Accidental Billionaires | The Facebook Story

Posted by Gabriel on Dec 17th, 2009 | no comments

Just finished reading the Accidental Billionaires book and I have to say that it is an excellent read, but it is also a great story of the importance of having legal protections in place when forming a partnership.  I can tell you from my own personal experience that partnerships can be extremely rewarding and other times can destroy the closest of relationships.  Sometimes, simply going through the exercise of drafting a contract about how your duties and profits will be split can reveal everyone’s intentions.

As for the book, I highly recommend it.  Ben Mezrich has written another fun and exciting biography about rare genius that inspires people to want to go out and invent something special.

Popularity: 66% [?]

Outsource to India (not a chance)

Posted by Gabriel on Dec 7th, 2009 | no comments

I was working on a tech solution that I had hoped to outsource. So I called a tech company in India that had a long list of Fortune 1000 clients. I also called a company based out of Chicago.

If you know me, you know that I am very open minded about outsourcing. I want my tech work done right but at a fair cost. Tech is global so the workforce is global and I don’t have a politically protectionist bone in my body. That being said, my experience with India is getting worst by the day. The tech support call centers are bad and the IT solutions are subpar.

The Chicago company I called had a human with a real phone (not voip) who understood what I wanted to accomplish and did a proof of concept for free over a web meeting. The Indian company pushed for a sale over the phone, when I demanded a proof of concept they insisted on being paid.  Their product proved inferior and they wanted to be paid more for it then the company based out of Chicago.

Don’t get me wrong, I dealt with a call center in the Philippines that was great a few weeks ago, but for intelligent technology solutions you still find affordable and capable people in the US as compared to abroad. You may be able to hire someone in India or elsewhere for half the price of the US but sometimes you end up getting a non-working product that gets thrown away.

I can now laugh (knowing that it’s true from my own experience) about a friend who was building a classified website with a company from India. He had been working for a week describing what he wanted when finally the voice on the other end of a voip phone asked “What exactly is a classified?”. My friend told me that he almost pulled his hair out. If there was a question about what a classified ad was then why didn’t someone ask about it the first day.

Outsourcing is great, but just make sure you look at all the options and request a proof of concept before buying in.

Popularity: 51% [?]

Do your Legal Research on Google Scholar

Posted by Gabriel on Nov 30th, 2009 | no comments

Google has released a new site where you can do legal research.  I still prefer Precydent.com as a free solution over Google but I am sure that Google will continue to improve its search functions over time.  Check out Google’s legal research site at scholar.google.com.

Popularity: 65% [?]

Why Fastcase may win over Lexis and Westlaw

Posted by Gabriel on Nov 28th, 2009 | no comments

Fastcase is the opensource solution for finding case law online.  It is cheaper and easier to navigate then Westlaw and Lexis.  It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that Westlaw and Lexis have, but for lawyers looking who are tech savvy and need research done without billing their clients an arm and a leg for it Fastcase is a great solution.  Another newcomer to online legal research is Precydent.com.  For the non-lawyer looking for case law, I would try this out first and then go to Fastcase for a free trial.  The law should be open to everyone.  The public should not have to go down to the law library just to look up some cases and statutes that may affect their lives.  I believe that services like Precydent and Fastcase are finally opening up the law to everyone.

Popularity: 98% [?]

Google’s Chrome OS Demo

Posted by Gabriel on Nov 19th, 2009 | no comments

I saw this video for Google’s Chrome OS and thought I would share.  I can’t wait to see a competitor to both Windows and Linux.

Popularity: 41% [?]

How many people will actually use Amazon links

Posted by Gabriel on Nov 9th, 2009 | no comments

Being a tech geek, I have 24 domains currently that receive approximately 10,000 pageviews per month.  Today I decided to put an Amazon link on my sites to see if people actually go through the link to purchase anything.  I suspect that only my friends and family will ever use it, but you never know who may jump from my pages to Amazon, so here it is.

Popularity: 45% [?]

How useful is Google Wave? That depends.

Posted by admin on Oct 31st, 2009 | no comments

I received my invite for Google Wave from a friend on Twitter and I thought it was Christmas.  Google Wave is really an advanced instant messaging platform that allows collaboration.  I like to think of it as a free replacement for offices that can’t afford nor want to pay for Lotus.  Already I can see how it can be very useful.  It’s just a matter of time before it can replace Webex and conferencing software. 

I understand that Google Wave is great for tech companies and large corporations but I wonder how it can help me interact with my client’s in a legal setting.  For now the verdict is still out on that question but I believe that Google Wave is a revolutionary product from Google that has the power to go manistream just as Gmail did.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Picked your lawyer using Google. You are not alone.

Posted by Gabriel on Jun 11th, 2009 | no comments

Fact is that 75% of people begin their search for a lawyer using a search engine. After recently seeing that statistic in a legal magazine published in Florida, it confirmed my belief that even lawyers are evolving to make their presence known on the web. Many people have found me through the internet (if you are reading this then you probably did too) but where a lot of lawyers have failed is they leave nothing more than a sparse website with a contact number and some very very basic information about their practice. A website is not the only thing people should use to judge a lawyer, in fact I always believed that superior service and expertise is what gets you referrals and I always try to provide my clients that but it makes sense that people need to start their search somewhere, so why not a search engine.

When I search for a service online, I analyze the website to see if this person took the time to provide me some basic information about the services they offer and to see if they are price competitive. As internet marketing for attorneys evolves, I hope that attorneys will become more forthcoming about the cost of their services and what they can actually do for you but we are not there yet. After all, when was the last time you were happy when you bought something without knowing what it was going to cost you up front. That’s probably why I decided that open disclosure on the web is good for my clients and good for me.

Popularity: 48% [?]