I am setting up a Bank.
Obviously you're doing this on prosper.com. ;-)
Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
121–130 of 133 posts
Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
We've been doing something like this with Growl - how does it compare?
Stitcho is basically "Growl for the Web", but NOT in the sense of being another Javascript-to-Growl bridge (a few of those exist out there, protoGrowl, Growl mootools, etc.) Rather, Stitcho lets you send notifications from server side code that are delivered to your users via the Stitcho widget. The Stitcho server sits in the middle to route and deliver the notifications. Also, Stitcho provides widgets for Mac and Wi…
Definitely - thanks!
Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#123I'm working on an open platform for cloud storage. Imagine something like MobileMe, Microsoft Strata, or Carbonite, but without your data being trapped by a single vendor. At the moment we are considering Celeste as the basis for this platform. http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/celeste/ I've got the partner (alexkravets), now we're looking for funding to mitigate the risk of having no day job. We don't have a wri…
Question: how do you plan on making things sync as effortlessly as they do on MobileMe? I'm sure it can be done - look at Dropbox - but do you have any ideas on how to beat something that's built in to the system?
Initially we'll side-step that issue.
First we'll build the equivalent of an online mountable disk so it'll be a natural fit for online storage/backup and sharing.
Building applications on top of this storage layer such as photo sharing and syncing will be next.
As for how to compete, the magic sauce is openness on two fronts. Bandwidth and storage are commodities, and we want this storage tier to be a commodity marketplace as well. The storage providers will compete for end users while cooperating to store and serve up data. A user can switch providers and retain the same data in the system (cloud).
Along with an "open" system, most (if not all) of the software will be open source. We envision a small hub of centralized services (identity and such), a storage provider ring, and the end users.
So basically we'll beat the big guys by creating an open system with open software. Our company, then, will be taking a small slice of a big pie, rather than on these players head-on.
Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
typed in "frank sinatra" and got, among others: queen, bob dylan, and coldplay. one issue with music recommendation is how people (subjective creatures!) usually demonstrate low-tolerance for "bad" recommendations. nevertheless, i love your vibe.
Yep, that is a stinker. I'm trying to skew the site towards unusualness and away from genres. Thus, the ways I link artists can produce some weirdness like the above. However, users can give feedback to help reduce the insanity quotient. Thanks very much for the feedback.
i'm with you on genres -- they're an anachronism invented by the record and retail companies back when music something you put on a shelf, but most ppl still seem to adhere vehemently to genre preferences.
Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Question: how do you plan on making things sync as effortlessly as they do on MobileMe? I'm sure it can be done - look at Dropbox - but do you have any ideas on how to beat something that's built in to the system?
Initially we'll side-step that issue. First we'll build the equivalent of an online mountable disk so it'll be a natural fit for online storage/backup and sharing. Building applications on top of this storage layer such as photo sharing and syncing will be next. As for how to compete, the magic sauce is openness on two fronts. Bandwidth and storage are commodities, and we want this storage tier to be a commodity mark…
Our company, then, will be taking a small slice of a big pie, rather than on these players head-on.
Very nice way of thinking about it. Good luck.
Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#126Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#127Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#128Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#129* look.fo ( http://look.fo ) / str8.to ( http://str8.to ) - a sort of insta-tinyurl that uses Google search results to create on the fly links. For example, see http://look.fo/hacker-news and http://str8.to/hacker-news ). Q: Isn't this just a shortcut for ( http://www.google.com/search?q=hacker+news )? A: Absolutely, but the shortcut makes it viable to create on-the-fly links to search results (or use str8.to's I'm F…
Neat!
Re: Ask YC: What are you working on these days?
#130* Working on my second book for O'Reilly * Speaking about, and generally pushing for more interest in Open Data * Putting my entire life in a semantic graph: http://blog.kiwitobes.com/?p=73 * Trying to figure out what programmers can do about risk management failures
> Working on my second book for O'Reilly
woohoo !
(loved your first)