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From UM-LawSoftware
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What This Wiki is About
What (primarily) free and open source software would be useful in law practice
- especially for a small practice or sole practitioner
- especially for a startup -- when funds may be tight
Issues to Discuss
Issues to discuss (may require their own pages soon)
- Should we open this discussion up?
- Advertise its existence outside the UM community?
Specific Software
Lists of software
Here's a list of useful software Froomkin thinks belongs on the faculty desktop with an additional item. Note that not all of it is free. Also the list doesn't include any of the nifty Firefox plugins. Nor a good calendar program. Nor anything like a contacts management tool. Nor anything for time keeping and billing. Tom's Hardware has a list of Windows software they like
Snake Oil Labs has its top 10 freeware apps for windows. Most are not really work-oriented, but it does include a link to TOR and some other goodies.
PC Magazine's list of 'best free software' includes anti-virus suggestions and a pointer to zonealarm. Also *lots* of graphics software.
Generally unexciting, but comprehensive, list of "best free utilities"
Lots of good stuff, ready for distribution at The OpenCD.
Compilation at Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society
30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows
Lifehacker's best of 2006 list
Courtroom Software
(Lonny is going to provide a list)
Not exactly courtroom software, but Open Workbench is a free, open source project management software
Law Office Software
Pretty primitive, but SimplyBill will generate simple invoices.
Side Job Track says that with it "you can quickly and easily manage your side jobs with simple, straightforward project tools. Side Job Track's flexible data entry lets you to decide how to best fit your specific needs. If you have access to a web server, you can even create completely customized estimate and invoice templates."
Microsoft offers a *free* copy of Office Accounting Express 2007. Handles basic billing and accounts.
Browser/Web Related
Ed Bott's favorite Firefox extensions
Lifehacker's "top ten bookmarklets"
WordPress now offers free online blogs
Pingoat will send pings most blogging services
How to use Google Base to market and distribute your blog content
Use google maps to embed a map on your web page
Teamslide is an online service that allows you to give presentations over the Web. You create slides (can be done via add-on to PowerPoint) that can be shared via a browser with no extras installed. Back end, however, requires that some scripts be installed on a Web server with PHP 4.3.10 (or higher) or PHP 5.x.
Foxit Reader is a super-fast pdf reader, works great with browsers, much better than Adobe. ">Sumatra PDF viewer is even smaller and uses gmail-like keyboard shortcuts.
Podpress is a plugin for wordpress that makes podcasting easy.
Word Processing
Microsoft's remove metadata tool - very important before sending any word document out the door!
WinMerge compares and merges pairs of text documents
ExpressPDF is an online service that lets you convert your Microsoft Office documents to PDF.
TextSTAT - Simple Text Analysis Tool (source: Free University of Berlin): "TextSTAT is a simple programme for the analysis of texts. It reads ASCII/ANSI texts (in different encodings) and HTML files (directly from the internet) and it produces word frequency lists and concordances from these files. This version includes a web-spider which reads as many pages as you want from a particular website and puts them in a TextSTAT-corpus. The new news-reader puts news messages in a TextSTAT-readable corpus file.
TextSTAT can read and import text from the web and also can also read MS Word and OpenOffice documents."
ThinkFree Office Online lets you open, edit, create, and save Microsoft Office documents (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel) from any browser. Features include:- Post documents directly to your blog without any conversion
- Create powerful Web presentations using a familiar interface
- Convert your existing documents to PDF format
Bullfighter is an add-in for Microsoft Word and Powerpoint. It will scan your documents for over-utilization use of jargon while at the same time suggesting alternatives that cut the corporate business BS from your documents.
Fancy printers print documents face down, so that page one of a document comes first. Cheaper printers print documents face up, so that page one of a long document ends up last. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to print documents in reverse order (instructions for Word and for Wordperfect)?
Calendars
Trumba costs $30/year, and is served from their web site, but comes highly recommended
Planzo is on online calendar. Lacks iCal support, but has other virtues.
Google has a nifty calendering function -- if you don't mind them having all your data forever and ever.
Time To Meet is a free web-based service that allows a group to find a common time to have a meeting. Small fee required for Google/iCal/Outlook calendar synchronization and a TimeToMeet "secretary" (a personal URL others can use to schedule appointments with you).
Email related
various gmail expanders and some gmail hacks
Quicktext is a plugin for Thunderbird which allows context-sensitive repetive boilerplate text...
Presentation Software
There's some in open office. Also there's Thumbstacks, an online presentation builder and presenter: "Create and edit slides online Word-like rich-text editing controls and with images and drawings from anywhere on the web. Launch and view your presentation right from the Thumbstacks site and edit it from any 'net-connected computer." (currently in alpha, so beware!)
Collaborative Tools
Online word processing for groups
Project Management Software
Open Project is a powerful, free, open-source, cross-platform tool that is compatible with existing Microsoft or Primavera files. It has has Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams (PERT Charts), WBS and RBS charts, Earned Value costing and more. Works on Windows, Mac, or Linux or Unix.
Open Workbench is a free, open source project management software
Other
MindMeister is a highly rated, but very simplified mind-mapper. XMind is a full-featured, more complex program that also hets high ratings. FreeMind implements mindmapping in Java. All of these programs are free.
Another simplified version of the mind-mapper idea is at bubbl.us. A tutorial on on mind-mapping meetings is at Note Taking: A Beginner's Guide to Mind Mapping Meetings.
Deskloops is a tool to manage applications windows in Win XP
Giffy is an online tool for making and sharing flow charts.
camstudio is a free tool for making streaming video.
Swivel makes graphs from data sets.
Audacity is a full-featured tool for making podcasts.
Trac "Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Trac uses a minimalistic approach to web-based software project management. Our mission is to help developers write great software while staying out of the way. Trac should impose as little as possible on a team's established development process and policies.
"It provides an interface to Subversion, an integrated Wiki and convenient reporting facilities.
"Trac allows wiki markup in issue descriptions and commit messages, creating links and seamless references between bugs, tasks, changesets, files and wiki pages. A timeline shows all project events in order, making the acquisition of an overview of the project and tracking progress very easy."
Note: Trac requires Python.
Gizmo is a free VOIP phone, with lowish charges for calls to non-SIP telephones (e.g. land lines). Cross platform. Plays well with Skype and others big names.
Utilities
A little utility program called OpenWide fixes one of the major windows annoyances: programs that open tiny little file dialogs when you want to find a file.
WinDirStat is a hard drive analyzer that gives you a visual representation of what files are taking up the most space on your disk. "The treemap represents each file as a colored rectangle, the area of which is proportional to the file's size. The rectangles are arranged in such a way, that directories again make up rectangles, which contain all their files and subdirectories." Allows easy clean up of large unused files.
WinKey lets you assign up to 200 Windows keyboard shortcuts.
Laptop utilities from LaptopLogic.
TimeSnapper takes screenshots of your desktop every few seconds to give you an accurate picture of what exactly you've been doing with your time. "With TimeSnapper you can play back your week just like a movie. You can play it at any speed you like, and jump in at any time you like. When it's time to fill out that dreaded timesheet, TimeSnapper is a savior. No need to tear your hair out trying to remember where all the time went."
Freeware HDD Health monitors your PC's hard drives for errors that predict an impending hard drive crash. "HDD Health uses Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.), which is built into all new hard disks to keep tabs on how your drive is doing. HDD Health also watches your hard drive's temperature and sends you an alert email if it gets too hot or if the status changes."
Similar program HDDLife
RootkitRevealer "is an advanced patent-pending root kit detection utility. It runs on Windows NT 4 and higher and its output lists Registry and file system API discrepancies that may indicate the presence of a user-mode or kernel-mode rootkit. RootkitRevealer successfully detects all persistent rootkits published at www.rootkit.com, including AFX, Vanquish and HackerDefender (note: RootkitRevealer is not intended to detect rootkits like Fu that don't attempt to hide their files or registry keys)."
Image manipulation utilities: Paint.NET and of course The Gimp.
HDClone Free Edition allows you to clone an entire hard drive to another, larger drive. This is useful if you've got a hard drive that's too small, or your old hard drive is getting very near obsolescence and you want to upgrade while you still can.
Deskpins is a free Windows utility which "can be used to make any application topmost, that is, to keep it above all other windows. Just grab a pin from the DeskPins icon in the system notification area (a.k.a. taskbar tray) and click on any window. This functionality is identical to the "Always on Top" setting found in some programs."
Fresh Diagnose is a utility program that tells you about the internals of the OS and various software. Free, but after 11 days you have to fill out a free registration.
Print Conductor is a nifty utility to print files without having to open them. Can print many files at once, organize print queues etc.
Zamzar is an online file utility that claims to convert almost anything to almost anything.
VLC is a utility that will play almost any type of video on almost any computer using almost any operating system. Now that's versatility!
Divshare promises unlimited online file storage and sharing -- and they promise to keep it online forever. It's not secure, but it is an easy way to transfer or share a large file. Similar services include DropBoks and Localhostr.
Misc Specialist Web Stuff
Info on how to use Del.icio.us
how to use excel to map stuff on Yahoo! maps
customized stamps (w/ your picture or office logo?)
Delivery Mechanisms
A suggestion: produce a CD full of good stuff and hand it to students around graduation? Also note that there is a CD out there produced by The Open CD Org.
If we do a CD it needs a cute front-end menu-driven installer.
May also want to collect info (and include on CD as an html file with links?) about useful web-based services such as bloglines, writeboard, maybe SynchroEdit (a browser-based simultaneous multiuser editor, a form of same-time, different-place groupware)...when it gets beyond alpha.
Other Issues
Question: Should we do Mac as well as PC software?
Links to Misc. Special Pages
May 17, 2006 Faculty software presentation
Legal Research
Free or Cheap Legal Research Websites
UScourts.gov (get specific rules for your district and court information i.e. jury instructions...)
Pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov (Pull up and print, can search other litigation that a company or judge is involved in)
Sunbiz.org (Found out information on Florida corporations)
Nass.org (If not a Florida Corporation)
Census.gov (Census information)
Gao.gov (U.S. Government Accountability Office)
Access.gpo.gov (for bluebooking)
Sec.gov (access corporate information, 10k reports, news releases)
Statelocalgov.net (links to state, local, and federal municipalities)
Law.Cornell.edu (Relevant statutes, cases...)
Findlaw.com (Good links, relevant statutes, cases...)
Catalaw.com (International law, laws from different countries)
Legalethics.com (Questions concerning ethics or professional responsibility)
Refdesk.com (website with a little of everything, links to translation sites, experts...)
Copernic.com (Meta search engine, searching specifically for legal news)
Anywho.com (ATT reverse phone book)
Caba.com (Cuban American Bar Association--information on local Judges)
Criminaldefense.homestead.com (Comprehensive Guide to Criminal Defense)
Please see documentation on customizing the interface and the User's Guide for usage and configuration help.
