As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. — Carl Jung
While Jung may have the collective unconscious to have a great signal-to-noise ratio, the part of the collective conscious that Twitter seems to have accessed has a poor signal-to-noise ratio. So, I may not be following you because:
Your stream of tweets is simply a catalog of your every waking moment. A constant bombardment of information eventually becomes noise. I don’t have time for that.
Your tweets are simply monotonous diatribes on a single topic. I left that behind when I left usenet. While others may find that endless catalog of links interesting, I’d rather google for the information when I need it.
Finally, blatant self-promotion doesn’t trip my trigger.
I’m looking for the art, poetry and interspection that occassionally winds its way through general morass. I want to read something that is funny, interesting, relevant, cute, or thought provoking. I use Twitter to be entertained and to meet people. So be a light in the darkness and I will follow.
I’ve been running CrossOver on my CentOS Linux desktop for the last week or so and have been quite impressed with the software. For those that may not of heard, CrossOver allows you to install and run Windows applications under Linux without the need for a Microsoft Operating System license. Once installed, its just a matter of click and run.
With the exception of Access, I had no problems installing and running the Office 2003 Pro suite, OneNote, Flash, Quicken, and Acrobat. While the CrossOver install process does add an additional layer of complexity when compared to a native install under Windows, for CrossOver supported applications the process is simply a matter of running an install wizard application and specifying which CDROM contains the application install disk. For unsupported applications, installation gets a bit more complicated and my attempts to install demo versions of Tabs3/PracticeMaster and Amicus Attorney have failed. I should note that, at present, I’ve only tried twice to install these applications and have yet to crack open the relevant documentation so my failures are more indicative of my lack of time than the software’s overall performance.
At the onset of my journey to a solo practice, I conducted a fairly informal market survey of my potential client base to see if a virtual office practice would work as well in a rural community as it does in the more densely populated urban areas. While my survey indicated that my potential client base was willing to accept some deviations from their concept of “lawyer” (such as flat fees v. hourly rates), they value the more traditional trappings of an attorney. Here, there is value in engraved letterhead and wax-sealed wills, in the formality of a wood paneled office and a heavy oak desk and there is comfort and confidence in that three piece suit and a good firm handshake.
I found that this is a community that still does business face-to-face and is one where impressions matter, especially when issues such as trust and confidence are involved. The virtual office concept falls flat because the web can never give the feeling of permanence that bricks and mortar provide. It does not matter that a virtual office means lower overhead, that brick and mortar office is permanent — you can trust permanence; you can have confidence in permanence. There is value in tradition.
