I predict that 2008 will be the year that the software patent situation finally goes critical and the nuclear meltdown in the reactor begins. Two things happened today that are notable: the gigantically stupid $1.52 billion judgment for Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft was overturned and a hard to find company named Aloft Media sued Microsoft and Adobe for “user interfaces in a network browsing window that display the content at a specific URL as well as the URL itself somewhere on or around the window.”

I’ve been excited about Me.dium since fifteen minutes into the first time I had it explained to me by David Mandell, Robert Reich, and Kimbal Musk. Up until today, Me.dium was in a controlled beta as the company spent a lot of time and energy making sure that the magic technology both worked and scaled. Today they’ve launched two new things – an IE 7 browser extension and a Me.dium map widget for bloggers (note the pretty new widget titled “my world” on my sidebar.)

And Lindsey makes it (and the stock) look really good. The Garmin Forerunner 305 Wrist-Mounted GPS Navigator and Personal Training Device with Heart Rate Monitor – my heart beats for it. Every good marathoner needs one – don’t leave home without it.

On the heals of their recent financing, Lijit is looking for an experienced software engineer (4+ years) and a database wizard (5+ years). In addition to a clothing optional work environment, Lijit offers a fully paid health plan and all the M&Ms you can eat. Interested people should send a resume to infolijitcom. This job opportunity brought to you by the Feld job board (free listings for companies I have an investment in.)

Are you fascinated with Facebook? If so, it’s worth following the blog of the J-Squared guys. They are now actively blogging their Facebook lessons with posts including: Facebook, Rails and Scaling What Facebook Users Want How People Use Facebook Facebook Users Worth $0.30? Hm. More Please. J-Squared is one of the TechStars teams. Their first Facebook app – Sticky Notes – is already over 1.2 million users, app #34, and continuing to grow at a rapid pace every day. They’ve got another cool one in the works, have turned on the revenue spigot, and are watching the dollars fly into their bank account.

I’ve been a fan of Ambient Devices for a while – I’ve got an Ambient Orb on my desk that turns different colors based on the temperature outside. This morning – after a smelly run on Sunset in LA to the parallel universe that is Beverly Hills and back to the hotel – I noticed that Ambient had just released the Ambient Umbrella. I love it. I know of a bunch of different companies that are working on integrating the Internet with a wide variety of every day products. Some of the applications are simple while some are complex – many of them will radically change the way we interact with our “computers.” And the really smart ones will make the underlying platforms available to anyone. Remember – It’s the API, Stupid.

One of the TechStars companies – MadKast – has launched. You’ll notice a new and exciting button to the right of every blog post on my blog – this is the MadKast Share icon. Click on it to share a post with your friends via email, mobile phone (MMS), or IM. Or – bookmark it on any of the popular bookmarking services. MadKast already does a bunch of really clever things.

I am so pleased that American Airlines and Lufthansa are launching broadband internet (via WiFi) on their airplanes starting in 2008. I’ve been so bummed to have to sit quietly on planes and read a book while not being connected to the Internet. Soon, in addition to being able to surf the web, I’ll be able to crank up Skype and chatter away with my loved ones to my heart’s content. I know my seat mate will appreciate this. The poor folks at the FAA must be so confused about what they can and can’t allow to be on during flight.

In my never ending – often Don Quixote like – quest against absurd software patents, I must pause in the midst of my day and give a standing ovation to Judge William Schwarzer (San Francisco – Federal) for dismissing a lawsuit from Friskit Inc. against RealNetworks citing the Supreme Court’s April ruling in KSR v. Teleflex. I hope this is the first of tens of thousands of dismissals as a result of KSR v. Teleflex. For those of you studying along at home, the WSJ summary of the KSR ruling is: “In KSR, the Supreme Court rejected a “rigid” application of existing tests for obviousness in favor of a more “expansive and flexible approach” that would give judges more discretion. If a person of ordinary skill in the relevant subject area would “be able to fit the teaching of multiple patents together like pieces of a puzzle” then the patent is obvious, the Supreme Court ruled.”