TechLawyerBlog

AT&T Wi Fi and Wireless Card

On a recent trip to Arizona I made an impulse buy of an AT&T wireless data card.  The card was free after a rebate and the monthly fee of around $80 included a sufficient amount of data transfer for my purposes plus unlimited internet use at AT&T Wi Fi hot spots.  The GSM works fine, but I have never been able to connect using the hot spots.  I always get an "authentication error." So, at a recent visit to my local Starbucks, I had nothing better to do so I called AT&T WiFi support to see if I could get it working at the hotspots, thinking it would take no more than a few minuts.  An hour and a half later, and after speaking to 3 different support people and winding up on a conference call with Wayport and AT&T, there was no resolution and I had to leave, so we wrote a trouble ticket and they were going to get back with me.  3 days later they called and I returned the call, spent another hour on the phone and was told to go back to the site and call back to AT&T.  I did, and spend another hour and a half with no solution.  I finally logged on using my Starbucks account, just to make sure it was not my computer.  It logged on fine, but logging back on using the AT&T still did not work.  So, I emailed AT&T support and suggested that they either (1) give me a separate WiFi account that I can just use when at hot spots (2) send me a new card; or (3) let me return the product.  So far, they have not been willing to do any of those, I still do not have WiFi use, even though that is part of what I pay them for each month, and I spend another hour on the phone with tech support again today.  They keep linking in wayport, and telling me it should work, but it doesn't.  We have another trouble ticket open and they are supposed to be calling back.  I will update as the saga progresses. 

The other thing I learned in this process is that when AT&T tells you that Wi Fi hot spots are included, it does not include "Premium Hot Spots."  And, there does not seem to be an easy way to determine what kind of hot spot one is.  The AT&T Communications Manager has a place to identify "Locations" that can be searched, but it makes no distinction for "Premium" or "Ordinary" hot spots.  It seems to me this should be made much more clear by AT&T if they are going to by promoting Hot Spot account access as part of this data plan.     

Add Another Monitor

One of the repeated themes in the Paperless Office sessions at Techshow was the improvement that dual monitors brought to the work flow process, so immediately on my return to the office, I bought 2 24" monitors for my desktop.  Now, I probably did not put sufficient thought into this purchase.  I was sitting at my desk on the Monday of my return, when I received in my inbox a promotion for 24" HP refurbished monitors for around $225.  I was at the time using a single 19" Samsung display, and figured that if 19" was good, then 24" was better.  In retrospect, this was probably a little too large.  I at least should have measured, but I have them both hooked up now and they work as advertised. 

I use a laptop as my primary computer docked to a docking station, so rather than try to find a PC Card video card or a half-height video card for the dock, I took a tip from Ross Kodner's blog and purchased a DualHead2Go Digital adapter which essentially tricks your computer to thinking that your single video display is extra wide.  The unit works fine, although instructions were a bit skimpy and it took a call to tech support to get up and running.  The unit does seem to intervere with my Olympus DS-5000, and I am trying to find a work around for this conflict, but the use of dual monitors is great.  The ability to pull up the document I am reviewing on one screen while working in the other screen is a real time (and paper) saver.  I am adding dual monitors to my associate's desktop tomorrow. 

Remote Virtual Assistant

One vendor that I was very impressed with at Techshow was Legal Typist  although its founder,Andrea Cannavina, was at Techsow as an attendee rather than a vendor.  She manages a bunch of legal secretaries that serve as virtual assistants to lawyers in all size law firms.  I have previously used online dictation services like www.speak-write.com, which was fine for getting lots of words on to paper that I could then edit before filing a final product, but Legal Typist goes a step further by assigning you to a specific person to handle your work, so they learn how you want things done.  Although the name implies typing, I am assured that their services are much broader, freeing up the lawyer for the highest and best use of his time.  The next time that work at my office exceeds our internal capacity, I plan on trying this service.   

Just Google my Lawyer

One of the interesting marketing vendors at Techshow 2009 was a company called Jabberclick.  The Company offers to market professionals such as real estate agents and lawyers by purchasing the professional’s name in the paid search placement of the major search engines, Google, Yahoo, an MSN.  The theory is that your clients will not remember your web address or phone number, but they will remember your name. Accordingly, you can tell your clients that if they want to refer their friends and family to you, simply ask those people Google your name.  A link to your web site should be the first to appear. The firm then also creates a very simple landing page that the paid advertising links to, which will supply your other contact information to the prospective client. The company charges $20 per month for this service.

 

In my view it would be much simpler, and far cheaper, to simply purchase the advertising yourself. Assuming that you already have a web page, which almost all lawyers now do, simply create an account with each of the major search engines, and bid on your name.  It is unlikely that there is much competition for your name, so these bids will likely be at the minimum bid level.  The ad would then link back to the contact page of your web site. Ultimately, I see very little value added by Jabberclick for annual $260 charged.  That money would be far better spent adding content each month to your existing website, which will increase the likelihood of achieving higher rankings in the natural search results Google and the other search engines.

Techshow 2009

A couple of weeks ago I attended the ABA Techshow in Chicago in Illinois. It was good to see old law tech friends like Adriana Linares and Tom O’Connor, and to make some new ones like Jim Calloway and Bruce Dorner.   Over the next few weeks I plan to post on some of the innovative, and not some innovative applications for lawyers. If I had to sum up the primary themes of this year’s conference, it would be “e-discovery” and “paperless office.” There were other sections that dealt with other areas of law practice, but these 2 themes dominated, both the presentations and the vendor hall. 

 

On the paperless office front, not much has change over the past 10 years other than the fact that scanners have gotten more affordable and faster, making decentralized scanning to PDF, with OCR, the method of choice. Affordable personal scanners, such as the Fujitsu S1500 Scan Snap scanners, which sell for approximately $450 and include a full copy of Acrobat Standard, making it very affordable to place scanners on every staff member’s desk and require that every piece of paper coming into the office be scanned.  My office has utilized a variation of this system for the past 10 years, following Ross Kodner’s "paper less" office plan, however, inspired by the various offices reporting favorable results at Techshow, we are now abandoning the actual filing of the paper documents, relying solely on the scanned image. I will report on the progress of this project in future posts.

File Sync made Simple

I recently attended Techshow 2009, the annual premier technology conference for lawyers. In future posts, I will discuss some of the products and services featured there. 

 

One of my favorite sessions each year at Techshow is the 60 Sites in 60 minutes session. This year offered two such sessions, and did not disappoint.  A complete list of the sites is available here.   One of the gems revealed in this session was www.syncplicity.com.  This service synchronizes files between multiple computers using an Internet cloud.  In other words, I can create a transfer folder on my desktop that will upload its entire contents, and all additions and changes, to the cloud each time it is connected to the internet.  Matching synchronized folders on my laptop and home computers are synchronized with the contents and changes to the synchronized folder.  Syncplicity will keep the designated folders on all 3 computers synchronized, so that any changes that are made on a file on one machine will be updated to the corresponding file located on the other to synchronized computers. A synchronization occurs any time the computer is connected to the Internet.

So, while I previously had to manually select each file or folder that I wanted to transfer, then connect my lap top to the network, and drag it over as a copy, or alternatively plug in a thumb drive and drag the wanted files onto that, now I simply drag a copy of the file into my sync folder on my desktop.  Once I do my laptop and home computers are also automatically updated, provided they have internet connection. The file is automatically downloaded to my laptop, and I am able to have full access to it at trial or hearing.  The best part is, the services free for two computers up to 2 gigabytes of data. Unlimited computers, up to 100 gigs is only $100 per year. This application is going to make my life considerably easier. As an added bonus, any files that I select for synchronization are also backed up, and are available from any computer with a web browser. This service has already simplified my life. 

As an update to this post, whatever was interfering with the DS5000 has apparently resolved itself, and it does not appear to be the Dual Monitor Adaptor.