I stumbled upon the MIT Sloan Blog last week. I am a Sloan grad (’88) and am a speaker at my 20th business school reunion this summer. The folks behind the blog have done a nice job of tidying up TypePad and stringing together a series of Student Bloggers. I asked to be added to the blog roll and voila – there I am. They also added Lijit for search (which will be fascinating across the network of bloggers in the sidebar) and Intense Debate for comments (enhancing the social network that gets built through the comments to the collection of blogs.)

Yesterday, it was announced that ConocoPhillips is the mystery buyer of the old StorageTek campus. There was much revelry and prognosticating about how magnificent this is for the universe. I agree – but only if ConocoPhillips razes the entire grotesque ugly thing and builds something nice and integrated into the natural beauty of the 432 acres they just bought with perfect views of the flatirons. I was at a board meeting yesterday when this was announced and my first reaction was “superb – it’s not a large tech company.” A friend – who is on the board with me – said “damn, it’s not a large tech company.” One of the founders said “thankfully it’s not a large tech company.” 

My friends at FeedBurner surfaced today with a post titled Hello? Hellooooo? In it, they explain what they’ve been up to post-acquisition by Google. Two words – technical integration. It’s hard. I’ve talked to Dick Costolo – FeedBurner’s CEO – a couple of times about it in general terms. They are basically rewriting FeedBurner to work on Google’s architecture. The leverage they get out of this is enormous, but they have to rewrite a bunch of stuff to get there.

My partner Ryan McIntyre discovered some old trippy TV ads that Excite did in 1996 based on Jimmy Hendrix’s Are You Experienced. When I saw him in the office yesterday, he was fondling a rectangular black thing that was about an inch high and roughly the shape of a book. It had two plastic turny things on it and a cover-like thing that sort of – but didn’t really – protect a long thin shiny black strip. He also had a big box that he claimed you stuck the thing into, mechanical stuff happened, and video came out the back of it. Weird.

Andrew Hyde (the creator of StartupWeekend) and Matt Emmi (the founder of OneButtonLife and the dude that keeps all my home electronics working smoothly) have launched their latest company – Venture Capital Wear. It’s been making the rounds today and is brilliant. Included is an ode to my treadputer. Don’t miss out on the ppt pitch.

I spent the weekend in Austin with my dad who has written a nice post about his experience with me. We ate, hung out, ate some more, wandered around, saw a shitty movie, had a fantastic dinner with friends, went for a run, and enjoyed being together. We’ve been doing this for five years. My rules are simple – we go anywhere he wants and I pay for everything. This weekend with my dad is one of the work-life balance things that I do on an annual basis. I’ve got several of these that make up the rhythm of my non-work life, including the annual Feld Men’s trip, my month in Alaska during the summer with Amy, and my quarterly “total disconnect” vacations with Amy.

I’m an abolitionist. I believe software patents should be abolished. I’ve started pounding the drum about this and am delighted to hear as many positive responses to my plea as I have. While a few people argue with me about the validity of software patents, most nod their heads up and down in agreement with me. I get plenty of skeptical looks when I say “software patents should be abolished” (as in – c’mon Brad, be realistic), but a guy needs to have goals, right?

Mitchell Ashley has an excellent post up titled Fail Early, Fail Often*.* I’m seeing a little more chatter about failure, introspection about how it feels, and suggestions about how to turn it into a positive (or at least effective) experience making the rounds. As someone who has experienced a lot of success and failure, I’m glad to see more people talking about failure in the blogosphere. It’s a key part of the entrepreneurial experience. It’s also an integral part of life that cannot be denied. While it’s a lot more fun to succeed, it’s important to understand how to deal with failure.

My friend Bruce Wyman – who is the Director of Technology at the Denver Art Museum – turned me on to Gordon Ramsay‘s Kitchen Nightmares. Early this morning I discovered that Micah Baldwin – who runs Business Development for Lijit – is also a huge fan. Micah has a great post up for all entrepreneurs titled 5 Lessons Learned From Gordon Ramsay*.* Sometimes broccoli soup is just broccoli is a line I’ll be using for the next few weeks (until I discover a better one.)