In this month’s Wired: Start: I Got Accepted at Google! article, the authors state that “for the classes of 2001 to 2004, getting into a corporate campus was harder than graduating summa cum laude from MIT. No wonder Google has been having so much trouble hiring lately – there IS NO SUCH THING as summa cum laude at MIT so – if they are looking for MIT summa cum laudes, they are fishing in a pond of the empty set.

I’m chairman of the National Center for Women & Information Technology. A lot of my friends ask me why an organization aimed at women has a guy as chairman. I respond by telling them that NCWIT is not a women’s issue focused organization (although I’d still be supportive if it was) – it’s all about the long term negative impact on innovation of the gender imbalance that currently exists in the IT industry, especially on the technical side – which obviously involved both men and women. 

There were a number of announcements from my portfolio companies in February. Following are some of the specific things in case you are interested. StillSecure announced support for Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP) Technology and the v3.0 release of their Safe Access endpoint policy complaince product. StillSecure also did a honeypot experiment that had fascinating (but not terribly surprising) results. Gold Systems and Avaya announced a large deal with AAA of Minnesota for speech self-service in AAA call centers. Gold Systems CEO – Terry Gold – also had a hysterical article in the Boulder Daily Camera about a pet peeve of his called jarbarish.

NewsGator launched their NewsGator Media Platform product – a private label RSS service for the media industry – today. NewsGator Media Platform is based on NewsGator Online and Media News Group and the Denver Post have announced that they are NewsGator Media Platform customers. Having seen the demos of NewsGator Media integrated into other sites, all I can say is that it’s stunning (of course – as a NewsGator investor – I’m biased – but it is stunning). Every major media company should / will have private branded RSS aggregators as part of their web infrastructure – if you are part of a major media company, you should look at the NewsGator product as it lets you do this today.

I love my Toto Washlet S100. But – my friend Scott Moody just sent me an email that has made me lust for something new – the Toto Neorest 600. According to Wired, following are a few of the features of tomorrow’s paperless office. Integrated bidet: An adjustable, targeted spray plus a warm-air dryer means the end of toilet paper. Smart Flush: Sensors in the bowl detect the amount and type of waste and adjust water volume for each person and every flush. Sleek design: Computer-modeled curves and wider trapways mean better carry-out of waste and a cleaner bowl. Clever seat: The lid raises as you approach; sensors under the seat detect whether you sit down – and the seat goes up if you don’t. Health monitor: A lab-on-a-chip checks waste for cholesterol levels and scans for signs of illness. Results are emailed to medical technicians. Better plumbing: A link to the household mainline, combined with a sophisticated array of valves, allows less water to do the same work.

When I was a kid, whenever my mom said something like “Brad, you sure do have a mouth”, I’d usually respond with “You better fucking believe it.” (which usually elicited a grimace from her, but I know she was laughing inside). I love giving talks, speeches, and being on panels (although I hate sitting in the audience listening). I gave one in the fall at the 30th Annual Venture Capital Institute – a multi-day conference that’s one of the key “professional education” events for the VC industry. I always ask for feedback from event organizers after any talk I give or panel I’m on. Sometimes it takes a while for the feedback to make its way to me – I finally got the VCI feedback the other day. As I read through my talk specific feedback, I was rolling on the floor with laughter from the specific comments (I’ve italicized the ones that really got me) – they say more about the “style” of the VC industry than anything I could ever dream up. So – rather than try to describe it, here they are. Enjoy.

Tuesday afternoon I went through the Terminal C entrance at San Jose Airport. I got to spend five minutes with 16 of my friends from the TSA. 16? There was no line (there never is at San Jose Terminal C), two machines in operation (I’ve never seen more than two in action), and 16 people in TSA outfits mulling around. My TSA greeter barely spoke English – I had to ask him what he was saying (he wasn’t really saying anything, just mumbled at me about a laptop or something). I took off my jacket, shoes, emptied my pockets, took out my laptop, put my drink in the basket, and made sure I held on to my board pass (which was just checked by airport security 30 yards earlier).

Jim Lejeal has written a great post on Working With Microsoft. Jim is CEO of Oxlo – one of our companies – and was previously co-founder and COO of Raindance (now publicly traded on Nasdaq – RNDC – I was one of the first round investors). Microsoft is a key partner of Oxlo’s (all of Oxlo’s technology is based on Microsoft technologies – including Biztalk and Sharepoint) and Microsoft was an investor in Raindance. So – Jim’s had plenty of experience in this sandbox.

Today, NewsGator announced a broad European partnership with VNU. NewsGator is partnering with VNU to distribute both their consumer and enterprise RSS services throughout Europe, with an initial focus on UK, Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Belgium, and Spain. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone following NewsGator and RSS as JB Holston has extensive experience in Europe and RSS and blogging are expanding very rapidly throughout Europe (George Bush even visited Europe the other day – wow – Europe must be relevant). VNU – the leading IT media company in Europe – is in a great position to leverage RSS and help accelerate adoption throughout Europe.