Criminal Law Library Blog

ABA Section on Business Law

Specialized Cyberspace and Technology Programming
Sponsored by: Committee on Cyberspace Law

Web 2.0: Wikis, Blogs, Mash-Ups and Avatars; or, The Explosion of User Generated Content and the Legal Challenges That Arise -

Data Security Breach Incidents: The Law in the E.U., U.S. and Globally and How Businesses Should Prepare for the Crisis -

Committee Forum: The Internet Governance Forum of the United Nations - Implications for Business and the Future of the Internet -

For more information click on Conference Website

BY Keith Ecker

FROM: InsiderCounsel Magazine April 2008 Issue

Excerpt:

"Many lawyers believe the nature of their profession necessitates the hoarding of paper—a lot of paper—a misconception that through time has made them the enemy of tree"...

"Thanks to the advent of certain technologies, in-house counsel don’t have to be paper packrats anymore. Document imaging, e-billing software and matter-management systems have become much more commonplace in the corporate environment, and all help lawyers reduce their carbon footprint. This helps save the environment and also save on costs. "...

“ 'What I find most striking is that the most expensive course a law department can take is printing everything and being paper-centric,” says Ross Kodner, president of MicroLaw, a legal technology consultancy. “Focusing on building electronic case and matter files actually yields the least expensive operating approach, not to mention the inherent greenness. It just makes sense from all perspectives.' ”

To read the entire article click here.

Jonathan L. Zittrain has written an interesting, informative and innovative book titles The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It. . I use the word "innovative" because the web version, which is available in full text at http://yupnet.org/zittrain/ incorporates added features to engage the reader.

To quote from his introduction:

"...The Internet’s current trajectory is one of lost opportunity. Its salvation lies in the hands of its millions of users. Drawing on generative technologies like Wikipedia that have so far survived their own successes, this book shows how to develop new technologies and social structures that allow users to work creatively and collaboratively, participate in solutions, and become true 'netizens.' "

"This is a collaborative experiment, which will depend on the intelligent participation of readers for its success. We invite you to join in and take part in this important conversation."

Although the complete book is availabe on the web in full text, interested readers are encouraged to purchase the print version to help support the ongoing efforts of Mr. Zittrain

BY: Molly E. Holzschlag

"Losing tens of thousands of dollars is something we all want to avoid. Yet in today's confusing world of Web development, it's a daily occurrence, says Web doyenne Molly Holzschlag".

"The problem, as many CIOs learn after being burned, can be solved by gaining a better understanding of what to look for in a Web design and development company, how to ask for it and how to ensure that what you pay for is really what you need."

Click here to see Molly's article referenced in the CIO Insider April 25, 2008.

QUESTION:

What is virtual law?

RESPONSE:

"Virtual law is like 'Internet law,' in that it refers to a wide body of generally preexisting law that is applied somewhat differently in a new context. In fact, much of what we think of as 'Internet law' applies to virtual worlds. In sum, virtual law is the statutory and case law that impacts virtual worlds and the application of that law to these spaces."

READ MORE

________________________
Source: ABA: Inside Practice (April 2008).

April 2008 Volume 1, Issue 3

From the Desk of David Badertscher

SOCIAL ENGINEERING: ARE YOU AT RISK?

The term “social engineering” can be defined in various ways, relating to both physical and cyber aspects of that activity. For the purposes of the discussion in this newsletter, social engineering is referred to as an approach to gain access to information, primarily through misrepresentation, and often relies on the trusting nature of most individuals. It involves the conscious manipulation of people to obtain information without the individual realizing that a security breach is occurring. Most users are familiar with email phishing scams (a form of social engineering) and have been taught not to open attachments from unknown or untrusted sources or to visit untrusted web sites. There are other ways that a perpetrator may prey on the trusting human nature to gain access to information or systems.

Below are several examples of social engineering methods, many of which rely on direct contact with an individual, along with suggestions to minimize the likelihood that such methods will be successful.

IMPERSONATION

In this situation, the perpetrator pretends to be someone else - for example, impersonating a senior official from your organization or someone from your Help Desk. The impersonation may occur over the telephone, in person, or via email. The perpetrator may try to make you feel obligated to assist, or under pressure to follow their directions. They may use intimidation or a false sense of urgency to seek your cooperation – prompting you to react before you’ve fully thought through the consequences.

Remember to follow your internal procedures when responding to requests for sensitive or confidential information. Never give out your password to anyone, even if they claim to be from “technical support.”

PIGGYBACKING or TAILGATING

All too often, people will hold the door open for someone entering into a secure area or building without even knowing who the individual is or asking where they are going. The unauthorized individual may pretend to be a delivery person, a visitor, or even a fellow employee. Be cautious if an unknown or unauthorized individual is trying to follow you through access doors.

SHOULDER SURFING

This scenario refers to the ability of an attacker to gain access to information by simply watching what you are typing or seeing what is on your computer screen. This is known as “shoulder surfing,” and can also be done by looking through a window, doorway, or simply listening in on conversations. Be aware of your work environment and who is around you when you are working with confidential information, or even when you are typing in your password. Do not let others see you type your password, and protect your computer screen from unauthorized viewing. Computers in public areas should not have the monitors facing outward.

BAITING

This scenario involves an attacker asking a variety of seemingly innocuous questions designed to “catch” the right answers. The attack is often done over the telephone but can also be done in person. Items of conversation can also be introduced based upon replies received. Small amounts of facts are interjected at the right time into the conversation to make requests for information sound legitimate. Information you know could be valuable to an attacker--whether that information is about your work environment, fellow employees, projects, or personal information--must be handled with extreme care. Be mindful of what you say to whom.

SURVEYS

Many of us have no doubt been recipients of requests to participate in surveys—whether online, via telephone or otherwise. The surveys may be for legitimate purposes or might be a scam. In either case, be aware of unwittingly disclosing information that may be used inappropriately. For example, disclosure of details about your organization, its network or infrastructure could prove extremely useful to someone with malicious intent. If you receive a survey request, you should contact the sponsoring organization to ensure the survey is legitimate, and make sure you are not sharing sensitive or confidential information with unauthorized individuals or organizations.

DUMPSTER DIVING

Do you shred all unneeded confidential or sensitive documents? Searching through trash (“dumpster diving”) is a method used by perpetrators to obtain sensitive information. When confidential and sensitive documents are no longer needed, be sure to shred or properly destroy them in accordance with your organization’s records retention policy.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

The scenarios above represent just a few types of social engineering attempts you may encounter. By following some common sense rules and using your best judgment, you can defend against these attacks and better protect yourself and your information:

1 Before releasing any information to anyone, it is essential to at least establish: the sensitivity of the information, your authority to exchange or release the information, the real identity of the third party (positive identification), and the purpose of the exchange.

2.Be aware of your surroundings. Make sure you know who is in range of hearing your conversation or seeing your work. Computer privacy screens are a great way to deter shoulder surfing in public places.

3.Before you throw something in the trash, ask yourself, “Is this something I would give to an unauthorized person or want to become publicly available?” If you are not certain, always err on the side of caution and shred the document or deposit it in a secure disposal container.

4.If you don’t know someone who is in a restricted area, look for a badge or a visitor pass. If you are unsure about their authorization or access permission, report the situation to the appropriate staff.

SECURITY NEWS UPDATE FROM CERTSTATION TMA:

Dutch transit card crippled by multihacks Wed, Apr 16 2008
The introduction of the Dutch public RFID transit pass will be delayed because it can be easily hacked. The final blow was given by researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, who confirmed earlier findings by Dutch Institute TNO that the card isn't properly secured.

Researchers uncover undetectable chip hack Wed, Apr 16 2008
For years, hackers have focused on finding bugs in computer software that give them unauthorised access to computer systems, but now there's another way to break in: hack the microprocessor.

Regulatory compliance 'irrelevant' to security Tue, Apr 15 2008
Companies who get hung up on regulatory compliance are developing a false sense of security which leaves them just as open to malware attacks the chief exec of tools vendor Protegrity has warned.

Criminals phish for CEOs via fake subpoenas Tue, Apr 15 2008
Panos Anastassiadis didn't click on the fake subpoena that popped into his in-box on Monday morning, but he runs a computer security company. Others were not so lucky.

For more monthly cyber security tips, please visit: www.msisac.org/awareness/news/

Brought to you by:

www.msisac.org

The Organisation of South African Law Libraries (OSALL) is one of the sponssors and will be participating in this Conference:

NINTH Southern African Online Information Meeting
Tuesday 3rd of June to Thursday 5th of June 2008
CSIR Conference Centre
Meiring Naude Road, Pretoria
Organised by Southern African Online User Group
Together with SLIS and OSALL

The 9th SAOIM once again expands over three days in 2008 to include a pre-conference workshop. The meeting provides a forum for the exchange of information on current developments, applications and opportunities in the expanding field of online information in the broadest sense. The aim is to provide an insight into the extent of growth and activity taking place in the information industry. Coverage will include not only the traditional online systems and services, but will extend to some of the newest areas of information transfer and exchange. SLIS and OSALL will also be contributing to this event in 2008.

Keynote speakers already confirmed include:

Derek Law - Head of the Information Resources Directorate, University of Strathclyde.
Derek has worked in several British universities and published almost 200 book chapters, articles and conference papers. Most of his work has been to do with the development of networked resources in higher education and with the creation of national information policy. Recently he has worked on the use of wireless technology in developing new methods of teaching and learning. This has been combined with an active professional life in organisations related to librarianship and computing.

Geoff Hoy - Geoff has been associated with UCT libraries for many years, and is now involved with TENET, the tertiary education network which is used by all tertiary academic institutions in South Africa. From his unique perspective gained on both sides of the computer screen, Geoff will be addressing strategies on how to bridge the communication gap between the librarian and library systems on the one hand, and the computer technicians' understanding and implementation of programs on the other.

Christof Appel - Christof has presented in the UK, USA, Dubai and South Africa. He has wowed audiences with his entertaining and thought provoking business presentations. As a naturally gifted communicator he has proved an ability to connect with audiences ranging from high school students in Soweto to Fortune 500 CEO’s. His business career started at the age 19 when he launched a media and marketing company. After selling the business and its flagship youth magazine he joined Business Day and Financial Mail. During his corporate career he started consulting to companies on their ability to attract, develop and retain top young talent. His new company is assisting organizations in an economy where the business rules have changed considerably.

More details can be found at http://www.saoug.org.za/conferencenote.htm

The following is from TechnoLawyer Newswire, April 16, 2008:

Traditionally, the software industry presented law firms with a dilemma — single-task best-of-breed programs or easier to manage but lower quality all-in-one programs. And then came the suite, which offers best-in-class programs designed to work together.

Corel's new suite, Corel WordPerfect Office X4, seeks to take the suite where it has never ventured before with new features and programs that eliminate the need to purchase standalone programs from other companies.

At the heart of the new suite lies WordPerfect X4, which features a robust set of PDF tools. You can create, import, edit, and archive PDF files (including PDF/A). WordPerfect integrates with most scanners and now has its own OCR engine so you can convert scanned PDFs into editable text to save as WordPerfect, PDF, or Microsoft Word formats.

WordPerfect can handle just about any document format, including Microsoft Word 2007. You can also convert between formats. If you have become accustomed to Microsoft Office, you can make all of WordPerfect's keystrokes and menus mirror those of Word.

WordPerfect X4 also eliminates the need for tools for redaction, metadata, and legal utilities as it includes these functions. You can redact documents in any supported format, including Microsoft Word and PDF. You can save documents without any metadata. The Legal Toolbar enables you to create tables of authorities and tables of contents, and the Pleading Filler creates pleadings that will satisfy any court. Corporate lawyers will find redlining tools as well as the ability to publish to EDGAR.

Corel WordPerfect Office X
This being a suite, Corel also includes a number of other programs, including some that are new. For example, WordPerfect Lightning is a "Web-connected digital notebook" in which you can capture your ideas and other information (text and images) as well as quickly view files in WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, or PDF format. It also includes Snapshot Tool for taking screenshots, The Navigator for organizing and sharing the information you collect, and The Connector for online contact management and calendaring.

If these and Corel's other new additions to the suite aren't enough, WordPerfect Office X4 also provides many customization options. For example, you can use PerfectScript or Microsoft Visual Basic to create macros and run scripts. In addition, Corel can work with your firm to customize WordPerfect X4 and the other components of the suite for your specific needs.

Corel WordPerfect Office X4 sells for $299. Users of previous versions can upgrade for $159"

SIX CRITICAL STEPS TO MANAGING ELECTRONICALLY STORED INFORMATION

"(Mark Diamond) - Litigation always, has been, and will continue to be, a reality of doing business. What is changing, however, is discovery and its focus on electronically stored information (often abbreviated ESI). Recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure concerning the discovery of ESI coupled with the explosive growth of electronically stored documents are exposing organizations to new risks and costs during litigation and the subsequent discovery"
__________________________
From: Findlaw, Modern Practice Newsletter, April 11, 2008

Writing in the April/May 2008 issue of State Tech: Technology Insights for Leaders in State and Local Government, Michele Hope concludes by writing: "Only time and a few real-world installations will tell." Here are some excerpts from Michele's article:

FROM THE INTRODUCTION:

"The first commercial holographic storage products are slated for release in mid-2008. With first-generation products boasting write-once, read many (WORM) characteristics, a lifespan of 50-pls years, initial disk capacities of 300 gigabytes per disk and a 20 magabyte-per-second data rate, proponents are aiming this technology at the long term archival needs of government entities, highly regulated health-care and medical organizations, and professional media and film industries

HOW WILL IT WORK?

"As opposed to traditional 2-D disks that write data only on the surface of the media, holographic storage supports writing data volumetrically, or three-dimensionally, throughout the whole depth of a disk."

"The technology turns data bits typically composed of zeros and ones into a unique dark/light 'checkerboasrd' inference pattern. A spatial light modulator and the intersection of two laser beams (a signal beam containing the data and a reference beam) help create the interference pattern, which records as a hologram onto a plastic photo-polymer disk.."

WHY 3-D HALOGRAPHIC STORAGE?

"At an initial price of 60 cents per gigabyte, you can expect to see most storage vendors include halographic storage in everything from virtual libraries to storage arrays. The potential 'green' factor of the technology is also intriguing: Early estimates suggest energy savings of 90 percent over traditional spinning disks."

" The anticipated terabyte-plus capacity has one state archivist thinking the technology might offer a good alternative to the practice of copying records onto microfilm for distribution to other locations" Due to the high data volume of these disks, this archivist believes this medium could be a "very viable and economical way to distribute some of this information to venues that may not have good internet access." As for law related applications I see a posibility of using this medium to store some high volume legal documents, including transcripts of large trials, which may not lend themselves to full web access due to confidentiality issues.

AGENCY ADOPTION

According to Dr. Victor McCrary who works with NIST's Digital Media Group, "For now, organizations with heavy data storage needs should watch these developments and consider adopting early holographic technology as a prototype test-bed to see how it works." He thinks 3-D halographic storage "...has very good potential. Digital preservation is an issue that will only get larger in importance and concern, particularly for any sort of agency--government or commercial--concerned about retention of important records."

HOW HOLOGRAPHY GOT ITS START

"Dennis Gabor, a Hungarian-born British physicist, came up with the theory of holography in 1948 while conducting research to improve the electron microscope. By combining two Greed words--holos meaning 'whole' and gramma meaning 'message' --he created the term 'hologram' to describe his theory."

From: TechnoFeature: The TechnoLawyer Community, (April 8, 2008) http://www.technolawyer.com

BY: David W. Mykel, M.A.

INTRODUCTION

Attorneys constantly search for ways to increase their efficiency, bill more hours, and make life easier. Imagine you're working from your laptop at 35,000 feet: reviewing video deposition testimony, reading over transcripts and documents, and viewing case photos. Now imagine doing all of this without having to carry around a bulky laptop, mouse, power source, and a bag.

Can you? Probably for an expensive price tag, right? What if I were to say that you could accomplish this with something you already own? Now imagine doing all these things as well as recording your "on the fly" ideas, proofing PowerPoint slides, and listening to some relaxing music all while in the back of a sedan. Thanks to the iPod, a lawyer's work has become increasingly more efficient and portable.

We all know that iPods play music, but as technology advances these devices have taken on more and more tasks for the digitally savvy user. The newest version (and some older versions as well) can now handle music, photos, videos, files, and act as an organizer.

So you may ask yourself, how can I use an iPod for my litigation practice? The iPod fills the void as a litigation tool that is not only user-friendly, but also portable and capable of completing all the above tasks.

Imagine having the ability to walk into a deposition, hand your iPod to the court reporter, have her download the deposition transcript, then hand it to the other side and have them download all their exhibits, and finally hand it to the videographer and download the deposition video onto it as well. As you're waiting for your cab, you take some beautiful pictures of the city skyline at sunset and download them to your iPod to share with your family. Now you're sitting in the cab on the way to the airport, listening to your favorite MP3's to unwind for the plane ride. Once you board the plane, you can now review the deposition, read the transcript, examine the exhibits, and record your thoughts without having to worry about your battery dying (because of the 8+ hour battery life).

VIDEO

An iPod is similar to a mini-computer; in fact, it operates on very similar principles. However, because it was built primarily as an audio player and evolved into a multimedia device, some files (video and text) need to be converted for compatibility. To ensure video compatibility, you will need to use Apple's proprietary player iTunes. (Note: iTunes will support all video formats that can be played in QuickTime.)

To convert videos:

1. Open iTunes.
2. Open folder where videos are located.
3. Drag the video file to your iTunes library.

Some videos may be ready for use with an iPod after you import them to iTunes. If you try to add a video to your iPod and a message says the video cannot play, then you must convert the video for use with iPod.

To convert a video for use with iPod:

1. Select the video in your iTunes library.
2. Choose Advanced > "Convert Selection to iPod."

The most commonly available and widely acceptable format of video for this application is MPEG-1. Most videographers use this format and it's the only format that can be used in trial presentation software like Sanction and TrialDirector. As such, it's important to request that the videographer provides the deposition video in MPEG-1 format.

SYNCING

Adding videos to your iPod follows the same procedure as adding songs. You can set iTunes to sync all videos and audio files to your iPod automatically when you connect it, or you can set iTunes to sync only selected playlists. Alternatively, you can manage files manually. Using this option, you can add videos from more than one computer without erasing ones already on your iPod (this is especially helpful if you're sharing these files with different colleagues).

Syncing Files Automatically

By default, your iPod is set to sync all songs and playlists when you connect it to a computer. For the simplest way to load A/V files onto an iPod, connect your iPod to the computer, watch it add songs, videos, and other items automatically, and then disconnect it. Loading songs into iTunes is just as simple as dragging and dropping in any other Window's application.

Loading music into iTunes:

1. Open iTunes.
2. Open My Music folder.
3. Drag audio files from My Music folder into iTunes.

To load music onto iPod:

1. Connect iPod to your computer. If iPod is set to sync automatically, the update begins.

Or

1. Select iPod in the Source pane and click the Music tab.

2. Select "Sync music" and then choose "All songs and playlists."

3. Click Apply.

Important: The first time you connect your iPod to a computer, a message asks if you want to sync songs automatically. If you accept, all audio/video files are erased from your iPod and replaced with the songs and other items from that computer. If you don't accept, you can still load songs onto your iPod manually without erasing any of the content.

Although automatically syncing is the easiest and most user-friendly way to load items on your iPod, it is not the most efficient method when dealing with multiple computers and files from your colleagues. If you are going to use an iPod successfully in your litigation practice, you are better off managing your files manually. Setting iTunes to enable you to manage your iPod manually gives you the most flexibility for organizing A/V files on an iPod. Also, you can load audio and video files from multiple computers to your iPod without erasing existing items, which is extremely beneficial when receiving files from the other side (refer to deposition example above).

Note: Setting the iPod to manually manage music and video turns off the automatic sync options in the Music, Movies, and TV Shows panes. You cannot manually manage one and automatically sync another at the same time.

Syncing Files Manually

To set iTunes to manage music and video on iPod manually:

1. In iTunes, select iPod in the Source pane and click the Summary tab.

2. In the Options section, select "Manually manage music and video."

3. Click Apply.

PHOTOS

As previously mentioned, you have the ability to manage and view photos and case exhibits on your iPod manually or as a slideshow. The most commonly used format of photos is JPEG (i.e., .jpg), which is compatible with an iPod. However, the most commonly used format for exhibits (i.e., TIFFS and PDFs) are not automatically compatible with an iPod. To overcome this slight inconvenience, be sure to request case exhibits in JPEG (.jpg) format.

Once you've handed opposing counsel your iPod, have them follow these simple instructions in order to download case exhibits.

To add photos from a folder on your computer to an iPod:

1. Drag the images you want into a folder on your computer. If you want images to appear in separate photo albums on your iPod, create folders inside the main image folder, and drag images into the new folders.

2. In iTunes, select iPod in the source list and click the Photos tab.

3. Select "Sync photos from:..."

4. Choose "Choose Folder" from the pop-up menu and select your image folder.

5. Click Apply.

When you add photos to your iPod, iTunes optimizes the photos for viewing. Full-resolution image files aren't transferred by default. Adding full-resolution image files is useful, for example if you want to move them from one computer to another, but isn't necessary for viewing the images at full quality on your iPod.

To add full-resolution image files to an iPod:

1. In iTunes, select iPod in the source list and click the Photos tab.

2. Select "Include full-resolution photos."

3. Click Apply (iTunes copies the full-resolution versions of the photos to the Photos folder on iPod).

Viewing Photos on an iPod:

1. Choose Photos > All Photos. Or choose Photos and a photo album to view only the photos in the album (keep in mind, thumbnail views of the photos might take a moment to appear).

2. Select the photo you want and press the Center button to view a full-screen version.

OTHER USES

An iPod can do a lot more than just play multiple A/V files. You can also use it as an external disk, alarm, or sleep timer; to show the time of day in other parts of the world; or to display notes as well sync contacts, calendars, and to-do lists.

• External Disk

When your iPod is enabled as an external hard disk you can use it to store multiple data files, similar to a portable hard drive (i.e., thumb/jump drive).

Please Note: To add music and other audio or video files to an iPod, you must use iTunes; however when using the iPod as an external hard drive, you can simply drag and drop files.

To enable iPod as an external disk:

1. In iTunes, select iPod in the source list and click the Summary tab.

2. In the Options section, select "Enable disk use."

3. Click Apply.

Note: When you use iPod as an external disk, the iPod disk icon appears on the desktop on Mac, or as the next available drive letter in Windows Explorer on a Windows PC.

• Contacts, Calendars, and To-Do Lists

Not only can your iPod act as a jump drive, but it can also function as an organizer, similar to today's Palm Pilot or BlackBerry.

If you're using Mac OS X v10.4 or later, you can use iTunes to sync the contact and calendar information on your iPod with Address Book and iCal. If you're using any version of Mac OS X earlier than 10.4, you can use iSync to sync your information.

If you're using Windows XP and you use Windows Address Book or Microsoft Outlook 2003 or later to store your contact information, you can use iTunes to sync the address book information on iPod. If you use Microsoft Outlook 2003 or later to keep a calendar, you can also sync calendar information.

To sync contacts or calendar information:

1. Connect your iPod to your computer.

2. In iTunes, select iPod in the source list and click the Contacts tab.

3. Do one of the following: To sync contacts, in the Contacts section, select "Sync Address Book contacts," and select the option to either sync "all contacts" or "selected groups."

• Viewing Documents

Similar to devices like Palm Pilots and BlackBerrys, an iPod has the ability to view documents. One of the main differences between the devices is that for an iPod to display documents, they have to be in a certain format. As such, always be sure to ask paralegals, staff, and/or court reporters to provide the documents in text (.txt) format. Once your iPod is connected to a computer and the files are in .txt format, simply drag and drop the files, just like you would in any Windows Explorer application.

• Voice Recording

In addition to these features, you can also record on-the-fly voice memos using an optional iPod-compatible microphone. You have the ability to store voice memos on your iPod and sync them with your computer just like A/V files. Voice recording can be saved as either low-quality mono (22.05 kHz) to save space, or high-quality stereo (44.1 kHz) for better sound.

Note: Voice memos cannot be longer than two hours. If you record for more than two hours, the iPod automatically starts a new voice memo to continue your recording.

To record a voice memo:

1. Connect a microphone to the Dock connector port on iPod.

2. Set Quality to Low or High.

3. To begin recording, choose Record.

4. Hold the microphone a few inches from your mouth and speak. To pause recording, choose Pause.

5. When you finish, choose Stop and Save. Your saved recording is listed by date and time.

To play a recording:

1. Select Extras > Voice Memos and choose the recording.

Voice memos are saved in a Recordings folder on the iPod in a WAV file format. If you enable iPod for disk use, you can drag voice memos from the folder to copy them.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, the iPod truly is a "little white wonder" (though white is no longer offered as an option) and can be used for a variety of everyday tasks and across multiple platforms in your litigation practice. Now that you possess the know-how, put down that bulky laptop and power adapter and pick up your iPod!

Copyright 2008 David W. Mykel. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David W. Mykel is a litigation consultant for Courtroom Sciences Inc., located in Dallas, Chicago and Washington DC. David has been consulting for 7 years working both independently and with CSI. He comes from a psychology background, with a B.A. in Psychology and Criminal Justice as well as his Master's degree in Forensic Psychology. David considers himself to be part of a new breed of technologically savvy psychologists who specialize in witness preparation, case presentation, strategy and graphics, jury selection as well as trial technology. His background also includes mock trials and focus groups.

With spam and virus attacks at record levels, and spammers using increasingly sophisticated techniques, Google commissioned Osterman Research to conduct a study of organizations to assess the performance of their on-demand and on-premise email security solutions. Osterman Research shares what they uncovered in their research of companies using Google Message Security compared to companies using other solutions.

Click here to download complete paper

QUESTION:

"I am in the process of trying to convert to a less paper driven office. We have occasion to verify information on Web pages and typically copied it and placed it in the hard file. I cannot seem to save it to a file on the computer and view it after the fact. Any suggestions? I have tried copy and paste and send it to."

RESPONSE:

"I've been saving Web pages as files or emailing them to myself for 10 years or so — ever since I first got Internet access. If neither procedure works, you must have a configuration problem. With some Web sites that use frames, a "save as" or "email to" command may just capture a blank frame; in that case, I'd use the cut and paste method described below, which is pretty well guaranteed to work."

"When using the 'save as' command, Internet Explorer gives you the option of saving the whole page, or just the html portions, or just plain text. If you choose the whole page, you end up with an html file plus a folder of other stuff — image files that appeared on the page, etc. If the information includes pictures and other non-text items, you may need that; otherwise, I just choose the html only option. Plain text loses the formatting, which can make the article harder to understand, and really doesn't reduce the file size by much. Other browsers like Firefox have the same choices, although they may have slightly different names."

T"he method I use now most of the time is to email the information to myself (and to colleagues or clients at the same time), and then file my copy of the email in an appropriate place. There's 2 ways to do that. There's a command in the file menu to 'send page' or 'send page by email'. Insert your own address if it's not there by default (as it would be if you send yourself blind copies of all your messages), and choose a subject line that will make it easy to find the message when you need it. The second way to email information is to highlight it on the Web page, hit control + c to copy it, and paste it into the blank message box. That has the advantage of avoiding all the ads, unrelated links, etc. that may be on the page. With either method, you can make a note to yourself at the beginning of the email about why you're saving the information, and if you're using the cut and paste method, you can combine information from several pages in a single message."

"One final tip — the little "print" link that appears on most Web stories is invaluable. Its main function is to generate a much cleaner version of the article with most of the ads removed. If the article is a long one, it will often be broken into several smaller pieces on the main page — you've seen items where you have to keep clicking "next" to get through it. You'd have to email or save each part of the article separately if you're working from the normal page. But if you use the "print" option, you'll almost always get the entire article at once, including any pictures or other graphics that are actually part of the story."

"There are other ways to archive information — printing the pages to a pdf driver, or emailing just the link rather than the whole story, or using a service like digg or delico.us. To use the material as evidence, the pdf version might be preferable. I avoid anything that relies on sending just the link to the page rather than its contents, because links stop working when the article is taken off the Web site or moved to the site's archives where a password is required. If you've saved the article as a file or emailed its content to yourself, you'll have it no matter what the Web site decides to do with it. For that reason, I don't use the "email" icon that often appears alongside the 'print' link on a page. While it may sound like just what's needed, it usually just sends the link to the page."

James Sayre
Community Legal Assistance Society
Suite 300, 1140 West Pender Street
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Source: The Technolawyer Community: Answers to Questions April 3, 2008
http://www.technolawyer.com

Net Neutrality: Why the Internet Can't Remain Free *

"Most users want a free Internet, but that's not going to be possible by 2010, Gary Beach argues. Without a major investment by those who own the pipes, the likes of Verizon, AT&T and Comcast, Internet traffic will come to resemble rush hour traffic in Los Angeles."
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*From CIO Insider April 3, 2008

From Global Knowledge eNews April 1, 2008

"In today's business world, deep technical or specialized knowledge is not enough - especially for those moving up the corporate ladder. IT professionals [and those in other professions, including librarians] must complement this knowledge with business acumen - or general knowledge of the "rules of engagement" in business - and the ability to apply that knowledge to maneuver through the business environment".

To see the complete article, Upward Mobility in IT: Business Skills for the Technical Professional, click here.