All Our Tips
Have Some Fun and Teleport to a Random Place in the World With MapCrunch.com
Most of you should be familiar with Google’s Street View. It allows you to see pictures of the street you are viewing on a Google Maps map. That can be very handy when you are wanting to know about the landmarks you should be looking for when you are driving to somewhere you have never been before.
But if you are wanting to have some fun with Google Street View, you can use MapCrunch to “teleport” or jump to a random place in the world.
MapCrunch allows you to easily explore the vast array of imagery captured by Google in over 27 countries. You will see spectacular scenery, busy cities and quiet back roads in the middle of nowhere. It is fun. It is addictive. The best views are added to the Gallery every day – be sure to check it out!
Go to the MapCrunch.com site and click the green “GO” button to be teleported to a random place in the world. If you only want to see certain countries, select them on the right hand panel.
And click the “myMap” option (top-right of side panel) to choose your own area to teleport around – after checking this option you will only see images within the area covered by the map on your screen. For example, if you only want views from Tokyo, move and zoom the map so that you only see Tokyo city (or search for “Tokyo”), then click “GO”!
Not quite a Star Trek transporter, but a lot of fun and probably the closest you will get to the real thing. Beam me up Scotty!
Follow ABA TECHSHOW Tweets for New Ideas
Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
The world’s premier legal Technology conference takes place this Thursday-Sat, March 29-31, 2012 in Chicago. www.techshow.com has the complete schedule, speakers and more. Can’t make it this year? No worries. You can be there virtually by following the Twitter stream from the conference. #ABATECHSHOW is the hash tag to follow in Tweetdeck or similar Twitter software. In fact, many attendees follow the stream while at Techshow (both of the authors do!).
Why would you do so? The twitter stream contains snippets of the best ideas coming from the presentations. By following the stream, you can follow all the presentations (or at least those with active twitterers in the audience) while at your iPad, PC or MacBook, where ever you may be. Moreover, by replying to a tweet, you can ask a question and have the twitter audience reply!
This is a great way to get new ideas – not just on technology. Oftentimes the tweets contain a wealth of practice management ideas wrapped up in the context of legal technology. Learn what works and what doesn’t – and benefit from the experiences of your fellow lawyers.
Research Papers – a 3rd Year Law Student Tip
Today’s Tip is by 3rd year University of Alberta law student Elsa Johnson in honour of law student week at Slaw.
I am actually writing a research paper at this very moment, and I was thinking back on first year research and how overwhelming it was. I’m not sure if this is a good “tip” or not, but what really stressed me out was not so much finding material (with all the databases and programs you are almost sure to find a ton of information), it was how to know when you have done enough.
I would always think “Is this really the law? What if there is another case out there? What if there is a better article out there? How do I know I have found all the important stuff?”
After researching for a Professor last summer I figured out some pretty good indicators that you have reached the end of the road.
For cases: if I started to see the same cases cited over and over, up to the most recent SCC decisions, and cross referenced those back to the others I had found with not a lot new or recent popping up, I could be pretty sure that I had hit all the important cases.
For articles/scholarly work: again, when the trail started to get circular, and cross referencing was not turning up anything novel, I could be pretty sure I had covered off the scholarly thought in the area.
Editor’s Note: Elsa is looking forward to the Head Start Program offered by the Edmonton Law Libraries Association this June 21 and 22 in Edmonton. I am looking forward to working with Elsa at Field Law where she is joining us as an articling student for 2012-13.
Do You Have a Startup Repair Disc?
I am going to assume you have a recent complete back-up of all your computer hard drives. You do – don’t you?
Here is another important question: Do you have a Startup Repair disc?
Of course you do! But if you don’t, please take a few minutes to create one. It could be a lifesaver if your hard drive crashes. A Startup Repair disc can be used to start your computer in situations where your computer won’t boot-up due to corruption or damage on the hard drive.
Creating a Startup Repair disc is simple and fast. Put a blank writable CD or DVD in your optical drive. In Windows 7, click Start > All Programs > Maintenance > Create a System Repair Disc and let Windows 7 build a bootable emergency disc. Windows will create a disc that will have the Windows 7 OS and some hardware specific info for you computer. The steps for creating a repair disc for older versions of Windows are similar.
Take a few minutes to create a Startup Repair disc if you don’t have one. It can help you avoid the loss of all the data on a corrupt or damaged hard drive.
The Best Time to Prepare a to-Do List
The best time to prepare a to-do list for your day is 15 minutes before you go home the night before.
Why 15 minutes before? Because it may never happen if you leave it as the last thing to do before you go home. By the time you do just a few last minute jobs wishfully thinking “this won’t take me long” it starts to get late. Then you are rushing out the door. The list might not get done.
15 minutes before makes it more likely that you actually do it and give it the time it deserves. It is easier to make it part of your routine.
Why the night before? Everything I’ve read always recommends this. You have the advantage of starting the next day with a clear plan. The alternative is a day where you risk being distracted by other events until mid-morning or later. Or, that you can deal with some of your list in quiet moments of inspiration before you start work again.
per: Andrew Rogers, CEO of www.foolkit.com.au the free legal toolkit.
Wear a Hat
Today’s Tip: wear a hat. This tip could also be, change your “hat” if you need to.
I visited he lovely city of Yellowknife today. It was brisk and breezy, but beautiful as always. As I was walking downtown with very chilly ears, it occurred to me that I hadn’t planned very well. I knew I would be walking about, I knew it would be cold, but I didn’t bring a hat.
To make (the inevitable) analogy to legal research: I failed to look in a textbook.
Wear a hat.
Google Will Tell You the Time of the Next Local Sunrise or Sunset
Do you have a burning desire to catch a sunrise or sunset? Google can help. If you type “sunrise” or “sunset” followed by the name a city (don’t type the quotes), Google will give you the time of the next sunrise or sunset in that city and how many hours and minutes until it arrives.
What will Google think of next?
Meet Me at the Bar!
Everyone hates paying bar dues – especially lawyers who are members of a mandatory bar and have no choice about it. But as long as you have to pay, why not take a little time to investigate what you get in return?
Your law society or bar association can be a great source of information and assistance for the improvement of your practice as well as a bulk-buying group that negotiates member benefit discounts. Many bar associations offer ethics and practice management advice as well as discounts on insurance, office equipment, wireless phone service, office products, cloud-based storage and backup, legal software and countless other products and services that will make your practice – and your life- run a little more smoothly. Yet many association members never take advantage of what’s on offer.
Spend a few minutes today to familiarize yourself with all the benefits your law society or bar association has to offer and pick two or three to implement over the next two months. You’ll be glad you did.
RIP Encyclopedia Brittanica (In Print)
A tweet by Dan Bowsher @dan_bowsher caught my eye yesterday:
After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses – http://pri.gg/xAKiqE
Dan has some interesting tweets about Encyclopedia Britannica, though there is another twitter conversation you might find interesting:
Richard Cook @Richhjc13
@stevemjones who needs britannica when u have wikiSteve Jones @stevemjones
@Richhjc13 Yeah but I bet encyclopaedia Britannia never made mistakes with whether people are alive or dead!! #ripbritannica
Today’s Tip: Use authoritative sources.
Encyclopaedia Britannica remains.
Simultaneously Multiple Graphics on a PowerPoint Slide
On a complex PowerPoint slide, you will often can have several objects (e.g. clipart, pictures, textboxes) carefully placed so they appear just where you want them. They could be next to each other, overlapping, partially overlapping etc.
If you want to change the location of several objects, moving them one at a time is a pain because it takes multiple moves to move them individually and all your careful spacing is lost and will have to be set-up again as you move each item.
Next time you need to move multiple objects on a PowerPoint slide, remember this handy trick – it allows you to simultaneously move multiple objects.
Go to Normal view and move to the slide you want to edit. Move your cursor to the top left of an imaginary box that surrounds the objects you want to move. Using your left mouse button (click and hold it), drag out a square around the objects that you want to move. You have to make sure all four corners of every object you want to move is within the square. Release the mouse button when the square encloses all the objects you want to move. All the items within the square will now be selected. Drag and drop one of the objects you selected to a new location and the rest will move as well, and the exact spacing will be maintained.
If you don’t want something to move, just make sure you don’t select all four corners – if you catch only three corners within the square it won’t be selected. This can be handy when you want to leave some objects exactly where they are.
And another neat trick – you can resize all the selected objects by dragging the corner or side of one of them.
Remember these tricks next time you want to move multiple objects on a PowerPoint slide.
