Author Archives

    Bryan Sims

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    Security for Your PDFs

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    AdobeDo you want to know:

    • How to keep the recipient from copying text or printing a PDF?
    • How to password protect a PDF?
    • How to ensure that only the intended recipient can open a PDF?
    • How to revoke a PDF, even after it has been renamed, copied to a thumbdrive or sent outside my firewall?
    • How to find out if a PDF is genuine and hasn’t been tampered with?
    • How to ensure that the PDF I need to send does not contain dangerous metadata?

    If so, you need to register for Adobe’s eSeminar on Securing Legal Documents and Information.

    The eSeminar is on May 24, 2007, at 10 am PT. The eSeminar is free and is hosted by Rick Borstein of Acrobat for Legal Professionals.

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    Blogging is About Writing

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    I found an interesting post from Problogger about creating better blog posts. His tips include things such as:

    Don’t Just Show, Show and Tell: It’s time to get back to show and tell. Blogs offer amazing ways to present multimedia information, but you still have to tell us about it. You must show and tell in order for your point to be fully understood. Words may not do it alone, but a picture is not worth a thousand words when fed through feeds and search engines. You must have the words.

    Write Clickable Titles: The keywords you use in your post titles tell potential visitors what your post is about. If they don’t get it, they won’t click it. If they do click, and the content doesn’t match, they won’t be back.

    Make Your Point in the First 200 Words: You have less than a second to capture your reader’s attention. If the user on your site, feed, or search engine summary doesn’t “get the point” in the first two or three sentences, you’ve lost them.

    Present a Problem, The Solution, and The Results: Don’t present a solution before the reader understands there is a problem. Present the problem, give us the solution, and then lead us through the results and the benefits of the results. When readers follow along with the process, they better understand how it works and why it works for themselves.

    Read his whole list of 30 tips here. Although the article is not written for a legal audience, almost all of his tips apply equally to legal blogs.

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    Multiple Monitors Made Easy for Desktops

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    I am a huge fan of the multiple monitor set up. It find the increased productivity to be well worth the cost of the second monitor. Adding a second monitor to a laptop is quite easy, you simply plug it into the monitor port that is present on your laptop.

    Adding a second monitor to a desktop is more involved, however. The most cost effective way is to add a second video card. This, however, involves opening the computer case. There are some people who do not feel comfortable doing that.

    Tritton Technologies has an easy solution to this problem. The product is See2 USB to VGA Adapter. You simply plug the adapter into a USB port and then plug a monitor into the device. You now have a multiple monitor setup without having to open your desktop case. Buy.com has it for $86.93 with free shipping, and TigerDirect has it for $79.99.

    If you have been considering a multiple monitor setup for your desktop, this could be the solution for you.

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    A Treo Convert

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    Via a link from Affinity Law Office Technology Blog, is an article from PC magazine in which that author has become a Treo convert. I must agree with the author that the Treo is an amazingly useful device. My life would certainly be more complicated without it. Anytime that I am out of the office it is my lifeline to my calendar, address book, and email.

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    Tips for Generating Traffic for Your Blog

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    Via a link from Grant Griffiths’s blog Sunflower Media Concepts, I found a blog post by Nicole Black and her Sui Generis blog where she provides 10 Tips for generating traffic on for your legal blog. Her tips are:

    1. Decide why you’re starting a legal blog
    2. Determine who your target readers are
    3. Create a blogroll
    4. Consider adding a link to Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground
    5. Make sure that Tom Mighell is aware of your blog
    6. Add your blog the legal blog directories
    7. Submit blog posts to Blawg Review
    8. Read Lexblog
    9. Regularly link to other blogs in your posts
    10. Submit relevant comments to law blogs somewhat similar to your own

    Check out Nicole’s entire post where she expands on each of these tips.

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    Wireless Network Security

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    PC World has a nice article on security on wireless networks. The articles address both how to secure your own wireless network as well as how to ensure that your communications are protected when you are using a public hotspot.

    In the article, the author talks about something that usually gets very little attention: the use of VPNs at public hotspots. With respect to VPNs, the article states:

    The best way to protect a public wireless link is by using a virtual private network, or VPN. VPNs keep your communications safe by creating secure “tunnels” through which your encrypted data travels. Many companies provide VPN service to their mobile and offsite workers, so check with your IT department for connection instructions.

    You can also use a paid service such as Boingo’s Personal VPN (free trial with Boingo subscription, $30 to keep), JiWire Hotspot Helper (10-day free trial, $25 per year) or Witopia personalVPN ($40 per year). All three of the services are simple to install and use.

    You have one more security option: If you don’t mind connecting through your home or office PC, you can log in to a public hotspot securely by using such remote-access programs as LogMeIn or GoToMyPC.

    If you have questions about wireless security, this is a good article to check out.

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    Converting CAD Drawings to PDF

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    If you are not reading Rick Borstein’s blog Acrobat for Legal Professionals, take a moment right now and go subscribe.

    This week Rick posted a great how-to describing how to convert documents from a DWG format to PDF. DWG is the format used by many CAD programs. There are CAD viewers available, however, you must learn how to use those viewers in order to view the files.

    Rick explains how you can convert a DWG file to a PDF, even if you do not have a program that will open a DWG file. Rick also explains how to use the pan & zoom functions as well as how to navigate the layers in the file.

    All of this can be very handy information if you become involved in a litigation in which you are getting documents from an architectural or engineering firm.

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    Solar Computer Case

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    Eclipse Solar Gear makes carrying cases for mobile devices. Their cases are unique in they Solar Flar Messanger Bagthey contain solar panels allowing you to charge your device. Right now they have backpacks, camera bags, bicycle bags, and messenger bags for sale. Unfortunately neither of these is designed to charge a notebook computer.

    However, Eclipse will soon be releasing a solar case that charges computers. Bags like this open up great opportunities. How nice is it to be able to be away from electricity and not have to worry about running out of power with your digital camera, camcorder, or notebook compuEclipse Backpackter.

    Sure, you may not be worried about working when you are backpacking in the middle of no where. That does not mean you may not want to use your computer to keep a diary or journal. Who knows, you may even be inspired by your location to write the Great American Novel.

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    How to Find a Hotspot

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    HotspotrHave you ever been somewhere and wondered how you could find the closest hot spot? Hotspotr gives you a way to find those hotspots. It is a user supported site in that it allows you to add hot spots that you know of.

    In addition to the web interface that is available, you can also access the site from your mobile phone or Treo at m.hotspotr.com.

    The site can clearly stand to have a few more hot spots added to it. However, it never hurts to have another resource to use to try and find a hotspot.

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    Signature Stamp v. Digital Signature

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    Earlier today I posted about a tutorial demonstrating how to use create a signature stamp on a document. Often I hear people refer to stamps such as these as digital signatures. In reality, however, these signature stamps are not digital signatures.

    A digital signature is actually something much more. Digital signatures use encryption to authenticate a document. The ABA has a good article on digital signatures and how they work.

    The key thing to remember is that a digital signature has nothing to do with how you sign your name. Instead, it is a method to authenticate that a document came from you. A signature stamp, on the other hand, allows you to apply your physical signature to an electronic document in the same manner that you could stamp a piece of paper with a stamp created from your signature. In both instances, the stamp does not prove that the document came from you. Instead, it just proves that the document came from someone with possession of your signature stamp.