Futurelawyer

Gear S3 Gets Updated To Tizen 3

Gear S3 gets Tizen 3.0 update with enhanced UI, fitness tracking, and more | Android Central. My favorite Smartwatch, the Samsung Gear S3 LTE, is getting an update to Version 3, and it will now remotely control your Smart TV, have better heart rate monitoring, will allow you to create events and contacts directly on the watch, and generally make the watch a stand alone computing device even better than it is now. I will have to wait a few days for T-Mobile to provide the update, as will Verizon and AT&T customers. But, I pretty much wear this watch 90% of the time, and, since I am always forgetting to bring my phone along, its independent features are valuable to me. I prefer the look of the Classic edition, since it looks like any other luxury watch. It does turn heads when I start fooling with it in public; but, I have learned to ignore the onlookers, unless they ask questions. We are all pretty much used to other people glancing or looking at their watches. I most love the vibrations that alert me to texts, email, Facebook notifications or other notifications that keep me informed without breaking my concentration; especially, while driving. Put your phone away and get a SmartWatch with Tizen. You'll be glad you did. 

Execupundit's Ten Rules For Thanksgiving

Michael Wade's annual Thanksgiving post is necessary reading every year. Here it is:

Ten Rules For Thanksgiving

 

Top Ten Reasons To Be Thankful There Were No Lawyers On The Mayflower

When, some years ago, I first wrote this post about the fact that there were no lawyers on the Mayflower, it never occurred to me that they might have been aware of the survival statistics for Pilgrims traveling to America, and, lawyers being a risk averse lot, decided not to go. But, in any event, it might have been good that they didn't go. The passage was rough enough. Given that, here are my top ten reasons we should be thankful the lawyers stayed home:

10. Conducting a trial on a small wooden ship would be difficult.
9. The Seamen's Union would go on strike, and refuse to offload passengers and freight until their lawyers conducted settlement negotiations.
8. It would have taken years to get zoning approval for the houses the Pilgrims wanted to live in.
7. Where would all of the secretaries and paralegals have slept?
6. Contract negotiations with the Indians would have delayed the food delivery by months.
5. Litigation over the failure to pay a minimum wage to the food preparation staff would have resulted in a strike, and nobody would get to eat.
4. A lawsuit over the despoliation of the environment would have caused the crops to go unharvested.
3. The Indians would have filed a lawsuit claiming that the Pilgrims were trespassing on tribal land, and obtained an injunction.
2.  The Society for the Preservation of the Flowers of May would have  prevented the  docking of the ship, for tradename infringement.

And, drum-stick roll , please, the Number One reason  to be thankful there  were no lawyers on the MayFlower:

1.  The  Pilgrims  and the Indians would have flooded the colonial courts with litigation for  negligent food preparation when they all got sick from eating wild turkeys.

Enjoy your Feast. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank You, God, for making a world with work for lawyers.

The Mayflower Was A Big Risk For Its Passengers

Passage On The Mayflower This book should quiet any romantic notions you may have had about the first English settlers of the New World. A quote:

"Between 1619 and 1622, the Virginia Company would send close to 3,600 settlers to the colony; over that three-year period, 3,000 would die."

So, the First Thanksgiving was about survival, more than it was about a grand party filled with turkey, and all the trimmings. If you want something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, try being glad to have one more Thanksgiving Day.

#WhyIAmASolo - I Don't Need Or Care About Big Data Analytics

Big Data And Small Business This article purports to argue that small businesses can benefit from Big Data and Data Analytics. I humbly disagree. One of the pleasures of a solo law practice is that it is easy to tell whether I am doing well; and, more than that, I don't have to care whether I analyze the analytics of my practice or web presence. I just do what I do, and try to be as productive as I can be. Every minute spent on worrying about analytics of data is time spent away from my principal function. Sure, I won't get rich doing that; and, if I were managing a large number of people, big data would be helpful. But, I don't need it. Of course, lawyers using the Internet and technology use big data all the time. Efficiency in accessing the law, both primary and secondary, is made possible by companies that analyze and present the data for a price. Life, however, is way too short for me to worry about exit rates, and social media analytics. Now, get out there and do what you were meant to do. 

Hidden Windows 10 Tricks - Here's Proof You Don't Know It All

Windows 10 Hidden Tricks So, you think you are a Windows 10 Power User? This list will prove you are a poser. My favorite here is one that I never knew. At the extreme lower right of the Taskbar, there is a tiny horizontal line that reduces all Windows when you hover over it, and gives you a clean desktop when you click it. Don't want your coworker to see what you are doing? Just move the cursor to the lower right and click. Want to rotate your screen? Hold down the CtrlAltD keys with your left hand, and click the down arrow with your right hand in whatever orientation you want the screen. Let's say you are using a screen laying on the table and talking to a friend or colleague sitting at the table with you. No need to sit side by side. Just flip the screen with the down arrow, and it will face your friend. There are plenty more where these came from. Read the article and learn, grasshopper.

#ParrotSunday - Parrot Therapy For Vets

I have always known that my parrots were good for my mental health. This story about a parrot sanctuary for abandoned parrots and veterans proves it.

Computer Security For Lawyers And Everybody Else

This is a great introduction to computer security by Ernie Svenson, the Paperless Lawyer. Every lawyer (and every computer user) needs to see it. Unfortunately, the users who are getting hacked are usually the people who don't take security seriously. Watch and learn, grasshopper.

#ParrotSunday - African Grey Parrot Talks To Alexa

This parrot tells Alexa to turn the lights on and off. I see great promise here.

Kurzweil - The Singularity Will Come In 2045

The Singularity Is Coming Futurist Ray Kurzweil has predicted that, by 2029, machines will be able to pass the Turing test, making them as intelligent as human beings, and that, by 2045, we will reach the "Singularity", when humans and machines merge into another entity altogether. This sounds like science fiction, until we begin analyzing the rise of AI, the implantation of computing devices in the human body, computers that regulate heart and brain activity, and augmented human ability. Should we fear the coming of the computer enhanced human? Will this power be relegated to the few, or will it be available to the many? Given my advanced age, I am both happy and disappointed that I will likely not live to see the result of this prediction. However, I am hoping that the development of human/computer intelligence merging will help many of us humans live longer and better lives. Otherwise, what's a future for?