Franco Castalone: LawTech

The missing key

Sun, 22 Feb 2004 13:51:51 GMT

The key most needed by Windows users. (Source: Mercury/Digital Res)

Pseudonymous weblogging

Tue, 17 Feb 2004 02:15:30 GMT

Earlier this month, Nick Confessore of TAPPED wrote "In Defense of No-Name Bloggers", responding to what he called a "very weak attack" by Salon's Christopher Farah against those who post on weblogs under assumed names. Confessore notes a critical distinction in correcting Farah's reference to them as "anonymous" authors, observing:

That's incorrect. They're pseudonymous, like, say, the authors of The Federalist Papers. And it's an important distinction. Anonymous writing can indeed be poisonous, because it frees the writer from any consequences whatsoever for his ideas. . .

Blogging continuously under a pseudonym, however, is a very different matter. Someone like Atrios or TMFTML has an intellectual identity and a reputation to defend.

A very good point. (Credit NetLawBlog for the pointer.)

My bomb

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 02:39:47 GMT

Now on iTunes: the January 27 release of "Baby Monkey" by Voodoo Child (he who may be you-know-who). I have downloaded the album and will be firing it up to play once I finish this post.

Apple has tapped into a reality that P.C. Connection used to excel at, and which no other vendor (listening, Jeff?) has yet appreciated: the key to geek happiness is instant gratification.

Baby Monkey
Voodoo Child

RIAA storm troopers

Sun, 18 Jan 2004 15:25:25 GMT

In all of the controversy about file sharing, copyright protection, and Digital Rights Management, this is the strangest twist to date: a private RIAA "police force", swooping down on unsuspecting vendors and intimidating them with threats of arrest, complete with dark jackets with "RIAA" stenciled on the back.

"The RIAA acknowledges it all — except the notion that its staff presents itself as police. Yes, they may all be ex-P.D. Yes, they wear cop-style clothes and carry official-looking IDs. But if they leave people like Borrayo with the impression that they’re actual law enforcement, that’s a mistake."

Bullshit. They are counting on the official impression, walking a fine line just this side of impersonating police officers.

A better way to "blog"

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 02:52:19 GMT

One thing about weblogs that has always been somewhat of an annoyance to me is the persistent use of the narrative format for entries. Long and wordy narratives are well-suited to books by Charles Dickens; they don't work that well on web pages, particularly weblog pages. Many entries by How Appealing represent the quintessential example of this approach: entries which are quite often long paragraphs, chock-full of links to stories and other objets trouves, with virtually no commentary or editorializing. A typical "Elsewhere in Wednesday's newspapers" entry for December 24 includes a paragraph consisting of 22 lines with 15 separate links to newspaper stories -- and that is just one of the four paragraphs in that entry. Howard has one of the leading weblogs in the legal field, and his accomplishments cannot be doubted, but his approach is not the best use of the weblog as internet media. These long paragraphs, broken up by links, are very difficult to scan and peruse intelligently.

Today I came across a site which offers a very well-presented alternative form of display: CyberAttorney. The entries are presented in tables, using a separate row for each item, and with the date/time, the link, the commentary, and a link to comments presented in separate columns. This alternative, which borrows from spreadsheets and word processor tables, is much more pleasing to the eye and better suited to the web browsing experience.

My Way

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 18:48:59 GMT

The newest and bestest among the web portals: MyWay.com. Give it a try and see why: The pages load fast, the home page can be personalized, and there are no pop-up or banner ads. Plain text / link ads only.

Included on its "no's" page:

No banners.
No pop-up ads.
No pop-under ads.
No flash ads.
No video ads.
No audio ads.
No email solicitation.
No free-plus-shipping.
No come-ons.
No free trial offers.
No 24-year-old CEO's.
No foosball.
No super bowl ads.
No corporate jets.
No launch parties.
No calling our industry "space".
No corporate campus.
No version 8.0.
No butterflies.
No Steve Ballmer monkey dance.

Major problem: scanning to Acrobat 6

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 15:03:04 GMT

Although there are a number of nifty new features available under version 6 of Adobe Acrobat, there is one glaring problem: Adobe's scanning plug-in no longer works. Scanning directly to Acrobat now crashes the program. Reviewing the Usenet and web-available discussion forums reveals that this has been a problem in the several months that version 6 has been out, but so far Adobe has done nothing to address this problem. There has already been one 15-MB patch file release, but updating version 6 has not resolved the problem.

Apparently a few scanner manufacturers have been able to release updated drivers that restore the ability to scan under Acrobat, but several of the major manufacturers have not done so.

File types and viewers

Sat, 13 Dec 2003 12:39:37 GMT

Jeff Beard offers some important ideas on What to Do When You Get An Odd Electronic File -- with links to sites that identify the oddball and esoteric file formats, recommendations for nearly-universal file viewers (including my favorite, QuickView Plus, a product which has unfortunately drifted from seller to seller over the years), and links to a handful of manufacturer-provided viewers.

Disappointment: iTrip by Griffin

Wed, 10 Dec 2003 21:57:23 GMT

I ordered the Griffin iTrip for the iPod this last summer. It had been on backorder for months and finally came in this week. I am disappointed in this product.

The two advantages that the iTrip offers over other similar devices like the iRock is that (1) the iTrip draws its power from the iPod and therefore needs no batteries and (2) the iTrip can be tuned to any vacant FM station rather than being limited to two or three choices.

When I installed the software, however, the "playlist" that defines the available stations did not copy, and thus there is no way to tune the device to a desired FM station. I am stuck with the default 87.9. More importantly, however, the iTrip offers very poor range. The iRock that I bought this summer will transmit to my car radio and to an FM radio in my basement without any problem. The iTrip, by contrast, seems to have a range of no more than about 12 feet, and it will not transmit through walls or floors.

This has been a long wait for a disappointing product.

If it quacks. . .

Mon, 08 Dec 2003 23:15:22 GMT

The I-Duck is a 16-MB flash memory device. (Source: Gizmodo)

This rubber duck has a different purpose.

Sleek new scanner

Mon, 08 Dec 2003 00:42:47 GMT

One of the coolest-looking new devices available -- HP's ScanJet 4670.

Freeware suites

Thu, 13 Nov 2003 03:52:40 GMT

From the Business software section at TUCOWS, three freeware alternative suites, including Sun's redoubtable OpenOffice. I have looked at EasyOffice before; it is somewhat "cartoony", but would be an excellent introduction for your mother-in-law:

EasyOffice with PDF Filter 5.95

This office suite is compatible with PDF, MS-Word and Excel files. The word processor supports RTF, DOC, HTML and PDF files.

EasySpeaker is an English-voice reader. EasySpreadsheet reads and writes Excel XLS files. EasyPresentation has special effects, animation, clipart and sound effects. EasyContactManager integrates automatically with EasyWord, EasyCalendar, EasyZip which allows file compression and decompression in both easy and advanced modes. EasySpeller and EasyDictionary is a full reference dictionary. EasyBookkeeper performs classical double-entry bookkeeping. Easybookkeeper supports double-entry bookkeeping.

The built-in contact manager supports hotlists, mass e-mailing and form letters. There is also an image viewer, a database and a calculator.

602PC SUITE 4.0

This office suite is compatibile with Microsoft Office. It includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, a photo editor and a digital photo organizer.

The word processor uses the DOC file format, and it also opens TXT, RTF and HTML files.

The Excel-compatible spreadsheet has more than 150 functions. It can open CSV and DBF files, and you can use it to balance your checkbook, calculate loan payments or export tables to HTML. Data can be presented in 12 different two and 3D graph types with the Graph Wizard. As a stand-alone application, the spreadsheet can be used to insert tables directly into 602Text documents.

A photo editor and organizer rounds out the package. You can create digital photo albums and share photos on the Web with the upload function.

OpenOffice.org 1.1.0

With this office suite, you can create dynamic documents, analyze data, design eye-catching presentations, and produce dramatic illustrations.

You can continue to use your old Microsoft Office files without any problems, and this suite even lets you exchange files with people still using Microsoft Office.

Fighting spam - the positive approach

Mon, 10 Nov 2003 00:48:02 GMT

Dennis Kennedy, one of the most consistently insightful legal tech writers I know, has posted another incisive message, this time regarding spam and e-mail.

So, here's the dirty little secret of spam filters. They have fundamentally broken the trust and confidence that was at the root of the whole e-mail system. Fundamentally broken the whole system.

If I can't know for certain that I am getting the e-mail being sent to me that I want to see and that I can't know whether my recipients get my e-mails because I don't know what kind of hyperaggessive spam filter they might be using (or, in some case, might be employed at a server level without their knowledge), then where am I? Do I have to resort to calling to be sure that you get my e-mail? Am I back to hand delivery? [emphasis in original]

My idea and contribution to this subject is the concept of the reverse filter. Instead of trying to filter out the undesired stuff, filter in the stuff you want. You can keep the rest and paw through it when you have time, looking for the inadvertently overlooked nuggets before pitching the entire mailbox contents into the trash, ready for the next deluge.

Assuming that you use an e-mail filter which will allow you to automatically sort incoming mail according to text-based rules, you can create a Wanted Messages folder and use this technique in one of several ways:

For known and trusted sources, use the filter to move messages where "From" matches their e-mail addresses to the folder.
If you own your domain, create a special username that is given only to trusted sources, and is never (this means never, never, never) posted anywhere on the internet. Use the filter to move messages where "To" matches this special address to the folder.
If you cannot do this, an alternative is to have trusted sources used a special keyword, either in the subject line or in the body of the message, to enable filtering of their messages. Choose a word that is not likely to be used in standard messages or in spam. "Froglips" is an excellent choice.

Update 11-12: The more that I think of it, the better this idea is. The problem with every text-based algorithm used by current spam filters is that the spammers are always staying one step ahead of the people devising the filters. How many messages have been in your inbox this week saying things like INCR=EA*SE D=CK LEN^GTH ? No algorithm can figure out every permutation of this dodge. With a filter-in approach, you define the rules, and instead of you having to figure out how to keep spammers out, the spammer has to figure out a way to get into your inbox.

The new outrage

Sat, 08 Nov 2003 18:04:10 GMT

The newest e-atrocity: spam delivered by your Belkin Wi-Fi network router. (From the Register, via Dave Farber's Interesting People list)

Update 11-9, also from the Farber list:

The original Usenet posting by a Belkin manager has been cancelled (but got saved here: http://stevesobol.com/belkin.txt ); and there is now a message hastily tacked onto their home page at www.belkin.com that attempts to paint their current actions as "addressing customer concerns".

From the ongoing reactions I've seen in various places, I don't think this barn-door closing will help to recapture their trust horse.

New gizmos

Mon, 27 Oct 2003 22:44:43 GMT

New cool stuff written up at Gizmodo:

The MIRT (Mobile Infrared Transponder) - A device to change a red light to green as you approach the intersection. Now you can truly be the Master of the Universe.

The Knee Defender - a device to "prevent the asshole sitting in front of you from fully reclining his or her seat" on an airplane. Gizmodo reports that Northwest Airlines has already announced a ban on this one.

Weblogs and politics

Wed, 22 Oct 2003 12:47:25 GMT

In the wake of the Easterbrook controversy, both Ernie the Lawyer and Jerry Lawson have chimed in on one of the inherent risks of maintaining a weblog: leaving an easy and well-documented trail for later use against the author, not in a court of law (although that can happen) but in the no-holds-barred world of politics. The practice of digging up old writings and speeches and using them, often in a slanted or distorted way, to discredit the speaker -- witness the current use of old pro-Bush speeches by Wesley Clark -- is a time-honored political tradition in this country. But if I can be forgiven for using a pair of superficially conflicting metaphors, let me make an observation. Both the internet, with its inherent stickiness (enhanced by Google and the Internet Wayback Machine), and weblogs, which like Teflon vastly promote the fluidity of ideas, have magnified the volume of the source material that is available for this purpose.

Ultimately, though, several other things are true:

A person who has written or spoken extensively will probably have said things that a clever opponent can use against him.
A person who seeks a political or judicial office will probably be the type of person who has written and spoken in many venues, compulsives and overachievers being what they are by nature.
Often, such a person is precisely the type of person we want for such offices, as he has shown himself to be the type of person who thinks things through and can articulate his ideas.
If, on the other hand, he has thought things through to ridiculous or unsupportable conclusions, there's nothing like a weblog to show it.
Your mother never told you that politics was for the faint of heart -- or the weak of mind.

Free Wi-Fi at Lansing's airport

Sun, 19 Oct 2003 00:41:36 GMT

Lansing's Capitol City Airport is making itself an attractive option for wired business travelers, with a free business lounge (no airport club memberships needed) and free Wi-Fi, courtesy of Arialink. This company has also supplied wireless service to the Lansing Center and to Beaner's coffee shops.

Ominous lawsuit threat

Sat, 11 Oct 2003 16:05:39 GMT

This report says that a "digital content security" company anticipates filing a lawsuit under the DMCA against a student who wrote a paper disclosing that the "security" can be overcome by holding down the Shift key while inserting the CD. See also Derek Slater's comment. This would be a "Silly-Ass Lawsuit" if it weren't so damned scary.

I blog to educate myself

Sun, 28 Sep 2003 15:32:09 GMT

"I write books to educate myself." This from Paul Johnson, whose recent book on art history was discussed yesterday by Tyler Cowen of the Volokh Conspiracy.

Johnson's shared insight applies to those who "blog", doesn't it?

Quick and simple file finder

Sun, 28 Sep 2003 04:02:08 GMT

ASFileFinder excels at the frequent task of searching for a file by its name. It is just over 75KB in size, and runs as a standalone executable -- no DLLs, not even an installation routine. When you run it, it asks you to choose a drive, and then does a quick survey of all the files on that drive. The process takes no more than a few seconds, and then it is ready to search.

You then start to type in letters, and it displays the file names which match the entry. If you are looking for "The Year of Living Dangerously", type in "liv" and only those file names containing that string are displayed. (If you have used PowerMarks, you know the power of this simple search technique.) Type in a second entry to narrow it further. Type "liv", then a space, then "dan" and it is likely that only the one desired file will display. Double-click on the file name to open it.

Very simple, and much faster than Windows' search tool, particularly if you need to do several different searches of a single drive one after the other.

Franco's first law

Sat, 27 Sep 2003 13:30:03 GMT

Tom Mighell posted:

A Brighter Outlook for Spam Sufferers -- Jeff Beard has a nice post outlining some of the new features available in the soon-to-be-released Outlook 2003. One thing that Jeff and I both are looking forward to is the enhanced spam filter. Read more about it in David Pogue's Microsoft Office 2003 Reviewed. While you're at it, head over to the New York Times E-mail subscription page and sign up for "Circuits," David's weekly newsletter. Definitely worth a read.

I tried to comment, but his commenting machine is broken, resulting in three copies of the following appearing at Tom's comment section:

Franco's First Law:
Any solution from Microsoft is more terrifying than the problem.

Fri, 26 Sep 2003 04:19:38 GMT

Is this woman using a sex toy?

Avoid PDFExplorer

Fri, 26 Sep 2003 01:01:43 GMT

I downloaded and tried PDFExplorer. Avoid this product. It exhibits bizarre behavior and runs very slowly.

Early indications of a problem:

Although I identified a different directory on a different drive than the default c:-program files-pdfexplorer 1.2 (I never install programs there), it ignored my choice and installed into a newly created directory under c:-program files anyway.
To add a PDF file to its database, some parameters have to be entered. It will not accept an entry, though, without a category, but there was no obvious way to add a new category. So I had to back out of the dialog and then go looking for the "add a category" button.
When I found the button, I hit it, and was brought right back to the same dialog I had seen before.

This piece of garbage was immediately uninstalled from my system.

Resonance from the near past

Tue, 23 Sep 2003 23:12:56 GMT

When I first wrote my September 21 piece on K-logs, the sentence "The entire internet is a tool for information sharing" read "The entire goddamn internet is a tool for information sharing". I removed the expletive, not to placate my mother, though that is a good reason in itself, but because it rang a little familiar.

Today I found it. It is a classic Tom Tomorrow quote, delivered in the course of his rant of October 14, 2002, one I have cited in this space previously, come to think of it. Tom was responding to a phrase then in common use by webloggers:

"Also high on my list of grating terminology: self-congratulatory references to one's uncompensated output as 'free ice cream' -- as if the entire goddamn internet consists of anything but free ice cream."

Combining the old and the new

Mon, 22 Sep 2003 00:18:03 GMT

This is a first. Steve Covell's LA-Legal.com site is a "static" web site which includes a separate scrollable window displaying his weblog, which happens to be posted in a directory off his main host site. It would not have to be -- the contained page could be at a remote site. This is an interesting use of a little-known web technology.