Affinity Law Office Technology Blog

Save electricity, reduce noise and heat

We don't usually think of desktop computers as power hogs, but they can be.  A PC with an older and less efficient power supply can add $10 to $25 to your monthly electric bill, more if it runs 24/7 like mine.  A few months ago I upgraded the power supply in my primary desktop PC to an Antec earthwatt model.  My monthly electric bill has dropped about $15 and the power supply is much quieter than my old one.  It also generates noticeably less heat. 

NewEgg has the Antec 500 watt earthwatts EA500 on sale for $54.99 with free shipping.  This power supply has enough capacity for a desktop system with multiple drives and a high-end graphics card. 

Portable Backup Drive

Toshiba makes a nice line of portable USB hard drives.  Circuit City has the 160GB model on sale for $79.99, a $50 savings.  The 250GB model is $99, an $80 savings.

   

Quick and Easy Way to ID Processor and Memory

Say you want to upgrade your RAM (who doesn't?).  But you don't want to open the box of your desktop PC or the case of your notebook to find out what type of RAM your computer uses.  Download CPU-Z.  This small freeware program will instantly give you necessary information on your processor and memory modules. 

Dirt Cheap Terabyte Storage

A Terabyte (TB)is one thousand Gigabytes (GB).  That is a lot of data storage space for documents, photos, audio, and video.  This week several retailers have 1 TB external USB hard drives on sale for ridiculously low prices. 

Office Depot has the Maxtor 1 TB OT$ Plus external drive on sale for $249.99.  It comes with backup software, one-touch backup functionality, and both USB 2.0 and FireWire connections.

Circuit City has the Western Digital 1 TB My Book World Edition network attached storage (NAS) drive on sale for $269.99.  This drive has a Gigabit Ethernet connection to plug directly into your network.  It is not dependent on a host PC.  Software allows you to connect to and access files on this drive via the Internet when you are away from your home or office.  Circuit also has the above-mentioned Maxtor USB/FireWire drive on sale for $259.99. 

Over at Best Buy, the Western Digital 1 TB My Book Essentials external USB drive is on sale for $229.99. 

Smart Power Strips Save Electricity

Sure, they look small.  But the wall wart power adapters we use for many of our electronic peripherals can use a surprising amount of electricity.  This is especially true for tech-oriented lawyers who may have a half-dozen or more wall warts constantly plugged-in at the office, home, or both. 

You could unplug these critters when not in use, but they often reside behind desks or cabinets, or in other hard-to-reach spots.  Some energy-savers connect all of their wall warts to a power strip with an on-off switch.  But then you need to remember to turn the switch off when you don't need to power or charge the gadgets connected to the wall warts. 

Now there are power strips and surge protectors that will automatically power-down wall warts when your computer is turned off.  These devices sense the power load drawn from the "main" outlet.  When that load is off or minimal, such as when your computer is turned-off, it will also cut power the the secondary outlets into which your wall warts or other peripherals are plugged. 

Smart surge protectors don't cost much more than the conventional type.  An affordable version is available for $15 at the tech geek wonderland known as Cyberguys.   

Desktop or home office laser printer is high on style, low in stature

In a law office, you don't want to skimp on performance to save space when it comes to your primary laser printer.  But if you want a secondary printer for your desktop or for your home office, size is a valid consideration. 

Samsung has a new laser printer that is less than 5 inches tall.  The ML-1630 features a slick piano black finish, decent 16 ppm speed, good output, and nearly silent operation.  The downside is that this printer doesn't print envelopes.  List price is $199.95.

Very small external USB drive at bargain price

The Aegis Mini 30 GB external USB hard drive from Apricorn has a $50 mail-in rebate during October.  That brings the regular $119.00 price down to a very attractive $69.00.  Ground shipping in the U.S. is free. 

There are higher-capacity hard drives available, but few as compact as this one.  30 GB is enough to back up all or most of the important data for many solo attorneys and small law firms.  The drive comes with backup, sync, and encryption software, including the excellent Second Copy 2000 program which can be used for automatically backing up your data and documents.

What determines hard drive life? Mostly luck!

You've been advised over and over to back up your data because the issue isn't if your hard drive will fail.  It is when your hard drive will fail.  A post by Robin Harris to his blog on ZDNet summarizes recent hard drive lifespan research by Google and Carnegie Mellon University.

The bottom line is that luck is the primary determining factor of when your hard drive will fail.  There some known risk factors, however.  A drive more than three years old has a much higher failure rate.  So if your important data is on a drive older than three years, be extra careful to make sure your data is backed up.  You may also want to replace an old drive.  Most drives more than three years old are much smaller and slower that what you can buy today for far less than you paid for the old drive.

Also, handling can cause hard drive failure.  Banging your computer around, especially when the computer is running (and the drive spinning) is a bad idea.  Also, dropping a drive just a couple of inches onto a table can cause or accelerate failure.         

Eee invasion begins soon

It's coming!  Indeed, it is probably already sailing over the waters of the Pacific Ocean on its way here to be unleashed next month.

It is the Asus Eee notebook PC.  The big news is that it cost only $199 in its initial configuration.  At that price, it won't include Windows XP, but based on the hardware inside, it is capable of running XP if you have a licensed copy laying around.  But to keep costs down to PDA level, Asus preinstalls the Linux operating system. 

The OS has two modes, Easy and Full Desktop.  Easy gives you basics and is ideal for computer novices and children.  It is more like a PDA interface, but with a larger (7 inch) screen.  Full Desktop mode provides a Windows-like experience which is more full-featured and, of course, more complex for novices but simple for veteran computer users.

The hardware mix is interesting in the way it permits a very low selling price.  There is no hard drive, just a durable and fast solid state flash memory drive for storage and (initially 4GB, but larger capacities will be offered later - and there is onboard expansion with a SD card slot).  There is also 512MB of operating RAM.  The processor is a low voltage 900MHZ Pentium M, hence its ability to run XP if you decide to install it.  There is no optical drive, but there are 3 USB ports for connecting external devices such as a CD or DVD drive. 

Other hardware goodies include a VGA-out port that allows you to connect an external monitor or projector (could this be a portable PowerPoint machine?), Ethernet port, modem, and built-in 802.11b/g WiFi.  There is also a built-in web cam and microphone with Skype preinstalled for VoIP calling and video conferencing. 

This may be the right PC for you kids and your parents, and maybe you - if you need a light traveling companion primarily for email, web browsing, and word processing.  Indeed, it could be the ideal remote terminal from which you access your office PC using services such as GoToMyPC or LogMeIn (although I don't know if either service has been tested on the Eee). 

The Eee may hit the U.S. market as early as August.  Expect to add the Eee to your Christmas list for your kids and your parents this year.  You may even want one for yourself, especially if you don't need a full Windows-based notebook PC, but would like a higher level of mobile functionality than you can get from a smart phone.    

Remote Monitoring - Preventative Measures!

When was the last time that you actually checked the event logs on your server? As the most critical component of your network, you need to ensure that your server is functioning flawlessly 100% of the time. If only your server logs were as easy to check as the gauges on your car! Think of a "Low Disk Space Warning" on your server as something akin to a "Check Engine Light" on your car.

Too often, firms just lurch from one hardware disaster to the next, ignoring all of the warnings that are out there...if only you knew where to look.

InTouch Legal are installing a proactive monitoring system that allow us to see issues on your server, and take preventative measures BEFORE your server crashes! The good news is that this technology is readily available, and in it's simplest form it will email pertinent error messages and logs to you as they happen.

Bottom line....make sure whoever is responsible for your hardware and network is proactively monitoring.