Encryption Options for Lawyers
Document Actions
David Whelan's Blog
Up one levelThis is where I have tossed opinions, thoughts, random attempts using technology, and other jetsam that occurs to me. Is it a blog? It's as close as I've come.
- Memory Lapse: USB on Ubuntu, Flaky Digital Camera
- Two recent experiences with portable memory offer examples of how, as reliant as we're becoming on flash drives, memory sticks - what would Jack Bauer do without them in his phone? - how new problems can crop up as you use them in new ways. I recently found answers to two problems I had where I knew I should have more space on a memory stick, but it wasn't appearing.
- Read more: Memory Lapse: USB on Ubuntu, Flaky Digital Camera
- LegalTech Talks Law Libraries
- The New York Legaltech conference is one of only a handful of places where you can get a lot of information both about trends and practices in legal technology and, often, information trends. This is usually tangential to law librarianship, because initiatives like knowledge management or records management may be outside the normal law library purview. If you're going to Legaltech 2009, though, be sure to stay for Wednesday, when there are two law library-specific sessions.
- Read more: LegalTech Talks Law Libraries
- Granular Control of Metadata with SEO Plone Product
- One of the long standing wishes I've had for this site is better control over the metadata in the pages. Since it is data driven, it's not as easy to futz (technical term) each page and customize it for better search engine optimization. It's not that this is an e-commerce site - I'm just happy that an eGoGoogle on my name puts me in the top 10, with that famous footballer from Bradford - but when you're an information pro AND a control freak, you want what you want. The SEO Plone product fits the bill in enhancing metadata control on content within your Plone instance.
- Read more: Granular Control of Metadata with SEO Plone Product
- Work Avoidance: Scroll Wheel Problems in Word 2007
- I am experiencing a bit of writer's block so I am fixing a new hardware problem while I try to break out! We migrated to Microsoft Office 2007 last Friday at work, and I'm experiencing the new applications in all their glory. It's been an easy transition, although I'm still hunting some times for the commands I want. Then I noticed my scrollwheel wasn't working on my IBM optical mouse. When you move your pointer over the scroll bar in Word 2007 and move the wheel, it scrolls fine. When you move it back over the text of the document, it won't scroll! How weird is that? Fortunately, as in most technical difficulties, someone else has had this problem. But I had to come up with my own solution, which was not as easy as you might think.
- Read more: Work Avoidance: Scroll Wheel Problems in Word 2007
- Foreign Exchange: Using Google.com
- Like many Internet searchers, I am a fan of Google. As non-US based researchers will know, Google often tries to localize the search to your international flavor. So if you look for Google, it typically will end with the country code top level domain (ccTLD) of your country: Google.ca, for example. But when you execute a search against that index, you are not necessarily pulling from the main index, and so results may differ from what you see on a Google.com search. Here are two ways that you can change the default search in your Firefox Web browser from Google.ca to Google.com.
- Read more: Foreign Exchange: Using Google.com
- The Pocket Law Library
- An odd technological glitch this week highlighted how much legal research has changed. I have a number of RSS feeds set up to monitor topics on Google News. It helps me to pick up things on the periphery of the law library world. ComputerWorld must have been goosing some of its old content, because an article from August 2001 appeared, contrasting Microsoft and Linux. The writer suggests that the Linux-isn't-fit-for-the-enterprise bugaboo doesn't work when dealing with smaller businesses: "An 8 T[era]B[yte] storage-area network array is cool, but does the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham & Howe really care about that much storage when their entire law library will fit on the hard drive of the secretary's PC?" Even in 2001, one might say, "Really?"
- Read more: The Pocket Law Library
- What's Up with Medicine Cabinets?
- Body language, clothing selections, and personal decorating are all interesting ways to think about people. If you've ever sat in a meeting where someone sits in a funny way, or responds verbally or physically in an unusual manner, it can be easy to "read" into their activity. A new book on "What Your Stuff Says About You" grabbed my attention when it was discussed on NPR. These silent clues about a person are all interesting, but one thing that struck me is the importance of the medicine cabinet!
- Read more: What's Up with Medicine Cabinets?
- Putting the Squeeze on Lawyers
- A research paper on large law firm economics called "Are We Selling Resumes or Results" and a general interest in what's happening to mid-size law firms converged this week. I was particularly struck by the "bi-modal" chart included in the first publication, which immediately made me think about the squeeze on the middle of the profession. If mid-size firms are breaking up, or being absorbed by larger entities, then it may be that salaries will align themselves with those types of firms as well.
- Read more: Putting the Squeeze on Lawyers
- Current Play List: July 2008
- A bit of old and a bit of new this month. We took a long trip out to Prince Edward Island, where I was hoping to hear some traditional island music. We did find some Acadian music in the Evangeline Region, which of course sounded familiar to anyone related to Cajuns, as we are. The other music we heard tended to be "Atlantic" and was as likely to have come from Nova Scotia or Newfoundland and Labrador as PEI. I picked up a couple of new discs after a bit of a preview and wasn't disappointed.
- Read more: Current Play List: July 2008
- Ever Present Danger
- It doesn't take long for an immigrant to notice differences between the new country and the old. Sometimes they are little ones, and one thinks, "oh, that's funny because it's ALMOST the same". One that jumped out at me soon after arriving in Canada was the customizable red danger signs. At first I thought it a bit odd, since they were mostly used on building sites. As this picture shows, however, you can never be too careful about what danger lurks around the corner!
- Read more: Ever Present Danger
- Don't Call Us, We'll Call You. Really.
- To say that telephones are the bane of my existence would be putting too fine a point on the subject. It would be fair to say, however, that I avoid using the phone when I am not at work. I find that most calls are telemarketers, often either trying to sell me on something I'd already told them I didn't want, or trying to sell me something I'd never buy in the first place. In the U.S., we were able to eliminate most calls using the Do Not Call system, which recently came to a renewal point, but the phone system became noticeably quieter after its initial creation. Canada isn't there yet, and we're not waiting.
- Read more: Don't Call Us, We'll Call You. Really.
- The End of the Dollop, Courtesy of Halifax
- Anyone who knows me knows that coffee figures into my daily routine. On a recent family trip, I had the opportunity to hunt for a decent cup each morning in a new location. I'd noticed in previous trips to Tim Hortons that they use a SureShot dispenser to ensure that every customer gets a uniform "double double". It wasn't until I was on the road that I started to see these same SureShot dispensers all over the place. The company that makes them is a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based company that seems to have quite a lock on this sort of dispenser. I'm not much into buying stocks, but if I was, this is a company I'd make sure I included in my portfolio! A machine that gives the correct cream and sugar proportions? How can you go wrong?
- Read more: The End of the Dollop, Courtesy of Halifax
- Happy Canada Day!
- This is our first Canada Day since we emigrated from the States and there have been sporadic fireworks going off and maple leaf flags popping up for a couple of days now. I decided to start the day in a rather un-Canadian fashion, by listening to a tape from "This American Life". But it was about Canadians.
- Read more: Happy Canada Day!
- Online Reading is Changing How . . . Excuse Me, What Were You Saying?
- A pair of interesting articles by Nicholas Carr and Michael Agger have been getting a lot of online press (to the extent you count Delicious tags, etc.). I find the discussion of how reading is changing because of, or on the, Internet to be fascinating. For centuries people have been reading dense physical texts and now there appears to be a breakdown in attention spans. Authors and publishers are being encouraged to provide smaller information chunks, readers are scanning information and leaving if they're not instantly satisfied, and Google gets blamed for the impact of its search results on reading. I like to think I've noticed the shift in legal research as well, but it's hard to know how much is anecdotal and how much is self-inflicted.
- Read more: Online Reading is Changing How . . . Excuse Me, What Were You Saying?
- Life After XP: Hello, Ubuntu!
- It is entirely coincidental that the first weekend of Bill Gate's retirement from Microsoft is the same weekend I finally decide to kick my Windows desktop habit. I've been suffering under Windows XP for some time, but a recent hardware upgrade did nothing to ease my pain. I knew WIndows Vista wasn't in my future, and I have for a long time wanted to make the shift to open source on the desktop. I've used Debian Linux for my Web server for some time but felt that I had too much Windows specific hardware to make the change work on the desktop. I couldn't have been more wrong. Ubuntu is now at version 8 and is a remarkable distribution of Linux. I tried out the "Live CD" which lets you boot up Ubuntu without any impact on your Windows installation. I could see and access my Windows NTFS-based file system, as well as look around the Ubuntu system. I was hooked immediately. And the hardware and other issues I anticipated? No problems. Here's what happened.
- Read more: Life After XP: Hello, Ubuntu!
- Coffee in Canada
- I am a regularly caffeinated person. A great morning starts off with a nice strong espresso and continues from there. It's been interesting adapting the slightly different Canadian coffee market. In general, weaker is the rule of the day for coffee although you can find stronger (not necessarily better) coffee if you look for it. There are some other nuances too.
- Read more: Coffee in Canada
- Current Play List: June 2008
- Lots of new music this time, thanks to an influx of new discs, bought and borrowed. All the way from 1990s dance ("Move it Move it") to the Clash and Ramones to more Great Big Sea and their traditional, and not so traditional, music.
- Read more: Current Play List: June 2008
- Cool Museums
- After last night's Canadian Association of Law Libraries closing banquet, held at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon, I have a new "favorite" museum! What a great place! But it made me think about some other museums I really enjoy. I'd say my favorites, but most of my museum visits are transient so it's not fair to place one against another when I can visit some whenever I like. So, here are 3 museums I think are outstanding!
- Read more: Cool Museums
- Web Filters & Blogs: A Workaround to Stay Informed
- The rise of social networking has led to a proportional crackdown in access to social networks from corporate networks. The problem comes when services create an overly broad category for "social" sites and start to block content that you need to access for your work. By the time you've wasted time creating a business case for every blog that you read, you could have ice skated to Fiji and back. Here is one way to grease the skids of your information management!
- Read more: Web Filters & Blogs: A Workaround to Stay Informed
- Canals and Locks
- Water and boats are an integral part of my life. Brought up around sailing boats, often in canoes, there seems a magnetic attraction to things nautical. We've taken two trips in narrowboats (yet to be documented here!) across Wales and Scotland. I'm not a big fan of motorized boats but it's an easy and comfortable way to travel. The canals we've experienced have been nestled within nature so closely that we often felt quite separated from the hurly burly that was, in reality, just beyond the hedge row. We visited Lock 21 over the long weekend here in Canada, which is the tallest hydraulic lock in the world and is part of the Trent - Severn canal system. It was remarkable to see it in action.
- Read more: Canals and Locks
Memory Lapse: USB on Ubuntu, Flaky Digital Camera
LegalTech New York 2009