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    Archive for May, 2009
    Lighting a Rocket…
    Sunday, May 10th, 2009

    It’s just my job five days a week
    A rocket man, a rocket man….

    Lyrics by Bernie Taupin, music and recorded by Reginald Kenneth Dwight, aka Sir Elton Hercules John CBE.

    Simon Fodden, writing in Slaw.ca discussed the new Novatel MiFi – which is a cellular modem that does not need to be pushed into, slotted, USB’d or otherwise wired to your laptop to link you to a cellular-hosted internet service.  What is the MiFi?  It is a router and modem all combined, which allows you to create a portable WiFi cloud that can be shared by up to 5 people. There is *only* one problem with the MiFi – and that is, alike many other technological developments, it is not (yet) available in Canada. It operates in the USA on the Verizon network. The touted benefits of the MiFi is that it is always with you – there is no need to have internet service at home etc…

    So what is a Canadian lawyer to do? Seek a typical Canadian compromise – a Roger’s Mobile Hi-Speed Rocket Internet Stick. This little device will allow you to connect to the internet wherever you can find a cellular signal.  It connects quickly and easily, the initial configuration is not difficult, it works for PCs as well as Macs and there are corporate data plans that are a bit easier on the pocket compared to the consumer plans (call Rogers and ask to speak to their corporate sales department).

    OK, this is a compromise – so you have to connect the Rocket modem to your USB port for it to work (unlike the MiFi which can be inside your computer bag all the time).  You can’t automatically share the Rocket Stick’s internet (unless you can master the intracies of sharing an internet connection in Windows or OS X) as you can with the MiFi.

    But similar to the MiFi – you can connect and work from virtually anywhere (well, not the Yukon since Rogers doesn’t have any coverage there…or indeed from anywhere else where Rogers doesn’t have service).  I have a Rocket Stick and absolutely love it – as I can grab my MacBook and work from almost anywhere and not have to worry about finding a Wi-Fi cloud.   Talk about convenient!  And I find that the benefit of being able to work here and there when I need to far offsets the $35-40/month that I find the Rocket Stick is costing me in terms of data use, fees and taxes. But I am not sure about this type of service replacing my home internet service – after all, on the Rocket Stick I still have to watch the amount of data being downloaded in order to keep the charges reasonable.

    Since I think its going to be a long long time before we get around to finding the MiFi in Canada, the Rocket Stick is about as close as we are likely to get in Canada to carrying the internet around with you.

    Posted in Adding Value, Budgeting, Issues facing Law Firms, Law Firm Strategy, Make it Work!, Technology, Trends | Permalink | 4 Comments »
    Twitter as a Social Metric
    Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

    ♫ Be not selfish in your doings:
    Pass it on. (Pass it on, children)
    Help your brothers (help them) in their needs:
    Pass it on…♫

    Lyrics and Music by Bunny Livingston (aka Bunny Wailer), recorded by The Wailers.

    As a lawyer, I enjoy the study of law. As we all know, laws come in many forms. When studying laws, we are accustomed to dealing with a set of formal laws – being those duly considered and passed by a parliament, legislature, congress or other legislative body. In addition to these formal laws and associated regulations, at least in the common-law system, there is also precedent or judge-made law. However, experience tells us that outside these formal laws exists a parallel universe of unwritten laws. A good example of an unwritten law is the Pereto Principle: namely that in any business entity, 80% of the revenues arise from only 20% of the clients – or as it is usually restated, 80% of your time is occupied by 20% of your client base.

    Read the rest of the post on Slaw.ca here.

    Posted in Adding Value, Business Development, Cheap is Good but Free is Better!, Issues facing Law Firms, Make it Work!, Technology, Trends | Permalink | 2 Comments »