I am delighted to see the addition of several new mentors for the 2008 edition of TechStars including Jeff Clavier (SoftTech VC), Matt Mullenweg (Automattic / WordPress.com), Dick Costolo (FeedBurner/Google), Eric Marcouller (MyBlogLog/Yahoo), Jeff Nolan (NewsGator), and Josh Hug (Shelfari). They join the incredible list of 50+ mentors for 2008 just waiting to help your new company this summer. Eight of the ten companies from last summer are now profitable or have been funded beyond TechStars. Based on the applications and interest we have seen so far, this summer looks like it may turn out to be even more exciting.

Yes – I know that phrase is yucky. That’s why Eric Norlin needs your help. He’s put out A Call for Ideas and Language surrounding Defrag 2008. Enterprise 2.0 Online Collaboration The Implicit Web Semantic Tools Collective Intelligence Social software If any of the above phrases speak to you, go to Eric’s post and give him your thoughts.

Philip Greenspun has an excellent essay up on the web titled Internet Software Patents. He sets the tone by suggesting that “the natural progression of an industry is innovation, consolidation, then litigation.” Philip better be careful of he’s going to be spending a lot of time in East Marshall, Texas. His decomposition of U.S. Patent 5367627 and analysis is straightforward and highlights the absurdity of this stuff. Philip also asks “Are computer nerds smarter today than they were in the 1960’s” and provides a nice annotated timeline of Internet and e-commerce.

Ross loves it. I saw it yesterday and Vista looks great on it. I’m getting one.

I got the following email on 1/25/08. The Subject Line was “Naming Bathrooms.” Mr. Feld: My name is A, and I am a Cadette Girl Scout who is selling cookies to fund my dream of becoming an astronaut. This upcoming summer, I am returning to Huntsville, AL, for Advanced Space Academy, an opportunity offered through Girl Scouts. I am not sure if my dreams will take me to ATLAS at CU (my dad is a professor there), or Cal Tech (and the Jet Propulsion Lab, where my dad is on sabbatical), or even to MIT, where my dad went to school (Course XVI, 1978-1987). My mom says that it is too bad that MIT did not accept your naming a bathroom offer — she thinks that you should have offered to build more women’s bathrooms at MIT as they can be somewhat hard to find when you need them. She also says that while the Sloan School and other east campus buildings had adequate facilities, you had to plan carefully if your work took you to the Humanities or Science Libraries. I am writing to ask if you would like to make a contribution of $2008 to help me attain my goal. This translates to approximately 618 boxes ($3.25/box), of which there are eight available varieties. Of course, that might be a lot of cookies, even if you distributed them amongst all of your companies’ employees as a business expense. Instead, we can donate boxes to your choice — EFAA, the local food bank that was started in 1917 to help the families of World War I soldiers in Boulder, or directly to our soldiers overseas. The 2008 cookie campaign is now taking orders with the cookies due to arrive in mid-February. I would enjoy discussing this with you further (I have prepared a presentation as to how businesses can use Girl Scout Cookies). You may reach me at myemail.com or my phone numbers, 303.xxx.yyyy (cell) or 303.aaa.bbbb (home). If you decide that your 2008 charitable support does not include Girl Scouts or that you have a Girl Scout who is already your supplier, thank you. I would appreciate a reply regardless of your decision.

My partner Seth Levine has a cathartic post up titled Failure where he describes failure from a VC’s point of view.

I’m working on a new project called Gnip. It’s appropriately inspired by the following game from my childhood. I look forward to gnipping while my friends gnop.

On the way to the airport this morning I twittered “Dell bought messageone (not sure i get that one) and someone bought bebo. Another m&a day.” Fred Wilson immediately responded with "@bfeld but the yahoo-msft deal is going to put a dent in M&A, right? i don’t think so." I completely agree with Fred. There was a lot of noise last week – especially from the VC community – that a Microsoft / Yahoo deal would be bad for tech M&A, especially in Silicon Valley. Baloney. 

As I wander around in my own little virtual universe, I lovingly look for all the ways the various content I create gets wired together. I have a twitter account, a blog (well – several), and am using Intense Debate for my comment system of my blog. The Intense Debate guys just did a neat integration with Twitter. I had already put my Twitter name (bfeld) into the Intense Debate profile information. Now – my most recent tweet shows up when you mouse over my picture on an Intense Debate comment.