North Coast Connections

Goodbye

2008-06-30T14:47:02Z

After 2 1/2 years and 96 postings, I bid you farewell as a contributer to the TS Blogs. It has been fun and a great learning experience for me.

]]> I extend my thanks to the Times-Standard, the blog readers, and those who took the time to post comments.

I will now be blogging for fun and profit for my business, and I do so with the experience I earned here.

Blogs can be controversial, adversarial, mean-spirited, amusing, informative, inspiring and educational. I have been fortunate to choose technology and how it impacts the North Coast as my topic, because this subject affects us all. It tends to be the great equalizer that brings together people from all walks of life and political stripe. Our controversies have been limited to the Mac vs Windows vs Linux debates, which are healthy and not overly heated.

I remain the coordinator and a regular contributor to the Times-Standard's Tech Beat column that runs every Thursday in the business section that is renamed "Tech Thursday."

Peace and out !!

Chris Crawford

Photo credit = Microsoft Clipart

The greatest tech tool ever - digital ink

2008-06-29T00:42:30Z

In this, my next-to-the-last blog entry, I have a story about the greatest tech tool ever. It's something called Digital Ink, by Rover Tech Fusions in Tampa, Florida. Here's the deal ... you write notes using a digital pen, dock it to your computer and it translates the text that can be exported into whatever program you want. Wow !!!

]]> I first heard about this while teaching a caseflow management class with a court administrator buddy of mine from Illinois, who bought this stuff for his probation officers that have to do a lot of report writing in the field. The company has various packages, but their NoteAmation package is the best, and it weighs in at a hefty $1,600 or so per combination of pads, portfolio, pen and docking station. Once you figure out the return in productivity, it soon becomes clear that this thing pays for itself many times over.

I do a lot of writing when I am consulting on site. I conduct interviews and document my observations, only to have to turn around later and assimilate the notes into a report and recommendations. The processing time off site to do this can be substantial.

There are a few tricks about this technology you should know ...

PEN
The digital pen you purchase is specific to you. It learns YOUR handwriting, even if it is not very good penmanship. The pen is a little fatter than most, but it holds a lot of memory and has a reasonably long battery life. Just remember to cap it when not in use to turn it off.

PAPER
The pen needs special paper to work. If you have specific needs such as data-field-specific forms you need to use, Rover will help you design the forms and you can print them yourself. Otherwise, you have to use their template paper pads that have special grid fields the pen uses to "read" your handwriting. Extra paper supplies are not prohibitively expensive.

TRANSLATION
After "teaching" your pen your handwriting by writing four practice pages, the pen does a respectable though not flawless job of translating your writing into text. You have three products from each run ... a titled file you can organize into topical folders, a graphic picture of your form in your handwriting, and the translated text that you can export into Word, RFF or a plain text file. The text is editable from within the program, so you can clean up mis-translates and even add text. If you draw pictures or diagrams, these can be turned into graphic files.

Imagine cops on the street writing tickets and police reports, nurses and healthcare professionals updating patient charts, and judges and court clerks making case notes during proceedings. The list is endless. Most of these folks have to duplicate their efforts by then typing (or having someone else type) the notes into a computer program.

Oh, and did I mention that some of the notepads have task lists and calendar entries that syncronize directly into Microsoft Outlook? YIKES !!!

I am hugely excited about this product and plan to do a lot of preaching about it. It sure has made my life easier, and I've only used it on one short project.

It's the write thing to do !!!

Chris Crawford

Photo Credit = Rover Tech Fusions, Inc.

Delta is OK by me

2008-06-22T15:59:59Z

I had my first trip on Delta Airlines last week and I have to say that the overall experience was positive. Kudos to the many local people who worked so hard to get this added air travel option for the North Coast. Chief among them was Gregg Foster, previous executive director for the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission. The others who helped include the Eureka Chamber of Commerce and the many businesses and individuals that purchased $2,000 "travel bank" advance airfare cards to prime the pump and convince Delta Airlines that we were serious and committed.

]]> For sure, the hard working staff at the Eureka/Arcata Airport are still trying to adjust to the added service and logistics. Technical glitches include the inability for passengers to pre-print boarding passes at home before flights, therefore requiring all passengers to stand in line for regular boarding tickets. Then there is the difficulty of coordinating three major early morning flights at the same time. Within 15 minute intervals Delta departs for Salt Lake City, Horizon departs for Los Angeles and United leaves for San Francisco. Just getting all these passengers ticketed and security screened, and their baggage stowed is a huge effort.

I was flying on a last-minute trip to Washington DC to do a one-day workshop with international judges, and I was able to handle the whole thing in two days. This was largely attributable to the ease of flying into and out of Washington/Reagan airport instead of Dulles (which is significantly farther away from DC). And I was able to do this with only one connection through Salt Lake City, as this is one of Delta hub airports where lots of connecting flights are available.

As an all-too-frequent business traveler, I now have the dilemma of choosing between United and Delta, and keeping the balance such that I maintain elite flying status on both. This is necessary because of easy upgrades and stand-by priorities. There are just too many things that can go wrong with (especially multiple connection) flights these days and 99% of my flights are for business purposes that are usually inflexible.

I admit to being surprised at how busy the Salt Lake City airport is, at least in the Delta terminal. It seemed much more busy than San Francisco, and on par with Denver or Chicago.

My wife is fond of saying, it's a poor rat that only has one hole to crawl into. This local added air service now gives this rat another hole, and I'm grateful to have it.

Chris Crawford

Photo credit = Delta Airlines

Blogging for profit

2008-06-14T00:25:20Z

OK, I admit to being an unabashed Capitalist. I got into blogging for fun, but after 2.5 years I think it's time to blog for profit. Accordingly, I'll bid the TSblog a fond farewell on June 30 and shortly thereafter begin a business-related blog on my Justice Served website.

]]> You still have 2-3 more tech-related postings coming between now and then, I just like to let people know what to expect.

Blogging for the TS has been fun. It takes a bit more time that I expected, but it helped me get into a discipline that will come in handy when I go into prime time blogging.

I also got a chance to check out other blogs in order to see what sorts of graphics and functionality I'd like to see in my own. Bob Morse did a good job explaining the blog technical options in two separate Tech Beat articles, so I'm taking his advice to use a commercial package rather that try to build my own. However, in order to get what I really want, I'm going to have to mash-up the presentation a bit.

You may or may not know that I coordinate the Tech Beat articles for the Times-Standard's Thursday Tech business section, and will continue doing so. Frankly, I found myself recycling these blogs into TB articles when authors would flake out. I'm not sure that will be so easy once I switch into business mode.

So thanks for the training, and I'll be back for 2-3 more postings before I say adieu. It's been fun !!

Chris Crawford

Photo credit = Microsoft clip art

Will paper maps disappear?

2008-06-09T15:02:48Z

While it's true that technology has and will continue to change just about everything around us, a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle made it sound like paper maps were coming to an end as a result of GPS devices that seem to have become so ubiquitous these days. I think the rumors of the death of paper in this instance are overstated.

]]> The article was really about the California State Automobile Association (also known as the Auto Club) shifting its map making services from in-house to AAA national headquarters in Heathrow, FL, and notes that free maps are still hugely popular as a membership perk. If this is correct, then why would paper maps disappear?

Whether through a GPS device or on paper, map making requires significant research and updating for accuracy. On the global scene, names of countries seem to change weekly, and domestically new streets and developments pop up all the time.

In fact, the proliferation of GPS units has sparked yet a newer updating need ... to capture the "landscape," whether natural or man made. Mobile trucks travel around taking photos of thoroughfares in an effort to keep up with landmarks, stores and services along the way, which are then offered as referrals to GPS device subscribers. And who is one of the main players in this field? The AAA that passes these referrals along to members seeking lodging, restaurants and services in unfamiliar communities.

Some who learn about these roving picture snappers worry that their photos will appear in someone's GPS scanner. Not so -- people are erased from these images and the landscape and its businesses remain.

GPS services are cropping up in cell phones, laptop computers and who-knows-where-else. The digitizing and updating of maps will continue to be a growth industry. However, there will always be a need for a paper map, whether for tech-deprived tourists, oldsters, technology have-nots or just nostalgia buffs.

Are we there yet ??

Chris Crawford

Photo credit = Microsoft clip art

Don't go all a Twitter

2008-05-31T21:09:21Z

Everyone in the tech world keeps looking for the biggest development of the year. Some of these phenomena don't emerge right away but build up a groundswell over time. I consider instant messaging, text messaging, Facebook and MySpace in this category. The latest buzz is about Twitter, a sort of a cross between a blog and an instant message.

]]> My favorite tech news source, TechRepublic.com had a recent piece on Twitter that extols its virtue. I'm more skeptical.

When instant messaging first came out, I used it sparingly. I was working in Hong Kong at the time and my project team was scattered in three separate apartments in two adjacent high rise buildings on Lantau Island. We all used AOL in our work and play, so it was convenient to see which of the team members was online when you were and to pass IM notes back and forth about project work or where to go for dinner. However, when I returned home it soon turned into a distraction and I came to resent people intruding into my desktop while I was working on something important. I turned it off and never went back.

I use text messaging, but only sparingly. Since I travel a lot and often have to meet with colleagues or clients who are in transit themselves, it's easy to drop a text message about airplane delays or other logistics to keep others informed. I don't use it much beyond this, and I find it amusing to watch others hunch over their cellphones thumb-typing long messages.

Obviously, I'm a blogger, but readers may choose to read a posting or ignore it. They may subscribe, or not. Blogs are not intrusive by nature, while Twitters are barging into your attention to let you know every mind-numbing thought someone may have or reference they wish to pass along.

I choose not to Twit, but I'll reserve judgment as to whether I ever will. Perhaps not so slowly I am turning into a technology curmudgeon.

Chris Crawford

Photo credit = Twitter

Shopping for antivirus software

2008-05-24T23:16:39Z

It is still shocking to me that a lot of people do not use virus protection software on their computers. Some, like Mac and Linux users, believe that their operating system choices preclude them from attack in the first place. Others , like Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin, believe that built-in security features in Microsoft Vista operating system and advances in Internet Explorer render anti-virus software unnecessary. The rest of us purchase virus protection software and services out of an abundance of caution or because we've been bit too many times to go without it.

]]> Like too many thing in life, once we decide to purchase something (a car, a vacuum cleaner, anti-virus protection, etc), we tend to stick with it out of laziness, familiarity or neglect. Stepping out of character, when my McAfee anti-virus subscription expired recently, I let it lapse and decided to try something else this time.

Part of my decision to drop McAfee on my desktop computer was based upon my dropping them from my laptop after I picked up a cool Yoggie masking device that protects me from sniffers trying to hack in through a public wireless Internet connection. This nifty device has its own built-in anti-virus protection and since it runs on a separate microcomputer, my laptop runs much faster without all the extra protection software.

The other reason I decided to drop McAfee is that I believe it's a good idea to switch protection choices once in awhile just to see what spyware, adware and other problems may exist on your computer that didn't get caught by a particular provider.

Accordingly, I'm on a 90 day trial subscription to Microsoft Live OneCare ... OK, now is the time to boo, hiss and otherwise diss the Redmond WA bad boy Microsoft. If they perform well, I'm not above using the evil empire to suit my own needs.

So far it's working OK. My only complaint is that it has an anti-phishing feature that I choose not to use and it keeps reminding me that I am not yet fully protected. I think I'm savvy enough to spot a phishing scam and don't want this extra nuisance so until the reminders get on my nerves, I'll stick with it (at least for the 90 day trial).

Y'all be safe out there, ya hear?

Chris Crawford

Photo credit = Microsoft clip art

Death by Powerpoint

2008-05-19T23:13:34Z

By now, we have all been subjected to Powerpoint presentations, and a hapless few of us have actually had to put these presentations together and deliver them in front of an audience. Neither of these are particularly pleasant experiences and I suspect that all of us have some Powerpoint horror stories to relate. Our posting today covers poor use of Powerpoint, as illustrated by an entertaining YouTube video by comedian Don McMillan entitled How NOT to use Powerpoint.

]]> Here are Mr. McMillan's pet peeves, augmented by me ...

TOO WORDY
Save us from those who copy and paste entire sentences and even paragraphs of text into a slide, expecting us to read or (worse) reading it to us.

NOT USING SPELL-CHECK
Including spelling errors in a Powerpoint presentation is much worse than in a letter or report. And it is laziness, as the software highlights spelling errors the same way that MS Word does.

BULLET POINTS
Sure, distill your key thoughts into a few well chose bullet points, but stop at 3-7 points. Otherwise, you lose the "point."

BAD COLOR SCHEMES / BAD FONTS
AACK !! The movie Speed Racer is getting bad raps for its nauseating color schemes, but this pales compared to some Powerpoint presentations I've seen. Even good colors can't make up for bad fonts. Here's a clue ... don't use serif fonts in Powerpoint ... ever.

NUMBER OF SLIDES
The amount of slides are inversely related to effectiveness of your presentation. Less is more.

POINTLESS MOTION
The only thing worse than a neophyte using Powerpoint is someone who thinks they know enough to add animation. Flying and dissolving text, and animated clipart will not salvage a bad presentation.

GIVE IT A REST
OK, this one's all mine ... a presentation is not multimedia unless you turn off the Powerpoint file and do something else during your presentation (otherwise, it's uni-media). Here's a useful trick - when you are in the middle of a Powerpoint presentation, press the B key (nothing else, just the B key) and this will blank out the screen. It's amazing how the participants will immediately start to relax and focus on you instead of the screen.

I routinely turn off Powerpoint during my presentations and I even won a training contract recently when I promised I would not use Powerpoint at all. The group was a gathering of judges and they overwhelmingly chose my proposal over my competitors chiefly because of this feature (OK, and my scintillating teaching skills).

For a glaring example of how a powerful presentation can be trivialized by poor use of Powerpoint, check out this link that shows how the Gettysburg Address would have been just another boring speech if it had been reduced to a set of bulleted talking points.

So here's the takeaway - Powerpoint is a tool. Use it selectively and properly. If you don't know how, learn it. There are tons of in-person and online courses to give you pointers on color scheme, fonts and organizing your material. However, if they don't include the advice to turn it off regularly, write this down anyway. You and those who hear your presentation will be glad you did.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Microsoft clipart

Hurry up and wait

2008-05-08T05:07:59Z

This week I found myself cooling my heels at the Eureka/Arcata Airport while air traffic problems in San Francisco delayed yet another flight. The choices were to fume, fuss, get into Zen mode and hope all worked out, or ... go into manager mode and correct the problem. I chose the latter.

]]> My first act was to make a mental note not to get lazy and book flights with short layovers in San Francisco. I now try for around 2 hours instead of one hour of less between connections. My next act was to saunter up to the counter and make back-up plans in case I missed my connection to Newark NJ. Luckily, I'm fairly well known here and the staff is terrific. They booked me a back-up route through Denver and even kept my upgrades in tact. Sweet.

So why use a technology blog to rant about my air travel woes? Simple ... it's tech that usually saves my sorry butt when things go awry.

I sign up to United auto notices that send messages to my cell phone whenever there are flight changes. Sometimes the news is good (you've been upgraded) and sometimes bad (your upcoming flight is delayed). Increasingly, delayed connections send the United auto-bot into correction mode and it books me on alternative flights.

My return flight from Newark (which I am still in the midst of) had similar hiccups with similar automated re-bookings. I am now in the Chicago airport on a free WiFi connection awaiting my flight to Sacramento, and eventually to Eureka.

It certainly helps to be civil and enlist human assistance when things go wrong. But I am also grateful for the technical solutions and tools that help me stay on the right path to a project or home.

All aboard !!!

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Microsoft clipart

When good jurors go bad

2008-04-26T22:53:17Z

Working in courts can be amusing at times, and one source for anecdotes is jury duty. Most people take jury duty very seriously, and I try my best to ensure that courts make jury service efficient and worthwhile for those who do. Occasionally, jurors display human weaknesses that make for head shaking bemusement. OK, this isn't technology, but it's entertaining.

]]> JUI
The first in our jurors-gone-wild episode is the case of a Texas juror who got it mostly right by showing up, going through the qualifying process, and almost making it to the courtroom where a misdemeanor driving under the influence case was ready for trial. As is usually the case, the inevitability of the trial prompted a guilty plea, but the judge noted that one juror was absent. After looking around, they found him in the judge's office displaying strange behavior that, after closer inspection, revealed he was under the influence himself (jurying under the influence?). He was promptly arrested.

$15 A DAY? ... LET IT RIDE
A recent study by a Cornell University student shows that the time it takes for a jury to deliberate is directly related to the amount of their daily pay for service. To be sure, jurors are highly underpaid and several states are taking commendable action to increase the daily stipend to better reflect today's prices. California, for instance, raised jury pay from a measly $5-a-day to $15-a-day back in 1998 ... the pay kicks in when you actually start a jury trial and your service is either one-day or one-trial, meaning if you don't get picked, you go home after the first day. In any event this study showed that a 10% increase in juror compensation increases the time juries spend deliberating by 5%.

Huh? Are they implying that for $5-a-day jurors will make short work of their deliberations, but for $15-a-day they'll stretch it out?

This reminds me of the nutjobs who run for mayor or city council because they need the stipend to live on. If I could only get myself on a jury, I'd be on easy street ...

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit - Jury's Restaurant, Chicago

Blog-grrr

2008-04-18T23:21:46Z

What the *&%#@ !! I look to add a new post and see that my last one didn't publish. GRRRR. I admit to being overly cautious at times, but it is only because I've been burned enough by tech hiccups that safe is better than sorry. Accordingly, I usually write my posts in an email to myself FIRST before I actually post them online. That way, in case something untoward happens, I have a back-up version (and I keep an archive version for my files).

]]> This time, I had a very amusing story from the American Bar Association Journal about a major NY law firm that is banning BlackBerry smart phones from company meetings. As misfortune would have it, I was in the Columbus OH airport on Friday 4/11 about 15 minutes from boarding time, balancing a laptop on my rolling luggage and had to load the story directly into the system while composing on the fly. I even downloaded a cool graphic from Crackberry.com to embody the world's frustration with these annoying little gadgets.

Well forget it ... if you want to find out about the he-said-she-said comments from this "controversy," go and read them yourself. I'm too ticked off to summarize them again.

Grrrrr.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Microsoft clip-photos

Decidely low tech

2008-04-07T00:42:04Z

This is not a tech posting. I am surrounded by technology, yet I am constantly reminded that most of the keys to success have little or nothing to do with tech.

]]> In my work, I will often bid on a prospective project that is billed as a technology project, but in reality it isn't. Sure, courts need to acquire new automated case management systems to help them log, track and calendar cases. But what do they really need? Someone to come in, take a look at the case processing procedures, figure out what's working, change what's not working, and then write up a description of how processes are intended to be so a programmer can either build a new system or a vendor can decide whether an off-the-shelf software package will fit these needs.

And even those projects that have outward appearances of technology projects are in reality project management exercises. It is shocking to me how many public sector projects fail because they do not clearly define the problem, clearly define what needs to be done, lay out a communication plan, honestly asses the risks involved, and then lay out the set of tasks needed to accomplish what is expected. But the public sector isn't alone, several studies have shown that private and public sector projects fail at an alarming rate, and a prime reason is a lack of project management.

So as I suit up to fly to another exotic location (this time, it's Columbus, OH), I pack my Blackberry Pearl, laptop computer, MP3 player, and assorted software modeling and productivity programs. I have all the outward appearance of a tech warrior doing battle to tame the technology beast.

In reality, I am an old fashioned efficiency expert who sniffs around and organization like Hercule Perot in an Agatha Christy novel. My real tools are the spoken and written word, used to convince clients to choose among prospective solutions and to document the one that is chosen.

I could write it down in Sanskrit on paper parchment ... or I could type it into a word processing program and provide the client with electronic and hard copies of the final report.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Microsoft clipart

Leave it to the jury

2008-03-30T17:47:13Z

I'm on my way to Austin, Texas (a GREAT town) to attend a court technology conference and had a chance to browse my jury management e-newsletter while I'm awaiting connections here at SFO. Like so many aspects of life and work, everything seems to have become so complicated. Managing juries is no different. Here are a few of the emerging trends that affect your ability go be judged by a jury of your peers ...

]]> THE CSI EFFECT
In the old days, juries were affected by television to the extent that the Perry Mason series led the public to believe confessions routinely occurred from the courtroom audience. Nowadays, the TV-effect comes from the proliferation of Crime Scene Investigation shows that delve into scientific minutiae in order to detect who-dun-it. As a result, a growing number of juries are acquitting defendants because prosecutors are not introducing scientific evidence on the form of fiber analysis, DNA, ballistics, fingerprints and more. The reality is that most crimes do not involve forensic evidence, and the cost for extensive lab work is prohibitive, rendering scientific evidence to only those cases where it is really needed.

THE CONNECTED JUROR
To be sure, the Internet impacts all aspects of our lives and juries are no different. My company issues annual Top 10 Court Website Awards and many of the recipients are recognized because they offer excellent online jury services such as orientation, check-in, postponement, and even the ability to print out parking and bus passes. Of course, the increasing use of Internet-based jury management leads to the question of who is left out, especially when the end game is to find the widest cross section of a community as possible. Austin, Texas (naturally), has taken this concept seriously and actually calls theirs the I-jury. They claim that their community demographics insofar as access to the Internet has enabled them to maintain racial, economic and gender diversity.

THE MEDDLING JUROR
I previously wrote about blogging jurors and the difficulties associated when there is too much jury connectivity. People are strange creatures who do strange things from time to time, and juries are no different. Nonetheless, jurors are not supposed to conduct independent experiments to test the validity of testimony, nor are they supposed to conduct independent research by "Googling" on their smart phones inside the jury deliberation room.

Sometimes technology and culture enhance the jury experience and sometimes it hinders our ability to provide fair, equal and accessible justice. Staying on top of it all is the challenge.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Jury Duty (1995) with Pauly Shore

Vista gets goosed

2008-03-21T22:52:26Z

Microsoft Vista, the oft-maligned operating system from the evil empire, reached its first milestone ... Service Pack 1 is the first major tweaking that Vista has had since its erstwhile launch. It doesn't do anything to correct what most users agree are fundamental flaws with the operating system, but it does make Vista more stable and fleet of foot.

]]> I use Vista on both my desktop and laptop, however, I'm not a fan. This is not because I hate Microsoft or I'm some avid Mac or Linux pusher. I don't like Vista because it is clunky, it changed everything around for no good reason, it has huge compatibility issues and it doesn't improve the computing experience.

I downloaded Service Pack 1, but frankly I don't notice any difference one way or another. For those of you out there who have your PCs set for automatic updates for these sorts of upgrades, I caution you to go to the CONTROL PANEL, click on WINDOWS UPDATE and check NOTIFY ME BEFORE DOWNLOAD so you can pick and choose which updates to want installed before your computer does it for you. I've known too many instances where auto updates have caused huge problems. One of these is to NEVER update to something that "authenticates" your operating system.

To find out the good, bad and ugly of Vista, visit PC Magazine's one-stop Vista resource.

Forewarned is forearmed

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Permission to spam, sir

2008-03-18T15:41:41Z

I received a rather odd request from the Government of Hong Kong today. As a contractor who has worked extensively in their court system, I am still signed up to receive email notification when the government sends out requests for contract bids. One never knows when a juicy project may pop up, and I have a fair-to-good chance of being selected for it if it involves judiciary work.

]]> Anyway, Hong Kong passed a new law in 2007 regulating email notices, so they sent me this notice in English and Chinese ...

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Ordinance (UEMO) (Cap. 593) and the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Regulation (UEMR) were enacted in 2007. The UEMO regulates the sending of "commercial electronic messages" with a "Hong Kong link". In this regard, we would like to seek your explicit consent to continuously subscribe to our Service, i.e. to receive our emails on tender information. Grateful if you can reply us with the attached form duly filled on or before 31 March 2008, please.

In other words, in order to continue receiving subscription email notices, I have to "consent" in writing. Hmm ... this means that anyone with a Hong Kong e-address operating a listserv, email newsletter subscription, or even a blogger's auto-notification when comments are posted have to first "consent" to receiving emails. How awkward.

Of course, their intent is good. Spam is a MAJOR problem with a VERY high price tag to individuals and business. This particular law attempts to regulate email, phone calls (do not call lists), unsolicited faxes, instant messages and even text messages. However, regulations that cause government agencies to have to re-subscribe those who affirmatively signed up to receive listserv email notices seems a bit onerous to me.

I am subscribed to a dozen or more email lists. Only two send out a periodic ping advising subscribers that they are subscribed to the list (duh). Ironically, these notices end up in my spam filter where I ignore them. Again, it seems rather dumb to me.

As long as mass email blasts have an unsubscribe feature, I think there is no need to handcuff the originators by requiring more than the original act of subscribing. If these blasts are spam (unsolicited advertising), I learned long ago NOT to use the unsubscribe feature because too many spammers use this to verify that yours is a valid email address and then either sell you to another spammer, send you more junk, or both.

These regulations, as well intended as they may be, provide a justification for the pulling of information instead of the pushing. For instance, blog and RSS feeds get around these regulatory problems by offering technology that allows the user to pull content into a browser instead of pushing content into someone's email box. At first, I found this clunky and had to use a third party feed reading software, but now the Firefox browser allows you to easily subscribe to a bunch of RSS feeds and merely click on each to find its content.

So go ahead and complain about unwanted spam ... just be careful that the regulated solutions may not solve the problem and may even cause a few problems of their own.

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

Photo credit = Hormel Foods