I just had a run where I used up 100% of what I had. I had a great run yesterday (1:15) in Anchorage on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. I decided to go 1:30 today on The Homer Spit and ended up going 1:45. I was DONE when I was done. I came home, took a shower, and laid down in bed. Two hours later I got up. My eyes are puffy. I feel completely zoned out. It’s a wonderful thing. Highly recommended.

Earlier this summer I was invited up to Fairbanks, Alaska by the Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation to talk about entrepreneurship. I decided to swing up to Fairbanks at the end of our Alaska trip to check things out. Amy grew up in Fairbanks and we’ve been there plenty of times to visit friends, but I’d never gone with view toward the entrepreneurial activity going on in town and really had no clue what was going on.

I’ve written enthusiastically about the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT in the past. I think it’s an awesome example of a university program that funds novel, early-stage research, connects innovators with the business creation infrastructure – including VCs and entrepreneurs – and actively helps new startups to be created out of fundamental early stage research. As the Deshpande Center enters their fourth grant cycle, they just released the data on what happened with research teams that they have funded to date. 

I love numbers. Consider it one of my weird predilections. I’m in Room 214 in a hotel in Fairbanks, Alaska tonight. When I told Amy my room number, she said “what a great number.” The reasons are: 21 is the first two digits 14 is the second two digits 7 is the sum of all three digits 2/14 is valentines day Yes – I know we are a strange, bizarre, and twisted couple. But – isn’t that what makes it fun?

Larry Gregory has put together an interesting VC panel for the upcoming Microsoft PDC in Los Angeles in mid-September. Rather than the typical VC panel – where we get to sit in front a room for of people and prognosticate about whatever we feel like (regardless of whether or not we have a clue) – Larry is going to use the panel as part of an innovation exercise around Microsoft Vista.

In today’s “direct mail databases are broken” category, the Huffington Post has a short piece titled “California Man Receives Credit Card Offer Addressed to ‘Palestinian Bomber’” Of course, the person who received this (Sami Habbas) has been a US citizen since the age of 3 and served in the US Army. When he called JP Morgan Chase about it, he was greeted with “Yes, Mr. Bomber, what can we do for you?” I guess the call center “judgment filter” is broken also.

In the “best entrepreneur gossip blog post” of the day category, Alan Meckler and the guys from LightReading.com give a public example of the issues in the intellectual exchange that Tom Evslin and I had around Serial Monogamy and No Shop Agreements. Alan bitterly congratulates the LightReading.com guys for their sale to CMP for $30 million. He then goes on to say how the LightReading founders shafted him out of a deal to invest in the company after he “helped create it.” His feelings are obvious when he ends with ‘Stephen and Peter obviously made the right choice in being dishonest.”

Now – here’s a feature that’s useful for all the Gmail addicts in the world. Now, you can have your “From” address be anything you want for an email you send from Gmail. Finally. Historically, if I sent an email from Gmail, it came from brad.feld@gmail.com. Now – I could set the reply-to to brad@feld.com. But – I couldn’t change the Send. Groan. Not good. Simple feature. Been around forever. Critically important to egomaniacs with simple to remember email addresses that aren’t afraid of spam (er, um, …)

Or is that “everyone is chatting about twittering?” Google released Google Talk yesterday. While it’s an obvious first step, it’s unremarkable. Apparently, in response, Microsoft released MSN Messenger 7.5. A minor upgrade. And lo and behold – Skype announced SkypeWeb and SkypeNet. Ah – another API! Much more interesting. I’ve been using Google Talk all morning. It’s fine. I’ve been using Trillian for more than two years. It’s “better than fine.” I’ve been using Skype (and SkypeOut) for all my phone calls in August (and some chatting). I like it much better than Vonage, although everyone tells me I just need a different phone and Vonage will be happy again (I’ll try from Boulder when I’m home next week.)