HerringLaw: Civil Rights & Discrimination Law in Iowa

How to Shred Documents [humor]

Quite Fun:  Nokia's Unloader.  From VST late last year.

Non-employee Sexual Harassment

In Won't You Be My Neighbor?, blogger/lawyer Wendy Poole provides an excellent discussion of pitfalls for those who think that only employees can get an employer into trouble for their harassing actions.  The EEOC case on the topic is quite old, but still well-founded.  

Of course, the best advice is:  if what you wouldn't do wouldn't pass muster with your mother [or grandmother], then it's probably not something to do.

Some images for sale at eBay [updated]

I've uploaded some images [favorites of mine and most people] and am selling them through eBay; Seller ID is journeyzing.   It's sort of an experiment.  People can select their own images, certainly, through my Gallery,  but I thought this might be an alternative for those who would like an inexpensive image [signed but no mat or frame].   I also uploaded the actual eBay images to a specific gallery at the JZ gallery site.  

GTD

Mashable has a useful contribution on GTD [Getting things Done], GTD Toolbox:  100+ Resources.

If you could get ANYTHING to accessorize your new MacBookPro...

what would it be?  An productive discussion was held on the MacLaw list and I tried to pull all the ideas together, with the following result:

Hardware & Accessories:

• a laptop sleeve [ Timbuk2 Sleeve]  or Slipcase for inside your brief case
• USB Hub [powered] [Belkin’s is about $30]
• Fujitsu ScanSnap [which also bundles Adobe Acrobat]
• External drives for backups [my suggestion is to have one for TimeMachine use and a separate one for a different backup program]
• Cable/adapter to connect to external display and/or projector
• Remote (or use the iPhone Remote App)
• Line out connector cable to connect your MBP to an external speaker if needed
• 22"+ monitor (to hook up with when you're not traveling--you'll love the extra screen real estate and you can work in dual monitor mode)
• if you want to use the MBP screen as a monitor, then a stand to position it to do so
• A good size (16+Gb) thumb drive or two [to back up all your critical data (even using Apple's Backup) [Be sure to encrypt it!!!]
• Dymo label printer--either a duo or twin
• Extra powerbrick/cord if you will use the MBP in more than one location
• If you travel, I'd think about a small printer, like a Canon Pixmo

SOFTWARE

• AppleCare:  bar none, the best money you can spend when you get a computer, particularly a portable one, or your iPhone/iPod.
• Adobe Acrobat/Professional [but see above ref. ScanSnap]
• CircusPonies Notebook, www.CircusPonies.com
• Billings
• Daylite
• SuperDuper for backups [to supplement Time Machine]
• QuicKeys [from Startly, http://www.quickeys.com/, a Des Moines company]
• Launchbar
• DragThing [Which is what I use]
• Quicksilver
• Disk Warrior:  - Diskwarrior - $99 - www.alsoft.com  [“Disk Utility in the Utilities folder will recover about 40% of the bad disk experiences... Diskwarrior gets the rest of them. It's expensive, but it's so awesome we buy licenses for our clients to keep on-site for their Macs. It's just easier on all of us if they have a copy handy. It has two flavors: boot disk & download.”]
• iDefrag
• Drive Genius
• iWork:  Pages for word processing, Numbers for spreadsheets and Keynote for presentations.  I have MSOffice but haven’t used it in eons and prefer Pages etc.
• Consider whether you need NeoOffice (compatible with WordPerfect files)
• Leap/Yep
• Games?
• JungleDisk online storage software
• Skitch - free - http://skitch.com/ - More aimed at screenshots and short screen videos than anything else.  Has a small palette of tools for working with stuff.
• Pixelmator - $59 - http://www.pixelmator.com/ - The most photoshop-y of the bunch, but the priciest, too.
• Acorn - $49 - http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/ - A good mid-range compromise.
• Delicious Library - $40 - http://delicious-monster.com/ - This one makes use of your onboard iSight camera to scan books, DVDs, VHS, BD discs, HD-DVD, that new drill you got at target, etc, into one really big library database. It's seriously elegant software.
• TextWrangler - free - http://www.barebones.com/ - Need a text editor? And I do mean a text editor, not a word processor, then this one is your friend.
• TextMate:  <http://macromates.com/>
• Coda - $99 -http://www.panic.com/coda - Wow. Just, wow. Coda is a development environment for coding for the web. There are two, both have quirks, play with both and decide.
• Launchbar - 24 Euro - http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/beta.html
• Quicksilver - free - <http://www.blacktree.com/>http://www.blacktree.com/
• Yojimbo - $39 - http://barebones.com/products/yojimbo/ - Yojimbo is an information manager, not just a password manager, so  it'll support notes, passwords, serial numbers, bunch of general stuff. worth a look.
• 1password - $39 - http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password 1password is hooked into your browser  directly, meaning when you use Autofill, it will handle the secure storage, etc.
• Default Folder X http://www.agilewebsolutions.com
• PageSender http://www.smileonmymac.com/
• NetNewsWire for RSS feed reading [GoogleReader & Safari also do fine]
• With a big shout out to Kern Lewis, Dave Flory, Tom Hart, Tom Bridge, Larry Silverman, Kai Lui, Jeffery A. Rataiczak, Paul Hogan

Quick Look is, well, quick...and great

QuickLook:  an advance preview of an icon or image without opening up the parent program to see it, thus saving time and effort.

I tend to do alot of screenshots to save images as PNGs to review later or save as information for use later [as in showing someone how a certain file structure or window should look if you're explaining to them a process].  Thus, every now and then I do have to go thru and clean off the desktop of my computer.  I have all sorts of 'Picture #.pngs' all over and there's really no reason to keep them.  So, I open QuickLook [keystroke:  click on an icon and hit Command & Y - to close it do the same keystroke] and see what the icon represents and either delete it [just hit Command & Delete/Backspace while it's open in QL] and then click onto the next icon, without opening or shutting QuickLook.  That icon will then pop up so you can see it also.

You can even do a screen shot of the item you just opened in QL, not sure why you'd do that but it's interesting to know.  The only drawback to QL is that if you are in QL you can't keep that QL window open in QL when you move to an actual applications item or open window, it'll disappear.  But you can of course open the icon you just had up and look at both then.  So that would work.

Nifty Mac Trick - Moving between windows & apps easily

Use the Command, Tab and Tilde keys to move through open applications or windows open in applications.  I knew and use this hint in part, but hadn't known about the Tilde option:  WorkingApple.

Using the iPhone Overseas

We recently traveled to Crete for a week-long vacation.  In preparation, I read the ATT Wireless website's suggestions for controlling charges while traveling overseas and called ATT.  I already have the free notation to my number that I can have access to phone-roaming while overseas, something that I set up awhile ago.  And then, as I have for other trips out of the US, I purchased the 20mb data package [$30], so I could get my emails and download and upload easily up to that 20mb limit [it costs much more after that point].

Fortunately, I found when I arrived that in many places [the airport, hotels] I could get online through wi-fi free of charge.  So, I ended up mainly finding a hotspot, getting online through wi-fi, getting emails, uploading and downloading information and items, and having no problems sending and receiving messages and information.  At the end of the trip, my total data usage is about 350kb up and 4.3mb down, much less than my package allowed.  In the past, I have been able to cancel the package and everything is prorated.  You can't do it too fast, or charges not yet submitted to ATT will not fall within the package deal, but in a few days, after checking my wireless bill online, I should be safe to cancel the package, get a credit for unused use and the rest will fall under the mb purchased.

The other suggestion ATT makes, which is wise to remember, is to turn OFF Data Roaming, so even if you are up and running and your phone system is operational, data is not being sent/received without your knowing.  

I should also note that the phone service was excellent.  We had to make several calls in country to find lodging and make other arrangements and had no problem at all, either making or receiving calls.  And then, after I had downloaded recent RSS Feeds via my NetNewsWire application, I could read them offline and keep up with the latest news.

Excellent Apple Service, again

Getting ready to go out of the country [and to be able to rely on my iPhone] I noticed on Sunday that my iPhone3G was not holding any charge.  Panicked at the thought I'd not be able to rely on the phone, I contacted Apple and spoke with a support person who, after some discussion, thought I should take it in directly to the Apple Store's Genius bar and made the appointment.  I went in, explained the issue and confirmed that I had not dropped or mistreated it, the Genius switched out the old iPhone with a new one.  We updated the software and installed my SIM, and I was good to go.  Whew, but good to have great service [yet again].  And the phone worked wonderfully while overseas [a separate blog post is coming].

Delightful Dropbox

I've been using a program, Dropbox, over the past week or so and been very pleased with it.  The basic plan provides you with 2G of space free and it is cross-platform [works fine with Macs, Windows, Linux and combinations of them].  You download the application and it creates a menu icon and a folder on your computer and then you create folders in that folder and share them with others.  They can then come and pick up documents or papers or images or whatever you want to share with them easily and fast.

I have used Pando in the past to send papers and such to clients and friends [1G transmittal is free], but I am finding Dropbox to be easier and faster.  

As far as security, each sharing goes in its own folder and there is encryption on the server end.  The FAQs for Dropbox address security concerns people may have.