Before John Lilly got the CEO job at Mozilla Corporation, I had visited the HQ of the the open-source software nonprofit foundation and also a for-profit start-up–famous for its increasingly popular Firefox browser (logo pictured here) and red dragon logo–on Landings Drive in Mountain View.

I toured the place and took video note of a freakishly large sculpture made of soda cans and the biggest couch I have ever seen. In other words, just another typical Silicon Valley company.

Here’s an inside look at Mozilla HQ:

Recently, Julie Wainwright came to visit AllThingsD HQ (also known as BoomTown’s abode) to talk about her newest venture.

Wainwright, as many recall, was the former CEO of Web 1.0’s most memorable flameout–Pets.com.

While a lot of the attention it garnered was probably undeserved–after all, Pets.com was no worse than a lot of goofy start-ups out there, except for its irksome sock puppet mascot–Wainwright will forever be linked with the failed e-commerce company.

Nonetheless, the longtime Web exec–before Pets.com, she was CEO of Berkeley Systems and also Reel.com–has just launched SmartNow.com.

The site is a far cry from shipping bags of kibble–aimed at women 35 to 55 and using Web 2.0 features and lots of video to deliver information on health issues, self-improvement, spirituality, nutrition, fitness and a range of other topics.

SmartNow uses experts–such as doctors, dieticians, diet coaches, inspirational writers, psychologists, fashion and beauty professionals, and even humorists–as well as letting users and women’s groups deliver personal stories.

That includes, for example, Melissa Bates, who tells of her bout with breast cancer in a gripping video.

The 51-year-old Wainwright got the inspiration for the site from her own personal efforts and challenges–including shutting down Pets.com and struggling through a divorce right after that.

While looking for helpful info, she noticed that there were few sites aimed at women like her, so she decided to start one. Self-funded, Wainwright says she is now talking to some angel investors.

Here’s Wainwright talking about her new start-up:

Yesterday, I was a judge on a three-person panel at the Under the Radar: The Business of Web Apps conference, held at Microsoft’s (MSFT) Mountain View, Calif., campus in Silicon Valley.

The event, sponsored by Dealmaker Media, was a very good version of many such conferences held often around the region, where start-ups come to show themselves off in what amounts to a geek version of “American Idol.” There were just over 30 companies there yesterday.

In other words, entrepreneurs come to make a PowerPoint pitch before the panel and the audience and then we get to ask questions and make comments, a la Simon Cowell.

(I tried to channel Paula Abdul, but 10:45 a.m. is much too early to start drinking–um, it’s just Diet Coke!–for me!)

The companies I judged–with Stephen Stribley of Microsoft Office-Live and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners’ Prashant Shah–were in a category called “Manage Up.”

That meant they were all essentially in the enterprise-software-as-a-service arena that has gotten–and will get–increasingly hot.

The group I judged included: Act-On Software (an on-demand Internet communication and collaboration service), Magento (an open-source e-commerce), Mumboe (an online document-management service), and NetBooks (a Web-based business-management system).

All were interesting and promising, although all had issues, from security to marketing challenges to, of course, bigger competitors.

I did a video of snippets of the presentations of all four in a row, starting with Act-On, as well as a little interview with one of my favorite VCs–but only because he is funny–Mitch Kertzman of Hummer Winblad. He was there to support several of his investments, including SlideRocket (an Internet presentation application).

Here’s the video:

To no avail, although we did have a great debate with Techmeme’s Gabe Rivera about the ethics and rules of blogging and (sometimes lack thereof). Conclusion: We did not always agree, but Rivera is one smart cookie. (Also, the actual cookies and churros at the conference were mighty tasty.)

In this video, we talk to some folks, including the voluble Calacanis and the guy from Mint (whose expressive eyebrows actually rival those of John Paczkowski, also in the video), the start-up that won the conference’s best-in-show $50,000 grand prize.

Also: BoomTown will soon be trying out a new camera a la that annoying hat-camera guy, so get your Dramamine ready.

In addition, cupcakes were had.

(The day also included a pricey payback lunch for a bet I lost about News Corp.’s acquisition of Dow Jones.)

Thus, here is my video on the event that featured tech start-ups, Web start-ups and–did we mention?–more tech and Web start-ups.

And, as usual, Scoble!