erikb85

please don't link to secondary sources! The real article about that topic is quite interesting. Read it here: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141222/iPhone_owners...

Argument accepted. US and Germany are a totally different world, as I learn from HN every day. Here in Germany U don't get anything out of Open Source contributions. Not even web startups are looking for that attribute.

If there is somebody out there, making a handheld developing machine, I am one of Ur first buyers! I was looking for that long before the netbook hype and even some time before everybody was running around with laptops.

Ur answer shows clearly, what big mistake the YC guys did. If they just want to be in Ur company, they should've asked U that for free. I think if PG comes to some one year startup and says "Hi, I wanna be in Ur company for 5%" nobody will throw him out. But now for U it is not about that fact that U want him in Ur company, but about Ur pride about Ur "child" (meaning Ur all heart investment for the last year).

I can't give U an advice, U have to know by Urself how much Ur pride is worth to U. I still would take the deal but would make clear that I didn't take it because of the money.

But I can give an advice to the YC guys: Don't bring new creteria into a deal U nearly have closed. New creteria are for deals that U can't close without some new leverage.

All of that includes the assumption that I have all information nessesary about the deal. But actually, nobody has but the topic creator and the YC guys. So, don't take my words too seriously!

it would be so nice, if open source contribution could bring u a job in a cool software company. but I guess, that only works for the star-google combination...

Why did you clicked on the link? I clicked on the link to get an answer the question that was the result of this article. :-( But anyway, it is good to be reminded, that not working too directly is the key point.

I think game theory is about coming from a disadvantage (the dealer knows everything about cars and getting the maximum from you) and getting a fair deal in the end, or having the advantage and getting the maximum possible. But the shown solution here, just changes the situation about information and leverage. Yes, everytime you have a disadvantage and put energy in changing to an advantageous situation, then you are in a better situation and get more out of a deal... No, I am not worried about learning nothing out of this post. I am worried about the author. He just so much does not get the point. When I use mathematics to deal with the car dealer, my intention is NOT to get the information, NOT to gain leverage through dealing skills. I want to use my logical knowledge and skills to change the game from "best dealer wins" to "most logical wins". It is really good to learn something about leverage. That is very nessesary for everybodies life, especially for us geeks, who are not naturally gifted in this area. But mathematics, too, is a strong tool, with different rules and different advantages. Please look deeper in this matter, too. There could be a real advantage for you over car dealers, who have mostly no scientific background.

with guidance from HN and friends I have changed a little bit. Hope this is better (but still does not feel good enough):

"""The company ticket-web GmbH & Co. KG faces a big step in its evolution. The supplier of technical solutions for selling tickets in different kind of ways wants to create a Germany wide web portal to sell tickets of regional events. To measure and increase the success of this web portal, in this bachelor thesis an application was created. It will concentrate on increasing the coverage and conversion-rate of web users and is called ENTREE©-marketeer. Increasing the coverage of web users can be accomplished through Search Engine Optimization, information exchange with web-databases and -catalogues and integration in webcommunities. Conversion rates can be increased by adjusting the design and usability to the needs of the target audience. Aiming for higher conversion rates creates the need for extensive and detailed analysis of the users behaviour and therefore the need for a good measurement of this behaviour. How the marketeer helps ticket-web to create a successful and sustainable web business will be shown in detail in the following chapters."""

Hi alain,

thanks for your help. I will look to find better phrases, to replace these.

@your PS: Yes and No. I thought maybe for a week about adding this question here. In the end I decided to do it, because:

- it is about what I hack - As reviewing code sharpens your coding skills, so might reviewing foreigners English texts to sharpen your mother tounge skills. Thus, it might be to value for you. - For sure, it helps me. - It is the way of the student (and all hackers should be students their whole life). Maybe I can never give back to you, what you help me here. But I help foreigners here in Germany since 3 years to translate texts and understand my language. Viewing it from this point, I don't feel too selfish, asking here for your help.

I hope, this reasoning makes sense.

I wanted to write the same advice. Read that blog, from the beginning! And stop writing a business plan! You don't need one (at least as long it is not a task from one of your professors).

I would suggest these sources, too: http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/ <- how to make your customers pay, before you build a product? http://steveblank.com/ <- stop doing "business" stuff. Go out of the door and talk to your customers. They pay your bills! http://www.avc.com/ <- one other guy, who likes to pay big bills on risky investments, and how he sees the world.

Hi RiderOfGiraffes,

thanks for your harsh critique. No I didn't use any translater but my own mind. ;) If you still want to help me, please tell me, what exactly did you understand until now. Maybe this way I am able to see, where I have to start changing things.

best regards

ErikB PS: hehe, I can understand all of your german sentences. :) Google is much better as I thought (but yes, it sounds really like my best friend from India)

I like to see that with actual data! Nice post!

I just want to add, if you write less words, every word counts more. So you must be more careful, too, if you write shorter messages. I wonder how the stats would look, if you take this in consideration, too.

Hm. If Lisp would be an "everybodys" language, what would be the Lisp then? Actually, the main success of lisp comes from its purity its scientific deepness. If you try to follow another goal, you just lose vision for your actual one. If somebody really needs an "everybodys" language, for example because he is a lawyer or something else, okay. There is Python, Javascript, Java and many other languages who try in different ways to be for everybody. And all of them are important. As is Lisp, how it is.

what can I learn from this article? That is, what I can read there: You have to create images and sounds and if you can't you have to buy them. And no matter what you do, in the end you still have to pay your rent (what will be more as $1,000).

There is that point, too, where you not have to look up how to formulate something in your new programming language, but can write it just down. Is that not "fluent"?

What do you guys think about learning just one programming language or just one human language? I don't think you can be a real expert in a language, if you just a single one. First, you will not get a good feeling of what the style of your language is, if you just know this one. And second, there is stuff, you can write easy in language A but much harder in language B. There will be a point in mastering language B where you have to be able to write the same stuff, too. But you might never learn that stuff, if you never saw people doing it in language A. (pg's argument for stronger languages vs. weaker languages is some kind of subset of my second argument)

Absolutely good points. Especially the points 2 and 7.

this stuff is not reinventing the wheel. it is just building your own wheel, to better understand how it works. and other people (like i.e. me) like it, because then they don't have to write C, when they want to hack a little bit into the programs they use.

Yeah, yeah... In the past everything was better. The trees where more green, the summers where more sunny. Even the women looked better in the 90s. I am sure you had more hair in the 90s (or from personally guessing your age, maybe you have more hair now. Congratulations!)

What I want to say? Every generation wants a "new thing". And if the "new thing" from 20 years ago would be the "new thing" from today, it would not be the ->new<- thing, right? Be assured, that the new generations can have the same happy time you had, but with their own "new thing" and because it is theirs.