The Startup School 2008 is a one day conference geared towards entrepreneurs put together by the folks behind YCombinator. This year the speakers included David Heinemeier Hansson creator of Ruby on Rails, Mike Arrington founder of TechCrunch, Paul Graham founder of YCombinator, Peter Norvig Director of Research of Google, Paul Buchheit of GMail/FriendFeed, Greg McAdoo of Sequoia Capital, Marc Andreessen of Netscape/Ning, Jeff Bezos founder Amazon, Sam Altman founder of Loopt, and Jack Sheridan from Wilson Sonsini.

Here are some of the advice given to the entrepreneurs and starter-uppers present.

When going in the wrong direction, it doesn’t matter how fast you are going.
Peter Norvig

Data is more agile than code.
Peter Norvig

Semantic Web; the future of the web, and it will always will be.
Peter Norvig

The odds are not created equal.
David Heinemeier Hansson

Often the simplest idea in the world, like treating your customers nicely, while still asking for money for what you do, can work. And you can build great businesses like that.
David Heinemeier Hansson

Make something people want.
Paul Graham

If you are really committed, and your startup is cheap to run, you become very hard to kill.
Paul Graham

Be soo good that they can’t ignore you.
Marc Andreessen

Always have a blog, always have twitter, always be part of the discussion.
Mike Arrington

Embrace criticism. … Don’t embrace the trolls.
Mike Arrington

We are more innovative, and do more interesting things if we stay customer focused instead of competitor focus.
Jeff Bezos

Invites are good to keep users away.
Paul Buchheit

I think, unfortunately, in startup and probably in all other worlds there is like this cargo cult tendency where they see something successful and they immediate the superficial attributes of it, like they say ‘oh that site has like a rounded logo, that must be the key to success.’
Paul Buchheit

More people, if they are really good people, I found I never really had problem figuring out what to do with. More really great people, if they are great they can take care of themselves.
Paul Buchheit

Funding does not make you successful.
Sam Altman

Create some Sand Hill Buzz around your deal. Make investors feel like if they don’t act fast, they’re going to miss the next Google.
Sam Altman

If you can get your company and your space talked about at drinks on Friday afternoon at Four Seasons in Palo Alto, that is a net win.
Sam Altman

1 - Market. 2 - Team. 3 - Product. 3.5 - Revolutionary, not incremental.
Sam Altman

Surf someones else’s wave.
Sam Altman

Raise 2x what you think you need.
Sam Altman

A great surfer can’t exist without a great wave.
Greg McAdoo

If you want to build a truly great company, you have to ride a really big wave and you got to look at market waves and technology waves in different ways than other folks and see it happing sooner and know how to position yourself out there.
Greg McAdoo

Don’t get it perfect, get it good enough, get it out there, listen very carefully, and make changes very quickly.
Greg McAdoo

Video of the Startup School 2008 is available on Omnisio, a YCombinator company.

Technorati Tags: ycombinator, startup, entrepreneur, conference, google, friendfeed, rails, vc, dhh

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the YouTube / Picasa Web API Hackathon at Googleplex. Google is always a great host and they provided food, t-shirts, and even raffled a pass to Google I/O.

The hackathon started out with presentations by folks on the Google Data (GData) team. All of Google application make their data available through the GData API. GData is available in different formats including RSS or Atom. Every data point of Google’s applications are made available through GData, for example YouTube user profiles, video data, play lists, subscriptions, and video views can be accessed via GData feeds. The GData API does allow application developers to read and write data to Google Applications, but write operations require authentication. For example, uploading a new video, modifying video metadata, or writing comments requires authentication. For web applications or services that need to be authenticated by GData API they need to use AuthSub. AuthSub redirects the end user to a Google site for the end user to log into Google and then Google forwards back to the requesting site with a valid authenticated token. The GData team strongly discourages (or disallows depending on who you ask) for third party application, services, or developer from collecting Google user credentials. Since AuthSub requires the user to login at a Google site, third-party applications don’t need to collect Google credentials.

As I mentioned earlier, GData can be delivered via RSS or Atom. Because YouTube and Picasa describe media files such as videos and images, those APIs also use Media RSS.

Geoff Stearns, Flash hacker on the YouTube team, talked about the YouTube Player API. The embeddable YouTube player can be customized and configured with parameters in the video url. Parameters include rel, autoplay, loop, border, and others. Rel is a boolean value that indicates if you want related videos to be displayed in the ‘genie menu’. Autoplay indicates is a boolean value that indicates if the video should play once loaded. In addition to player parameters, the YouTube player can be manipulated via JavaScript. The YouTube player can be made to play, pause, stop, mute/unmute, get/get volume, and seek ahead in the player. It is incredible easy to manipulate a video through the YouTube Player API, you can build your own video controls with JavaScript. Since the YouTube player can be manipulated entirely via JavaScipt, developer have an option to building their own video player with their own custom controls with the YouTube Chromeless Player.

Geoff has a kewl mashup example between YouTube JavaScript API and Google Maps. The mashup is a on board video of a race in San Francisco. As the video proceeds it updates the Google map as of the location of the camera, in essence you get a street view of the race and a aerial view of the race track.

Technorati Tags: google, googleplex, youtube, picasa, api, javascript, flash, video, youtube player, authsub, media rss, atom, gdata

I was reading over the descriptions for the currently scheduled sessions for JavaOne 2008. Here is a short list of the sessions that seem interesting to me in no particular order.

• BOF-5110: Extending Groovys Swing User Interface in Builder to Build Richer Applications
• BOF-5998: Meet the Java Posse
• BOF-6229: Cutting-Edge Productivity with RIFE and Web Continuations
• PAN-5435: The Script Bowl: A Rapid-Fire Comparison of Scripting Languages
• TS-4806: JRuby on Rails: Web Development Evolved
• TS-4868: From Java Technology to Ruby…and Back
• TS-4895: The NetBeans IDE Compared to the Eclipse Rich Client Platform
• TS-4982: Extending Swing: Creating Your Own Components
• TS-4986: JavaScript Programming Language: The Language Everybody Loves to Hate
• TS-5152: Overview of the JavaFX Script Programming Language
• TS-5165: Programming with Functional Objects in Scala
• TS-5416: JRuby: Why, What, How…Do it Now
• TS-5572: Groovy, the Red Pill: Metaprogramming-How to Blow the Mind of Developers on the Java Platform
• TS-5579: Closures Cookbook
• TS-5764: Grails in Depth
• TS-5793: Groovy and Grails: Changing the Landscape of Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE Platform) Patterns
• TS-6096: Nimbus: The New Face of Swing
• TS-6169: Spring Framework 2.5: New and Notable
• TS-6457: Choosing Your Java Technology-Based Web Framework: A Comparison
• TS-6490: JRuby on Rails Deployment: What They Didn’t Tell You
• TS-6609: The JavaFX Script Programming Language for Swing Developers
• TS-6611: Filthy-Rich Clients: Filthier, Richer, Clientier
• TS-6656: Extreme Graphical User Interface Makeover: Rock Stars
• TS-6929: Creating a Compelling User Experience

I have gone to JavaOne four out of the last five years and have compiled pretty complete conference notes for JavaOne 2007 and JavaOne 2006.

Technorati Tags: javaone, javaone 2008, java, jvm, groovy, jruby, javascript, swing, nimbus, jfx, netbeans, eclipse

It is that time of year where we reflect on the accomplishments of the passing year and look forward to the one to come. Here is a window into the past year in technology through this year’s popular posts on TechKnow Juixe.

Top 5 Top Lists

• Top Programming Books on Google Book Search
• Top Technology Podcasts
• Top 10 WordPress Plugins
• Favorite Programming Quotes 2007
• Favorite Programming Tumblelogs

Software Development

• Is Software Development Dead?
• Software Development Environment
• You Might Be in a Broken Project If
• Developing Your Programmer’s Intuition
• Java, Ruby, and Even Python Sucks

Java

• JavaOne 2007 Conference Notes
• Run PHP Web Applications on the Java Platform
• Java 7: The Closure Debate
• Builder Pattern Made Groovy
• Swing Application Framework

JavaScript

• Learning JavaScript
• Unobtrusive JavaScript with Prototype and Behavior
• Best Practices in JavaScript Library Design
• Twelve Elements of JavaScript Style

Ruby

• Rails Performance Link Fest
• Reopening Ruby Classes
• Ruby Class Tutorial
• JRuby on Rails: Agility for the Enterprise

Ruby Shoes

• Running with Shoes - A Mini GUI Toolkit
• Running with Shoes - 2D Graphics and Animation
• Running with Shoes - Shapely
• Running with Shoes - 2D Examples
• Running with Shoes - Show Me More

Ruby on Rails Plugins

• Rails Flash Charting Plugin
• Rails Acts As Authenticated Plugin
• Rails google Maps Plugin
• Rails Google Analytics Plugin
• Rails Simply Helful Plugin

Windows Tips

• Microsoft Power Tools for Windows XP
• Windows Print Screen Key
• Creating Internet Shortcuts in Windows
• Windows Explorer Custom Shortcuts
• Scan Your Ports

Mac OS X Tips

• Mac OS X Boot Camp
• Mac OS X F11 Key
• Mac OS X Screen Grab

Year In Review

• TechKnow Year In Review 2006
• TechKnow Year In Review 2005

Seasons Greetings

Technorati Tags: java, javaone, software, development, windows, mac, ruby, groovy, rails, javascript, shoes, tutorials, top

If you ever wanted to be a speaker at JavaOne, you have until November 16 to submit your proposal for technical or Birds of a Feather sessions. Last year a big theme was Java scripting with Groovy and JRuby and I expect this to be a hot topic at the JavaOne 2008. I also think that there is enough interest that some technical sessions will be devoted to Scala. Web frameworks that depended on these programming languages, such as JRuby on Rails, Grails, and Lift, would be great Bird of a Feathers sessions.

At JavaOne 2007, some popular sessions where those that pimped out business application GUIs, such as the Filthy-Rich Clients talks by Chet Haase and Romain Guy. Anything session talk that promises to jazz up an application UI will definitely be well received. Last year, Sun made a big splash by announcing JavaFX Script and I am sure there will be a lot of interest on this technology at JavaOne 2008.

If you think you can give a talk on any of these topics, you have until November 16 to submit your proposal. Good luck and see you there at JavaOne 2008!!

Technorati Tags: java, javaone, sf

I think that some of the best Java Posse rants happens when they do a live show. The following is my transcription from their live show at JavaZone 2007.

Top reasons indicating you might be in a broken project…

• It adds three months to add a checkbox on a web UI
• Everything starts to look like it would be quicker to rewrite
• Everyone on the project has architect on their business card
• Conversations always start with ‘oh that, that is really simple…’ followed by a thirty minute discussion of what is required
• You time your life around The Build
• The GUI is written in AWT or HTML 3.2
• The GUI is written in something you wrote yourself
• The Project X is a homegrown web framework
• Someone just added five more hours of meetings to your day because the release is late
• The guy that is supposed to train you, throws a file full of notes, and runs away
• The lines of XML outnumber the lines of Java 10 to 1
• You ask about JUnit tests and you get blank stares from everyone

Technorati Tags: java, project, management, process, javaposse, funny, comedy