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.

The Download Squad has a list of 10 GMail tips and hacks. The post includes tips for managing multiple GMail accounts, retrieving mail from other email accounts, and making your contacts easier to access.

If you use GMail at all, this post is worth perusing.

David Swanner at the South Carolina Trial Law Blog has good advice for obtaining written transcripts of witness interviews. David suggests adding Speak-Write.com as a third caller on a conference call with the witness.

Swanner explains:

You question the witness and at the end of the call hang up. Between 15-30 minutes later, you’ll have a transcript of the interview e-mailed to you along with a digital recording of the conversation. You get the automatic recording and the transcript in one fell swoop.

This is just another example how leveraging technology can make our lives easier.

A blog post at Law Practice Management talks about the upcoming postal rate increase from $0.39 to $0.41. The significant aspect of this change is not the rate increase, however. Instead, it is the post office’s decision to switch to a shape based pricing method. As explained at the Law Practice Management post:

Currently our postal system operates on strictly a weight-based methodology. Aside from a slight up-charge for the first ounce on “oversized” envelopes (e.g. our flat letter-size tyvecs) everything is based on weight. Each ounce adds an additional amount. Effective May 14th, we will move to a shape-based pricing system. Under the new system, there will be three different pricing factors: size; thickness; and weight. There are even some rigidity factors which can influence cost, meaning that if you stuff the envelope so tightly it cannot bend, there is an additional cost.

The post gives some examples:

First, let’s look at a typical flat (the 8.5” x 11” or larger size tyvec envelope) with 2 ounces.

First class flat current rate: 39¢ plus 24¢ for each additional ounce
First class flat new rate: 80¢ plus 17¢ for each additional ounce
Bottom line impact on a 2 oz flat: cost INCREASE from 63¢ to 97¢
(a 34¢ = 54% increase)

Get the picture? All we’re hearing about is the modest 9% increase on the standard first class letter, and how those additional ounces will actually result in a modest savings. And that’s all true. But it will be more than offset by the whopping increase on your flat envelopes.

Next, let’s look at the typical overstuffed envelope.

A #10 letter envelope with 12 pages inside will not squeeze through the 1/4” thick dimension. So even though it only weighs approximately 2.4 ounces, it will have to go into a flat. Here is the impact on cost:
First class overstuffed envelope weighing 2.4 oz at current rate: 87¢
Flat envelope weighing 2.4 oz at new rate: $1.14
Bottom line impact on 12-page mailing: cost INCREASE from 87¢ to $1.14
(a 27¢ = 31% increase)

I encourage you to check out the original post. It includes some excellant advice for ways in which you can save money on postage by understanding how the pricing method works.