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Cooperative Network Integrators, Inc. Newsletter |
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Saving Daylight - Saving Headaches
Saving energy is important to each of us. This is not only a
personal or business financial concern. It is a local,
regional, national, and global policy issue. Due to a
federal law enacted in June of 2005, we will switch to
Daylight Saving Time (DST) early this year. The change, which
takes effect at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 11, is designed to
save energy by delaying our use of electric-powered lights
and small appliances until later in the evening. By
"delaying" the sunset by one hour, we reduce the time between
sunset and bedtime during which as much as 25% of household
electricity is consumed.
This change will have an impact on the technology used in
law offices, our homes, and by our clients. Our software,
operating systems, and handheld devices such as Treos and
Blackberrys depend on having an accurate internal clock in
order to operate properly and communicate with one another.
The last time the start of DST was changed was 1986. Law
firms were far less dependent on computer systems 21 years
ago than they are today.
This month's newsletter will tell you how to cope with the early
shift to DST. Because that change is happening within days
of sending this newsletter, you must act promptly. We will also
explore other ways to save energy with your law office
technology.
This issue will also look at the transition from Internet
Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7, updated information on
Apple's upcoming iPhone.
Finally, as always, we will keep you updated on technology
training opportunities and important events sponsored by
Cooperative Network Integrators, Inc.
Ron Carter
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Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day |
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Everyone is Irish on March 17th
March brings the promise of Spring and reason to
celebrate. We hope everyone has a happy St. Patrick's Day.
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E-Class Offerings |
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Amicus Attorney 5 - Productivity Tips - -
Unleash the power of Amicus Attorney by exploring the more
advanced features such as document generation, linked
events, customization and the Library. Get your questions
answered and improve your firm's efficiency so that you can
do more, bill more, and go home early.
- Duration 1 Hour
- Instructor Carmen Relatores
- Cost $80.00 per individual
Getting Started with Amicus Accounting - Ready,
Set, Go! - Time to start using your new
time/billing/accounting software! We will help you get
Amicus Accounting set up and ready to use to bill your
clients and run your firm.
- Duration 1.5 Hours
- Instructor Carmen Relatores
- Cost $95.00 per individual
Billing with Amicus Accounting - Ready to get
those bills out? - Attend this webinar to learn what you
need to know about entering and correcting time and costs,
through getting those bills out the door.
- Duration 1.5 Hours
- Instructor Carmen Relatores
- Cost $95.00 per individual
Firm Accounting with Amicus Accounting -
You are all set up, your bills are out the door, and now the
checks are coming in! Learn how to manage payments, pay your
bills, and run meaningful reports.
- Duration 1.5 Hours
- Instructor Carmen Relatores
- Cost $95.00 per individual
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Daylight Saving Time (DST)? |
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Little time to act!
The Energy Policy Act of 2005, passed by Congress in
2005, extended Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the U.S.
by approximately four weeks. Beginning this year,
DST starts three weeks earlier on March 11, 2007,
and ends one week later on November 4, 2007.
Unless certain updates are applied to your
computer, it is possible that the time zone settings for
your computer's system clock may be incorrect during
this four week period. This depends on where you live and
which time zone you have selected.
When your time zone settings are incorrect your clock
may be off by one hour, and certain applications
running on your Windows based computer may not display
the correct time. This could affect
time/billing/accounting software, case/practice
management software, and the synchronization process
with handheld devices such as Palm PDA's, Treo
smartphones, Blackberrys, etc.
In order to address this, Microsoft is providing
free updates and tools that will update your system
automatically. Workstation updates are fairly simple
- just run Windows Update and let the required
updates install automatically.
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Making the Move from IE6 to IE7 |
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More secure, but is it as useable?
It has been several months since Internet Explorer 7
(IE7) went from beta to official. Many of you
unwittingly upgraded from IE6 to IE7 when Windows Update
or Microsoft Update automatically downloaded and
installed IE7 on your PC without asking you if
doing so was OK.
There are some real pluses to IE7. It contains an anti-
phishing alert system. IE7 looks up every site you
visit to determine if there is a potential phishing
risk.
Printing web pages works better with IE7. Trying
to print pages in IE6 often resulted in the right side of
the page being cut-off. With IE7, you almost always get
all of the text in your printout.
There is also no need to install the toolbar that
comes with your favorite search engine. The top
right corner of the screen in IE7 contains a search box.
You can set IE7 to default to your favorite search engine.
And IE7 is the first Microsoft web browser to offer
tabbed browsing. Prior versions of IE opened a new
instance of the browser with each new site visited. IE7
opens just once, but displays each site in a separate
tabbed window, which can be much more convenient.
Unfortunately, not all web pages render properly in
IE7. They may have been designed for IE6 (or even
earlier versions). Also, the user interface in IE7 is
different, with the Favorites menu shifted to
the far left and the address bar moved to the
top of the screen. All of this takes some getting used
to.
If you can adjust to the new interface, and if
your favorite web pages render properly in IE7, its
enhanced security features make it a worthwhile
upgrade.
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Energy Saving Tips for Computer Users |
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Save money - help save the planet
An early switch to Daylight Saving Time (DST) is
not the only way to save energy. What type of computer
you buy and how you use it can greatly impact the
amount of energy you use when doing your legal work.
Here are some tips to be an energy efficient computer user.
1) Buy a notebook computer instead of a desktop.
Notebook PC's use less energy and give you the option of
going mobile when portability is needed.
2) Set your power settings (Control Panel>Power
Options) to turn off your monitor after 20 minutes (or less)
of inactivity. Set your hard drive(s) to turn off after 30
minutes of inactivity
3) Shut down your computer, monitor, and printer
when you leave the office for more than two hours. If you
need remote access, not all services will connect to
a host computer in standby mode. Test your connection
first to determine if you can leave your computer in standby
mode and still access it remotely.
4) Buy a flat panel LCD monitor to replace your
old CRT (picture tube) monitor. LCD's use only 1/3 as much
energy as CRT's.
5) Enable the system hibernation feature, which
will save what is currently in your system's RAM to the hard
disk, then power-off the computer. When you return and
reactivate your computer, everything will be quickly
restored just as you left it before hibernating.
6) Don't use a screen saver. Your computer and
monitor remain at full power when a screen saver is running.
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Current versions of Law Office software |
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Below is a list of the current versions of important law
office software supported by Cooperative Network
Integrators, Inc..
Amicus Attorney:
Downloads
- Amicus Attorney 7: build 7.0.1.5
- Amicus Attorney V: v 5.1.1
- Amicus Attorney V+: v. 5.5.1
- Amicus Attorney V+ with Accounting Integration ONLY:
v. 5.8.x
- Amicus Attorney X: v. SP1.1
- Amicus Small Firm: v. 5.7.x
Amicus Accounting:
Amicus Accounting: release 2006.1.1
Microsoft Office:
- Click
here and select Check for Updates.
Corel Word Perfect:
- Click
here then select your version.
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