Futurelawyer

Gadget Geek Taken Over By Aliens

Link: Concepts: "Noisy Instrument" Earphone Sounds Like Ocean. Okay, this is a real concept product. Either she has been taken over by aliens, or she is listening to something. Allegedly, this earphone contraption reproduces the sounds of the sea anywhere. Uh, didn't we used to do that as kids with seashells, down by the seashore?

Legal Intellects Blog - Canada Law Student Blog

Link: Legal Intellects. Jonathan Kleiman is a Canadian law student at Queens University in Ontario. His blog is quite interesting; and not just because he links to the FutureLawyer. He links to, and comments on, a lot of high profile current legal issues, and the blog is attractive. Of course, he could be linking to me because it is 75 degrees outside here and he is looking for an invite to sit by the pool.

Project Gutenberg - Bringing Knowledge to the Web

Link: Main Page - Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg was the first EBook website, and has over 20,000 free EBooks in its catalog today. Electronic publishing has taken off, and the Kindle from Amazon promises to revolutionize the way we read books. Lawyers, as a group, spend a lot of time reading, and we even read for enjoyment occasionally. I particularly like the ability to download Ebooks to my Palm Centro's micro SD card (it still amazes me that I can carry hundreds of books with me on a tiny plastic chip). Having a Centro means never being able to say you are bored. The promise, however, is being able to carry a full law library with you everywhere. Makes me want to go out and read something.

scanR Introduces Paid Services and Color Document Scanning

Link: scanR Introduces Paid Services and Color Document Scanning. ScanR has introduced its pricing model, and a Pro version of the software, that will make color scans from cameraphone images, and send them to users via email. For a paltry $2.95 a month, users can do unlimited scans, and can get a 40 image plan for $9.95. It is really handy to take a photo of a printed page, email it to ScanR, and get back a scanned image for use.

Palm's GSM Centro spotted in white - Engadget

Link: Palm's GSM Centro spotted in white - Engadget. Reader Zale Dowlen reports on a sighting of a coming GSM Centro, in white, from AT&T. While Sprint's CDMA Centros are the only game in town right now, it shouldn't be long before the GSM crowd can get their hands on one. Welcome to the party.

How to defeat automated phone solicitors

Link: How to defeat automated phone solicitors. I LOVE this tip. We all get calls from numbers that show up in caller ID as unknown or private. Be they collection agents or telephone solicitors or political campaigns, they are automated, and the computers making the calls react like computers. You know the tone you get when a number has been disconnected? Dum,dum, dum? Well, download this little WAV file, and record it. Next time you get one of those obnoxious calls, just play the tone into the receiver. Bingo. The computer thinks your line has been disconnected, and removes you from the call list.

OLPC laptop is Cute and Child Friendly

Link: One Laptop per Child (OLPC), Laptop: A learning tool created expressly for children in developing nations. Well, my OLPC XO laptop has been delivered, and it is cute, and green, and its tiny keyboard is just right for small hands and fingers. The operating system is intuitive, and it automatically links to educational websites, and WiFi hotspots. The screen is smaller than I would like, but the construction is solid. The keyboard is a covered chiclet style that should repel water, juice and the other stuff kids get into. The computer comes without written documentation to save money; I recommend visiting the website if you want to know what all the buttons do. Of course, kidlike, you could do what I did. Just start pressing buttons, and see what happens. The graphical design of the desktop was a little hard for my old eyes to get used to; however, kids will likely take to this thing immediately. My daughter loves it, and I look forward to spending time with it myself. This is not an adult's mobile computer; if you want one of those, get an ASUS EEE ultraportable. But, if you want to do some good for the world's kids not fortunate enough to live in the U.S., you could do a lot worse.

Q7 Bone Conduction Headset

Link: Invisio officially launches the Q7 bone conduction headset - CES 2008 - Consumer Electronics Show - CNET.com. After two years of promises, the Q7 is available, and I have two questions. One, why does saying "bone conduction" creep me out? The name sounds like a bad episode of "Bones", the TV show about a forensic pathologist who specializes in dead bodies and their bones. Second, where exactly does that long antenna go, anyway? Ouch. I bought the other bone conduction headset, the Jawbone, and it is huge. I looked like one of the Borg, come to annihilate all humankind. Okay, I looked like that before, but you know what I mean.

Solid State Drives - More Storage Than God Needs

Link: Hands-on with SanDisk's 72GB SSD (and friends) - Engadget. The new Solid State Drives (SSDs) are taking over, and this 72 Gig beauty shown by SanDisk at CES proves it. This size SSD is quick (no moving parts), and fits right into standard SSD slots in modern laptops (including the ultraportable Dell D430 I am typing this post on). When I bought my first hard drive in 1985, I thought the 10 Megabyte drive for $900 was a bargain. Oh well.

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda; a Discovery Nightmare

Link: Law.com - Qualcomm Lawyers Late to Search Laptop. Computers, and electronic storage, have changed the discovery paradigm; and large law firms, involved in large cases, make a large thud when they make a mistake. It is so easy to ignore the voices, isn't it? As Qualcomm lawyers who failed to look for discovery in emails of a Qualcomm engineer are finding out, it isn't just hiring an IT guy or gal to collect and communicate electronic evidence that satisfies the discovery gods. These lawyers were apparently intentionally blind about certain evidence in emails that proved relevant; they are now paying a huge price. This is a scary case, and a scary result. The bigger the case, and the bigger the discovery problems, the more difficult electronic discovery is making it. I am happy that I am a solo practitioner. We aren't involved in complex litigation for the most part. It is hard enough doing what we do. Every lawyer involved in complex litigation needs to take a look at the Qualcomm debacle. It is a cautionary tale.