HerringLaw: Civil Rights & Discrimination Law in Iowa

Online Storage/Backup options

I tend to use my weekends/end of week time to do basic computer maintenance and office organization tasks.  Today I did some additional research into online backups, also called cloud storage.  I thought I would share some of what I found in case it is of interest or help to others:

1. If you do not now backup what is important to you on your computers, you're tempting fate and you will at some point lose data.  Murphy's Law controls.
2. For Mac users an excellent resource is the ebook series Take Control which has several inexpensive ebooks on the topic of backing up [and some information might be of interest to non-Mac users].
3. There are some excellent services [reliable, easy-access and easy-to-use] which are free for a small amount of space [e.g., 2-5GB] and not that expensive for more space, even unlimited.  And when you think about the cost of replacing the lost data, it's fairly cheap to use such a service.
4. I backup my computers using Mac OSX's TimeMachine on a regular basis and clone the drives using SuperDuper on a less-frequent regular basis.  Cloud backup is a double-safety option.
5. Some resources for researching the topic are:
   1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_online_backup_services
   2. http://onlinefilestoragereview.com/
   3. http://online-storage-service-review.toptenreviews.com/

Free security for your iPhone, iPad and other such devices

Good blog post on Find my iPhone, free security for your iOS devices.  Post explains benefits of setting it up and provides links which provide horror stories set aright by having the service.  Macs in Law

I also use Undercover, shareware software from Orbicule.  

Sometimes even Duplicate backups don't pull you through!

Read this on another list.  A sad tale of lost data despite the person's having two methods of backing up.  Murphy's Law truly exists

"I went on vacation and upon return the server storing the file "died" because of a defective hard disk rendering the data inaccessible. At the same time, believe it or or not, the backup NAS storage device (4 hd, raid w/parity) suffered a physical defect also rendering the backup data inaccessible. The data on the server is gone for good, as the drive is fatally dead,non repairable and beyond any hope. The NAS backup has hope left"  

And, fortunately, maybe 'only' 2-3 months of data is gone since the file was sent 2-3 months ago to someone else to work with.

So, it may not be enough to have two backups after all, particularly not of essential data.  

How to Shred Documents [humor]

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

Take your iWork & Apple Pages templates to another level.

Link: Take your iWork & Apple Pages templates to another level..

[I'm always looking for creative new layouts and thought this might be of interest.]

LAWpportunities Conference - continued

I'll be presenting along with some excellent speakers and resources at the upcoming LAWpportunities Conference.  More information about the conference can be found at LAWpportunities:  "New professionals have at their fingertips the tools and ability to make networking better, faster, cheaper and more effective than their predecessors ever could have imagined. LAWpportunities offers you the strategies, insights and secrets of successful professionals, showing you how to fill the gap left by businesses unwilling to adapt." "Network with the speakers and other business professionals including nationally renowned online business entrepreneur KEVIN O’KEEFE of LexBlog.com. Learn the secrets of taking your business and your career to the next level. "  Other Speakers will be:  Kevin O’Keefe Drew McLellan Mike Sansone Adam Steen Jim Goodman Shirley Poertner Tre Critelli Timothy Johnson Mitch Matthews

[the Conference has been rescheduled and when it's firm, I'll not it in this blog]

Using your iPod in an Office

At a list I am on, the MacLaw listserve for the community of Macintosh-using lawyers, we are discussing the use of an iPod as a voice recorder. There are various types of microphones made to attach to an iPod to pick up sounds, which then are saved on the iPod drive and later can be transferred easily to iTunes and your computer. I have an iTalk [there are other such products] and used it a year or so ago in a case. I was interviewing witnesses, attached the iTalk to my iPod and put it on the table as we talked. I took some notes, but as I drove back to my office, I was able to play back our discussions in the car and then import them to iTunes and have them available any time I wished.

Doing a "Vicky" for the iPhone?

As my friends on the MacLaw listserve will attest, I'm frequently [but not always] an early adopter and do proudly own many wonderful Mac products. On the other hand, sometimes [maybe most of the time] it's good to go slow. I've been watching the information on the iPhone over the past few months and salivating at the opportunity to have one, but mindful of the fact that I really don't 'need' one. And yet, I'm a bit tired of the button pushing of the Treo 650 and I absolutely detest Verizon's Wireless Sync lack of features [no way, that I know of, to shuffle off spam to a spam folder to be automatically deleted, no way that I know of to do a mass deletion of emails on either the WirelessSync site or the phone, etc.]. In terms of wise use of office resources, it's probably best to wait, let the dust settle, and see what options and features are really in the iPhone.

New Postal Regulations

The US Postal Service is adopting "Shape-based" mailing regulations.  Basically, there will be a change in how letters, packages and parcels will be charged and in some cases it may be better to enclose papers in a half-envelope [6x11.5] rather than in the usual No. 10 sized envelope. 

Another excellent discussion I found was at:  BuyersZone