According to Silicon Beat, VCs have pumped $870-million into Web 2.0 companies during the first-quarter. It's great to see this much enthusiasm but the VC business is full of people who jump on bandwagons, which means there is lots of money going into sectors (e.g. video) with way too much competition. It's not the 31st video-sharing site (aka YouTube wannabe) will make it, right? As much as there is a lot of excitement now, get ready for a river of tears down the road when the revenue fails to materialize and the VC suddently money dries up. It may not be as painful as the bursting of the dot-com bubble because there has thankfully been some sense of pragmatism (and a lack of IPOs to seduce retail investors) but it will not be pretty either.

The power outage in California that knocked MySpace off line is yet another sign of the whole supply-demand equation has gone terribly askew. With North Americans now believing their basic rights include central air-conditioning, it's no surprise the electricity system is under siege. And we're not even talking about simple power conservation practices such as turning off the lights when you leave a room and using energy-efficient lightbulbs. Maybe it's time for folks in Silicon Valley to focus a little less on Web 2.0, and a little more on the alternative and renewable energy sector. A good start would be reading Tyler Hamilton's Clean Break blog on a daily basis.