I read the front page and when the More link fails me I check http://www.hnjs.dotcloud.com/ for top new links from the last 3 hours.

Here's my simple HNSearch API JavaScript example. It lists submissions from the last 3 hours and sorts by points.

http://www.hnjs.dotcloud.com/

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2663282