Is it a sign of the improving economy? There’s some great tech tidbits today, plus news outlets are starting to report on increasing consumer confidence, better jobs numbers, and higher quarter-over-quarter venture capital investment. Sounds like a good reason to celebrate with a happy hour!

• The American Statesman has a great piece on Mike Maples, Jr. who is probably the VC with the highest deal flow in the world today.
• Austin continues to be do well despite the greater economy. This piece features Austin-based SuperPoints.
• ReddWerks, who creates Warehouse Management Systems, announced the acquisition of SeayCo.
• Bazaarvoice, who has served up over 50 billion pieces of customer-generated content, announced that advertising and branding guru Carole Irgang has joined the advisory board.
• Univa UD, which does infrastructure enablement for cloud computing , announces new product UniPlan.
• Austin Ventures Partner John Thornton is making waves with the upcoming Texas Tribune. He’s now hired former ATC head Alisha Ring, former Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, and Emily Ramshaw who lives in Austin but wrote for the Dallas Morning News.