Category Archives: Internet

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A Cautionary Tale About Social Media

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A recent Bruce Schneier post highlights the pitfalls that can accompany social media. I am not a social media hater. I have a Twitter feed, a Linked In page, etc. However, that does not mean that I just randomly add information to my page. Further, I do not add every contact that tries to add me. I think that, just as in all other walks of life, it makes sense to think about what information to make available. I think my internal policies are reasonable and server me well.

If I were a fugitive from justice, however, I would probably have more stringent policies, such as not belonging to any social media sites.. Fortunately for the the US Department of Justice, not all fugitives, follow my advice. guardian.co.uk reports that the DOJ was looking for a criminal named Maxi Sopo. The DOJ believed he was hiding in Mexico, but could not find him.

Several months later, a secret service agent, Seth Reeg, checked Facebook again and up popped MaxiSopo. His photo showed him partying in front of a backdrop featuring logos of BMW and Courvoisier cognac, sporting a black jacket adorned with a not-so-subtle white lion.

Although Sopo’s profile was set to private, his list of friends was not. Scoville started combing through it and was surprised to see that one friend listed an affiliation with the justice department. He sent a message requesting a phone call.

“We figured this was a person we could probably trust to keep our inquiry discreet,” Scoville said.

Proving the 2.0 adage that a friend on Facebook is rarely a friend indeed, the former official said he had met Sopo in Cancun’s nightclubs a few times, but did not really know him and had no idea he was a fugitive. The official learned where Sopo was living and passed that information back to Scoville, who provided it to Mexican authorities. They arrested Sopo last month.

Schneier comments:

It’s easy to say “so dumb,” and it would be true, but what’s interesting is how people just don’t think through the privacy implications of putting their information on the Internet. Facebook is how we interact with friends, and we think of it in the frame of interacting with friends. We don’t think that our employers might be looking — they’re not our friends! — that the information will be around forever, or that it might be abused. Privacy isn’t salient; chatting with friends is.

How right he is.

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Where to Get Free Photos

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When I prepare a PowerPoint presentation, one of the most difficult things for me is typically finding good pictures that I can use as visuals in my presentation. Just to make things difficult, when doing this, I prefer to use photos that I have the right to use. Matt Homann (who always has great advice) links to a post that provides 37 paces to get free stock photos. Matt also provides a link to his two favorite places to get photos: Every Stock Photo and Stock.xchng.

So, the next time you are in need of a photo, you now have some resources you can use to find the perfect picture to represent your point.

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An Interesting New Extension for Firefox

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Nerino Petro points us toward a new Firefox extension that is designed to help make public records freely accessible. The extension works by saving a copy of each document you download from PACER into a free database. This is an interesting concept and I am wondering how well it will succeed.

You can find out more information about the extension (called Recap) here.

Also, if you have not been to Nerino’s website recently, you should stop by. He recently updated the site with a new theme that looks absolutely great. I find it much easier to read than the old design.

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Making Google Docs More Useful

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Notwithstanding the confidentiality concerns found with Google Docs, I know that there are plenty of people who use and love Google Docs. Don’t get me wrong. I think it is a very neat application and I have used it before for personal, nonconfidential stuff.

Anyway, for those who use Google Docs, Dumb Little Man has a post that provides 10 Google Docs hacks. From the list, my favorites are the bulk uploader, as well as the bulk download options.

Although I don’t know that I would keep my finances on Google Docs, the tip describing how you can easily keep track of your finances is pretty neat.

Also, I didn’t know this, but you can easily create polls using Google Docs. Now that is a cool application.

Check out the post for all 10 tips.

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Link Array

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I have way too many links about a variety of things that I planned to blog about but I realized that I never will. Thus, I decided to throw a few up as a variety of links.

The Connectict Legislature has raided the state bar’s Client Security Fund. I have seen politicians do some pretty bad things (remember, I live in Illinois), but this has to be one of the worst things I have seen.

Four ways to keep your public Wi-Fi connection secure. This is a security risk that most people do not even think about.

Advanced voicemail for your cell phone.

Software for your office. All on a  USB bdrive.

20 pages every blog should have. I don’t agree that every blog should have every one of these pages. However, you probably should have many of these somewhere on your site.

Creating a customized Google Map.

How to create a “luggage tag” for your USB drive.

I think I have linked to this before. However, it’s so important you should read it again. Secure passwords keep you safer.

Avvo’s top 5 books featuring lawyers.

How to geotag your photos.

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A Great Way to Share Your Contact Info

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As usual, Ernie the Attorney has another great suggestion:

Whenever I go to an event I usually bring business cards.  Sometimes I remember to hand them out and sometimes I don’t.  Sometimes people to ask me for them, but usually they don’t. When I’m speaking in front of a group I wouldn’t take the time to hand out my cards.  And yet that’s a moment that many people might want my contact information.

The next time I speak or go to an event I’m going to tell people “if you want my contact info take out your cellphone and send a text message to ‘50500’; type in ‘ernieattorney’ and hit send.”  If you want to try this now you can see what those folks will receive.

I know that I have ran into this problem before when speaking.  I think this is a great solution. I, like Ernie, set up my digital business card as well. Simply send a text to 50500, type in BryanSims, and you will get my digital business card back.

The service is provided by Contxts. Click here to sign up.

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Link Array

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I have way too many links about a variety of things that I planned to blog about but I realized that I never will. Thus, I decided to throw a few up as a variety of links.

The Library of Congress adds 3100 pictures to Flickr These pictures are really interesting.

What is a Crisis?

A Lawyer Walks Into A Bar

25 Programs to use in your law practice

A digital copy of Black’s Law Dictionary

Free alternatives to Acrobat

5 Windows GTD Programs So many GTD programs are Mac only. It’s good to see these.

Customizing Google Directions

Transcription when you need it A great use for this service is to conference in the service on a telephone call with a witness. Shortly after you are done with the call, you will receive a transcribed version of it.

Using email to send a text message

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The Downsides of SaaS

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I beleive that Software as a Service is a growth industry in the legal field and that, as programs get more complicated and more expensive, more people will be moving to a SaaS model for at least some of their software needs.

A recent problem with Google Docs, however, highlights one of the potential problems with SaaS solutions: your documents are the in hands of someone else. ZD Net reported that Google admitted that .05% of its Google documents that were supposed to be private were treated as public.

Now, I have not heard any horror stories about how confidential information was exposed during this incident. However, this incident does highlight the fact that when choosing a SaaS provider or when choosing to place any of your documents in a remote location (typically over the internet), investigate your provider to make sure that they are taking adequate measures to protect your information and keep it confidential and to ensure that if something does happen, that they will act promptly to correct the problem.

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Link Array

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I have way too many links about a variety of things that I planned to blog about but I realized that I never will. Thus, I decided to throw a few up as a variety of links.

The best attorney bio I have ever seen.

Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3).

Using Freecycle.

Giving your business a Google Presence.

How to Use a Dial Telephone.

Oh, how far we have come.

Track airline flights.

Online storage from Jungle Disk.

How to create a secure password.

Obtaining copies of books in the public domain.

The metadata found in a digital photo.

That’s it for now. I will clear out some more next week.

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The Waste of Time that is the Internet

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Don’t get me wrong. I love the internet. However, I recognize that it is very easy to stop and check one blog post or one news story and then the next time you look at a clock, you realize that an hour and a half has gone by. Eric Zorn has found a great tool that allows you to take a break, but ensures that you do not lose track of time.

The site is called E.ggtimer.com. to use it, you simply type e.ggtimer.com/(desired length of time) in your web broswer address bar. for example, if you wanted a 10 minute timer, you would type e.ggtimer.com/10minutes.

I created a bookmark to the site e.ggtimer.com/10minutes and I saved that bookmark to my Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar. Thus, now if I want to take a 10 minute break, I simply open that timer in a new tab and take my break, knowing that the timer will let me know when my 10 minutes are up.