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DilipJon Roger Ebert dies at 70 after battle with cancer

surprised to read that he was an early investor of Google. I wonder how that came about?

DilipJon What's Actually Wrong with Yahoo's Purchase of Summly

that's not really fair to the kid. All of us are born with advantages that others lack. Every person living in America has access to wealth and connections that the average African can only dream of. That shouldn't take away from anyone's success here or diminish any of our accomplishments

DilipJon SendGrid has terminated the employment of Adria Richards?

that's not fair. So if someone is firing a gun at you, you can't fire back with a gun? She bullied those men, costing one of them their job. How else do you respond except by bullying her?

DilipJon SendGrid has terminated the employment of Adria Richards?

the best comment yet. there seems to be a growing segment of the population (mostly from the left) that wakes up each day looking for ways to be offended. It seems like such a miserable way to live one's life.

DilipJon Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

yeah, there's more to it. The founder Mick Mountz was an HBS guy, he went around for awhile networking with alums to try to get the initial cash investment. Eventually connected with Ajay Agarwal of Bain and landed some seed money.

DilipJon How Y Combinator Started

so are you saying there is an upper limit to entrepreneurship? I don't think so.

I wonder if pg has written anything about this, if there is some point of diminishing returns in the lean startup scene

DilipJon After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses

you think it's more efficient to ship everyone an entire set of encyclopedias than to keep wikipedia's servers running?

DilipJon How Y Combinator Started

no, I meant like direct to institutions like pension funds.

why would a pension fund give money to Sequoia, and then have them give it to YC? that's an unnecessary management fee the pension funds have to pay

DilipJon How Y Combinator Started

what I wonder is if/when YC will start to take institutional money....that's what's going to take YC up to upper caliber of VC funds.

DilipJon How Y Combinator Started

I think Reddit is the greatest thing to come out of the first batch.

DilipJon After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses

I doubt they were as altruistic as you describe. They probably viewed it as a good business investment. When you consider the elevated prices they pushed these books out at, and the fact that their online website is festered with ads, it's pretty clear that this is a firm that is primarily interested in the bottom line.

DilipJon After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses

I'm sure more carbon is being used in cutting down the trees to turn into paper, and then shipping all of that paper to customers.

DilipJon New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea

I agree. If you don't have an idea, on what basis are they judging you? what is their filtering process? If you are in your early twenties, what exactly have you accomplished that would separate you from the herd? Nothing, except which schools you have attended. I'm guessing the main filtering process YC will do is to filter based on which schools you attended, so in that way, YC is basically adopting the recruiting process that investment banks do.

I wonder what % of those YC funds attended the Ivy League or other private u's vs. those who went to state schools?

DilipJon New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea

perhaps YC should think of becoming like a business school. Most business schools charge upwards of 100k for two years, and most students borrow that from the federal government. YC could instead "charge" half that amount, teach all the major business principles that one needs to know in a few months (which could basically be teaching pg's essays to a class audience) with the caveat that all or most of the tuition charged will be returned as seed investments to the students at the end

DilipJon Kickstarter Expects To Provide More Funding To The Arts Than NEA

historically, artists were sponsored by wealthy individuals or institutions to create art. Some of the great European painters of the last few centuries were sponsored by the Catholic Church. If Kickstarter can provide that, what's the problem?

DilipJon Our unrealistic views of death, through a doctor’s eyes

I hate to be "that guy", but you misspelled a certain word three times in your comment. I leave it to you to figure out which one.

But I agree with you, in the sense that having a "deadline" is what motivates people to accomplish things. Like if your boss or teacher doubles the length of time to finish a project, it doesn't mean you'll work twice as hard, but rather that you have more time to put it off.

DilipJon MITx Opens First Course for Enrollment

it really is. I only hope that eventually these credits will be recognized by employers. would they be be willing to hire someone who completes an entire curriculum successfully through MITx over someone who took a similar education at Big State U?

DilipJon Yale Discovers a Fungus That Eats Plastic

this fungus could end up contributing to global warming, by taking the carbon that is trapped as plastic on the ground and releasing it eventually into the atmosphere.

DilipJon Do the dead outnumber the living?

fertility rates are dropping worldwide. At some point in the next 30 years, it is expected to fall below replacement level.

Check out this graph comparing fertility rates. China and Iran (!) now have fertility rates below that of the U.S.

http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&#...

DilipJon After Years Of Drilling, Antarctic Lake Will Be Reached

There is a recent Washington Post article that says they are on the verge of breaking thru.

I hope they discover some form of life in the lake. It would be amazing to discover what the evolutionary outcomes would be for organisms in such an isolated harsh environment.

DilipJon What Jobs Do the Top 1% Have?

yes exactly. The reason for the escalating healthcare and education costs have to do with the guilds these professions enforce to prevent newcomers from undercutting their wages.

If the U.S. were to abolish the AMA and the teacher's union, the medical and education costs in this country would plummet, and the coming medicare debt could be halved.

DilipJon Ask HN: If SOPA isn't the answer, how do you eliminate online piracy?

i agree that heirs don't innovate. But copyright laws expire after a certain number of years after the creator's death, at which point they enter the public domain.

My question to you is, for material that is not in the public domain, do you believe that the innovator has a right to determine at what price they should sell their product at? And if not, is that not dissuading innovation?

And the 64 million dollar question, if they have a right to sell their product without digital infringement, how can you prevent this, without some bill law SOPA or PIPA?

DilipJon Ask HN: If SOPA isn't the answer, how do you eliminate online piracy?

Marginal cost shouldn't matter. What matters is consent. If the content creator does not consent for someone to enjoy his/her work without some level of compensation, then it is up to the customer to decide whether or not to purchase the work at the set price.

If the customer decides not to purchase it at that price, then his recourse his to purchase either a competing product or wait for the price to come down, not to steal it.

DilipJon Ask HN: If SOPA isn't the answer, how do you eliminate online piracy?

but they don't value it at zero. if they did they wouldn't pirate it in the first place. pirating takes time (which is valuable) and storage on a hard disk, which has a cost. so any pirater is valuing it on some level. as for the photoshop example, again you are attempting to rationalize a crime. Companies already provide subsidized software for students so that they can gain familiarity with it prior to entering the workforce

DilipJon Ask HN: If SOPA isn't the answer, how do you eliminate online piracy?

Convenience doesn't justify anything. It is more convenient for me to take a newspaper off my neighbor's lawn than it would be to contact the newspaper company and order a subscription, but that doesn't mean it's ok.

DilipJon Ask HN: If SOPA isn't the answer, how do you eliminate online piracy?

That's just conspiracy talk. So the same U.S. government that created the internet, and opened it up to the public, is now trying to censor it? I think the politicians are acting honestly and with good intent: their goal is to prevent this tool for communication for being used for criminal purposes, and yes, digital piracy is a crime.

DilipJon Ask HN: If SOPA isn't the answer, how do you eliminate online piracy?

They are still profitable, but obviously they would more profitable without piracy. That is a point that needs to be considered. No one can just suddenly state that one company has too much profit. Just because media companies are profitable doesn't excuse pirating of their products

DilipJon The Myth of Japan's lost Decade

exactly, plus their once double-digit savings rate dipped into negative territory just recently. As the bulk of their population retires and draws down on their savings, Japan is going to resemble a giant retirement home: serene and crime-free, but isolated and inactive.

DilipJon Go Daddy No Longer Supports SOPA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap5XwwEGR7k&feature=relmf...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aHe_9nH_Mc

my IQ dropped just looking for these. I can't wait for the end of this company.

DilipJon Go Daddy No Longer Supports SOPA

most of their ads show some woman exhibiting reluctance to undressing, and then the men around her coercing her to do so anyways. of course they're misogynist.

But of course, you have to understand that it's part of the company's philosophy. This is the same CEO that came out in favor of waterboarding: http://www.metafilter.com/42906/Dear-Bob-Im-glad-youre-not-i...

the same CEO that goes elephant hunting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/bob-parsons-godaddy...

supporting SOPA fits in line with that philosophy. The one thing waterboarding, elephant hunting, SOPA and their misogynistic ads have in common is the element of using force against those who are far weaker than you are.