Futurelawyer

Day of the Dead - The Holiday We Should Be Celebrating

Day of the Dead - Wikipedia. In Catholic Tradition, All Hallow's Eve (Halloween) is known more for its auguring of tomorrow's All Saints Day, and then All Soul's Day. In fact, this holiday should be about what the Stoics call "Memento Mori". We all will die, so we should celebrate another day of living, and those who are still with us. After all, there is no other option, is there? So, be happy to be alive today, commemorate those who have gone before us, and understand that, soon enough, we will be the ones in the photographs that others look at. 

What Smartphone Should You Buy? I Don't Have A Clue

I Have No Idea Which Smartphone You Should Buy, and That's Awesome | Droid Life. I agree with this writer that there is no way I can tell you what Smartphone to buy. I don't know myself. That said, I can tell you what NOT to buy. Don't buy a new phone that is just out and claims to be the latest and greatest and costs $1,000. I have phones that are two years or more old that would be fine for my daily use if I didn't have newer ones that I currently like better. I keep two or three active and currently have a choice between a Nexus 6P (because it runs the latest Android version in the beta program; it just recently was updated to 8.1 Oreo), and an LG V20, which has a second screen, beautiful images, and runs Android 7. I also switch SIMs between my Galaxy Tab S2 tablet, and my LG G5, which has modular attachments, and fits great in one hand. However, if I wanted, I still have my Samsung Note 3, Note 4 and Note 5 phones that are currently being used for Virtual Reality, room phones for casting video to the room's TV, and so forth. There are others; but, you get the picture. The only gadgets I have more of are SmartWatches; but, that is another post entirely. All of this is possible because Android is an open system, and I have choices. None of this is possible with Apple devices. How boring an Apple user's life must be. (He said smiling).

Real Halloween Sounds From The Solar System

Whistler Waves in Spooky Sounds from Across the Solar System. It's Halloween. If you are a nerd, turn out the lights, turn up the computer speakers, and scare the hell out of trick or treaters with real space sounds from NASA. The solar system is a scary place. These sounds prove it. 

Google Calendar On The Web Gets A Candy Redesign

Google Calendar on the web adds Material Design and new features | Android and Me. If you don't have the need for full case management, Google Calendar can be all the calendar you need. It is free, and integrates with all the fine Google products. The Calendar is full featured, and can be used everywhere. I particularly like that it syncs across all my devices. Changes on the phone or tablet instantly appear on the desktop. Now, you can get the Material Design candybar look by telling Google you want to try the new calendar. I am going back and forth to see which I like for day to day use. But, there are other features that put more information in front of you. Pick your poison candy. Happy Halloween.

Don't Pound The Rock - Be The Rock

How to Curb Anger -The Stoic Way | Noble Thoughts. Jon Gruden used to have a big boulder outside the training room at One Buc Place. He motivated his players by pushing them to "pound the rock", to be intense in their preparation, and to push themselves to the limit on every play. They won the Super Bowl that year, in 2002. I thought about that when I read this post on the Stoic's antidote to anger. Anger is a useless emotion. If you throw insults at a rock, what comes back? Nothing. The rock is the perfect Stoic. My hardest task, in trying to apply Stoic principles to my life is the suppression of anger. All sorts of things and people cause me to be angry. Of course, I control whether I get angry or not; so, it is up to me not to allow anger to get in the way of life. It is irrational to be angry. It serves no good purpose. It only harms the one who gets angry. So, let's resolve to be rocks. We are hard enough to absorb any blow, verbal or otherwise, since we control our response. Don't pound the rock...be the rock.

Stranger Things 2 - Buying A Pixel Phone At Best Buy

I went to Best Buy to buy a Pixel 2 and it was strange - CNET. No, this is not a TV Show review. If you want that, message me privately. This story is about an intrepid pundit for C/Net who ventured into a Verizon store and tried to buy a Pixel phone. That experience was chronicled earlier, and showed why a carrier store is not the place to go if you are unsure about what phone you want. This time, however, our brave shopper tried to go to Best Buy, where he was told he would get an unbiased, objective viewpoint. Which he did; but, it would have been nice if the Best Buy employee knew anything about Smartphones. Sigh. All of this goes to show that, if you want to buy a new Smartphone, do the research yourself, online, and buy the phone itself, online. If you don't know enough to make this decision yourself, learn. Jeez. 

NDA Lynn | Artificial Intelligence And Contract Review

NDA Lynn | Home. I have written before about AI and its impact on the professions; particularly, law practice. While I don't believe that AI Robots will take over the practice of law, I do believe that they will work hand in hand with legal professionals, and will automate many tasks that are suited to computer analysis. Contract review is a perfect example of this. While lawyer analysis of the AI product is still going to be essential, having a bot do the initial rote analysis is a perfect use of AI, and a great help to lawyers tasked with contract review. A couple of Netherlands entrepreneurs are doing just that with an NDA review bot called NDA Lynn. Arnoud Engelfriet, one of the developers, explains:

"It's a support vector machine, an algorithmic model that classifies clauses in the right category based on statistical comparisons to a training set of 304 NDA's. I've got a whole paper here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3039353"

The paper is fascinating, and will give the reader a good idea of how AI will change the practice of law. Targeted analysis, depending on contract or document type, can do much of the rote review, giving the legal professional a fast and easy way to begin the analysis and opinion writing. The future will not be populated by robot lawyers standing in a courtroom arguing cases. But, it will be populated by intelligent machines in the law office, giving human lawyers efficient information that is more accurate than humanly possible. 

104-Year-Old Lawyer And Wisdom

104-Year-Old Biglaw Attorney Who Was Still Practicing Law Has Passed Away | Above the Law.

"There is no such thing as a best or worst moment in a life. A person has many experiences over time, some good, some bad. . . . The real secret is to be decent, to be fair, and to be forgiving."

Murray Shusterman

It is true that wisdom comes with age. Murray Shusterman practiced law up until his death at 104. There are many lessons longevity can teach us; not the least of which is that staying active, mentally and physically, will prolong life, absent disease or calamity. Another is that concentrating on decency, fairness, and forgiveness, understanding that fate will bring good and bad, is essential to a good life. RIP Murray.

#ParrotSunday - Hyacinth Macaws

Best Buy Thinks The iPhone X Isn't Expensive Enough

Best Buy charging a $100 premium on full iPhone X price, says customers %u2018want this flexibility%u2019 | 9to5Mac. $1,000 for the new iPhone? Best Buy thinks it should be $100 more. Best Buy iPhone customers want "flexibility" says the company, which is advertising pre-orders at a $100 premium over retail. Let's skip the obvious question of what kind of person would pay $1,000 for a phone in the first place. Now, let's ponder the idiot who would voluntarily pay an extra $100 for the phone just because Best Buy thinks they can get it. Jeez.