Does It Compute?

Love My New Fujitsu Scanner

In the process of upgrading my PCs, I discovered that my somewhat ancient scanner was not compatible with Windows 7.

So I bit the bullet and bought a Fujitsu scansnap S1500.  It integrates with my Worldox system, so I just put the pages in, press the blue button, fill out the Worldox profile and bingo, all done.  I can change from simplex to duplex scan on a one-off basis by right-clicking on the icon and making the change.

If I didn’t want to scan to Worldox, I could open the application and scan to Word, Excel or Powerpoint. I can even use the scanner as a copier by scanning directly to the printer. Of course, I could do this before, but it was always a two-step process. Scan first, then print, convert to Word, etc.

I find I am scanning a lot more things than I used to because it is so much easier.

Tarzan on Mars

I recently saw the “John Carter” movie and realized that Edgar Rice Burroughs not only wrote the Tarzan books, but a whole series of novels about Mars (“Barsoom”) as well as many other science fiction books. His science fiction writing had a big influence on later greats such as Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Carl Sagan and others.

The plot is uninspired: evil villain seizes/attempts to ravish indescribably beautiful heroine/princess (frequently the wife of John Carter). Our Hero rushes to the rescue and after many perils succeeds. Think of a film with 10 car chases.

Two things stand out, however. The first is that Burroughs repeatedly refers to evolution and the evolution of man. Thus the Blacks on Mars are the “First-Born” and there are repeated references to how the other races (Red, White and Yellow) evolved from them to deal with the fact that Mars was a “dying planet.” Even in the Tarzan books there are repeated references to the Apes as the “predecessors” of humanity. “Hundreds of thousands of years ago our ancestors of the dim and distant past faced the same problems which we must face, possibly in these same primeval forests.” Hot stuff in the period before and just after World War I.

The second is his repeated attacks on religion. Thus John Carter fights “for the red men of Barzoom and for their total emancipation from the throttling bondage of a hideous superstition.” (i.e., their religious beliefs). In another novel, John Carter’s son challenges the latest evil prince: “Not since the First Born [blacks] tore their immortal goddess limb from limb have men crawled on their bellies to any throne upon Barsoom.” When another character becomes convinced that his religion is nonsense, Burroughs notes: “so strong is the power of superstition that even though we know we have been reverencing a sham, yet still we hesitate to admit the validity of our new-found convictions.”

Somehow it doesn’t seem that these plot lines will make it into the Disney films.

Autonomy Head Leaves HP

Corporate acquisitions of previously independent software companies have a dismal track record. Thus the heads of most of the companies that LexisNexis aquired in the last six or seven years are gone (TimeMatters, PCLaw, Juris, Concordance, TextMap, etc.). HP acquired Autonomy only 9 months ago and recently Autonomy head Mike Lynch left. An article by Kevin McLaughlin in CRN argues that this is a blow for HP.  And apparently Mike Lynch’s departure is part of a larger exodus from HP.

A blow, perhaps, but not unexpected. When HP bought Autonomy for an astounding $10 billion just nine months ago, a number of people expressed the hope that this would be good for iManage/worksite, since the program’s acquisition by Autonomy had been a disaster. See my blog of last August. 

So, as I said last August, if I were using iManage/Worksite I would start looking around. If I were thinking about using it, I would think twice.

Nuance PDF Converter 8

Nuance has just released PDF Converter 8, in both Professional and Enterprise versions.  One of the new features they tout is the ability to actually edit PDF files from within the PDF file.

This sounds like it might be a good and certainly convenient idea. After all if, like me, you use PDF files for documentation, how many times have you had to make a minor change in the source document, then re-save the PDF and delete the old one?

Seems like a good idea and a great time-saver, right?  Maybe. Maybe not.

One important reason why law firms send documents out as PDF’s is so that the recipient can’t edit them. With PDF Converter 8, what is to prevent a recipient from changing the amount of a contract from, say $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 or vice versa? Or other less obvious language that might have a major effect on the contract. More generally what about the use of PDFs in evidence if you can no longer guarantee their fidelity?

There are two ways around this.  The first is to set security on the document so that it cannot be changed. To do this, select File | Properties | Security. Change Security to Password Security and allow printing but not changes. Obviously, however, this is a separate step and more work, not less.

The other way is less obvious, but works just as well. PDF Converter can edit text, but only system fonts. So of you use a font other than Times Roman, Ariel, etc., the font will be embedded in Acrobat but PDF Converter will not be able to edit text.  Since firms should in any case, be using something other than Times Roman (the invisible font), this would be a solution.

Timbuktu

The city of Timbuktu embodies the western (mis)conception of the “mystery of Africa.” I just finished a fascinating book on the history of the city and that area of Western Africa (today Mali). “Timbuktu” by Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle.

The first critical fact is during the period of about 300BC to 300AD that area of Africa was fertile and green and not desert. Recent excavations have found the remains of gigantic cities, the largest being surrounded by a wall 65 feet high, with a 16-23 foot moat and measuring 100 miles in circumference. By way of comparison the large Haldron collider in Switzerland (the pinnacle of “big physics”) is 17 miles around and the Super Collider in Texas, which had to be abandoned for lack of funds, was to be 54 miles in circumference.

During the late middle ages, Timbuktu was the center of the salt-gold-slaves trade. In the late middle ages, two-thirds of the world’s supply of gold came from West African mines.
In the 13th and again the 15th-16th centuries, Timbuktu was a major metropolis, with a population of some 100,000 people in the 16th century (half that of London and a quarter that of Paris). Even more astounding the various schools that made up the university of Sankoré totaled about 25,000 students (a quarter of the population). And it was widely recognized that their standards were higher than the Arab universities whose learning far surpassed that of western Europe. Timbuktu was also known for being laid-back and tolerant (a far cry from its recent takeover by Al Qaeda fanatics).

A great read.

Upgrading Amicus 2009 to 2012: What Do You Get?

As readers of my blog know, I have for years been recommending that firms NOT opt for the annual maintenance plans from Amicus or Lexis (which now gives you no choice however). There are several reasons for this.

First, the “annual releases” tend to be increasingly incremental and buggy, so that there are fewer reasons to upgrade and some not to. Thus Amicus Premium 2012 was released in January/February 2012. Service Pack 1 was released in April. Three days later, there were bugs discovered in SP1 and it had to be re-released. Gavel & Gown is not alone: LexisNexis is still the leader (if that is the appropriate term) in offering the worst updates/patches.

Second, the AMPs are simply more expensive than buying normal tech support (which Amicus to its credit still offers, although Lexis does not) and then upgrading every third year, which is a more rational path in any event. This is especially true since firms typically support the current release and two previous ones. Thus Amicus will be stopping support for the 2009 version, and support only 2010, 2011 and 2012. For economic reasons, this is basically their only choice.  Firms that insist on refusing to update really old software are just asking for trouble.

The reasonable question then arises: OK, I’ll upgrade from my Amicus 2009 to 2012. What new functionality/improvements will I be getting?  Here is a list of what are in my opinion are the most significant improvements in the respective version (the list is not exhaustive). In particular I tend to give less importance to cosmetic improvements than substantive improvements.

Amicus Premium Edition 2010

•     You can now track the history of adjournments of court dates or other appointments. This can be very important. The old appointment is still show but with “Adjourned to DATE” pre-pended to the title.

•      You can now allow other firm members access to your calendar. This resolves the issue where for years attorneys had secretaries log into their office to see their appointments, or simply making the two calendar lists identical.

•    New File Intake form. This lets you specify what information must be included when opening a new file. This is much more flexible and efficient than the old de minimus form.

•    Firm member availability. You can now see who is in the office, out of the office, expected back, etc.  Of course, for this to work, someone has to manually enter that information.  However, this would be a reasonable job for a receptionist.

•    Business Cards and cover letters. You can now easily generate a letter or envelope for a contact by clicking on the corresponding icon to the left of their business card display. Very convenient.

Amicus Premium Edition 2011

•    New Time Entry Assistant. This lets you identify and select any items - appointments, notes, phone calls, etc. that have not been billed and bill them. You can also view your time entries for the day directly from the calendar. Another way to stop things from dropping through the cracks.

•    As screen resolutions have gotten larger, the apparent size of type has shrunk and many people have problems reading some of the information. Multi-line text fields are now displayed in larger type. People with old eyes, like me, will appreciate this.

•    Outlook link enhancements (on the other hand, virtually every version advertises this, so your mileage may vary)

•    Much improved Worldox integration (lets you search by document type as well as client/matter)

•    An Amicus toolbar is now available from within Acrobat, which facilitates some functions.

•    Use of the SQL reporting services, introduced in 2011, is a mixed bag and initially just didn’t work very well (those pesky yearly updates)

•    Additional options are available for the File view (although it is still not totally customizable).

Amicus Premium Edition 2012

•    Amicus touts the “new documents module.” However, it is still not adequate for significant numbers of documents. Anybody using Premium would be better off adopting Worldox for document management.

•    Amicus now links with Google Contacts and Calendar, which can be very useful for anyone using Google Sync with a mobile device. However, you cannot have both a Google Sync and an Outlook Link. You have to choose one or the other.

•    The contacts referral function has been strengthened to make it more useful.

•    You can send a phone message via email and there is better tracking of return Phone Calls.

While the upgrades for each version are incremental, together they make the jump from 2009 to 2012 worthwhile – even leaving out the fact that 2009 will be sunsetted and support will no longer be available.

Should You Upgrade to Worldox GX3?

Worldox GX3 has been out for several months now. Should you upgrade?  Or better, assuming a firm will do it sooner or later, how high should it be on the list of priorities?

Structural Changes

There is a newer version of indexing program (ISYS). Especially for firms with large databases, this will result in much faster builds of the indexes. In addition, the viewers are much better: I had documents that the old viewer did not display correctly at all but the new viewers saw with no problems. For some firms, this will be sufficient reason to upgrade rather sooner than later. If a firm is using Web/Mobile, that will have to be patched as well in order to access the new databases.

Legal Hold 

If a firm needs Legal Hold capabilities, they will probably need them badly. A “Legal Hold” is the process a firm uses to preserve all forms of relevant information when litigation is reasonably anticipated. While this will include much more than just not deleting documents and emails on your server (backup tapes, for example), Worldox now has the ability to mark documents and emails stored in Worldox for “Legal Hold.” This places them in a reserved area where than can be viewed, but not edited or changed in any way. By identifying relevant documents and marking them for “Legal Hold,” a firm should satisfy a major portion of legal hold requirements (just as a document management system such as Worldox gives a firm a step up in terms of Electronic Discovery).

End User Changes

There are also a number of changes more obvious to the end user. For example, the toolbar can now be customized to get rid of the clutter of buttons you never use.

The main change, however, is the addition of an Outlook-style Navigation Pane to the left of the file list. This contains buttons for Favorite Matters (a new addition that extends the “Favorites” tab on search screens), Bookmarks, Profiles, My Computer and My Workspaces.

The Favorite Matters tab lists the matters you have consulted recently. It can grow to be a bit unwieldy, but you can easily remove matters you are no longer actively involved with. This, like other elements on the Navigation Pane, is a directory search, so the functionality of full boolean searching is not available here.

The Bookmarks button lets you display more bookmarks than generally fit on the bookmark bar, so that the dichotomy between the bookmark bar and the bookmark menu item is removed.

The Profile button lists client/matters available under the various profiles your firm has, while My Computer lists a standard, internet explorer type directory tree.

Lastly, if the firm makes significant use of Projects, they are now very much easier to organize and access than previously. This works best if you set up a separate “Project” profile group, because My Workspace, like other items, is directory based on search-based. Heavy users of Projects might find this feature sufficient reason to upgrade.

The tabs that are displayed here are customizable, so that some can be removed and the order can be changed. Lastly, all these items can be set to expand when you hover the mouse over them  so that you do not take up valuable screen real estate except when you need to.

Does all this add up to a good reason to upgrade. For certain firms, especially larger firms, yes. For other firms, it should definitely be on the list but perhaps not at the top. And don’t forget, with a Worldox maintenance contract, there is no charge for the software.

Should You Install 64-bit Office?

I am running across more and more firms that have routinely installed 64-bit Office on the assumption that if the Windows 7 operating system is 64-bit they should be running 64-bit Office as well.

Big mistake. There is a useful article on Microsoft technet that explains why most firms must install 32-bit Office.

The key point is that most legal-specific applications, from practice management to time & billing software to document management are 32 bit and therefore will not integrate with 64-bit Office.

The key passage in the Microsoft explanation of this is as follows:

“If users in your organization depend on existing extensions to Office, such as ActiveX controls, third-party add-ins, in-house solutions built on previous versions of Office [such as templates], or 32-bit versions of programs that interface directly with Office [my emphasis], we recommend that you install 32-bit (x86) Office 2010 (the default installation) on computers that are running both 32-bit and 64-bit supported Windows operating systems.”

Note that when you put in the Office DVD to install, by default it installs the 32-bit version. 64-bit support is probably a year or even two in the future.

John Dvorak Blast on Windows 8

The computer columnist John Dvorak is known for his pull-no-punches views. His column on Windows 8 today:  "Microsoft Reinvents the Wheel with Windows 8" is no exception.  Some of the one-liners:

The real problem is that it is both unusable and annoying. It makes your teeth itch as you keep asking, “Why are they doing this!?”

No business will tolerate this software, let me assure you. As a productivity tool, it is unusable.

Do you work on a huge 27-inch or bigger monitor? You know, so you have room to organize your programs and files? Well, imagine everything running full screen on that. It’s a joke.

You get the idea.  The whole thing is worth a close read.