Author Archives

    Bryan Sims

    Posted on

    A Great USB Drive

    by

    Of course, there is no substitution for encryption to ensure that your information remains secure. However, you can add additional layers of protection by making your data difficult to find or recognize. To this end, ThinkGeek has a great product that they call the Hacked And Frayed Spy Flash Drive. The device is described as a “2GB flash drive cleverly disguised as a frayed and broken USB cable.”

    Bruce Schneier notes:

    This is a 2 Gig USB drive disguised as a piece of frayed cable. You’ll still want to encrypt it, of course, but it is likely to be missed if your bags are searched at customs, the police raid your house, or you lose it.

    The comments on Schneier’s post raise a question I had, namely whether it would be better to have a complete cable rather than a frayed cable.

    If you want to make your own cable, check out this post from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

    Posted on

    Gadgets Killed by the Cellphone

    by

    I recently ran across a couple of posts dealing with the effects of the cellphone: Five Gadgets That Were Killed by the Cellphone and Seven (More) Gadgets Killed by the Cellphone.

    The first five:

    • The PDA
    • The Camera
    • The UMPC (ultra mobile PC)
    • The Phone
    • The MP3 Player

    The next seven:

    • The Pager
    • The Wristwatch
    • Pocket Calculator
    • Alarm Clocks
    • SatNav (stand alone GPD)
    • Books
    • Handheld Consoles

    Some of these I definately agree with. I think we can all agree that with very minor exceptions the pager is dead. I personally quit wearing a wristwatch several years ago when I determined that it was not worth my time to get the battery replaced. Since then, I have encountered many others who reached the same conclusion.

    Similarly, I know many people who use only a cellphone and no longer have a landline.

    I supposed it depends on the type of phone that you have, however, I know that the calculation on my Treo can do more than any pocket calculator that I ever owned.

    On the other hand, I think that, although the UMPC is dead, the concept is not. Netbooks are becoming more popular. In fact, Ross Kodner has declared that a netbook is now part of his perfect laptop equation.

    Posted on

    Book Review: Holding Fast by Karen James

    by

    I recently read Holding Fast: The Untold Story of the Mount Hood Tragedy by Karen James. I received this book as part of Thomas Nelson’s blogger book review program.

    In December 2006, three climbers lost their lives during a terrible storm on Mt Hood in Oregon. One of the climbers was named Kelly James. His wife, Karen, is the author of this book. When I first learned of the book, I was excited to read it. I typically enjoy books such as this that recount actual events in a novel form.

    Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me because it was not what I thought it purported to be. The subtitle for the book is The Untold Story of the Mount Hood Tragedy. I don’t think that this is accurate. This book is not about the tragedy, but instead is about Karen James’s loss of her husband in a mountain climbing accident. As the story of a wife who loses her husband on the mountain, who waits in fear and anticipation with here family, and who finds solace and comfort in her relationship with God, this is a great story. It just should have been billed in that manner.

    With respect to the tragedy, the book falls short, however, in that it barely devotes any time to the other two climbers who perished on the mountain. Besides finding out that one of the climbers was a close friend of Kelly’s and that they met the third climber during a different mountain climb, the other climbers get virtually no mention.

    One aspect of the book that I really enjoyed was the number of pictures. The center of the book contains several pages of color photographs, including several from Kelly’s camera that was recovered with his body. Additionally, there were many additional photographs sprinkled throughout the text of the book. I thought this method of sprinkling the photos throughout the book worked really well and added to the book.

    In sum, if you want a book about a wife’s journey in losing her husband to a terrible tragedy, this book addresses that perfectly. If you want a book that addresses the tragedy suffered by the climbers, then you probably want to take a pass.

    Posted on

    Creating a Digital Signature

    by

    I know that I have written before about creating a digital signature. (Just to clarify, by digital signature, in this instance I am talking about a digital picture of your physical signature.)

    Ernie Svenson recently announced that he was putting on a CLE seminar on digital workflow. As Ernie explained at the time:

    In the past two years I’ve given several presentations on ‘Digital Workflow,’ or how to make your law practice less dependent on paper. Whenever I give this talk the room is always packed with people who want to know the step-by-step process of becoming more digital.

    About six months ago Dane Ciolino and I were tapped to give this presentation together, which was great because, over the years, Dane and I have often had lunch together to talk about our ‘paperless law practices’ and share ideas on how to make things better. So presenting together was a lot of fun for us, and (from the feedback we got) entertaining and informative for the audience.

    * * *

    It occurred to us that there’s a big demand for this kind of information, and it’s not really being presented very often around Louisiana. So, we decided to take the bull by the horns and put on our own CLE Seminar. The idea is to create a group of basic, intermediate, and advanced sessions. And to present them on a fairly regular basis. We’re going to start with a 3 hour session on December 12th, in the morning. For more information, and to register for the seminar, click here.

    Since then, they have added several useful pages to their CLE website, including a page on the IRS requirements for keeping records electronically and basics on scanning. The page that caught my eye, however, was on digital signatures.

    That page has a PDF download that explains how to create a digital signature as well as how to “flatten” your PDF so that the siganture is not easily removed. The page also includes javascript code that allows yout to add the flatten command to your Acrobat menus.

    This is a great resource and I urge you to check it also. Also, if you are anywhere near where Ernie is giving one of his presentations, I would suggest that you attend that as well, if at all possible.

    Posted on

    Nitro PDF, A Viable Alternative to Adobe Acrobat?

    by

    The Greatest American Lawyer recently suggested a viable alternative to Adobe Acrobat: Nitro PDF. Most Acrobat alternatives do nothing more than simply create PDFs. In my mind, that is not the purpose of Adobe Acrobat. It has many more features that allow you to comment on or otherwise handle your PDF documents. According to GAL, Nitro PDF includes these features:

    You need to do more than read PDF documents.  You need to be able to engage in mark-up, editing, commenting, and creating PDF documents.  I have been using both Nitro and Adobe products for years.  I have always been shocked at how good Nitro is at mimicking the Adobe Standard functionality.

    I have not tried Nitro PDF before, but it sounds like they have the right idea here. If you are looking for a full featured PDF program and don’t want to buy Acrobat, now might be the time to check out Nitro PDF. The regular price is $99. However, Nitro PDF has a Christmas special that is valid unit December 19. The special pricing is $49.50.

    As GAL noted in his post, even if you already have a full version of Acrobat, Nitro makes a good option to give your staff full PDF functionality without the cost of Acrobat.

    Posted on

    Backing Up Your Gmail Account

    by

    I along with many other people I know have a Gmail account. I don’t use mine for business, however, I know that some people do.

    If you are using your Gmail account for anything that is at all important, you need to check out Gmail Backup. Gmail backup is a nifty utility that allows you to backup your Gmail account. thus preventing you from losing any of your important emails. Google is good, but it is not infallible. Given the email outages that have happened with the Gmail service, it is not inconceivable that you could lose some of your emails at times.

    If you use Gmail for anything important at all, I suggest you check out Gmail Backup.

    Hat tip to Inter Alia for pointing this out.

    Posted on

    With Monitors, Size Does Matter

    by

    A recent study from the University of Utah reveals something that anyone who uses larger and/or multiple monitors already know: If you use a larger monitor or multiple monitors, you are more productive. Specifically,

    People using the 24-inch screen completed the tasks 52% faster than people who used the 18-inch monitor; people who used the two 20-inch monitors were 44% faster than those with the 18-inch ones.

    The Wall Street Journal Business Technology Blog further reports:

    The study concluded that someone using a larger monitor could save 2.5 hours a day. But James Anderson, the professor in charge of the study, tells the Business Technology Blog to take that result with a grain of salt: It assumes that someone will work non-stop for eight hours, which no one will, and that the tasks they perform will all benefit from a larger screen, which isn’t always the case. But things like moving data between files are ideally suited to bigger or multiple screens. Anderson, who uses a computer with two 20-inch screens and one 24-inch one, recommends that businesses take the time to match employees with the proper size screen based on job requirements.

    If you have never tried using multiple monitors, you should. If you are unsure where to start, have an article about using multiple monitors on my Files page. Also, don’t forget your staff. It’s great if you increase your productivity, but don’t leave your staff using 15 inch CRT, while you are using 24 inch LCDs. You want your staff to be productive as well.

    Posted on

    Windows 7: Is It the Silver Lining in the Vista Cloud?

    by

    I know that large numbers of people, including myself, have stuck with Windows XP and avoided Windows Vista. A recent post from Lifehacker provides hope that Windows 7 may not suck. The post gives us the Top 10 Things to Look Forward to in Windows 7.

    Of the 10 items, three of them jumped out at me as quite useful.

    9. Calculator, WordPad, and Paint got overhauled.

    It sucks that Windows 7 is stripping the built-in Photo Gallery and movie-making software that you’ll find in Vista (even the Windows Calendar is nowhere to be found in the 7 Preview), but a few of their built-in stalwarts did get some attention. WordPad and Paint both got the Office 2007 ribbon installed, and Calculator now incorporates real world uses into it. At this point only masochists still use Paint and WordPad, but the extension of the ribbon to those inconsequential programs may be a harbinger for more upgrades and ribbon appearances in the future.

    I am actually not a big fan of the ribbon, but I love the fact that the built in calculator will actually be useful. This is a nice touch that just makes computing that much easier.

    7. You can switch between Wi-Fi networks in one click from the system tray.

    File this under “a small change can make a huge difference”: Click on the Wi-Fi adapter in your system tray to pop up a menu of available wireless networks. From there you can refresh the list, and choose the one you want to connect to in one click. Another boon for roaming notebook users.

    This is another simple thing that can make your computing life better. Why does Windows make us wade through a bunch of stupid screens just to find and access wireless networks? Making this accessible with just a couple of clicks is a great improvement.

    6. You can decide what you do and don’t want to see in the system tray.

    No more registry-editing to blanket-disable balloon notifications in your system tray! Windows 7 lets you set what icons and notifications you see in your tray with a detailed dialog box. Just right-click the system tray and choose “Customize…” in the menu.

    Finally! I have never understood why my choice was either to have all of my icons in my system tray show or essentially none of them show. This either/or choice is stupid. Getting to choose the icons you want is something that should have happened long ago. I am happy to see its arrival.

    Right now Windows 7 is still in pre-beta release. Thus, it may turn out to be as hated as Vista. However, there are some signs that this might actually turn out to be a decent operating system. Allegedly Microsoft wants this software done in time to have it ship with computers for the Christmas 2009 season. In the meantime, I will be waiting to see what might be happening with this new version.

    Posted on

    Happy Veterans Day!

    by

    World War II MemorialTo anyone who is a veteran, today I salute you. Too often we go through life without ever thinking of those who protect us by serving in the armed forces. In addition to their sacrifice, there is also often a sacrifice by the family left at home while the veteran serves overseas. The remaining parent must function as essentially a single parent.

    Serving in the armed forces is hard for all involved and I appreciate and salute those who sacrifice their lives, their time, and their family life in defense of their country.World War II Memorial Quote

    Without question, technology has made it easy to remain in touch while away from home. Our soldiers today can take advantage of cell phones, email, video confrencing, blogs, flickr, myspace, facebook, to communicate in ways that prior generations never dreamed of. Hopefully, these communication improvements make their service just a little more comfortable.

    Posted on

    Meeting Clients at a Location Other than your Office

    by

    One of the great benefits of incorporating technology into your practice is that you can practice anywhere. For many people, this means that they have foregone the expense of an office and are working only from home. Chuck Newton recently posted about Where to Meet Clients When You Work from Home.

    Chuck makes several suggestions for locations to meet. Some of these suggestions are common, such as your home, the library, and the client’s home or place of business. Chuck makes several other suggestions that I hadn’t considered such as:

    Meet at the clubhouse. Many apartments, HOAs and communities have what many refer to as “clubhouses” for their communities.  I know of a couple of lawyers than have houses in these communities.  They reserve small rooms at these clubhouses to meet with clients, to schedule depositions, and the like.

    Meet at the local credit union. A few credit unions want to provide services to members.  They also have meeting space they let other use.  They may not care for you much if you practice bankruptcy law, but otherwise I have met a few who make arrangements with their local credit unions to use a small space to meet with potential clients.  You might have to have an account there, but what is wrong with with having access to low interest loans by being a member of a credit union.

    Meet at a real estate broker’s office. I heard from an attorney that figured out that many of these 100% real estate brokerages partially finance their operations by leasing office space to real estate agents.  Many Realtor really work at home or from their cars, but want a place to meet with potential clients.  So, these real estate brokerages provide a bank of computers, beverages, printers, copies and the like that a Realtor can use while on site and meeting rooms in which to meet, even if the Realtor does not rent an office suite.  These so-called “desk fees” often run as low as $90 a month.  The lawyer persuaded a couple of these real estate offices on either side of a large metro area to allow him the same deal.  His pitch was that it would probably be beneficial for their agents to have more immediate access to an attorney when he was around.  So for less than a couple hundred dollars a month he has all of the meeting space he needed.  Many of these offices have hundreds of Realtor that use these facilities from time to time.  That can be a built in source for referrals in and of itself, even if you do not directly practice real estate.

    Meet at the community center. Many towns have community centers, mainly for more elderly people to meet, eat and have group activities.  They have spare offices and space.  Look into it.  This might be especially good if you practice elder care.

    Chuck actually suggests 20 different locations for meeting places. You should click through and see all of his suggestions.

    One of my favorite suggestions was:

    Meet at a fast food restaurant. This is probably more challenging for most of us than meeting at a coffee shop.  Maybe it just is not as casual as a coffee house.  But, I knew an attorney that practices in the area of will contest along the entire eastern side of Texas.  He would almost always travel to meet his clients.  He figured that every small town had a McDonald’s, and he liked McDonald’s. First, he could find a booth after breakfast or lunch time that was reasonably quiet.  McDonald’s are generally clean and well maintained.  He could buy his client’s a beverage of their choice.  Many families brought their children and they could play when the parents and attorney talked.  I thought at one point that this is just not professional looking enough.  But, it almost always worked.  His standard retainer was $10,000.00.  I personally saw him walk away from these meetings with $10,000.00 checks a number of times, and this was the first time he had met the clients.

    After reviewing these suggestions, I realized that they apply to those of us who still have our traditional offices. I have a suburban practice that requires me to practice law in a multi-county area. My office is conveniently located for me. However, that does not mean that it is conveniently located for my clients.

    I often travel to other courthouses and while there or on the trip to or from, I may be in a convienent location to meet with my clients. This sounds like a great way to build client relations if you can schedule a client meeting close to them when you will be in the area anyway. Obviously, your schedule as well as a need for a meeting will not always matach up. However, this may be an idea to keep in mind.