Hacker News Reader

dbulon Wattvision (YC W09) Shows The Power Of Simple, Realtime Energy Monitoring

I saw a CNN story last week about Google's free energy monitoring software. Then at the end of the story was a huge let down: you need special hardware to get it running.

I checked Wattvision right after that and there were no updates, so today I'm super happy to see that the hardware is available. If it proves to work well, hopefully we'll see a story on CNN (i.e. to the public at large) in the next few months.

dbulon RFS 5: Development on Handhelds

Another person who wants this (and quite possibly would provide funding):

http://blogmaverick.com/2009/02/25/will-mobile-pdas-phones-r...

dbulon Tell HN: Apple paid my iPhone money, with exceptional service

Man, I'm going through the routine right now. I wanted to become an iTunes affiliate for an iPhone app I'm about to submit. Apple a) does not clearly state what iPhone developers need to do since affiliates are typically websites b) sends you a generic rejection email and forces you to wait two weeks to reapply while you are scratching your head guessing what they want. So I've been calling linkshare, who are very helpful and clearly want to make money. Yet I send blind emails to apple crossing my fingers for a response.

dbulon You should feel pain when unclear

Concise answer: MTurk was an obvious, yet too simple solution.

Long answer: My imagination was something designed specifically for pushing websites to some degree of success. So without me having to think of all of the different dimensions that bring a site to success (clearly state what it is, beautiful design, something people want, easy to use) -- the site I have in mind would walk you through that process taking your money at iterations of each step. In the end, you should have a site that meets the standards of sites which are already winners with most if not all of the dimensions in question.

dbulon You should feel pain when unclear

But your point does stand for websites. Politely asking people to review your site on HN will allow for some great feedback, but you really only get one shot at it.

Anyone know if a service exists (-MTurk) where you can pay people to constantly review your site?

I think that'd be an awesome way to evolve a website. Just apply constant feedback by paying people to launching fast and iterating.

dbulon You should feel pain when unclear

For the email situation, why wouldn't you just send it out to 100 customers to get a sample of confusion? Reply to the 10 people who were confused, fix the problems, repeat.

Same goes for websites. People send in "HN please review my site" all the time.

dbulon The iPhone Development Story: One Year Later

The point of that app is simplicity. It's not innovative in the least, just simplifying what may be complex to people.

At first I thought you were being facetious, but then I saw your app. It would be interesting if you compared sales of 1.1 and 1.2 since they are so dramatically different aesthetically.

dbulon The iPhone Development Story: One Year Later

It depends on what you mean by broken even. I bought a Mac Air for $1900, spent xx hours learning the Cocoa framework, spent 10 hours writing the app. At this rate, it makes $75 / month post-royalty, and it probably will never need to be updated.

dbulon The iPhone Development Story: One Year Later

As I said, C was my first language. As for Cocoa, it wasn't that bad considering by the time I really got into it there were plenty of examples out there (chances are, if you have a question about Cocoa for iPhone, it has been answered by now).

Well, the app is out there, but it is useless unless you are in the City of Pittsburgh. My approach to the startup is unconventional: I'm laying down pieces which will be played later on. It feels like chess. Not a chance a VC would ever fund us because of that. Yet it is no doubt as likely or more likely we will fail among startups.

Thanks. Do it because you love it.

dbulon The iPhone Development Story: One Year Later

My advice? Pick another platform to program for. The Mac is pretty nice. If you absolutely must develop for a mobile platform, try Android.

I've never had a Mac until last year, and I've been programming in Java for 10 years. Java is my least favorite language, but I think it is one of the easiest for most people. To me, Objective C is easy, but then again C was my first language. So it just depends on what you are comfortable with, really.

You probably won't make any money at it, but on the other hand, you probably won't make any money at iPhone development either

The first thing I did was program a rather involved iPhone application pertaining to my startup. I released it for free, updated it, no problems. The second thing I did was make a really simple application and sell it for $0.99 -- and it is making money without me having to do anything further. Before I released my first app, I would hear all of these "You probably won't make any money" stories and wasn't sure what to think. What I did was: have fun. If you aren't going to enjoy programming and you expect mad earnings, then yeah, throw in the towel.

dbulon Paul Buchheit: Evaluating risk and opportunity (as a human)

You can very roughly divide techies into a few groups: people who would rather work for a salary, people who are ambivalent about a salary job and starting a startup, and people who have made it their mission to start a startup.

For the first, there is probably some satisfaction in helping people's XML-based loan transactions reach the bank, etc. Y Combinator is perfect for the second group -- they can give it a shot and if they fail, hey, they'll probably have a great story to tell their interviewer. The last group probably realizes the odds are against them, but with enough attempts they think they'll make it (and if not they loved doing it anyway).

I'm definitely in the third group. The way I evaluate risk and opportunity is I imagine what kind of a life I could live: As an employee I could have a positive effect on thousands of people who need the utilities I'm building for them. As a researcher I might accomplish something on the order of curing Polio.

But I have too many things I want to do and it requires capital to get them all started. Otherwise, it would take many lifetimes to do them without capital. I want to experiment with creating projects that have a positive impact on society. So for me the risk is minimal considering if I don't try to create a successful startup, I'll be miserable. I'm just not the type of person who can settle for a job. Sometimes I wish I were, but I'm not.

dbulon TechStars Debuts Nine Startups In Boston

Me, too! What a coincidence.

dbulon Ask YC: How does News.YC figure out domains for a story?

I've only skimmed the arc code, but there is a list of exceptions for domains. The major blogs are on this list.

OK, I checked:

  (= long-domains* '("blogspot" "wordpress" "livejournal" "blogs" "typepad" 
                   "weebly" "blog-city"
                   ; "sampasite"  "multiply" "wetpaint" ; let's just try banning
                   "eurekster" "blogsome" "edogo" "blog" "com"))

dbulon Ask HN: Review our elevator pitch (Stormpulse)

Check out Dave McClure's advice on the pitch if you haven't already:

http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2009/08/your-solution-is...

dbulon Ask HN: Do you think machine consciousness is possible?

Where did you go to school? It sounds very much like you have a symbolic background. There are many approaches and people are attacking them from different angles. Here are just a couple of resources worth looking at off the top of my head:

Christof Koch at CalTech (hi, virgil) http://www.klab.caltech.edu/~koch/

Larry Yaeger & John Beggs http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/v30n2/mindmade.shtml

Of course, Douglas Hofstadter http://www.cogsci.indiana.edu/

Koch, Churchland, etc. speak on consciousness: http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/342

dbulon Failure

Learning lessons from mistakes I can understand.

Failure? What's that?

dbulon How I learned to stop programming and love carbon foam

To get a better picture of the whole, there is other material available:

http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~jwmills/ANALOG.NOTEBOOK/klm/klm.h...

http://www.cs.indiana.edu/classes/b443/notes/EmptySpace.pdf

dbulon Ask Y Combinator: Application for Winter 2010

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=715757

dbulon Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You

I think it really depends on the industry. If someone had offered me an unpaid internship for coding at any point in my life I would have told them no because I am aware that I could easily earn money or I'd probably be better off contributing to an open source project.

But consider the hypothetical in another industry. Someone gets a shot at an unpaid internship, they do really well, the company they are associated with gives them a recommendation, and immediately after the internship they get an offer for a position in that industry. Or: Someone does not get an internship, it is a competitive industry, the person ends up working an $8 / hr job for the next some odd years until they get an opening in the industry. It would seem the benefit to the unpaid intern could be greater than the benefit to the company.

Of course, there is the scenario where the person becomes an entrepreneur.

dbulon Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You

You could call it cddddring if you like. The question is whether the labor of the person benefited the company in any way. If it did, then according to the Fair Labor Standards Act the person must receive compensation.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.p...

dbulon Dropbox's Summer 07 YC Application

here is one answer of one of the aforementioned parties: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=715667

dbulon Hacking a Google Interview - MIT's guide to Google interviews

The purpose of mentioning the Big-O in that document wasn't to inform about what it is. Rather, it was to note to the candidate not to go into technical detail during the interview (i.e. we like the intuitive version).

dbulon Can anyone recommend an SEO consultant?

http://www.brandingbrand.com/

dbulon YCRFS 1: The Future of Journalism

Man, these neighborhood things are all over the place:

http://southorange.patch.com/

dbulon A New Experiment: The RFS

My bad. Leave out that bit of information. Restating what I meant in point 2 is that there is a large applicant pool, and ideas are just one factor. Doesn't YC choose based mostly on the applicants themselves? The idea is hardly relevant. One of the factors in funding "smart" founders I think is that they know when to abandon an idea and select another one.

dbulon A New Experiment: The RFS

RFS1: write a crawler to gather as much information as possible on trending topics, rank the sources, then have a writer look through the autatically gathered data and use his intelligence and skill to put it into a nicely flowing story that makes sense?

dbulon A New Experiment: The RFS

1) I think there are several people without ideas but who also want to be polymaths. So they would become wrapped up in whichever RFS they chose.

2) I think the applicant pool is getting large enough that it is worth the risk. pg said the applicant pool was eclipsing 1000. The first round had, what, 220? And most of those companies were successful. If I were to apply, I would stick with one of the 5 ideas that I have brewing, and I think a lot of other people would stick with their ideas too.

dbulon Forget Starbucks, work at the library instead

Here are three personal reasons:

1) It is good to be in an environment where others are hard at work because you'll be less likely to screw around.

2) It feels like you are doing something fun (you are "out") and at the same time working hard.

3) Home can be quite distracting unless you are fortunate enough to have a large house with a nice office.

dbulon Forget Starbucks, work at the library instead

Places like Starbucks and Borders charge for Wi-Fi access

Not entirely true. Borders is probably the only place I know that still charges for wifi. Everywhere else it is either free or you get two hours free by entering some kind of code.

dbulon The Tragedy of the Coffee Shop

Damn it feels good to be in Pittsburgh. As I often hop coffee shops, I understand the behavior. Students will even go so far as get a coffee, work, then go to a nearby food shop and bring something back for their dinner while they continue to work on their laptops. What's great is that no one cares. Here it is choice. Most coffee shops are open until 11 or midnight on the weeknights and 12 or 1 on the weekends, most have wifi, and most have outlets. If you were to be kicked out of one coffee shop, then simply that coffee shop loses your business and another one gains.

Just from observation, so many people come in and stay for just a few minutes or take their coffee to go that it's kind of a nice equilibrium. It's rare that you'll find a coffee shop in Pittsburgh to 100% capacity (except perhaps Sunday afternoon or evening in the fall and spring). Electricity costs nothing. If anything, having people in your coffee shop serves as a kind of advertisement that it is a place people want to be for whatever reason -- the coffee is good or they just feel comfortable there.

As fantastic as Manhattan is, there are two reasons why I wouldn't want to live there: too many tourists and too few coffee shops. The best I could find in the upper west side was Cosi, a chain. The best I could find around Soho was some piece that closed earlier than shops in Pittsburgh. And the best I could find in the Upper East Side closed a couple years ago. Pittsburgh, baby. Awesome place to live if you love the coffee shops.