Futurelawyer

Echo Smart Pen - Make Your Notes Work For You

My Echo Smart Pen was delivered yesterday, and I am having fun playing with it. It is, however, a serious piece of tech, and uses an infrared camera next to a ball point pen and special dotted paper to record every stroke. I love that I can take notes as I always have, with pen and ink on paper, and the dots are invisible to the eye on the special paper. While expensive, the paper notebooks are not out of line, and you can write on both sides. 4 200 page books cost around $24, and the ink refills are no more expensive than any ballpoint pen. While I would prefer writing on yellow legal pads, I am getting used to the white pages of the LiveScribe notebooks. Come to think of it, I have used white legal pads before, and never thought about page color. While the newer version of the pen, the LiveScribe 3 transfers pages to the phone or tablet by Bluetooth, I like the fact that I can hook the USB cable to my desktop with the Echo, and automatically transfer the pages to Windows as PDFs. Then, I can send them to MyScript for conversion to text, or store them in any folder on the computer. So, when I take notes about a particular matter, I can just click and share them with the client folder on the computer. I wish I had been using this pen much longer. With all the peripherals, and a leather binder and case for the pen, I spent less than $180 on Amazon. Get the 8 GB version, and you can store thousands of pages of text. The pen will need recharging after 8 to 10 hours of use; but, you can plug it in to any USB port at night. I am in the habit of charging my Bluetooth Headset, and SmartWatch at night already, so this shouldn't be a problem. By the way, with your Smartphone on your belt or in yuour pocket, your SmartWatch on your wrist, your Bluetooth Headset in your ears or on your neck, putting this SmartPen in your shirt pocket makes for a real wearable computing revolution. I suppose a computer carried in your briefcase completes the geek lawyer picture. I will keep updates coming, as I use the device. For now, it is a go. Write on.

I Hope SWMBO Wears White Satin Tomorrow Night

Never Give Up. Never Surrender.

7 Life Lessons from a Guy Who Can%u2019t Move Anything but His Face - Unstoppable. Think you have problems? Think life is treating you unfairly? Angry? Shut up and read this. I mean it. Stop complaining and live your life. This guy has the Stoic philosophy down. Admirable.

SaveMyTime - Tracks Your Time With Your Phone

SaveMyTime Uses Your Phone Addiction to Track How You Spend Your Time. And, in this Friday's edition of the most useless, sinister software out there, I give you SaveMyTime, which uses your phone to track what you do with your time. Are you kidding me? Isn't it enough that I have to track my billable hours at work? Do I really want to know how much time I waste on Facebook or watching old Perry Mason videos? Is our society so self involved that we need to track every minute of our lives? Life is short enough without wasting one single minute of it, telling my phone what I happen to be doing at the moment. I want more minutes in my life, not fewer. Now, if you want to use this software, and you happen to become an opposing party in litigation in which I am involved, get ready for the SaveMyTime subpoena. SaveMyTime? They should call this software WasteMyTime. Jeez.

T-Mobile Sync Up Drive- WiFi And Auto Security In One Package

T-Mobile Sync Up Drive | Monitor Your Car & Loved Ones via Your Mobile. After our recent auto theft, I have been researching auto security. Since I am a TMobile customer, I was interested in the SyncUp Drive, which connects to most modern cars' OBD readers (On Board Diagnostics). It has its own GPS, so the car can be located with a SmartPhone app. The kicker, for me, is that it also functions as a WiFi Hotspot, for up to 5 devices. It even works in my 12 year old car. TMobile is running a promotion that credits the cost of the device over a two year period, on a monthly basis, effectively making the device a no cost addition. You can get 2 Gigs a month of data for $10, making this a no brainer choice for someone who wants GPS protection along with WiFi access. 

NoteTaking Experiment Redux

Amazon.com: Livescribe 8GB Echo Smartpen Pro Edition (APX-00018): Computers & Accessories. Okay, the Boogie Board Sync is now in the hands of SWMBO, who swears she wants to try it out; but, for the past week she hasn't touched it. Come on, girl, get with the program. In the meantime, I have moved on to the LiveScribe Echo Pen, with 8 Gigs of memory, and which writes on special paper that loads the notes onto a Windows based computer. It also works with Apple. It will be delivered tomorrow, and I will let you know how it works. The thing that makes me believe that I will use it is that it is a real ball point pen, and takes ball point refills. Everything you write is stored in memory, and then transferred to OneNote on the computer. By a simple setting, and flip, you can convert handwriting to text if you want. I have a feeling I will be playing with this thing all weekend. Hey, none of my teams are playing meaningful games anyway; except for the Packers, who are hot right now. 

In Memoriam - William McKinley Smiley

2016 has marked the death of many people, famous and otherwise. My former Law Professor, client, and great friend, Mickey Smiley, was one of them. He was one of the longest living cancer survivors in history, and I never saw him without a smile and a laugh. He taught me Torts and International Law, and became a mentor and confidant over the years. If you are going to be near Stetson College of Law in mid January, please consider attending his Memorial service. 

Why I Am A Solo - I Am Only Accountable To Myself

Finding Accountability as a Solo Lawyer. This article posits that it can be helpful to find someone to whom a solo can be "accountable". I suppose this means some sort of coach or other person with knowledge of law practice and systems. For the purposes of this discussion, we are not considering the accountability to clients and courts, which come with the job. However, if I wanted to pass accountability to another person, I wouldn't have decided to practice solo in the first place. I like being accountable only to myself. That means I live and die with the consequences of my own decisions. I have found it much more beneficial to know that my decisions are mine alone, and, while I am always open to new ideas, I am only "accountable" to myself. Egocentric? Sure. But, it works for me. If you want to be "accountable" to someone else, go join a group practice. Your partners will not be shy about criticizing your decisions. 

Are Your Devices Spying On You? The Case Of The Patient Witness

Police request Echo recordings for homicide investigation - CNET. The newest gadgets in our houses and offices are patient witnesses. After we say the Wake Word or Phrase, such as "OK Google" or "Alexa", the devices start recording any sound they hear. Then, they send the sound to the cloud for processing. You can delete the sound from your local computer or phone or tablet; but, what happens to the sounds kept on the servers in the cloud? Be careful what you say at home or at the office. They might be spying on you. Just another mine of data available for legal discovery. Of course, no self respecting murderer would say anything incriminating, would he? Duh.

Robots? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Robots!

Robotics is so last decade. What we need are robotic suits that a man can sit inside and control. We saw an example of these in the Avatar movie. Now, scientists have created an actual robot suit that can move. Am I the only one who wants one of these?