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What if HN was biased against submissions on very popular topics? | mooism2: If the site can detect that different submissions are on the same topic, maybe it should group them together. That makes them easier to skip for people who aren't interested in that topic, while without burying them from people who are interested. |
Which domain registrar do you use? | jacquesm: moniker. So far quite happy, I do understand they got bought out by 'oversee', but so far no bad effects from that. We first tried out how they treated us as 'small' customers, then we switched our premium domains (ww.com and daz.com) there once we had the feeling we were in good hands.The funny thing is that... |
Rate my Start-up webticketing.net | natts: Great start, though provide alternative payment options if possible - that way you don't scare anyone off. |
Which domain registrar do you use? | redmage: I use gandi. |
Advice on creating a POS system? | ganley: Every market is dominated by POS software systems. Oh, you meant something else by "POS". |
Please review my concept | abhishekdesai: Hey Guys,
I have done some changes as per your feedback. Please let me know if it is easier to understand the concept now.Thanks,
Abhishek |
Use Facebook to land interviews? | ScottWhigham: I had someone send me a friend request via FB during a recent hiring round. My thought was, "Who is this person and why would they think I want to be their friend on FB?"To me, FB is personal - it's not LinkedIn which is 'work'. FB is for friends and family. Hit me up on LinkedIn and, although I'll still ... |
Will my target audience reject a .net solution? | cheriot: Two thoughts:1) The money they spend on a windows server to run your application on is money out of your pocket.2) If you will support plugins like wordpress, trac, etc, you'll have an easier time creating a plugin ecosystem with open source tools.Then again, I'm biased since I work in a linux/java/ruby shop.I... |
Is doing research harmful in an idea harmful for a startup? | notaddicted: Your university has a policy on this. Different universities, different policies, so look into it. |
Is doing research harmful in an idea harmful for a startup? | Mz: My initial thought is that sometimes ideas cannot be developed without the shelter of an environment like a university and one person shows typically don't accomplish much. So I think some ideas that later went commercial and then found themselves with this conflict might not have ever gotten developed at all if t... |
Is doing research harmful in an idea harmful for a startup? | Novash: I am not a lawyer, so by no means consider this a legal advice, but I seem tempted to remember that the whole PageRank script that made Google be Google was actually their thesis at College, wasn't it? My memory fails now, but I am pretty sure they got it published somewhere before creating Google since their f... |
Getting in Y Combinator? | jacquesm: Hi Emil,I'm impressed with your drive!But I do think you need to get a little bit more experience before you're going to strike out in this direction.There have been - rare - occasions of teenagers hitting a home run, but your age will definitely work against you.There are also all kinds of legal issues that ... |
Getting in Y Combinator? | icey: AFAIK you can't sign binding legal documents until you're 18. |
Getting in Y Combinator? | gdp: > I was looking at the YCombinator graduates and realized that in order to get accepted you had to have went to a very good college.Is this written doctrine, or just an observation?University-ism is one of those things that really bugs me, given that it basically boils down to "physical proximity and financial mea... |
3D in Flash 10 | aac74: Best thing to do is output a .swf animation from a 3d tool and import it into your flash project:http://www.erain.com/Products/Swift3D/ |
How much does education matter? | jacquesm: I have yet to see this make a difference. The VCs that I work with look at the team, that's for sure. It won't hurt if you have a good education. But the focus is on the business, how well the team works as a team and how solid the business is put together.Given the choice between a startup done by 3 guys wit... |
How much does education matter? | mburney: It seems more like correlation than causation. A lot of ambitious people go to top schools so you also see them doing startups, but there are really no secrets they learn at those schools that give them an edge business-wise. |
How much does education matter? | TallGuyShort: I can't speak from experience regarding what actually makes a difference to YC, but I think if there's any group in the world that places more emphasis on real talent and experience, and less emphasis on a degree from a prestigious university - it's hackers. |
How much does education matter? | icey: I'm not an investor so take this with a grain of salt, BUT:Investors care about 1 thing: will you get them a return on their investment. They may say they care about a lot of other stuff too, but that's thing #1, always.A degree can help them determine whether or not you've got the goods; but that's not the only ... |
How much does education matter? | pg: We make a conscious effort not to be influenced by it.http://paulgraham.com/colleges.html |
Why don't we pay our rent online? | cperciva: Why don't we pay our rent online?Probably because the US banking system is about 30 years behind the rest of the world. Outside of the USA, people pay their rent via bank transfer all the time. |
What's your favorite Javascript library? | jacquesm: I've used prototype a little bit, I asked the exact same question on HN, have since started using jquery and I like it quite a bit. |
What's your favorite Javascript library? | jdp: I use jQuery. I only briefly checked out prototype before I found jQuery, and I don't remember anything about it. Like most of us, I got tired of using the same thing over and over so I checked out MooTools and didn't like that it had all sorts of $chk- and $empty-like identifiers, but otherwise it's a solid libra... |
Why don't we pay our rent online? | IsaacSchlueter: I've been thinking about this a lot ever since I moved out of my parent's house as a kid. In fact, it's probably my most promising startup idea at the moment, and I've done a little bit of research into it. (Of course, everything changes once you start in earnest.)The whole apartment renter experience... |
Why don't we pay our rent online? | pg: We've tried three times to fund startups solving this problem. There's one in this cycle that may be the answer. |
What's your favorite Javascript library? | seasoup: I've used jQuery, prototype, mootools, and dojo and researched some others.jQuery is my library of choice because it is the best at DOM manipulation and events, and excellent plugin ability. Also has excellent documentation and is the most popular library. Can be used side by side with other libraries.Sizzle ... |
What's your favorite Javascript library? | aaroneous: I've been using MooTools a lot in the current project I'm on. It feels like more of a natural extension of JS than trying to change the language to meet one group's idea of how it should perform. The docs are pretty good and it's pretty easy to read as well (though I think it's probably more verbose than JQu... |
What's your favorite Javascript library? | yannis: I have used both Prototype and jQuery. I am now sold 100% to jQuery. I like the fact that using jQuery I can produce very concise and readable code.I also like the way you can extend the jQuery object with plugins. It has wide support and a large community of bloggers seem to be churning more and more plugins f... |
What's your favorite Javascript library? | noodle: this topic comes up once every month or two.jquery. its very simple and fast by default, easy to build on top of, and easy to read. it has the most industry support, right now. |
Why don't we pay our rent online? | yalurker: I already pay my rent online, as well as have an interface to request maintenance or ask questions to the management company. This is in the US. I can pay by direct bank withdrawal for free, or pay a fee to use a credit card.My apartment complex uses this system: http://www.propertysolutions.com/ As an end-... |
Why don't we pay our rent online? | Tangurena: Some apartment companies already do take rent payments online. But those are the more modern companies who tend to cater to younger folks.In general, folks who run the majority of apartments aren't too interested in fancy new stuff, as much of the fancy new stuff that gets pitched to them are thinly disguise... |
How did the Erlang articles disappear on HN yesterday? | jacquesm: I guess enough people flagged it to take it away.There is a lower limit where stuff will get auto killed if enough people flagged it.What bothers me most about these silly flooding tactics is that you've potentially burned a lot of good content about Erlang from ever appearing on HN.Erlang is a neat concept, ... |
I have a good idea for a startup, but I don't have time. What to do? | mbrubeck: I'd try to do it as a side project if at all possible. I've never gotten more side-projects done than when I was in college (and I went to a fairly work-intensive engineering school). If it helps, see if you can get credit by getting a faculty advisor and writing up some reports or papers about it. |
I have a good idea for a startup, but I don't have time. What to do? | noodle: perhaps search for funding and use that process to hire a freelancer or find a committed cofounder?beyond that, there's not any easy way for someone here to analyze your situation and tell you what choice is best, especially without knowing more about the project (i.e., how much development time would it take t... |
I have a good idea for a startup, but I don't have time. What to do? | nostrademons: I don't like either of those ideas. Problem is, if you don't have either time nor money to implement the idea yourself, why should a partner/freelancer implement it for you and then let you keep the profits?If I were you, I'd do one of two things:1. If you really believe in the idea, take a leave of abse... |
I have a good idea for a startup, but I don't have time. What to do? | JimboOmega: In summary: you need partners. Good ones. I failed to find any, and, like your first attempt, my startup burned out.Working by yourself is just dangerous - even if you're entirely self-motivated (I'm not), you can only have so much perspective. Ever spent days trying to get some small thing to work becau... |
I have a good idea for a startup, but I don't have time. What to do? | mattwdelong: I think there is something you need to know: An idea is worth absolutely nothing, or very close to nothing. The money is a result of execution, a direct correlation even; The better the execution, the more money.You stated: "I wonder the best way to handle partnerships, especially when the idea was basical... |
I have a good idea for a startup, but I don't have time. What to do? | dusklight: Don't want to rain on your parade, but from your comments it looks like you are vastly underestimating the kind of commitment and effort that it takes to successfully take an idea to market.No matter how good your idea is, you still need to be able to execute on it and bring it into reality.You should go ahe... |
Etherpad like whiteboard? | dwc25: Is the use case actual drawings/diagrams here? We use EtherPad for any and all traditional text white-boarding. |
Why don't we pay our rent online? | tempuname: I am currently one of the people responsible for the finances of a student housing cooperative.There is precious little property management software and services directed at small to medium sized landlords (most of the market). With a couple hundred members/residents we're a fairly large organization, bigger... |
I have a good idea for a startup, but I don't have time. What to do? | jacquesm: This is almost ripe for a FAQ entry.http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=774758 |
Which domain registrar do you use? | gexla: Take a look at Dynadot. They have a really simple interface, they aren't resellers and I like that you can cancel your domain and get your money back right through the interface (if cancelled with 3 days I think.) |
3D in Flash 10 | jdowdell: There are many, many examples, and I'm not sure what you've seen, what you seek to see. ("3D wireframe of a real object"?)There are various libraries to make different types of "3D" faster to develop in Flash. Each has their proponents, their own best-uses.Some of the other comments here are weird... better w... |
What's your favorite Javascript library? | stuntgoat: There is an interesting discussion going on right now, here:http://mail.python.org/pipermail/baypiggies/2009-August/0052... |
If you had to remake ratemyprofessors.com, what would you write it in? | slig: Django, for sure.The docs are awesome, and it's getting momentum. It's simple to get started(the admin feature provides you free CRUD), runs on sqlite that's bundled with python >2.5 and it's written in Python :-) |
How much does education matter? | prpon: A startup I worked was started by HBS guys and hired professor from MIT as their first employee.
They pretty much interviewed and hired folks from the top 5 math and computer science schools only.I looked up to these guys because of an inherent bias that, I never went to these schools and these guys must be goo... |
If you had to remake ratemyprofessors.com, what would you write it in? | carbon8: Me? Rails. You? Any mainstream framework. Whatever you want. It won't be a highly technical app so it doesn't really matter, and any mainstream framework will have the functionality you need. Be wary of anyone saying "[x framework], for sure." Whether a project like this succeeds or fails will have nothing to ... |
Why don't we pay our rent online? | Aevin1387: The complex I live in allows payments online both through bank tranfer, and credit card payment, and have done so since I first moved in two years ago. The system they use is through http://realpage.com/onesite/ and until this month, they charged a $10 processing fee for all online payments. |
If you had to remake ratemyprofessors.com, what would you write it in? | dzlobin: Is anyone familiar with cakePHP? Would that have any benefit here? |
If you had to remake ratemyprofessors.com, what would you write it in? | profquail: I'd go with ASP.NET MVC. Probably one of the less common answers you'll get here, but I think if you choose one of the more popular and well-supported options (Rails, Django, ASP.NET MVC, Java) you won't really go wrong.Just check out each one and pick the one you feel has the best fit for your coding style.... |
Why don't we pay our rent online? | rbarooah: I've paid my rent online in the US for the past 7 years - with 4 different landlords using PayTrust, which simply prints and mails checks automatically. It also scans paper bills, and gives a lot of control and feedback to stop things going wrong, so it's better than most bank-based bill pay services.Like mo... |
on a penal code for HN | andreum: Cool. Contragulations! |
on a penal code for HN | jacquesm: There's a thingy in the guidelines about tempting people to mod you down.But I can't imagine that's the reason your account got killed, it would seem to trivial a reason to me.this is the exact moment when your account got killed though:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=758334So probably you're right that t... |
on a penal code for HN | lucumo: > a couple of postsYou spammed about every thread you could find. Not a "couple of posts", you made over 20 of those...On top of that, you're reposting a question that you asked earlier on your own and that got killed: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=776875 |
on a penal code for HN | unalone: You spammed. You posted without relevancy and interrupted every thread you entered. And you did it for leet karma? Seriously? It's a fucking number on a fucking web site. The number doesn't fucking matter, the number on the web site doesn't fucking matter, the web site doesn't fucking matter. This is not a soc... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | there: "businesser" people can do marketing and user support. use google and twitter search to find people looking for what your product does, but don't know about your particular product. reply to them personally and try not to sound too spammy.same for user support. reach out to your current users and find out wha... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | patio11: I don't know what a full-time business person is supposed to do at a webapp which teaches Chinese. What were you anticipating?Here's my suggestion: forget "traditional" marketing. You're now Head of SEO. Don't worry if you're totally incompetent at it, most professional SEOs are, too. Set yourself a goal f... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | JoelSutherland: There are a million non-programming things to do in a startup.* Talk to schools/teachers to get them to try your software - especially study abroad programs.* Reach out to Chinese community centers* Write. Write for your blog, guest blog. Do everything you can to find people in your target audience.* ... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | raffi: Here are some ideas:1) Make phone calls to the competition, pretend to be a customer, listen to their sales pitch, and see if there is anything your company can gain from the experience.2) Have the geeks setup a CMS and designate yourself the webmaster. You get a job title with master in the name which is kind ... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | hamidp: I have been in a situation where this was the case: myself and another guy were the devs, and the non-programmer was the public face of the company: he did customer service, marketing, PR, specs, QA, research -- pretty much anything that we didn't have time to do. Once we got up to a significant amount of users... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | lucifer: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/cpg/1330457677.html |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | acangiano: On a side note, I couldn't find how much your service costs, so I'm going to assume that I can't afford it. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | GiraffeNecktie: Outreach and business development. I'm actually learning Chinese, so hearing about your site here was very useful for me and I just checked on chinese-forums.com (my other recent discovery) to see if the folks there have heard of you and what they think and I see that you've posted there and received go... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | losvedir: Wow! Damn that's a cool website.Sorry I don't have anything useful to add, just saying I wish I had that site around back when I was learning Chinese. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | iamelgringo: Market your product using videos. Decent video production is hard to do, and takes a lot of time, but Google places relevant videos at the top of certain searches. It's easier to get on the first page of a video search than it is on the first page of a regular Google search.Blog, blog, blog, blog. Googl... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | idlewords: You appear to have deeper problems than just finding work for a single non-technical person. Your app seems to be an example of an unworkable product idea that was a ton of fun for someone to code. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | spencerfry: I have your role. Here's what keeps me busy:1. Writing the copy for the website. Mainly keeping the support documents up-to-date.2. Doing all the business related tasks.3. Doing all the customer service.4. Handling all incoming e-mail.5. Doing all of the social networking stuff (facebook, twitter).6. Doing ... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | webwright: 1) Find Deals - Find people who can resell what you have, promote what you have, etc. That's bizdev and sales.2) Track any keyword possibly relating to you on Twitter, Google Blog Search, etc, and join in the conversation wherever you can without looking smarmy.3) Design A/B tests. You sound geeky enough t... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | philfreo: I looked at your homepage and said out loud, "that is cool!"... great idea.I think there's two main things you should focus on:
1. Working on business relationships (networking, finding potential partners or customers, customer support, etc.)2. Miscellaneous busy work related to programming. A lot of the wor... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | jacquesm: I think this is a phase all startups go through. Initially there are several roles, tech, business development and planning (project management).During the execution phase the focus will shift, temporarily to tech and project management. But once you really start to take off business development comes back to... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | intellectronica: In a way, you're in a great position in which you can make a real difference to your business. While your partners have to go on every day with the same programming tasks, not always able to see how they make a difference in the immediate term, you get to wake up every day, consider what's the best thi... |
Rate my startup - customizable, downloadable books for children. | jacquesm: What a fantastic idea. I'll send it to everybody that I know that has small children.Minor nitpick, I'm viewing this on a fairly wide screen and I still have to scroll horizontally. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | johnnyg: I really like that website! I've had two pushed to learn Chinese which both failed. I think I will try Skritter for #3.I coded in the very early days of my website and moved to the business side as we grew. Other HN users have posted big lists of good stuff. I want to say that you really have two big goals bas... |
Rate my startup - customizable, downloadable books for children. | DanielStraight: I think there are a lot of design issues that need worked out.I had to expand my browser to 1139px wide in order to avoid horizontal scrolling. This is bigger than a lot of people's max monitor resolution. It is certainly bigger than I prefer to keep my browser. I tend to keep mine around 950px.The text... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | anhhung: Mind if I asked a similar question, but in a quite different context?So I'm working for an outsourcing startup which provides development services for startups. We're doing Agile development on RoR.My eventual role would be a scrum master but my college major was international business. No SC background whatso... |
Rate my startup - customizable, downloadable books for children. | ScottWhigham: So here are a few things:1) I clicked "Get started" and then created an account. It took me back to the home page and asked me to "Get started" again. I clicked "Get started" again and it again asked me to create an account although I am already logged in.2) I have a 5yo early reader and I thought this wo... |
CraigsList alternative idea? | pg: There are 3 just in this current YC cycle: Listia, Renthop, and another that isn't launched yet. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | mudge: Become a programmer. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | caffeine: Your role is to figure out who wants to buy your product, and how your product can be more like what they want to buy. Hint: If you're not rich yet, you haven't answered this question correctly.What's your story? Are you selling Chinese characters, or are you selling worldliness and adventure? Or time-savi... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | mikemartin: My business partner had this problem too and sold it. Once he stopped designing the site and explaining its features to me, he did SEO/SEM, paid Indians to bring up tiny sites doing tiny functions, did bug testing for me, and did all the marketing. Now he's bootstrapping with the other sites in order to bri... |
Rate my startup - customizable, downloadable books for children. | patio11: 1) I know print on demand will absolutely murder your margins but offering it is worthwhile just for business development. You will find it much, much easier to get attention from the media that way. Your product is good enough to get into major newspapers if you pitch it right.2) You really, seriously nee... |
Rate my startup - customizable, downloadable books for children. | prpon: FYI, When I click on the link `Books` on the landing page, the URL it redirects to http://www.cookupbooks.com/my_books
does not show up in Safari (version 4.0.2) , it appears ok in firefox. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | thenduks: Just learn some markup and CSS stuff, there's always plenty of that to do and most programmers I know would rather be writing code. The nice part about this is that it's pretty easy to pick up, a month or so and you'll be able to at least look-up anything you need to do. |
Mashable getting worse? | GVRV: Personally I don't think Mashable is getting worse, it's just concentrating on a different demographic : people who are tech savvy but not hackers/founders. It has helped them find an audience and by some estimates it's bigger than TC. |
Mashable getting worse? | byrneseyeview: I don't think Mashable is for people who know what they're doing. It's very good at getting pageviews -- the "Number Adjective Noun You Can Buzzword Buzzword Buzzword" formula kicks ass. My only problem with them is how oversaturated they are -- whenever there's an inane trending topic on Twitter, I know... |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | prakash: Take responsibility for revenue & profitability. This should be the #1 concern for at least one person in your team, sounds like you should take over this piece.Quite simply assign a number you need to bring in for '09 -- that should keep you busy for 60+ hours a week. |
Mashable getting worse? | staunch: I started reading Mashable when it launched. I recently deleted Mashable from my feed reader. It's a completely different site than it once was. I have no problem with that, I just don't have any use for it anymore. |
Mashable getting worse? | Mystalic: Thanks for the comments. I'll just add a few of my thoughts:1. If we misinterpret facts, please call us out in the comments or by emailing one of us (ben@mashable.com in my case). We strive for accuracy, period.2. We're more than just a tech blog. We're also a social media blog, and we're not only interest... |
Mashable getting worse? | Chrisroad: That Facebook story isn't unethical. Turns out her account and others have been hacked. It was a top story on HN today too. Hope that reassures you. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | gruseom: If I were you, I'd spend lots of time talking to users, including sitting alongside them (virtually if necessary) as they use the product.This is a great thread, and I applaud your attitude in searching for ways to add value. Most people would simply try to defend their existing position. If you apply any of t... |
Should I get a Master's in CS? | tjr: I wish I would have stayed in college for a master's degree, especially had it just been one extra year. Work will be there forever, but once you're at work, it can be hard to get back to school.(The primary benefits I personally see to a master's degree are more options for getting work teaching (which I like to ... |
Should I get a Master's in CS? | tsally: The choice is obvious is my opinion. Saving one year of your life (getting a masters in one year instead of two) is extremely valuable. If you think you will ever get a masters, take the opportunity to do it in one year. If you can get jobs at those companies now, you certainly can still get them with a mast... |
Should I get a Master's in CS? | longx223: I went with one of the 3 companies you have listed there right out of college and if I had an option for a Master's degree I would have taken that. Like tjr said, work will always be there. The company might "pay" for it but they still expect you to work the 50+ hour weeks while you are going to work and scho... |
Mashable getting worse? | frossie: Now, I dont read any article on mashable or techcrunch before I read user comments on that article on HN.I am guessing everybody has sites that fall into the category of "check HN comments first, and only then follow the link". I also do that depending on the title. |
Rate my startup - customizable, downloadable books for children. | emson: Good idea.
Although I would like to see some examples of the books, and testimonials before parting with any of my money.Good luck
Ben... |
Mashable getting worse? | p01nd3xt3r: I don't like mashable anymore...IMHO its becoming nothing more than a big advertisement for twitter. |
Mashable getting worse? | 00joe: I setup a filter to block the word "twitter" from Mashable in my RSS reader months ago. |
What's a Non-Programmer to do? | alexmacgregor: Nice idea firstly, there's no question of the growing importance of Chinese language and culture especially.In regards to your intial question, like others have mentioned, a team requires a variety of skills. I am too an economics grad. and whilst I can write some code, I think we can excel in business ... |
Should I get a Master's in CS? | justlearning: where is it more interesting (in terms of meeting people,learning every day opportunities) Forget about whether those learnings can be used today or later.Where would I meet interesting people and get to learn every single day, and even at the coffee station? where is it better? at work? at school? - is ... |
Mashable getting worse? | Gibbon: I removed mashable from my rss reader a couple months ago. Endless inane articles about twitter. Like a junkie rambling on about the wonders of his new found drug. |
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