Futurelawyer

Find the Postal Address of Any Location with Google Maps

Find the Postal Address of Any Location with Google Maps. Ask any lawyer, and he will tell you that snail mail is here to stay. While electronic filing and email and cloud apps are invading the turf of traditional methods of legal communication, we still send stuff at the Post Office. Certified Mail is a popular method of proof of delivery for some legal mail, and process servers still deliver paper Complaints to the unlucky defendants. Copies of pleadings to lists of persons involved in litigation are still sent by the Postal Service, and most of us will be retired or dead by the time our society is completely paper free; if ever. So, we need a postal address to send all that mail, and Google has provided a way to find it. Just point to a location on Google maps, right click and choose the "What's here?" option. Voila. Name and address. Reach out and touch someone. On paper, that is.

Microsoft So.Cl. Is Local The Future Of Social Networks?

Microsoft Launches New Social Network To Compete With Google - Forbes. Hey Facebook. Hey Google. Maybe you've got it wrong. Maybe, instead of creating social groups within a larger social network, you should be creating social groups with a localized focus? Microsoft seems to have begun a trend with So.Cl (Social), a social network aimed at University students. Anyone can join; but, the network's focus will be local. This seems to bring the Facebook phenomenon back to its roots, with a small, localized grouping of affinity related persons as the members of the group. While lawyers have tended to create informal groups of like minded professionals within Google + Circles, Microsoft is striking back at Google + and Facebook by creating an alternative. Microsoft says that it expects the college kids in its So.Cl networks to use other social networks; but, it is clear that So.Cl may be a connection that students (and other groups?) find compelling. 

Free Sound Effects

Cool Tools: Freesound. I love sound effects. But, most of the compilations that have cool sounds are made for professionals, and cost a bundle. Until now. FreeSounds is a huge collection of just about any sound effect you can name, and is free. If you sign up with your email address, you can even download the effects. This post has absolutely nothing to do with law practice; but, here it is anyway. Try the thunderstorm effects. One guy actually put together a 1 1/2 hour mix. Guaranteed to put you to sleep in five minutes.

General Motors Won't Pay To Advertise On Facebook

General Motors ditches Facebook advertising - SlashGear. Okay, I admit that Facebook is popular, and it may be worth the billions that the investors in its IPO say it is; but, why is GM refusing to pay to advertise there anymore? Will the millions of users who play Zynga games generate the kind of revenue that shareholders will demand? I am merely playing devil's advocate here. I wish I could afford to invest in Facebook stock. However, while millions of people will still want to connect with friends and family at the site, will they pay for the privilege? Will advertisers pay to get in front of them while they are doing it? I'm just asking.

Evernote Gets New Interface - Track Your Cases

Evernote Receives Major Makeover, ICS Theming and Lots of Awesome Included %u2013 Droid Life. Organizing your life on a tablet just got flashier and easier. Evernote has been the best way to organize all the stuff you collect and do every day for some time. It is a dream on a tablet. Now, with a new tablet based swipe interface, it is even better. Whatever it is, from photos, to bits of information, to web pages, to task lists, it can benefit from being saved in Evernote. Then, whatever device you are using; be it a phone, tablet or notebook or desktop computer, you will have a complete record of whatever you want to remember. 

Google Chrome Best Tips

The Best Tips and Tweaks for Getting the Most Out of Google Chrome - How-To Geek. By now, you have seen the light, and are using the best, fastest browser on the planet, Google Chrome. But, are you using it efficiently? Here are some great tips on how to get more out of Chrome. My favorites are, of course, the add--ons, like CiteStack, Send to GMail, GMail Checker, and Screen Capture. However, there are hundreds of them, free for the using. Also, I love the Tab Pin feature, which pins your favorite sites to the browser bar, and opens them automatically when you log on. Find your own, and make your browsing experience even better.

Facebook - Will It Die After The IPO?

Facebook trialing new pay-to-promote feature | GadgeTell. One of the problems with IPOs is that, after they happen, the people who run the site need to satisfy a new and important segment of the population - the shareholders. People don't buy stock in a company because they want to be friends; they buy stock to make money. That means the company has to look for every revenue stream it can find, and then make that revenue grow every quarter. Then, it has to make the numbers every quarter that the analysts think it should. Oh, my. Facebook is already looking for new revenue; and, one of the dumbest ideas is to charge users to "highlight" posts. How Facebook plans to "make sure your Friends see the post" is unclear. However, you can pay $2 for the service. I am sure there are people out there who will pay to make sure the announcement of whatever gets pushed in the face of their Facebook "friends". Whether the friends think the announcement is important enough to be annoyed to death by Facebook is another matter. I tend to get annoyed with people who shove things in my face. I like to make my own decisions about what I view on the net. When money becomes the sole motive for a company's existence, is that the bell marking the long slide into oblivion? 

CloudOn - View And Edit Office And PDF Files On Your Tablet

CloudOn brings its Office to Android tablets, adds support for Google Drive (video) -- Engadget. I am not a big fan of the tablet productivity apps. I much prefer editing documents, and doing blog posts on a regular computer with a real keyboard. However, in a pinch, it is nice to be able to view and do minor edits on my Android tablet, with the addition of a small bluetooth keyboard. This new cloud app for Android allows the reading and editing of Word, PowerPoint, Exel, and Adobe files in Dropbox, or Google Drive, using the virtual keyboard or an addon. Not optimal for document geeks; but, serviceable. And, it is free. I still use Documents To Go as my regular app to read documents on Android; but, with access to the cloud, at no extra cost, CloudOn will develop a following.

Has Google Maps Finally Gone Too Far?

Google Maps updated with indoor directions, Google offers, business photos | Android Central. I love Google Maps. Google Maps is a friend of mine. I use it all the time. However, the newest "improvements", while profitable for Google, may go a bit too far. Now, with a click of your finger, Google Maps will tell you, based on your current location, what items are for sale near you from participating vendors. Think of it as a billboard machine in your hand. Ugh. I don't even like billboards by the side of pristine country roads. However, this may be a necessary evil if we want the best map app to keep innovating. Now, the interior mapping of big places, and panoramic views of store interiors I like. Hey, Google Maps, tell me which aisle the brussel sprouts are on so that I can avoid them.

In The Cloud

Four Reasons Why I Hate the Term 'Cloud' | Cloudline | Wired.com. It used to be a pejorative to say that someone was walking around with his or her head in the clouds. Today, it is an overused and trite metaphor for the Internet, and cloud computing has as many meanings as there are words. Unlike the author of this Wired.com post, I don't hate the term "Cloud". I just think it is an imprecise metaphor for what is going on in computing. There are as many clouds and definitions of cloud as there are users. And, we all know how imprecise the term "user" is. With William Jefferson Clinton, I say "It all depends on what the meaning of "is" is".