Author: Bruce Cameron

How Much Computer

/ Bruce Cameron

Recently, I was asked to recommend a computer to a colleague and as the conversation progressed, the main question did not center on the typical Mac v. PC or Dell v. HP v. Gateway v. etc questions, rather the question was: how much computer do I need anyway. Like any law school graduate, my Pavlovian response was – it depends.

I told my colleague that the first step is to specify your mission and then let the software guide you. The problem with this approach is, as my colleague pointed out, it requires one to know what software they are going to run and allows little room for future growth. So, were there any rules of thumb that would lead to a solid middle of the road computer – something better than your $300 home PC and something a step down from that killer game machine or desktop supercomputer?

By the end of lunch, we had our rule of thumb – Look at the minimum specifications for the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator then double the processor speed, quadruple the RAM, 20x the hard drive size, and 8x the video card memory card size.

Starting the Firm

/ Bruce Cameron

I’m finding that starting a firm is a process of choosing answers to a myriad of questions and hoping that each choice is going to be the right one — your typical entrepreneur worries. The one bright spot is that information is plentiful out there from general small business advice to technology review sites. Here’s some sites I’ve found useful so  far.

My go-to site for general small business advice is: SCORE.org. From on-line articles to confidential counseling, SCORE provides no-nonsense practical help from people who have been there and done that. With over 300 offices and over 10,000 volunteer counselors nationwide, there should be a SCORE office and volunteer mentor near you.

Every business needs a mission and every mission needs to be expressed. For those of us with writer’s block, there’s Mission Statements – your on-line source for mission statement inspiration. My current favorite is Sandoval Law Firm’s mission statement: “To provide fair, honest, and equal representation to those in need of legal aid.” Short and to the point.

Without adequate information, technology choices are difficult to make, and for legal software your standard review sites like CNet just aren’t much help. Not to fear, litiReviews by LexBe is here. Full text reviews are organized by software category and application name.

For those of us that see marketing as terra incognita, festooned with the warning Hic Sunt Dracones, Duct Tape Marketing is here to help. The articles section offers simple affordable solutions to problems ranging from advertising to web site design. My only quible is that a given topic heading not seem to always align with the subjects covered by the articles filed under that heading – I don’t see the connection between “Virtual Assistants” and “Online Gaming Can Be Expensive – Here’s how to Pay to Play“.

A little help

/ Bruce Cameron

OK, personal digital assistants (PDA’s) have become a de rigeur pocket accessory; providing order and nagging reminders through out the day. Wouldn’t it be cool if there were something similar for all your research? Well the dawn of the personal research assistant is upon us. The heavyweights are OneNote and Evernote. These are the electronic equivalents of your notepad/3-ring binder. With either, their utility is limited by your inventiveness. However, if all you need is a little help with research tasks, consider using the Firefox  add-in Zetero.

Zetero automatically captures citation information from web pages, allows you to capture and annotate images, web pages, links, etc right in your browser, and then store your searches before exporting your data to Word, OpenOffice or WordPress (great for  jotting down ideas for that next blog entry).

Give a Cow

/ Bruce Cameron

I know its early, but before you blow all your Christmas shopping money this holiday season, take a moment and consider sending some of that moola to Heifer International. Heifer’s mission is to bring an end to world hunger by helping people obtain a sustainable source of food and income. The concept in a nutshell is that Heifer makes a gift of livestock to one individual in a community. They teach that individual sustainable agriculture (how to breed for quality, how to care for the livestock, etc). In return, that individual agrees to share the offspring of the gift animals along with their knowledge, resources and skills with others in need.

If there is one thing I could give to the struggling people of the world it would be self-reliance.

Everyone deserves the dignity of providing for themselves and their families. That’s why I support Heifer International.”

— Walter Cronkite