My partner Ryan wrote a long post on the Foundry Group blog about our interest in HCI titled Theme: Human Computer Interaction (HCI). I believe that 25 years from now we will look back on the way we used computers in 2008 and think it was quaint. For a reference point, try to remember how you used a computer in 1983 (character-based screen, excitement over “graphics”, and the year before the introduction of the first Mac.) Or go back to 1978 and the dawning of the Apple II computer.

Union Square Ventures just announced their new $156m fund – Union Square Ventures 2008. My relationship with USV goes back to the mid-1990’s – well before USV was created. I vividly remember the first time I met Fred at Seth Godin’s Yoyodyne office somewhere near Waltham, MA. We hit it off immediately and I ended up making a number of investments with Fred and Jerry Colonna – Fred’s partner at the time in Flatiron Partners. Through this I got to know Fred and Gotham Gal – as did my wife Amy.

Dave Roberts – the VP Strategy and Marketing at Vyatta – has written a solid post on Open Source Juicer that tears apart Steve Tobak’s CNet article titled The Patent Reform Act will harm the US technology industry. There is a ton of meat in Dave’s post – which is (unfortunately) also titled “The Patent Reform Act will harm the U.S. technology industry”. Dave has 10 patents to his name, so he’s speaking from a position of someone who has spent plenty of time on the “inside of the patent game.” Two telling paragraphs:

Amy and I just finished watching Good Night, and Good Luck. Wow! We both sort of knew the story of Ed Murrow taking on U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy during McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade while chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The movie has motivated me to Kindle a Murrow biography and read it. The movie was fantastic – Amy and I kept shouting at the TV during it which is always the mark of a successful movie in our house. David Strathairn was incredible as Murrow and George Clooney did a great job as his counterpart / coproducer Fred Friendly.

My friends over at Intense Debate are looking for a Technology Evangelist*,* Systems Administrator*, and* Software Engineer*.* If you are interested, drop them an email at jobs@intensedebate.com. While you are at it – if you are a blogger and like comments – give Intense Debate a try. The Foundry Gang has had it on our blogs (Feld Thoughts, AsktheVC, Foundry Group, Seth Levine, Ryan McIntyre, and Ross Carlson) for a while and we are all digging it.

Scoble just put up a one minute video with Todd Vernon, the CEO of Lijit. Scoble has Lijit’s search wijit up on his blog in the right side bar. Go give it a try and see what’s going on at SXSW – at least through Robert’s eyes. Todd just wrote a great post on why Lijit will increase your page views*.* He’s got examples, data, and even conclusions. Plus he uses fancy new phrases like “second click” and “third click.” 

Frank Gruber (Somewhat Frank) has a nice summary of the 5 Startups (that) Demo At Tech Cocktail Boulder. 200+ people at The Foundry (across from our office at Foundry Group.) I was in Berkeley having dinner at Adagia Restaurant talking about patents. Oh well, the tradeoffs one makes in pursuit of the truth.

My partner Jason pointed me to the announcement that Jack Bauer gets early start with “24” prequel. I have high hopes for this season given how much last season sucked (until the last four episodes.) It’s either going to be fantastic or be over. Joel Surnow has apparently already voted with his feet, so this one will be high risk / high reward.

One of my Work-Life Balance institutions is something Amy and I call “Life Dinner.” We have a standing dinner date on the first night of every month. Given my travel, we usually end up having this date 75% of the time; when we miss it’s my responsibility to schedule a new one shortly after the first. Life Dinner has three key parts to it. First, we have a pre-arranged, regular, repeating evening where we both can reflect on and talk about what is going on in our lives. Next, we give each other a gift. Finally, we have a fun night out and either explore a new place or enjoy one of our regular haunts. A few times a year we will share Life Dinner with another couple, although we almost always do it alone.