Ok, so the clip may be funny but this will NOT happen with GoToMeetings - this week's recommended onlne feature.
Problem: Nine people in three offices in two states need to conference. Documents will need to be displayed and there is a PowerPoint presentation that may include an Excel spreadsheet.
Solutions: Old:
1. FedEx copies of all documents and other presentation materials to all parties.
2. Arrange meeting date and time.
3. Determine speakers and attendees.
4. Have Michael in NY Office #1 contact Jenn in NY Office #2 and have her conference in Bill in Boston. Corral the other 6 attendees into Michael, Jenn and Bill's offices accordingly.
Older: 1. Fly to meeting destination and repeat above Steps 1 - 4 until the remaining attendees are all available.
Best: 1. Arrange meeting date and time.
2. Use GoToMeeting.
3. Meet, discuss, display, conclude.
4. Go to lunch.
Top Five Reasons To Use GoToMeetings.com 1. Real time voice, IM and display capability.
2. Can display in multiple formats including Word, Wordperfect, Powerpoint and Excel.
3. Can hand over keyboard and mouse control to other attendees (without compromising security. Other users can only view the displayed document... not rumage through your PC).
4. One license can accomodate 25 conferenced-in people and if you want to host a seminar, up to 1,000 attendees. (Attendee sign in and departure can be monitored.)
5. Displayed documents are not stored on attendees pcs. You can determine which, if any, documents you choose for others to have as permanent copies.
A popular term heard lately in reference to cell phone tracking is pinging. Cell Phone Tracking or Pinging as it is commonly referred to is the technology which is used to track the current position of a cell phone. It is helpful technology when trying to locate criminals or missing persons.
Your cell's position is determined by the cell phone tower which is nearest to your phone's signals location. Some phones with built in GPS receivers have a higher accuracy rate. Many newer phones do not even need to be powered on in order to receive the signal. Also, newer phones have a second battery source so if the primary battery is damaged or removed, the cell can still be tracked.
Now I am sure you are thinking, between the GPS equipment, the feed cost, monthly plan.... you may just want to stay under the radar. But, you can't remain hidden regardless as the above CNN clip clearly shows and, think of the fun you will be denying yourself by knowing where your teenager really went Friday night or keeping an eye on the employee who thinks she has unlimited use/mileage of the company vehicle. Well, we dug a bit deeper and found a free tracking solution for you from our friends at www.mologogo.com.
If you need to locate a subject or client for real, however, visit our sister site: www.beaconinfopro.com.
(Excuse the above shout out to Berlitz but we thought the 40-second clip was worth it!). Below are our real - and free - recommendations:
Free translation site: www.freetranslation.com. No downloading; no waiting. Conversely: written text only. (A premium "human translation" service is offered as well - but for a quick memo or if you're in a rush to get a handle on an uncomplicated foreign-language doc - this site is worth the fingertaps.
Free telephone, address and reverse searches: www.argali.com. You'll need to download the program but that's a good thing. It means it updates every time you sign on to it. And no complicated sign-ins or passwords... You simply d/l the program, a yellow ram (mountain goat?) icon lands on your desktop and you just click that when you are in search mode.
Free homeowners search: www.propertysharks.com These guys have a fairly extensive and updated archive. Lots of info aside from homeowner identification (date of sale, amount, pictures, land use...)
Free sound-editing: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Removes background noise from an audio recording quickly and easily - it's that simple. And it's cross-platform - Mac/Windows supported.
Free BNI tip:
Old Style: To obtain a forwarding address for a reluctant subject, simply write "Return Address Requested" on the lower left front of your envelope to the last known address for this person. The USPO will not forward your correspondence but rather return you new address information if available.
New: To determine the identity of a domain owner, go to www.WhoIs.com. Scroll down to WhoIs LookUp and enter the domain name. If it is not privately registered, the owner's name, address and ownership/availability dates will pop.
Also, you might recall from last week's Bulletin - www.scanr.com. scanr turns your camera phone into a scanner, copier or fax.
MacGyver-ing Your Camera Phone Into A Scanner, Copier and Fax
In June 2006, the verb "Google" was officially entered into the OED. Prior to that, and without the academic and historical fanfare, many of us learned what it meant to "MacGyver" a situation. Facing a near-impossible situation, with only the materials at hand (read: absolutely no tech gear or 24-like outside CSU-support) the eponymous TV character would jerry-rig everything from stray twigs to shards of shiny glass to pre-owned dental floss to work his way out of the situation, save the day and issue a pithy lesson-learned wrap-up, all in 60 minutes (minus commercials, in-law phone calls and finishing ).
Fast forward to tomorrow, a week from now, next year... You find yourself in a situation where you need to make a copy of a document and have only your cell phone, or just a digital camera. How would you MacGyver this situation?
scanR is a system of applications and services that enable you to copy and fax documents using just a camera phone or a digital camera. With scanR, you'll be capturing and sending the information you need. The above left picture is the original scanned photo; the right jpeg is the scanR processed document. That about says it all.
scanR is a Web-based service. You create a user account. When you want to scan a document, you simply take a picture of the document. You can take pictures of documents, white boards, and even business cards. You can easily scan and store business cards or save what you've written on whiteboards before they get erased.
You then send your image to scanR from a camera phone using the MMS protocol or send JPEG photo images. You'll then receive in your email digital copies of your image in PDF format for you to use and print. You can send up to 15 pictures in one batch.scanR supports sending faxes to most phone numbers in North America, Western Europe, and East Asia. scanR is currently a free service. Learn more about scanR.
He with the best information wins. So why are you handing over free data to your adversary? You may unknowingly be doing just that - in the form of METADATA - every time you email a document to a client or opposing counsel.
WHAT IS METADATA?
Metadata is best described as embedded information in a computer file. For example, metadata includes, but is not limited to, the name of the person who created the document, text from earlier drafts since removed, the creation date, the date last printed, and much more.Metadata is a fact of life and often helpful. But when you share documents, it's best to remove or at least minimize it because your adversaries and even your clients may also find it "helpful" to your detriment.
OKAY, SO HOW DO I MINIMIZE METADATA IN MY WORD DOCUMENTS?
Take author information for example. Microsoft Word stores it in no fewer than four locations — User Information Properties, Document Properties, Manager Document Properties, and Last Saved By Author Properties.You can change the first two of these properties to a meaningless generic name, which will also take care of Last Saved By Author. Unless you use document automation software or macros, you can safely ignore Manager Document Properties. Otherwise, you should check there as well.That's one tip. We have nine more to share. To remove metadata (hidden information) from legal documents, follow the instructions posted here:
Every so often, when we experience really good results, BNI will make a product or service recommendation. For metadata management, you can, of course, clean up your own documents to be emailed. For the busy professional law office, we've found one product that excels in database management iScrub - (http://www.esqinc.com/) Due to its central administration, you and your firm's team need not change the way you work with documents — iScrub automatically scrubs every document the same way when emailed.
