instruction stringlengths 4 105 | output stringlengths 8 56.7k |
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Anyone use brain drugs such as piracetam here? | icey: I've tried piracetam, and didn't really notice any difference greater than eating breakfast and/or getting a good night's sleep would give me. |
How many of you (coders) use marijuana? | modoc: I don't drink, smoke, do drugs, and a cup of tea is about the limit of my caffeine intake.My brain is very precious to me, and if I do anything that might damage it, there's no way to fix it, or get a new one, so I try to stay away from anything that could kill brain cells, rewire things, etc...But, that's just me. I'm pro legalization, etc... People should be free to get high if they want. |
What stocks are you invested in? | SwellJoe: Probably not really on topic here, but:INTC and GOOG. Bought INTC years ago, it's trended slowly downward ever since. Bought GOOG just a couple of months ago at close to its current trading price.Mostly, though I sold all my holdings and lived off of it while starting up my current company. That's proven a much better investment, more than doubling in value ever year. |
Interested in buying shares in startup? | Shamiq: Seems like a potshot -- What would it take for you to flesh out your profile a bit so we can learn more about you?Also, most won't "invest" in a company without knowing every damn thing -- including current/projected financials, competitors, etc. Good luck and hopefully you'll get what you need :) |
Interested in buying shares in startup? | noodle: imo, yes, provided there's enough information on the startup available.having said that, i feel that there is a startup/business concept available here (if it doesn't already exist). something similar to prosper.com, except with equity for startups. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | spydez: You need a sample document, so people can test out the "using your mouse to sign" part without signing up.I don't want to bother with the whole sign up, check email, wait, check email again, click verify link, go back to site, find document to test with, upload, blah blah meh.I just want to see how the signy bit works first.If you give me a sample I can scrawl "John Hancock" on and download and check out, I'll be much more inclined to go through the registration rigmarole. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | usiegj00: @spydez. Hey hey--I think you can. You get a sample contract right after the invite page. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | rksprst: "For a better experience, please use a fully supported browser. For more information, click here." The "click here" link goes to localhost.Other than that, I'd like to have some security and assurance that these contracts are in fact legally binding. Maybe a quote from someone in the government...And instead of Plans, I'd replace it with Pricing. It seems more obvious. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | dmix: One detail I think is important: When I create an account I'd like to add my password at the beginning. I knew it would email me after requesting that I enter a password, but the mainstream user definitely won't.Security is a very important factor with your application and it helps to create that image even if it sacrifices some easy sign-ups.I often see many business applications that list "Secure Log In/Authentication" on the feature list as well because its not always assumed. |
Interested in buying shares in startup? | dpifke: You really need to talk to a securities lawyer. If the above could be construed as advertising your share offering, you've just triggered one of the requirements for SEC registration. The legal fees involved would be in the tens of thousands of dollars, way more than what you're hoping to raise.There are ways to do this as an unregistered offering, but that restricts you to friends and family, "accredited investors" (see http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm), and a few others - definitely not strangers on the internet. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | dablya: I've integrated with a similar service at work. Do you provide an API for uploading documents? |
Does the Justin.tv domain appear to be parked for you, too? | thepanister: No, it does not!But it was down today, at least for me. |
Does the Justin.tv domain appear to be parked for you, too? | jwilliams: Does for me too - weird.Edit: A quick whois shows it was updated very recently. http://www.enom.com/whois/Whois.aspx?DomainName=justin.tvThe "detailed" verisign whois doesn't appear to be working. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | cool-RR: I didn't understand how to sign. It said hold mouse button, try again, and nothing I did worked. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | mwerty: A typed out signature is legally valid. Why use the mouse? |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | kbrower: Why $11/month? Is there a reason behind the number or is it just random? |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | thepanister: This looks like a real business... not just an app! |
CTO vs. VP of Engineering | cpierret: New CEO probably thinks that the engineering team is a mess and someone has to fix it.
Stop implementing Nagios yourself (and any non business critical issues), and ask the CEO for some freelance to do the job instead. If he argues that he has no money for that, run away fast (he has money to hire a VP Eng...). If he agrees, then start building a trust relationship with him quickly. Tech tasks usually can wait, where your CEO cannot (yes computers are nicer than CEO, but CEO signs your paycheck)
Focus on customer needs and your colleagues' need: how can you help sales/presales and marketing do their job ? Ask them what they need to succeed and give them the product they need. If you cannot because you don't have the resources, be clear about it and have them decide which tradeoff with you (or have the CEO allocate more resources). Become accountable: Learn to say "No" to mission impossible and avoid saying "No" when you could if you had more resources, just say "I could if ..." and have them participate in the tradeoff decisions. Write things down once the decision is made and email it after the meetings. If you think that this is too late for that, or that the sales/marketing guys have no clue (or are trying to cover), quit... and start again elsewhere. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | callmeed: Nice work–the app works as advertised and the site looks professional. As some others mentioned, an option to type the signature would be nice.Also, I'd love to see an API and here's why: as is, this is a very horizontal app ... by having an API, you could let developers of vertical apps integrate and instantly start reaching industries and niche markets you may never have thought of.Example: our company serves several thousand professional photographers, many of whom shoot weddings for couples from out of town. For them, mailing contracts back and forth is a total pain. They would eat this product up ... even more so if it was combined with some sort of CRM tool for the industry.Anyway, that's just my $0.02 based on my domain expertise. Feel free to email me ... I'd love to feature this in one of our upcoming newsletters. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | dchest: Gives "For a better experience, please use a fully supported browser. For more information, click here."Safari 4 beta. |
Does the Justin.tv domain appear to be parked for you, too? | AndrewWarner: Looks good for me. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | sam_in_nyc: Very nice looking pages, and I like the concept. Very well done so far, I think you're in the right direction. That being said, I'm better at finding things wrong with stuff than right, so here's my feedback.I thought the "Try it Now" meant I get to sign some sample document... or preview an account where I could upload a sample document and make-believe send it out to people. Just something where I get some instant gratification. Making me create an account just to try your product is a killer, for me, at least. I have no real need for this service so I don't feel inclined to sign up. That might not be the case for somebody who actually has an interest in paying for this service.You definitely need a sample account, or some more pages showing what I get when I pay you. I want to see this before I even sign up for a free account. What's the interface look like to send it out to people? What do they see once the document is sent to them? How do they actually sign? Just show me the process and pics of your interface and I'll be more confident in creating an account.Best of luck.Edit: I actually scrolled down to see the nice 1. 2. 3. 4. process. Move this up! It's far more meaningful than a big document with a rather ugly "John Bellingham" signature that, by the way, instantly made me think "signing with a mouse must look hideous!" |
How many of you (coders) use marijuana? | gaoshan: I don't use it. On the few occasions I have it has made me turned me into a completely unproductive zombie.Still think it should be legalized but not because I like it or want to use it... it just makes economic and legal sense. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | keltecp11: I know signature link has the patent for this technology, make sure your product differentiates itself or you might see some issues in the future:http://signaturelink.com/It looks great though! |
CTO vs. VP of Engineering | ooorrr: I'm the guy on the other side of the table: I'm the VP of Engineering who gets brought in. The circumstances are always the same - the CEO/COO/BoD doesn't believe that the CTO is the person they can trust to build great software and great processes. (This may or may not be true, and the company may or may not be doing that already - I've seen both. This is subjective even if you know what you're talking about.)A few simple notes, and please know I don't wish to be insulting, just clear:--This person is absolutely going to report to the CEO. The CEO is the person making the decision, and if he trusted you to build and run the organization, he would have had you hire the VPE. (On a related note, you missed an opportunity to fill a hole for the company that the CEO recognized.)CEOs (and any leader of a large, multi-fxnal organization) want their direct reports to be the people they can trust to get something done. You aren't that guy - the CEO doesn't want to go through you to find out how the engineering org is working, or he would have kept you in charge - so the VPE isn't going to work for you. Done.--The CTO/VPE peer relationship is perfectly reasonable. Sometimes it's a hierarchy, sometimes it's not. Usually when it's a hierarchy, it's because the CTO also runs other groups (like ops, tech support, etc.), and so is known by the CEO etc. to be a capable manager. You are not.So when I read your note, I can't tell if1) you're upset because you want to keep doing the VPE job, but you aren't going to get the opportunity;
2) you're happy doing the CTO/Chief Architect job, but are frustrated/saddened by how it was handled.You really do need to make this call. If it's #1, sorry - best you can do here is help hire a great VPE and leech on to learn from her. (Lot to be said for that.)If it's #2, the good part is that if the VPE is the right kind of egg, this can be very good for you:1) Many VPEs do this job because they don't want to be the Chief Architect. Some have the capability, some did once, some just don't, but you rarely have someone competing for your job or responsibility.2) You get to wipe your hands of everything besides making sure the company technically designs great software. As a company grows, that's a huge bonus. You have to genuinely _want_ to do this job when things get ugly or when negotiations get tricky.3) Your time with the CEO almost certainly diminishes, but that's ok, because you get to work with the people who matter more to you.I like what I do, and when I find a great CTO, that's awesome - it means that I can help on architecture occasionally, but really I get to focus on the problems I'm there to solve, knowing that many eyes are keeping us out of architectural trouble. So, make a friend (and if you're in Seattle, I'm always available). |
What stocks are you invested in? | lacker: Thousands of them, via index funds. |
What's the gist of Penelope Trunk for the ill informed? | aneesh: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=426786 |
What's the gist of Penelope Trunk for the ill informed? | gojomo: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=penelope+trunk |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | seshagiric: for all sample signatures on the page, use famous ones like Abraham Lincoln, Templeton etc.:) |
What's the gist of Penelope Trunk for the ill informed? | whatusername: She's female, talks dirty/sexual and has a book: http://www.amazon.com/Brazen-Careerist-New-Rules-Success/dp/... (That covers the famous part)That being said - i think large parts of her advice are worth considering at least.. not sure about them being iron-clad rules - but some of her work is worth a read. |
What's the best way to break up charges for recurring billing? | smidwap: 1) Standard practice. Good for accounting purposes.2) Unnecessarily complicated for end-user. Also messes with accounting because you don't want to record revenue earned for the second month in the first month.3) Accounting nightmare! But nonetheless, common practice throughout the web industry.4) Should be an option for end-users. Common practice, but again ensure you're deferring unearned revenue.5) Eh, just sounds kind of cheesey. Why should a user who finds your site one day before the first of the month only be treated to a 1 day trial? Trials are good for the end-user, but use it in conjunction with #1.These options should not be used exclusively, i.e. I would favor using 1 and 4.Sorry for the accounting comments. I'm taking an accounting course right now and couldn't help but throw my comments in there. It's still important though. |
Selling IP rights to an iPhone app | dkokelley: 1. Should I sell the IP rights to my software?If you don't do this then what would you do? Are you planning on selling the app yourself once it's developed? If you were then you need to evaluate both options and decide for yourself (or with more input from HN after more details are given) which is the best choice.2. What are the disadvantages of selling the IP rights?You can't make your app again, for yourself or anyone else. You might not even be able to use certain functions of code you've written for the app in any new apps you wish to create, depending on how the contract is written. Get a good lawyer for this.3. Why would they be after the IP of this software?To protect them from competition down the road. They want to make sure that you don't re-sell your app (or future derivatives of said app) to other companies while they are working on profiting with this app.4. If I do decide to sell the IP rights, how much should I charge for it? How is this calculated?This really depends on what the app is, what it's worth to you, what it's worth to them, and if an agreeable middle can be found. Try to guess how valuable this app is to them based on what they sell, and how well this app will add to their bottom line. There may also be lawyers that specialize in IP pricing.5. What is a good model for a working arrangement between my company and this other company?I would suggest having your company produce for their company as a client. Don't let them buy you. Let them buy your product. They may try to reel you in as a contractor or even employee. Just remember to operate with them as a representative of your company. This keeps your options open down the road.6. It was suggested to me that I sell the IP rights, then have a contract stipulating the price of each feature they want built. Is this a good idea?Well, the less ambiguity in a contract the better. I don't have any information about your app or the company, so I can't judge them. I would probably negotiate with them, saying: you can buy this unfinished app as is, with no support, and then hire me as a consultant if you need help finishing it, or you could buy this app with future developments built in to the contract price. Make sure that it is cheaper for them to spend more now, than to just buy the minimum.Goodluck! I hope that helped! |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | snitko: If even typed signature is legally valid, then what's the point in using the service? |
SVN updates summary | aneesh: Check out http://stackoverflow.com. Hacker News isn't a tech support site. |
What GUI SQL client do you use? | nshah: I use SQuirrelSQL[http://squirrel-sql.sourceforge.net/] and it works great... it's free, open-source and cross-platform... what else could I ask for. |
SVN updates summary | makecheck: Since every commit (consisting of any number of files, anywhere in the tree) changes the global repository revision, you can examine the log while at the top level to see all changes that were made.Try verbose mode, e.g. "cd trunk" and "svn log -r HEAD -v". You should see additional output that lists all changed paths with the usual "M" or "A" markers, etc. next to each. You can specify any revision number, not just HEAD, of course.I also recommend grabbing the whole book for Subversion, which is free online (http://svnbook.red-bean.com/). |
What GUI SQL client do you use? | jawngee: Aqua Data Studio |
What GUI SQL client do you use? | ejs: I usually use MySQL Query Browser: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/query-browser/en/. I am on ubuntu, not sure what other platforms it handles. |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | thorax: Front page looks nice-- if I was looking for such a service, your front page would have pulled me in to find out more. Nice job on the first step. |
What GUI SQL client do you use? | pclark: Sequel Pro |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | ggruschow: You may want to target law and gov't offices. Fewer people will bitch at them about what's legal, and they have boatloads of signatures to collect.For me, fax-to-email and printer driver-to-internet fax are cheaper and more convenient. |
What good is a 'non-binding' letter of intent? | geuis: I did one of these with a potential client several years ago. Its absolutely non-binding and served nothing except to make her nervous. My business partner pushed for us to do it so we could have something for a press release. http://mannea.com/2007/05/21/church-crawford-signs-letter-of... |
Please review my app: RightSignature.com - Easy Online Document Signing | NoBSWebDesign: This looks very useful. We actually need something like this for our startup. Any plans for an API (or would you be interested in working to develop one)? Email me please if you could. |
Interesting code to read | cperciva: I'm a bit biassed here, but several people have told me that they think the tarsnap source code (all in C) is "beautiful", "well designed", "very UNIXy", "incredibly clean", etc. |
Interesting code to read | silentbicycle: For C, the Lua source is great, and there's a hyperlinked version here - http://www.lua.org/source/5.1/ . It's written in strictly compliant ANSI C.For Lisp and Scheme, try Peter Norvig's _Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming_ and Christian Queinnec's _Lisp in Small Pieces_ (PAIP and LiSP). The former has more Common Lisp, the latter Scheme. Both will give you quite a bit to think about. :) |
Interesting code to read | scott_s: For C, I think the Linux kernel is a good representative: http://miller.cs.wm.edu/lxr3.linux/http/source/?v=2.6.11.12 |
Interesting code to read | icey: Peter Norvig has written some very nice Python and Lisp. I think most of the code he has on his website (http://norvig.com/) is in Python, but PAIP is all Lisp. |
HN going reddit with all these Erlang threads? | haasted: It was so ordered: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=512145 ... and like lemmings, we followed. |
HN going reddit with all these Erlang threads? | seldo: It's our new scalability strategy of "scaring new users away". |
HN going reddit with all these Erlang threads? | noodle: we just really love erlang.p.s.: boy this place is boring and very similar to reddit, isn't it? |
list of applicable CSS properties for each html tag? | noodle: you "can" apply any css property to any element. some elements come with default behavior that might need to be overwritten.i think your best bet is to play around with it. |
Haskell or Erlang? | critic: Haskell for me. |
Why is Erlang so unpopular? | kirubakaran: Why is chocolate more popular than brown rice? |
Haskell or Erlang? | biohacker42: Obviously both. But if you're looking to make an exclusive commitment for professional reasons, then I suspect Erlang is more industry and Haskell more academia. |
Which DNS provider for a startup? | jws: I always use a dedicated DNS provider because if my hosting service implodes or goes rogue I need to be able to move the name.If you want a recommendation, I use gandi.net. They have a long track record of doing the job well and respecting the customer's IP rights. |
Any sources on Erlang? | ConradHex: Please see "the entire front page".:) |
Any sources on Erlang? | hsuresh: Check it out here -> http://erlang.org/download/otp_src_R12B-5.tar.gz |
work from home or rent an office? | noodle: you pretty much nail it. office time is typically more productive. however, if you're paying $1k/mo for 3 people, i'd think you're overpaying. try and find a good coworking space. (i'm been giving thought to setting up a space myself). a good coworking space should theoretically have the benefits of a dedicated office space, but cheaper. |
work from home or rent an office? | Xichekolas: Not sure where you are located, but surely you could find a small studio apartment that you could rent for cheaper than $1k a month.I know my market is cheap, but you can get a 400 sq ft studio here for $400/mo (with everything but electricity and internet included).At this stage it doesn't need to be 'commercial office space' to function as an office. I'd imagine any room that you'd all fit in would be sufficient. |
work from home or rent an office? | mdolon: Are you guys single or married? Would it be possible to share an apartment? Productivity will definitely increase if you're around each other for 8-10 hours a day but $1000/month seems like a lot if you're trying to keep costs low.Another possibility could be looking into office spaces and startup incubators that rent out small (and crappy) offices for new startups. The rent is super cheap and you usually get fast internet and access to conference rooms. This option depends on where you're located though, as not every city will have these. |
Haskell or Erlang? | paulgb: Haskell is more elegant, but erlang feels a bit more practical. In particular because of erlang's dynamic type system and symbols. If you are writing distributed software, erlang wins easily. |
work from home or rent an office? | menloparkbum: Where do you live? In SF there is a new art space where you can rent an office space that would fit 3 people for $450/m.
It's pretty small, though. I'm talking 3 people at the same big dinner table.I like having somewhere else to work but I don't really like traditional office space. The best spaces I've worked at were a huge loft style apartment and an old house. Thus I'd suggest a shared apartment, BUT:One thing about office space vs. apartment space is that office space is usually much more negotiable than apartment space. You can probably talk away the $6K advance and lower the price. Aside from the times during boom economies and maybe always on the island of Manhattan, office landlords are often borderline desperate.On the other side of the coin, if you're looking at living spaces and suggest to the landlord you're planning on using the apartment for an office, they probably won't rent it to you. So don't mention it.Another thing you can do is sublease a corner of a space where another company got stuck in an overpriced lease last year. |
work from home or rent an office? | russell: Rent a two bedroom apartment fro one of you. It will be cheaper than office space and save rent at the same time.Alternative: most cities, towns even, have parks of steel buildings with garage space and a small office, pretty cheap. Also executive suites, they are expensive by the square foot, but cheap overall and you get to use conference rooms, etc. |
work from home or rent an office? | omnivore: Coffee shops ftw. It's like having a ton of offices, all around town. |
Erlang -- Does it really prevent hair loss? | tvon: I'm relatively new here, is it common for HN to be flooded with a single topic for a day? It's rather annoying. |
Why is Erlang so unpopular? | jganetsk: People don't post more info on Erlang because people don't use Erlang as much..NET, Python, and RoR have much wider use.The better question is, why don't people use Erlang? |
Why is Erlang so unpopular? | bcneige: Doesn't seem too unpopular right now. |
Why is Erlang so unpopular? | evgen: Given how popular Erlang was three or four years ago I think that its current popularity is quite stunning. Back then the learning curve was quite a bit steeper since we lacked Joe's book, lots of interesting and informative blog posts, and the current variety of modules and systems to examine and play with.Info about Python, Rails, .NET/LINQ, and even Java is the sort of stuff that helps a large portion of the programming community get things done in their daily tasks. For most people languages like Erlang, Haskell, Clojure, and Lisp are interesting diversions that they might one day aspire to be able to get paid for, what info that is out there is mostly provided to share the joy of the language and the problems it can solve rather than trying to keep you from going postal at your day job. |
What should be the next Topic of the Day? | Beanblabber: Well, it wasn't exactly the topic of the day. It was the community being smart asses. It was a nice laugh though. |
Other angel investors besides YC? | minalecs: techstars, dreamit ventures, capital factory -- same idea techstars is in colorado, dreamit in philadelphia. |
Other angel investors besides YC? | vaksel: You need to clarify...do you mean angel investors or incubators like YC. Because it doesn't sound like an incubator would work for you. |
Other angel investors besides YC? | mrtron: Perhaps not the response you are looking for, but if you get into YC you are only required to be in the Valley for 3 months.Is that an issue for many people, especially married individuals?Every incubator I have heard of requires your physical presence. A short period of time like that seems to be an easy thing to sell to your significant other. |
Are there any decent crypto mailing lists left? | wmf: cryptography@metzdowd.com isn't bad, although not much of the traffic is about crypto. |
Are there any decent crypto mailing lists left? | tptacek: What are you looking for? The cipherpunks movement is kind of dead; it's a bit like being a compressionpunk. |
Haskell or Erlang? | andreyf: Root beer or apple juice? Baseball or candy? Kitten or voice mail?What? |
Hacker Tent City | Radix: Hackers are regular people. |
Other angel investors besides YC? | tptacek: Can you code? You might be surprised what your consulting bill rate is. F' funding. |
Erlang -- Does it really prevent hair loss? | mixmax: And I had to upvote it. |
Any sources on Erlang? | joebasirico: I must admit, I've been coming here (I suppose lurking) for quite some time and was a bit surprise to see all the Erlang submissions. Then I read this and it totally cracked me up. Thanks for the laugh, guys. |
How do you decide if another person would be a good co-founder? | mixmax: I talked to an old guy that ran a large trucking company some years back, and based on his own experience he gave me the following advice: Never start a business with people that have the same qualifications and interests as yourself. He had once started an unsuccessful trucking company with three other trucking people. The result was that they had amazing trucks that were always in perfect shape, but sales, marketing, finance, and all sorts of other things didn't get done. And they failed. His current company was started with an accountant. So try to find a partner that finds the stuff you're uninterested in interesting.That said, finding a co-founder is hard - you don't know whether it'll work out before you'e tried it. So the best advice is probably to test each other out, maybe by doing a small project first, and seeing how it goes. Additionally you should have a written agrement on what happens if it doesn't work out.And most important of all: Don't take it personally. |
Y Erlang | comster: come on, where is the erl love? jk... please stop |
Why is Erlang so unpopular? | zdmc23: I think that more people don't commit to Erlang because they're afraid that it's just "the cool thing" - for now. It seems like more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of learning at least one functional programming language, but perhaps aren't sure which to commit to. I personally was a bit torn: Erlang has some great features and is production tested, Clojure is Lisp-esque (kill two birds with one stone) and has access to the Java libraries, OCaml is blazing fast, Haskell seems to be the pick for the "eggheads" and has lazy evaluation (purists seem to gloat over this one), etc... I think it comes down to risk... |
Can't we have the Erlang stuff just for new and non-users? | gojomo: This policy is already in effect. When your karma hits 6000, you'll see the real site. |
Can't we have the Erlang stuff just for new and non-users? | kyro: Or we can just exercise a bit of patience, wait no more than a day for the Erlang craze to subside, and stop putting so much worry into gauging whether HN is on the brink of destruction. Also consider that in these waves of 'new users,' many might actually be looking for intelligent discussion. The idiots will get bored eventually. |
The Winner's Curse. Your startup stories/experiences from failed startups. | mcav: You might find this useful for more stories also, though it doesn't hurt to ask again: http://searchyc.com/post+mortem |
Can't we have the Erlang stuff just for new and non-users? | Maascamp: This is a very poor idea. Unless you want to keep the community frozen as is, you can't NOT show visitors the real site. If that were the case I'd probably stop coming myself. |
work from home or rent an office? | srn: Right now I WFH for health reasons. I have my work laptop in the front room and my personal computer in a different room. Only problem is the wii is in the front room ;) but I am not working full time right now so it's ok.
My team for many years had 3 people, all working thousands of miles from each other. If you are in the same town I suggest meeting up on a weekly or daily basis; I would do it at the beginning of the day or week to set goals and parse out work. Also have an IRC or other chat room for when you aren't together. |
HN Meetup at SXSW? | wmf: There are so many parties going on in parallel you need Erlang to keep up with them. Since every official party will have a line around the block, we might as well give up on them and just try to schedule the HN meetup so that it doesn't overlap with any other good unofficial events.Union Park worked well for the last GeekAustin party. |
HN Meetup at SXSW? | quellhorst: I'll be at sxsw... twitter @quellhorst |
The Winner's Curse. Your startup stories/experiences from failed startups. | nostrademons: http://diffle-history.blogspot.com/ |
How do you decide if another person would be a good co-founder? | lionhearted: Track record. What have they produced in the past? Do they tend to complete things they've worked, or die 90% of the way to the finish line (a really bad thing)?Have they had any fallouts/meltdowns? There will always be a "good reason" it happened. No one will say "Yeah, I was a prick, and a drag, and a pessimist, and the company/project/whatever collapsed largely because of me." Also beware the, "I was immature back then, but I've recognized what I did wrong, and I've improved." No they haven't. At least, not if their last gig was a failing.Past a certain age, the vast majority of people pretty much don't change very much at all, ever. And if they had changed, they'd have accomplished something they could show you. So look at track record - it doesn't lie.Beyond that, there's plenty of good advice and Paul Graham's written on this plenty. A very big one for me - do they read books? Yes, books, not blogs/social news/newspaper/magazines. Avid reader of books is always a huge plus. Knowledge and lessons from books are repeated into you many times over a few days to a couple months as you read, so it sticks more permanently than reading a smorgasbord of unrelated things. |
HN Meetup at SXSW? | rlwimi: Do you (and y'all) know about dorkbot, Plutopia, and Datapop party?http://www.dorkbotaustin.org/http://plutopia.org/http://www.datapopparty.com/ |
HN Meetup at SXSW? | melito: I was planning on stopping into dorkbot while in town.Other than that I'm just gonna play everything by ear.Having lived in Austin I always really liked "Maggie Mae's" on 6th and "Club Deville" on Red River. "Mohawk" was also a pretty cool spot, but I had only been there a few times before I moved.That said if something materializes from this thread I'll drop in. |
Any advice for single founders applying for YC Summer '09 round? | suhail: I imagine this is going to be a tough sell, prove you can ship early, fast, and iteratively and that there is no way you'll stop trying (even if you're living on other people's couches).With that, that's a difficult story to tell if you're starting today--you may have to wait for the next round.My personal opinion: Start by yourself, produce 2-3 iterations of your product, your friends will follow when they see the idea start to come to fruition. No way someone is going to deny you an opportunity with that much heart, a solid demo, and some early indicators of success. I think you have to gun it alone before you can really prove to them that you're not easily demoralized.This is coming from someone who used to be a single founder himself, good luck--there's hope =) |
What do you think of my group chat app? | chavarria: how do i hack a myspace account |
Any advice for single founders applying for YC Summer '09 round? | medianama: Prove to them that you can (and will) pull it off on your own - without co-founders and/or YC.... and they'll come to you. |
Any advice for single founders applying for YC Summer '09 round? | dbrush: I was a single founder in the summer '07 YC batch. I don't know why they selected me precisely, but having the ability to say, 'It's friggin Photoshop online' certainly didn't seem to hurt. I was also willing to bring on a co-founder (which I eventually did) after I'd built and launched (a process that took about two years working by myself and happened before I ever applied).The goal is value. I guess... build something to build it, get it launched, and try to build value (because you believe you can, not because you think you can convince someone to believe you can). Building something to reach an artificial deadline is probably not the shortest path to creating real value. |
Any advice for single founders applying for YC Summer '09 round? | rms: Going back to school in the fall is another flag against you. It won't hurt to apply this summer, but you're very unlikely to get in. Consider this the practice for the Winter '10 practice round. |
What's your twitter account? | hardik: Hi,
Great idea to bring together HN users!
You can follow me at twitter.com/hardikt |
What's your twitter account? | hardik: And yes, in case you did not know, there is a YC bot too.. https://twitter.com/newsycombinator |
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