Startup Roundup: Comcast applies for patent to halt ad fast-forwarding, Duck Duck Go to accept sponsorship

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

Radnor’s Guideworks, a joint venture of Comcast and TV Guide, which maintains Comcast’s interactive programming grid—likely one of your daily-used UIs—has applied for a patent that will display “substitute media” when you fast forward through an advertisement. That’s right folks; your Comcast ad-skipping days will soon be coming to a close.

Viddler has opened its HTML5 beta, timed with some hot press from USA Today to boot. Like our coverage of Fishtown design shop WellFed last week, Viddler’s another local company effected by Steve Job’s anti-Adobe-ism, if that was a word.

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Shop Talk: interactive design studio WellFed rides the Flash wave

Updated, 5/13, 4:11 p.m.: Added Partner Gavin Potts details.

At interactive design firm WellFed‘s office space at 2424 Studios on York Street in Fishtown, on a cold, late winter day, the firm’s excitable puppy, Bella, runs from desk to desk.

Founded by Wick Vipond, Ty Burrowbridge and Gavin Potts—who got their start at agencies like Red Tettemer and 1 Trick Pony—WellFed, which opened earlier this year, is a friendly place for Bella, who huffs up and down the steps of the two-floor loft to visit a handful of employees and interns, like partner and technology lead Gavin Potts.

Unlike the larger agencies where the founders got their start, Vipond, 30, says that WellFed’s small team that gives them an advantage.

“We’re small, lean and able to be more efficient,” he says, his hair curiously gray for his age. “This year will be interesting. It’s our first full year where we’ve been a brick and mortar shop.”

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Events Highlights for May 10-16, 2010

No Cinco De Mayo this week to muck up your plans to get some networking done on Wednesday night.

Actually, even if you plan on drinking Wednesday, Tuesday has quite a few events, and the rest of the week is pretty full, too.

Tuesday, catch the return of Philadelphia Standards Organization or meet out in the ‘burbs with Agile Philly. And yes, Wednesday’s got plenty to offer as well: check in with May’s Philly ALT.NET meeting for an overview of Microsoft Azure and more.

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Seven Philadelphia revolutions, Baltimore Google Czar and More: Links

DEFINITE READS

Inquirer columnist Dan Rubin has a column on the seven Philadelphia revolutions, reminding us just what a legacy of innovation this city can recapture.

The Inquirer reports that the University of Pennsylvania boasts ties to 50 of the world’s 1,011 billionaires.

Below, Baltimore’s ‘Google Czar,’ the region’s job market turn-around and more.

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