I’ve done a few “Beers With Brad” in other cities such as Seattle and Vancouver. On February 18th from 6 to 8pm, I’m going to be doing Beers with Brad in Boulder at The Twisted Pine Brewery. It’s a fundraiser for KGNU (88.5 FM and 1390 AM in Denver) – tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. There will be free munchies, music, and plenty of beer. Come join us for a fun evening where I’ll talk about whatever comes to my mind about entrepreneurship and innovation – especially ideas fueled by a few beers.

The Open Angel Forum is coming to Colorado and having it’s first event in Boulder on 2/3/10. David Cohen – the CEO of TechStars – has written an extensive post titled Open Angel Forum – Colorado bound! which includes all the background leading up to this, along with information about: Attending OAFCO as an angel investor Presenting at OAFCO as an entrepreneur Sponsoring the event if you are a service provider Each event will only have 10-15 angels in attendance – all will be active investors. We’ll have five companies presenting. It will be an intimate event – if you want to get a feel for the chatter check out the twitter stream on Open Angel Forum take a look at Mark Suster’s post on the Inaugural Open Angel Forum.

Well – what’s old is new again. Dave Jilk – my first business partner and CTO of Standing Cloud – sent me this magnificent video on 1963 Timesharing: A Solution to Computer Bottlenecks where MIT Professor Fernando Corbato explains how timesharing works to MIT Science Reporter John Fitch (who has one of those magnificent deep reporter voices). Since history can be so incredibly instructive to reflect on when you think about the future of science. If you draw a curve of “computer technology progress” from 1963 to 2010 after you watch this and then ponder the progress from 2010 to 2057 you will have a very interesting few moments of reflection.

On Friday I’ll be in LA at Mahalo headquarters at 1pm making a guest appearance on Jason Calacanis’s This Week In Startups show. I told Jason I’d be happy to discuss whatever he wanted to which I hope includes the Open Angel Forum, Startup Visa, Abolishing Software Patents, and all kinds of fun things around entrepreneurship and venture capital. Conversations with Jason are never dull so I expect this one to be spicy hot on top of the typical chocolately goodness.

Brad Burnham at Union Square Ventures put up a very important post last night titled We need an independent invention defense to minimize the damage of aggressive patent trolls. His partner Fred Wilson echoed Brad’s thoughts on his blog with a post titled Why We Need An Independent Invention Defense. Brad’s post starts out with the following: “Almost a third of our portfolio is under attack by patent trolls. Is it possible that one third of the engineering teams in our portfolio unethically misappropriated technology from someone else and then made that the basis of their web services? No! That’s not what is happening. Our companies are driven by imaginative and innovative engineering teams that are focused on creating social value by bringing innovative new services to market.”

Today is the last day to apply for the TechStars Boston 2010 program. If you want a flavor for where the program is held, Bill Warner (one of the founders of TechStars Boston) has a fun post up titled Lifestyles of The Future Rich and Future Famous: A Look Inside the TechStars Boston (Actually Cambridge) Penthouse. I lived in Boston from 1983 to 1995 (actually Cambridge from 1983 – 1987 but I consider Boston and Cambridge to be inexorably linked.) During the time I was in Boston there was a thriving entrepreneurial community around software and – in the early to mid-1990’s – Internet. While there was plenty of activity around Route 128 and 495, I always felt like the heart of it was in Cambridge in Kendall Square (near MIT) and Central Square (between MIT and Harvard). At least that’s where I hung out – Main Street, Mass Ave, Rogers Street, Binney Street, First, and Third Street. So – when we started TechStars Boston, it was inevitable that it would be in the heart of Cambridge.

I’m at CES all day wandering the floor looking for additional devices to wear on my body to monitor all aspects of my life. In the mean time, there’s a bunch of great stuff in my world that has happened so far this week. Here are links with a little commentary. Rally Software Raised $16m in a Round Led by Greylock: My friends at Rally Software are creating an important long term company in the Boulder ecosystem. 2009 was a great year for Rally – they grew a ton and dominated their market segment. They didn’t need any additional financing but were approached by several firms in Q409. Greylock put forth an attractive offer and their involvement, including the addition of our new board member Tom Bogan (Chairman of Citrix among other things), is a huge addition. 

In my effort to keep you on your toes, take a look at the “roll cloud” below. It’s totally worth a click through to the APOD site and a moment of contemplation on a large monitor. I’ve seen small rolls clouds in the past although I didn’t know they were called roll clouds, nor did I have a clue how roll clouds were formed. While 720p videoconferencing with Skype on my Internet connected TV is pretty cool, nature continues to amaze me. Time for a run.

While Fred Wilson has his review of his Google Phone up already, I’m more intrigued with all the pre-CES announcements. I’ll be walking the floor on Thursday soaking it all in and I’m pretty excited this year based on all the chatter. One thing that has me particularly stoked is what I’m going to call “universal videoconferencing.” I saw my first “videophone” around 30 years ago. It sucked but the idea was magical (and still is). Like my personal jetpack, I’ve been waiting patiently for it. Very patiently. For 30 years.