Is it time to party like 1998? Well, maybe not. Regardless though, the venture capitalists are coming back to invest their money into our industry once again. Perhaps this time they will consider avoiding throwing away millions on talking sock puppets and instead put their money into developing technologies.

Four years after the Internet bubble burst, the venture-capital industry is stirring back to life. Investments by venture firms rose 22 percent in the second quarter of this year, to $5.8 billion, from $4.7 billion a year earlier, according to the MoneyTree Survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association.