INTRODUCTION
Lawyers today must use computers to compete effectively with other lawyers. Ten years ago, relatively few lawyers used computers. If you asked a lawyer in 1986 if he was computerized and he answered 'yes,' most likely his idea of computerization was that the secretaries in the firm used a computer for word processing and time and billing. Today, computers are used for much more than word processing and time and billing. If you are not truly computerized, you are at a disadvantage, and it will cost you money through lost time and productivity.
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Most people are not computer-buying experts. The task of selecting a computer and software can be very intimidating. This chapter provides the non-computer literate person advice on hardware and software to buy for the law office.
When you shop, remember that what you buy today will be obsolete once you take it out of the box. Nevertheless, a good basic current state of the art computer will provide years of productive use. Keep your initial purchases basic until your office is up and running, both to avoid excessive expense and to avoid being overwhelmed trying to learn too many computer programs at one time.
While there are lots of computer consultants around who are willing to assist you in your computer-related purchases, beware of people whose first interest is lining their pockets. With a little research, you may well be able to handle your own purchasing of hardware and software. Rather than using consultants, consider following the advice of a computer-knowledgeable friend who is happy with his or her computer system. If you do use consultants, check their references personally with other law firms or lawyers who have used their services.
COMPUTERS IN THE LAW OFFICE
Computer Hardware and Software Information Resources
Computer hardware and software information resources include:
Other lawyers and law firms that have automated satisfactorily. Most people are happy to share their computer war stories with you.
The Lawyer's PC, a semi-monthly newsletter published by Shepard's/The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. They publish an annual legal software directory that describes available software for the law office, its costs, a brief description of the programs and information about the manufacturer.
PC Magazine is an excellent resource, although it's possible to get lost in the 'techie' terminology. The best thing about PC Magazine is the monthly in-depth comparisons and ratings of hardware and software. When considering new hardware or software, the products that are selected as 'Editors' Choice' by PC Magazine are excellent choices for purchase. The hardware and software reviews and ratings make PC Magazine an excellent reference source. You should subscribe to PC Magazine and keep each issue for at least two years. You can then use the back issues as a source of information on various products when you are in the market.
Hardware Suggestions
You can spend $700 to $7,000 for a computer system. Do you want a Volkswagen or a Lexus? For most law office needs today, your best investment is a Pentium computer. A Pentium computer refers to a computer that uses the Pentium chip made by Intel. Intel is selling a chip called the Pentium Pro, which is the generation of computer chips after the Pentium. The Pentium Pro is both more expensive than a Pentium chip and not worth the extra money, except in certain unique law office situations such as for a file server or an internet web server.
A Pentium computer is needed to run the high-powered software now being developed. A Pentium computer may be expanded as necessary by adding additional RAM, more disk storage capacity and other hardware devices. Pentium computers have the speed to run Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 software without the lengthy delays experienced with older, slower computers like the 386 and 486.
In general, you should buy the fastest computer you can afford. The speed of a computer refers to its internal clock speed, which is the speed at which the central processor unit (CPU) operates. Clock speeds are measured in megahertz or MHz. Pentium computers range from 60 MHz to 200 MHz. The higher the MHz, the faster the computer. In general, a 120 MHz machine is twice as fast as a 60 MHz machine. Unless your budget absolutely requires a lower cost computer, do not buy anything with less than a 120 MHz Pentium. To avoid waiting forever, you will need at least a 120+ MHz computer to run Windows 95, and the current state-of-the-art application programs such as WordPerfect for Windows or Microsoft Word, a personal information manager and e-mail.
A computer's speed is also dependent on the amount of random access memory (RAM). Most computers sold today have at least 8 megabytes (MB) of RAM. Your new computer should have at least 16 MB of RAM. If you run Windows 95 or plan on running it, buy 24 or 32 MBs of RAM if you can afford it. Windows 95 is a real hog of a program. It needs a powerful computer to run quickly. RAM can always be added after you purchase a computer. It is an easy thing to do for someone who knows how to do it. RAM prices vary. Currently, RAM costs about $10 a MB, plus installation costs.
Studies show that in general, a slower clock speed computer with substantially more RAM will out-perform a faster clock speed computer that does not have a lot of RAM. If you want a faster computer, you should consider buying a 120 MHz Pentium with 32 MB of RAM instead of a 160 MHz Pentium with 16 MB of RAM. When the difference in clock speed is great, the faster clock speed may result in a faster machine.
Minimum Computer System
The minimum computer you should consider buying is an Intel Pentium with a 100 MHz internal clock speed, 16MB RAM, single 1.44 MB floppy drive, 250 megabyte hard drive for a network station or 1.2 gigabyte (1,200 MBs) hard disk for a stand alone computer, 2 serial ports and 1 parallel port, and a color Super VGA 14-inch monitor with .28 dot pitch. The cost of this type of no-name computer is around $1,200. For another $150 to $200 you can add a 33,600 bps fax modem and a six-speed CD ROM drive.
Standard Computer System
A good system that will be fast and give you several years of use is a Pentium computer with a 133 MHz clock speed, 16 MB RAM, 1.44 MB floppy disk, 1.2 gigabyte hard disk, 2 serial ports and 1 parallel port, color Super VGA 14-inch monitor with .28 dot pitch, local bus video with at least 1 MB of VRAM on the video card and a six-speed CD ROM drive. The cost for this computer system is approximately $1,600.
High Powered Computer System
If money is no object, you should buy an Intel Pentium computer with 200 MHz clock speed, 32 MB of RAM, 512 KB pipeline burst cache, 1.44 MB floppy disk, 3.5 gigabyte EIDE hard disk, 2 serial ports and 1 parallel port, color Super VGA 17-inch monitor with .28 dot pitch, local bus video with 2 MB of VRAM on the video card, a twelve-speed CD ROM drive, sound card and speakers, plus a lot of bundled software such as Microsoft Office Professional. You can purchase this computer system for approximately $2,800.
Computer Buyers' Rules of Thumb
The following are good rules of thumb to follow when buying computer hardware:
Do not overspend. Buy the best quality machine for the lowest price. There is no need to buy a brand name PC. No-name computers can be as reliable as brand name PCs.
Do not buy maintenance contracts. There is no need to buy maintenance contracts on PCs or PC hardware. If there is something wrong with the product, you will usually find out during the warranty period, which typically is one year. After that, if it fails, you can either fix the component that failed or get a new piece of hardware.
Buy locally. Stick with a local vendor that has been around for a while. If you have a problem, it is easier and quicker to take the computer back to the store where you bought it than it is to send the computer back to a mail-order vendor. An exception to this rule is if your computer manufacturer (such as Dell) offers next day on-site maintenance. Dell is a highly-rated, mail-order computer manufacturer.
Beware of proprietary systems. If you buy a computer with a proprietary system, such as IBM and Compaq, you may be limited in the computer service people who can assist you when your computer is down, and the cost may be considerably higher for hardware parts.
Buy locally. Stick with a local vendor that has been around for a while. If you have a problem, it is easier and quicker to take the computer back to the store where you bought it than it is to send the computer back to a mail-order vendor. An exception to this rule is if your computer manufacturer (such as Dell) offers next day on-site maintenance. Dell is a highly-rated, mail-order computer manufacturer.
Beware of proprietary systems. If you buy a computer with a proprietary system, such as IBM and Compaq, you may be limited in the computer service people who can assist you when your computer is down, and the cost may be considerably higher for hardware parts.
Resist the 'forbidden fruit.' Apple tried hard to make a dent in the business computer market, but the fact is that most business software is written for MS-DOS and Windows-based computers. Apple computers are not recommended for a law office. Not many prospective employees are familiar with Apple software. Apple is struggling now and its future is cloudy.
Watch out for low budget local vendors. Beware of buying a computer from small, unknown suppliers. There are many computer retailers putting together computers from generic parts, which means you can always have the parts replaced by almost any service person, for a reasonable fee. If you buy a computer that has some type of off-brand bios or other parts, you may have trouble running off-the-shelf software and modems. If the computer fails, you may find an empty store front when you go back for help.
Do not wait for the price to drop. The price of computers and printers is rapidly dropping. Whatever you pay today, you will see the same system advertised for less tomorrow. Does that mean you should wait for the prices to come down? Absolutely not! While you are waiting for the prices to come down or to get a better bargain, you are losing the value of the increased productivity you will gain from your computer. Buy a system that will help you now. You will probably still be using it in three or five years. You can then purchase a newer and better system.
Buy the largest hard disk you can afford. Buy the largest hard drive you can afford. You can never have too much hard disk space. Software written to run on Windows 95 is BIG. Windows 95 files can take up over 44 megabytes of storage space. The Windows 95 system files use more than 55 megabytes, and the Windows 95 help files are more than 10 megabytes. Together, the Windows 95 files use more than 115 megabytes of hard disk space. Microsoft Office Professional 97 uses more than 200 MBs of space. The difference in price between hard drive sizes is very small and well worth the investment. Do not buy a computer with less than a gigabyte of hard disk storage space. One-gig hard disks are available in the $200 price range. At least 2.5 gigabytes is recommended if you can afford it.
Laptops
Consider how you will use your computer before you commit to a desktop computer. Notebook and laptop computers now have the same features as desktop computers, except the quality of the monitors is not as good and the keyboard is smaller. Some of these portable computers have hard drives of 500 megabytes or more. If you constantly take work home or would like to take your computer to a client's office, meetings, depositions, court, etc., consider one of these computers as your primary computer. If you want to use both a laptop and a desktop consider two common problems: first, you must remember to update the data on each machine; second, the keyboards on notebooks and laptops are usually somewhat different than the keyboards for desktops. You can purchase a 'docking station,' which is a hardware setup that allows you to plug in the laptop computer and use a full-size monitor and keyboard.
Monitors
Buy color monitors with .28 dots per inch (DPI) or less. The standard-size monitor is 14 inches. For $50-$100 more, you can purchase a 15-inch monitor, which is nice. The best monitor for viewing is a 17-inch monitor, but it costs $300-$700 more than a 14-inch monitor.
Tape Backup Drive
Delphi ds150e software crack download. Hard disks will eventually fail. Buy a tape backup drive and use it. They come in internal and external varieties. The internal is better because it does not get in the way. The capacity of your tape drive depends on the size of your hard disk. Buy a unit that will back up your entire hard disk on a single tape. One-gigabyte capacity tape backup drives cost about $150. Tapes cost approximately $20-$25. BACK UPREGULARLY AND KEEP THE TAPES OFF SITE IN A SAFE DEPOSIT BOX. If your building is destroyed, you will not lose all the valuable data saved on the off-site tapes.
Laser Printers
Hewlett-Packard laser printers are the best printers bar none. They are built to last and you will get your money's worth. The current high volume HP laser printer is the HP 5. This is the standard printer for a law firm, which you can buy for $1,300-$1,500. The HP 5 has 600 dots per inch resolution and prints an incredible twelve pages a minute. It also comes with 45+ built-in scalable fonts. You may find other printers for less money, but virtually all software is written to work with HP printers.
HP makes smaller printers in its personal printer line. These are excellent printers, but they are not designed for high-volume production. The HP 5P sells for around $700 and prints at four pages per minute. This is an excellent printer for one or two people who do not print a lot of documents.
Inkjet Printers
An alternative to laser printers is the inkjet. Inkjet printers are cheaper, smaller and quieter than laser printers. Again, HP makes a great inkjet printer with Canon a close second. Inkjet printers may be used for utility printing in the law office or when you want color, but they should not be used for documents and correspondence because the quality is not nearly as good as a laser printer.
The cheapest color inkjets can be purchased for around $200. A good solid color inkjet costs $350 to $500. Color inkjets can be expensive to operate, as much as 15 cents per page. You should not use an inkjet to print high-volume print jobs because even black text is very expensive compared to the cost of printing on a laser printer.
Dot Matrix Printers
Dot matrix printers are becoming dinosaurs. It is old and cold technology. Because you can now buy inkjet and laser printers for the cost of dot matrix printers, people are not buying dot matrix printers unless they have a specific need for one. Dot matrix printers do not print high quality text and are relatively slow, but they are perfect for certain specialized tasks.
Dot matrix printers are good for printing pre-bills and final bills because they print each timekeeper's bills on continuous form paper. With continuous form paper, each person's bills can be kept together. If you want to use continuous paper or multipart paper, you must use a dot matrix printer. Laser printers only print on single sheets.
Dot matrix printers cost $150-$350 for a 300-360 characters per second printer. On the higher end, for example, an Okidata ML 395 dot matrix printer prints 600 cps and costs about $1,000.
Low-Cost Printer Sharing
One way to save money is to share one or more printers. A common way to share printers is to connect them to a computer network. If you do not have a network, you can buy an electronic switch box that will allow two or more people to use the same printer. Keep in mind that a laser printer that prints six or twelve pages a minute will probably sit idle for six or seven hours a day, even on a busy day. An electronic switch box will cost $35-$100, depending on the number of computers that can be connected to the box, and they are great. Never use manual switch boxes to share laser printers because they may damage the printer.
CD ROM Drives
A CD ROM drive is becoming a necessity for lawyers. Most legal publications and research materials are going to CD ROMs. For example, a single CD produced by Tax Analysts contains the entire Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations and many other tax-related resources. It costs $150 per year and is updated quarterly with a new CD. Using CD-based research materials is the only way to go. You don't have to worry about missing pages. You can do keyword searches. You can save any text you find and/or print it.
Current state-of-the-art CD ROMs are known as 10-speed CDs. They cost about $300. A six-speed CD costs $150-$200. The best buy for the law office is a double-speed CD ROM drive. They work fine for text-based CD ROM research and can be purchased for $50-$100.
Modems
Modems are rapidly becoming an important part of law office computer equipment, both for research purposes and for communications. The world is racing toward online communications. You cannot participate without a modem. Not only are WESTLAW and LEXIS available online, but so are the ABA databases and various courts throughout the country.
For example, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals posts its opinions online. All the U.S. Supreme Court cases are available online for free. Electronic court filings are a reality in many areas today, as well as postings of court schedules. In addition, there are various public bulletin boards that offer a great deal of information about computers and many have special conferences for the legal community. CompuServe and America Online are great sources of information on virtually any subject, including law office hardware and software.
To go online, you need a modem in your computer and a telephone line to plug into the modem. Installing a modem is one of the more difficult things you can do with your computer. It is money well spent to have somebody install your modem and get it working.
Do not buy a modem slower than 28,800 bps. If you plan to access the Internet, you will want a 28,800 bps modem. The Internet requires a fast modem, and even with a 28,800 bps modem you will be frustrated at how slow the Internet is. A 28,800 bps modem will cost $100-$150, but you can buy a good 33,200 bps modem for $200. Even 56,600 bps modems are now available. These new fast modems are great for surfing the Internet. Modems are either internal or external, but function the same. If you want a less cluttered computer area, buy an internal modem. If you want to be able to see the lights on the modem so you can tell if it is sending or receiving data (a very useful feature), buy an external modem.
Most modems also include the ability to transmit facsimiles. The fax modem can transmit any black and white graphic or text file that you can create on your computer. You can produce text on your word processor and fax it directly without scanning. The downside is that unless you have a scanner, only computer text and images may be sent but any image may be received if your printer is up for the task. The text sent is taken directly from your word processing program, saving extra steps.
The Internet
The Internet is the latest computer craze. It has been incredibly over-hyped, but has tremendous potential. The Internet is simply hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of computers that are connected via a large computer network. It is akin to having all the libraries in the world connected so that you could sit at your home and open any book that is available today on the Internet at very little cost.
When people talk about the Internet, most of the time they are referring to a part of the Internet called the World Wide Web. The Web is a textual and graphical medium. When you access the Web, you are accessing a computer somewhere in the world. At the click of your mouse, you can move quickly from one computer to another anywhere in the world without paying long distance telephone charges.
In the near future, most legal research will be done on the Internet. Today, there are hundreds of Web sites that display legal information. For example, the entire Arizona Revised Statutes are now available online on the Web at no charge. To access the Arizona statutes, set your web browser to http://www.state.az.us/.
To access the Internet, you need a computer, a modem, a phone line, Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, a web browser and an Internet service provider. A web browser is a software program that accesses the Web. The most popular web browser today is Netscape Navigator Personal Edition, which costs $25-$50. Microsoft is giving away Internet Explorer, its great browser. You can download Internet Explorer from http://www.microsoft.com.
An Internet service provider (ISP) is a commercial company that provides access to the Internet via dial up telephone lines. You open an account with your ISP, then have your modem dial the ISP's modem. Once you connect to your ISP you are on the Net and ready to surf. ISPs are becoming a dime a dozen. CompuServe and America Online are ISPs. CompuServe is among the most expensive at $2.95 per hour after five hours of use. AOL currently offers unlimited Internet access at $20 a month. It does not matter which ISP you select as long as you do not pay more than $20/month for at least 150 hours of access, do not get many busy signals, and do not frequently get dumped in the middle of an Internet session. In Phoenix, Primenet, Netcom and Goodnet are popular ISPs.
SOFTWARE SUGGESTIONS
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Since the personal computer was first introduced by IBM in the early 1980s, the dominant operating system has been Microsoft's Disk Operating System (DOS). The latest version of DOS is 7.0, which is included with Windows 95. DOS is great, but it does have its limitations. If you are a first-time computer buyer, forget DOS and go right to Windows.
OS 2
OS 2 is IBM's answer to Windows. It is a multitasking system with a graphical user interface. Many people believe it is superior to Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Nevertheless, OS 2 has been a commercial flop. Compared to Windows software, there is very little software written for OS 2. Because of this, it is not recommended. OS 2 may not be around much longer.
Windows 3.1
Windows 3.1 has been steadily replacing DOS as the operating system of choice since it first hit the market. Until Windows 95 was released, virtually all new computers sold in the United States came with Windows 3.1 preinstalled. Like OS 2, Windows 3.1 is a multitasking system with a graphical user interface. Despite being sold as a user friendly program, it is actually quite complex and generally very user unfriendly. This fact was confirmed by Microsoft indirectly a couple of years ago when Microsoft introduced a program called 'Bob.' Bob runs on top of Windows 3.1 and was sold on the basis that it made Windows 3.1 user friendly. Bob was a major commercial failure.
The reasons for using Windows 3.1 are that most commercial software is written for it today, it has a mouse-operated graphical user interface, it can multitask (i.e., run more than one program at a time) and the majority of computers run it. The reasons for not running Windows 3.1 are that it requires a powerful computer to run without delays, it is difficult to learn, software generally costs more than DOS software, and it frequently locks up or dumps programs.
Windows 95
With the introduction of Windows 95, Microsoft has finally gotten it right. Windows 95 is a fantastic program. It is everything that Windows 3.1 wanted to be, but never achieved. It is much more user friendly and it is smart. It rarely dumps or locks up. It is best to stick with only programs which run on Windows 95. DOS or Windows 3.1 programs should only be purchased if there is no Windows 95 version. The drawback of Windows 95 is that it requires a very powerful computer with a lot of hard disk space. If you are a first time computer buyer, Windows 95 is the way to go. If you start with Windows 95 and only buy Windows 95 programs, you will be using the latest versions of software plus you will avoid the extra expense incurred when you buy Windows 3.1 programs and upgrade to Windows 95 later.
WordPerfect
WordPerfect is still the word-processing software of choice for the majority of law firms and the bulk of U.S. computer users. DOS versions 5.1+ and 6.1 and the Windows version are excellent programs. You will need a fast computer to run version 6.1 for DOS or the Windows version of WordPerfect.
The DOS version 5.1 is a good program. However, the DOS version 6.0 is too slow. If you have DOS version 5.1, there is no significant benefit in upgrading. Another important reason to consider when deciding to upgrade is the loss of productivity while learning the new program. 'It's not broken so we are not going to fix it.'
There are several distinct advantages in using WordPerfect. It is a mature product with an extremely large user base. There are endless arrays of WordPerfect 'add-on' programs that may make life easier for you and your firm. Many are directed towards the legal community. There are many books, magazines, tapes and videos available for WordPerfect training. Because of its great popularity, most potential employees, lawyers and support staff alike, are familiar with WordPerfect.
Word
The main contender for WordPerfect's market is Microsoft's Word 7.0. This is a great program. It does it all, but unfortunately, you have to do it with a mouse. The problem with using a mouse when you are word processing is that it slows you down unless you have three hands. Word will eventually have more users than WordPerfect because Microsoft has a superb integrated suite of programs called 'Microsoft Office.' All programs that are included in Microsoft Office are tightly integrated and work well together. It is a great program.
Microsoft Office Professional
Microsoft Office Professional is a series of programs that run under Windows. The programs are Word, Scheduler, Power Point (a presentations program), Excel (a spreadsheet) and Access (a database). Each of these programs is excellent. The ability to easily use and move data between all the Office programs is why the Office suite of programs will sell in large numbers. It is expensive, however. Without Access, Office sells for around $300. With Access, it costs about $500 per user.
Personal Information Manager
An extremely valuable program is a personal information manager (PIM). A PIM is a combination of several programs. It is a calendar, a to-do list, a contact manager, a fax program and sometimes a simple word processor for doing mail merges. The main reason to get a PIM is for the contact management feature. A contact manager is a database program designed to hold information about people such as their names, addresses, phone numbers and other pertinent information. You can also make notes about the contacts and notes of your conversations and activities associated with the contact. It is a tremendous time saver. You will never search for a phone number or an address again if you have them in your PIM.
There are a lot of PIMs on the market. ACT 3 from Symantec sells for about $180. It's a great program that runs only on Windows. ACT 3 is one of the most popular PIMs.
Calendars
An excellent personal calendar program is Ontime. It is an easy to use to-do list and electronic calendar. One of the neat things it does is print a really slick four-to-seven-week calendar. The to-do list and appointments for the day may be printed on the reverse side of the calendar. With Ontime, if a secretary wants to make an appointment for a lawyer, the secretary can load the lawyer's calendar and schedule the appointment. If networked, lawyers, paralegals and secretaries can do group scheduling for all the lawyers. Single user versions may be purchased for approximately $70-$120.
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Computerized time and billing is often overlooked by many firms when they are starting, but the ability to quickly and easily capture billable time and to bill on demand more than pays for cost of the program. Timeslips is a relatively inexpensive and popular time and billing program. It is easy to set up and use. Vethathiri maharishi exercise book pdf. Timeslips Corp., 239 western Ave., Essex, MA 01929 (508) 768-6100.
Quicken
Quicken is a great user-friendly accounting program that does incredible things. The DOS version is not as slick as the Windows version. With an add-on program called Quick Books, it is a neat little program for accounting in a small office. You can buy it for $75-$100.
Network Docket
A docketing program is essential for every law firm. For docketing critical dates, Network Docket by Compulaw, Ltd., is a good program. The Network Docket program is designed specifically for docketing for lawyers and law firms. Most malpractice insurers will reduce your E & O premium if you have a computerized docket program. It will give up to six reminders to as many as six people of all critical dates. Macros can be created so that a single entry will trigger the creation of multiple related ticklers based on the critical date in the first tickler. Compulaw, Ltd., can be reached at (800) 444-0020.
Disk Compression Software
There are several programs that claim to double or more than double your hard disk storage capacity. These programs are disk compression programs. They do work, but at the risk of losing all the data on your hard disk if something goes wrong. Disk compression is just one more thing that can go wrong. Rather than buy a program to compress your hard disk, use the money to buy a bigger hard disk-a one gigabyte hard disk sells for about $200.
Remote Computing
There are software programs (PC Anywhere and Reachout are two) that enable you to link two or more computers together via a modem and telephone line. A Novell network (see below) can be used to connect all the computers. A telephone line would then be connected to a modem in a computer on the network. By using PC Anywhere, a lawyer can dial the office from a home computer, connect to the network via modems, log on to the network and do everything from the home computer that could be done from a computer in the office.
PC Anywhere has security features. For example, to access the office network, the password used at the office must be entered to access PC Anywhere. If the correct password is given, PC Anywhere will terminate the call. The computer in the office then dials the number of the home telephone and reconnects with the computer at home. Thus, the only way someone could break into the network remotely would be if he or she knew the lawyer's personal password and was sitting at the lawyer's home computer.
Memory Management
Memory management is one of the most complicated and difficult to grasp personal computer concepts. The important points about memory management are that it's only a problem for systems that operate under DOS and although your computer may have more than 640k of RAM, the computer will not use any of it unless you have a properly configured memory management program.
DOS 6.22 includes a memory manager called 'Memmaker.' It works well. Also, QEMM 8.0 is a great program that manages the RAM of your computer. It does more than Memmaker.
There are two ways to manage memory: manual and automatic. Manual means you must manually try various configurations of your autoexec.bat and config.sys files until you have them set to maximize the amount of usable memory above 640k. QEMM assists in manual memory management, but it will also do everything automatically. For example, QEMM will try more than 121,000,000 different configurations in a matter of 15-30 seconds before selecting the optimum configuration.
The bottom line: With QEMM 8.0 and DOS 6.22, you can have 639k of conventional RAM and most of the remainder of your 7.4 megabytes of RAM is usable as expanded or extended memory.
NETWORKS
If you have two or more computers and share data between them, the computers should be networked. The many advantages to networking include:
- Files and work can be shared easily. For example, if a document is saved on computer one, the document can be retrieved, viewed and edited by someone using computer two.
- You can send and receive e-mail between workstations. E-mail is a great productivity enhancer. People can communicate electronically with each other even when they are not at their computer or in the office.
- All important data files can be maintained on a common hard disk and backed up to tape. This greatly simplifies backing up and protecting valuable firm data.
- You can use a document management program to keep track of documents on the network.
- You can use a networked calendar program for group scheduling.
- If your time and billing program is a network program with user time keeping, your lawyers and paralegals can enter their time directly into the billing programming.
Lantastic
Artisoft, Inc., makes a network operating system program, called 'Lantastic.' The current version is 7.0. Lantastic is a peer-to-peer network, which means that any computer on the network may access any other computer on the network, depending on how the network is set up. Peer-to-peer networks generally are intended to allow people to save and use data primarily on their own computers rather than a central hard disk.
Lantastic 7.0 is one of the most popular networking programs. It is relatively easy to set up and use. It is also relatively inexpensive at around $100-$150 per network station. Lantastic does not require a dedicated file server. It works best with small networks.
Novell
Novell Corporation makes the dominant network operating system, called 'Netware.' It is a fantastic program. Netware is called a 'client server' system. Unlike peer-to-peer networks, Netware does not allow sharing of any files unless the files are located on the file server. Netware requires a dedicated file server, i.e., a computer that does nothing but run the network operating system. It is a complex program that should be installed only by a person who is experienced in doing so.
The file server should be at least a Pentium 160 MHz computer with at least 32 megabytes of RAM. You should not buy less than a two-gigabyte hard disk. A ten-person office could fill up a 625-megabyte hard disk in eighteen months. Even if you increased your storage capacity to 1.2 gigabytes, it would be full a year later. You also need a tape backup drive that will allow you to back up the entire contents of the hard disk on one tape. You can buy a two gigabyte tape backup drive for $400-$500.
You may read or be told that Netware requires a full-time network administrator. This is total hogwash. You do need someone who knows how to add a new user or a new program, but that is easy to learn. It may take a little time initially to figure out what is needed to know to administer the network, but you should be able to maintain it with very little time or effort after the initial training. You can go for months without doing anything with the network. It is very low maintenance.
A Novell network is reliable-it can operate 24 hours a day for seven days a week for years without going down, except when power is lost in the building. However, with a battery backup system, the system will keep running if there is a momentary loss of power, and shut it down if the power does not return in a few minutes. A battery backup system is mandatory. You will pay about $300 for a new backup battery.
You can buy version 4.11 (the latest and most powerful version) of Netware. The cost depends on the number of possible workstations you want on your network. Netware comes in 5, 10, 25 and larger node packages. It will cost about $250 per work station for the network software and a network interface card.
Microsoft NT 4.0
Microsoft NT Server 4.0 is a great network operating system, and it may become the number one network operating system in the next few years. Because it is a Microsoft product, Windows NT integrates smoothly with the large number of Microsoft products designed for the workplace. NT is a robust system that comes with Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and FrontPage. IIS is a program for hosting web sites for the Internet or intranets. FrontPage is a program for creating web pages in HTML format.
Computer Guru
Every office needs an in-house or readily available computer 'guru.' If you do not have someone in the office who knows something about hardware and software, you will be at the mercy of your hardware or software consultant or sales person. You may never know if the consultant's or sales person's advice is right for you.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE BOTTOM LINE, available from the State Bar of California Law Practice Management Section, 555 Franklin Street, San Francisco, California 94102, telephone (805) 322-8653. This consistently high-quality monthly newsletter covers the range of law practice management, including practical articles regarding the use of computers.
INSIDE WORDPERFECT, available from The Cobb Group, 9420 Bunsen Parkway, Suite 300, Louisville, Kentucky 40220, telephone (800) 223-8720. This monthly newsletter pales beside WORDPERFECT, THE MAGAZINE. If you are a computer manual reader, skip this one because there is nothing particularly new here. It could, however, be a good training tool for a law office as the information is spoon-fed.
IYM SOFTWARE REVIEW, available from It's Your Money, Inc., 2350 Route 10, Suite A18, Morris Plains, New Jersey 07950, telephone (201) 984-5733. Published bimonthly, this no-frills software review newsletter accepts no advertisements in order to preserve its unbiased approach. Not 'techie' and very helpful.
THE LAWYER'S PC, available from The Shepard's/McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., P.O. Cisdem video converter 5 1 0 download free. Box 35300, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80935-3530, telephone (800) 525-2474. This is an excellent semimonthly newsletter edited by a lawyer for lawyers. This is not a super 'techie' newsletter, but is a real must for every law office considering becoming or already computerized. Publishes an annual index of computer software helpful for law offices, as well as an annual directory of consultants.
PC WORLD, available by writing to P.O. Box 55029, Boulder, Colorado 80322-5029, telephone (800) 825-7595. This monthly magazine is available on most newsstands. The publisher also provides help with PC problems online through their bulletin board and also through the mail.
Lantastic 7.0 Download Free
THE PERFECT LAWYER, available from The Shepard's/McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., P.O. Box 35300, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80935-3530, telephone (800) 525-2474. A spin-off from the original LAWYER'S PC, this monthly newsletter focuses exclusively on WordPerfect products, including add-ons. This newsletter is another real 'must' for law offices.
Lantastic 7.0 Download Mac
THE WORDPERFECTIONIST, available from The Cobb Group, 9420 Bunsen Parkway, Suite 300, Louisville, Kentucky 40220, telephone (800) 223-8720. This monthly newsletter was once ranked among our favorite newsletters until it was sold to the Cobb Group. Information presented in this newsletter is often a straight copy from Cobb's INSIDE WORDPERFECT or from WordPerfect's computer manual. Lost are the innovative approaches to using WordPerfect. We hope it will improve!
Lantastic 7 Download
The serial number for LanTastic is available
This release was created for you, eager to use LanTastic 7.0 full and without limitations. Our intentions are not to harm LanTastic software company but to give the possibility to those who can not pay for any piece of software out there. This should be your intention too, as a user, to fully evaluate LanTastic 7.0 without restrictions and then decide.
If you are keeping the software and want to use it longer than its trial time, we strongly encourage you purchasing the license key from LanTastic official website. Our releases are to prove that we can! Nothing can stop us, we keep fighting for freedom despite all the difficulties we face each day.
Last but not less important is your own contribution to our cause. You should consider to submit your own serial numbers or share other files with the community just as someone else helped you with LanTastic 7.0 serial number. Sharing is caring and that is the only way to keep our scene, our community alive.
