Hacker News Reader

terpuaon India Calling: The "brain drain" becomes "brain circulation."

Thanks for the article because I was beginning to feel lonely.

I moved to the Philippines from Silicon Valley in 2003 (during dotcom bust) to check out high-tech scene back in my homeland.

Was supposed to stay only for a couple of years but turns out there are more than a few dreamy-eyed hackers (which I hooked up with) turning their backs on Microsoft, HP and the BPO industry. The bureaucracy is numbing and the corruption sucks but generally happens to businesses that don't want to pay taxes (personal, corp, custom, etc.).

I have since setup operations for Friendster and am working on my startup.

The PH gov has setup a special economic zone (5 year corp tax holiday) if your product serves a mostly (50%+) foreign customer (great for startups).

With so much local talent, a modified YC model would contribute greatly to innovation and more startups. If you're interested, ping me.

terpuaon Ask HN: Does the SaaS model really work? Really?

To add to Tony's: http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2008/11/using-adwo...

terpuaon Ask HN: Review my startup

Have a sign up button at the end of the learnmore page.

terpuaon Ask YC: What would you tell your younger self?

travel and hang around more cafes

terpuaon Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

A great pitch to become the new car czar.

terpuaon One Big Reason For Apple's Market Share Gains.

If the non-US Apple stores are authorized re-sellers, my experience has been that they have to honor your warranty (it is applicable worldwide).

I'm currently in the Philippines and have had my share of needed fixes.

terpuaon Ask YC: How did you pop the question? (to your co-founders)

Just ask. Be direct and don't tip toe around the subject. Realize that it will be a hard (but rewarding/learning) experience.

Make sure you have founders agreement and a way to settle disputes so that friendships aren't destroyed.

terpuaon Netflix API Launches

When you rate a movie on Netflix, it will be posted on your twitter account using hashes.

terpuaon Use Google Moderator To Crowdsource Group Questions

Sounds like a "feature" of slinkset.

terpuaon Critique my startup - licensekey.net

I would focus just on the mailing list and build that feature into a full product for developers (both desktop and web).

Current mailers are too complicated and generally don't have any APIs for instance to tie my customer db to a mailing list.

terpuaon The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

I missed the first post so this is a worthwhile re-post.

terpuaon Ask HN: DIY storage or not?

Our core focus will be businesses that want to control their own storage.

Is entering your S3 secret ID and key too cumbersome for most customers?

terpuaon Ask HN: DIY storage or not?

Yes, have read it and disagree. The act of syncing (sharing, backup, versioning, access) has to be super easy to use (i.e. tied to the OS). The problem with syncing apps in the past was they were hard to use so people stuck with their USB drives, emailing themselves, etc. Dropbox comes to mind as a syncing app that has made it easy to use.

Similarly, mp3 players weren't killer products until iPod came along :)

terpuaon Ask HN: DIY storage or not?

We wanted to focus on one option. Having both initially takes more dev time, support, different marketing message, etc.

terpuaon Backtype (YC summer 08): Twitter for comments launches

I found "Google for comments" to be quite appropriate.

terpuaon 7 Ways I've Almost Killed FreshBooks

Yes. Having "front lines" advice and anecdotes from actually building a startup are helpful even if they are only tidbits (i.e. cliff notes) of information.

Founders at Work is a great example of this.

terpuaon 7 Ways I've Almost Killed FreshBooks

It's a personal entrepreneur's list of what to do (or not) and I find them useful.

Taken as a whole, it's cliff notes for entrepreneurial hackers.

terpuaon Ask YC: What do you actually pay for, you, yourself?

I pay for: unfuddle, itunes

terpuaon JustHackIt - Post your idea and find people to start building it with

http://www.macyenta.com/

LinkedIn for Mac hackers

terpuaon Picwing (YC Summer 08) Debuts Their Social Digital Picture Frame

http://www.picwing.com/about

Just like jobsyndicate and startuply, nice copy. Perhaps PG looks for hackers, who are also writers :)

terpuaon Y Combinator’s Demo Day Summer 2008

I meant Job Alchemist's product homepages: startuply.com and jobsyndicate.com :)

terpuaon Y Combinator’s Demo Day Summer 2008

RE: Job Alchemist - their homepage copy is impressive and persuasive. Thanks for the template :)

terpuaon Sivers/Ferriss interview that will make you think

I wanted to link to the interview directly but it's quite long and this link gives you enough if you want more.

terpuaon Nine Deadly Startup Diseases—and How to Cure Them

This is a very credible (and succinct) startup list. Unfortunately, I've been through most of them.

A recommended read and not yet-another-one-of-those-lists.

terpuaon Gearheads don't get it

The same is true for golf.

terpuaon Why I'm Not Working on my Startup (yet)

Perhaps the problem isn't painful enough?

terpuaon Why I'm Not Working on my Startup (yet)

Why not build and solve a problem you have?

terpuaon OLX: Craigslist + modern-looking UI - traffic

Their model focuses on providing listings to other.

Ex: http://olx.friendster.com/

terpuaon Venture Fund Economics: Gross and Net Returns

Damn, now you've ruined it :)

terpuaon Balsamiq, a bootstrapped startup featured here some time ago, makes $10k in 6 weeks

I wasn't actually talking about the circumference per se, just that Balsamiq has come "full circle" which I represented using pi.