tyng

Thanks for the advice about networking! I totally think this is a good strategy. Can you share some of the insights about how to pick a great tech cofounder?

Wow man that's some dedication and big risk taking! How long did it take you to learn CS full time for?

"In entrepreneurship, people won't partner/hire for long term development potential"

Agreed, a while ago I interviewed for a startup and got rejected even though I knew the stuff like book keeping were pretty easy to learn, but I haven't done before.

With the list of biz skills you mentioned, I've done more than half of them (I was a very active student). But you are right about "there's more people with business credentials that want a technical partner than vice-versa". The advantage I have I guess, is that not many people have as much passion to start a business as I do.

Thanks for sharing your insights. How much do I really need to "know" the area? Do you mean actually knowing what's going in the technology or just an understanding of industry/process?

I assume the next time you see an opportunity in the hardware business and want to jump onto it, you wouldn't be taking a 4 year undergrad course to know the drill.

And what's your experience of "learning by doing"?

Thanks!

Well, the battle between media accusation of 'colluding' and super angels asserting they are doing good for the valley.

Arrington definitely burned lots of bridges here to post this story out. While I'm not sure how credible his sources are, I envy his courage.

This is pure rant, not much content.

But at least McClure is coming out and identifying himself as one of the people attended the meeting.

I wonder where and how this battle is going to end, both sides are equally powerful players.

Rainbow colour looks a bit cheap imo - for Google, because all its services are free for consumers, it plays fine.

If I'm starting a social media company though, I probably wouldn't want to venture out too far away from blue - simply because it's the easiest way for users to associate it as a mainstream social media company, i.e. alongside the Facebook-Twitter-Linkedin-Foursquare league, unless you are competing head on with any of these big four. I know this is a cheap strategy, but it also makes it cheaper for you to establish yourself in the market.

Or, just pick your favorite color, much easier and you'll always be comfortable with.

"Googlers seem to love to tackle hard problems (e.g. Wave and Instant search) but social networks are not a hard problem from an engineer point of view."

So the mentality goes: there's no motivation to come up with the next best social network, unless it can also simultaneously calculate the interconnectedness of every human being on this planet...

Thanks for the extensive feedback (sorry didn't see it earlier), it's really helpful in thinking about how to design the form :)

Perhaps a mixture of both. To me I made the switch when I got both an iPod and an iPhone so getting a Macbook was somewhat a natural next step when I needed to get a new laptop. Didn't care too much about what's inside the machine, the different OS experience was a major concern at the time though.

Digital/Web entrepreneurs really are the new cool, claiming 6 of the top 10 spots on Vanity Fair 100. Warren Buffet is only No. 11

What about Macs and Macbooks? they are making some serious progress over the last few years despite market domination by PCs for a long long time (almost everybody outside of design industry was using PCs). I think really great technology does eventually shine.

To be fair though, iPod and iPhone did play a big role to give Apple the "coolness" as a whole, perhaps that's the right strategy - attack from the sidelines.

I have mixed feeling about this.... yet another attempt by Google to get social.

I read an article somewhere else that the reason Google doesn't get social is because of its "geek" culture (no offense to fellow geeks, I'm just quoting the original article). Because Google is so technology focused, it sometimes loses its grip on human interaction.

I can't say I'm totally agreeing with that article but it does make some sense. Wave for example, technologically excellent and revolutionary, but really hard to use for a non-tech person.

The article is a bit too one-sided while not taking in other factors that play in life.

Still, I agree that Self-Control is absolutely important when it comes down to pursuing your dreams. The benefit (or destruction if you don't self-control) comes at a average-over-time basis

Android - good deeds fell in the wrong hands, nuff said. Welcome to Corporate America

Good work!!

I actually think this is more useful than Google Instant since search engines are much better built nowadays and a lot of time the first search result is the one we want (unless it's something really specific). The fact that we don't need to click on any link after the search reduces another "not instant" annoyance, which could become huge time saving over time!

Only issue being Yahoo search isn't as relevant as Google, I assume you didn't do it on Google because they have blocked access? Still, very impressive take on the "instant" element.

Just wait for the tweet/call from Yahoo :)

"The devil is in the details", they say, have you ever coded something that by changing just one line it improved the performance of an entire system?

The interview question is designed to see whether you are the type of person that has lots of initiative, and would always walk the extra mile to improve an existing system, I suppose

For those of you don't know what an UnConference is, here's a wiki explanation:

"An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered on a theme or purpose. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees and sponsored presentations. For example, in 2006, CNNMoney applied the term to diverse events including BarCamp, Bloggercon, and Mashup Camp."

It's a great event to discover ideas outside of your usual social life. For example, At one UnConference a girl shared about her experience swimming across the English Channel, a guy brought in a 3D printer and showed how to print 3D objects, and I even learned how to juggle in one of the sessions!

Totally agree, after all Android is just an OS, there's no guaranteed quality or user experience across different carriers and manufacturers are the same just because they are all "Android phones". This could totally ruin the Android brand since there is too much uncertainty about what people will get.

If consumers aren't backing the Android phones it makes no difference if the developers are on the their side. Plus, now when you develop for the iPhone, you are almost also developing for iPad. Android still has a long way before catching up to Apple

With regard to tactile feedback, I think it's rather a learned experience. People who have never used phone-sized physical keyboards (like myself) won't care much about "losing" that experience.

This failure of this article to predict iPhone's success echos well with another article posted on HN yesterday ("simplicity is overrated") that UX simplicity does not equate simple functionality or single-purpose device. The killer product is often the ones with multiple powerful functions but also intuitive UX design that won't take long for the user to figure out how to operate it. Simple is about intuition.

I wonder if HDR can be done digitally and automatically, so the whole process is just one click? Otherwise there's no real point putting the feature on a phone

Yes we know Tom and Fenn from Adioso, and we are going to the next local HN meetup before the submission deadline - I think the biggest thing that anybody would get out of YC is becoming part of a community of very passionate people, which makes a hell lot of difference!

Thanks for giving the example on your other comment - I really liked the live feedback function which is just like giving instant reward to the user for every step he/she takes in filling out the form

Thanks for the feedback. Would your feel "compelling" if the website provides you some kind of information for additional information? For example credit or voucher in an ecommerce website. And the additional info is totally optional, meaning you could still use every function of the website without filling in those information.

I had a similar experience a few years ago in London where the night clubs were well known for their strict enforcement of "no collar no entry" policy. I did remember to wear a shirt that night but forgot to carry my passport, and I was blocked by a sumo-looking security guard at the club door. Upon suggestion by a friend who lived in London for many years I slipped a £10 note under a random business card I found in my wallet (pretend to be a valid ID) and approached the security guard.

"Here's my ID" I said, and showed a tip of the note under the card. "Show me," said the security guard and casually took both the card and the money from my hand. After pretending to check the birthday details for 10 seconds he returned the card (but not the money) to me and said "have a good night!"

It's about having a special moment with your partner, a moment that's devoted to nothing but each other.

Thanks for sharing this. As entrepreneurs we (especially myself) tend to forget about the importance of the support we receive from our partners. But, life just isn't quite complete without spending quality time with our "other half". Four minutes a morning is definitely worth the effort!

If you really have lots of questions to ask the users, don't do it all in one go.

Especially for customer acquisition, the first form should be as simple as name, password, email address. The other information about the user can be asked later on and provide some kind of (virtual) incentive for people to do so. I know that LinkedIn uses this kind of system.