In a recent post about e-Discovery issues and text messages, I used the Acrobat.com embedded flash widget to allow visitors to read an Opinion by a District Court without the need to fire up Acrobat or download a file.  Acrobat.com now has a competitor of sorts in the field of flash-embedded documents, compliments of Scribd.  Scribd is "a Silicon Valley startup creating technology that makes it easy to share documents online."  In February of this year, Scribd launched iPaper, a flash-based tool for presenting documents on the web.  Scribd offers the iPaper format through its the Scribd service, which, among other things, lets users:

• Upload documents in many different formats, including Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, plain text, HTML, PowerPoint, Excel, OpenOffice, JPEG, and more
• Embed your documents in a blog, Facebook profile, or other external website with your fonts, images, and formatting fully intact
• Host a document at Scribd with its own unique URL
• Use unlimited storage
• Obtain fast indexing by Google and other major search engines will ensure that content is easily found by just about everyone
• Keep certain documents private or share with a limited number of authorized persons
• Automatically convert published content into PDF, Word, and plain text

Scribd is attempting to build a community around document sharing and searching.  Whether that will be successful remains to be seen.  And Acrobat.com offers a number of collaboration and authoring tools not yet found on the Scribd service.  Thus, in all fairness to both companies, Scribd is not precisely a competitor to Acrobat.com.  The direct point of comparison lies in the ability to use flash to embed document images into web pages and upload and store documents for sharing in other ways.  In the meantime, take a look at an e-Discovery Order in the iPaper format:

Again, if you don't have flash installed, or are viewing this post through a feed, a pda, or another method that does not utilize flash technology, you will not see the embedded object.  For those viewers, here is the direct link to the Order on Scribd's service.

UPDATE:  After checking the appearance of the Order on the blog, I noticed that ads were inserted into the document.  When I created an account on Scribd, I configured the account so that ads would not be inserted into any documents.  While it might be a simple mistake, I would not like to think that my choice for ads was overwritten by Scribd.  I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else using Scribd has noticed this issue.

I was fortunate enough to receive a preview demonstration of new features in Acrobat 9 that will likely appeal to the legal market (my thanks to Adobe, which was unexpectedly approachable and responsive).  The preview was hosted by none other than Rick Borstein, a Business Development Manager at Adobe and the author of the Acrobat for attorneys tip blog Acrobat for Legal Professionals.  Acrobat defines software that has reached high level of maturity, and the first look was impressive.  If Acrobat 8 was enticing to law firms, Acrobat 9 adds to the attraction.

In the coming weeks, I will be post a review in multiple parts.  There is so much going on in Acrobat 9, that a thorough review would probably include too much information to comfortably digest at one sitting.  But I will mention a smaller new feature that will prove to be very useful for practitioners in the federal courts in California.  Acrobat 9 now includes a tool for splitting a large pdf into segments, using a variety of parameters.  This tool will assist with e-filing, when the document in question is too large to upload as one document.  The pdf splitting tool can split a pdf into segments of specific page lengh or file size.  The subsequent files can include the base file name and an addition piece of text, such as "Part_1".  It's an example of a simple, new tool that meets a very important need in the litigation field.

You'll have to stay tuned for my thoughts on the "big" tools and changes in Acrobat 9.

I've noticed a steady increase in the number of subscribers to this blog's feed.  After thinking about that a bit, I concluded that a few words about this blog's formatting are in order.

Block Quotes:  I have chosen to adopt the stylistic design element of a large, light gray, offset quote mark at the beginning of block quotes (yes, it is technically unnecessary, but I like it).  There are at least two basic mechanisms for implementing this design choice.  One involves a background image applied to the paragraph.  I do not use that option.  The other method, which I use, involves enclosing actual text in a span element and applying formatting to it.  It is simple to insert the span code in my post text.  However, it is likely that feeds and other non-browser readers will simply display a single quote mark at the beginning of the block quote.  If you are reading these posts off the feed or in a reader that doesn't do much in the way of html formatting, now you know.

The Acrobat.com widget:  I am testing a flash-based tool from adobe that allows pdf files to be embedded in a post and enlarged.  If you don't have flash installed, it won't work.  I haven't looked at it in a feed, but I assume it won't display there either.

Page weight:  With the Acrobat.com widget in particular, and the frequent use of images to enhance post appearance, the blog generates fairly weighty pages.  Basically, you need a broadband connection to comfortably read this blog online.  I am assuming that the viewing demographic has access to broadband.  If you don't, I apologize.

Browsers:  I've examined the blog in Firefox and IE7.  I had to work quite a bit sort out the code for the background pattern so that it aligned correctly in both of those browsers.  Beyond that, I don't have a lot of control if things aren't working right in other browser variants.  Unless I want to take over all of the code myself, this blog is only semi-customizable.  It's fair to say that with IE7 and Firefox rendering correctly, I've covered the largest browser target that I can, given the restriction on styling the code base behind the blog.

If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment or e-mail me, and I will answer if I am able (or tell you that I don't know).

At the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, Apple announced the second generation of the iPhone, or, iPhone 3G.  The slight cosmetic updates are exciting to gadget fans, but a few changes are significant for business customers.  First, the new iPhone has built-in support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync so that users will now have access to "push" email.  In other words, iPhones can now be configured, apparently out of the box, to receive push e-mail in a Microsoft Exchange environment.  As part of that support, IT administrators can securely manage any iPhone that contains confidential company information using remote wipe and enforced security and password policies. These device configuration and remote management capabilities allow IT departments to quickly and seamlessly deploy iPhone throughout their companies.  Second, iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPSec VPN to ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption for transmission of sensitive company information.  Third, with the iPhone now supporting 3G data transmission, the desktop-style browser will provide an incredible tool for information retrieval in the field.  Finally, the sweetness factor is very high.

You can covet the phone (and learn more about it) at Apple's iPhone website.  But you'll have to wait until at least July 11th to get your hands on one.

Adobe has just made a bold move to leverage the dominance of PDF onto the web via a new website, Acrobat.com, which offers a suite of hosted services available for free as a public beta.  Adobe's widely-installed flash technology is the driving engine.  One feature worth noting in the legal blogosphere: the ability to embed pdf documents in Web pages and blog posts.

Throughout the month I will be including a series of posts on Adobe's latest tools, including the recently announced Acrobat 9.

[Via Robert Ambrogi's LawSites]

Time Warner Cable is going forward with plans to test monthly download metering.  Time Warner will be the first major ISP to cap monthly downloads and offer price tiers for varying limits.  (Holahan, Time Warner's Net Metering Precedent (June 4, 2008) www.businessweek.com.)  Time Warner claims that download caps are necessary to prevent heavy users from overloading their infrastructure.  I respectfully call horse hockey.  The top tier offered in the Time Warner trial will only permit 40GB of downloads in a month for $54.90.  40GB of downloads would allow about 7-8 high definition movie downloads.  It looks like big cable is afraid of a future where people buy their movies and download them over high bandwidth internet connections.  So much for all that revenue from cable movies on demand.  This is anti-competitive behavior by an industry unwilling to invest in sufficient infrastructure to support what it has sold to consumers (allegedly).

I'm a Time Warner cable customer at home (consumed in the Adelphia implosion).  I wrote Time Warner when I first heard about the cap trial.  I promised in my correspondence that I would move to a dish solution for cable and get my internet elsewhere if they roll out a pathetically low bandwidth cap in Southern California.  Are you listening Time Warner?

And how is it that the United States has some of the lowest broadband speeds of any industrialized nation?  Don't get me started...

UPDATE:  On a related note, the City of Los Angeles, via the City Attorney, announced today that it intends to sue Time Warner Cable for "sucking."  (Chris Walter, Los Angeles To Sue Time Warner Cable For Sucking (June 5, 2008) consumerist.com, as cited by Consumer Law & Policy Blog.)

According to the executive director of LegalTech, LegalTech is "the MOST IMPORTANT technology event for the legal professional. . . ."  I suppose I'll take his word for it, since I can't think of a similar event that clearly tops LegalTech.  Slight ribbing aside, I have attended LegalTech in past years and find it to be the best way to effectively compare competing solutions for law technology issues.  Every website tells you that their software has the latest and greatest features, best usability, and so on.  That's all marketing jibberish.  You need to examine a software package and decide for yourself if it looks intuitive and appears to solve (at a price you can afford) issues your firm faces in a way that is better than the solution you may already have in place.

The Complex Litigator will be attending LegalTech this year.  I'll be looking for interesting developments in technology that could make complex litigation and class action practice smoother to navigate.  LegalTech will provide seminars on issues that include:

Best Practices and Issues in Information Management for CIOs and IT Directors • Electronic Discovery Issues in Litigation • Knowledge Management • Leveraging Legal Technology for Practice Management and Transactional Support • E-Discovery Jeopardy! • Corporate Perspectives on EDD • Legal Outsourcing: Trends, Best Practices, and Emerging Markets • “Tomorrowland”- What is on the Legal and Technology Horizon? • Data Privacy Issues for Multinational Corporations

In other words, something for everyone.

A few rising names in legal technology arena are involved in LegalTech.  For example J. Craig Williams, the blogger responsible for May It Please The Court, is on the faculty.  If you handle technology decisions at your firm, or if you offer input in that regard, try to stop by LegalTech and check out what's new.  You'll at least get some free pens with corporate logos on them, and maybe a flashlight for your kid.  I'm hoping for coasters and frisbees.  And a squooshy ball.

Where:  Los Angeles Convention Center
When:  June 26 - June 27