Rakesh Mathur is back in town. The Junglee co-founder sold to Amazon in '98 after doing the "Let's buy Google, oops, let's merge with Google" circuit (just like Kosmix).

Empty holding companies go public all the time — the recently IPO'd company run by three Apple ex-execs is nothing special. But it just feels so bubbly to read:

Silicon Alley is back, decided the New York Times, and it's edgy. To prove it, the Times opens with the story of a dot-com poetry slam where one schlub fails to impress:

Talked Chris Coulter down from whatever rare Tasmanian drugs he's on and got another Demo update from him.

Whatever "Web 2.0" is supposed to mean, it comes down to one thing: Every business plan from the first dot-com bubble is back. Wired Magazine found a Mayfield VC who's perfecting the art of refurbished ideas. Allen Morgan went so far as to hire a 24-year-old to flip through old magazines for business ideas.

Allen Morgan, meet your perfect idea-recycling resource. Business 2.0's Om Malik points out a useful list of dot-com ideas — all of which are now ghost sites, enshrined in the Museum of E-Failure. Check out Adcritic.com, which feels (but doesn't look, thankfully) like today's Adrants or AdLand. Or boo.com, which — wait — no, that one's coming back from the dead. Incidentally, is that girl on Boo.com supposed to look like an extra from Buffy the Vampire Slayer?