Digital Samurai

Help Avoiding Legal Malpractice

We just heard that our friend and colleague, Dan Pinnington, will be the primary contributor for a new blog that focuses on avoiding legal malpractice. Dan is a Director at practicePRO, with the Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company. PracticePRO is LAWPRO’s innovative claims prevention initiative and is based in Toronto, Canada. Welcome to the blogosphere Dan and we know there will be some great information posted there.

- John and Mike

(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Firefox Infection: Microsoft to Blame

Last week, Microsoft confessed that it messed up and actually introduced a security vulnerability into the Firefox browser. We bet you thought you were safe in using Firefox. Apparently, Microsoft sneaked in a .NET add-on without the explicit permission of the Firefox users. The add-on has a serious vulnerability and exposes Firefox users to being totally “owned” by a drive-by download. For now, the recommendation is to uninstall the add-on.

For Firefox users with .NET Framework 3.5 installed, you may use “Tools”-> “Add-ons” -> “Plugins”, select “Windows Presentation Foundation”, and click “Disable”.

- John and Mike

(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Windows 7 Released – Along with a Lot of Other Software Updates

Today is the day that we’ve all been waiting for. Windows 7 is finally here, and trust us, we’re already downloading the ISO files. With the release of Windows 7,  there will be many updates from the manufacturers of third-party software to support the new operating system from Microsoft.

One that caught our interest this morning when we checked our Inbox was from PGP Corp. PGP has updated all of their encryption suites, including Whole Disk Encryption (which we use on our laptops) to support Windows 7. PGP software can be used to encrypt hard drives, e-mail messages, USB drives and specific files and folders. We strongly recommend this product to secure any business laptop. You can read more here.

While you’re at it today, you might want to check and see if your security software has updates to support Windows 7 as well.

- John and Mike
(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Google's Cloud Leaking?

Do you have a Google Voice account? If so, hopefully you don’t “make public” any voicemails saved within Google’s cloud, as they have now started to appear in the search results from Google.com.

Yes, you read that right. Voicemail transcription, a feature of Google Voice, transcribes audio contained within the voicemail message to text and sends it in an e-mail message to the owner of the account. Well, a few of these transcribed voicemails have started to appear within the search results on Google’s web site. Users of Google Voice are not happy.

According to Google, they’ve addressed the problem and now restrict which voicemails can and cannot be indexed by their crawler. Google also states that users should be aware of the “make public” options that can be performed on individual voicemails, so that you don’t accidentally share your messages with the rest of the world.

- John and Mike

(703)359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Sleepless in Vancouver

Well Vancouver is close to Seattle, so we exercised some literary license. A little more than a week ago, John and Sharon had the pleasure of speaking at the Pacific Legal Technology Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The attendance set a record, which is remarkable in these economic times. So what did folks want to know about? Essential legal technology was a big focus – how to get the best bang for your buck. Going paperless was another topic of great interest. And the very wary crowd wanted to know about Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud computing. Both speakers and attendees expressed great concern about client confidentiality.

The grand finale was the 60 Tips in 60 Minutes session where Sharon spoke along with conference organizer Dave Bilinsky, Dan Pinnington and Doug Jasinski. As always, the crowd had to keep their seatbelts fastened as the speakers moved at the speed of light dispensing their favorite tips of the year.

Just to give you one such nugget, Sharon’s favorite “find” of the year is a utility called SimplyFile, which works remarkably well at guessing which Outlook folder your e-mail should be filed in. The audience got to hear Sharon rave about all the time it was saving her and John. This might be the best $39.95 they’ve spent – there’s a free 30-day trial, so give it a whirl!

John and Sharon want to thank Dave Bilinsky for inviting them to speak and for the warm and receptive attendees who made the cross-continent trip worthwhile!

- John and Mike

(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

802.11n is All Grown Up

The “draft” has been removed, and has now been approved, that is, the 802.11n wireless standard. It only took 7 years to do so since the introduction in January of 2003.

We’ve all seen products supporting the “draft-n” wireless standard for almost 3 years now, dating back to 2007 when the Wi-Fi Alliance started certifying the interoperability of “draft-n” products based on the second draft of the 802.11n standard. The Wi-Fi Alliance has affirmed that all previously certified products will remain compatible with new products that adhere to the 802.11n final standard. We remain skeptical.

For those who purchased draft-n wireless products, don’t be surprised if the manufacturers provide you with software to update the firmware of your products to be compatible with the 802.11n standard.  For those who took our advice and waited for the standard to be approved, now’s the time to buy.

- John and Mike

(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Like Mom Said, “Nothing in Life is Ever Free”

This must be one of the more common phrases that we’ve all been told. It continues to be true, even today. Case in point, the “free” Windows 7 Upgrade offer.

Since June 26, 2009, there has been a big marketing push to get consumers to purchase PCs now, instead of waiting for Windows 7 to be released. For those who did, they were promised a free upgrade to Windows 7 upon its release. What those consumers probably didn’t do was read the fine print.

It’s now been discovered that depending on where your eligible computer was purchased, there may be processing, shipping, taxes and other “junk” fees that you might have to pay before you can get your “free” upgrade discs. Most of the retailers participating in this promotion have buried this information on their web sites, most often located in the FAQs section, hiding this information from their consumers.

So for those of you who purchased a Lenovo looking for a free upgrade to Windows 7, it’s going to cost you an additional $17.03. We’re just issuing a warning that you may need to get your wallet out when it comes time to collect your “free” upgrade in two weeks.

Always listen to Mom.

-John and Mike
(703)359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com
 

Just Released: Metadata Assistant 3

There is a new version of Metadata Assistant from the Payne Group. Metadata Assistant 3 is for Office 2007 and above running on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 or Server 2008. Some of the key features are:

• New user interface
• Faster processing
• New Office 2007 metadata types (Custom XML and Content Controls)
• New PDF metadata type (Custom Properties)
• Ability to choose a different cleaning process for each attachment
• Unicode character support
• Detect and clean Office attachments in embedded e-mail messages in Outlook

If you have more than one version of Office installed on your computer (e.g. Office XP & Office 2007) you’ll have to stick with the prior version of Metadata Assistant. Metadata Assistant 3 is $89 per user or $25 as an upgrade.

We’re excited about the new features and will be ordering our upgrade for sure. While you’re ordering your copy, be sure to get Outlook Send Assistant too. They’ll make a killer combination for any Office installation.

- John and Mike

(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com