U3 Technology: Jump Into the Future
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U3 Technology: Jump Into the Future & Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional - A MAJOR Upgrade for Lawyers by David J. Ferrell David J. Ferrell, PLLC 10514 Montwood Dr. El Paso, Texas 79935 (915)594-8000 [email protected] State Bar of Texas NAILING IT: The Tools You Need for Today’s Practice May 15-16, 2008 Dallas, Texas David J. Ferrell, PLLC Attorney & Counselor at Law 10514 Montwood Drive El Paso, Texas 79935-2703 (915) 594-8000 Fax (915) 594-8570 Website http://www.elpasolaw.com E-Mail [email protected] Legal Assistant - Rosalinda Rosprim Biographical Information David J. Ferrell Education: United States Navy - 1966 - 1970 BS in Criminal Justice 1974, University of Texas at El Paso J.D. Texas Tech School of Law, 1977 Professional Activities: Assistant Attorney General of Texas Consumer Protection/Anti-Trust Division 1978-1981 Private Practice in El Paso Texas 1981-2007 Adjunct Professor - Webster University 1980-1993 Associate Municipal Judge-City of El Paso 1983-1990 Member of the Consumer Law Council-State Bar of Texas 1985-1994 Treasurer of the Consumer Law Section-State Bar of Texas 1988-1990 Chairman of the Consumer Law Section-State Bar of Texas 1991-1992 President of El Paso County Probate Bar Association 1999-2000 Chairman of the Board El Paso County Probate Bar Association 2000-2001 Chairman of the El Paso Bar Association Computer/Website Committee 1998-2001 Board of Directors El Paso Bar Association 2002-2005 Publishes and maintains website elpasolaw.com on the Internet Created El Paso County’s Probate Court website theprobatecourt.com Created the El Paso Bar Association’s website elpasobar.com Technology and the Law Consultant U3: Jump Into the Future Imagine carrying your encrypted data (word documents, powerpoint presentations, excel spreadsheets) and the application software (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) in your purse, in your pocket or on your key chain. All you need is a computer with a USB port (USB 2.0 is faster) and a “Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive” and your material is available. Computers that you can use (borrow) are ubiquitous and you don’t have to lug around your laptop when you leave the office to continue your project at home or at another location. You can go to the law library at the courthouse during those gaps in your hearing schedule and finish that motion, print it for ten cents a page on the law library laser printer and file it before going back to the office. The possibilities are endless. I purchased a 2 gig Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive at Radio Shack for $34 and then after trying the free trial version, I purchased “Think Free Office” for $49. It is easily setup on the Cruzer drive. This software set includes (1) Think Free Office Write = word processor, (2) Think Free Office Calc = spreadsheet program and (3) Think Free Office Show = presentation program. These three programs are very similar to Microsoft’s Office 3 flag ship programs, WORD, EXCEL and POWERPOINT. The documents you create in Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint on your office computer migrate almost completely to Think Free Office for Cruzer drive manipulation (that means you can finish the project on the road). The major difference between Microsoft and Think Free is that Think Free runs on a small flash drive that you carry with you and your applications and data coexist on the same drive. Migration is not perfect but it is GOOD. The new paradigm is called U3 technology. The U3 smart drive was co-developed by SanDisk and M-Systems. The open-standard U3 platform allows users to take their applications, not just data, with them to any USB- equipped Windows PC and to launch them with as little as two clicks. Many of us have “tweaked” applications to run directly off a flash drive but now applications written for U3 smart drives don't require an engineer to set up, and are 100% legal to operate. When you plug in the Cruzer drive Windows automatically recognizes the drive and sets the “Add New Hardware” wizard to work, identifying not one but two drives taking up two drive letters on the host computer. Then a small, 4MB read-only system partition of the U3 drive pretends to be a CD-ROM drive, while the data partition shows up as a regular flash drive. Because Windows is led to believe that the system partition is a CD, U3 takes advantage of the AutoPlay feature in Windows to automatically run the U3 LaunchPad and unlocks the data partition of the drive. Nota bene, the U3 will run on any Windows 2000/XP/Vista system, regardless of whether or not the user has administrative rights. After the LaunchPad's animated splash screen disappears, you will be greeted by an Oddcast talking presentation of the U3 platform's features and a quick intro of how to use the LaunchPad and download additional applications. That’s a great idea using the Oddcast system for a quick intro of how to use the drive, as it provides a user-friendly way for new users and computer- challenged folks to quickly jump into using the drive. The LaunchPad is the heart of the U3 smart drive, and it looks a lot like the Windows XP start menu. Accessed from a U3 icon in the system tray, it provides quick access to applications and documents installed on the U3 smart drive, as well as a means to manage them. The left side of the LaunchPad lists the installed applications next to their icons, with a convenient Download Programs link underneath that links to the U3 software catalog. The right side of the LaunchPad contains links to open the data partition in an explorer window, manage installed applications and the drive itself, and get help. Most users will find themselves downloading U3 programs from http:/software.u3.com. While somewhat confusing in design, the software site organizes the various applications into 9 different overlapping categories that can then be sorted by name, price, or download availability. Quick links to download freeware or trialware allow users to quickly try software before making a purchase decision. A Top-5 Downloads and Coming Soon section also help to see what new applications everyone's raving about. Other applications on the startup Cruzer drive are Skype (free phone service between Skype members), various free games, password shield etc. Now, Costco has a 4 gig Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive for $39 and Office Depot recently sold the 1 gig version for $12.99. Get one and try it, that’s the only way to really see what U3 can do for you. Imagine having a U3 version of ProDoc on the Cruzer Micro USB Flash Drive that allows you to create, assemble and print almost all your documents on ANY Windows based computer. Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional - A MAJOR Upgrade for Lawyers In 1988 I filed a lawsuit involving annuity fraud where my client lost about 2 million dollars. There were many others that invested in this well planned scheme so many other plaintiffs followed and the State of Texas was one of the high profile plaintiffs and it sequestered 78 boxes of discovery using its administrative powers to accumulate documents prior to filing suit. My partner and I flew to Austin with another plaintiff lawyer and went through those boxes, one page at a time. It was then that I truly learned about the great value and enormous task of "Bates Stamping". Since then I have been involved in smaller "Bates Stamp" incursions and large sets of litigation documents that must be shared requiring organization and identification. The previously mentioned several hundred thousand "Bates Stamped" pages that were examined in Austin were ultimately read, coded and prepared at great expense for use in the many lawsuits that followed the first annuity fraud lawsuit that I filed in El Paso. Even criminal litigation ensued and ultimately ruined the ability to get the victims most of their money back. So, now there is a way to dump the "Bates Stamp". On November 30, 2006 Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional was released. I am sure all computer users are familiar with Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is free and allows us to view a document as it appeared on the computer that created it, be it a Windows or Apple etc. computer. The document can be viewed on the Internet with it original formatting, which is called a PDF file (Portable Document Format). One of the 9 lawyer based enhancements of Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional from its predecessor Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional is automatic "Bates Numbering". Many law firms are scanning their documents and discovery items already but with the enhanced Adobe software you easily "Bates Number" in less than a minute and all the scanned discovery is quickly ready for transmission to the other lawyers. Transmission means you e-mail the discovery with a cover letter and the thousand pages of discovery , which is "Bates Numbered" of course, attached as an exhibit. Think about the paper you save. Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional costs $459.00 unless you upgrade a previous version, then the cost is $159.00. Make sure you buy the PROFESSIONAL version since there is a STANDARD version that does not "Bates Number". You cannot upgrade the free Adobe Acrobat reader but you can buy a scanner with Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard and the upgrade to the Professional version for $159.00. One great scanner is the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 which scans 18 pages a minute one, does automatic duplex scanning (when the scanned document has typing, etc.