blackswan

"But it would not be shocking if, sometime soon, there were big American cities that had no local newspaper."

This has been something that I've thought about quite a lot of late, and think is definitely going to be the case. My personal idea is that there will be a lot of people who would previously have read local newspapers but would rather read a social news site online.

The problem with current social news sites for these people is that they are too focused on particular subjects, for instance tech or business. So in between university and another proper startup I'm working on I built a site that lets each user view their own stream of stories agnostic of what the rest of the user base is doing - unless other user's stories or comments overlap with those of the first user. You can check it out at http://memescout.com!

Now the difficulty is getting people to use the site!

I obviously missed it, sorry about that!

Naspers via Media24? The guys I've spoken to there are smart. If it is then they would be able to offer you a lot of resources that would be very difficult to otherwise get hold of, especially in SA. Unless you really feel its going to fly (in which case it would probably be better to try get financing via equity with no exclusive partnerships) I think that partnering with a company such as one per your description would be a good way to position it for growth - particularly if you are not keen to move from part-time to "full-on startup mode". The points by westside1506 and esessoms are both very valid - worth bearing in mind. Geluk!

pg@ycombinator.com - read http://www.paulgraham.com/info.html

Google already represents the internet to a lot of people as a result of it being perceived by these people as the entrance to the internet. "The portal is the network." From this perspective a Google browser is a seriously good way to lock these users in further. The multi-functional use of the address bar is also important - many people use it like this already.

I'd also recommend setting up xampp to get going quickly - its pretty handy. For scripts and perl command line in win32 I found ActivePerl the best - you can get a version for free from here -> http://www.activestate.com/Products/activeperl/features.plex.

More info on perl on win32 here -> http://win32.perl.org/wiki/index.php?title=Win32_Distributio...

As you might guess, this is one of my favorite books! One of the things I find so fascinating is how, as in Fooled By Randomness, the concepts he outlines are readily applicable to so many spheres of activity in the modern world. There are black swans happening and about to happen in every field where modern technology has accelerated communication and is changing the way things are done.

"We don't get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we've chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the [executive team] could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we've all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is."

With the exorbitant cost of rackspace/bandwidth in SA one shouldn't consider hosting here if one wants to serve any serious traffic, especially to an international audience. Thus Eskom's inability to realise that planning for a 2% p.a. increase in electricity consumption when GDP growth runs at +- 5% is a bad idea shouldn't really be a consideration before getting to work on a startup in SA, although having a laptop with enough battery to get through the load shedding might be a good idea :)

I don't think the prevailing economic situation can really affect a few guys working hard to solve a problem startup style - people will still use the internet when growth slows. I'm in CT and working on two projects, one on my own and one with a cofounder. I find I work much harder on the one with the cofounder, the desire to not let a friend and business partner down is a powerful motivator! Our project will initially focus on SA, but we're building it in such a way as to be able to internationalise it country by country as it grows. My own project is inherently international; its going to take a while though, real-time clustering with adaptive algorithms is hard! Good luck, I hope you find a lekker cofounder, I have found it really makes a difference!

"While we never made a subprime loan and are not predatory lenders, we think a lot of homeowners have been victimized," Mr. Paulson says.

You can't download music, only listen to it, but check out http://www.songza.com for a nice interface.

"I'm pretty happy with the amount of people that have been to it so far," he said. "The nature of the site is that each user's experience improves if they can get their friends to join it."

also

"While Zuckerberg promised that thefacebook.com would boast new features by the end of the week, he said that he did not create the website with the intention of generating revenue."

and

"Zuckerberg said that he hoped the privacy options would help to restore his reputation following student outrage over facemash.com, a website he created in the fall semester."