Getting rid of junk mail

A while ago, I read a Joel On Software blog entry called "Stop the catalogs" in which he mentioned a non-profit organization named Catalog Choice that helps you opt-out of paper catalogs. I've since signed up for the free service and so far explicitly asked to no longer receive about 5 catalogs. I'm sure I'll be adding more catalogs to that list. While I had some momentum, I thought I'd work on reducing our volume of junk mail generally. It turns out that you can opt-out of both ValPak and SuperCoups mailings (you know, the envelopes filled with hundreds of coupons that are mostly irrelevant) and take yourself off of the Direct Marketing Association's mailing list. Here are some links you might find useful:

• SuperCoups - http://www.advo.com/consumersupport.html
• ValPak - http://www.coxtarget.com/mailsuppression/s/DisplayMailSuppressionForm
• DMA’s Mail Preference Service - https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/mps_consumer_description.php
• Five Toll Free Calls to Limit Junk Mail [I particularly recommend the number to stop unsolicited credit card offers] - http://www.timeatlas.com/mos/5_Minute_Tips/General/Five_Toll_Free_Calls_to_Limit_Junk_Mail/
• GreenDimes [I haven't really checked these guys out, so this isn't an endorsement] - http://www.greendimes.com/

Update: If you live in an area where you get weekly fliers in the mail from GlobeDirect (perhaps just the Boston area - since the company is associated with The Boston Globe), I discovered that you can call the number listed on the front of the outer flier (508-871-1900 for me at least) and request to be taken off of their mailing list. Since they normally send out materials once a week, this should make a huge difference!

Scala Links

Well, I said I'd have more Scala links, so here they are:

• http://scala-blogs.org/2008/01/guide-to-scala-community.html - provides some links I'd otherwise list, along with many others
• http://lamp.epfl.ch/~phaller/actors.html - Actors, Scala's cool approach to concurrent programming which comes originally from Erlang
• http://burak.emir.googlepages.com/scalaxbook.docbk.html - Scala.xml, paper on interacting with XML in Scala
• http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/views/java/libraryview.jsp?search_by=scala+neward - Ted Neward's "The busy Java developer's guide to Scala" series at IBM DeveloperWorks (This is a link to a search because I've never figured out how to link to a series)
• http://www.artima.com/forums/forum.jsp?forum=282 - Artima "Programming in Scala" Forum
• http://www.artima.com/scalatest/ - ScalaTest, a unit testing framework for Scala that can also be used to test Java code (could make a nice way to gradually get to know the language)
• http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=276&thread=216815 - Groovy, JRuby, or Scala: Which JVM Language to Learn Next?

If anyone else provides links (that aren't already on the first page linked above), I'd be happy to add them.

I Have a Logo!

If you've ever been here before, you'll probably notice that the top of the page looks different - I've added a logo! Beth spent some time designing one for my company, Grove Hill Software (yes, I know that is a truly sad website), and produced a modified version for my blog. I hope you like it. I sure do.

Experimenting with Scala

Although I'm really comfortable with Java and like it a lot, I came to the conclusion a while ago that I needed to add a language to my repertoire that facilitates rapid development. I know some JavaScript (which is actually a more powerful language than you might think), PHP, and Perl, but none of those quite fit the bill. I've been considering Python and Ruby for a while, but I've recently gotten very interested in Scala. I bought the e-book Programming in Scala available at Artima. I'll let you know what I think of it, along with posting a bunch of useful Scala-related links I've tracked down.