python_kiss

I created a version of my own: http://jawadonweb.com/projects/pi

:)

I like it. What are you using to send the email? Simple HTML functions or perhaps something more sophisticated, like phpList?

I like that idea. It could also be words of wisdom or something in between. The framework is already there and I don't mind giving anyone this code. All that needs to be changed are the quotes and the domain name.

Chess Go RISK

For Canada: Waterloo University

TS accepted startup teams before YC announced who's been accepted to the interviews. I, for one, received a phone interview from TS by April 1st.

If the emails are automated, they might end up in the junk mail. Yahoo and Hotmail, in particular, have the tendency to do that.

Anyway, about one hour is left before it hits 10th in Mountain View. Good luck everyone!

Why do all the good things happen only at Stanford? Hopefully someone will make a bootleg video of this and spread the wisdom through torrents.

As one of the collaborative projects on my social network, we asked that people code a spelling check script in PHP. One member, who had zero previous knowledge of PHP took up the challenge. After investing a few hours into it, he came up with the following:

http://shuzak.com/Teamwork.php

You're welcome to download the source code. One major issue with the code is that it loses efficiency when the dictionary size is increased from 1,000 to 20,000 words.

"..Even when you find genuinely good things to copy, there's another pitfall to be avoided. Be careful to copy what makes them good, rather than their flaws. It's easy to be drawn into imitating flaws, because they're easier to see, and of course easier to copy too. For example, most painters in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries used brownish colors. They were imitating the great painters of the Renaissance, whose paintings by that time were brown with dirt. Those paintings have since been cleaned, revealing brilliant colors; their imitators are of course still brown." - Copy What You Like, by Paul Graham

Earning off Google adsense is not a business, it is a hobby. Very few startups manage to squeeze a reasonable profit off Google.

Advertising is, of course, a feasible business. But no one (this especially applies to geeks) clicks on Adsense ads anymore because they are so used to seeing them. My suggestion is to develop a custom ad delivery system, or manually post sponsored ads (just as TechCrunch does).

Use "I" because it's more personalized. The excuse for using "we" is simply that the service may seem professional; hence, building more trust. That might actually be true, but unless you're building an online bank, it wouldn't matter.

I initially worked on my webservice alone, and decided to adopt "I" on every possible location. I managed to build a dedicated community around the website, and later on decided to use "we" to denote the community as well as myself. Now, when I say "we thank you for participating", I mean "me and the community...".

Of course, if you've more than one founder (like I do now), you should use "we". Be consistent with the terminology in order to avoid confusing the end-user.

wow Blake Ross is actually on here. I hope you make a googolian dollars out of Parakey...you deserve it! :)

Revenue earned vs. number of ad spots on a site is probably an inverted parabola; after a certain point is reached, each successive ad spot actually reduces revenue along with pageviews.

As a side note, here are several good case studies for adsense users: https://www.google.com/adsense/success

I talked about choice and the sensory overload it often causes. We have reached a point where the only type of cell phones we can't buy anymore are cell phones that are just a phone. The suppliers, however, cannot be held responsible for this. Afterall, they are simply trying to satisfy the users constant demands. So eventhough this mental toxin often makes us feel miserable, it is preferable by consumers over having less choice. And this fascinates me.

I am contemplating writing an article about choice and relating it to Web 2.0. Here is an excerpt from another article I wrote that relates to this: "...if a choice is present, perfectionists spend a ridiculous amount of time over simple decisions. Such is the mentality governing users of today's social networks. We are caught up in a web of choices; indeed, the core reason behind MySpace's success is that users rule. MySpace might suck, but it gives its users ample of choice. Once a user has invested an hour of their life customizing their profile, they are not likely to leave the site anytime soon."

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." - Van Gogh

Images of galaxy clusters always sadden me. Our insignificance in the Universe is laughable.

The only reality that counts is what's already in the prospect's mind. Coca-Cola came before Pepsi, so even a century later, it continues to dominate the market. Aside from being displeased, YC shouldn't feel threatened by TechStars; Y Combinator is ahead of its competition by leaps and bounds especially since it was first in their prospect's minds. For startup founders and bloggers, TechStars will always come off as the "clone".

There is understandably some heat between us and the replicant. Wouldn't it be a good idea to just send David an email (David[@]coloradostartups.com) to reach some common ground? This might just be an opportunity to expand Y Combinator beyond Boston or Mountain View.

About 300+ teams have applied to TechStars so far. I am guessing for YC the number is at least 500. From this large pool, only about 13 teams will be selected by Y Combinator. So I am sure there will be some good startups even within the ones that are rejected by Y Combinator.

TechStars could also judge their applicants on a criteria different from Y Combinator and catch good startups where YC might not.

The word on the street is that most startups, however, wouldn't choose TechStars over Y Combinator. First, the initial investment is lower. Second, they aren't original nor do they have the reputation that Paul does. In the end, though, it all comes down to which program maximizes success for startups. For that, David had this to say in an e-mail "Our investors have funded several hundred companies over the years, far more than Y Combinator has done. Y Combinator has Reddit to point out. Our founders point at Newsgator, Technorati, Feedburner, Dogster, and tons more as examples of our past experience."

I don't think anyone hates TechStars, but startup's would have had more respect for them if they had at least taken Paul's permission for rewording and copy-pasting the questions :)

Interestingly, Larry Page was reluctant to publish this infamous research paper when it was first conceived. Much of Larry's thinking was inspired by Nikola Tesla's life; a genius whose inventions were often mocked upon and stolen by Thomas Edison. It was Larry's research advisor who convinced him to publish the paper.

Other interesting sites:-

Google Search Engine in 1997: http://backrub.tjtech.org/1997/index.htm

Explanation of PageRank: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

BackRub research (which ultimiately led to PageRank): http://backrub.tjtech.org/1997/backrub.htm

lol@"Sorry, many services are unavailable due to a local network faliure beyond our control. We are working to fix the problem and hope to be back up soon. 12/4/97"

LOL! "For ages 28 and under". This also made me laugh: http://flickr.com/photos/36521975476@N01/138454683/

lol, thanks zaid...I take it that wasn't a compliment? I learned quite a lot of lab work simply from building a solar car ( http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~hec/pictures.html ) as a side project. So , in University, I was able to maintain an okayish GPA because I managed to do good in labs.

Of course, my parents aren't paying. In fact, the only reason I wish to be mildly rich is so that I may buy my dad a long vacation away from his job.

Not everything, though, is as blissful as it sounds. There are times when I wish I had taken the beating and went along with the standard template. I haven't told my parents that I have left university to pursue the startup dream...it wouldn't be wise to tell them unless they felt the opportunity cost of pursuing a startup is greater than getting a job. So every other day, they believe I leave off to study at my University when really I just go sit in the library and code Shuzak (our startup) :p This way, they will be really happy if I got accepted into YC but not disappointed if I didn't.

The consequence of having left University is that I am now super determined to make this successful; I have burned the ships behind me...so if our startup drowns, so will we.

I was in love with Electrical Engineering. But reading Paul's essays upset me because it was so true: After four years of banging my head on the books, I would be expected to get a job in a cubicle for the rest of my life. While designing circuits and solving mathematical equations is quite orgasmic, it has its down sides too.

Inspired by Joel Spolsky and Paul Graham, I decided to leave University to develop a microISV product. I realized that selling microISV products is fun, but not very scalable...and it almost felt like doing a job. That's when I decided to tackle something big; a social network for geeks.

I would like to some day go back to University and study Neurology or Mathematics. But for now, pursuing my startup is much more enjoyable. Thanks Paul, Joel!

I think TechStars made three mistakes:

1. Low publicity.

2. Asked too many questions (i.e. what does it mean to be an entrepreneur?)

3. Deadline too soon.

They should've kept the deadline for applications at April 12th since by that time, all YC applicants will know if they have been accepted/rejected. The rejected ones could then apply at TechStars. This is not necessarily a bad thing since YC only picks 15 teams, while leaving a big pool of other great startup ideas and founders behind.

I have had phone conversations with numerous entrepreneurs on news.yc, and almost all of them plan on applying to TechStars while keeping YC as their first option.

TechStars could have, for marketing purposes, used aikido strategy and turn Y-Combinator's strength into weakness: since TechStars is new, they could've claimed that they place greater focus on the startups they fund as a way to prove their model superior to YC. A lot of people would've bought into that argument.

Having competition actually validates Y-Combinator's business model. While two similar programs may not be good for either parties, it is definitely good for the prospective founders.

Congratulations to Xobni and Y Combinator!! Great job guys :)

RWW refers to Read/WriteWeb (Richard's blog). I haven't read the article BitGeek is referring to but I am guessing, like most posts on R/WW, it was written by a guest author.

I found Wozniak's interview, in Jessica's book, as one of the most entertaining [1]. Many of the lessons learned from his early days have a global appeal to other startups as well: starting out with a great team, being young, not having money, adaptability, etc.

"Entrepreneurs have to keep adjusting to... everything's changing, everything's dynamic, and you get this idea and you get another idea and this doesn't work out and you have to replace it with something else. Time is always critical because somebody might beat you to the punch.

It's better to be young because you can spend a lot more nights, very very late. Because you have to get things done, and there's almost no other way to get around that. When the times come, they are critical." - Woz

[1] I haven't finished the book yet.

^haha, who came up with that ingenious formula? I would put number of wives and children as an exponent, e^(w + c) :p

"If you do have to leave grad school, in the worst case it won't be for too long. If a startup fails, it will probably fail quickly enough that you can return to academic life. And if it succeeds, you may find you no longer have such a burning desire to be an assistant professor." - How to Start a Startup

That article basically made me question the premise of continuing on with my Electrical Engineering degree. During school, I was fascinated by social networks and dividents of collective capability and genius; so I dropped out of school to learn new web programming languages, marketing and business. Then, a few months ago, I finally let my social network out to the public. It was, and continues to be, a thrilling experience.

At this age, we have less responsibilities and a more flexible timetable than we may ever have again. I say leave college; if your startup fails, you can always go back.