Many years ago, there was a book called “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” which became wildly popular. Since it was so popular, Basha ripped it off for a lovely little article called “If Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus – how do you sell computers (really software) on Venus?”. The basic gist of the article was that men and women view and use computers and software differently. Men were more excited by the gee whiz aspect of new software while women looked at computers as a necessary work tool.
Month: March 2016
Life is not a struggle. It’s a wiggle
Wisdom can come from anywhere if you are open to it. For me, wisdom came from a trip to the Waffle House on Airline Drive in New Orleans. We have just returned from a mini-vacation in New Orleans, with the family. Yes, we took the “family” to New Orleans … probably should have left them behind (Bourbon Street isn’t exactly kid-friendly). And so we found ourselves driving to the airport on Easter Sunday … and nothing was open but the Waffle House. And so, we found ourselves drinking french roast and downing a double hash-browns with cheese and tops, with grits and chocolate pecan waffles.
Time Matters Tip – Integration Broken After Windows Upgrade
This issue has been popping up from time to time. It affects those who are diligent with their windows updates. If you have found that Word or Outlook integration just doesn’t work and gives a cryptic error, try the tips below. The issue is when the TM Plugins for Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) give the following error: “Unable to Load Time Matters Integration.”
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Windows 10 – Same Machine, Increased Speed
I recently took the plunge on my primary workstation and clicked the Upgrade to Windows 10. I have been using Windows 10 on a Surface Pro 3 for over a year, but had delayed switching throughout the office. I had been using Windows 8.1 with Classic Start Menu enabled.
Apart from the hour it took for the PC to process the upgrade, there was very little I had to do. Of course, my Classic Start Menu was disabled, but then again Windows 10 essentially restored the Classic Start Menu found in Windows 7, and then threw some tiles on as an option. But what was surprising was that the computer seems to be “zippier”. I believe it is ultimately a programming trick, but programs load and start faster.
Practice Management in the Cloud and on the Desktop
It has been five years since I first started exploring cloud options for lawyers. In that time there has been much progress, but actually less than I expected. I have seen a proliferation of new products for lawyers, but found that most of them lack the maturity of the client/server desktop solutions. At the same time, I have seen a stagnation in the desktop solutions, a failure to embrace change, a failure to innovate.
I don’t intend to identify specific products, but rather to address the trends that I am seeing. The desktop solutions have mostly shifted to maintenance mode. This is reflected in their pricing models which emphasize annual maintenance and support plans. There is less emphasis on new marketing initiatives, and more on “insurance”. If you want support on your current system, keep current on your payments. This shift to annualized revenue, in my mind, is very healthy. It shifts the incentives to making sure the product is stable and dependable. It rewards incremental improvements, over splashy remakes. It keeps the company in regular contact with its client base.
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HotDocs Tip – Parse City, State, Zip from Address
In our work in HotDocs, we often need to bring in defective and malformed data from databases. Often the data source contains an address field or fields. Ideally, it will be formatted with Street, City, State and Zip as separate fields. However, more often, the data is not properly structured for analysis and usage. We may get address line 1 and address line 2 or even address line 3. To put this data into a usable format requires an understanding of text parsing.
With the use of the Custom Functions properties of HotDocs Computations, we have defined a way to parse the Address Line text which is in the [CityName], [StateAbbrev] [ZipCode] format in a line into the 3 separate constituent fields, respectively tmpCity, tmpState, and tmpZip. We pass a parameter, prmCSZ which contains the address string. The output sets the tmp fields which can then be used in a dialog script or other computation to set the actual fields you wish to use.
Spring in the Air
The thermostat in our little river hamlet of Cortlandt Manor has hit 75 degrees. While spring has not yet officially begun, it is just around the corner. Along with spring come new resolutions. The first and foremost is to remove the clutter that accumulates of the cold dark winter. For me, that means several things.
NOTE: With this post, Seth Rowland returns to the web with an active blog. I realize the hiatus has been over a year and a half. I have been very busy, but have neglected the prime imperative of sharing and educating that has been key to the success of my own business venture. And so, come back, subscribe, even feel free to comment. I hope to make it worth your while.