Futurelawyer

Wearable Tech - From Novelty To Normal

Wearable Tech Will Shift From Novelty To Norm In 5 Years. My fascination with wearable tech mirrors my fascination with the first personal computers in the Eighties. I saw immediately the great impact these devices would have on the practice of law, and it appears that my first impulse was correct. I feel the same way about wearables, and they are already enhancing my workdays. Many futurists predict that, by 2025, wearables will be on most of us, just as most of us now carry a smartphone. I will go one step further; although, I will likely not live to see it. By 2075, most of us will have implants with great computer power, and will be enhanced by that power. Whether for good or ill, no one can know. But, it will certainly be interesting. This feels a lot like the Eighties and Nineties to me, a time when I carried a refrigerator sized projector around the state demonstrating this "new thing" called then the World Wide Web. We live in interesting times.

(Note: This is a shameless plug for my presentation with Robert Sisson at ABA TechShow in a few weeks. If you want to learn what the wearable future will look like, get thee to Chicago.)

Never Give Up. Never Surrender.

Cult Classic, Galaxy Quest, is full of message and fun. The classic line provides a great inspiration for all of those times in our lives when we need to push on. You really only fail if you quit.

Best Buy Sale On Samsung Note 4 And Gear VR Innovator

Best Buy to carry Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition starting March 27 | Android Central. If you have been wanting to try out the best smartphone out there, the Galaxy Note 4, together with the Gear VR headset, the next two days are your chance. Both are marked down to $199, beginning tomorrow, March 27th through the 29th at BestBuy. If you want to feel what it is like to be transported into a virtual world with a 360 degree view, now is the time. I swear, even with the less than perfect visuals, it is very cool to be able to feel like you are standing in the middle of a virtual room, and you can physically turn around and see what is beside and behind you. The brain quickly adapts to the new reality, and you are transported away from your reality for a few minutes. We are in the early days of this technology and it is not perfect. But, it is really cool. 

Net Neutrality Debate Is Now A Lawyer Problem

Net Neutrality Debate Heads Back To Court - Geeks are Sexy Technology NewsGeeks are Sexy Technology News. My last post about the new FCC regulations enforcing "net neutrality" prompted a spirited debate about the advantages and disadvantages of  government regulation of the Internet and those who provide Internet services. Some believe that the Internet should be regulated by the free market, and that healthy competition will weed out bad actors. Some believe that government regulation is the only way to protect the public from greedy, conniving, evil corporations. Same old. Same old. The FCC claims that it will only regulate to enforce three key principles: no blocking, no throttling and no paid prioritization. This sounds, however, suspiciously like "I'm from your government, and I'm here to help you." The area of Administrative Law is a jungle of cases to determine to the scope of power of administrative agencies which pass regulations with the force of law. At root, laws regulating our conduct should be passed by our elected representatives. However, in a complex society, laws cannot be specific enough to adequately deal with problems. So, we give power to agencies of government., like the FCC, the IRS, and so forth. Large corporations answer to shareholders. Large government agencies can only be restrained by the courts. It will be interesting to see how the courts deal with the challenge.

Why I Am A Solo - I Don't Need A Blue Ribbon

Got this from Facebook friend, Melissa Malone. Says it all, don't you think?

ABA TECHSHOW 2015 | Fashion Do's And Dont's

ABA TECHSHOW 2015 | Fashion Do%u2019s and Don%u2019ts %u2013 How Will Wearable Tech Work In Your Law Practice?. Nobody ever accused me of being a fashion maven. So, when the ABA announced the title of my and Rob Sisson's presentation in Chicago on wearable computing, I was surprised. Then, SWMBO got a pretty purple stoned ring called the Ringly, which lights up and vibrates when she gets an email, text, or other notification on her phone. Then, I starting wearing a necklace, which doubles as a bluetooth earset for music, phone calls and other stuff. So, call me Runway Rick, I will be appearing with the latest fashions in a couple of weeks at ABATechShow at the Hilton in downtown Chicago. Be there.

What's On Your Device?

The joys of reading on Android | Android Central. The best thing my mother ever did for me was teach me to read at a young age. Then, she obtained for me a library card, and I was hooked. Reading truly is fundamental, and it has circumscribed my life and my profession. Lawyers read a lot. It is a necessary function. We read case law, statutes, long boring articles about specific areas of law. We read pleadings, correspondence, and magazines. All that reading is on top of the newspapers, novels, and other fun reading everyone does. So, when apps began to be usable on Android devices, a lot of my reading moved over to digital screens. It was painful in the beginning. Small, low resolution screens lend themselves to large, high resolution headaches. These days, however, much of my reading is done on a big screen monitor connected to my tablet, and on a 10 inch tablet running Android. My favorite reading, however, isn't law related at all. As a subscriber to PressReader, I have access to thousands of daily and weekly newspapers in full text. You get a real picture of the country by reading newspapers from all over the map. What's on your device? 

Lawyers Living Dangerously

Get three years of Anonymizer VPN protection for only $55. Lawyers take an oath to protect the confidentiality of client information. That includes the storage on computer servers of confidential documents. So, making the decision to work partly in the cloud isn't a slamdunk. However, merely accessing the Internet at a cafe or restaurant or other public venue, over an open WiFi connection shouldn't be a problem, should it? Guess again. Lawyers must take "reasonable" precautions to keep client information secure. Since it is easy to tunnel through a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to use public WiFi, and apps like Anonymizer make it as easy as point and click to do so, do you think it reasonable to use public WiFi without tunneling through a VPN in this day and age? I didn't think so.

Android Auto -Baby, You Can't Drive My Car

Android Auto - Android Apps on Google Play. Just because all of my cars are ten years old or older, doesn't mean that I can't join the digital revolution. There are plenty of Internet enabled third party head units out there; and, when I get one for my 2004 automobile, I will be installing Android Auto. It uses Google Maps for navigation, and brings all of the Google notifications and music to the dashboard. I will have to spend some serious money to get the capability; but, that is far better than buying an overpriced new car that I will be paying for in monthly installments. So, I may not be using my phone for navigation for much longer. Drive on.

It's A Tablet! It's A Laptop! No, It's A Transformer!

Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi Review: Is It Worth Buying? : PERSONAL TECH : Tech Times. While I love my Sony Tap 11, it is an orphan. The new ASUS Transformer is both a laptop and a tablet, and it runs the Core M chip that is comparable to a Core I3 in speed. It can handle 8 GB of RAM, and is thinner and lighter than the Apple iPad. This is a 2 in 1 that I could be happy with. How about you?