Tim O'Reilly's VC mission decloaksTim O'Reilly has finally come "out of the VC closet," as one reader notes, with the announcement of O'Reilly Alphatech Ventures. The owner of Web 2.0 plans for his VC arm to invest in "hackers" and "disruptors" and "bionic software" and "photon torpedoes" (note: only one of those is a lie). Current investments include a wifi widget toy, a wiki-style instructional platform, and software to enforce better spending habits. Investors in the O'Reilly venture itself include Omidyar Network and Explore Holdings (the latter, a.k.a. Jeff Bezos). But really, "Alphatech"? Sure, the world is hurting for names, but there's got to be something more original and less bland.

[Photo: Dresden Future Forum]