Category: Law Practice Technology
Posted by: brock
I love slick software that really does something useful.
No one would deny that Adobe Acrobat is the de facto standard for making virtually anything into a PDF file.
But did you know that one of those virtual things is your huge collection of old Outlook e-mail messages?
Yes, you can archive those messages to the highly portable, highly-accessible PDF format, complete with attachments and all!
We are not talking about just "printing" a message with the Adobe PDF printer driver. That just makes a digital "print-out" of the e-mail message (without the attachments, by the way). No, we are talking about selecting an entire month's worth of e-mail messages and putting all of the messages into a PDF "package" file that contains all of the selected messages, all of the attachments, and a handy index for searching them. I like it.
Check out this blog post by Rick Borstein for a detailed look at how Adobe Acrobat can be used to archive your e-mail messgaes:
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2006/12/email_archiving.html
Why archive with Adobe Acrobat "package" file instead of to a .PST (Outlook email database) file?
Portability, mainly. When I archive to a .PST file (which I still do, by the way), the only easy way to view and retrieve the messages is to open the .PST file with Outlook. I don't have Outlook on every PC I own. Also, I cannot depend on other people with whom I might share the e-mail messages to have Outlook. They can always read a PDF file, however, because the Adobe Reader is available, for free, at Adobe's web site.
Why archive messages at all? Why not just leave them in Outlook?
Well, first you need some sort of backup of your Outlook e-mail messages. Outlook will, sooner or later, crash or corrupt on you, leaving you without access to your e-mail collection. Periodically creating an archive .PST file will keep your e-mail data safe. Creating the PDF "archive" package, however, gives you the portability advantage that a .PST file does not have.
Secondly, if your Outlook e-mails are stored on a local area network e-mail server, your system administrator may *force* you to periodically archive your e-mail messages to a local disk to conserve space on the network hard drives. This is my situation. I archive to a .PST file on my local hard drive using Outlook's built-in archiving tool. Once I do that, I then create a PDF "package" archive from the .PST archive. That way, no matter what PC I am using, I can read and retrieve those old e-mails. I also have two backups of my e-mail messages, which never hurts.
- Brock Wood
No one would deny that Adobe Acrobat is the de facto standard for making virtually anything into a PDF file.
But did you know that one of those virtual things is your huge collection of old Outlook e-mail messages?
Yes, you can archive those messages to the highly portable, highly-accessible PDF format, complete with attachments and all!
We are not talking about just "printing" a message with the Adobe PDF printer driver. That just makes a digital "print-out" of the e-mail message (without the attachments, by the way). No, we are talking about selecting an entire month's worth of e-mail messages and putting all of the messages into a PDF "package" file that contains all of the selected messages, all of the attachments, and a handy index for searching them. I like it.
Check out this blog post by Rick Borstein for a detailed look at how Adobe Acrobat can be used to archive your e-mail messgaes:
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2006/12/email_archiving.html
Why archive with Adobe Acrobat "package" file instead of to a .PST (Outlook email database) file?
Portability, mainly. When I archive to a .PST file (which I still do, by the way), the only easy way to view and retrieve the messages is to open the .PST file with Outlook. I don't have Outlook on every PC I own. Also, I cannot depend on other people with whom I might share the e-mail messages to have Outlook. They can always read a PDF file, however, because the Adobe Reader is available, for free, at Adobe's web site.
Why archive messages at all? Why not just leave them in Outlook?
Well, first you need some sort of backup of your Outlook e-mail messages. Outlook will, sooner or later, crash or corrupt on you, leaving you without access to your e-mail collection. Periodically creating an archive .PST file will keep your e-mail data safe. Creating the PDF "archive" package, however, gives you the portability advantage that a .PST file does not have.
Secondly, if your Outlook e-mails are stored on a local area network e-mail server, your system administrator may *force* you to periodically archive your e-mail messages to a local disk to conserve space on the network hard drives. This is my situation. I archive to a .PST file on my local hard drive using Outlook's built-in archiving tool. Once I do that, I then create a PDF "package" archive from the .PST archive. That way, no matter what PC I am using, I can read and retrieve those old e-mails. I also have two backups of my e-mail messages, which never hurts.
- Brock Wood
Category: Law Practice Technology
Posted by: brock
Ever try to send a long URL ("uniform resource locator," a.k.a. a web page "address") to a friend by e-mail? Sometimes the URL is so long that it wraps at the end of a line. When your friend tries to click on the link, it breaks, sending only the portion of the URL on the first line to the browser.
Aggghhh!
Solution: Use TinyURL.com
Just select and copy the long URL in your browser's "address" box.
Surf to http://www.tinyurl.com.
Paste the long URL in the box marked, "Enter a long URL to make tiny".
Click on the "Make TinyURL!" button.
Voila! You will be presented with a short URL that will take you to the same web page as the long one!
For example, in my blog post of September 11, 2007, I provided an URL that takes you to the D-Link corporation's list of documents showing how to set up "WEP" data encryption on various D-Link network routers. Here is the URL:
http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1081&question=General%20Wireless
It is not that long, but in some browsers, it is too long to fit on one line and it wraps to the next line. Sometimes this causes it to break.
Here is the same URL after being processed through TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/2l7amw
This second URL, being only 25 characters long, is much less likely to wrap and break in your user's browser.
- Brock Wood
Aggghhh!
Solution: Use TinyURL.com
Just select and copy the long URL in your browser's "address" box.
Surf to http://www.tinyurl.com.
Paste the long URL in the box marked, "Enter a long URL to make tiny".
Click on the "Make TinyURL!" button.
Voila! You will be presented with a short URL that will take you to the same web page as the long one!
For example, in my blog post of September 11, 2007, I provided an URL that takes you to the D-Link corporation's list of documents showing how to set up "WEP" data encryption on various D-Link network routers. Here is the URL:
http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1081&question=General%20Wireless
It is not that long, but in some browsers, it is too long to fit on one line and it wraps to the next line. Sometimes this causes it to break.
Here is the same URL after being processed through TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/2l7amw
This second URL, being only 25 characters long, is much less likely to wrap and break in your user's browser.
- Brock Wood
Category: Law Practice Technology
Posted by: brock
Need to know what someone paid for their home? Want to know its assessed value? Want to see who the record owner of a piece of property is? Want to know if there are any liens on the property? Want to see the floor plan? A picture? Get the square footage? Want to see the warranty deed? How about the deed of trust? You can. From the comfort of your computer. Sometimes for free!
Many counties in Colorado and other states now put all of this information, and more, on-line, for free!
Let's take Arapahoe County, Colorado as an example.
Surf on over to: http://www.co.arapahoe.co.us/SiteMap/sitemap2.asp.
Click on "Assessor's Office".
Click on "Property Search".
Let's say you know the property address you want to look up. Type in the street number and the street name where provided. You don't need the "E", "W", "S", "N" etcetera. Nor do you need the suffix (St., Ln., Ave., etcetera).
Rare and wonderful, eh?
Some of the newer entries even allow you to look at images of the legal documents involved - deeds, deeds of trusts, etcetera. You can often see pictures of the building, improvements made, etcetera.
Actually, it's kind of scary.
- Brock Wood
Many counties in Colorado and other states now put all of this information, and more, on-line, for free!
Let's take Arapahoe County, Colorado as an example.
Surf on over to: http://www.co.arapahoe.co.us/SiteMap/sitemap2.asp.
Click on "Assessor's Office".
Click on "Property Search".
Let's say you know the property address you want to look up. Type in the street number and the street name where provided. You don't need the "E", "W", "S", "N" etcetera. Nor do you need the suffix (St., Ln., Ave., etcetera).
Rare and wonderful, eh?
Some of the newer entries even allow you to look at images of the legal documents involved - deeds, deeds of trusts, etcetera. You can often see pictures of the building, improvements made, etcetera.
Actually, it's kind of scary.
- Brock Wood
14/09: The Internet Time Machine
Every once in while you run across a truly remarkable, genuinely useful hardware, software, or on-line tool. This one is an on-line tool called the "Wayback Machine," in honor of "Dr. Peabody's" time machine in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. Go to http://www.archive.org to check it out.
What does the Wayback Machine do? It lets you see a web page *as it existed sometime in the past.* Has a web page that you want to see been removed from the internet? Try searching for it in the Wayback Machine! Sometimes the page is not in the archive's database, but many times it is. I have even used the Wayback Machine to retrieve my *own* web pages that I have accidentally discarded too soon.
What can you do with the "Wayback Machine"? You can use it as evidence that a particular piece of information was on the web at a given point in time. You can use it to retrieve web pages that have been deleted or changed. Let your imagination run wild.
I used it last night to find a useful piece of shareware called, "HTMLed." This is a web page authoring tool that is no longer being distributed by its author. In fact, the author's web site, "http://www.ist.ca," is no longer available on-line. But if you type "http://www.ist.ca" into the Wayback Machine, you can visit the now defunct site as if it were still "live" on the web. You can even download a copy of "HTMLed." Amazing!
- Brock Wood
What does the Wayback Machine do? It lets you see a web page *as it existed sometime in the past.* Has a web page that you want to see been removed from the internet? Try searching for it in the Wayback Machine! Sometimes the page is not in the archive's database, but many times it is. I have even used the Wayback Machine to retrieve my *own* web pages that I have accidentally discarded too soon.
What can you do with the "Wayback Machine"? You can use it as evidence that a particular piece of information was on the web at a given point in time. You can use it to retrieve web pages that have been deleted or changed. Let your imagination run wild.
I used it last night to find a useful piece of shareware called, "HTMLed." This is a web page authoring tool that is no longer being distributed by its author. In fact, the author's web site, "http://www.ist.ca," is no longer available on-line. But if you type "http://www.ist.ca" into the Wayback Machine, you can visit the now defunct site as if it were still "live" on the web. You can even download a copy of "HTMLed." Amazing!
- Brock Wood
So, you know that another professional down the hall or a freeloading neighbor is using your wireless LAN (local area network) to surf the web. Live and let live, you think. You don't really care that said freeloader is using some of the bandwidth on *your* high speed internet service to download the latest sports scores or check the stock price of his 50 shares of Yoyodyne.
You probably think that setting up WEP, WPA, or WPA2 security encryption on your wireless router is too complicated and technical. You prefer to run your wireless network "open" and unsecrued, with no encryption enbaled. You think it isn't worth your time to figure it out or to call a consultant to figure it out for you. You think to yourself, "I am running an unsecured wireless network and anyone who happens to be in range can jump on. Enjoy."
Well, what if it isn't sports scores? What if freeloader is downloading pictures of Miss October - or worse?
You reply, "Well, that's his business. I don't look at that stuff."
What if he is a sexual predator?
"OK, ok," you say, "but what is the chance of that? Besides, I don't know who is logging into my network, so I am not to blame."
What if the local, state and/or Federal constables come to *your* house or office and arrest *you* for being a sexual predator?
"What's that, you say? I am not a child molester."
No, but the police who tracked freeloader's "IP" (internet protocol) address to your home or office don't know that. They just know that the PC in question, the one that was sending the felonious enticements to minors, was using *your* high speed internet connection at *your* home or office. Since you own the connection, they arrest you. Oh, and they also confiscate all of your computer equipment, including the PC that holds 2 years worth of irreplaceable work product. Your protest that the *real* offender was probably logged onto your network wirelessly, without your knowledge, falls on deaf ears. They then put handcuffs on you and hustle you into the back seat of a gray Crown Victoria.
OK, I am belaboring the point. The bottom line is that running an unsecured wireless network just isn't worth the risk. Just enable WEP, at least, or better, WPA or WPA2 encryption on your wireless router and rest easier at night.
No level of security will ultimately stop a determined snooper who has the right technical skills, equipment, desire, and enough time, but how many high-tech eggheads are *really* targeting your *secure* wireless network? Unless you work for a sensitive, anti-terrorism government organization, probably none. The chance that a sexual predator might use your *unsecured* wireless network to do his slimy work is much higher.
Enabling encryption on your router is not that hard. See these two tutorials showing how to do it on popular wireless networking hardware from Linksys and D-Link:
http://micro.uoregon.edu/homenetworking/linksys/
http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1081&question=General%20Wireless
The above tutorials don't help? Enabling encryption on your particular wireless router is doubtless covered in the instruction manual for your router. Lost the manual? Just go to the manufacturer's web site and download the PDF version of the manual. Here are web site addresses for several manufacturers of popular wireless routers:
Linksys: http://www.linksys.com
D-Link: http://www.dlink.com
Netgear: http://www.netgear.com
Buffalo: http://www.buffalotech.com
Hawking Technology: http://www.hawkingtech.com
SMC: http://www.smc.com
- Brock Wood
Well, what if it isn't sports scores? What if freeloader is downloading pictures of Miss October - or worse?
You reply, "Well, that's his business. I don't look at that stuff."
What if he is a sexual predator?
"OK, ok," you say, "but what is the chance of that? Besides, I don't know who is logging into my network, so I am not to blame."
What if the local, state and/or Federal constables come to *your* house or office and arrest *you* for being a sexual predator?
"What's that, you say? I am not a child molester."
No, but the police who tracked freeloader's "IP" (internet protocol) address to your home or office don't know that. They just know that the PC in question, the one that was sending the felonious enticements to minors, was using *your* high speed internet connection at *your* home or office. Since you own the connection, they arrest you. Oh, and they also confiscate all of your computer equipment, including the PC that holds 2 years worth of irreplaceable work product. Your protest that the *real* offender was probably logged onto your network wirelessly, without your knowledge, falls on deaf ears. They then put handcuffs on you and hustle you into the back seat of a gray Crown Victoria.
OK, I am belaboring the point. The bottom line is that running an unsecured wireless network just isn't worth the risk. Just enable WEP, at least, or better, WPA or WPA2 encryption on your wireless router and rest easier at night.
No level of security will ultimately stop a determined snooper who has the right technical skills, equipment, desire, and enough time, but how many high-tech eggheads are *really* targeting your *secure* wireless network? Unless you work for a sensitive, anti-terrorism government organization, probably none. The chance that a sexual predator might use your *unsecured* wireless network to do his slimy work is much higher.
Enabling encryption on your router is not that hard. See these two tutorials showing how to do it on popular wireless networking hardware from Linksys and D-Link:
http://micro.uoregon.edu/homenetworking/linksys/
http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1081&question=General%20Wireless
The above tutorials don't help? Enabling encryption on your particular wireless router is doubtless covered in the instruction manual for your router. Lost the manual? Just go to the manufacturer's web site and download the PDF version of the manual. Here are web site addresses for several manufacturers of popular wireless routers:
Linksys: http://www.linksys.com
D-Link: http://www.dlink.com
Netgear: http://www.netgear.com
Buffalo: http://www.buffalotech.com
Hawking Technology: http://www.hawkingtech.com
SMC: http://www.smc.com
- Brock Wood
10/09: Web site or "website"?
As our use of language slowly becomes less and less formal, new "words" are entering our lexicon at an alarming rate.
We create new, "compound" nouns whenever we feel like it. For example, if you visit this URL:
http://www.eurekais.com
Are you visiting a "web site" or are you visiting a "website"?
Some would say, "who cares," but I, being highly resistant to unexplained change, cannot accept such a significant re-making of our language quite so flippantly.
I vote for "web site." Without the space between the two words, we have, willy-nilly, created a new word from two separate words, "web" and "site." The world wide web is an actual thing. One of its properties is the ability to contain multiple "sites." A site on the world wide web is a "web site." Here the noun, "web" acts as an adjective, describing "site" (another noun).
So, unless the editors at Webster's have added "website" to the list of newly created words, I am sticking by the rule I learned in resistant-to-change school.
Ick. All this new-fangled casualness with language, spelling, and grammar. Kids these days!
- Brock Wood
We create new, "compound" nouns whenever we feel like it. For example, if you visit this URL:
http://www.eurekais.com
Are you visiting a "web site" or are you visiting a "website"?
Some would say, "who cares," but I, being highly resistant to unexplained change, cannot accept such a significant re-making of our language quite so flippantly.
I vote for "web site." Without the space between the two words, we have, willy-nilly, created a new word from two separate words, "web" and "site." The world wide web is an actual thing. One of its properties is the ability to contain multiple "sites." A site on the world wide web is a "web site." Here the noun, "web" acts as an adjective, describing "site" (another noun).
So, unless the editors at Webster's have added "website" to the list of newly created words, I am sticking by the rule I learned in resistant-to-change school.
Ick. All this new-fangled casualness with language, spelling, and grammar. Kids these days!
- Brock Wood
