I believe that science fiction is reality catching up to the future. Others say that science fact is the science fiction of the past. Regardless, the gap between science fact and science fiction is fascinating to me, especially as it applies to computers.

My partners and I spend time at CES each year along with a bunch of the founders from different companies we’ve invested in due to our human computer interaction theme. In addition to a great way to start the year together, it gives us a chance to observe how the broad technology industry, especially on the consumer electronics side, is trying to catch up to the future.

Bruce Li kicks butt.

But the guy is like a small Shanghainese dude the size of a Shih Tzu. He kicks massive ass. How does he do it?

Bruce Li says stuff like "resist like water," but here is how he does it: He uses you to kick your own butt.

Your strengths?! Hurt you.

I am co-teaching a class at Harvard Business School on entrepreneurship called "Launching Technology Ventures" along with my friend and colleague, Professor Tom Eisenmann.  The class kicked off this week with two cases:  Dropbox and Aardvark.

As I reflect on the class discussions, one of the interesting tension points that arose is the challenge an entrepreneur faces in selecting their primary product design approach.  Should they follow the Steve Blank, Customer Development Process school of product development or the Steve Jobs "vision" school?  In other words, should they pursue a user-centric design paradigm -- setting priorities based on rigorous tests and listening excercises that determine what users want -- or should they pursue a more top-down approach akin to Steve Jobs, who famously said: "It is hard to design by focus groups because most of the time people don't know what they want until you show it to them. "

The AlwaysOn X Fund portfolio advanced 3.4% last week, while the NASDAQ was up 1.1%, and the S&P 500 was up 0.1%. For the year, the AO X Fund is up 9%, the NASDAQ is up 8.1%, and the S&P 500 up 4.7%.

Apple had an extremely strong quarter, with earnings growth of 116% and revenue growth of 73%. iPhone sales were the main driver, with 34 million iPhones sold during Q4, up 128%. iPad sales were also strong with 15.4 million units sold, up 111%, and Macs grew 26%, with 5.2 million sold. iPod sales continued to decline, down 21%, with 15.4 million sold. Retail revenue was up 37% vs. last year, and Apple generated $17.5 billion in cash from operations and now has $98 billion in cash on its balance sheet. For the week, AAPL advanced 6.4%.

Consider two hypothetical restaurants: type one and type two.

Restaurant type one: Imagine yourself wandering the streets of a new city. You could be on Ocean Drive in South Beach, or Piazza Navona in Rome. You're thinking about dinner, and you come across a restaurant conveniently located on a busy stretch of street. Outside, it displays its panoply of meal choices in wax replica splendor, or "freshly cooked" under Saran wrap. On the sidewalk, an aspiring tan model flanks a manager-host, who wears a loud tie to go with the even louder voice he uses to solicit passersby. "Would you like to come in and eat 'world famous x'? Or maybe try the daily cocktail special?"

I had an opportunity to speak to the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum at Towson University last week about new strategies and tactics for fully capitalizing on today’s Cloud alternatives. Because the group is composed of CIOs primarily from mid-size and large-scale enterprises with a lot of custom built applications and systems already in place, their biggest challenge is determining how to integrate the latest Cloud services into their legacy operations. Managing ‘hybrid’ Clouds is becoming a common challenge.

Behind every successful Internet and mobile technology startup is a handful of power players guiding the founders. Smart and savvy investors like Eric Hippeau or the celebrated Bob Pittman may give you a kick start, super attorney Victor Boyajian might draw up and help you ink your Series A financing, or Union Square's Fred Wilson might chip in some expansion capital and join your board. In celebration of these key insiders, AlwaysOn is seeking nominations for your favorite New York City Power Players.

Six months ago I wrote a post about how I think about competition which included a list of topics that summarizes my philosophy. I covered the first item, Be The First Mover, but then went on to other things, like thinking about competitors every single day. I’m back today with the second topic, “Resegment If You Aren’t In The Top Three.”

If you look at the Foundry Group portfolio, you’ll notice a lot of market leaders. Zynga is the obvious one, but I’ll assert that there are many others, including AdMeld (now part of Google), Cheezburger, Fitbit, Gnip, Makerbot, Oblong, SendGrid, Topspin, Trada, and Urban Airship.

Now that I've completed three posts on The Management Team over the last three MBA Mondays, it's time for four or five guest posts on this topic. The first one is from Matt Blumberg, CEO of our portfolio company Return Path. I've been on Matt's board for over a decade and I've watched him develop into one of the finest managers I've had the pleasure to work with. Here are Matt's thoughts on this topic.