bruceb news

This week’s installment of Annoying Checkboxes is sponsored by Microsoft, which has already brought you the annoying checkbox to install the “Bing Toolbar” – the one that has to be unchecked every single time you install an update to Java. Since Java is updated approximately once every 72 hours, you’ve probably seen that annoying checkbox frequently. (If you open Internet Explorer and have a useless “Bing Toolbar” at the top of the screen, then you missed the checkbox.)

Now I’m training myself to watch out for a new Annoying Checkbox that turns up when Microsoft Office Home […] continued

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I’m strongly urging my clients running Small Business Server to move their mailboxes to online hosted Exchange servers. I’ll give you a bit of background and tell you an anecdote to explain why Exchange frightens me, then tell you more about Microsoft Online Services next week.

Microsoft released the first version of Small Business Server in 2000. It was updated in 2003 and 2008, and a new version is planned for next year. It is a customized collection of several Microsoft server products, bundled up to be installed on a single server. The products are the same […] continued

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Previously:
The Sad State Of Law Office Software
Law Office Case Management In The Cloud
Advologix Practice Management
Postscript On Cloud Computing

Larry Port, founding partner of Rocket Matter, dropped by the news page yesterday and gently suggested that Rocket Matter is actually a fine name for a law office practice management program. (He might be right. It does have the advantage of using words in the English language, which seems hard to come by for new products these days.)

It drew my attention to a short collection of articles that can be […] continued

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Small businesses bought a lot of computers in 2004 and 2005. Windows XP had been on the market for three years and early compatibility problems had been resolved. Small businesses cleaned out the aging Windows 98 80386 computers to take advantage of the new OS and new programs.

This is the year to repeat the process. Windows 7 is a mature version of Windows Vista – for all intents and purposes, the current version of Windows has been on the market for three years and early compatibility problems have been resolved. Businesses should be clearing out the old Windows […] continued

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Previously:
The Sad State Of Law Office Software
Law Office Case Management In The Cloud
Advologix Practice Management

Take a step back and look at the technology in your business. There has been a large shift that you may not have noticed in technology costs.

Here’s the idea in this article (which happens to stand opposed to the idea of cloud computing, but never mind that):

“First recognize the old rules for the cost of computing have been reversed.

“The greatest cost components from highest to lowest:

• “Past:  1) hardware  2)

[…] continued

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Previously:
The Sad State Of Law Office Software
Law Office Case Management In The Cloud

I called Deepa Patel of Halak Consulting looking for a LexisNexis Certified Independent Consultant in the Bay Area who could help whip a client’s Time Matters installation into shape. The conversation quickly turned to the new product that she is also trained to handle, the one to which she has committed her own office and is clearly excited about.

Within a week I was looking at a demo of AdvologixPM and feeling my own sense of excitement about […] continued

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Previously:
The Sad State Of Law Office Software

I’m going to work up to specific products, but let’s start with the concept of storing valuable, confidential data in the cloud, on servers run by some big company.

As a lawyer in a small firm, think of the scariest example you can imagine – say, your highly sensitive letter to a client outlining the risks in your litigation strategy, or notes on the phone conversation with a client where she confessed to killing Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick. Save the file as a Word document on […] continued

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Almost every law office winds up using some kind of specialized line-of-business software. For most types of law, especially litigation, that means case management software designed to bring all the information about a matter into a single place – the contacts (client, opposing counsel, insurance agents, witnesses, deponent), the case calendar and deadlines, phone conversations, billing records, and if possible, links to documents and email.

In some respects those are just variations on the kinds of records that are tracked by many kinds of businesses. There is a certain comfort in having labels that are specific to your work, […] continued

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There is an interesting consequence to the development of a global population obsessed by technology: it’s become very difficult to introduce a new service and have sufficient capacity for it to start successfully.

It’s nothing new. Back in 2004 online gaming service Steam crashed repeatedly in the first few days after Half-Life 2 was released. In 2006 Google had to suspend signing up new accounts for its web site hosting service due to heavy demand after it introduced a new web page creator. In 2008 Microsoft underestimated demand for Photosynth, a service for linking photos into […] continued

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Previously:
Office 2010 – Technology Guarantee
Microsoft Office 2010 – Suite Comparisons
Should You Buy Microsoft Office 2010?

Microsoft Office 2010 went on sale Tuesday at local stores and through online retailers. My articles, linked above, describe some of the differences between the different versions; in the next few weeks I’ll tell you about new features.

If you want to do some research, here are three places to start.

• Microsoft’s Office home page
• Paul Thurrott’s exhaustive collection of reviews and screen shots
• Eric Ligman’s list of links to Office 2010 resources

There are […] continued

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