Are you fascinated with Facebook?  If so, it’s worth following the blog of the J-Squared guys.  They are now actively blogging their Facebook lessons with posts including:

• Facebook, Rails and Scaling
• What Facebook Users Want
• How People Use Facebook
• Facebook Users Worth $0.30? Hm. More Please.

J-Squared is one of the TechStars teams.  Their first Facebook app – Sticky Notes – is already over 1.2 million users, app #34, and continuing to grow at a rapid pace every day.  They’ve got another cool one in the works, have turned on the revenue spigot, and are watching the dollars fly into their bank account.

Fascinating stuff.

I’ve been a fan of Ambient Devices for a while – I’ve got an Ambient Orb on my desk that turns different colors based on the temperature outside.  This morning – after a smelly run on Sunset in LA to the parallel universe that is Beverly Hills and back to the hotel – I noticed that Ambient had just released the Ambient Umbrella. 

I love it.  I know of a bunch of different companies that are working on integrating the Internet with a wide variety of every day products.  Some of the applications are simple while some are complex – many of them will radically change the way we interact with our “computers.”  And the really smart ones will make the underlying platforms available to anyone.  Remember – It’s the API, Stupid.

One of the TechStars companies – MadKast – has launched.  You’ll notice a new and exciting button to the right of every blog post on my blog – this is the MadKast Share icon.

Click on it to share a post with your friends via email, mobile phone (MMS), or IM.  Or – bookmark it on any of the popular bookmarking services.

MadKast already does a bunch of really clever things.

• Remembers any friends info you put in so you don’t have to remember it the next time – just click on your friend.
• Remembers friends across any MadKast enabled blog (e.g. we’ve also implemented MadKast on AsktheVC – any friends you share Feld Thoughts content to will also show up when you share stuff on AsktheVC.)
• Sends complete blog posts via MMS (I think this is the first thing I’m involved in where I’ve found MMS to be actually interesting.)
• Provides bloggers with detailed analytics about which content is being shared.
• Automatically reorders your bookmarking preferences based on your usage.

The install is trivial (under 60 seconds) – just click on “get this on my blog” on the bottom right of the share window or go to the MadKast site.  There is a one click install for Blogger and TypePad and a single line of Javascript for everyone else (look for some clever distribution stuff coming soon.)

I’ve gotten to know Johann, Josh, Doug, and Tony over the summer and think they are stars.  They’ve decided to permanently relocated to Boulder from LA and build MadKast here.  Welcome guys!

If you are a blogger, give MadKast a try – feel free to give Doug feedback (he loves it.)

I am so pleased that American Airlines and Lufthansa are launching broadband internet (via WiFi) on their airplanes starting in 2008.  I’ve been so bummed to have to sit quietly on planes and read a book while not being connected to the Internet.  Soon, in addition to being able to surf the web, I’ll be able to crank up Skype and chatter away with my loved ones to my heart’s content.  I know my seat mate will appreciate this.  The poor folks at the FAA must be so confused about what they can and can’t allow to be on during flight.

Now, if I could just find a power supply in an airport.  Or on an airplane.