Ross Carlson – who is my “IT guy” – loves to play with toys even more than I do. I suggested that he start writing some of them up and I’d post them on my blog. He’s started with a tame one which happens to be my toy of the month also (Nano – sweet) – look for the wild, wacky, and esoteric nerd toy reviews to start to appear occasionally.

I don’t usually pay much attention to Online Journalism Awards (and such things) but I’m proud of Jonathan Weber (co-founder and editor in chief of The Industry Standard) and his team at New West Network who just picked up two awards this weekend: General Excellent in Online Journalism (Small) for their New West Network Enterprise Journalism (Small) for their incredible article on Sex, Money, and Meth Addiction in Kalispell, MT I’m an angel investor in New West Network – it’s a small media deal (not a VC-oriented deal) – but Jonathan has created something that’s editorially relevant, becoming very popular, and has a unique approach to media in the “new west” with coverage in Missoula, Boulder, Salt Lake City, Boise, Albuquerque / Santa Fe, Northern Idaho, Aspen, Durango, Bozeman, and Columbia Gorge. If you live in, visit, or care about any of these cities, I recommend you subscribe (and it’s easy via RSS).

It’s a beautiful morning in New York and my brother Daniel started it off with an email to me about Mahna Mahna. His daughter Sabrina was eating a banana this morning and he started singing Bahna Mahna to her after I managed to get Mahna Mahna stuck in his head a few weeks ago at his birthday party. This all started on Coverville which played the awesome Cake version of it on Episode 90. Daniel dug up an original Sesame Street Mahna Mahna and a Dr. Pepper Mahna Mahna commercial (go to the Media Gallery). I dare you to play them and then try to get this out of your head.

Eric Olson has started a venture/entrepreneur oriented podcast called VentureWeek. He recorded the first episode on Thursday night which included me, David Hornik (August Capital), David Cowan (Bessemer), David Sifry (Technorati), David David (David’s), JB “David” Holston (NewsGator), and Dick “David” Costolo (FeedBurner). Eric did a nice job dealing with the large and somewhat unruly crowd and we had fun as we tried our hardest to mock ourselves as we talked entirely too much about Web 2.0. The best line was from Cowan: “If you are a known child molester, you have to explain why you are hanging around the playground.”

Scott Maxwell – a managing director at Insight Venture Partners – has started a blog. I’ve gotten to know him through our time together on the Microsoft VC Advisory Board and can comfortably state that Scott is one smart dude (fellow MIT grad – Ph.D. in MechE and MBA from Sloan). He’s got fantastic insight and – as a later stage tech investor – brings a somewhat different point of view to the table than early stage tech VCs. I expect Scott’s blog will be well worth the time for both entrepreneurs and VCs to read.

Well – I gave Fred 36 hours to put up a post about the fun we had at dinner with Wikipedia and – since he hasn’t yet – you’ll get it from me. Once a year, Return Path has a board / management retreat (from Thursday noon to Friday 2pm) that serves as our October board meeting and annual planning session. It’s one of – if not the best – board meeting I have each year. Matt and his team do a superb job – very effectively using this meeting to pull together their proposed annual plan, present it in a setting where we can tear it apart (constructively) and give real time feedback, which then gives them a few more months to lock down the plan, budgets, and comp structure for the next year. 

My friends at Rally Software have started a corporate blog called On Be(come)ing Agile. Ryan Martens – the founder of Rally – introduces the blog and explains the zen-like journey to Agile that inspired the name for the blog. Rally’s On Demand Agile Software Lifecycle Management solution is being enthusiastically embraced by a wide variety of ISVs and corporate IT shops that are either using or considering Agile software development methods. If you want to be known by your friends as a Scrum Master, have run out of white papers about Agile Software Development to read in the bathroom, or just want to build better software systems, wander over and take a look.

The Milestone Group just published an interview with me in their quarterly newsletter. I answer questions such as: Am I long or short on Google? Will 2006 be the year of Microsoft? Will the software industry become commoditized? What will the Internet deliver in the next five years? How can startups find things that the big players won’t compete on? What advice would you give an entrepreneur starting a company today? What competitive venture fund would you invest $10 million in? What’s the most unique deal you’ve been pitched in the last six months? Watch out The Great Carnack, may you rest in peace.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Verizon BroadbandAccess Wireless Service (EVDO)? As I sit here in Boston’s South Station waiting for the late night train to New York, I marvel at how I used to exist on this planet without this.