jjmarcus tech solutions

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/partnerships/plugin/partners.htm

Thought this might help you or your clients!

Nice! I’ve never known where to take the dead soldiers. I can’t wait to drop off a big box of ancient cell phones at the AT&T store.

BTW, everyone should know that you can’t surf and talk simultaneously on Verizon (or on any CDMA network), which is a dealbreaker for me:

“Hey, did you read my email?”

“No. Let’s hang up so I can read it and call you back.” 

Feh. It’s interesting that it took the iPhone announcement to highlight that significant distinction between AT&T/T-Mobile vs. Verizon/Sprint. We are given to understand that this will not be a limitation of Verizon’s faster LTE network, but there’s no LTE iPhone yet, and the coverage map (yes, a Flash site) is still small.

Good ole phone companies. Note to selves: Let’s not have a business model based on hating one’s own customers.

Just listing these informally, as I haven't used most of them.

One law blogger put up this list of solutions, well worth looking into. I looked at the offerings, and Bill4Time is the one that offers a) logins for multiple users, and b) a way to integrate with QuickBooks, which would be crucial for your operation. At $30/month, it looks pretty tight. 

That blogger had a few articles on web-based practice management, and seems to have concluded that Rocket Matter and Clio are the two most suited for a smaller firm. I've had one client try out Clio, but it didn't work for them. (Worth mentioning that they offer a discount through ABA.

A law blog that gets frequently referenced in my world is The Mac Lawyer, who really loves him some Rocket Matter. The service is pricey — y'all would pay 60+(50*5)+(6*40)=$550/month, and since it's unclear to me that you would use all of its features, Rocket Matter may not be the direction you want to head. (Though I have to say that, if I were starting a law firm today, I'd sign up for Rocket Matter straight away.)

Whenever I want to search for "cloud-based" solutions, I start with Google Apps Marketplace, not because it's comprehensive, but because I can cover a lot of ground quickly, getting a sense of the current offerings with some very helpful user feedback.

In their Accounting section, I found a couple of services that look very promising: I like FreeAgent's pricing scheme of $20/month with no restrictions. And Invoicera received some good reviews. I have looked at the Zoho products before, and while they seem nice and clean, I always run into some major thing that they're missing. If my new switch to Xero for online accounting doesn't pan out, I might give FreeAgent a go.

I keep forgetting that CDMA doesn’t support simultaneous voice and data. That’d be a dealbreaker for me. Perhaps an LTE-supporting iPhone 5 would change that. Wonder if I can go a year without buying that year’s iPhone. Maybe if I stay on AT&T, and everyone else defects to Verizon, AT&T’s network will get better… and maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.

Your passwords need:

• At least 10 characters
• At least two letters
• At least one capital letter
• At least two numbers
• At least one non-alphanumeric character

Eventually, we will all be hacked unless we take these precautions.

From a client with a Mac mini with OS X Server, after today’s announcement:

Wow no more rack mounted Xserves. I wonder if they will still use them in-house.

Finally I make a correct Apple prediction. They gotta make something else. They obviously are still developing the server OS.  I do hate Mac Pro as server though. Clunky. But the Mac mini with Server is one of the best things the company has ever done. Wish it had eSATA. 

All mac users will use the new amazon-like service.

Yep. Forcing people into the cloud. Only Apple could do it. 

I feel like I bought the last Model T.

Hah! The Xserves are gonna look more like Tuckers. 

I’m gonna bet there’s a very different idea of “server” coming around. Something hopefully not as complicated as the current paradigm.

Those of our clients who have AT&T DSL probably got talked into purchasing AT&T’s “wireless” networking along with their internet package. This service [sic] comes with about the crappiest network hardware, made by 2wire, with which I’ve ever had the displeasure of working. They have poor wireless range, and lame networking options. Your best bet is to get a wireless router you can be proud of; we typically choose Apple Airport Extremes or Time Capsules, as they are much easier than any others to help a client configure or troubleshoot, even over the phone.

Anyway, to use the 2wire as just a modem, and put another router behind it to make your actual LAN, do the following:

Put main Airport base station in 2wire DMZ (“De-militarized zone”):

1. Make sure 2wire is in WAN port of the Airport Base Station.
2. Get 2wire system password from sticker on bottom of box.
3. surf to 192.168.1.254. 
4. I can’t find the exact nav links, but navigate to something like Settings > Firewall > Advanced > “Applications, DMZ, etc.”
5. (possible that this direct link might work: http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=J11&THISPAGE=A02_POST&NEXTPAGE=J11)
6. You will see a list of connected devices, possibly as a drop-down menu. They will mostly be IP addresses, but the base station should appear with its actual host name. Click on that name.
7. Then, below, you will see three options, selectable by radio buttons. The bottom one should be, like, “DMZplus” or “Use device in a DMZ” or “Put this sucker in the DMZ.” Choose that one, and save your settings.
8. Reboot the Airport. When it comes back on, it should have a public IP. (You may have to switch wifi networks to check.)
9. Return to the 2wire wifi network. Log back into the 2wire and turn off its crappy wireless.
10. Return to the Airport network, and configure the base station with Airport Utility according to the needs of the environment.