Seaside (because I want to implement some heavy desktop-like capabilities)

How does seaside help with that? Do you code all of the client logic in Smalltalk instead of Javascript?

I guess seaside's continuation passing style helps to reduce complexity in managing states, which is a major requirement in desktop-like apps.

Baltimore, 2, 29 & 30

Work like hell on the idea and see if people want what I'm making. Re-apply in the fall if I still need the help.

I pay it out of pocket along with some life and disability insurance; I think it's worth the peace of mind to enhance creativity and not worry about "what ifs".

You might have to hack your own alternative -- and believe it or not there is a lot of hope for you; I've had a lot of success here in Baltimore by making things, telling everyone I know about them, and also letting everyone in my network know that I want to start a company. Since starting to do that, I've heard from three really smart, really capable people who I could potentially start something with. So my advice is to do everything you can to put yourself into the path of creative people as well as rich people in your area, and not focus so much on conforming to YC's or anyone else's idea of what you need to do to succeed.

Absolutely it is; I spent a long time this year working with a small real estate company that uses very primitive software and analog techniques to track very complex business processes. Existing software that would help them is too cumbersome or requires too much training; they can't afford to hire a consultant to sort it all out for them.

This is the crux of my YC funding application, so I really hope the answer is yes!

Gang, I submitted a YC funding idea for a new app that would be highly interactive and ideal to put on the web. The closest thing I've seen to what I'm trying to do is DabbleDB; I won't be competing with it, but my idea is 'of a piece' with Dabble. It's implemented in Seaside, and the more I learn about Seaside and Squeak and Smalltalk in general, the more intrigued I am. But I really enjoy Ruby and I've really loved developing in Rails, so I guess my question is, has anyone tried to implement something as bad-ass as Dabble in Rails, or any other framework out there? How much of a factor should "love of language" play in choosing a framework?

I wouldn't consider Ruby a risky choice for implementing something like DabbleDB -- I'd call it the safe choice. Choosing the technology is one of the greatest perks of doing your own thing.

I'm only thinking in terms of what's possible. Can I build something like that without continuations? What's what I'm wondering.

Can't you do continuations in Ruby? Anyway I'm sure you could do it with simple RoR sessions.

I think Ruby would be a great way to attack something like that. That fact that you can sit at such a high level with Ruby allows you to build great things. Besides, Rails makes you so much more productive than anything else I've tried, if it won't work at least you know quickly because you'll be able to get something done fast. That being said, just go build it! ;)

We should all be planning to fly under big companies anyway and not targeting these kinds of large organizations at first.

Building small apps like this is a great learning experience -- I'd love to read more about what you learned by doing it, and what kind of traffic you are seeing

This seems like too big of a distraction; file it away on your to do list until it matters.