TechnoLawyer: Post

J.D. Lasica, who wrote the excellent TechnoFeature, RSS and Other Alternatives to Web Browsing, needs your help. He writes: "A new nonprofit media project called ourmedia is looking for pro bono legal counsel from an individual or firm that is versed in how intellectual property law affects grassroots media. Launched in July as the Open Media Project, ourmedia is an effort to foster, preserve, and advance works of grassroots media -- everything from digital stories and amateur films to music videos, student projects, political ads, animations, and oral histories. Brewster Kahle, founder of the well-regarded Internet Archive, is providing free storage and free bandwidth for content creators. Creative Commons is also supporting the effort whose goal is to create the world's largest repository of home-brew media. The group's most pressing needs involve the review of a few brief draft documents, but some fascinating legal issues lie just ahead. Those interested, or with questions, should contact me at www.newmediamusings.com."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

A recent TechnoLawyer advertisement for DiscoveryResources.org contained the following statistic: "For example, did you know: Computer power is now 8,000 times less expensive than it was 30 years ago. If the same were true for automobiles, you could buy a Lexus for about $2.00." Poking fun at this statistic, TechnoLawyer member Brad Jensen writes that this $2 car would "crash into trees every three blocks while a teenage art student in a MacVespa put-puts by sticking his tongue out at you."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Regarding the recent criticism of WordPerfect, TechnoLawyer member Roy Greenberg writes: "I long ago learned not to install the first release of any software. For those of you considering WordPerfect 11, be sure to download the substantial patches that were released to remedy bugs in the program. You can find them at Barry McDonnell's great WordPerfect Web site. I had trouble finding these patches at the Corel Web site (which is either undergoing renovation or has been significantly modified as of late)."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Regarding a recent comment about Gavel & Gown's tech support, TechnoLawyer member and Gavel & Gown VP Les Hansen writes: "Technical Support for Amicus Attorney is sold in the form of annual support plans with unlimited incidents."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

TechnoLawyer member Martin Dean recently asked how to scan and OCR pleadings without the line numbers.  TechnoLawyer member Brad Jensen writes: "Most scanning software will allow you to set ocr zones. Typically, on a preview of the image, you draw a "rubber band" box over the part of the text you want to scan. This excludes vertical bars, etc. My favorite consumer OCR software right now is AABBYY FineReader. Go to the Web site and buy it cheap as an "upgrade" from the often worthless software that came with your scanner. I write commercial document image systems for a living."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Regarding a recent Question seeking a time-billing solution, TechnoLawyer member Manning Huske writes: "I suggest you look into AbacusLaw Gold for a complete case management, calendar, time-keeping and accounting package. No need to buy separate software for any of the other functions."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Thanks to a Question by Lowell Schoenfeld, our Answers to Questions newsletter has provided many solutions in recent months to permanently deleting Outlook mail. Now comes the last word in this discussion from TechnoLawyer member Andrew Willinger who writes: "Perhaps I missed it, but did anyone reply that by holding down the [Shift] key while you click Delete, the unwanted message is permanently deleted and not moved to Deleted items. The confirmation box can be avoided by unchecking that feature found in Tools/Options/Other (exact location may vary with Outlook version)."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

In a previous TechnoLawyer Blog Post, Grace Suarez warned that Windows XP does not support TWAIN, a popular interface used by virtually all scanners.  Predictably, we've received several responses.

TechnoLawyer member Sam Brenner offers this clarification: "To be more precise when you upgrade from Windows 98, ME, or 2000 to Windows XP your TWAIN drivers are removed and WIA drivers are installed. You can reload your TWAIN drivers at this time. Windows will then use the TWAIN interface. If you have software that relies on the TWAIN API make sure to re-load your twain drivers."

TechnoLawyer Mike Millen added the following: "I don't think [Grace] is correct. I went to Microsoft's Web site and found the following: 'The TWAIN Data Source Manager (DSM) is an industry-standard software library used to abstract TWAIN applications from still image devices. WIA uses the TWAIN DSM implementation in Microsoft Windows XP together with the TWAIN compatibility driver to provide a compatibility layer for applications that support TWAIN version 1.7 or later, but don't yet support WIA."

Finally, TechnoLawyer member Michael Vorel writes: "I am not sure what problems Grace has experienced with TWAIN and XP. I regularly use TWAIN enabled equipment with all versions of XP, Professional and Home. I will affirm that some vendors have not certified their TWAIN implementation to prevent the XP squawk of driver support. I use scanners and cameras from many vendors with no problems to date on our systems. Connectivity is via serial ports, USB, SCSI and network connections. Support is available for the Adobe CS products, Canon, Ricoh, Kodak, eCopy, IPROTech and many others. WIA is becoming available as new tools reach the marketplace. Could Grace share some of her pains with this community? BTW ... TWAIN often times is less functional then those features developed under ISIS, but has gained significant market share."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

TechnoLawyer member Jeff Schmidt reminds us of the risk involved in using USB flash drives and other portable storage, writing: "These drives are a great idea and provide a greater flexibility and ease for expansion or moving data. As with any portable data, these drives introduce a greater risk of theft or damage than one that is internal. Ensuring that you have implemented best practices around backups and security for these types of drives is essential to enjoying the benefits they can bring."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

TechnoLawyer member Grace Suarez has a tip regarding scanners: "When discussing the TWAIN interface, keep in mind that Windows XP does not support TWAIN, and forces scanners to use their much weaker WIA technology. Many of the scanner's features will not be available under WIA."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.