Looks like all 5 of mine failed, even though they charged my credit card. Just got the "we're sorry but the domain failed to process" emails. Thanks godaddy!
Hopefully it goes through. Same thing happened to me, only instead of a confirmation email I got an email saying the domain was actually already taken. curses.
Gmail is not really a Web 2.0 application. It's just email, but done right. There is no attempt towards buzzword compliance in gmail. Don't confuse synchronous XML requests with Web 2.0
Your idea is interesting, but frankly, I don't get it. Your resume and your website do not hint at your having the money to sponsor the groups. You do not tell us how giving up a percentage of our companies is going to benefit us. The money is small - I could work on the side and make that money every month.
What is not clear is this:
1. Do you have the money for this? If so, from where? If a piece of software needed additional funding after 6 months, would you be able to do this (like pg put 50.000 in justin.tv)
2. Do you have the marketing reach? Will affiliating myself with you give me greater marketing strength?
3. Do you have access to legal information and advice? Can you offer this to your startups?
4. Do you have any connections to Venture Capital? Do you _know_ about venture capital, such as to give good or bad advice?
One thing you should keep in mind is that you have to move on to C++ to become a good programmer. Start with any of the languages, then do C++ for a couple of years. Otherwise, you will never be able to work in a low level language, since you will be pampered by all the simplicity of these languages.
There's so much in C++ that is specific to C++ that it doesn't even begin to make sense. If you want someone to learn OO, send them to Ruby or Smalltalk. If you want them to learn about performance and deep machine magic (pointers and such), send them to C. In either case, they can learn what they need to know without getting bogged down in a really obtuse pile of bolted-on features and syntax. It's not a bad systems language, but it's not a learning language and never will be.
And the whole "you'll never be able to blah blah" crap is just a hugely stupid idea. Don't think of your learning process as preparing to do something. Pick a project and start working on it--Open Source gives you access to millions of lines of code. There is no better way to learn to program than through working on programs. Be useful as soon as you possibly can, and you'll find that people are willing and eager to help you learn, because they see that the better you become the more useful you are to their project.
A strong grasp of concepts and logic with the ability to quickly pick up new languages makes you a good programmer. Learning many different languages will arguably make you a better programmer.
Knowing C++ is not a requirement to, nor has much to do with, being a good programmer.
You will understand the hardware better if you learn C and Assembly. However, except for the syntactic sugar aspects of C++, it degenerates into a boondoggle because of all its weirdness and corner cases. The buggiest software has always been written in C++. It has the most complex language spec and is the hardest to debug because of those obscure corner cases. As programming consists mostly of debugging, extensive use of C++ virtually guarantees needless pain, wasted time, and bugs that won't go away.
I can offer this: I want an internship in the U.S for 6 months from August. I would prefer to work on my software instead of doing this internship. Dilemma.
You give me an internship and I'll work half the day on your startup, the other half on my project. For free, of course.
Of course, I can't do internships in 1 or 2 men companies, it has to be a bigger company than that, which leads me back to the original problem.
This the type of thing that is doomed to fail. And it _should_ fail, because filtering peoples thoughts through a machine will lead to everyone speaking the same online, when in real life people do not speak that way!
Blogs are real people with no editors. If you want correct grammar, and fact checked posts, read a newspaper.
You know, I really think we should organise something like this. Rent a reasonably large place for 3 months, we just get together and work in a shared environment, then move on. It would be great just so one can get ideas bounced off other technical people, and get some feedback.
Of course, it could also turn out real bad, cos the one guy gets funding, and the others don't so everyone is hating on him. And then then the two guys who are at the house and discover that they are working on exactly the same ajax online calender.
Or what about the guy who came in and was working on a tool to catalogue your finger nail clippings, and this suddenly changes to a remote folder sync tool as soon as this other guy demos his own great folder sync tool.
And to top it off, you film this whole thing, Justin.tv style! It'll be great.
