• Solve a problem, not a class of problems. It's okay to not have your product do everything, as long as it does something well. Many platforms started that way. Linux, The web, Rails Django, PHP.
• Set things up so you get that rush of accomplishment as you finish things. Pick a problem that's worth addressing and doesn't require a lot of support code to address it.
• I'd read the initial idea wasn't important. Thing is, the initial idea determines how the initial idea will change. An example is the choice to go into gaming at all. Out of college, that was what we were familiar with and passionate about. But gaming is overcrowded.
• Developing in a vacuum never works. Prove yourself wrong as soon as possible.
• Have a product that is useful on its own. Del.icio.us, for example - it's just a bookmark manager that happens to be more useful as more people use it.
• Prototype any 3rd-party libraries.
• If you're doing anything other than building your project and getting users, it's premature.
• The product will take longer than you expect.
• People have an incentive not to crush your dreams. Take everything they say with a grain of salt.
• Know your limitations. Apple, or Sun, or Google — founders of those companies concentrated on the areas that they were experts in.

(Photo by dierken)

Prelude: What's trolling?
Trolling is saying:

• All the people I like from the PodTech podcast network tell me they don't like their boring company.
• Technorati is a disappointing blog search engine (especially considering the outstanding team working there) that's lost its focus with weird features like "Where's the fire" and a daily "Buzz" show; it wants to become a portal, but it's doing this all wrong. Meanwhile the actual search engine sucks. Luckily for Technorati, so do all its competitors.
• Startup culture is boring because there aren't enough clever dicks like Weblogs, Inc. founder Jason Calacanis.
• Wired News bloggers think linking to Valleywag makes them look cool.

See what I did there?

Prevention: Don't stick your neck out.
Some of us just have to pick fights or declare ourselves king or something else that makes us a target. But if you can suppress this, you'll be hard to troll. For example, if TechCrunch or Valleywag ever wrecks itself, crowds will gather to laugh at the carnage and use our burning corpses to light marshmallows. If another Silicon Valley blog, Om Malik's GigaOM, went tits up, there'd be no glee. The other two are brash (TechCrunch's editor says he wants to replace CNET; Valleywag is just a dick to everyone); Om is just sane, strategic, a worker. Therefore, fewer trolls.

Response: Don't respond.
So someone trolled you, and you're pissed. You have a really great response. You're gonna take that troll down and make him cry! Geez, you are so playing into the game.

Do nothing. Repeat this to yourself. Then go do something unrelated. When anyone brings up the troll attack, say "Oh, I didn't really think about it" and change the subject. When they bring it up again, feign boredom. Not amusement (the laughter behind "Oh man, it's so great that they compared me to Bush!" rings hollow), not frustration at your idiot friend's persistence with this topic, but boredom. And a new topic.

If you must: The snappy comeback
Granted, some people are smart enough to craft a good response to a troll. How can you tell if you're one of them? Well, do you troll people? Are you strategic? Are you witty? Are other people reporting on the trolling incident and asking for comment? Jesse Oxfeld, then-editor of Valleywag's New York sister blog Gawker, could say "yes" to all this when fellow gossip blogger Perez Hilton published the phone numbers of him and his colleagues. So Oxfeld delivered dryly, "We're thrilled to see that [Perez] has learned to use the phone book."

Here's how to properly compose a comeback:

• Belittle the troll by belittling their attack. (Not their person; people have more sympathy for a person than for a dumb move.)
• Raise a good point. (Obvious but often missed.)
• Don't be self-righteous. (You lose the game.)
• Be witty. (If you're wittier than the troll, you win.)
• Don't attack in kind. (That just raises the stakes for round 2.)
• Consider saying "mea culpa." (Wittily.)
• Never let them see you bleed.

Photo: Genista. Nick Douglas writes for Valleywag, Prezzish, and Look Shiny. He's proud that after he criticized the awful programming of his last trolling victim, PodTech, the company responded with a front-page video that called him a cheap whore.

They're compatible. Right out the box, Macs and PCs use the same:
1. Wifi. Wireless Internet works the same with Macs and PCs.
2. Internet. The vast majority of web sites work on both systems.
3. E-mail. Every form of e-mail system (except Microsoft Exchange systems) works fine on Macs. The last couple of versions of the Mac operating system, OS X, support Exchange as well, using this setup.
4. MP3 files. This is the most common form of music files. (WAV files work too. For other forms, see below.)
5. DVDs and CDs. Watch the same movies, listen to the same albums.
6. MPG files. This is a popular video format.
7. ZIP files. Mac has an unzipper just like WinZip for these compressed files.
8. PDF files. Love 'em or hate 'em, you can use 'em.
9. Image files. All your bmp, jpg, gif and png files are just fine.
10. MOV files, a video format that's popular on the web, will work better than ever.

With a little software, Macs can run:
1. WMA and WMV files. These "Windows-only" music and video files work after installing Windows Media for Mac.
2. AVI files. These work best on VLC, a media player that can handle nearly every file on Windows or OS X. It's the only program you need for movies.
3. Office files (.doc, .xls, etc.). Just buy Microsoft Office as you would on a PC.
4. Photoshop files. Just, um, buy Photoshop.
5. Windows. Yep. You can install Windows and move any files and programs that still won't work on your Mac.

Dig these nifty programs:
1. Macs come with iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes to handle your photos, movies and music in a friendlier way than the clunky systems on Windows. Of course, if you like files and folders (so do I!) you can keep handling your media that way.
2. Adium combines AIM, Yahoo IM, Google Talk, and a bundle of other instant messaging programs. It's slick, friendly, and customizable.
3. Firefox is a great internet browser for Windows and Mac. (You might also like the Mac's normal browser, Safari.)
4. Dashboard widgets are little programlets that can display the weather, an inbox, the white pages, flight info, how well your computer's doing, when Heroes is on next, and plenty of other information.
5. Quicksilver lets you start any program or open any file on your system by hitting a few keys (instead of digging through a programs folder or start menu).
6. Podworks lets you download music from an iPod to a Mac.
7. This is really just a super-useful feature that comes with OS X. Press apple-shift-4 to take a partial screenshot, just capturing the part of the screen you want. You drag and click, OS X drops the file onto your desktop. It's a great way to clip from pictures or show someone what's happening on your screen.
8. And there's so much more, on lists like this and this and this and this.

Isn't it nice when things just work?
1. The OS X operating system has four hotkeys that show your desktop, all your open programs, all the windows in one program, or your Dashboard widgets.
2. When you're watching a video and you use those hotkeys or minimize the video, it keeps playing on screen. Sweet.
3. Say you're moving some episodes of Heroes to a folder within a folder. If you click and drag them over, say, a folder marked "TV Shows," you can hold them there and "TV Shows" will open, so you can drag the files over to "Heroes." This way you don't have to crawl around selecting and re-selecting.
4. No draggable edges on your windows means that the edges of your programs are clickable. What does this do? Well, you can slide your mouse to the edge of the screen and use the scroll bar without accidentally shrinking the window instead.
5. How much power is left in your Mac laptop? Don't turn it on, just press the button on the case and watch the power meter light up.
6. Your software and hardware will feel beautiful. Macs don't have dangling hooks; the clips are embedded inside the laptops instead of sticking out; the power cords on the new models have that famous magnetic connection, so if you trip on the cord, it pulls out instead of dragging the Mac onto the floor.
7. None of those #$@%^ pop-up bubbles that tell you the same thing over and over.

No crashes.
1. Windows takes so much work just to keep it running. But Macs don't take maintenance. Viruses? Not much of a problem.
2. Defragging? Forget it.
3. Disk repair? Well, if you managed to whack this machine so hard that the built-in motion sensor didn't save your hard drive...
4. It's hard to crash a Mac. I drive my computers hard, so I made Windows crash every few weeks for years. I've owned a Mac for a year, and it's crashed once.

Stuff really does hook up easily.
1. Cameras and camcorders, which are increasingly shipped as plug-n-play since no one really needs the dorky software that comes with them, work smoothly with Macs. (I personally recommend this line of camcorders from Sanyo.)
2. External hard drives are a breeze too. Just make sure the box doesn't say "Windows only." Most, such as the My Book, work smoothly with Macs.
3. Scroll areas on trackpads? Ew. Those get in the way unless you stare at your trackpad as you use it. That's why Apple's laptops scroll when you drag two fingers, no matter where on the trackpad you are.
4. I'll admit one thing: It's hard for a geek to find a good Mac mouse. If you're not a fan of Apple's standard-issue Mighty Mouse, spring for this nifty Logitech mouse. Even if you just use your computer to surf the web, you'll love the extra two buttons that save you from finding the "back" and "forward" keys.

All the other Mac users will love you.
1. When you're sharing an Internet connection, they'll mooch your iTunes playlist. But that's fine; they can only listen when you let them.
2. They'll want to share tips.
3. They'll have stories to tell.
4. They may get smug about it. Please don't encourage them; just gently tell them the truth: You're a normal person.

Optional time-saver: Instead of reading the sources below by going to the different sites, consider reading the RSS fees on Google Reader or Bloglines.

1. Skim the headlines of these top news sources:
Digg: Technology (Ranked by most popular, so you can quit halfway down)
Techmeme (Same as above, but also note the recent stories in the right column)
GigaOM (Industry/business news)
Engadget (Gadget news)

2. Skim these sources for commentary:
Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed
Valleywag (Really — it's newsy now)
Techdirt

3. Read these mainstream sources:
CNET News
NY Times Technology
Financial Times

4. Once or twice a week, check in with these sources:
BusinessWeek
Wired News
Wired Magazine

5. Once a week, listen to this podcast during your commute: This Week in Tech

During your daily skimming, pick one to three news stories and one to three commentaries to read all the way through. If a story starts boring you, quit it — all the good info was in the first paragraph, and you'll only retain what interests you.

The beauty of this collection is that between the blogs, aggregators, and mainstream news you'll cover most every story. Techmeme is particularly good at collecting news from myriad sources, which will help if you find time to read more.

Diggers: You may also want to read How to be a jerk about Web 2.0.

Update: Karl Martino suggests you save 15 of those minutes by visiting PopURLs and Original Signal. You could also plug your own set of feeds into Netvibes for the same effect.