Two Cisco 1841's running many vrfs bouncing packets back and forth. Source: I did it.

Secret weapon is the perfect phrase to describe Kirsty. She handles everything to do with money and investors at YC, and the situations she has to unravel, dealing with early stage startups, are often appallingly complicated. Considering the number of startups we fund, I bet there is no one in the world who understands more about the intricacies of early stage startup finances.

And what's up with the growing number of websites which take deliberate pains to prevent me from using pinch-to-zoom on iOS?

Surely there's a special ring in Hell for those web anti-designers.

What no one seems to think about is the potential health consequences of this application of nanotech.

This is basically something made with particles that are much smaller than your cells. The material can probably get into your body by osmosis alone. Will the materials affect your body? Cause cancer? Get stuck in your lungs? Do something else that we don't know? There has been very little research on this area, and the little research that has been done is worrying. Putting this in consumer products is a very large and uncontrolled experiment.

We should be careful of starting to use materials like these with no further study or testing. There is a risk we might end up looking like the guys who brushed their teeth with radium or used a portable x-ray video machine to examine their kids' feet at the shoe store.

Don't forget to watch Episode IV in the terminal!

    $ telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

When I was younger I went out of my way to get a V6 address just to watch it in color ;)

This idea of petitioning Oracle would be comical were it not so pathetic. In case it needs to be said, Oracle is a corporate sociopath -- it cannot empathize. One could have a petition with quite literally 6.9 billion signatures on it; it would change nothing. As I've cautioned before[1], do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison...

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-...

OK, time to inject some reality here, particularly in light of comments akin to "they sold all <something less than 10>" on this thread.

I don't own one but will buy one eventually. Surface Pro is a significant step forward in the world of tablets for a number of reasons. I won't go into all of them here --and I probably haven't recognized them all yet anyway.

1- it's a design that is far more open than iPad. You can move files in and out of it and have full control of the user directory structure. Want to move a bunch of your spreadsheets, recipes, python scripts and chess games into it. No problem. You don't have an Apple-like overlord prohibiting any of that.

2- Need to install XAMPP, Python and other dev tools? No problem?

3- Want to install VMware and boot Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on a VM for a full command-line dev environment and even virtual host a few sites? No problem.

4- and, after all that work, do you want to create a restricted user account for your 5-year-old to be able to play some games and educational apps? No problem at all.

5- How about accounts for guests and friends so that they don't accidentally mess with your stuff? Yup.

6- Need more hard drive space? How about attaching an external USB hard drive and, perhaps keeping all your dev work there for easy transport to your desktop? Yup.

7- Can you use that really cool RC Flight Simulator that comes with a custom USB interface to your JR9505 transmitter? Of course you can.

8- Or, how about that receipt or business card USB scanner?

9- That neat Logithech keyboard you use on all your PC's? Of course.

10- can you run SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Dreamweaver, CuteFTP, Komodo, WinForth, Keil, Eclipse, Photoshop, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Fritz and a whole host of other software you might already be using for fun and work? Sure looks that way.

Yeah. Exactly. Just like an iPad.

Well this concept is based on superhydrophobicity. I do not know the working of this coating particularly, but it seems to be superhydrophobic. A superhydrophobic surface(SHS) is one where water has very high mobility i.e. an extremely water repelling surface. Is is due to a surface having low surface energy and a textured topography. They hold very high commercialization potential. Lotus leaf is one natural occuring example of this phenomenon. The research into this field started extensively in 1997. SHS can be employed in variety of applications theoretically i.e. cars, windshields, toilets, ketchup bottles, kettles, phones, power lines, preventing ice accumulation, on boat hulls, on shoes in rain, fabrics, solar cells, around sinks, shower curtains... the potential is unlimited. Many researchers are working on making it possible, and they are very good ones too.

So after you have been primed about the subject, what is preventing their wide spread usage? Durability. Not a single one of them is able to sustain mechanical duress. And one of the most widely used chemical is Teflon, which is expensive. Hence, reapplication is not possible time and again. Many researchers are working on it, but a solution remains elusive until now. These sprays are nice such that they open the field, but much more still needs to be done in this field, since these sprays have been in market for at least 5 years now.

The full text of the traceroute

  $ traceroute -m 100 216.81.59.173 | awk '{print $2}'
  ... cut ...
  *
  Episode.IV
  A.NEW.HOPE
  It.is.a.period.of.civil.war
  Rebel.spaceships
  striking.from.a.hidden.base
  have.won.their.first.victory
  against.the.evil.Galactic.Empire
  During.the.battle
  Rebel.spies.managed
  to.steal.secret.plans
  to.the.Empires.ultimate.weapon
  the.DEATH.STAR
  an.armored.space.station
  with.enough.power.to
  destroy.an.entire.planet
  Pursued.by.the.Empires
  sinister.agents
  Princess.Leia.races.home
  aboard.her.starship
  custodian.of.the.stolen.plans
  that.can.save.her
  people.and.restore
  freedom.to.the.galaxy
  0-------------------0
  0------------------0
  0-----------------0
  0----------------0
  0---------------0
  0--------------0
  0-------------0
  0------------0
  0-----------0
  0----------0
  0---------0
  0--------0
  0-------0
  0------0
  0-----0
  0----0
  0---0
  0--0
  0-0
  00
  I
  By.Ryan.Werber
  When.CCIEs.Get.Bored
  CCIE.38168
  FIN

Concur with javajosh's recommendation to find a California/USA-based lawyer for help. Advice from semi-anonymous strangers in internet forums is worth what you pay for it.

Generally, in the search for a lawyer, you get to talk to many (without charge) for 15-45 minutes each. You may be surprised how widely their estimations of the issues vary -- the law is the law, right? -- but you'll learn something from each conversation, and perhaps find someone you trust with your concerns. Also, legal confidentiality means that even if you've messed up on some tax/immigration/work-authorization/business things, talking with them honestly doesn't mean you've made any admissions that get back to the authorities (unless and until with their advice you decide that's the best course).

If a student in the US, your educational institution may also have a legal aid clinic.

You can probably get an 'ITIN', the equivalent to a Social Security Number for non-domestic individuals/entities who need an SSN-like number for tax/financial reporting purposes. See...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Taxpayer_Identificat...

...and the related IRS pages. And again, just getting the number isn't admitting to anything or any tax liability. However, it then will be used by financial institutions (like PayPal) to maintain their internal and government-required reporting requirements. Separate from just tax issues, amounts in the tens-of-thousands (and sometimes less) are subject to reporting to control money-laundering from large-scale illegal activities.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who generally surfs the web at 150% magnification.

I also have decent eye-sight and am 29, so I don't think it's an age related thing.

Anecdotally, I find reading large text to be a lot more comfortable. I don't have to strain my eyes to read.

Applying to YC as a non-DE company does not reduce your chances of being interviewed or accepted. However for us to be able to invest in so many companies in such a short time frame, we do require you to convert to a DE C-Corp if we agree to fund you. I'll help you with that though, if the time comes!

This is the closest thing I've seen to the 'star complex'. I went to school in LA and met a number of folks actors and actresses. When they are early in their career they can mingle with people "outside" the business, as they become more well known this gets harder.

When people have only seen you in one role, and you were "playing" that role, they think they know you (if you were good at it anyway). But if that isn't you, especially if it is strongly not you, then you find the "wrong" kind of people want to be friends. Wrong here is relative, its people who want to friends with the person whose role you are playing, except that is not you, and they may not want to be friends with you the person you actually are. It was a running gag with Ginger on Gilligan's Island.

One of the things I like about engineering and general nerditude is that it has largely been immune to these sorts of forces. One of the most depressing parts of the dot com bubble/boom was how 'hollywood' everything got, with people playing the part of quirky ninja rockstar techie.

That made me uncomfortable because it exposed that what I valued, and how I comported myself, could be put put on like a cloak by someone who was skilled a mimicking the mannerisms and the habits of engineers I respected. And that made me sit back reflexively and ask myself how much of what I said, did, and felt was me, and how much was what I played as a "silicon valley engineer" ?

Introspection is a powerful thing. Scary but powerful. I think it is great that Danielle stepped outside the simulation and took a solid look at where she was going. I firmly believe that nothing but good can come of that.

So, remember a few months ago, when people like me were saying that the third parties are the only hope in America's democracy? Then a bunch of people said that Obama was worlds different from Romney, and that comparing Obama to Bush was lunacy.

I have to wonder what happens when those Obama supporters with left-wing sentiments read an article like this.