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How did GitHub get its initial contributors?
The founders were active participants in the open source and Ruby on Rails communities. The first users were people they knew in those communities (GitHub accounts were invite only at first).
[... 44 words]Why does TED refer to its speeches as “talks”?
I think this reflects a more general trend in the tech conference world which TED emerged from.
[... 115 words]When did South Park characters stop calling things “gay” in the vernacular derogatory sense “not very good”?
There was actually an episode that touched on a similar issue back in 2009: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...—“the boys attempt to change the official definition of the word ”fag“ from an anti-homosexual slur to a term describing loud and obnoxious Harley bikers.”
[... 65 words]Would/Does Y Combinator accept Students (Freshmen/Sophomores Undergrads) if they’re planning on going back to college?
YC want founders who are going to dedicate themselves full time to their companies after the initial three month YC programme has ended. If you’re not willing to do that, why should YC give a place to you over someone else who IS willing to make that commitment?
[... 69 words]How do I network with speakers at events?
I’ve spoken at loads of conferences, and I can tell you that speakers WANT you to approach them. They’re definitely interested in talking to you—that’s one of the main reasons they speak.
[... 132 words]Would YCombinator have invested in Apple?
Yes. YC is about the team, and the fact that those two had built a prototype of a personal computer in their garage (in 1976!) would get them in to YC without any trouble, even considering the quality of applicants YC gets today.
[... 55 words]How accurate is the GitHub status site?
Very accurate. Every time I’ve noticed a problem with GitHub the status site has either already published it, or publishes within a minute or so of me first noticing.
[... 42 words]What are good sources to learn about SEO?
The Beginner’s Guide to SEO from Moz (previously SEOMoz) is an excellent introduction to SEO fundamentals.
What are the best set of marketing/payment tools for use in startup with a subscription webapp?
Stripe has excellent support for subscription payments, including helping manage recurring payments and pro-rataing for upgrades to plans half way through a billing cycle etc. I believe BrainTree offers similar tools.
[... 88 words]As a non-technical single founder for a web startup, is it better to hire a design firm to build the prototype, or find a technical co-founder?
Find a co-founder. The problem with using an outside agency to build your initial prototype is that you won’t really start learning about your product until after you have launched it. You need to have the talent available in-house to then make changes and improvements based on the feedback you get from real users.
[... 123 words]Is there a substantial difference between using a Mac or a Windows machine for web development (particularly RoR)?
No matter if you are on Mac or Windows you should be using a Linux virtual machine for development, ideally running the same operating system as you deployment environment (I like Ubuntu for this). Vagrant is a popular tool for managing this kind of setup.
[... 151 words]Is greater comfort with Windows a good enough reason to switch from PHP to ASP.NET?
Learning Linux really isn’t that hard, and it will dramatically increase your potential horizons as a programmer. Install Ubuntu on a virtual machine on your laptop and start running through some tutorials.
[... 53 words]Is there an open source (or freely accessible) database of geofence coordinates for common places, such as cities or national parks?
Take a look at Flickr’s openly licensed shapefiles:
[... 59 words]What should be considered when deciding to do a marathon?
Running a marathon is easier then you think.
[... 200 words]What’s the best use in the office for my old Macbook Pro?
Set it up to display metrics or KPIs—by running http://www.geckoboard.com/ on it for example.
[... 35 words]Which format for API documentation programmers prefer: PDF or Web?
HTML is a better format for documentation than PDF.
[... 160 words]Log Management: What is the complexity behind Loggly and similar services?
Pricing isn’t about how hard it is to build something (and building a reliable, highly-scalable centralized log search and archiving system isn’t trivial). It’s about how much value it provides to the customer.
[... 204 words]What is the ways to view the examples without download the example files in github?
If you can view the file on raw.github.com you can drop the first dot to view it on rawgithub.com—a free proxy service.
[... 107 words]How do I put my Twitter picture on my company’s about page so that it automatically updates?
This used to be pretty easy, but Twitter made it a lot harder with their APIv1. You need to do authenticated API calls to access their image API now, which means it’s best to set up a cron job and cache the correct URL.
[... 125 words]Where can I find a copy of Y Combinator’s user manual (as mentioned in the most recent book by Randall Stross)?
You can’t—the manual is confidential and only available to YC founders. If you want to read it, you need to get in to YC!
[... 86 words]Can Meetup be used to organize virtual events?
I don’t think so. From http://help.meetup.com/customer/...
[... 41 words]How does one actually find Angel investors, when our business/startup is taking off and we need to grow fast?
The best way to approach angels is via introductions. To get introductions, you need connections to people who are known and trusted by angels.
[... 281 words]Using AWS, as my cloud, what is left for me to work on? Is it enough for me to just write the html+css code and programming language code (python)? Or do I stil have to work with mysql and backend stuff? I am pretty new at programming, so I hope it i...
Using a cloud server platform like Amazon EC2 unfortunately will not protect you from needing to understand basic server adminstration—it’s not that different from running your own physical server, except that if you screw up the configuration it’s much easier to throw everything away and start from scratch.
[... 134 words]I’ve been working alone for about a year, how do I get out of this feeling of loneliness because no one is around me?
This is why co-working spaces exist. I don’t know which country you are based in but here in the UK most cities and many larger towns now have at least one tech-focused co-working space where you can rent a desk on a month-to-month basis and have a work environment outside your home with other freelancers with whom you can socialize.
[... 129 words]Has anyone been through Y Combinator more than once?
Yes, this isn’t that rare. I think the Hipmunk crew went through YC, despite having previously gone through as part of reddit. The Erics from clutch.io had previously participated in YC as part of Convore.
[... 51 words]How log in my e-mail and send sms via php?
If you want to send SMS via PHP I suggest taking a look at www.twilio.com—they are pretty inexpensive and ridiculously easy to get started with.
[... 44 words]If Sheryl Sandberg cannot code, how can she manage a leading software company like Facebook?
There is way more to running a technology company than just writing or understanding code. According to Wikipedia, Sheryl “oversees the firm’s business operations including sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy and communications.”—that means that among other things she’s responsible for the parts of Facebook that make the money!
[... 74 words]What’s involved in making a site like JibJab go from conception to reality?
I’m afraid you don’t get to create a hit website just by having an idea: You have to have the skills and focus to actually make it happen.
[... 118 words]Are there any good bootcamps, such as Code Fellows, DevBootCamp for mobile (iOS/Android)?
Big Nerd Ranch have been offering iOS and Android for several years now. A friend of mine went in the iOS course a while ago and spoke highly of it—he has since released an app to the App Store.
[... 62 words]How do I overcome my fear of public speaking (of people just “switching off”, or simply getting up and leaving the room)?
Look for opportunities to give “lightning talks”—5 minute talks given as part of a series of talks. These are excellent for beginner speakers as they help force you to get to the point as quickly as possible, and you only have to survive for five minutes! They are good for the audience too as if they don’t enjoy our talk they only have to sit politely for a couple of minutes before the next talk comes along.
[... 107 words]