Back in July of 2005, I suggested An Email Blacklist of Technology PR Agencies and caught a lot of flack for it. Not surprising, really.

Then in November of 2005, I followed up with PR Spam to Bloggers Continues and couldn’t decide what to do about it. Calling out a single person or agency at a time is time consuming and not really a good way to spend my time.

Just a few days ago, Chris Anderson took the bold step of publishing a list of all the email address he’s blacklisting because of PR spam. In fact, Sorry PR People: You’re Blocked does a nice job of explaining how many of us feel about the random solicitations and cries for attention we receive:

So fair warning: I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I’m interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that (I love those emails; indeed, that’s why my email address is public).

Well said, Chris.

He’s taking a very hard line on this and I’m tempted to follow the same model. I will, of course, hit the “Report Spam” button in Gmail before blocking a particular sender. If enough of us do this, it just might help a little bit.

(comments)

Google will unveil an initiative this week to make it easier for developers to create applications for multiple social networking sites via a set of open APIs.

Our web server and network see high traffic with demand spikes during the weekday “rush” period (typically 10:00-13:00 Eastern time) and during special Apple events, causing occasional slowdowns in page delivery. Visiting outside these rush times will provide the fastest server response.

This beta release of Microsoft’s RDC client adds auto-reconnect for network connections, wide screen support, Network Level Authentication (NLA), and improved multiple session support.

There is no doubt that we are in a time of chaos in the world. Wars and genocide are as prevalent as ever. Misery and suffering are on every continent of the globe we call earth. The world is currently focused on the ‘War In Iraq’ and the problem of nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea but the sad fact is threats to world peace are as prevalent as ever in spite of the efforts of the UN. Where do we turn? Our respective governments? Grassroots support? Does genocide on the African continent for example even matter? It is not unreasonable to look to the United Nations for understanding and problem resolution. Presumably, we expect it to be an unbiased and peace loving organization. Yet at closer examination one begins to realize the fact that the United Nations has been a total failure in terms of world peace. Rarely has the UN brought enough countries together to form an alliance to intervene meaningfully in the affairs of an oppressive and brutal country. With the exception of the World Health Organization little good has come from the peace making mission of the U.N. I suggest the UN go to what it does best. With its world standing already established, the UN should focus on research, education and health, the missions it does best.

The raids, arrests, beatings, and murders have begun in Myanmar. And for the Record, the People’s Republic of China, the number one ally, financial backer, and spiritual guide of the State Peace and Development Council has never done anything to discourage the junta’s use of violence–though everyone believes they easily could now. Worse, in this case the PRC may have encouraged violence, for just as China successfully cracked down on (massacred) its student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989, so the Burmese junta is cracking down on its Buddhist-led protesters with China’s tacit approval in 2007.

In April 2007, A List Apart and An Event Apart conducted a survey of people who make websites. Close to 33,000 web professionals participated, providing the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide. Months of data crunching later, what emerges in our free 80-plus page report is the first true picture of our powerful yet little-studied profession. Presenting the Findings From the Web Design Survey.

Now when you search for restaurants on Google Local (formerly Google Maps), you get details about the restaurant (location, food, reviews) along with its location. (example)

Google joins the already crowded RSS aggregator space with their new ajax RSS reader, done in the style of Gmail. Blogger project manager Jason Shellen led the project.

MOSKOU – Rusland beschuldigt de Verenigde Staten ervan de plannen voor de bouw van een Amerikaans raketschild in Oost-Europa te willen doorzetten, in plaats van alternatieve plannen te overwegen.