Today, Microsoft announced Windows Azure, a “cloud” platform. You won’t run it on your computer, but rather use the internet to access software running on Azure.

Microsoft intends to compete directly with Google, Amazon, and other cloud services. In addition to Exchange, Microsoft plans to offer all its enterprise software as a service. It sounds, in part, like Microsoft intends to take its Live model and expand all its software with Live versions.

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From Alex Payne’s “rules for computing happiness,” here are two that every lawyer should consider when selecting office software:

• Use software that does one thing well.
• Do not use software that does many things poorly.

There are plenty more, and while you may disagree, they provide good food for thought.

I agree with most, although I think a Linux or Windows PC is perfectly fine for home computing. Windows is especially great if you enjoy a bloated operating system bogged down by anti-virus software.

al3x’s rules for computing happiness | al3x (Thanks Dave!)

By now everyone knows what a wiki is, right? One of the best features of wikis is the ability to easily discover links between different bits of information. I have used various “wikipads” like Tomboy and ZuluPad, for example, which automatically highlight links to other notes.

This is especially valuable in complex cases, where you may be dealing with a variety of issues, strategies, causes of action, defenses, and so on. Give a page to each and watch the connections emerge, potentially leading to new strategies, etc.

TiddlyWiki is an interesting wiki option because it is only one file. You can host it on a website, your own computer, or your office file server.

Because it is only one file, you can easily use a separate TiddlyWiki wiki for every file, and everyone in the office can use it to build a useful database on the file. I would just stick it in my blank file folder template, and every member of the staff would know to automatically use the wiki for leaving notes on the file.

KOffice was originally developed for Linux, but one of the primary goals for KOffice 2.0 is for it to run on all three major operating systems: Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux.

Like OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office, KOffice is a full office suite. KOffice is free software and offers a full suite of applications, including for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, image editing, slideshows, and more. Like OOo, KOffice uses the Open Document Format.

KOffice 2.0 is in alpha now, and TechWorld recently took a look at KOffice for Windows. As an alpha, this release is primarily for developers for debugging, but it is also a first look at the features of KOffice 2.0 and what it has in store for Windows users.

First look: KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8 | TechWorld (via /.)

Mozilla is looking to set a world record for one-day software downloads with the release of Firefox 3, which should be released sometime today is available now at getfirefox.com.

I have been using Firefox 3 for a little over a month now, and it really is a better browser. Better than Internet Explorer by a long shot, and better than Firefox 2, as well. It is quick, lighter-weight, and really nice to use. My favorite feature, though, is the easy extensibility of Firefox with the use of third-party add-ons like Foxmarks bookmark synchronizer and del.icio.us buttons.

At least, that seems to be the implication of its new “digital manners policy” patent, which would force your gadgets to receive “orders” from a digital Miss Manners overlord. For example, a movie theater could automatically switch all phone in the audience to vibrate when the movie starts.

Maybe that would be nice, but when I bought my phone, I did not do it on the assumption that it would be controlled by someone else. I bought it so that I could use it myself. Same goes for my laptop, which I do not really want anyone controlling, thank you very much.

First DRM, now DMP. Microsoft is no longer making software for its customers, but for people who want to control its customers. I will stick with software and hardware I can use how I want to, thank you very much.

One more reason I am happy I am no longer a Microsoft customer.

Microsoft patents “digital manners policy” | BoingBoing Gadgets

“Free” has two meanings: (1) gratis, and (2) libertas. When I say free software, I mean libertas, although much free software is gratis, as well.

Choice

There are two parts to choice: (1) different software that does the same thing, and (2) the ability to modify software to do what you want.

Don’t like the way Word handles bulleted lists? Try OpenOffice.org. Or AbiWord. Or KOffice. Or . . .

There are many brilliant programmers developing free software, and you might like one better than what you are using now. For text documents, there are a ton of options, and most of them will open and edit your .doc files just like Word.

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You can already remove attachments in Outlook—but only one at a time, which gets to be a big waste of time.

Outlook Attachment Remover (clever name, huh?) does just what it says, but in addition to removing attachments from one message at a time, you can scour an entire folder clean. This works well if you are on an Exchange server with a mailbox size limit, or you just want to put a bit of spring back in Outlook’s step.

Outlook Attachment Remover Frees Up Inbox Disk Space [Lifehacker]

Boyd Johnson has an ingenious way of tracking his time throughout the day. Just open Windows Notepad and, when starting a task, hit F5, which stamps the time into your text file. Make a note to help you flesh out the task on your billing sheet later, and off you go. Whenever you switch tasks, hit F5 in Notepad again.

I use three text editors in Linux: Gedit, Scribes, and Bluefish, but none of them have this handy feature, unfortunately. gtimelog does the same thing in a nice package, however.

Capturing More Time…And Keeping Your Clients Happy While Doing It [ABA Law Practice Today]

Imagine any of the following scenarios:

• You returned to your office this morning to find it had burned to the ground overnight. You cannot salvage anything but a few crispy bits of your pencil sharpener.
• Someone swiped your laptop on the train this morning while you were on your way to work. Nobody seems to have seen the person who did it.
• While working on a brief, you are just putting on the finishing touches when your computer’s hard drive stutters a few times, then dies completely.
• Last night, someone broke into your office and, realizing your clients’ personal information would sell for far more than your computer hardware, rifled through your files, making off with your client information sheets.

Now, ask yourself a few questions.

• Will you ever be able to recover your physical data? Unless it was protected in a fire-proof safe, few attorneys keep spare client files.
• How long will it take to recover your electronic data, and what will you have lost? In other words, how solid is your backup system, and do you have off-site backup?
• How much will it cost to purchase credit-monitoring for all of your past and present clients? If your laptop is stolen and your data is not encrypted, or a thief makes off with part of your paper files it seems only fair.
• How will you (a) prevent, or (b) mitigate the effects of each of these scenarios?

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