Whew – I just finished getting my daily feed dose from FeedDemon. I have a daily routine for when I’m home – get up at 5am, try not to wake Amy up (I failed today), make a cup of coffee, get a bowl of fruit, go downstairs, feed the dogs, sit down at my computer, fire up Outlook, Firefox, and FeedDemon, Open-in-tabs my “News” folder in Firefox, and then read for an hour (or so). While I’m at it I usually write a few blogs. By 6:30 I’m done for the day with this stuff – I shut down FeedDemon (and don’t open it up until the next day), and then go get ready for a run.

Dan Bricklin was recently an expert witness in the Hyperion vs. Outlooksoft case that was tried in the US District Court in Marshall, TX. Outlooksoft (the defendant) won – and Dan’s testimony was critical to invalidating the Hyperion patent. Dan has two excellent essays up about this – his experience in the case and his general thoughts on Patent Litigation circa 2006. Dan is a remarkably clear thinker and excellent writer (as well as general software wizard and hugely nice guy) – if you are interested in software patents, these two essays are a must read.

Do you need a 24 fix? Ok – it’s a spoof – but admit it – that was fun.

Bill Erickson sent me a link to a TUAW article on Introducing Nike + Group Goals. Nike has a super cool Nike + iPod Sport Kit (which I’ve bought and have sitting on my desk – I guess I need to get my act together and actually try it). Now – they are donating $1 to a cause for every mile that you run and record on their website. The Lance Armstrong Foundation is up first – Nike is donating up to $50,000 for 50,000 miles contributed (he’s got $24,469.28 contributed at this point.) The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society are in the mix as is a showdown between the Northside and Southside of Chicago. Awesomely cool stuff.

Amy and I went to The Departed last night. I’ve got some general movie fatigue these days because everything seems to suck, be a remake of Top Gun, or just be dull. However, The Departed was incredible and it just blew us away. Jack Nicholson may be my favorite male actor of all time. Leonardo DiCaprio is finally coming into his own now that he’s an adult. Matt Damon finally had a role where he needed to act – and he did a great job. While it’s weird watching Martin Sheen be anything other than Jeb Bartlett, he also shined even when he was splattering. Vera Farmiga had the best line of the movie when she said to DiCaprio “your vulnerability is really freaking me out.” And Marky Mark Wahlberg continued to bend my mind with his range. 

Given that it’s getting a little cooler out and I’ve been wearing more long sleeve t-shirts, I decided to update the look and feel of my blog. My friend Kevin Menzie – the CEO of Slice of Lime – who has been doing some amazing work for a number of our portfolio companies – did much of the work. We’re still shaking out a few things, so be patient if you notice a problem. I’m interested in any feedback – good or bad – as I’ve got a new blog in the works with a similar look and feel. Please comment freely on my new wardrobe. Of course, if you run into any bugs, please tell me.

I got the following email from AdBrite yesterday. I had AdBrite adds on my blog for a while and had minimal revenue, so I took them off. I hadn’t thought about AdBrite for a while, so I clicked on the link. Ooops is correct.

Todd Berkowitz at NewsGator posted on NewsGator Everywhere – describing how the NewsGator continues to enable receiving RSS content on any platform or device while maintaining full synchronization across all the platforms and devices that you use. Some new places to play include Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Mobile, Windows Live Writer, and the Windows RSS Platform / IE 7. With this post, I’m officially switching from BlogJet to Windows Live Writer for posting to my blog. I don’t know why I’m so late to come to this party, but for offline writing Windows Live Writer is spectacular. I still don’t understand the name, but that’s not for me to know.

Andy continues blogging on the evolution of Judy’s Book. He’s got a short summary of the meeting that led to some fundamental changes in the business. In it he lists three key questions: what’s hard, what’s easy, and where is the parade?