The fourth quarter of 2009 was a very tumultuous one, with the industry going through a lot of changes in very short time. It was very similar environment in the venture capital arena, with Mercury News carrying an article about 2009 being the lowest funding in 6 years.

Venture funding plunged in 2009 to lowest level in six years

It's hard to find a lot of information about venture capital investments, so sharing a report for reading here.

4th Quarter Venture Capital Investments Report

Recently Twitter had come up with a list of banned passwords which are commonly used and therefore not allowed for Twitter Accounts. Here is the list: http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Twitter-banned-passwords.txt

Imperva - a company specializing in Web Application Firewalls has also come up with a similar list. A web application firewall is a firewall with application layer capabilities and logic to block certain application layer attacks, not just the network layer attacks that general firewalls prevent.

Here is the Imperva white paper on passwords: http://www.imperva.com/docs/WP_Consumer_Password_Worst_Practices.pdf

By now we've all heard about the iPad. The iPad is an interesting concept, but not many can make up their mind whether they want it or not. Many say its going to be a failure, and a few say they want it. Apple's had its own share of failures as well, most notably the Newton, and they've downgraded their Apple TV from Product to Steve Job's hobby.

Anyway - success or failure should be decided once the product comes to market and not by a few vocal enthusiasts. Any focus group can easily be swayed by a vocal member, and that is what seems to be happening at a much larger scale.

Radio Jockeys, Newsletter writers, talk show hosts all have been very vocal about how the iPad is not something they want. They cite multi-tasking and flash as their main reasons for not wanting it. It's too early to judge, and Apple has this challenge on their hands.

Apple's marketing folks might have anticipated something similar so they might have planned ahead and put in a plug for the iPad at the Grammys. Check this out here - Stephen Colbert Pulls Out iPad at the Grammys Towards the end, Stephen Colbert asked his daughter whether he was looking cool with the iPad and she had a blank expression.

I certainly like the iPad and I strongly believe people should have the opportunity to decide for themselves - not through a few vocal folks who have not played with the iPad but would like to pitch in with their "expert" opinion.