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ABA Legal Technology Resource Center
Helping Lawyers Solve the Technology Puzzle
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And Now, Our Feature Presentation....zzzzzz
Instant Gratification
A Cure For What Ails You
They're Here!
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And Now, Our Feature Presentation....zzzzzz
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The Work of Edward Tufte and Graphics Press
Once upon a time a tool was created to simplify the presentation process. This tool promised to bridge the gap between the presenter and his or her audience, and legions of speakers everywhere promised to use this revolutionary tool for good.
Fast forward several years and the mere mention of said "tool" inspires fear in the hearts and minds of seminar attendees everywhere. In a recent Wired magazine article, "Power Corrupts, PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely," Yale Professor Emeritus Edward Tufte proclaimed it "evil."
Although individuals in statistical and visual fields may already know who Edward Tufte is, few outside of these fields are familiar with his work. Tufte teaches courses in statistical evidence, information and interface design and runs his own website. At first glance, it appears to be little more than an on-line store for his books on design and his one-day courses. But the site also includes Tufte's essays and his often-humorous Graphic of the Day. He also runs a moderated forum that is updated fairly regularly and covers a wide range of topics with information design, including genealogical display, a listing of the top-10 court websites, and graphic visualization of risk analysis - just to name a few. The forum also includes a search engine.
So before you create that next PowerPoint slide, take a look at this website for ideas on how to make your presentation more visually interesting.
Nadine C. Warner
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Instant Gratification
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The average week is often filled with work commitments, trips to Target, dinner with friends, and hopefully enough sleep. It is difficult to keep up with the important news stories of the day. E-mail alerts allow you to keep informed without sacrificing your work and personal commitments.
- CNN
CNN.com offers a free "Breaking News" e-mail service. This service allows you to keep abreast of major news stories without having to regularly scour the major news web sites. The breaking news e-mails are sent in plain text. They won't clog your mailbox or be difficult to read. When signing up for this service be careful you have not mistakenly signed up to receive "Special Offers from CNN.com".
- Google News Alerts
Do you require up to the minute coverage of the War in Iraq, 2004 Presidential Election, or the current status of Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez's relationship? Google continues to add value to its Google News web sites. Users can now create customized news alerts. The alerts can be sent as the articles arrive at Google News or on a daily basis. Google News Alerts work best when the topic is simple. Proper names like ("Colin Powell") work well. Complicated queries such as ("Hillary Rodham Clinton" "Presidential election") will yield less precise results. Also be prepared to receive many copies of AP wire stories.
- MSN Mobile
If your cell phone is equipped with a text messaging feature you can create alerts for news, weather, scores for sporting events, and local traffic. MSN Mobile can provide all of this to you if you create a Microsoft .Net Passport profile. The process is fairly simply; the most trying task is finding an available Hotmail user name. Most major wireless service providers allow for this service; check with your provider to see how you are billed for text messaging. Before you know it, you'll be receiving college football scores while at Home Depot on Saturday.
Molly Kilmer Flood
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A Cure For What Ails You
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Spamotomy
In the case of junk mail, total removal is the only cure. There are procedures in the form of software and “disposable” addresses that make getting rid of spam possible. Now comes a website that puts all these tools together in one searchable database, complete with ratings and reviews, to make the search for a spam solution easier. Spamotomy is that website and their goal is to “make spamming a worthless practice by ensuring that anyone with a mailbox has the ability to block junk email.” Hosted by the independent publisher, Aia Sites, this website provides a simple design, easy navigation, and some great information for spam filtering and removal tools.
The site has two main content areas - news and tools. The news portion of the site provides international news articles that cover legal, marketing, and technical aspects of the spam phenomenon. The repository can be sorted by date, from most recent to a month prior. Each article provides a brief description, editorial comments in italics, and links to the full text of the article. Users can post comments about articles, if they feel so inclined. Each article opens in a new browser window.
The “tools” content area provides a database of spam blocking and filtering software. Navigation consists of a variety of search criteria in drop-down menus and a few “sort by” options. Search criteria includes “solution type” (desktop, server, POP/IMAP, etc.), “operating system” and “price”. Results can be sorted by name, price, user rating, or Spamotomy rating. User ratings are consistent because the raters are provided drop down menus for different functions, such as installation, configuration, and effectiveness. Rater’s IP addresses are collected for the purpose of ensuring that vendors do not rate their own products. Spamatomy provides longer, more in-depth reviews, however they have not reviewed many of the listings. Some product entries provide a list of features, however this information is not available for all products.
Spam is a brain drain. Learn about the tools and resources available to free your mind at Spamotomy.com.
Catherine Sanders Reach
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They're Here!
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2002 Legal Technology Survey Reports
The 2002 ABA Legal Technology Survey Reports are now available! The questionnaires were mailed in November 2002 to a random selection of over 17,000 ABA member lawyers in private practice. We received over 3000 responses, yielding an impressive response rate of almost 18%. Like last year, five separate volumes were published, each focusing on a distinct technology area: 1) Law Office Technology; 2) Litigation and Courtroom Technology; 3) Web and Communication Technology; 4) Online Research; and 5) Mobile Lawyers. The Executive Summary for the reports is available as a PDF file
The survey reports are available from the ABA's Service Center via e-mail or telephone (1-800-285-2221).
Catherine Sanders Reach
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Mention of a company, product, or service does not indicate endorsement or support by the American Bar Association, the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center or the authors.
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