Ask YC: What are you working on right now?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=151980

by robmnl • 18 years ago

27 158 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

What's the startup, project you're working on right now?

I'm working on ONE, which is a collaboration platform for projects, tasks, invoices, ...

Want to bring some of the YC spirit back here, so many posts about normal internet stuff.

khangtoh4• 18 years ago

I'm working on a photo hosting service, http://Simplebucket.com Basically, I relaunched the service on March 20th with a new interface, look and a bunch of other features. Now I'm working on a feature "Beeps" for our next release. "Beeps" is the social part of Simplebucket. That's all I can say for now.

brk5• 18 years ago

Interesting, I registered "bookmarkbucket.com", partially with similar intentions.

khangtoh4• 18 years ago

A photo hosting app?

brk5• 18 years ago

I'm working on a quad-venti latte at the moment.

mrtron5• 18 years ago

For the fools (intended satire for date posted):

http://www.quicksilverweb.net/sbucks/sbcharts.htm

4 shots of expresso with milk and foam and such, venti being the large size. With that order though, I am still unsure if it is served hot or cold. My guess is if you don't specify, it is served hot.

bkrausz• 18 years ago

I'm working on a member management system targeting a small niche market. Currently waiting on design revisions, my designer is coming up with some pretty unique stuff so I don't want to code too much since a lot will need to be rewritten around his designs.

24pfilms2• 18 years ago

I am working on a kids MMO with a very cool spin on it. Getting the Business Plan and pitch worked out...

stcredzero10• 18 years ago

I am also working on an MMO. It's a space game. My spin is that everything in this game will be emergent. The players can design and play anything in this game, or it will evolve through genetic algorithms. I've worked out how to do most of this. I'm still working out how to evolve NPC ship AIs, but that's not the most important.

Also, everything in this game will be scriptable. Users will be able to create programs to control anything, then license those programs to other users to make money. They will also be able to license designs. Exponential proliferation of designs and scripts is prevented by limiting designs per user to some maximum number.

Basically, I'm going to make a MMO, where the developers are out of the business of creating content. The users create the most compelling content anyhow. Oh, and the "gold farmers" -- I'm going to have them writing content for me! You can't beat market forces. Better to co-opt them.

You can think of this as Second Life in Space, with much easier implementation requirements.

dhimes• 18 years ago

That idea totally rocks!

andyn• 18 years ago

Okay, you may be named stcredzero and it may be April fools day, but that sounds like interesting stuff. Do you have anything to show yet?

kirubakaran3• 18 years ago

Awesome! Please add me as a beta tester (gmail kirubakaran).

dood3• 18 years ago

Wow, that's pretty much what I'd be doing if I had infinite free time and much deeper knowledge of CS.

Have you written any more about this anywhere? I'd be very interested to read about your game & systems design and the process you're going though.

randallsquared2• 18 years ago

Please use a toolkit that has Mac support. Thank you. :)

24pfilms2• 18 years ago

It sounds totally great....interested to see Rev 1.

brentr3• 18 years ago

I find the concept of Second Life interesting, but it is difficult to use. If you could create something along the same lines of Second Life that is easier to use and eliminates the lag problem, it would definitely be something I would try.

I found Second Life after reading about Asperger's Syndrome and the communication problems associated with the syndrome that Second Life seems to break down. (No, I don't have Asperger's Syndrome; I am just an prolific reader.) What I was fascinated with is the variety of user created items and the pseudo-economy that developed within the world.

If you could create something like Second Life, it would definitely be used.

carterschonwald2• 18 years ago

for the NPC ai, I recommend having the online part of the algorithm not use GAs, but just some sort of statistically learning on decision trees, GAs done right are tricky, and its worth pointing out that they're basically an optimization technique best used when the problem domain doesn't have enough structure to use other techniques which provide much stronger guarantees.

euccastro2• 18 years ago

I suppose you're conscious that there are a few huge cans of worms in your way. Expect QA and customer service to become more 'interesting' than in the typical MMO. Player scripting will tend to alienate nonhackers (script trading notwithstanding). Empowering players as you suggest in other comments (letting them run whole factions) reduces the pressure to socialize, which is the main driver of player retention.

Surprising as it may sound, the downsides that many MMOs have as games actually help them succeed as the glorified social networks most of them are. Boredom and disempowerment bring people together. As the cliché goes, they come for the game and stay for the community.

That said, I love your concept and I'd definitely give that game a try. I wouldn't consider playing a MMO that runs on rails and where I can't automate away my repetitive tasks. I think you'd get a smallish but interesting and loyal player base. Maybe it could reddit out from there if that's what you want; otherwise I believe it would work great as a lifestyle business.

Is it on purpose that you don't provide contact info in your profile? I'd love to exchange some thoughts with you (see address in my profile.) I worked for a few years in what is today the leading commercial space MMO, and I've been entertaining some ideas on those lines too.

derefr• 18 years ago

Do you still have humanoid "player characters" in your game, or is your avatar simply a [set of] ships? I've always wished for a space game where each "ship" is a thriving colony all on its own, with hundreds of players with their own quarters, and an intense rivalry over who will be "captain", "navigator" and so on (unless it's some sort of military ship, but there could still be a mutiny!) If you are the ship[s], this gets a little less poignant.

Also, watching sci-fi TV shows for a long time, I've come to appreciate the visual value of "away missions"/shore-leave. It's boring staring at a starfield for hours at a time (even with cool nebular effects.) Is there a way to land on planets that have life on them (that is, not boring ol' asteroids) and perhaps stay there, living off the land for a while where no one can find you but for your radio pollution?

Sorry if this is all irrelevant to your particular implementation, but I've been planning my own similar venture for a while.

Olgaar2• 18 years ago

Seems like a serious concern would be protecting the kids in this virtual world, lord knows the other "Kid" playing the game may be a 30-year old creep in his mom's basement. (Of course I worry about this when I play WoW as an adult, lol!)

I'm sure you've thought about this in depth, but my first thought was, that if you could make it a game that a child could play WITH a parent, and both coud enjoy, then that would be something I would buy for my family!

Consider movies... everyone knows the highest grossing movies are the kids movies that ALSO appeal to parents, (Shrek, Bee Movie, Shrek II, Everything Pixar, anything with the word Shrek it in...)

jgrahamc• 18 years ago

I'm working on a small project related to baby naming which is a toy to get me familiar with RoR and experiment with building a registrationless user experience.

It's just an evening project and should be online later this week on Heroku.

edw519• 18 years ago

Client's print server crashed in the middle of the night. Month end accounting batch (written by idiots) updated databases before encountering dead end at printing. Accounting wants their reports, but there aren't any. Can't restore because sales & fulfillment have already done many database updates before I was called. Not sure what to do.

Today I was going to add a few features to my web app. Instead, I guess I'll be changing 20 year old programs to not update databases, but print reports. I think. Not sure.

So I thought I would just have a cup of Columbian Supreme, a donut, and a quick visit here. Makes about as much sense as anything else.

(If only this were an April Fools joke.)

brlewis• 18 years ago

Turning off OpenID support. Details here: http://ourdoings.com/2008-04-01

jeroen• 18 years ago

This: http://taggl.net/

Almost done!

robmnl2• 18 years ago

What is it?

thorax2• 18 years ago

I'm working on bug.gd, our error search engine.

Specifically, we just announced/launched an experimental tool for (any) Python interactive interpreter. Whenever you run into an error, you can do a quick search for how other people got past the same error.

khangtoh4• 18 years ago

Hmm.. that's actually very interesting.. My way of finding out error messages now is just to google it and then dive through all the results.

thorax2• 18 years ago

The Python thing is more of an experiment as we flesh out our APIs for various languages: http://blog.bug.gd/2008/03/29/error_help-for-python-hackers/

The bug.gd site is more like a 'recycling bin' that reminds you to come back and share your workaround so it's not lost for the next guy who searches. Searching on Google works for a lot of people, but this is a lot more focused and helps the community when it's used.

Long-term we'll be integrating client-side tools into every application/language we can.

wallflower• 18 years ago

The online store/catalog in AWDR was non-interesting so I'm iterating a clone of Buxfer's iPhone webapp (while I teach myself Ruby-on-Rails). I have no intention of competing against Buxfer - I use their app for real expense reporting instead of my crude app - their iPhone application is a excellent example of a iPhone webapp.

david927• 18 years ago

A new way to create software and a new operating system built from the ground up based on it.

andr2• 18 years ago

redesign of http://thefeelgood.com/

omnipath2• 18 years ago

I rather like your site, but it seems very confusing. Like I can't find any hearts for me to click on to say that I like it. (I'm on Opera 9.5 beta.) Also, there are songs embedded everywhere, and I'm not sure why, or what all the links mean. (I don't understand their purpose.) What would also be nice would be the title and the artist within these links as well.

I do like all the music I've clicked on so far though. . .

Edit: It does have the artist and title in the embedded link. Just seemed weirdly placed. My bad there.

andr2• 18 years ago

I'm sorry you found it confusing (hence the redesign in progress ;) ). The hearts are white until you favourite a song. I can see how this can be confusing when they are red in the instruction text.

noodle• 18 years ago

working on a tool related to the medical insurance billing industry.

not reinventing the wheel, just hoping to make some money so i can afford to reinvent the wheel later. :)

nostrademons• 18 years ago

I'm working on a webapp to let people create their own games. Just finished e-mailing with a prospective cofounder (he turned me down, sigh), now going to start coding up some enhancements to collision detection.

vegai• 18 years ago

eBay killer.

sabat• 18 years ago

The world needs that. I mean that with no irony/sarcasm. Ebay sucks. The idea is great. The implementation is unbelieveably bad.

swombat• 18 years ago

Working on a fresh, disruptive collaboration system for a stodgy, niche industry (will keep that bit of info under wraps for now).

nraynaud• 18 years ago

amateur sport website (multisport nike+)

tricky• 18 years ago

clinical trial data management. You wouldn't believe how tough it is to get people to let their paper go.

mrtron5• 18 years ago

I rarely share details, but I will for once.

I am working on version 2 of a simple tool for a friend that he uses for some contract work in the statistical analysis field.

Version 1 was a Java app and minimally featured, version 2 is web based, done in Django and intended to be a lot more robust.

t0pj• 18 years ago

Experimenting on a web app for people to "quickly and easily" share the stuff in their heads either with words, numbers, or pictures. Very vague at this point. Still working out some details.

Keywords: functional frictionless.

Erf• 18 years ago

Getting a job.

nilobject• 18 years ago

A cup of coffee.

iamelgringo• 18 years ago

Finishing my degree.

And, putting together a Meetup in Mountain View the evening before Startup School: http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737/

pg2• 18 years ago

Writing a new essay.

cadalac• 18 years ago

I already read your new essay using GDay ;-)

ten-seven• 18 years ago

Ha! good one!

cadalac FTW!

pg2• 18 years ago

That must explain how people have already written posts complaining that it's elitist and consists of nothing more than my subjective opinions presented as if they were true.

danw3• 18 years ago

What's GDay?

kirubakaran3• 18 years ago

I'd pay to see your essays in a revision controlled format.

Even better would a screencast of your editor.

mullr• 18 years ago

1) Dataflow engine for a new kind of spreadsheet 2) Business idea brainstorming 3) Ignoring all the April 1st internet BS.

ALee• 18 years ago

finishing up the last of our politics stuff: http://poliquiz.com and http://www.fantasycongress.com

trying to figure out what changes need to occur to our YC app to make it more understandable

jws• 18 years ago

A centralized syslog database with rule based systems to block malevolent sorts at our firewall boundaries. Didn't like any of the solutions I found to scratch my itch.

(Ok,not technically a start up, I started up many years ago. Been there, done that, forgot to sell the company.)

rochers• 18 years ago

Working on http://www.thephotostream.com. Suggestions, comments are welcome!

dood3• 18 years ago

A new way to organize things/data online to enable greatly improved retrieval.

iamwil• 18 years ago

I working on mobtropolis. http://www.mobtropolis.com , which makes it easy to photo stream your experiences, big or small, and inspire friends or strangers to try new things.

I had posted it earlier, and took most of the suggestions, though still working on some of them. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=109155

Since then, I've added facebook integration, and not just a new look and feel, but made it more "me-centric". Just working on getting some bugs ironed out, and will be rewriting the incomplete "tour" section today.

mosburger• 18 years ago

Building a better dzone, mostly just to learn the Apache Wicket framework. I like the idea of dzone, but I hate the layout of the site, and I can't be the only one.

I might re-implement it in Django though, just for fun.

Malcx• 18 years ago

rewriting the server software behind a psudo first person shooter game in flash. http://www.ultrakillz.com/play

Note the current version is prone to restarts...

ericb• 18 years ago

I'm working on a hosted load testing solution. The idea is to make it easy to find scalability issues in advance, like the signup scalability issue HN had when it was TechCrunch'd. The tests will require no hardware, be on-demand, and use an open source tool people might already be using. It should make the process ridiculously easy and scalable if I get things right.

rw• 18 years ago

Novel learning algorithms.

jonathan• 18 years ago

the perfect homepage for average web users

yummyfajitas• 18 years ago

I'm building better MRI reconstruction software. Most existing software does a filtered FFT + standard image processing. This throws away information solely because radiologists and other humans can't use it directly.

I'm trying to extract that information and turn it into something usable by humans.

glasner• 18 years ago

Working on a keyword research app for SEM. The first step to bringing my internal PPC management system to the masses.

marcus• 18 years ago

Working on my YC application

pius• 18 years ago

An RDF triple store based on CouchDB and an S2O layer (SPARQL to Objects) mapper.

henning• 18 years ago

Rapid application development in web applications. I'm developing an embedded domain-specific language in Haskell that basically constitutes application metadata which then gets converted to Ruby, Perl, Python, or PHP.

brentr3• 18 years ago

I am currently researching an idea.

PROBLEM: Search results are full of noise.

PROPOSED SOLUTION: (1) Take a raw search feed; (2) Give searchers a tool that enables them to maintain a persistent search state (i.e., it keeps track of your previous queries and all the results you have clicked on while using the tool); (3) Use results from user data to aid in constructing a better ranking of the raw search feed.

The seed for this idea came from a link given to me by one of the professors at BGSU: http://research.microsoft.com/~merrie/collaborative_search.h...

simianstyle• 18 years ago

my abs

ph0rque• 18 years ago

my sandwich

Olgaar2• 18 years ago

I know it's not exactly a Hacker Startup, but my wife and I have been building www.realphotography.com steadily over the past year

We've tried to leverage the internet and digital media as much as possible: the business has a blog, the vast majority of our promotion is on the internet, we sell the digital files, all proofing is done online. But I'd happily solicit any feedback from the resident hackers as to how we could do this even better.

And I'd like to head off the comments about Flash, yes we're aware of the disadvantages, and you'll see we do off a non-flash site for weddings. ;)

pierrebombay• 18 years ago

Working on writing a blog to help me learn arc.

slim• 18 years ago

markkit in your blog/website http://markkit.net/in-your-site.html

hassy• 18 years ago

Right now, an EEP for Unicode support in Erlang. (EEPs are like PEPs in the Python world).

Apart from that, I've got about 10 other things on my "current stuff" list, most to do with Hypernumbers (http://hypernumbers.com), but there's a couple of Arc-related things as well.

wozer2• 18 years ago

Working on a "souce code annotating debugger" for an esoteric programming language.

So instead of painfully stepping through your code line by line, you just press M-t inside a function definition and voilà: it shows you what goes on inside the function, using some example inputs to annotate the source code in a new Emacs buffer.

aggieben• 18 years ago

So, you're working on SLDB?

wozer2• 18 years ago

No, it's not (E)Lisp related.

My "debugger" in fact executes a whole function without stop and prints the values of all used variables and the results of nested function calls next to the code itself.

I'm not yet sure how useful this is, but it's a fun project and a good excuse to implement an interpreter for said esoterical language.

gruseom• 18 years ago

Pretty much the one thing that bothers me about working with Lisp in Emacs/Slime is the lack of what I would call a normal debugger with breakpoints, code highlighting, single-stepping and so on. Does anybody know if there's a deep reason for not having this? (I've often wondered, for example, if macros make it harder.) Or is it just that it hasn't been much of a priority?

maxwell• 18 years ago

Undergrad Honors thesis.

truebosko• 18 years ago

At my day job: Just finished a django checkout/cart system for one of our websites (www.bigfootsnowshoes.com) and working on a new site and more Python/Django apps. Been using Python full time for the past 3 months and loving it. I hate fixing/updating old PHP code now :(

At night: A service that will help locals find what they want more easily for things like going out for a fun night, events, etc. Think a better Yellowpages. Where I am, nothing like this exists so it's something I will be using for myself as well. Plus it's a fun learning

And just as I was writing this post I got my Python in a nutshell book on my desk. Yay :)

skenney26• 18 years ago

Trying to wrap my mind around Arc by building an ecommerce app.

asmosoinio2• 18 years ago

On some S60 code for a paying client. Improving code not originally written by me. Oh the joys of C++ and Symbian!

Lately I have been doing quite a lot of MIDP Java development for the same client, and it was quite a bit more enjoyable. With great powers come great responsibilities.

kashif2• 18 years ago

Wow! The odds? read my comment...

asmosoinio2• 18 years ago

The odds of someone being fed up with Symbian C++? Quite high? :)

Actually I am also kind of doing the same thing in Java as in C++, and hoping to be able to ditch the C++ version in the future.

parker• 18 years ago

I'm working on an online comedy troupe. Basically, there will be a blog that a cast of 7 contributors have authorship access to. All of their contributions are rated by the audience, and a the end of the week, the lowest scoring member gets axed, while a high performing member of the community gets promoted.

It's name? http://www.chompchompdead.com . It's roughly what happens when you get eaten by a shark.

We should be launching in about two weeks with a full cast of mostly professional writers.

jng• 18 years ago

- Selling, improving and supporting ViEmu and Codekana:

http://www.viemu.com

http://www.codekana.com

- A few months into a new start-up in the mobile space, Kimua, working towards having a prototype by the summer (my partner and I have hired two programmers, so I don't have to do any of the coding here!):

http://www.kimua.com (still nothing really to see here)

- Doing some heavy research in functional programming for my work-in-progress text editor (codename 'ngedit', the final actual name will probably be 'kodumi'):

http://www.kodumi.com

http://www.ngedit.com/ngedit.html

- Trying to prioritize the above tasks appropriately. Some days it's difficult to get anything done just by the sheer size of my "to do" list.

randallsquared2• 18 years ago

New features for the adult-oriented social network I'm mostly working on, these days.

DanielBMarkham2• 18 years ago

I'm consulting for a really large client, teaching teams how to deliver technology quickly, so I'm not working on my startup. I don't believe you can do a startup half-way.

But in my spare time I'm thinking about writing a book about how to run Agile projects in large organizations. If anybody is interested, drop me a line. My email is in my profile.

jkush2• 18 years ago

Do you see a difference between teams using Agile to maintain existing products and teams building brand new stuff?

I've found in my experience so far, that Agile works better for new development and can't or shouldn't be used as a hammer for everything.

DanielBMarkham2• 18 years ago

I think in general you are correct, but the devil lies in the details. The way people think about the word "agile", oddly enough, can be really inflexible. Somebody gets a CSM, reads a few Cohn books, or gets hooked on Crystal. Suddenly their definition of "agile" is exactly what they read -- no more and no less.

I read once that a programmer tried agile and gave up after arguing for two hours about what to put on the story card. This kind of BS happens a lot: it's the nature of dealing with large numbers of people who see things as binary. If you understand the _principles_ of agile, and why they work, then all the books and authors are just re-digesting common sense and peddling them as books. At that level of understanding you can work on all sorts of things: new development, existing development, non-software work, etc.

That's where my team is trying to take this organization I'm working with. The problem is that influencing large populations (thousands and tens of thousands) of technical people is far worse than herding cats. It's more like trying to get angry flaming weasels to perform circus acts by using a twinkie and a Disney song.

dgr• 18 years ago

<shameless_plug>

Startup that makes a gaming platform. >1 million hits per day. Alexa ranking of <1000. http://gg-game.com and http://garena.com

We're also trying to grow the team. If you're a hacker in Singapore or South East Asia, I'd love to get in touch with you! =)

</shameless_plug>

vaishali_mahale2• 18 years ago

A more trustworthy, controlled reviews and question-answer site geared towards preexisting mailing lists like those in big companies: http://www.askurpals.com/

shiranaihito• 18 years ago

Sounds like a good idea, but r u sure ur reaching ur target demographic with that name? :)

vaishali_mahale2• 18 years ago

You are right about the name but big company mailing lists is just starting point for us - mainly because they are easy to target. In theory there is no reason why it couldn't be used for any general mailing lists like Yahoo! Groups or even set of individual email address manually typed in "To:"

omnipath2• 18 years ago

Trying to write an ms exchange killer. So many languages I want to learn, and never seem to have any time to start. (Right now on the list: Ada, Erlang, Python, Ocaml, C/C#/D/ObjC, Effiel, Smalltalk).

Was trying to do the android competition but too much junk happened in my life the past month that kept me from starting that idea.

paul_reiners2• 18 years ago

Right now I'm in the middle of a study group that I started here at work. We're studying Graham's book "ANSI Common Lisp" and studying inference in particular, so we're also covering some of "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming".

After that's done, I'm going to either spend some time working on the Netflix Prize (just to learn more, not in a real attempt to win) or doing some music programming in either Lisp, using the Common Music API, or Mathematica.

sah• 18 years ago

I'm working on http://codepad.org/

danw3• 18 years ago

Writing my resignation so that I can devote more time to freelancing and a startup

niels• 18 years ago

I did that a couple of months ago, and before you know it freelancing takes all of your time. Luckily I'm close to launch.

danw3• 18 years ago

I'm going to restrict the number of hours per week I spend on freelancing and raise my prices as I reach that cap of hours. Hopefully supply is plentiful enough for this to work. Has anyone tried something like this? How did it work out?

Readmore• 18 years ago

Polishing my shopping search engine

robmnl2• 18 years ago

Whow, how did this happen. Appreciate the 90 comments guys + girls.

paul_reiners2• 18 years ago

People always like talking about what they're working on.

kirubakaran3• 18 years ago

Hence the success of Twitter

patryn20• 18 years ago

Currently working on my lead generation business n2neuron.com (site is woefully incomplete and doesn't represent much of what we do, but ok because our business is conducted on the numerous content sites).

Working on my client lead-flow. Trying to break the 100 sales/day mark.

Setting up new content sites to generate more free advertising.

Billing upstream clients, paying downstream advertising vendors.

Trying to convince my partner to leave his full-time job at Dell.

General day-to-day business stuff, I suppose.

Building an "excess data" exchange to re-market unsold lead data, which is kind of cool.

ardit33• 18 years ago

On my spare time I am working on a litle Android app. Financial and stock market information. Just for fun. Not going to make it it time to submit for the competition thou. I am one-two months away to have something useful.

I also want to work on something else, but as a project it would very involving, and I will need to work on it full time, and with partners. Unfortunately I am a H-1B servitor, and can't just take long breaks from my job.

Ah, and my full time job (mobile tv and multimedia, working on java and lua). Not bad, as I am actually working on advanced stuff.

introitus• 18 years ago

Working in Cinema 4D on a WWII dogfight through a fjord in Norway circa May 1945.

joepestro• 18 years ago

I'm working on http://16characters.com/

hooande2• 18 years ago

16 characters rocks.

Mistone• 18 years ago

a facebook app - as a beta test / proof of concept for rephoria.com .......not dying

duke• 18 years ago

http://olpcnews.com/content/localization/learning_language.h...

run4yourlives• 18 years ago

I'm working on a web based group insurance (employee benefits) platform for the Canadian market. Right now, this market is dominated by enterprise software. Further barriers to entry basically revolve around needing to be established to be trusted.

I have the connections, and have recognized that massive inefficiencies can be capitalized on by an upstart with the right knowledge.

Wish me luck.

femmebot• 18 years ago

fixing IE issues...isn't that what most people spend their time on?

chriskelley• 18 years ago

I do visual effects and animation. Currently wrapping up a Pringles commercial. Can't show the spot but my other work is here: http://chriskelley.tv/work/

richardw2• 18 years ago

Checking stats after a new release of http://www.tudumo.com It's a to-do list. Seriously, because there weren't enough. Unique, like the others :)

jkush2• 18 years ago

Hey, I just downloaded your app. Nice job. I especially like how you guys seeded my tasks so that it's natural for me to start using the app instead of getting a dauntingly blank task list.

Have you guys considered a watered down free version with a lower price tag to buy the full? Like $10?

richardw2• 18 years ago

Thanks - been a lot of work! On the lower price: have thought a little but not convinced. One problem is "price-as-signal", another is that below a certain amount it just costs you too much in payment fees, marketing and support. Also, you are essentially selling the difference between the two apps for the price difference. That takes some serious thinking to get right so you don't shoot yourself in the foot...

ecarder• 18 years ago

So cool to read all that stuff. Guys, you are all busy so far...me too!

adammichaelc• 18 years ago

It's not a startup, but it's something I've been thinking about doing for a while. It's a collection of articles on the topic, "Things I wish I had known before my 1st startup" You can check it out at bizglue.wordpress.com. A lot of the articles came from YC, but several came from other, random sources. It's not really a blog - more of a personal business catalog to help me in my next startup.

kashif2• 18 years ago

I am using Mobile Python to replace an existing Symbian C++ app of 100,000 lines with an app of 20,000 python lines - for a client. Wish me luck.

moog• 18 years ago

Cooking dinner.

cmm324• 18 years ago

I am working on our property management application / rental property listing service startup, http://www.propertystampede.com.

I focus on capturing users and marketing, writing for the blog at http://www.stampedeblog.com.

typicaljoe• 18 years ago

Setting up a cash bonus plan for my team to clean up our code base. $5 for quarantined methods or blocks that just need to be deleted, $10 for deprecated blocks that need to be extracted from active code, and $25 for useful rewrites of badly designed methods. 3 days cut the fat code cash cookoff!

SwellJoe• 18 years ago

Are you sure that's wise?

There have been quite a few studies that indicate that trivial reward systems tend to backfire, and have unintended side effects. These are definitely trivial rewards for good developers. Have you instead considered just implementing the measurement system, without the rewards? People can then see their success rate and have clearly defined goals for doing the work you want done. Then, perhaps take everyone out to a really good lunch, or have a catered lunch, at the end of a successful week of pruning? It's no more expensive than your reward system, and feels more like a prize to most folks--everybody says they like cold hard cash, but once basic needs are met, things like the work environment take on more importance. For example, Google pays lower salary than almost any other employer in the area, but it is the "best place to work" in the country.

When offering large enough rewards, you can convince people to do things they don't want to do. And when you ask people nicely for help, and give them clearly defined goals, you can also get them to help without a reward--they'll probably even enjoy the work more, because the human brain shoots out good chemicals when working within a community for a common cause. but, when you offer them a trivial reward, you both offend them and only grudgingly get results (with unintended consequences like code that gets written with the intention of claiming a reward later to clean it up), and morale will go down. Humans are fickle creatures, and I think you're setting yourself up for a long painful lesson in human resource management.

Just a humble suggestion.

CRASCH• 18 years ago

I'm working on a startup. www.hybir.com (not much there yet)

A really different approach to online backups. My nightly full backups take only a couple of minutes over broadband...

Right now I'm porting C# code to win32 C/C++. .Net has some really nasty bugs. So half my code is already in win32 C/C++.

I will give away some free subscriptions here when I am ready.

brianr• 18 years ago

Message queuing in php... ak.

cvg• 18 years ago

My app for the Android Dev Challenge. Deadline's soon...

mroman• 18 years ago

Customizing a Live Linux CD (for a client) writing a press release (for a client), finishing the SEO for a website (for a client) and teaching myself Ruby (FOR ME).

oz• 18 years ago

Doing freelance graphic design work so I can save some money for a startup with a killer, obvious idea, but no one has done it in Jamaica yet... I'm talking disruptive stuff.

But then many great ideas in history seem obvious in retrospect.

hooande2• 18 years ago

I'm working on a categorization/data mining project using Java JOONE for the neural network. Not as hard as it sounds (most of the time). Must finish this project today or tomorrow so I can get enough money to fuel our startup (http://www.awesomehighlighter.com) for the next couple of months.

42flicks• 18 years ago

Just tried out awesomehighligher, I found it really useful - would recomend it to my friends and workmates for sure.

Flemlord• 18 years ago

Recovering from having my gall bladder removed. :^(

wenbert• 18 years ago

working on my "idea" and at the same time looking for funding here in the philippines :/

sutro• 18 years ago

Trying to finish my startup product, over a year in the making. Stuck in that "last 10%" purgatory that seems to stretch on forever.

soyapi• 18 years ago

Polishing up my Facebook Cross Number Puzzle app http://apps.facebook.com/xnumber_puzzle before submitting to FB App Directory

Andi• 18 years ago

http://wifind.in/

Ask YC: What are you working on right now?

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