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Mozilla to add built-in PDF viewer to Firefox – Computerworld

June 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Mozilla is working on a project that will add PDF rendering to Firefox using HTML5 and JavaScript, eliminating the need for users to run Adobe’s own plug-in.

The PDF reader may be included in Firefox within three months, said Andreas Gal, a Mozilla researcher who on Wednesday unveiled work the company had done quietly for the last month.

If Mozilla follows through on its plans, it would make Firefox the second major browser — after Google’s Chrome — to offer in-browser PDF rendering.

But while Chrome relies on an API (application programming interface) to craft its own native-code plug-in, Mozilla will exclusively use HTML5 and JavaScript to display Adobe’s popular document format.

via Mozilla to add built-in PDF viewer to Firefox – Computerworld.

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Your Outside Counsel May Be Giving You Bad E-Discovery Advice

June 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Law firms’ interests are not always aligned with their clients’. An important objective for many firms is a) increasing or maintaining the number of billable hours per year, and b) enabling the firm to be selected for lucrative litigation work. Companies, on the other hand, are looking to a) reduce costs by managing more of the e-discovery process themselves by implementing internal tools and processes, b) reduce risks and develop more consistent and defensible e-discovery, and  c) enable competition among firms vying for litigation work. I have seen a number of business conflicts arise:

One law firm developed a legal hold process for their client. Instead of having the client initiate legal holds, the process was architected such that outside counsel needed to be involved in choosing custodians for every hold at every level (assuring a near continuous stream of business for the firm). Likewise, the company’s written legal hold policy, also developed by the firm, declared that the firm should be engaged to defend all choices made in the selection of custodians.

One law firm created a detailed electronically stored information (ESI) data map for its client. To find certain data types, the map contained the following: “To find these types of data, please engage ABC Law Firm,” where ABC was the firm that created the map.

One law firm insisted that it house all documents related to a specific matter. When additional litigation arose in a similar dispute, the firm strongly argued it would be difficult for them to share or hand off these documents to another firm, and therefore they should by default handle all litigation.

Some firms subtly discouraged their clients from becoming litigation ready. One partner from a large international law firm relayed how she received grief from her partners when she encourage her client to become self-sufficient in its e-discovery processes. Law firms make a lot of money when their clients are not litigation ready, and the partners were worried about losing the revenue.

For the most part, law firms’ foray in e-discovery has not been successful. This year, many firms that launched these practices five years ago are either downsizing or eliminating them. The firms found that e-discovery is operationally a different business than practicing law.

The best firms, in my view, understand that their core competence in providing highly-skilled services, and encourage their clients to develop defensible in-house hold and discovery processes. Some outside counsel litigators I have spoken to welcome this change, allowing them and their firms to focus on high-value areas such as litigation strategy, settlement conferences and actually litigating cases.

Unfortunately, many law firms still see litigation readiness and e-discovery as excellent billing opportunities. Companies need to be careful in understanding this conflict.

via Your Outside Counsel May Be Giving You Bad E-Discovery Advice.

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Data Grows, and So Do Online Storage Sites – NYTimes.com

June 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When people had only one or two computers, file sharing wasn’t a big worry.

Now, gaining access to personal files is a chore for people who own an arsenal of computers, smartphones and tablets.

The annoyance of e-mailing documents to themselves or saving their work to a thumb drive has given new life to an old idea — online storage. People simply save their Word documents, spreadsheets and photos in “the cloud,” a Web-based file cabinet accessible from any device that has an Internet connection.

A number of companies focused on online storage are quickly gaining users and attention. New investment is driving a boomlet in the niche business, adding to an already lengthy list of competitors: Dropbox, YouSendIt.com, Cx.com, Box.net, 4Shared and SpiderOak. Apple may do something similar with its iCloud service, to be introduced on Monday.

Google began acclimating people to the notion of storing documents in the cloud with its Google Docs feature in 2005.

And online backup or storage services like MobileMe from Apple, Windows Live SkyDrive from Microsoft, Mozy from EMC and SugarSync are now familiar. What’s changed is that more people have discovered a need for them.

Aaron Levie, chief executive of Box.net, an early online storage company based in Palo Alto, Calif., said that the increased adoption of mobile devices and ubiquity of online connections had created a bigger need for companies like his.

Nearly 60 percent of adults with online access own at least two Internet connected devices, according to Forrester Research. Just under 3 percent, or 4.5 million people, have at least nine different gadgets. If that seems to be a lot, think about this: a person may have a home computer and a work computer, and other members of the family may each have computers. Then count smartphones and tablets, and it’s not hard to get to a large number of machines.

via Data Grows, and So Do Online Storage Sites – NYTimes.com.

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Personal mobile devices create security headaches for biz – USATODAY.com

May 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Companies are grappling with unforeseen security, privacy and legal conundrums introduced by a host of cool mobile devices flooding into the workplace.

Executives eager to sport the hottest tech gear and workers accustomed to mixing social and work activities on the go are multitasking on personally owned mobile devices in record numbers.

Workers are bringing mobile devices to work at such a scale that company security technicians can’t keep up. “It’s an impossible task,” says Patrick Sweeney, product management vice president at network security firm SonicWall. “Control of these devices has become very complex because of the varying software and device types.”

Results of a recent survey of 1,400 technology professionals in 14 nations show 21% of companies have no restrictions on use of personal mobile devices, while 58% have lightweight policies, and only 20% have stringent guidelines. The poll was conducted by security firm McAfee, a division of Intel.

via Personal mobile devices create security headaches for biz – USATODAY.com.

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7 iPad Habits of Highly Effective Remote Workers Online Collaboration

May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The use of the iPad by mobile workers is on the rise, and that brings with it both boons and challenges for worker productivity. Here’s how you and your remote staff can stay on top of iPad usage, lest iPad usage controls you and your organization instead.

1. These Are the Apps You Need; These Are the Apps You Don’t

Keep your productivity and entertainment app worlds separate on your iPad. I know it’s too much to ask that workers who are mostly using their own personal devices in the work place to use them strictly for work purposes, but everyone will be happier and better able to focus on getting work done if you keep your fun and games-related apps in a separate folder or folders. Keeping the productivity and work-related apps out in the open on the app’s home screen will give them priority seating when it comes to your attention span, and the distractions will be left just a little bit beyond finger’s reach, where they’ll be less of a temptation.

2. Carry a Keyboard

The iPad is a great consumption device, but as we’ve seen, people aren’t crazy about using it for data input. Having a Bluetooth keyboard handy makes working on the iPad exponentially better. You have a few choices when it comes to which keyboard to carry. I’m personally a fan of the ZAGGmate keyboard/hard case combo, which comes in both original iPad and iPad 2 flavors, but the official Apple Wireless Keyboard is an attractive option, too.

3. Have a Wireless Strategy

If you want to use the iPad to make mobile working easier, you’ll hit a wall pretty fast if you don’t have access to a reliable data connection. For users with a 3G-capable iPad, this means checking to make sure you have an active plan ready to go with the carrier of your choosing, and ensuring that your carrier offers service in the place you intend to use your iPad. If it doesn’t, shop around for a temporary carrier/SIM card for your working destination.

Verizon iPad owners will want to make sure that they have something other than a simple SIM switch in place for most international destinations, which largely use GSM technology to power their networks. Finding a provider that offers a pay-as-you go mobile hotspot solution might be a good workaround. Companies can help by issuing globally-compatible mobile hotspot hardware to remote employees who travel internationally.

4. Have a Battery Backup

Battery backup offerings for the iPad are many and varied, but carrying a reliable one that has enough juice to give your iPad a decent bump is a good idea. You never know when you might lose your power cord, or forget to secure an adapter before a quick stopover in an international destination. Check out Dave Greenbaum’s roundup of iPhone and iPad battery backups for a good look at some of the better options out there.

5. Enable Find My iPad

Losing an iPad really sucks. But what’s worse is losing your iPad having not enabled Apple’s free Find My iPad service. Through MobileMe, Apple can help you locate a lost iPad if it’s enabled, or at the very least, you can use the service to remotely wipe your device, thereby protecting sensitive personal and work-related data. Enterprise is already nervous about the potential security hazards associated with consumer devices in the workplace; help make them less so.

6. Lock It Up

It may seem obvious, but even more important than enabling Find My iPad is setting up your device to require a passcode upon waking. You can do this in the iPad’s Settings app, under General > Passcode Lock. By default, the iPad will use a simple passcode consisting of a 4 digit number, but you can turn this off, which will let you set a longer password that can combine both letters and numbers. If you’re storing sensitive information on your device, you’re better off using a complex passcode lock.

via 7 iPad Habits of Highly Effective Remote Workers Online Collaboration.

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Cracking Bin Laden’s Hard Drives — InformationWeek

May 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

An unnamed U.S. official told Politico that the Navy Seals had recovered “the mother lode of intelligence,” and that hundreds of people were already at work analyzing it at a secret base in Afghanistan.

“They’re very likely to get a lot of really good, actionable intel off of these devices,” since Osama bin Laden apparently had no direct connection to the Internet, said Greg Hoglund, CEO of security software and consulting firm HBGary, Inc., in a telephone interview. “So all of his work was done with outside couriers … and information that’s coming and going is probably on thumb drives and DVDs, media like that,” meaning that they likely stored important operational information.

According to Hoglund, the effort to recover Osama bin Laden’s data likely started with–and was part of–the raid, in a process that’s known as battlefield exploitation, which seeks to extract as much data as possible while in the field. That’s because it’s much easier to extract information from a computer that’s still running. Even if a hard drive employs encryption, if the drive is still mounted, then it’s vulnerable. Furthermore, if the team can take physical memory RAM snapshots of a live device, this can help crack any encryption.

Here’s how the process works, said Rob Lee, a director at information security company Mandiant and a fellow at The SANS Institute, in a telephone interview: A military team will secure a location but not touch the computers. Next, computer experts–typically, contractors–traveling with the team come in and do a “clean takedown” of any machines. Little if any “deep dive” data analysis will be performed in the field, except perhaps some quick analysis in search of “low-hanging fruit,” for example to note on a captured cell phone any phone numbers that the target recently called, or any recently sent emails. But the true payoff comes when intelligence analysts compare the captured data with “the hundreds of terabytes of data that they’ve already gathered over many years,” for example to see how names, email addresses, and phone numbers match up.

via Cracking Bin Laden’s Hard Drives — InformationWeek.

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Rising Tide of Litigation Lifts Firms – Law Blog – WSJ

May 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

High-cost suits are back in vogue, a potentially promising sign for many big law firms.

Litigation work —the bread and butter of many big U.S. firms — rose 4.1% in the first quarter compared to a year ago, according to data that’s expected to be released Monday by consultancy Hildebrandt Baker Robbins. Patent litigation work specifically rose by more than 5%, its data shows.

The strength, if it lasts, may help bolster the financial health of the $100 billion global corporate-law industry, which still has not returned to the dizzying heights of 2007.

Litigation work is the industry’s single most important source of revenue, comprising 32% of all billable hours among U.S. law firms during the first quarter.  Patent litigation work comprised another 5%.

via Rising Tide of Litigation Lifts Firms – Law Blog – WSJ.

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Alfresco’s Success Story Grew in 2010

April 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Since arriving on the software scene in 2005, Alfresco has set the standard for commercial open source companies. Those years of hard work have lead to the company’s biggest year yet.

Let’s go by the numbers to put Alfresco’s (news, site) 2010 in context:

470 — The number of new enterprise customers Alfresco added in 2010.

1700+ — The number of customers Alfresco has sold to since 2005.

70 — The percentage of Alfresco’s clients that have 10,000+ employees.

35 — The percentage of overall annual growth for Alfresco in 2010.

500,000+ — The number of times that Alfresco Community Edition was downloaded in 2010.

via Alfresco’s Success Story Grew in 2010.

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How the iPad Is Emerging as a Business Tool | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

April 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Is the iPad a bad tool for business? Dell and HP seem to think so. This week, both companies bashed Apple’s enterprise strategy, casting it as arrogant, immature, and doomed to fail.

On Thursday, a rebuttal of sorts appeared, when SmithBucklin became the first known company to place an enterprise order for iPad 2s. SmithBucklin is a global company that manages trade shows, from basic logistics to event promotion.

One of the main reasons why SmithBucklin chose the iPad 2 over, say, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, or any number of upcoming tablets, was to encourage employees to engage more in social media.

“We wanted to make sure our employees were actually walking the walk and not just talking the talk,” Mike Nikolich, SmithBucklin’s chief marketing officer, told PCMag. “We advise our clients all the time on managing blogs, commenting, updating Facebook pages, etc.

“Ultimately we see the iPad 2 as a productivity tool. It’s a lot easier to bring the tablet on the train or out of town for work, and lots of people here already use them during meetings.”

Most of the company’s 600 employees will receive iPad 2s, Nikolich said. And even though “around half” the office had personal first-generation iPads, and were given the option not to use one, 95 percent of eligible staff members chose to go with the iPad 2.

“It’s so new, there’s still the ‘wow’ factor,” he said. Interaction with Apple was minimal as there was little integration work needed. “Honestly, direct contact with Apple did not have an impact in our decision.”

The iPad has come a long way from being called a toy to being respected as a computing tool. A lot of this is due to the slew of new productivity apps—from medical to calendars—that started coming out last fall.

via How the iPad Is Emerging as a Business Tool | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

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How the iPad Is Emerging as a Business Tool | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

April 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Is the iPad a bad tool for business? Dell and HP seem to think so. This week, both companies bashed Apple’s enterprise strategy, casting it as arrogant, immature, and doomed to fail.

On Thursday, a rebuttal of sorts appeared, when SmithBucklin became the first known company to place an enterprise order for iPad 2s. SmithBucklin is a global company that manages trade shows, from basic logistics to event promotion.

One of the main reasons why SmithBucklin chose the iPad 2 over, say, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, or any number of upcoming tablets, was to encourage employees to engage more in social media.

“We wanted to make sure our employees were actually walking the walk and not just talking the talk,” Mike Nikolich, SmithBucklin’s chief marketing officer, told PCMag. “We advise our clients all the time on managing blogs, commenting, updating Facebook pages, etc.

“Ultimately we see the iPad 2 as a productivity tool. It’s a lot easier to bring the tablet on the train or out of town for work, and lots of people here already use them during meetings.”

Most of the company’s 600 employees will receive iPad 2s, Nikolich said. And even though “around half” the office had personal first-generation iPads, and were given the option not to use one, 95 percent of eligible staff members chose to go with the iPad 2.

“It’s so new, there’s still the ‘wow’ factor,” he said. Interaction with Apple was minimal as there was little integration work needed. “Honestly, direct contact with Apple did not have an impact in our decision.”

The iPad has come a long way from being called a toy to being respected as a computing tool. A lot of this is due to the slew of new productivity apps—from medical to calendars—that started coming out last fall.

via How the iPad Is Emerging as a Business Tool | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

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