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Yesterday, I wrote a short review of a new mobile app from Webscorer that has a curious lineage. The startup came to be from a group of several ex-Microsoft developers and is led by Vesa Suomalainen. I have known Vesa for many years, and first met him when he ran Microsoft's mainframe communications business with a product called Host Integration server. This was back in the 3270 terminal emulation days and was quite the advanced product for its time. Vesa shared with me some lessons that he has learned with several botched startups since then and what he is trying to do with his latest venture.

• Zombie Cyborg Beetles! Implanted with electrodes at birth! Flown via radio signals! [Video] http://bit.ly/fZjB0H via @scienceblogs
• Unexpected hazards of e-book lending: http://bit.ly/dQbenZ via @maudnewton
• A Tale of Two Googles: Race, Labor, and Hierarchy in the Digital Age: http://bit.ly/eUPg93 via @ThoughtCatalog
• How blogs have changed journalism: http://reut.rs/fuugUl via @FelixSalmon
• "Putting Eric Schmidt in charge of policing online privacy is like appointing Bernie Madoff to direct the SEC" http://bit.ly/fjDLn5 via @HilliconValley

Just as the Human Genome Project aimed to crack the human code, the Startup Genome Project hopes to be able to drill down into some of the details of what it's calling the "innovation code."

The project has launched a survey to investigate "the science of startups," lessons from which it plans to incorporate into blackbox, a new seed accelerator that was created with the merger of techVenture, Cofounder Network, Founders First and Startup School.

A post on News Y Combinator has an intriguing proposition to the sometimes daunting task that startups face when launching a service.

The post asks if startups would be interested in a service that offered an API and other services to launch a startup.

Developer Regan Wolfrom wrote the post. In a reply to comments in the post, he said he and his partners are developing a service that would offer an API, and potentially an embedded JavaScript, to analyze the data from a launch and provide updates, alerts and reporting. The service would track users, while allowing for customized alerts and feature controls.

Why hop a plane to SXSW this year when you can get on a bus? Okay, let's rephrase that - why hop a plane when you can get on a bus with 20-something other folks, drive across country, and try to formulate a viable startup idea along the way?

At least that's the idea behind the Startup Bus, the brainchild of Elias Bizannes, which is now in its second, vastly expanded incarnation.

I started my career in enterprise software in the 1980s and after some years working in other areas (outsourcing and online media) I am back in the enterprise software game. This post is my reflection on what is different and what remains the same. I have focused this as advice to entrepreneurs building enterprise software ventures today.

1. Decide whether you want to be: a sailboat or power boat. Most enterprise software companies are self-funded sailboats. You know your direction - you are heading north. But you can tack left when the wind takes you that way and right with a little move on the tiller. You simply cannot go faster than the wind allows.

Applications are open now for Amazon Web Service's Startup Challenge. This is the fourth year that AWS has run the competition, designed to help recognize startups that are using (or planning to use) any of the paid Amazon Web Services, including Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, or Amazon Mechanical Turk. Prizes include up to $100,000 in cash and credits.

Startups that have yet to generate more than $10 million USD in gross annual revenue or outside funding are eligible to enter. Startups must be located in one of the 22 eligble countries across America, Asia, and Europe. And AWS will recognize 5 regional semi-finalists from each of the 3 regions, 6 finalists, and then select one global grand prize winner.

If you're capable of seeing past the old stones of Paris and the picturesque rural villages, you'll realize that France is every bit as technologically advanced as any other Western country - more so in some areas. Not only does the country have a higher percentage of homes with high-speed Internet than the U.S. (plus it's faster and costs half as much), it ranks first in the world for number of blogs per Internet user, and has a formidable market of Internet consumers who spent €5.5 billion online in the first quarter of this year.

When I came to Paris in 2006, I had a well-developed idea for a startup and nothing else. It's now been about three years since I joined the fray as an entrepreneur and tech blogger. In that time, I've discovered that the startup scene is infused with passion, energy and a strong spirit of collaboration.

At Tuesday's Demo Day, the latest batch of Y Combinator startups raved about the experience, the guidance, the resources, the networking that their participation in the incubator program gave them. As of today, YC startups can add another benefit to that long list: priority access to some of Facebook's technologies.

If there's a workplace environment that's as casual as the tech world, it's Hollywood. And in that informal setting, Paul Feig is an anachronism. Every day, the director of TV shows like Freaks and Geeks and The Office wears a suit and tie to work.

Last week Put This On ("a Web series about dressing like a grownup") interviewed Feig, and his answer to the question "Why a suit?" is applicable to anyone who's sitting down for a job interview: It's about projecting competence and a sense of power.