Last week was just a quick get together. Let's start getting into the what's behind Quikonnex. Meet me at http://quikonnex.ondemandconferences.com at 9PM EST Tuesday 1/13/09

Wow! It's been over two years since I last posted to GrayScales and that's about to change.

First of all, Happy 2009! Second, I'd like to invite any Quikonnnex member or anyone else that subscribes to my RSS feed to join me Tuesday night (1/6/2008) at 8PM EST in a Yahoo voice chat room. I know... it's been a real long time since I've used Yahoo for a Quikonnex meeting, but I've chosen this medium for very specific reasons. If you've not updated or installed the latest version of Yahoo, there's plenty of time to do it.

Add me to your Yahoo friends list, my Yahoo ID is 'n2links'. I'll be online about 15 minutes before the meeting on Tuesday to accept any of you who've not already got me in your lists. Send me a QMTP to my Qname of 'Jim' to let me know if you plan to attend. I'll look for you and add you to the conference.

Let's get reconnected. I'll update you on where and what I've been doing, where Quikonnex is going, and hope to hear from you about where you plan to take your online activities in 2009.

President Bushed signed the CAN-SPAM Act on December 16, 2003 and it is now law. Hopefully, this will reduce the number of emails that I get saying that it is sent in accordances with the proposed legislation by the House or the Senate or whatever organization decides to present some solution to the spamming problem. The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM) is a good thing in my opinion. If a real law exists, then maybe the anti-spammers will need to start proving guilt versus the current need for folks to prove their innocence. The unfortunate thing about this law is that it doesn't take effect until January 1, 2004. I expect the volume of spam email to increase significantly over the next couple of weeks as the spammers attempt to get in our face as much as possible while they're "safe". Will it really have any affect? I do not believe it will, the hard-core spammers will continue to forge email headers and direct folks to websites that are located outside the United States. The ability to shut them down will depend on what resources are put behind this Act by the US. However, maybe this Act will keep vigilantes like Julian Haight of SpamCop from shutting down small US based businesses just because it adds to his count. The anti-spammers have been largely unsuccessful a shutting down the real spammers. The CAN-SPAM Act will not affect these criminals either.