To Talk of Many Things

Off to visit family in Ohio for the weekend . . .

U.S. Government Manual 2003-2004. GPO provides access to The U.S. Government Manual 2003-2004 via either a key word search or through a browse feature (choose between viewing content in text of pdf), to access data organized into the following topics: Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch, Executive Branch, Executive Agencies, Independent Establishments and Gov't Corporations, Quasi-Official Agencies, Appendices and Changes.  [beSpacific]

Annual Best Law Office Website Contest. Law Office Computing magazine announced the winners of the competition for the best websites, large and small firms. Thanks to Amy Campbell, I Want My BlogTV, for posting the information, which is as follows:

John Dowell, weblogger for Macromedia, points us to Lynda Weinman's videos. Very cool idea!  [The Scobleizer Weblog]

Salary Survey results. The HFI Salary Survey, which I mentioned here a while ago, has released its results. The quick info for US respondents:

Commercial: $82,600 (179 respondents)

Government & Nonprofit: $59,700 (23 respondents)

With the US respondents working in the commercial sector of the economy, three factors appear to influence compensation:

1. experience in the field
2. advanced degrees
3. primary activity

View the full results. Also, I started Salary Surveys page at iawiki to keep track of all of these. If you know of one that's missing, add it! [ia/ - information architecture news]

CIO Australia: One law firm gets it right.

CIO Australia published today a profile of InterAction customer Brown McCarroll, a Texas law firm that recently implemented InterAction. There are a number of excellent ideas for being creative in rolling out your CRM system. Next time someone tries to tell you professionals won’t adopt CRM, point them to to this article:

Although lawyers have often been slow to adopt new technology, Brown McCarroll says they have embraced InterAction, which is allowing more targeted and frequent marketing and beginning to realise strategic business benefits. “We currently have 100 per cent of our attorneys, 100 per cent of our secretaries, 100 per cent of our paralegals and select staff on InterAction,” says marketing director Bonnie Martin. “We continually get requests for additional support staff to be given the application to assist in contact management. Since our rollout last September, we have had over 7000 new contacts entered, a 14 per cent increase.”

And the lessons learned about getting employees to use systems along the way? “Plan well, get strong support from management and, most importantly, have fun!” Martin says. “I think our biggest help in succeeding was that we truly believed in what InterAction could do for our firm - and when a team has that much enthusiasm, we knew that we could spread that enthusiasm to others.”

Be sure to read the article for some of their less than conventional tactics for sparking interest in the roll-out.  [tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog]

Poverty Rate Rises for second consecutive Year in U.S.. Fresh on the heals of Bush’s dismal showing in the latest polls, comes word that the number of Americans living at or under the Poverty Line has risen “markedly” for the second straight year, due to plummeting pay rates, and a dismal job outlook. According to the Census Bureau the country’s median income fell $500 in 2002.

CNN reports:

The Census Bureau Reported that 34.6 million people, or 12.1 percent of the population, were living in poverty, up from 32.9 million people or 11.7 percent in 2001, when the economy went into recession after a decade of growth. The median household income, when adjusted for inflation, fell 1.1 percent to $42,409, according to the bureau, which released two comprehensive annual reports looking at poverty and income in America.

Yes, those tax breaks for the rich are really helping the economy, see how many jobs they are creating: trickle, trickle, trickle  [Third Party WatchBlog]

Secure Remote Access for Outlook Article. Thomas Shinder has recently published the following article over at www.msexchange.org:

Providing Secure Remote Access for the Full Outlook MAPI Client using the Exchange RPC Filter

Summary: You can allow remote Outlook 2000/2002/2003 clients to connect to your Exchange Server and take advantage of the full functionality provided by the Outlook MAPI client. Unlike Outlook Web Access, full Outlook MAPI client functionality allows remote users to take advantage of the entire set of mail and groupware features provided by Exchange Server. But you must do this securely. Check out this article to find out how.  [MS Exchange Blog]

Critics Attack Microsoft Over Security. A group of computer security experts asserted on Wednesday that Windows is a threat to national security because of its complex design and monopoly reach. By Steve Lohr. [New York Times: Technology]

DIY wireless home media server. Extreme Tech has an excellent guide to building your very own wireless home media server, including tips on how to optimize streaming so that you don't have to deal with watching herky-jerky video clips, and which digital video recording software to try (they recommend SnapStream Personal Video Station 3.0). … [Gizmodo]