TechnoLawyer: Email/Messaging/Telephony

In Fat Friday, we recently discussed devices banned by courts around the country. Regarding the reasoning behind these bans, TechnoLawyer member Jon Calhoun posits: "I think the cell phone ban is addressed not so much to deter carrying in explosives, but to prevent a cell phone from being used as a remote triggering device to set off explosives. I know this sounds like something out of Mission Impossible, but I believe cell phones were used as triggering devices in the bombings in Spain recently."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Last summer I was horrified to learn that my then girlfriend kept all of her e-mail in her inbox — a classic piler! As for me, I'm a filer. You'll never find more than 10-15 messages in my inbox — I always delete or file after reading and, if necessary, responding. LifeHacker, which we covered on February 23rd in TechnoLawyer NewsWire and which has quickly become my favorite non-legal blog, recently covered this topic. What do you think?

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Regarding our ongoing discussion of secure online file couriers in the Answers to Questions newsletter, TechnoLawyer member Mark Klarich has found yet another option: "Magicvortex is a subscription service that enables you to deliver large files and maintain some semblance of security."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Regarding a recent Answers to Questions newsletter, TechnoLawyer member Robert Ray writes: "In his review of indexing tools, Jason Havens mentioned several commercial programs that can search your files and, with extra cost plugins, search Outlook. You can download "Lookout" from Microsoft, which does the same thing and is free. You can search files, e-mails, notes, PDF files, contacts, tasks, etc. at the same time." Good point, but how long can we expect software from Microsoft to remain free? In this case, probably for a while given all the free alternatives from Google and others. Ultimately, however, someone will have to pay so don't be surprised to find advertising in these tools someday.

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

The September 29, 2004 issue of Topical Compilation contained several reviews of Gmail.  If you'd like to take Gmail for your own test ride, I'd be happy to give you an account — just e-mail me. I have 6 Gmail invitations so first come, first served.

Update: These invitations are long gone!

About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

A review in a recent issue of Fat Friday asserted that eFax delivers faxes in its own proprietary format.  TechnoLawyer member Craig Bayer responded with this correction: "Actually, with eFax you can choose to receive your faxes in PDF format. This makes it extremely easy to forward faxes to others and save faxes to your database."  TechnoLawyer member Paul Easton also chimed in to let everyone know that you can also choose to receive eFax faxes in TIFF format (look for Paul's complete Post, which contains some tips for viewing TIFF images on a handheld device, in the December 10th issue of Fat Friday).

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Thanks to a Question by Lowell Schoenfeld, our Answers to Questions newsletter has provided many solutions in recent months to permanently deleting Outlook mail. Now comes the last word in this discussion from TechnoLawyer member Andrew Willinger who writes: "Perhaps I missed it, but did anyone reply that by holding down the [Shift] key while you click Delete, the unwanted message is permanently deleted and not moved to Deleted items. The confirmation box can be avoided by unchecking that feature found in Tools/Options/Other (exact location may vary with Outlook version)."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

TechnoLawyer member Steven McNichols encourages his fellow subscribers to give VoIP telephone service a try, writing: "I've been using Vonage VoIP telephone service for two months now and can report that it works as well as-if not better than conventional telephone technology. The cost savings are significant. My cell phone functions as a backup phone should that be necessary, but I doubt it will be. Try it. You'll like it."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.

Regarding the recent discussion of permanently deleting e-mail messages from Outlook with one click, TechnoLawyer member Warren Kruse warns: "There were several mentions of "Permanently Deleting E-Mail from Outlook" but the suggestions do not permanently delete the e-mail since even e-mail that has been emptied from the Deleted Items still can be retrieved from the e-mail file (.pst file in the case of Outlook)."

Regarding TechnoLawyer member Jeff Scott Olson's quest for spam filtering software, TechnoLawyer member Dave Markowitz suggests using the Mozilla e-mail client, which has a built-in whitelist.  "In Mozilla 1.6, go to Tools/Junk Mail Controls and check "Do not mark messages as junk mail if the sender is in my address book."

About Quips
A Quip is a brief member contribution for which we don't have room in our Answers to Questions or Fat Friday newsletters. Instead, Quips appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.