doronrotem

In theory, why not ruby? (ruby-lang.org)

But in practice, from seeing what gets my son excited:

1. Windows Script Host

2. Html

3. If you are ready to do some drag-and-drop: Unity3d.com - it is free for trial and there are online tutorials on youtube etc, and you create a game, which is exciting.

I agree with you: I would rather not give my phone number to companies either.

But once you start to see spam or get spam messages from other users (imagine a dating site) you would like this spam to stop. Having a (unique) phone number a mandatory requirement during registration can make spam fighting much easier.

You are absolutely right about the number of users in a dating site. It should be 1000 users or more.

Not applying to YC

oh, i hardly buy any crap i dont need, although i can always buy even less. the "stuff" that i want is just more space/rooms.

skilling up and being promoted has already happened, although there is always room for improvement.

i thought it was obvious, so i didn't mentioned it, but i am a professional programmer. so doing something online is, for me, the obvious thing.

i was thinking in the line of a dating site or some social news site in niches that weren't explored yet, but thought that maybe the HN community might come with something more original.

doing the freelance (10 hrs a week X $50 per hour) is for example something i didn't thought of because i am oriented toward building a product or service. i am not sure i can add the extra work for so long (4 years) and i am also skeptical about reaching customers. but it is surely something i should consider.