TechnoLawyer: Monitors

Coming November 10, 2006 to Fat Friday:  John Starkweather explains how he has embraced branding and technology at his small firm, James Zuffoletto discusses the "unhappy lawyer" phenomenon, Diane Hopkins shares a real-life client story involving Tabs3 that teaches an important technology lesson, Arshia Javaherian reviews Sonnet's PodFreq FM Transmitter for the iPod, and Aaron Morris discusses his unique multiple monitor setup. Don't miss this issue.

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In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers a gadget that enables laptop users to reap the benefits of multiple monitors, a hot new smartphone guaranteed to make lawyers drool, and a document management system with a fresh approach. Don't miss the next issue.

Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:

You Can Never Have Two Many Monitors
By Dennis Kennedy
You decide to replace your desktop PC with a laptop. After all, laptops can do everything desktops can do, right? They can even burn DVDs nowadays. Soon, you start hearing about all these lawyers using two or three monitors. And then you learn the ugly truth — your laptop has just one video port. Ouch. Burned by technology yet again.

Matrox feels your pain and has created two products designed to bring you into the 21st century law office — DualHead2Go and TripleHead2Go. These two products enable you to respectively run two or three monitors from a single video port.

A black box measuring about the size of your hand, the DualHead2Go and TripleHead2Go do not contain graphics cards. Instead, they contain patent-pending circuitry that takes the memory of your existing graphics card and redistributes it among multiple monitors. Matrox claims that you will not see any distortion or scaling, which makes sense since no interpolation occurs — you're just using the actual memory in your laptop.

The DualHead2Go can drive two monitors at resolutions up to 1280x1024 pixels. The TripleHead2Go can drive three monitors at up to 1280x1024 pixels. If that's not enough, you can alternatively use the TripleHead2Go to drive two monitors at higher resolutions, including widescreen monitors.

The DualHead2Go and TripleHead2Go require a VGA output connector (easily achieved with a converter if your laptop has a DVI output), and works with Windows 2000/XP. The DualHead2Go sells for about $150 and the TripleHead2Go sells for about $300. Learn more about DualHead2Go and TripleHead2Go.

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Published on Wednesdays, TechnoLawyer NewsWire is a weekly newsletter that enables you to learn about new technology products and services of interest to legal professionals. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming September 22, 2006 to Fat Friday: Robert Fleming reviews the hidden benefits of a swivel monitor (or two), Yvonne Renfrew reviews the Intake Interview Jumpstart feature in CaseMap 6, Brooks Miller reviews a password and login management utility, and Charles Beans shares his feelings on public cell phone use . Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming September 15, 2006 to Fat Friday: Miriam Jacobson shares the best advice she has received regarding her legal career, Bryan Keenan discusses acceptable and unacceptable cell phone use, Stephen Cole discusses the role multiple monitors play at his law firm's new office (including details on which programs lawyers and staff use on each screen), and Alex Simpson reviews his experience using a Tumi briefcase. In addition, this issue features links to 3 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming August 25, 2006 to Fat Friday: Kurt Schoettler, a technology trainer, adds his two cents to the software training debate, Jerry Sullenberger discusses the risks of solely relying on RAID technology as a backup solution, and Robert Browning explains how his unique eyesight works with multiple monitors. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Cindy Wolf, Tip: How to Reduce Neck Strain When Using Multiple Monitor Set Up

TechnoLawyer asked:
"Did you recently purchase a new desktop PC? If so, please post a review."

Phil Rhodes wrote:
"Our firm has purchased two Compaq PCs in the last six months.... One last question — how many of you use multiple monitors on your desktop? Is your setup worth the money? What size do you recommend?"

Bob Browning wrote:
"I recently went to two Samsung SyncMaster 213T monitors. I work at a built-in desk behind my "client desk" so I mounted both monitors on the wall, one straight ahead of me and the other at about a 15 degree angle on a heavy duty swing arm...."

I use two monitors and will never go back. I use my laptop screen (15") and an extra 17" above it. I found that I couldn't deal with a side by side arrangement because I can't move my keyboard and I would get neck aches looking at the other screen when it was on the side. The stacked view is great. I haven't gone paperless yet but this helps tremendously.

Cindy Wolf, PC
Denver, CO

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Coming August 18, 2006 to Fat Friday: Glenn Curran shares his thoughts on multiple monitors, Channing Strother reviews the Shure E2c earphones plus offers up some purchasing tips, and Douglas Thomas discusses age discrimination and the unique way lawyers can circumvent it. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming August 11, 2006 to Fat Friday: William Lloyd explains why, for him, multiple monitors increases productivity, Gregory Miller reviews PinHawk Law on the Blogs NewzDigest, Jim Sewell discusses his firm's paperless workflow, Paul Lepine explains how to change a Word file's creation date and discusses a helpful file management feature in Word 2003 absent from earlier versions, and Celia Abbott reviews Easy Bates. In addition, this issue features links to 4 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming August 4, 2006 to Fat Friday: William Ziacoma reviews the USB-based GPS system Microsoft Street and Trips, Steven Finell explains when and how to date your file names (calendar dates, not romantic dates in case you were wondering), and William Kelly shares his experience using dual monitors at his firm. In addition, this issue features links to 5 additional Posts in the TechnoLawyer Archive. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.

Coming July 28, 2006 to Fat Friday: Steve Bondy discusses the risks involved in hiring amateurs, Bob Walsh reviews how his firms uses multiple monitors and FileCenter to achieve a paperless office, and Miriam Jacobson shares her thoughts on age discrimination in the legal profession. Don't miss this issue.

How to Receive this Newsletter
Published on Fridays, Fat Friday is a weekly newsletter that features a grab bag full of genuinely useful product reviews and tips on a wide variety of topics. Like all of our newsletters, it's free. Please subscribe now.