Futurelawyer

10 Minute Mail

Link: 10 Minute Mail. Okay, wrap your lawyer brain around this one. You go to a web site that wants an email address for validation, and to send a subscribing email to. You don't want to get on a list with your regular email, and face hundreds of spam messages in your email box. This new service gives you a web based address that goes away in ten minutes. Yep, that's right, ten minutes. Use it, and lose it. This sounds like a great solution for signing up for new web sites, but an electronic discovery nightmare. Does the email survive? How do I craft a discovery request now? Please provide copies of all email between the dates of January 1st and December 31st, including those which were destroyed within ten minutes of receipt? Sounds like mission impossible, Mr. Phelps.

Signed Prints for Law People

Link: Signed Prints for Law People. My friend, Charlie Fincher, who does great lawyer cartoons at LawComix , is now selling signed prints of your favorite Fincher drawing, ready for framing, for $46, including shipping, with quantity discounts. These should be hanging in every law office in America. Hilarious, with a Jonathan Swift satirical bent, these will make you smile every time. Even if you don't buy one for yourself, they make great gifts for the ones you love (or hate). Just because our chosen profession has made us cynical, doesn't mean we can't laugh at ourselves, right? NOT, dog face!

Microsoft brings 129 lawsuits against phishers - Yahoo! News

Link: Microsoft brings 129 lawsuits against phishers - Yahoo! News. I like this story on several levels. First, it gives me an excuse to say "Attaboy" to Microsoft, whom I pummel regularly for stupid decisions. Second, Microsoft is taking legal action against "Phishers", a particularly scummy level of computer criminal who have caused me to change the way I read my email. I hate these guys more than I hate spammers. At least spammers are up front in their brazen efforts to get me to buy something useless. Finally, Microsoft's legal actions against phishers gives work to lawyers, a professional class for which I have a special fondness. In case you have been living on another planet, those emails from purportedly legitimate banks, software vendors, and others with whom you may do business are often just cleverly disguised Trojan Horses, designed to get you to go a fake website and get your personal codes and information. So, NEVER click on a link in an email. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER. Get the NetCraft plugin for FireFox, and check it for every website you visit. If the bar is green, it is safe. Be safe out there.

Intel Core Duo vs. Core 2 Duo: What's the Difference? : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

Link: Intel Core Duo vs. Core 2 Duo: What's the Difference? : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech. I have been raving about the performance of my new Latitude D620 notebook with its Core Duo processor, running at 1.667 Ghz. Now that Core2Duo chips are being used in most new computers, the issue is whether they are worth the increased price. Christopher Null claims a 30% performance bump for Core2 chips. That may be, but I am still sold on CoreDuo for lawyers and others who deal with word processing, web browsing and other less processor-intensive daily use. Both chips contain the revolutionary dual processors on one chip, which is the real reason these new computers scream. You can always get a better deal on the just past technology when the new technology is current. If you can get the job done with that two year old used car, let the new car buyer take the depreciation hit.  When the quad-core processors come out,  THEN you can buy a Core2Duo. 

iColorFolder

Link: iColorFolder. Once, a law office management consultant told me that I should color-code the file folders in the office, for easy access. Unfortunately, being a lazy person, I never got around to it. My secretary was too busy putting out fires to worry about the color of the file folders. Now, since computer folders are digital, it is much easier to organize with color. This free little download will add an item to the right-click menu that allows you to choose the color of the folder. It makes it very easy to spot the folder containing the programs or data you want. Now, my big decision is between shocking pink and fuchsia!

FutureLawyer, FutureLawyer, Where are You?

In playing around with the new Windows Live Writer beta, I noticed a tool that says you can insert a Windows Live map into a web post. So, for all of you who want to fantasize about living in sunny Florida, here is a map to the FutureLawyer office, in St. Petersburg, Florida. We may have a crappy baseball and football team, but the temperature today is in the Sixties. Florida, come and visit, just take the snow home with you.

Windows Live Writer - Ready For Prime Time

LiveWriter  Okay, I admit it. I have been hard on Microsoft lately. It is easy to pounce on the 800 pound gorilla of computing. They are so...so...arrogant! But, give credit where credit is due. Microsoft has come late to the Web 2.0 party, but they are starting to get it. Windows Live, and the applications it is fostering, are going to compete in the new Internet space. Windows Live Writer is a perfect example. This writing tool, which I am using to create this post, will adapt itself to ANY blog. My blog is hosted by TypePad, and Live Writer creates an automated profile by looking at my blog, and makes it easy for me to create posts, and upload them to the site. Dare I say it? I really like this software. It even links to my recent posts, so that I can click on them, and edit them if I wish. If you have a blog, you need to check this out. If you don't, why don't you?

AvantGo-RSS

Link: AvantGo. Okay, this is cool. You may know that I have used AvantGo in the past to download and sync news, tech, and other info channels to my Treo. AvantGo was one of the first PDA/Phone news aggregators. You merely sync the device over the air to AvantGo's servers, and download news and information to the phone. Then, you can read it at your leisure offline. I admit that I haven't used it in a while, since the RSS feeds that I read are available when I am at the computer. However, AvantGo, a free service, now will allow you to sync with ANY RSS feed. Go to the AvantGo home page after downloading the software, and type the web address of the feed you want. You can even download the RSS feed of FutureLawyer to your phone! Take me with you, please!

Cell Phone Users can Legally Break Software Locks

Digital Copyright Law.  I have a T-Mobile cell phone, that uses a SIM , or small digital card that contains information about me and my account. SIMs can be freely moved from phone to phone, so some cell phone providers lock the software in their phones to prevent transfer of the cards to a new phone or carrier. After passage of the DMCA, it was unclear whether the freely available software on the Net for breaking these locking schemes was legal. Now, the copyright office has sanctioned the practice, siding with consumers who wanted the freedom to change carriers without buying a new phone. I am breathing a sigh of relief that the headlines won't now read: "Lawyer arrested for copyright violations!". Seriously, since when do these arrogant providers think that they can limit use by the consumer? Verizon, my carrier now, is famous for making it difficult for its users.

The First Thanksgiving

Link: The First Thanksgiving. Top Ten Reasons to be Thankful there weren't any lawyers on the Mayflower:
10. Conducting a trial on a small wooden ship would be difficult.
9. The Seamen's Union would go on strike, and refuse to offload passengers and freight until their lawyers conducted settlement negotiations.
8. It would have taken years to get zoning approval for the houses the Pilgrims wanted to live in.
7. Where would all of the secretaries and paralegals have slept?
6. Contract negotiations with the Indians would have delayed the food delivery by months.
5. Litigation over the failure to pay a minimum wage to the food preparation staff would have resulted in a strike, and nobody would get to eat.
4. A lawsuit over the despoliation of the environment would have caused the crops to go unharvested.
3. The Indians would have filed a lawsuit claiming that the Pilgrims were trespassing on tribal land, and obtained an injunction.
2.  The Society for the Preservation of the Flowers of May would have  prevented the  docking of the ship, for tradename infringement.

And, drum-stick roll , please, the Number One reason  to be thankful there  were no lawyers on the MayFlower:

1.  The  Pilgrims  and the Indians would have flooded the colonial courts with litigation for  negligent food preparation when they all got sick from eating wild turkeys.

Enjoy your Feast. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank You, God, for making a world with work for lawyers.