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What would you love to pay for if it was available? | terragb: A dead simple, cheap 8.5x11 e-ink device with no wifi or touchscreen or anything like that. Just the ability to page through my already owned pdfs. Some of them are scanned images, not text so no text conversion. Even if the only way to get the docs on it was via some kind of virtual printer driver I'd be happy. I'd basically like a way to read stuff on e-ink as if it had been printed. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | diego: - A laptop battery that lasted for as long as I can stay awake (say, 24 hours).- A cellphone that people could call anywhere in the world without paying for an international call, and that allowed me to call anyone or use my data plan at the same price regardless of where I'm located. International roaming charges are so absurdly high that they force me to have different sim cards and an unlocked phone (extremely inconvenient).- A nonstop flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) to a major city in California (SFO, LAX, SAN). I do this several times a year and the layover/recheck luggage after customs is a killer. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | RWilson: It's not a programming book but... "The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal"It's an awesome book about the history of computing, human-computer interaction, and all sorts of things you're familiar with but may never have known where they came from or how they evolved.http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution-Com... |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | ZehraNasif: Teleportation --will pay double for the service. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | mohamedsa: Very durable writable DVDs that could keep the data even after multiple scratches, the passage of decades...etc |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | sgk284: Still working on it! Just went to the entrepreneur expo in Philly and did a lot of great networking. Talked to some great people and made great connections. Will probably pursue funding sometime this year because bootstrapping has been slowing us down a lot. |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | jyu: It was about 1 year ago. Now I do affiliate marketing, which seems to be a faster and more reliable way to "F U" money. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | Fuca: I will pay for someone to market my skills on commission. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | pclark: Luck. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | electromagnetic: Bachelor Chow (See: Futurama). It doesn't have to be particularly tasty, but a simple meal that has 1/3 of your daily nutrition (with 1/3 RDA of all your vitamins and minerals) would be great. Preferably without ridiculous quantities of preservatives and artificial flavours. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | jraines: Camtasia Studio for Linux. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | JoelPM: The ability to start up an Extra-Large EC2 instance running OSX and connect to it using NoMachine.Combine it with a simple client that runs locally and rsyncs pictures/music/etc from a local HD with an EBS mounted to the EC2 instance.(I want a MacPro so I can do photo processing and programming in the evenings, but I don't want to spend $3.5k for a machine that will sit idle 20hrs/day.)(For this to be workable I'd also need a fiber connection - but I'd pay for that too, if it was available.) |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | dmolnar: 0) Stylish sunglasses that act like the spexware in Bruce Sterling's stories, or like the smart glasses in Charlie Stross's _Accelerando_. I'd love heads up displays showing me peoples' names, maps, appointments, and all the stuff for which I currently rely on my phone.The hardware is there if you're willing to pay. I recently learned about research in this direction aimed at helping patients with Alzheimer's (they also use audio prompts, as well). I don't know of anyone who has packaged up everything and written software to make this seamless, easy, and fun.1) A battery for my phone that "never" ran out. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | mingyeow: A service that matches you up with intellectual AND decent looking folks. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | vaksel: Early users, build something where a person can come to your site, pay $1,000 and get 1,000 active users to stimulate the site activity. |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | thorax: No chance we were going to abandon ship after not getting accepted-- thankfully, we've got a good bit of traction for our sites to build on.We were invited down for an YC interview last November, and it was wicked fun talking with them. But our 10 minutes was quickly consumed with their excitement with our existing sites (and not on our new initiatives). Our existing site http://bug.gd is a long-term play, not a quick growth play, and, given the 8% drop in Dow the afternoon before our interview, it was understandable that YC would be looking for something more aggressive. We just had a bit too much to discuss in only 10 minutes and I'm pleased to see the new video interviews giving YC'ers an opportunity to demonstrate more of their plans.We continue to grow bug.gd with the launch of our error database for companies projects, errorhelp.com, but it remains a project of constant (but not explosive) growth. We have some exciting features planned, though, that I can't wait to get finished.But the service we wanted to pitch to YC was our other crowd-sourced dating site, Yumbunny.com. Two months ago we launched to public beta and were covered on TechCrunch and other news. The site continues to grow and we're super excited about it.As a publicity project for YB, our team also squeezed in time to put together Tinyarro.ws -- a URL shrinking hack that relies on unicode/IDN to create the shortest URLs possible. It's been getting great traffic due to its oddity and the inherent viral nature of url shrinkers. (All the silly discussion about URL shrinkers being evil lately has helped that, too.)All in all, we're having a great time and are plowing ahead. Best of luck to the teams who got invites to go interview. Use your time wisely! |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | btwelch: A device that sits on your car dash and takes high-def pictures of the road ahead (infrared for night-time), then runs some image matching software that will fire off warnings if deer or other objects are in your path, or are moving towards your path. An early-warning HUD, to prevent deer strikes. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | yaj: A hoverboard as seen on Back to the Future. |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | damienkatz: I was rejected with CouchDB a couple of years ago. I was bad at presenting it, and it was probably the wrong time anyway. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | pavelludiq: starcraft 2. I hope its not ridiculously expensive when it comes out(im sort of used to not paying for stuff). |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | mike463: A computer I could hang on the wall in the bathroom or kitchen that just displays tasks/reminders for the day.You know, a simple dashboard to start the day. |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | tomsaffell: Got rejected 6 months ago, went ahead and built it anyway. I spent 4 of those months in India (because an opportunity to live there came up, and what better place to write code..)I now having a working product in private alpha. Everyone who has seen the demo says it rocks. It's a tool for commenting online videos, geared towards sports analysis. There's nothing out there like it to the best of my knowledge.I'm now looking for a co-founder. I need a developer. I have done all the development so far, but I now need to focus more on the business, so I need someone to keep the development momentum. The front end is mainly Flash/Flex, (which I can continue to handle myself). The back end is in GAE today, so my co-founder needs to either know that, or be capable of convincing me to port it. Knowledge of Red5 / FMIS / FFMPEG / JavaScript / Flash/Flex would all be a bonus.If you're interested, email me: tango charlie sierra two two zero one (7 characters)@gmail |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | raffi: I applied for YC W'09 w/ a software service to add grammar, style, and spell checking to web apps. It wasn't selected. No big deal. I went ahead with full scale development anyways. I have an early beta now and am still working to achieve my development vision. I've had inquiries from potential paying customers and have a small but growing active user base. We'll see what happens. |
Carnegie Mellon or Stanford | alecco: A friend was studying in Pittsburgh but he hated living there and left because the city was culturally closer to "middle America" and the "bible belt" (no offense intended.) He is foreign from a large cosmopolitan city, though. It probably matters where you'd feel more comfortable. |
Invite-only beta test management platform? | thorax: We asked the same thing, didn't see one, and rolled our own invite code stuff for Django. I think it's modular enough that we may release it. I'll ask that site's dev lead about that. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | kjhughes: P=NP: An Illustrated Guide |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | mixmax: A proper webbased project management tool. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | gamache: Programming Collective Stupidity: Harnessing the Ignorance of Crowds |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | gamache: On Clojure |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | pietro: A pan-European plan for the iPhone so that I could actually use the phone while travelling. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | reduxredacted: A small business server appliance for non-IT based small businesses.
I'm thinking: Network attached storage with a built in Samba NT compatible domain controller/windows file/print sharing capabilities. RAID-1 plus an automated backup mechanism ... maybe, attach an external USB drive and it automatically does Sunday fulls and daily differentials keeping as many as it can store. Bonus points if it can take extra SATA hard drives / external drives for expansion without adding a huge cost.Why I'd buy it?
My dad's company is running a (very nice in its day) server on Windows NT with "redundant everything" that is starting to fail something fierce. It's 13 years old but it meets the needs of him and his ten employees and at the time there wasn't much of a better choice. Since they don't do anything locally but file/print sharing it seems like such a waste to have a power hungry box with a monitor on it for such a simple set of requirements.
Also, if something like this were available, I'd replace my existing home-brew NAS ... based on openSuSE with it in a second if it'd lower my electricity bill. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | Evgeny: "Become a R0ck$tar programmer in 21 hours". |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | matthall28: More Firefly |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | Rob15283: A proven cure for tinnitus. I'd clean out my bank account and cash in all my 401Ks, if need be, to pay for the treatment. For those who don't know what tinnitus is, just imagine having a high-pitched ringing sound in your head that never, ever, ever stops. Ever. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | reduxredacted: A REAL sequel to Star Control 2 (a.k.a. Ur-Quan Masters) |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | rishi: We finished our product: www.FlyingCart.com - cash flow positive, 6,000 stores.That said. Would still love some mentors to figure out how to scale my company faster. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | lliles: A secure, online back-up solution for all my computers that is dead-simple to use on all OSes.And I mean dead-simple as in install a client that by default intelligently finds the stuff that I might want to back-up (iTunes library, folders with lots of pictures, My Documents, /etc & /home directories, etc.), with the ability to specify certain folders/directories as well. Or since we're dreaming, why not the whole computer? And of course it always runs in the background, never consumes 100% of my CPU or bandwidth when I'm using the computer, is always up to date, and pretty much never bothers me once I've set it up.I don't want to think about back-ups. I don't want my family to have to think about back-ups. My dad is interested in getting an iPod and will definitely purchase songs on iTunes. I want a dead simple setup for him to keep those backed up. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | chris11: Something like a Netflix for books and articles. I'd pay just to rent textbooks for general education classes. It would need to have a gigantic library though, big enough to guarantee that I would be able to find any book through there if it wasn't in a library.PDF versions of the books would be nice to, so I could access the book anywhere immediately.And it would need a good selection of scientific books. I have a scientific couple books that I want to read, but haven't because they aren't in any local library systems and used copies are going for over $40 on amazon. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | bokonist: the pre-1992 version of usenet |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | bayareaguy: FreeBSD AMI's |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | aristus: We interviewed last November. Paul seemed to fixate on a phrase from our written application, and it went downhill from there. We regrouped with bourbons at a bar in the middle of the day, and moved on. Stressful, yeah, but they have to run through 60 startups in 3 days. I don't envy them.We are funded and launched (http://www.archivd.com) and, yes, it is "addictively useful". :) |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | lincolnq: Presented an idea 12 months ago for a new programming language that understood modern scalability, concurrency, and software design concerns. Got shot down. We worked on it anyway for 4 months.Then we had an idea for a new webapp we wanted to build, so we switched to that. Got funding in December through fbFund and we're still working on it today. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | comatose_kid: Coders At Work (http://www.codersatwork.com) |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | AndrewO: "The Java Environment for Java Haters": covering the JVM, the better web and GUI environments, essential legacy libraries, tools, and whatever else is worth carrying over as Clojure and Scala gain traction. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | durana: A book on learning x86 assembly on recent processors. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | metallic_cloud: I would love a book on advanced XNA. Everything around at the moment is for beginner to intermediate. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | antidaily: streaming NFL games. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | jasonlbaptiste: A battery so good that I don't have to worry about battery life again. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | sho: Ghost in the Shell Section 9-spec full robot body. Medical immortality. Nanotechnological bone strengthening, brain-damping mesh, damage repair, bloodstream oxygen cache system. Brain augmentation. Cancer-free cigarettes. Perfect, invisible contraception and STD prevention. Cyborg love doll, again see GitS. I could go on all day!Maybe a little outside the implied timeframe of potential availability, but that's what I really want, not some minor upgrade of 2009 tech! : ) |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | joe_adk: A bluetooth track-wheel mouse. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | mattmaroon: I would have told you an iPhone that is on a good network, has a keyboard, and doesn't suck to actually use as a phone, but it sounds like Palm is going to come through on that one for me.So instead I'll go with a tech-focused social news site where I don't have to hear 3 times a day how everyone not in the tech industry is stupid and doesn't get it, and is, by trying to make a profit and protect valid IP, tilting at windmills. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | Tiktaalik: I'd certainly pay for an iTuneslike service for impulse buying old magazines in a digital format. I love magazines but they're rarely justifiably keepable as they accumulate and create a terrible clutter. Unfortunately for the majority of us that throw out magazines after a short time, eventually old magazines become incredibly interesting. If I come across ancient Wired, Next Generation or Nintendo Power magazines at a flea market for example, I almost always buy them, not really to keep, as I usually donate them after reading, but just to really page through and revel in the nostalgia.I'd love to be able to go on the web and instantly download some obscure issue of the magazines I liked when I was a teenager, or looking back farther, old ancient National Geographics or Esquires or Playboys or whatever. There are rare magazines as well, such as the Beastie Boys' self published Grand Royal, that only had a handful of issues. |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | kaiserama: Applied for an got rejected for YC08 - W. I ended up quitting my day job (not because of the rejection) to pursue some of my other business ideas. Currently the one I am working on just launched a successful pilot last Friday and hope to expand organically.I think the YC application really made me think of making the leap in earnest. While acceptance is always more desirable than rejection I think being rejected by YC has still been a very good thing. As others have said if you're willing throw your idea(s) away because YC said "not this time" you probably don't have what it takes or your idea just isn't what they're looking for. It doesn't mean you should just abandon or that you can never have a good idea again.That said I certainly would have loved to have the experience and to meet Paul. Oh well, maybe one day. |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | froo: I'm basically going to copy and paste from the other thread - I'll edit out a few unimportant bits thoughI applied to YC with a friend last year, we were rejected.It was a very difficult idea to pitch.We thought our idea was the best thing since sliced bread and all of our friends told us so (this should have been a warning sign... false positives)We went on to building it anyway.We got a version built, up and running in a couple months after initially dragging our feet. It basically worked, but poorly - we never took into account that battery life would be an issue on the phone app.We got a little disheartened, started bickering and eventually the thing failed - before we even launched.Somehow we had gotten the idea in our head that we needed YC to be successful. No, we needed a good idea and our idea was, at the time, not so good.Not being accepted isn't the worst thing in the world. Everyone thinks their idea is the best idea EVER... We sure did.The partnership broke down as a result of us forging ahead anyway without really looking at our product and only talking to people who only gave us positive answers.Anyway, moral of the story for us? Being rejected was the best thing that could have happened for us.I learned a lot about the other person during this process and also a lot about myself. I'm not bulletproof.On reflection, I also learned that being unwilling to discuss my idea openly with others for fear of it being stolen was stupid. We would have discovered flaws early on and saved us a lot of trouble.I openly discuss my new idea with others now.http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=502164Some people tell me it's stupid, I ask them why and we discuss it. Some others tell me it's interesting, and we discuss it. Some tell me it's great and we discuss it.I refuse to accept simple answers now and discuss as many different aspects as I can think up. I also appreciate other's perspectives on it.This has also helped cement the idea in my head and I can pitch it relatively easily now. I've come up with a solution to a problem, rather than having a solution and looking for a problem.Will I apply to YC again? Probably, I'm not sure. I've got a clearer head now - not so caught up in the hype. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | dave_au: This is motivated by the fact that I'm in Australia and our broadband sucks.Netflix send a whole heap of DVDs through the mail, so they're trust you not to rip them and distribute copies. If there was a massive content distribution network with kiosks in shopping centres where I could put in a DVD-RW or usb storage device (or pay for a blank DVD) and pay for the latest movies and TV shows I'd make a good amount of use of it.It's mostly about saving bandwidth, but also trying to provide an extremely fast and convinient alternative to piracy. If that existed, I'd probably use it. I already buy TV shows on DVD if someone I trust recommends them highly enough - a much better experience for me than watching them on TV, no adds, pause, rewind, etc...We get some shows quite a bit later here, and a few of the good shows only come to pay tv. So the timing would be the key. As soon as the TV show is aired anywhere - bam - available from the kiosk. The premium for being ad free and not getting it on the studios timeline might more or less balance out with the savings in packaging and distribution.Same with movies. Theaters wouldn't be happy, but we're rapidly approaching the days when people will go to the movies for the theater experience and otherwise just get hold of it online (one way or another).As a bonus idea, if the kiosks kept records of what you'd bought then buying a whole series through the kiosk gets you a big discount on the DVDs if you want the physical media since you've already paid for the IP at the point. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | callmeed: I want cable TV service and this is how I want it:- A la carte pricing: $1 per channel per month (I'd go $1.50 for HD channels and more for premium channels of course)- I want an IP-based/wifi-enabled DVR that records shows in a non-proprietary video format. I can browse the files from any computer in my home or configure my router so I can access them from work. If it can browse web videos ala boxee, great. I don't care about it skipping commercial–heck, I don't even care if it appends pre-roll/ticker ads to the files. |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | megamark16: A coworker and I were implementing a DropBox style file storage/sharing site. We worked towards a pilot but in the end our momentum fell out, with him in grad school, me with a family, and both of us working full time, it was too much to keep going. He's finishing up his degree now and I'm working on a new project, which I currently have my family and friends testing out for me. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | plinkplonk: "The only rule should be that you would actually take out your credit card right now and pay for it if someone offered it."ok here goes,1. New replicas of old computers like the ZX Spectrum, Comodore 64, Amiga, the lisp machine, the Newton2. The above, but in a handheld form factor3. A kindle that reads programming books perfectly, has no drm and can handle pdf without conversion.4. A website that would pay me for learning (hey we are just thinking creatively! A man can hope!). SO say if I finish all the non research problems of each chapter of Concrete Mathematics, I'd get 20 $) |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | christofd: - a book on learning to trust your intuition, with good and bad programming and architecture examples- a functional language cookbook... like erlang or haskell cookbook- a book comparing cultural differences between countries in the work and education worlds |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | AndrewDucker: A silent XBMC box in a small form factor.Think "Apple TV", but without having to worry about hacks, and with built in keyboard/mouse support. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | mazuhl: I'd pay $10 a month for a service that finds podcasts and videos about specific subjects.I don't have the time to scour TV listings or subscribe to busy podcasts/RSS feeds in the hope of finding something to listen to at work/when I'm out and about. What I'm doing now is going to the BBC iPlayer website every week, putting in my keywords and hoping something comes up.I'd pay a monthly subscription to a reliable service that could bring me high quality content from universities, YouTube Edu, Authors@Google, iTunes store, the BBC iPlayer, NPR, PBS, Fora.tv, etc. about the subjects/keywords I enter. What I don't want is homemade slideshows from YouTube or micro-segments of news. I shouldn't have to sit in Google's search box and now be able to drill down to find this interesting stuff. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | camperman: Calling Useful Java Libraries from Clojure for People who have Traditionally Despised Java And Know Nothing About It. |
Rate my Vim Script: snipMate.vim | kurczak: Can't get it to work. Using gvim on winxp. Directories are okay, nocompatibile is enabled, using expandtab + softtabstop=4 - but the only thing I get after pressing <tab> after one of the snippet keywords is a single space. |
Any startup looking for a summer intern ? | LWCARAB: Hi there, I can't offer you an internship but would be interested in talking about yours projects, I am based in France and in the UK. Email: lwcarab at gmail dot com
Richard |
Any startup looking for a summer intern ? | davbo: I've been in contact with a YC startup since Jan 18th trying to sort out an internship for this summer, however their incompetence has forced me to just give up with them. Hopefully you'll have better luck than me. I'm still looking for a UK internship but have decided local companies are easier to deal with than most startups. |
Any startup looking for a summer intern ? | mrduncan: Here are a couple of companies which are currently on the front page. Since you're looking in Germany or the UK I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but it may be helpful to others who find their way into this thread.Justin.tv: http://www.justin.tv/jobs
JamLegend: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=551247 |
Any startup looking for a summer intern ? | DebatewiseDave: Hi,We'd love your help. Debatewise.com is a non-profit debating site built in Ruby on Rails. Our goal is to create a Wikipedia of debate, a resource full of user-generated pro and con debates on a wide variety of different issues that people can turn to when they want to make up their mind.I can be contacted via the site if you're interested and want to know more. We're based in London.Dave |
Need some advice | bgnm2000: Neat site,I'll give my answers based on my own experience.1. How do you folks attract new members ? - The best way to attract new members is for it to be an integral part of your service.So friends can show friends, without that even being the goal. User's trust the whole WOM (word of mouth) over anything else, so to see that their friends are using something will be the most powerful aspect. This means, focus on the users you currently have!2. How often (if at all) do you interact with your members? As much as possible. Don't fill their inbox with spam. But make sure they know the site isn't just a rotting corpse. Make sure they can easily provide feedback, and make sure there is a blog (didnt check if you had one) so you can post about new updates and announcements.3. I recently tried to monetize my site with some ads. I regret doing this, it wasn't my idea, a friend recommended I try... it was a bad idea. But how do you folks monetize your sites ? - There are only a few ways to monetize a site. You can post ads, sell a product, or sell services (such as a membership). Your site, as you're clearly aware, isn't the first of its kind. Look at how the other's monetize and follow lead. No point in reinventing the wheel.4. Should I Keep Going? With all the other photo sharing sites like google,flickr etc. Is it worth it for me to keep working on this ? Maybe I should focus my efforts on a niche? (now what niche do I focus on?) - Of course you should keep going, even if the site doesn't become what you'd like it to, it'll always be nice to have in your portfolio. And yea, a niche would be great. You should consider the following when deciding your niche: "What AM I passionate about?" - and obviously, "what niche needs this, that doesn't yet have it." It's important for you to be passionate about it, because you want to know the niche & market better than anyone else, so you can really dominate it. There is nothing more unfortunate than when someone has a good idea for a business for a market they know nothing about. This is where execution comes into play.Hope my comments helped! Good luck! |
Need some advice | systemtrigger: Vivapixel appears functional and very fast but it doesn't arrest me as a visitor with a compelling argument on why I should sign up. If I were you I would work on storytelling then I would add pro subscriptions.I would paint a better "you're stupid if you don't sign up" story, starting with the home page. Your focal point currently is a random image from one user's photos and after refreshing 10x I think maybe your ego is getting in the way of your argument; we should not see pictures of Dave's baby or his out-of-focus drunk friend, we should be thinking 'wow I need this' within 5 seconds. I would replace that random image div with a thoughtful, visual argument for why vivapixel is a brilliant photo and video product. This is your chance to convince and sell. I like how your artistic design is minimalistic but it appears so bare-bones and unopinionated that as a visitor I'm just not confident you care much about user experience or celebrating my handiwork. Like a gourmet meal, presentation is key and IMO some elements of your design aren't paired well. Think of your customers as artists - they need to believe their gallery's curator has exquisite taste and appreciates the visual zeitgeist. If your marketing even hints that you're cheap or that you cut corners we won't proceed to Page 2, we'll be off to flickr.I love your logo!Your visitors subconsciously nitpick, so get into their heads. The dialog boxes are all highlighted red - that makes visitors think they've made 6 errors just by opening the homepage. The buttons should all be beautiful images - not the browser default or a graded blue. Treat your canvas as a masterpiece, something that elevates and makes us want to play with your toys. Visitors secretly resent the fact most of your language is boilerplate - would you rather spend their visual energy covering your own ass or convincing them that you've got something worth using?Finally I think you could eventually monetize Vivapixel with a subscription model. I might make public libraries free and for users who wanted privacy I'd charge them - like Github does. Another option that might work: charge users for large filesize libraries, or for transcoding services. At any rate, great job so far - you might have a super business if you keep at it. |
Any startup looking for a summer intern ? | diN0bot: We already have a handful of interns coming on board this summer. We're looking for a few more.These are volunteer positions unless you are student eligible for work-study via your school. (bilumi has been approved by MIT and Tufts for work-study, and we'd be happy to go through that process with your school, too. One student is leading a grant application to fund investigative journalism in Brazil.)You can check out the range of internships on this flyer:
bilumi.org/interns.pdfDevelopment-wise, I'd be happy to talk about our modules in detail with anyone who is interested. Work areas include but are not limited to: python, javascript, browser plugins, web design, data manipulation and analysis, mobile and social network apps.Some interns work remotely, some here in Cambridge, MA. We do a work retreat weekend on the Cape that brings everyone together at least once.http://bilumi.orggetinvolved@bilumi.org |
Invite-only beta test management platform? | tmarkiewicz: I think most roll their own (we did just did) since it's easier to integrate with your existing authentication system.Take a look at: http://railscasts.com/episodes/124-beta-invitations for some decent starting points. |
Need some advice | khangtoh: Hey I run a photo sharing site as well - http://Simplebucket.com and so here's my response from my experience.1. How do you folks attract new members ?Mostly from google search. When I started Simplebucket, I had the concept of making the simplest photo hosting, no registration, no login. And so I targeted the words "simple photo hosting" and now Simplebucket is #1 on google for those keywords. When we first launched, after RailsRumble 2007, the site had bare functionality and minimalistic design. I redesigned and added features to Simplebucket and relaunched in 2008. After the relaunch, I emailed blogs that wrote about photo sharing sites and tell them what is unique about simplebucket.2. How often (if at all) do you interact with your members?Not a whole lot and I know now that it was a huge mistake. I kind of neglected our community due to job commitment. Photo sharing is about building a community and interaction should be first, I was also too focused on features which I think should be secondary to building a community.3. I recently tried to monetize my site with some ads. I regret doing this, it wasn't my idea, a friend recommended I try... it was a bad idea. But how do you folks monetize your sites ?I'm not sure why ads turned out bad for you, but for me, it went neither way. There isn't a whole lot of ad revenue, enough to cover hosting cost in certain months but that was it. I did not receive any complaints from existing users so my perception was they are fine with it.4. Should I Keep Going? With all the other photo sharing sites like google,flickr etc. Is it worth it for me to keep working on this ? Maybe I should focus my efforts on a niche? (now what niche do I focus on?)I went through this same dilemma a year ago. Simplebucket wasn't growing like I had expected. It was very utilized by a small group of fans and I had decided to keep it going for them. Photo sharing is a very competitive arena, if that's one thing that I learned from the past year. In order to emerge from the noise, I knew from the start that the service had to provide something unique and niche. Simplicity was mine. I also thought about photos for Twitter in 2008 but did not implement that because I had too much on my plate from my day job. And look at Twitpic now and how several other photo sharing sites are going Twitter in 2009. So yes, going niche is necessary, but it does not guaranteed success. |
Open discussion on the type of VC you really need | pclark: you have an excuse to move to SF for summer founding a startup.Why would you even consider giving up after being rejected from YC? Isn't that telling the world you're not sold on your idea? |
Does system administration dumb down the brain? | noodle: installing something is boring and kind of dumbifying, sure. but if you're a system administrator who solves problems, optimizes and tweaks, i could imagine it being engaging enough to be interesting. |
Does system administration dumb down the brain? | hapless: One might argue that heeding road signage, signaling, and lane discipline impairs the driving experience.It is, nevertheless, necessary. |
Does system administration dumb down the brain? | hs: <sarcasm>i agree, let's forget the computer altogether, it's much smarter to write code with pencil and paper</sarcasm> |
Does system administration dumb down the brain? | Xichekolas: You can make it fun by writing scripts to automate whatever the task is while you do it. Then, at least, you only have to do any given sysadmin task once.I usually find it interesting to set up things I haven't used before. Tweaking conf files can be as gratifying as tweaking code... it only becomes boring if you are doing the same install/config over and over.Of course, most things are boring if they are repetitive. |
Need some advice | wheels: The site doesn't answer, "Why should I use this instead of Flickr?"I hate to pull an MBA-term on you, but, "What is your unique selling point?"Figure that out and then hammer it home. |
What would you love to pay for if it was available? | asciilifeform: A decent computing environment.(Technically available now: http://www.lispmachine.net/symbolics.txt but I would like one that meets modern specs.) |
Custom labeled flash drives/cds/dvds | brk: Google for it.There are thousands of these companies out there. I've always just gone with the cheapest company at the time for the product/qty I wanted. |
Does system administration dumb down the brain? | greatfog: From alt.sysadmin.recovery FAQ v1.799999999999999998...
[http://www.faqs.org/faqs/sysadmin-recovery/] Perhaps Abby Franquemont summarized the life of a sysadmin the best, when she described us as:
"disgruntled, disenchanted with things we used to really get a kick out of,
foul tempered, hard-drinking, heavy-smoking, overworked, with no real social
life to speak of."
Or perhaps she was being optimistic.
I have not had responsibility for the operation of a large computer and communication system since the dinosaur era, but I found the work so repetitive and tedious that it motivated me to go back to college and get an EE degree.Over a decade of lurking on asr shows that some sysadmins preserve sharp perceptions, wide-ranging interests, and pointed communication skills. |
Does system administration dumb down the brain? | pasbesoin: Are you designing (1), or supporting? Whether you are programming, administering, PM-ing, or doing something else, I find the question pertinent.If you designing, actively creating, you are likely to be engaged. If you are merely supporting others, you are more likely to be neglected and relegated to repetitive tasks as well as "clean up" for others' mistakes.In good part, I find it a matter of control. If you do admin work, but are allowed to find, create, and implement better ways of doing it, you are likely to be engaged. If someone else is telling you what your environment will be (in minutia), what your tools will be, and basically turning you into a glorified button pusher, you are likely going to suffer. (I base this in part on your presence in this forum. I've met plenty of people who are more than happy to just push the indicated buttons.)In some of my more engaging work, my technical role was pretty mundane. But it was a tied to a group of people who were having trouble getting their act together. By listening to them and getting them to talk to each other, openly and directly, I changed to process from a morass to a success. Thus my mentioning PM and other work. I find that often it's not (just) what I'm doing, but what kind of control I have. Almost always, I see opportunities for improvement. If I'm allowed to pursue those, I'm happy. (And I do so responsibly, communicating my efforts up the chain of command and documenting things.) If I'm not, well, I'm still learning to get out fast. I've already squandered more than enough time on "the way things are supposed to be".----1. not meaning the current tendency to associate "design" with UI design |
Does system administration dumb down the brain? | cmkrnl: I'm an admin, and certainly can relate to what Abby says. However, I can also code in half a dozen languages, and often fix things with a few lines of expect and shell, where our enterprise java cowboys would demand a new server with a java app server and still can't do a complete job of it.
Being a sysadmin was fun in the early 20's. Now getting close to 30, I get high on Scala, the finer points of TCL etc. I do worry about the future though. |
Custom labeled flash drives/cds/dvds | nkurz: I was recently researching DVD replication. I haven't ordered anything yet, but from a price perspective these two looked good. Both offer custom printing on the disk.http://www.newcyberian.com
http://www.nationwidedisc.com/ |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | revolvingcur: My team was a YC reject in April '08. My partner and I split and we've each spun out a few ideas independently. I now work as a web programmer at a Windows shop and moonlight in a variety of areas.The reason for choosing this route was the pressure to be cash-flow positive as an individual through whatever means necessary. |
Please review our RSS feed filtering app | akirk: Honestly, it feels a little boring to me. I mean, ok, it's nice to be able to custom rank feed items, but it sounds like a lot of work to do beforehand.Especially as the most interesting items are most often the ones that I did not anticipate. |
Need some advice | darwinw: Hi there, just checked out your site, a few questions for you:1. When did you launch the site?
2. and you mentioned the traffic is growing, can you share more about the rate on how it's growing,
3. and where does the growth come from (referal, direct or google search)?
4. Do you use google analytics and analyze the data it showed you? |
What is your favorite charity? | darwinw: I personally donated to worldvision.com |
What is your favorite charity? | tokenadult: The American Lung Association, because my wife once had a severe lung infection. |
Any startup looking for a summer intern ? | eru: Judging by the comments, quite a few people in Europe seem to be interested in a summer internship. But we face a shortage of suitable startups in the area.What do you think of creating our own workplace? Imagine five to ten hackers coming together for a few months. We'd rent a flat, hack together, perhaps do some consulting work to be Ramen sustainable. (No communism implied. We'd go Dutch on the costs.)After getting to know each other and feeling comfortable, people could split into small teams (three members or so) and create startup-projects, if they want to.Any thoughts? Please drop me a line at matthias.goergens@gmail.com |
What is your favorite charity? | yan: I donate mostly to EFF, but should donate to more.http://www.charitynavigator.org/ |
What software do you use for managing communications with media/blogs? | DEinspanjer: I recently spoke with the founder of a company that has an extremely interesting tool for visualizing traffic trends and how they are impacted by referrers and search keywords. Seeing this tool made me feel that it and other tools or suites like it are something that I think could be very useful for a lot of companies that are trying to figure out how best to make themselves noticed on the internet. |
What is your favorite charity? | vijayr: http://kiva.org |
What is your favorite charity? | villageidiot: Doctors Without Bordershttp://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/index-alt.cfmBut only because a friend of mine is a volunteer. To be honest, he pestered me about it for years but I didn't actually donate until he came back from Israel and told me about how he and some other Western doctors had almost been accidentally shot by Israeli troops while taking care of some wounded Palestinians. Of course he probably made the whole thing up, since that could never happen.With tax time around the corner, be reminded that a donation is tax-deductible:http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/ |
How is Loopt making money? | thorax: Some old discussion here:http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/15/loopt-may-be-friending-...> Loopt has remained tight lipped about who they’re talking to, but the pitch is pretty clear. Competition is driving down mobile voice revenues which Loopt says they can help offset by driving new profits in data plans people pay for to use the program. Currently they make money through $2.99/month subscription plans or by being bundled in with a phone data plan. Location based services and advertising are also other key revenue sources. Loopt says that 51% of all mobile application revenue already comes from location based services. |
What Programming Book would you buy right now (if it existed) | xenoterracide: a book on postgresql 8.3 (or the to be released 8.4) with some good strong chapters on various PL languages. I'm thinking one on PL/Perl a few on PL/pgSQL, one on PL/SQL, one on SQL/PSM (maybe). several on the rest of Postgres. |
Have you created alternate accounts to post questionable responses? | jaxn: Short answer: noWhy would you go through the trouble? Why not refrain from posting it when you think it is questionable? |
Got rejected by YC 6-12 months ago? Where are you now? | mingyeow: I would like to summarize this thread by saying "it is not the end of the world, some cool shit have been built!" |
Have you created alternate accounts to post questionable responses? | systemtrigger: I have one other account here. I started this account one day when I wanted to express a controversial idea I felt I couldn't articulate well enough to warrant associating my real name with it for the rest of my life. Sometimes my positions aren't P.C. enough to associate with my family name and sometimes I just want to explore my opinions in discussion form even though I haven't got the time to express myself with exacting clarity. I'm afraid if I use my real name (a unique name for sure) I will either make a mistake I might later regret or I will be tempted to wordsmith my comment for longer than I should.Anonymity can sometimes be very liberating. Maybe when I become a better writer or my startup is wildly successful I will reveal my identity. Until then I don't see why I should silence my most authentic voice by closing this account or use my real name on every comment that I write. What's wrong with using a pseudonym once in awhile? Some people only use a pseudonym - is that so wrong?I treat this account more like a diary. I take more risks under this account. It grants me creative license to be myself but not the self I want shown when someone googles me.What if my startup doesn't work out? I'm going to need a "real job" and if the economic environment gets much worse I might find myself interviewing with a conservative pointy-haired boss. This is a real life possibility and if it turns out that is what happens I'm better off if my interviewer hasn't read my honest ramblings on corporate life, sex, philosophy, politics - all of which I feel free to discuss under a pseudonym. Look at it another way: in a worst-case-scenario, let's assume one day I am wrongly accused of a terrible crime - do I want the prosecutor to take out of context my most controversial, intimate musings? There are after all some things you can't say. I haven't exposed much under this account - I just started it a few weeks ago - but <edit>my reaction to the negativity in this thread</edit> is What is wrong with someone detaching themselves a bit from their ego? <edit>Downmodders,</edit> how am I hurting the community? |
Have you created alternate accounts to post questionable responses? | tokenadult: No, never. On most online communities I use my real name. On one very useful online community, the community rule is that no one uses a real name, so I came up with my current screen name. As I join other communities where the use of a screen name is the norm, I use the SAME screen name, so that people can tell who I am. I let my reputation build from the content and appropriateness of what I post. So far HN and Newmogul are the only sites I am active on with an explicit karma system, but on two other sites where I use this screen name I have been tapped to be a moderator by the forum owners, because they recognize how I interact with the community. Anyone can do this. |
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