plan?
null
5
null
9,027
17
[ 9104, 9028, 9099, 9159, 9173, 9039, 9155 ]
null
null
9,028
comment
omarish
2007-04-05T02:36:55
null
So the results are coming out soon. For those of us who don't get into either program, is anybody interested in renting out an apartment in Boston/SF and spending the summer coding away? It's not our original hopes, but I think that if we're dedicated enough, we'll be able to get our projects done.
null
null
9,027
9,027
null
[ 9110, 9587, 9087, 9035 ]
null
null
9,029
comment
jganetsk
2007-04-05T02:38:48
null
Well there doesn't seem to be a GDrive at the moment... but there are many other similar online storage solutions.<p>Techcrunch had an article with 13 of them... <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/01/31/the-online-storage-gang/">http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/01/31/the-online-storage-gang/</a><p>It's a pretty crowded space. And XDrive gets you 5 GB for free, 50 GB for $9.95 a month. I can't expect Dropbox to charge those prices, given S3 as a backend. The margin just isn't really there, especially given the number of uses that will want free storage. And I think competitors can duplicate Dropbox's nice front end. In fact, here's an open source front end to SVN which is similar to Dropbox's:<p><a href="http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/">http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/</a><p>Sorry for all the negativity, I guess I'm trying to play devil's advocate here. It's a wonderful product you got going there, but I think you will have to work really hard.<p>
null
null
8,901
8,863
null
[ 9245, 9031 ]
null
null
9,030
comment
JMiao
2007-04-05T02:40:32
null
I'm curious what names the FBI agents took. I believe SL still uses a list of pre-selected sirnames that users may choose from, i.e. my SL name is "Bonaventure Tackleberry."<p>This should be fun.
null
null
8,890
8,890
null
null
null
null
9,031
comment
jganetsk
2007-04-05T02:43:58
null
I'm going to respond to my own post, and add that... for the initial phase where you don't expect to make money... you have chosen a great setup. S3 is a robust , reliable, and easy way to handle the intial ramp up should hoards of users sign up, a concern I raised in another post. You probably have plans to get onto your own backend in the long-run.
null
null
9,029
8,863
null
null
null
null
9,032
comment
staunch
2007-04-05T02:48:00
null
If this took them a short amount of time then it's clearly worth the effort. If they spent a lot of time then it seems frivolous and makes me think they may be avoiding working on the mundane issues that clients would find truly useful.<p>Making boring work more interesting can produce amazing results but it can also be a huge distraction. Either way this is definitely clever and the concept is probably applicable to all sorts of other features.<p>P.S.<p>I still think DabbleDB needs to seriously consider Joe Kraus's reasoning for why he "positioned JotSpot as a Wiki company". Because I think this "web database" concept is suicidal.<p>
null
null
8,891
8,891
null
[ 9088 ]
null
null
9,033
comment
ottawastart
2007-04-05T02:49:27
null
Huh? WTF? These are mobile application startups -- NOT wireless. <p><p>
null
null
8,638
8,638
null
null
null
null
9,034
comment
sumantra2
2007-04-05T02:52:49
null
cool demo !!! But I must agree that this is coda stuff.
null
null
9,005
8,863
null
null
null
null
9,035
comment
jaed
2007-04-05T02:54:32
null
Hmm...that's actually kinda neat. I think I'd be interested in something like that in Boston.<p>Gotta love being young and foolish :-)
null
null
9,028
9,027
null
[ 9459 ]
null
null
9,036
comment
sumantra2
2007-04-05T02:55:43
null
Yeah !!! Such statistics would really be cool and interesting. Also, how the apps are picked up (e.g., rankings by experts, debate on the table for close- ties) would be interesting reads. <p>
null
null
8,946
8,946
null
null
null
null
9,037
comment
yaacovtp
2007-04-05T02:55:51
null
Control + minus a dozen times makes reading the online version so much easier/faster.
null
null
574
574
null
null
null
null
9,038
comment
sumantra2
2007-04-05T02:59:42
null
In general although creativity and school dropouts might have a non-linear correlation, it is wrong to say that formal education limits creativity and vice versa for that matter. Do you think that Google PageRank would have come from a ragamuffin?
null
null
6,918
6,918
null
null
null
null
9,039
comment
whacked_new
2007-04-05T03:06:20
null
If you read the TS FAQ it says 4/5 for final results. If you read the TS blog it says "no later than 4/10." I doubt that is a coincidence.
null
null
9,027
9,027
null
[ 9266 ]
null
null
9,040
comment
BrandonM
2007-04-05T03:08:01
null
Honestly, I knew right away. I'm not sure why, because I've never used Reddit or Digg.
null
null
8,926
8,926
null
null
null
null
9,041
story
far33d
2007-04-05T03:08:09
How Yahoo Blew It
null
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/yahoo.html?pg=2&topic=yahoo&topic_set=
5
null
9,041
2
[ 9050 ]
null
null
9,042
story
domp
2007-04-05T03:13:54
Interview with Scott MacGregor, lead engineer of Thunderbird
null
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/thunderbird_20.php
2
null
9,042
0
null
null
null
9,043
comment
juwo
2007-04-05T03:15:32
null
"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians%201:17&version=31;">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians%201:17&version=31;</a>
null
null
8,484
8,123
null
[ 10400 ]
null
null
9,044
comment
mukund
2007-04-05T03:18:55
null
If VCs become Angels, i mean real angels with halo on the top then i would really appreciate that but being an angel investor, i would still be skeptic about them :p
null
null
8,502
8,502
null
null
null
null
9,045
comment
gojomo
2007-04-05T03:22:42
null
Clever.<p>A logo could also be made the basis for a fun color-picker: display the logo as a palette on which to click an eye-dropper to select each of the theme colors. Hell, animate the page look in real time as the user hovers (psychedelic!), lock-in their choice on click. <p>It might also be helpful to provide a version of the logo with pixels regrouped to make all like-pixels contiguous -- easier targetting of disperse colors. Order groups by brightness, saturation, frequency (a congruent histogram?), whatever's most pretty in practice.<p>(If you use this idea in your startup, invite me over for lunch someday.)
null
null
8,891
8,891
null
null
null
null
9,046
comment
mukund
2007-04-05T03:23:01
null
Being one step behind gives an advantage of following the leader's footsteps and learning things pretty easy. But what microsoft does is more than that, they try to kill the leader by copying things (rather shabbily)
null
null
8,968
8,968
null
null
null
null
9,047
comment
vlad
2007-04-05T03:25:29
null
null
null
8,947
8,946
null
null
null
true
9,048
comment
mukund
2007-04-05T03:25:58
null
See it this way, Google rejected you and in doing so, its allowing you to grow and who knows you may start something and become its competitor :) This is what i say when i get booted out in interviews :D
null
null
8,270
8,270
null
null
null
null
9,049
story
yaacovtp
2007-04-05T03:27:11
Do you have a backup plan if you don't get Y Combinator funding?
null
3
null
9,049
4
[ 9089, 9052, 9090 ]
null
null
9,050
comment
BrandonM
2007-04-05T03:27:28
null
It's an interesting read. One note: you linked to the 2nd page of the article instead of the first.
null
null
9,041
9,041
null
[ 9053 ]
null
null
9,051
comment
comatose_kid
2007-04-05T03:29:41
null
Although blogs are a good way to see if someone is a good fit, you're probably excluding a lot of sharp people if you use that as your first filter. <p>I'd also argue that how people fit in is important. If you don't care about fit when you hire, you end up with a company of individuals instead of a team. <p>I do agree that the best interview is one where the candidate actually does the type of work that is to be expected of him/her.
null
null
9,017
8,848
null
null
null
null
9,052
comment
whacked_new
2007-04-05T03:41:34
null
merge here: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=9027">http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=9027</a>
null
null
9,049
9,049
null
null
null
null
9,053
comment
far33d
2007-04-05T03:41:59
null
I need to pay closer attention...
null
null
9,050
9,041
null
null
null
null
9,054
comment
dfranke
2007-04-05T03:44:59
null
Two reservations come to mind:<p>1. How many people would want this? It seems like the number of people who take their blogs seriously enough to be willing to pay for this is maybe a thousand.<p>2. I don't see how this can scale. Unless you're thinking of AI, or some sort of peer-to-peer network, then you're selling a skilled-labor-intensive service, not a product. You might be able to form a profitable small business, but I wouldn't call it a startup.
null
null
8,971
8,971
null
[ 9065 ]
null
null
9,055
comment
chandrab
2007-04-05T03:55:39
null
Nice Application...the question I have is on the marketing side- how are you going to attract users? and how are you going to differentiate yourself from the hordes of other online storage vendors, esp. to the newbie users who can't tell them apart easy? (so you have to have a simple, compelling story for them)
null
null
8,863
8,863
null
[ 9481 ]
null
null
9,056
story
nandan
2007-04-05T03:59:01
Startup school 2007 videos?
null
8
null
9,056
5
[ 9134, 9057, 9109 ]
null
null
9,057
comment
nandan
2007-04-05T04:01:55
null
It would be nice to have access to the videos for the event.
null
null
9,056
9,056
null
null
null
null
9,058
comment
comatose_kid
2007-04-05T04:06:33
null
Depends.<p>For co-founders, you shouldn't even have to interview. Find the best people that you have worked with before in school, or on the job. You can then be assured of their creative and intellectual abilities, as well understanding how you'll work together as a team. <p>For other positions, you're obviously going to want to look for smart people, but a key thing for a small startup is to look for smart people who can do many different things well. For example, I'd be more inclined to choose a s/w eng who has done well designing a web app, and has designed embedded software for a consumer electronics device than an eng who has worked only on web apps for their entire career.<p>As for the second part of your question, I'd agree with e1ven - neither type of question is key, although they do help establish technical ability & creativity. <p>But my experience diverges from e1vens' in at least one respect - you don't need to choose between problem solvers and cogs (at least as he has defined them). I have worked with people who can give you tons of detail on specific technical areas, but can also come up with great solutions outside of their technical domains or pick up language X really quickly. It's rare, but people that have both qualities certainly exist.
null
null
8,848
8,848
null
null
null
null
9,059
story
dawie
2007-04-05T04:12:47
My Karma stopped moving? Not that it matters
null
6
null
9,059
5
[ 9092, 9068, 9063, 9323, 9220 ]
null
null
9,060
story
mattculbreth
2007-04-05T04:18:15
Don't have a COW, man? What Haskell teaches us about writing Enterprise-scale software
null
http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/04/haskell-not-just-for-language-weenies.html
8
null
9,060
3
[ 9133 ]
null
null
9,061
story
kevinxray
2007-04-05T04:19:28
Getting Clients to Come to You by Being a Thought Leader
null
http://www.collaborati.org/kevins/weblog/14.html
4
null
9,061
0
null
null
null
9,062
comment
npk
2007-04-05T04:26:10
null
I'd love to tell you what I'm trying to do: But I'm not really sure yet.<p>Clearly, it's hard to ask for advice on an issue that's not fully fleshed out.<p>It's just that so many webapps today need to have user authentication/profile management, it seems a shame to have to build your own for two reasons: 1) You're wasting your time building something. 2) People trust you with their personal information, I think people are more willing to trust, say, a facebook, then they are joestartup.com. I say this based on my intuition.
null
null
8,977
8,956
null
[ 9230 ]
null
null
9,063
comment
omarish
2007-04-05T04:32:58
null
I definitely noticed that too.
null
null
9,059
9,059
null
null
null
null
9,064
comment
comatose_kid
2007-04-05T04:40:32
null
If you read past the blog article itself, the comments are pretty insightful (Marc Hedlund's comment is a good example).
null
null
8,983
8,983
null
null
null
null
9,065
comment
whacked_new
2007-04-05T04:55:54
null
It doesn't need to be as purpose-specific as the title suggests. Blogs are a medium of communication; there are many possible media.<p>Consider this interaction. A: this rose is green. B: roses are not green. C: (so the rose is not green!). C: actually, it's not a rose, it's a leaf.<p>This can occur in a blog, in a chatroom, and more importantly, it occurs in everyday life. Proofreading, fact-checking and such is a streamlined application of this self-correction process (e.g., of the ABC system above), applied to written material.<p>While we are a far way off from AI that can do this on the fly, the processes certainly is extendible, and should be extended. It's how ideas evolve.
null
null
9,054
8,971
null
null
null
null
9,066
comment
pg
2007-04-05T05:09:31
null
We got 421 applications. That's more than past cycles, maybe because we're getting better known. This will be the last time we disclose application numbers though. Now that we have competitors (or at least imitators), we don't want to get into a number-of-applicants contest. It's easy to inflate that number, by encouraging undergrads and single founders to apply, but we don't want to go there.<p>The big difference this time is the increase in the number of applicants from overseas. Otherwise the people and the ideas are like previous years.<p>We're always trying to push the limits. Probably not the youth limit, because we started out pushing that, and know pretty well where the edge is. But we may, for example, accept a large number of groups this time. We'll see how many are good.
null
null
8,947
8,946
null
[ 9105, 9100, 9468, 9518, 9551 ]
null
null
9,067
comment
zkinion
2007-04-05T05:11:36
null
It looks great man. I know you'll be accepted. The writing is on the wall. Posting your video here just seals the deal, and puts yourself out there. I didn't apply to YC, but if I did, I'd be putting my stuff up here as well. I'm surprized nobody else has posted like you did. That takes some balls and self-belief.<p>I didn't agree with some of the things you've said before, like IP rules, etc. but you've earned my respect. Best of luck to you. :)<p>-Zak Kinion
null
null
8,863
8,863
null
[ 9097 ]
null
null
9,068
comment
pg
2007-04-05T05:16:38
null
I just upmodded this post and your karma went up by a point. But I did just release a new version, so if anyone notices a bug, let me know.
null
null
9,059
9,059
null
null
null
null
9,069
comment
tcg
2007-04-05T05:24:10
null
And, as I've heard it, the reason that Delaware has very favorable business laws/legal system is that the DuPont company has been there since about 1800 (not too long after 1776 =). DuPont has been a huge company in a very small state for a very long time. Early on, they were able to set up a very favorable climate for themselves and thusly other corporations, and then things have snowballed from there.
null
null
8,774
8,732
null
null
null
null
9,070
comment
comatose_kid
2007-04-05T05:30:06
null
Somehow I don't see YSN devolving into 'check out this r0x0r pic that will change your life' type of submissions. Thats probably because it appeals to a comparitively narrow demographic.
null
null
8,922
8,922
null
null
null
null
9,071
story
keven
2007-04-05T05:35:29
Upper bound on age of YC founders
null
3
null
9,071
2
[ 9072 ]
null
null
9,072
comment
keven
2007-04-05T05:35:45
null
YC and PG have been effectively convincing young hackers it's not too early to start a startup. Startup is the new NBA - flooded with young talents, putting school aside for a shot at the big league.<p>While I still believe it's never too late to start a start up, is there an upper bound on the age of YCombinator? Would love to know the statistics on the age of mature founders from YC.
null
null
9,071
9,071
null
[ 9074 ]
null
null
9,073
comment
blakeross
2007-04-05T05:41:32
null
All written in Python? I'd love to know a bit more about what you're doing if you can share. I put together a similar tool last year for myself (Windows-only) using NTFS' USN journal, but it sounds like you're doing something different.<p>The app looks great.
null
null
8,892
8,863
null
[ 9083 ]
null
null
9,074
comment
pg
2007-04-05T05:43:44
null
In most batches the oldest founder is around 33 or 34. We don't have a rule about this; it just works out that way.
null
null
9,072
9,071
null
null
null
null
9,075
comment
dfranke
2007-04-05T05:54:28
null
"good content can be expressed without strict adherence to guidelines. Rap, for example."<p>Apparently, "good content" is one of those phrases subject to multiple interpretations.
null
null
8,993
8,971
null
[ 9096 ]
null
null
9,076
comment
pg
2007-04-05T05:56:22
null
Maybe this sounds harsh, but I feel like I can tell just from their logo that they're doomed.
null
null
8,963
8,963
null
[ 9082, 9119, 9152 ]
null
null
9,077
story
staunch
2007-04-05T05:58:59
Verizon Admits that their Unlimited Data Plan is Limited to 5GB Per Month
null
http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2007/04/03/verizon-admits-that-their-unlimited-data-plan-is-limited-to-5gb-per-month/
4
null
9,077
4
[ 9268, 9086 ]
null
null
9,078
comment
vlad
2007-04-05T06:03:28
null
You should focus on one company, not two concurrently. If you have to ask if it makes sense, then you probably have some doubts yourself. :)
null
null
8,284
8,275
null
null
null
null
9,079
comment
keven
2007-04-05T06:07:00
null
Bug: not all comments by pg is shown<p>Thanks for answering my question, I noticed your comment <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=9074">http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=9074</a> did not show in pg's comments page <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pg">http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pg</a><p>I assumed that comments displayed on the page are sorted by time
null
null
363
363
null
null
null
null
9,080
comment
vlad
2007-04-05T06:08:51
null
No problem! Focus on creating value, not on maintaining an ordering system. It's time consuming enough to do #1. (Easier said than done.)<p>Plus, if you become really big--and saving 50 cents in processing fees per order will start to add up--the other shopping cart / payment processors will be knocking at your door, writing their own API for you, and giving you better deals. Or, if the problem is that they don't have enough features for you right now, just e-mail them your suggestions. By the time you go live, they will probably have a lot of the features you requested. Again, I don't know anything about any shopping cart.<p>If you spend time on the more difficult and complicated method when there is no urgency for it right now, when you know there's a faster and easier method available that lets you go back to working on the main product, you will just HATE your entire project.<p>Instead, take the easier/faster option, as you will be able to go back to working on the actual product or service sooner, so there will be less boredom. When the situation actually arises that it DOES matter which shopping cart you have, the urgency of the need will motivate you to make the switch, and you will be excited about succeeding. On the other hand, if you take the harder method right now, you will not be excited--at the end of it all, you will be angry it has taken so much time when there was an easier method. Plus, 3-6 months from now, you'll probably have to modify the ordering system no matter which shopping cart you started with. Or, what if you decide to stay in beta for the next year (not accepting any payments)?<p>As you can see, I've made that mistake before... This is a motivational speech for me as much as it is for you. ;)
null
null
8,198
8,060
null
null
null
null
9,081
comment
Sam_Odio
2007-04-05T06:09:46
null
Hey Drew, <p>Congrats on a great product. A linux port would be great for servers - I'm always rsyncing stuff between my linux boxes. <p>For those who don't have shell access though, it would be cool if you integrated the service with (S)FTP. I don't even think you'd need to sync to the server. <p>Just giving the user the ability push his/her dropbox public folder to a server using (S)FTP would give your software several new use cases.
null
null
8,892
8,863
null
[ 9151 ]
null
null
9,082
comment
staunch
2007-04-05T06:10:49
null
Their logo could only be more obnoxious if it said "REPLY!!1" instead of just "Reply!".<p>Where's the YC startup that solves the logo/slogan problem with some clever hack? They're both such a pain and every company goes through creating them.
null
null
9,076
8,963
null
[ 9116 ]
null
null
9,083
comment
dhouston
2007-04-05T06:13:12
null
yup; i'd be happy to talk offline about it; shoot me an email at [email protected] .
null
null
9,073
8,863
null
null
null
null
9,084
comment
staunch
2007-04-05T06:16:02
null
Some objects on the page weren't loading for me, Google cache helped:<p><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:http://bnoopy.typepad.com/bnoopy/2004/09/hiring_sabermet.html&hl=en&sa=G&strip=1">http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:http://bnoopy.typepad.com/bnoopy/2004/09/hiring_sabermet.html&hl=en&sa=G&strip=1</a>
null
null
8,983
8,983
null
null
null
null
9,085
comment
akkartik
2007-04-05T06:17:59
null
Comments have down arrows. They're only visible if you're logged in.
null
null
9,000
8,926
null
[ 9098 ]
null
null
9,086
comment
yaacovtp
2007-04-05T06:18:56
null
And on a shared hosting account you can host unlimited domains. I won't name them, but on company with the word "host" in it's name spelled out in the T & C that each account is limited to 30,000 individual files. If each site only had one page/file how could I host an unlimited number of domains?<p>Anyone have the number for the FTC?
null
null
9,077
9,077
null
[ 9113 ]
null
null
9,087
comment
markovich
2007-04-05T06:21:24
null
What does summer mean for you (dates)? This sounds like a cool plan, I wouldn't mind hitting the US for a few months to work on some stuff...
null
null
9,028
9,027
null
[ 9457 ]
null
null
9,088
comment
andy
2007-04-05T06:22:51
null
&gt;&gt;I think this "web database" concept is suicidal.<p>Not if they get some clients using it (and paying each month) instead of developing their own reports.
null
null
9,032
8,891
null
[ 9111 ]
null
null
9,089
comment
gyro_robo
2007-04-05T06:24:19
null
We're gonna keep on, keep on, keep on moving,<p>We're gonna keep on, keep on, keep on grooving.<p>Keep on singing and dancing all through the night.
null
null
9,049
9,049
null
null
null
null
9,090
comment
yaacovtp
2007-04-05T06:25:12
null
Oops, if only there were a "this looks like another article" warning button. "Are you sure you want to spam our readers?"
null
null
9,049
9,049
null
[ 9164 ]
null
null
9,091
comment
vlad
2007-04-05T06:25:14
null
I overheard STEW allowed users to vote others down before I ever registered for this site. :)<p>(STEW = YCombinator startup news.)
null
null
8,926
8,926
null
[ 9219 ]
null
null
9,092
comment
rms
2007-04-05T06:25:17
null
It doesn't matter?! The score you get for playing the internet is my favorite contribution of reddit to social site design. Things just haven't been as much fun ever since slashdot got rid of numerical karma scores.
null
null
9,059
9,059
null
null
null
null
9,093
story
vlad
2007-04-05T06:25:59
How about STEW as an acronym for Y Combinator Startup News?
null
1
null
9,093
4
[ 9095, 9107, 9158 ]
null
null
9,094
comment
drewp
2007-04-05T06:28:47
null
There would be almost nothing in common with your non-FB "toolkit" and the FB one. Theirs is a way to access the FB database, yours wouldn't be. <p>Hopefully you're not imagining that FB for some reason decided to give away the tools that would be needed to create another FB. That's not what they mean by "toolkit".<p>
null
null
8,956
8,956
null
null
null
null
9,095
comment
vlad
2007-04-05T06:29:00
null
How about STEW ? STartup nEWs. It sounds delicious, it's easy to type, and it's easy to say! Toss in one gradient somewhere, and we're all set!<p>Or STEWY, to get the Y in there?<p>Plus, it's from a place called Y Combinator, and a STEW combines many ingredients...<p>"I read about it on Stew last night." "Was it good?" "Yes."
null
null
9,093
9,093
null
null
null
null
9,096
comment
whacked_new
2007-04-05T06:37:56
null
my writing led to confusion and thus was not "good content." but ah, you know, good content. you know? :)<p>notice that dfranke just proofread my post.
null
null
9,075
8,971
null
null
null
null
9,097
comment
vlad
2007-04-05T06:41:28
null
I don't know if he applied; he has tried before and was rejected. Way to represent the lone rangers!
null
null
9,067
8,863
null
[ 9205 ]
null
null
9,098
comment
randallsquared
2007-04-05T06:47:44
null
Perhaps you also need a certain amount of karma. I'm logged in (with 2 karma) and don't see any down arrows.
null
null
9,085
8,926
null
null
null
null
9,099
comment
mukund
2007-04-05T06:49:57
null
Backup Plan is to self-bootstrap and try to run it ourselves. But still optimistic that there may be a chance to get selected.
null
null
9,027
9,027
null
null
null
null