Nerd week continues (and my pile of technology crap on the floor slowly diminishes).  At the Microsoft VC Summit last month, our parting gift (Microsoft has always given out nice gifts) was a Roku SoundBridge M1000.  For the past few years, we’ve been using a Turtle Beach Audiotron which has worked well until recently.  About six months ago, it stopped noticing when I ripped new CDs to my file server (I use my Mac G5 to rip to an old Windows NT Server box – it’s about all I use the G5 for – I know, not so smart.)  I’d occasionally thrash around and try to figure out the problem with the Audiotron (it worked fine – it just decided it wasn’t going to add anything new to its playlists no matter what I did, including hitting it with my fist, which occasionally works with electronics.)

Now – I suck at the “A” part of “A/V”.  I’ve never really understood it so whenever something doesn’t work, I patiently endure Amy’s berating while begging that Ross will come over to my house and fix stuff for me (which he eventually does.)  So – it was with some trepidation that I opened the Roku box.

I was done fifteen minutes later.  I took it out of the box, inserted the WiFi card that comes with it, put the batteries into the remote control, plugged it in to the same cables the Audiotron was plugged into (hint to the “A” impaired – put new device in exactly the same place and connection as old device), turned it on, and it worked.  Flawlessly.  It found both my Mac iTunes library and my SlimServer (hmm – I thought I’d uninstalled that when I couldn’t get Amy to use the Slimp3 player that I tried once).  Zero set up, zero configuration.  Perfect.

I now have an Audiotron for sale.  It’s in perfect condition (except for a bruise from my fist – actually the bruise is on my fist, not the Audiotron), comes with a full set of cables and a remote control, and has no sales tax. It appears to go for around $150 + shipping on ebay (the auction that ends today has it at $152.50) – make me an offer.  Paypal accepted.

Bill Gates has a bi-annual “think week.”  I have an unpredictably scheduled “nerd week” that occurs whenever I no longer can walk into my office at home because boxes of electronics are piled up everywhere. 

Last weekend, I started chipping away at the physical (and virtual) pile of software and hardware products that have piled up in my life.  First up – Tiger.

While I spend most of my computer life on my various PCs (including my nifty new Tablet which I’ll write about soon), I keep a Mac G5 around for posterity.  I usually use it for two things: (1) manage all my music / iPods (excellent marketing strategy Apple – sell me an $8k computer to help me with my iPod) and (2) reboot it each week to watch it automagically update its software. 

Six months ago, I took a hard run at using it as my primary home machine. Given that I live in email and we are an Exchange shop, getting sync with Exchange working was an absolute requirement. I got about 90% of the way there with Entourage but couldn’t get contacts and tasks to sync correctly.  Plus – well – Entourage sucks.  So – I tried Mail.  I made a little progress with some add-ons but eventually gave up and went back to watching my Mac update itself once a week.

Tiger was promising.  I heard rumors that it did a better job of integrating with Exchange via OWA (Outlook Web Access) and that the Mail client was substantially better.  So – I gave it a shot.  The install was flawless – it’s always a delight to watch a new OS install itself and have no issues.  I fiddled around with the neat new UI stuff (yeah – Dashboard is cute but it held my attention for about three minutes.)  On to Mail and sync.

Tiger remembered all my previous Exchange config stuff and inherited it nicely (or did whatever the Mac equivalent is.)  Boom – my Outlook mail was in Mac Mail. I fiddled around a little and confirmed that they stayed in sync. Cool.  Now – on to Contacts.  Thirty minutes later, I gave up.  I can’t figure out what’s wrong – I’ve tried every combination of OWA stuff I could imagine, sorted through the various error messages, figured out the ridiculous new way Tiger handles Sync (what was wrong with the old way – at least it was obvious), tried using our LDAP server (bonk) and – well – Google and the Apple support site were no real help.  So – I gave up.  I never got to trying to get iCal to sync.

So – back to having my G5 control my iPod (at least it’s going to start controlling my Roku SoundBridge soon – that was on the floor in a box until about an hour ago – more in a future post on nerd week.)  At least I’ve done my part to help Apple make their quarter.

Adam Bosworth once again has an extremely useful post – this time on his thoughts about why Ajax is having an impact these days (compared to 1997 when he was involved in creating it).  Now, what’s up with that Greasemonkey stuff?

Yesterday I posted a chart showing the large cap tech buyers over the past two years.  Sun was on the list – but near the bottom (three deals).  This morning, I woke up to the news that Sun has increased its number of deals to four through their acquisition of StorageTek.  

I haven’t decided whether this is a good deal for Sun (I’m sure plenty of pundits will weigh in on this over the next 24 hours).  I do know that Sun has to either acquire or be acquired to maintain long term relevance, so from that perspective it’s a smart move.

I’m actually more intrigued by the implications for Colorado.  StorageTek has been one of the anchor tenant’s in the Colorado technology scene.  When PeopleSoft bought JD Edwards, many people bemoaned the idea that the largest independent software company in Colorado was no longer “independent” (of course, Oracle then bought PeopleSoft, making the entire conversation even more entertaining.)  Today, another anchor tenant is no longer independent.

Colorado tech companies have a long history of being acquired.  In the past 12 months, I’ve had two of my local companies acquired by out of state large cap buyers (ServiceMagic by IAC; Finali by Convergys).  BEA, Rational (now IBM), Doubleclick, and Mercury have also been visible buyers of Colorado-based software companies.  In some cases such as BEA and Doubleclick, the company has created a large footprint in the Boulder area as a result of their acquisitions.  In others, such as Rational, there’s not much left.

A while ago Sun built out a big presence in Colorado (ironically just across “the street” (actually the highway – US 36) from StorageTek) around a chunk of their services, training, and software business.  Sun obviously just increased their commitment to the Boulder area through this acquisition.

I think this is good for the local Colorado tech scene.  The entire technology business is undergoing a widely publicized (and very trendy) industry consolidation that appears to be accelerating among the larger cap players.  Colorado’s long term relevance in the technology industry is increased by its participation in this trend (better to be a player than to be on the sidelines.)  While there will be natural attrition and “rightsizing” (or whatever euphemism you want to use) at the acquired companies (e.g. StorageTek), the talented folks will quickly end up in new roles at younger emerging companies, helping with the chronic talent shortage – especially on the engineering side – that we have in this region.

Underlying all of this is an incredibly renewed sense of excitement around core innovation in the computer industry.  Some of this may be the contrast to the darkness we went through in 2001 and 2002, but there’s a level of excitement and accomplishment in many of the companies I’m involved in locally that’s refreshing.  While I’ll always have companies that struggle and/or fail (if I succeed 10 out of 10 times with my investments, I’d both be a mutant and wouldn’t be in the venture capital business), the fact that exits are happening to Colorado-based high tech companies should give everyone a nice lift.

If you are running a VC-backed IT software or hardware company, it’s much more likely that the success event for your company will be an acquisition rather than an IPO.  While the folks in the blog universe regularly hear about acquisitions being done by Google, Yahoo, and IAC, I haven’t seen much chatter recently about large cap tech buyers.

Last week at the GrandBanks Capital Annual Meeting, Ryan Moore showed a slide of the 2004 – 05 Technology M&A Deals listed by Large Cap Buyers (Source: Thompson Financial).  The data is instructive and follows:

I’ve been a long time fan and supporter of the work of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City.  In the mid 1990’s, I was an “entrepreneur-in-residence” there, which was basically a fancy phrase for “consultant” (I spent a day a month working on a set of programs run by Jana Matthews called “Learning Programs for High Growth Entrepreneurs.”)  One of the tangential things I was involved in was Entreworld – a web site on entrepreneurship sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation.  It remains one of the richest sites on the web for learning about entrepreneurship and I recommend it highly.

Periodically I write an article for Entreworld.  Recently, they asked me to write an article about a “35,000 foot view of the Internet today from an entrepreneur’s perspective.”  I wrote the article on a flight back from visiting my wife in Paris – I thought the title was appropriate given that I was on a plane at around 35,000 feet up at the time.  The article follows and can also be found on the Entreworld web site.

The Internet at 35,000 Feet, Circa 2005

As a software entrepreneur and early-stage investor since 1985, I’ve experienced (and contributed – for better and for worse) to the dramatic rise, fall, and rise again of the Internet as it has become deeply embedded in all aspects of life and business, particularly, entrepreneurship. Today, as I sit on a Delta Airlines airplane on a trip home from a week in Paris, I’ll give you a figurative view of the Internet from 35,000 feet, as it applies to entrepreneurs, while experiencing a literal view.

Prediction and Perspective

First, a prediction: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” I expect that the way entrepreneurs interact with the Internet (and with computers in general) will be as radically different 20 years from now as it was 20 years ago. In 1985, when I traveled to Paris, even doing something as simple as making a telephone call to the United States was expensive and difficult (especially if you don’t speak any French). Forget about having access to your email (which wasn’t ubiquitous anyway, so it didn’t really matter). When I was in Paris last week, I was connected 100 percent of the time in several ways: my laptop (via a wireless DSL connection in the apartment we rented); my Tmobile Sidekick II (always on email); telephone (my regular U.S. number); the Web and AOL instant messenger–except when I turned it off at night (so someone in the United States calling my number wouldn’t wake me up); and Skype (free VoIP calling from my laptop).

Just for perspective as to how far we have come, on the way to the airport, the taxi driver asked me which terminal I was going to. I was clueless, but I whipped out my Sidekick, went to Google, typed “charles de gaulle paris delta,” and the first entry that came up five seconds later had “Terminal 2C” in the first sentence. The entire experience took less than 30 seconds. In 1985, we would have gone from terminal to terminal until I found the right one (or even worse, the taxi driver would have dropped me off at Terminal 1, and I would have had to struggle with my luggage and a bus to get the Terminal 2C).

Things Have Changed

So today entrepreneurs are starting with an always-connected world. This has dramatically lowered the friction involved in communication. The nasty side effect is that it’s hard to get people’s attention in real time, and handheld email devices like the Sidekick and the Blackberry generate “low attention span behavior.” This, however, is a correctable phenomenon, and the benefit of being able to be easily connected whenever you choose far outweighs the short-term rudeness from people who can’t “keep it in their pocket” while you are talking to them.

Today, even a company founder can now be a content publisher. While everyone who uses email generates a lot of content (I like to joke that a big part of my job is to be a professional emailer, phone caller, and Board meeting attendee), new forms of one-too-many communication mediums are appearing that increase an individual’s reach. A year ago, I started writing a blog, which, if you aren’t familiar with the idea, is my own personal Web site. It is easy for me to maintain and update. I write about a variety of topics, including venture capital, entrepreneurship, the activities of my companies, book reviews, and some of my personal exploits. Within a year, I’ve developed a daily readership of more than 2,500 people from all over the world that is currently growing at roughly 25 percent a month. Twenty years ago, putting out a simple newsletter once a month to 2,500 people would have been a giant production-and it probably would have cost about $5,000. Today, I can post articles daily for virtually no cost on an annual basis.

I don’t go to the store anymore. In 2000, the promise of e-commerce reached a staggering crescendo and then crashed on the rocks of a major stock market nosedive, followed by a series of events that dramatically reconfigured the technology industry. However, in 2003, things started to look up again, and today those of us who were investing heavily in e-commerce in 2000 can sheepishly (although in some cases proudly) say, “We were right.” If you sell goods or services, the Internet and the Web should be a major part of your infrastructure-both for direct sales of products, as well as promotion for your company. As broadband continues to spread throughout the United States, the preponderance of people like me who happily buy as much as they can over the Web will continue.

Now for the Bad News

But – all of this still doesn’t work very well. Here’s the problem. While the Web and my email are my primary user interface and access point to how I interact with my computer (while I do use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and a handful of other desktop applications, the vast majority of software I use is now Web-based), I continue to spend a ridiculous amount of time interacting with my computer infrastructure. I have to remember passwords for numerous Web sites. I have to manually navigate through the same things over and over again to get to the content that I want. I am constantly entering new data into the various Web applications that I use, and I regularly have thoughts like, “Why can’t the computer do this for me?” And I like using the computer! I pity the vast majority of humans who don’t like using it.

Today, while entrepreneurs can be completely connected, there is very little user-centric intelligence going on. The techies that make everything run understand this and are starting to shift their focus to this issue. However, we are taking baby steps compared to where we should be. Over the next few years, you’ll hear the phrases Web 2.0, Web services, XML, and API continually-these are all names for technical building blocks that start to connect different software applications at a data level, which is the first-and critical-step to increasing the relevance of what your computer does for you on a daily basis.

In 1995 at a Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO) national conference, I gave a talk on the Internet. When I asked the question, “How many of you have email?” only about five people in the standing-room-only gathering of 200 raised their hands. If I asked the question again today, I’d bet there’d be only five people who didn’t raise their hands. But if I asked the question, “How many of you continue to be mystified and frustrated by your computer because it doesn’t do enough for you, is too hard to use, and continues to get more complex as it gets embedded in your every day work life?” I’d expect most of the hands would stay up. We’ve made a lot of progress in the past 20 years, getting technology in general-and the Internet, in particular-to work for entrepreneurs. However, we’ve got a long way to go. Stay tuned for an even more exciting time ahead.

No – I’m not referring to Ken Lay.  One of my favorite local newspapers (ok – I have three of them – I don’t want to have to choose) wrote an article on Addicts for Gadgets highlighting the Crackberry.  I challenge you to find your friendly neighborhood VCs (me and Seth) in the article who readily fess up to Sidekick addiction.  But, but, but – we solved a problem – really.  I guess when stories like this appear it’s time to go old school in board meetings and crack out the college ruled paper and a pencil.  Fortunately for me, unlike Notebaert – my Sidekick doesn’t work at my house – making marital bliss easier to maintain.

Feedburner is releasing a new set of features on Monday.  I got a note from Dick Costolo – CEO – saying they were all set to go but were going to adhere to the “don’t be an idiot and launch a product on Friday” policy.

This was eerily reminiscent of our release policy at my first company (Feld Technologies) in the late 1980’s.  We had a policy that we’d only release on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.  We were a custom software company and had clients around the US – in the age of pre-Internet, Carbon Copy / PC Anywhere, and Fedexing disks around, if you screwed up on a Friday, you were miserable.  In addition, if you weren’t ready to go by Friday for a Monday release, your weekend sucked.  So – we solved the problem by limiting the release window.  I don’t think our clients ever really noticed this in the affirmative sense, but we certainly sucked less because we didn’t ruin their Friday nights, weekends, or Monday mornings.

Release early and often, but never on Friday’s.

I hooked up with Dan Bricklin last week when I was in Boston.  I met Dan in the mid-1990’s when he was starting up Trellix (which I was an early investor in).  I still remember the day I cracked open my copy of Visicalc for the Apple II (I think it was copy 200–something.  It was the actual copy used in Triumph of the Nerds as Dan didn’t want to risk losing one of his few remaining copies.  We got it back eventually from some Oregon Public Radio dude, but that’s another long story.)  I adore (and worship) Dan – Visicalc and my Apple II had a huge impact on my life as it was an integral part of my first real introduction to computers (beyond a high-low game I wrote on some mainframe somewhere and a day of APL in front of a Frito-Lay computer with my Uncle Charlie.)  I remember /SL and /SQY like it was yesterday.  Of course, this led to a thousand hours playing Ultima and Choplifter, but that was more an issue of lack of self control as a teenager.

Dan has been spending a lot of time thinking about Open Source issues over the past year.  He’s written extensively on it and just created a video called A Developer’s Introduction to Copyright and Open Source: Why a Lawyer is a Developer’s Friend (eek – lawyers – scary).  Given all the issues surrounding Open Source licensing and copyright issues these days and based on the synopsis, Dan’s video looks comprehensive and highly relevant (I’d expect nothing less from Dan.) 

Dan promised that my autographed copy is on its way.  You can buy an evaluation copy here and a corporate training edition here.  And – no – I don’t get a commission on this one – just karma points.  Maybe Dan will also send me an autographed copy of Dan Bricklin’s Demo Program (I lost mine in a move somewhere.)