Tech's armada of PR professionals can be their own worst enemy. But their protective shield occasionally hides the chauvinism of tech founders. Otherwise you get dudes like Blake Francis, founder of the question and answer app Need, who tried to buy favorable press from a female reporter with a wildly inappropriate gift basket.

Self-promotion on social media is an embarrassing and undignified business. One Lenovo PR exec boldly refused to pretend otherwise, approaching "top tier journalists" with arms outstretched: flattery in one hand, bribery in the other.

In an ideal world, people would only make things that were good and that other people wanted to use. Until then, we've got public relations professionals who help pitch ideas like "PeepMe," an app for showing people how much money you spend.

Public relations requires discipline, integrity, and like a game of idiot chess, rules. The first rule of public relations: a truly great product will always sell itself. The second rule of public relations: Randi Zuckerberg is always available.