With all due respect to the recently mentioned firm 463 Communications, some folks may have been confused by its name. A Valley vet who's dealt with PR firms for years cleared this up for us:

Grease up your analog hole for a PR orgy next week. A naughty invitee forwarded the deets for a party from 463 Communications, the DC tech policy firm.

BusinessWeek's hype-killing article on Google's product line has everyone buzzing about the company's product cycle. Guest writer Garry Bibb explains the process — it all starts with a Battlestar Galactica marathon and some Mike's Hard Lemonade.

The Sun Microsystems CEO is blogging, Bill Gates is talking on podcasts, and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban tells reporters to check his blog. It's an age where company heads face their critics and fans directly — for better or worse.

A few months ago, we noticed that Google CEO Eric Schmidt had a rosary partner other than his wife Wendy. Well, since then, it's become no secret that Eric and his wife are on the outs, and no one know what happened to his fellow churchgoer. Meanwhile, all eyes have been on Eric's bosses, perpetual bachelors Larry and Sergey.

A tech bubble is measured by the number of industry events each night of the week. A full Thursday schedule doesn't mean we're back in 1999 — it just means the recession's long gone.

We're all a little jumpy about strangers in this post-9/11 world, and nowhere is tension over immigrants more pronounced than in the Valley, where immigrants run the world (and wash its dishes).

Overheard at last night's Valleywag SloshCon:

Most tech press releases are merely boring or irrelevant. But it takes an especially poorly crafted pitch to offend a journo or blogger. Shannon Allen, today's nominee for the Valleywag Flacky Awards managed to write one. Tips for flacks:

Hacks and flacks wished Andrew Orlowski (pictured, the one with his hair on top) farewell last night with a calm happy hour at the Edinburgh Castle Pub. His exit dilutes the pool of Valley journalism, as the Register reporter was a long-time snarker and Google hound (one confident enough to snub Google Press Day). Now, after five years in the Valley, he's headed back to England.

Major PR firm Edelman, tired of getting its ass handed to it by Outcast, A&R, Bite, B&O and every other tech PR firm, finally bought A&R in a deal announced today. PR Week says:

The Weber Shandwick takeover of Valleywag continues with WS legal practice guru Lucas Mast's report on this week's Third Thursday. In this edition of the PR and marketing talk series, PR blogger Jeremy Pepper MC'd a panel of corporate-blogging masters. If you're feeling cynical this morning, just read Lucas's three bullets and be done with it. We'll see if our boy Lucas can learn to stop paying attention to the actual talks and give us the nitty gritty, like whether someone got Steve Rubel drunk. In the meantime, Mr. Bright and Sunny pimps Third Thursday.

An unnamed publicist's e-mail to an unnamed journalist:

NYC tech-and-media conference Syndicate is turning into SXSW Interactive for big kids. The latest gossip: A cabal of attendees whipped up tees commemorating the union of PR bloggers Jeremy Pepper and Steve Rubel.

Are you important?

Give it up for Brooke Hammerling, winner of the Snacky or Flacky tourney of Valley PR hotties! The Brew PR founder was outvoted over runner-up Terra Carmichael from Yahoo in the final round of Snacky or Flacky. If you see her this weekend, buy the girl a drink.

Tips pour in about Google's PR hiring push. The guys just wanna bring that classy Sinatra hiring treatment to the world of public relations.

A reader fleshes out the Google PR headhunt spam story:

Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls of legal age! I bring you the two hottest people in PR, already deemed the most delectable from a hand-picked pool of the sexiest men and women in Valley publicity, now competing for the title of Snackiest Flack!

Valleywag readers finally narrow down the choice for snackiest flacky to two finalists. And they choose wisely. (How could they not, with every choice being a perfect 10?)