Futurelawyer

Black Friday Ads - The Official Black Friday 2007 Website

Link: Black Friday Ads - The Official Black Friday 2007 Website. My son and I had an interesting and educational morning today. I had never ventured out of the house on Black Friday; the police presence among the hordes was a deterrent; however, he wanted an LCD TV for his room for Xmas this year, and the ads were enticing. That is, until I arrived at the local Target around 5:45 this morning, and discovered around 2,000 people in a line that stretched for blocks. Not wanting to disappoint him, I agreed to stand in line for an hour until the mass of people descended on the store. Amazing. The last TV available was snatched from our grasp by what can only be described as a really ugly American. My son had an object lesson in the ugliness of greed, so the morning was not a total loss, and I was not that disappointed. We made the rounds of the stores after breakfast, and found a better TV for him at a Staples store, at a better price.  Apparently, the office supply superstores are not as attractive to the masses as the Toy and Department stores. After 4 Advil, and my easy chair, I have overcome the post traumatic stress, and I now realize why I have become an Internet shopper.

SlingPlayer for Palm - Now Works on Centro!

SlingPlayer . I love my new Centro. It has all the functionality of my old, clunky Treo, and weighs only a few ounces. Now, my favorite application, SlingPlayer is in the final beta stages of its Centro version, and I love it. Better than that, Sling Media has given me three keys to give away (value $30 each) to my friends and fans. So, send me a suck up comment, and get in the running for free software that will allow you to watch TV on your Centro. You need an existing SlingBox at home, and a Treo smartphone. Let the games begin.(Oh, by the way, Apple fans... Can you watch your home TV on your IPhone?)

The Trial Technologists View

Link: The Trial Technologists View � Blog Archive � Come Visit - New Site, New Videos, New Contests!. Blake Boyd is a bright trial tech consultant in Texas. His new site is gorgeous, and is highly recommended. He is even giving away free prizes! Great site, Blake.

Amazon Kindle Answers: Amazon Kindle Hands-On and Questions Answered (Gallery)

Link: Amazon Kindle Answers: Amazon Kindle Hands-On and Questions Answered (Gallery). The Amazon Kindle, a new EReader appliance that downloads books and other reading material from the web, will access the web through a free EvDO modem. However, Amazon will charge by the blog and by the book for many downloads. It remains to be seen whether a subscription based reader that looks and feels like a book will make it. However, how cool to carry a law library with you to Court? You can buy one now for $399, and download up to 90,000 books. No word on the case law or statute or secondary source material that will be available.

Dell.com Latitude D430 Ratings & Reviews

Link: Dell.com Latitude D430 Ratings & Reviews. Well, my search for a notebook with the portability of the Latitude X1 and the power of the Latitude D620 is over. The Latitude D430 by Dell has a Core 2 Duo processor, 2 Gigs of memory, and only weighs 3 pounds. It runs hot, but I haven't found it to be a problem. Unlike Macs it is inexpensive and customizable. Dell sells it new for under $1,300, and you can buy it reconditioned for around $1,000. This little guy has a 12 inch screen, and hooks up to the same D class port replicators that I had been using with the D620. The hard drive is slow, but can be upgraded if I ever feel the need. I do want to upgrade to 100 gigs, and a faster spin rating, but that can wait. I am enjoying the fact that I have a true ultralight machine with the power of a desktop. Nirvana.

Hack Attack: Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800

Link: Hack Attack: Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800. Grant Griffiths is fond of taking potshots at us Windows users. He also is an IPhone fan, and doesn't appreciate the beauty and simplicity of the Palm operating system. My new Centro may not be as pretty as the IPhone, but it is far more functional. But, I digress. One of my pet peeves about the Mac OS and Macs in general is that they are more expensive than Windows computers. (And Linux for that matter). But, I acknowledge that each operating system has its strengths and weaknesses. So, I enjoyed this post by an author who has figured out how to build a Mac for under $800. Grant, maybe this should be your next computer. :-))

SnapperMail - Wireless Email on the Centro with Desktop Power

Link: SnapperMail Standard Bundle - PalmGear.com: Download Palm Software for your Treo 650/600, Tungsten, LifeDrive or other Palm OS Device. One of the painful aspects about switching from the Palm Treo 700p to the Palm Centro is the reinstallation of software. You can sync from the old backups, but there will always be glitches. In some cases, the old license codes need to be updated because the user name has changed. This was the case with SnapperMail. SnapperMail gives desktop email functionality to the Centro. To have full email capacity in such a tiny little phone is amazing. The world-class software wirelessly and effortlessly handles PDF attachments, and full HTML emails. But, the world-class software is apparently supplemented by world-class service. I sent an email requesting a new unlock code on a Saturday morning, at 6:00 A.M. Eastern time, and received a return message with the new code in about 20 minutes. Amazing. I love the software, and now I love the Company. If you have a Palm, you have got to get SnapperMail.

Giveaway of the Day - MemOptimizer

Link: Giveaway of the Day - free licensed software daily. MemOptimizer - Free up your PC's memory locked by executed applications. My Dell D620 only has 1 Gig of RAM. I would upgrade it to 2 Gigs, but my new Dell, the ultralight D430, already has 2 Gigs. I tell you this because I got a free download of MemOptimizer this morning, and saved $20. Every day the Giveaway of the Day site highlights a free piece of software, and some of them are quite useful. Bookmark the site, check it every day, and you will see what I mean.

Phishing Emails about Phishing

I just received an email, purportedly from PayPal, that included this screen. The email purports to link to a PayPal page about protecting one self from phishing emails. The irony of this is compelling. People are so concerned about computer security that they forget that criminals are clever, and that one of the best social engineering tools is to appear to be concerned about the very crime the victim is afraid of. Thus, terrorists and criminals will dress as policemen or security personnel to evade detection. Watch out for any email that purports to be about protecting you from spammers and phishers. Don't click on a web site address in the text of an email, ever. If you must check it out, let your mouse hover over the link, and look at where it is really sending you. Then, you can type the basic website address into your browser, if you are that curious. If the actual site is different from the one in the email, don't go there. Be careful out there.

WiFire Range Extender - Connect to Networks Far Far Away

Link: hField Technologies, Inc. Okay, so you don't want to spend $80 a month on an a wireless broadband cellular antenna from Verizon or Sprint. And, you want to be able to connect to WiFi HotSpots that always seem to be too far away for a strong signal. What to do? Why, spend $80 and buy this USB range extending antenna, of course. WiFi signals are highly directional, and this little guy plugs into a USB port. Just twist it around until you get a strong signal, and you are good to go. This reminds me of the early days of TV. I remember attaching tin foil to rabbit ear antennas, and standing at the TV turning and twisting the contraption until the signal cleared up. I guess my upcoming birthday and advancing age are making me nostalgic.