logo
  • Home
  • About Ben Stevens
  • Presentations/Publications
  • Contact Ben

Category Archives: Other Operating Systems

Do You Know “The Cost of Slow”?

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Ben Stevens Posted in Did You Know?, Guest Posts, Office Management, Other Operating Systems, Software, Technology Leave a comment
Share

The Cost of Slow

“Time is money.” We’ve all heard that old adage, but have you ever thought about it from the perspective of how moving slowly can actually hurt your practice? The following Guest Post from Tom Lambotte addresses some of the ways that lawyers and law firms lose time and money without even knowing it:

The Cost of Slow

A very strange thing occurred to us in October 2014. A prospective client signed up for our services, wrote us a big check (which we cashed), then disappeared. When he came to us, he had been reading our materials for some time and was ready to move forward. He definitely had a need and was keenly aware that his IT situation was out of whack. Being a Mac guy himself, he had been trying to make the move from PCs to Macs for some time. He had accepted that he wouldn’t be able to do it himself, saw the value in our services and we had a signed agreement overnight. We charged his card and started our in-depth onboarding process. Then…he disappeared. Completely. Not a peep. We couldn’t get a call back and were unable to connect via calls or email. We eventually gave up, and were left scratching our heads as to what happened.

Fast-forward three months later, and out of the blue, I received an email from him saying he was ready to get started. We were happy to have his business, but I was more concerned about what had happened in the first place. I had to clear the air and be confident he would prove to be a good, responsive client for us to work with. Our service depends on having a quality two-way relationship with our clients.

He explained to me that after we spoke his father had convinced him that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ and that since the computers were still running, why upgrade them? These were old PCs running Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server. Well, after that decision, two systems went down, one of them actually went down twice, and one never came back up at all. This left their users unable to work for multiple days at a time and one of his employees was literally left without a computer to work on. So he was now more ready to move forward than ever before, especially since they were tax attorneys heading into the busiest season of the year. We picked things up and since then have switched his office to Macs and everyone is now thrilled.

In terms of technology, the old adage, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is a completely flawed belief system. There exists a perception that the longer you keep computers, the better ‘bang for your buck’ you are getting. Technically that is true, however, the unrealized cost of this is massive. Today, I’m going to dive into this topic through 2 primary arguments. First, I am going to challenge the ‘perception of savings,’ helping you see the real cost of slowness. Second, we’re going to dive into the value of your time.

Cost of slow

Based upon a 2007 survey, the U.S. Census Bureau report shows that the legal services industry has the 3rd highest payroll costs, coming in at 45.03%. If you can increase your firm’s productivity, you can increase your profitability. That sounds like my money in your pocket. Ok, so how do we impact productivity using technology?

In its most basic method, I always start by first looking at bottlenecks that can be removed and then determine ways to increase productivity through training and having the proper tools and solutions in place. Without getting too geeky (this is not the place), today’s fastest consumer CPU (processor) is over 3x as fast as the fastest consumer CPU that was available 5 years ago. In the mean time, we also moved from DDR2 to DDR3 memory, and SSDs are slowly becoming the norm over HDDs. The experience of a new high-end PC today is definitely a whole lot different than five years ago.

That time spent waiting for Internet Explorer to startup, or the time it takes for a computer to startup and log in? You’re paying for that. A lot more than you realize. If a modern computer saves someone just 10 minutes a day, that comes out to 2,400 minutes per year, or 40 hours. On average, what is the fully burdened cost of one week of payroll? Let’s take $40/hr as a very conservative example, which adds up to $1,600 per year, per computer. This isn’t even taking anything else into account, such as having an easier User Interface, to work with, as you get with a Mac, additional training that can be provided to your staff, or rolling out solutions that make it easier for your staff to achieve the things they do dozens of time every day.

You see, slow is expensive and in most cases our computers are the bottlenecks in our workflow, when we are waiting on them to finish. Waiting for programs to open, for large PDFs to be OCR’d after they are scanned (you do scan all your files, right?), or waiting for a file to be saved. When working on a slow machine, most people don’t notice it, since it’s all they know and they have become accustomed to it. Your role is to make sure your staff has the best tools available to them so they can be as productive as possible. Their job is not to tell you their computers are old and slow and need to be replaced.

Spend money where you spend your time

Once you’ve saved money, where should you spend it in order to maximize the usefulness of your money spent—or even your happiness? To answer that, just look at what you spend your day doing, proportionally, and allocate money accordingly. Let’s call this the comfort principle.

Simply calculate how much of your day is spent using a certain item. Let’s say we get our recommended 8 hours of sleep per night, leaving us with 16 hours. If we spend 8 hours of our day on or at our computers, we’ve spent 50% of our days on our computers. Let’s get some actual numbers instead of abstract numbers, as this tends to be easier to grasp. In being (very) conservative I am going to use a 40 hour work week, and we’ll say an attorney spends 30 hours of that time on their computers. Over 52 weeks, this comes out to 1,560 hours. Our company cycles all of our clients’ hardware on a 3 year cycle, as we have found this to be the optimal schedule. Going with that, you will spend 4,680 hours on your computer over 3 years. Wouldn’t it make sense to invest a few extra dollars there? Can you see how working on an old machine, simply because it still runs, is not a good idea?

Seeing how much time you actually spend working on your computer, wouldn’t it be worth it to spend a little more up front to make sure you have a great computer? If your computer takes 10 seconds to open an app and you can shave it down to 2 by upgrading to a newer computer, that’s a worthwhile purchase when you factor in frustration and time saved. If your computer locks up frequently because you don’t have enough RAM or if it’s just too slow, it’s in your own interest to upgrade or get a new computer. If you and your staff can get through your day with as little aggravation, frustration and discomfort as possible, everyone will be much more relaxed, which benefits you and everyone around you. And preventing stress is much better than having to spend money later on to alleviate stress. A new client recently told us they had lost an Office Manager the year prior due to issues with her slow computer that were never addressed.

The sad truth is that most people don’t ‘get’ this concept. Time and time again, I have found myself talking to some clients with older systems, quite often the managing partner, trying to convince them to upgrade to a newer one. When the day comes and they finally upgrade, I ALWAYS get raving “thank yous” and “I wish I had done this sooner.” The same goes for laptop users finally getting a big monitor to work on, but that’s a topic for another month.

I challenge you to look at the hardware that you and your staff are working on. Do they have the right tools to complete their work done in an efficient manner or are their systems acting as bottlenecks in their workflow? Is your firms’ hardware over 3 years old? If so, while it may feel good to not be writing a check for the computer hardware, you are, in fact, writing the check, it’s just going to another line item, your payroll. I challenge you to question the way you look towards IT. Is it an expense you dread putting any money towards? Or is it a measurable investment you should be making into smart investments into. Remember, the legal services industry has the 3rd highest payroll cost, 45.03%! Every boost in productivity for your staff raises your revenue and your overall profitability.

About the Author: Tom Lambotte is CEO of GlobalMac IT, the only company in the world that specializes in providing IT support to Mac-based law firms. His methods are based on close to a decade of research, testing and real-world refinement of Best Practices, working directly with Mac-based law firms and firms switching from PC to Mac, across the country and around the world. Tom is the author of Hassle Free Mac IT Support for Law Firms and a highly sought after speaker at national events such as the ABA Techshow and MILOfest, a Mac Lovin’ Lawyers Event. Learn more about Tom and GlobalMac IT at www.globalmacit.com, and readers of The Mac Lawyer can obtain a free copy of Tom’s book, Hassle Free Mac IT Support for Law Firms, at this link.

The Legal Mac :: Using Windows on Your Mac

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Ben Stevens Posted in How Do I ...?, Mac vs. PC, Other Operating Systems, Software 3 Comments
Share

This month’s The Legal Mac column from Law Practice Today, the ABA Law Practice Management Section‘s webzine, features an excellent discussion of the options available to those Mac-using attorneys who want or need to use Windows programs. I am pleased to present “Using Windows on Your Mac” by David Sparks:

One of the excuses that attorneys give for their reluctance to switch from PCs to Macs is that they “need” Windows for one reason or another. The good news is that Macs can run other operating systems, including Windows, whenever needed.

As a Mac-using attorney, I often raise eyebrows when people look over my shoulder to see Windows on my screen. They are even more surprised when they found out how easy it is to run Windows on a Mac.

In 2006, Apple moved the entire Macintosh line to Intel processors. This is the same hardware used by most PC manufacturers. While there are some small differences, Macs and PCs are all using compatible hardware. Almost immediately after this transition, Apple and third party software developers found ways to run Windows on Apple hardware. There are currently three primary methods:

Apple Boot Camp – One Operating System at a Time

Boot Camp is Apple’s own free virtualization application built into every new Macintosh computer. It allows you to make two separate partitions on your hard drive, one for Windows and one for the Apple OS X operating system. Once you enable Boot Camp, you are presented a choice when you boot up, Windows or OS X? You simply click the desired operating system and away it goes.

If you choose Windows, your installed Windows partition will load no differently than if it were a Dell or Lenovo. You can run any Windows application your hardware will support. If you click the button for Apple OS X, your computer boots into the Macintosh operating system. This, in essence, gives you two computers in one.

One of the biggest advantages of Boot Camp is that it allows you to devote the entire resources of your computer to whichever operating system you choose. If you load Windows, the entire processor, memory, and operating components are driving Windows. People who operate graphics intensive video software often prefer to use Boot Camp for this reason.

The fact that Boot Camp only runs one operating system at a time is also its biggest detriment. A lot of Mac users want to have the benefits of Windows and Mac OS X at the same time. That is not possible with Boot Camp. This leads to the second method, third party virtualization solutions.

Third Party Virtualization – Peaceful Coexistence

While Boot Camp provides a free and easy solution to run Windows on your Mac, some users prefer to run both Windows and OS X at the same time. Using virtualization applications such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion, both of which cost $70, you can install Windows (or Linux) to run as its own OS X application. These applications support any version of Windows from Windows 95 up through the recently released Windows 7 beta.

Continue reading→

Limited Praise for Mac OS X from ABA’s Law Technology Today

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac OS X, Mac vs. PC, Other Operating Systems 1 Comment
Share

Mac_vs_pc_1
In his latest "Technology Update," Joe Kashi bemoans the current state of Microsoft’s operating systems, noting that Vista is "not hot," Windows 7 is "years away," and XP is "being killed off."  In fact, he sounds like he’s "almost" ready to be a Mac convert, when he says

Were I starting over and had no Windows-only legal software
constraints, I’d go with the excellent Mac OS 10 or some form of Linux,
both of which are based upon the powerful Unix operating systems that
have been constantly improved and refined since the late 1960s, an when
Bill Gates had not yet dropped out of Harvard. Unfortunately, most
legal professionals don’t have the luxury of changing operating systems
because we are tied to Windows-only legal software.

I’m glad that Mr. Koshi is such a fan of Mac’s OS X, but I disagree with his assertion that it’s difficult for attorneys who use Windows to switch.  As I’ve written over the years, there are many excellent legal software options available to Mac users, and through the use of virtualization software, Mac users can also run any necessary Windows-only programs.

Source:  ""Technology Update" by Joe Kashi, published in the ABA Law Practice Management Section‘s Law Technology Today.

Using Macs to Build a Better Windows Network

Posted on March 10, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Hardware, Office Management, Other Operating Systems Leave a comment
Share

Apple_windows
My good friend, David Swanner, reports that his "tech guy is using
Apple iMacs to build a more stable, easier to maintain Windows network."  That’s right, even some PC tech guys are starting to come around to the many benefits offered by Macs.

Dave lists the following advantages of running Windows on a Mac:

  • Nice Hardware at a Reasonable Price – Chrome and glass, 20″ monitor, memory, speed, decent memory all in one box. It works well and is attractive.
  • Less Desk Space – The Macs are an all in one and leave a small footprint on your desk. It’s just the monitor and the keyboard.
  • Ease of Maintenance
    – The entire Parallels Windows file is a single computer file. That’s
    huge. You can install Windows, tweak it to the way you want, install
    all of the programs that you want and then all of that information will
    be in a single Parallels file that can be copied and backed up. If your
    Windows goes down, you can just copy that file back to your iMac and
    you’re up and running. If your entire iMac goes down, you can copy that
    file to a different iMac and you’re up and running. No worrying about
    file registries, different hardware signatures. No fuss, no muss.
  • Portability – Once you have your Parallels backup file, you can copy that to another machine without any problems. You can’t do that (easily) with Windows, because of different hardware configurations and the Windows registry.
  • Ease of Installation
    – Once you have a specific set up that you want, for example,
    WordPerfect, TimeMatters, CaseMap, TimeMap, Sanction, MicroSoft Office,
    you can save this as a building block and as a base for every
    installation. Of course, you need to have a site license for each
    program. You will also have to switch license codes, but that’s a lot
    easier than starting each machine’s installation from scratch.

I urge you to visit Dave’s post to get his thoughts.  While you are there, you should check out the rest of his blog, as I believe it’s one of the best out there.

Source:  "Using iMacs to Build a Better Windows Network" by David Swanner, published at his South Carolina Trial Law Blog.

Another Virtualization Option for Macs :: VirtualBox

Posted on May 3, 2007 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC, Other Operating Systems, Software Leave a comment
Share

Virtual_box
From this week’s MacUser blog:

Joining the ranks of Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion and CrossOver is a new addition to the Mac virtualization market: VirtualBox. A few days ago, innotek released a Mac beta version of the software, in addition to its existing Windows and Linux editions.

What differentiates VirtualBox from its competitors is its price: $0
for personal use. Not only that, it’s completely open-source. It runs
various flavors of both Linux and Windows (including Vista). A few
notable features
include a modular design, Remote Desktop Protocol support, and shared
folders. Overall, it sounds like VirtualBox is somewhat on the geeky
side.

Judging by the lone Mac screenshot on VirtualBox’s site, the product lacks Parallels Desktop’s polish, but early user reports sent to MacWindows
suggest the speed is impressive. There’s price to pay for the “beta”
label, though: among other things, expect USB support to be flaky.

Anyone want to try it out and report back? The beta is downloadable from VirtualBox’s website.

Source:  "VirtualBox, Yet Another Virtualization Option" by Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen, published at the MacUser blog.

Boot Camp Now Compatible With Vista

Posted on March 30, 2007 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac OS X, Mac vs. PC, Other Operating Systems, Software Leave a comment
Share

Boot_camp
Apple’s Boot Camp software has just been updated, and it now officially supports the 32-bit version of Windows Vista. The offical list of improvements includes:

  • Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)
  • Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera
  • Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player)
  • A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions
  • Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian
  • Improved Windows driver installation experience
  • Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows
  • Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista)

The new software can be downloaded HERE.

Source:  "Boot Camp 1.2 Released, Includes Vista Support" by Alex Oughton, published at InsanelyMac.

Virtualization Software for Macs

Posted on March 13, 2007 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC, Other Operating Systems, Software Leave a comment
Share

Boot_camp To follow up on the issues addressed in Craig Poff’s guest post yesterday, the Washington Post published an article last week that takes a look at the similarities and features of the big three virtualization programs:  Apple’s BootCamp, Parallels Desktop for Mac, and CodeWeavers’ CrossOver Mac.  After its in-depth analysis, the article concludes:  "For somebody who needs to run only one or two Windows programs,
CrossOver can be a cheap, simple solution. Otherwise, Parallels easily
justifies its higher cost and system requirements."

Better yet, the article concludes by saying that "Many new Mac
users, however, may discover they don’t need to run Windows programs
after all — for just about any task imaginable, a good Mac program can
be found. The greatest feature of software like Parallels and CrossOver
may be their existence alone. They constitute a cheap, easily exercised
insurance policy that frees people to buy the computer they want
without worry."  You can read the whole article by clicking HERE.

Source:  "Playing on Both Sides" by Rob Pegoraro, published in the Washington Post. 

Guest Post :: BootCamp vs. Parallels

Posted on March 12, 2007 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Other Operating Systems, Software 1 Comment
Share

Guest_post_1I am pleased to present the following guest post from Craig Poff, a Mac-using attorney in Beaufort, SC:

I switched to Parallels for Mac last Christmas, and I have enjoyed nothing but smooth sailing.  I downloaded it straight from the company’s Web site, it installed easily (luckily I already had a copy of Windows XP Pro, as you need it), I installed Windows XP as my Guest Operating System (although you could install Linux, I am told or even old versions of Windows, if you have the disks) and haven’t had a single problem.  So much easier to keep Windows open as merely another open application on Mac, rather than shutting down and rebooting, as  required by Apple’s Boot Camp.

Indeed, Boot Camp made your Mac more like a total Windows PC (in terms of running the DVD, CD-ROM, the printer ports, etc.), but I am only using Windows for specialized applications (Bankruptcy and Quicken) and don’t try to play movies, run 3D games or even go on line.  Indeed, when Windows is running on your Mac, being a Bill Gates product, it will seek to "take over" control of your printer, USB slots, etc.  If it does so, all you have to do is close Parallels and Mac regains full control of all functions of the computer.

Just a note to say that anybody interested in trying it should take the plunge.  The Web Site offers a free 14 day full-function trial of the software.  I was anxious to put my money down well before the 14 days were up ($80 or so).

Craig Joseph Poff, Esq.
Law Office of Craig Joseph Poff
605 Carteret Street
Beaufort, South Carolina 29901
843-521-0995
843-524-2354 (fax)
craig@craigpoff.com

Mac User Switches to Vista — Or Does He?

Posted on February 1, 2007 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac OS X, Other Operating Systems, Switching to Macs 1 Comment
Share

Vista
Reporter Joe Hutsko conducted an experiment to write a story for anyone considering switching from Mac to PC in the wake of the release of Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system.  Mr. Hutsko gave up his 12″
PowerBook and began using a 17″ HP widescreen notebook running Vista.

In his very thorough article, he describes the following areas in great detail:

  • Impressions of Vista’s appearance and actions;
  • The process of moving his data to the PC;
  • Multimedia, mobility, and security aspects of Vista; and
  • Miscellaneous other impressions about Vista.

So in the end, which does Mr. Hutsko prefer?  He concludes his article by saying, "For me, [Macs] just works right, without really having to think about it.  So I decided to switch again. From Vista, back to the Mac — to the brand new, white MacBook on which I told this story."

If you are interested in an honest, first-hand comparison of Vista and OS X, read Mr. Hutsko’s article.  It shows what can happen when you go over to the "dark side" (i.e., Windows) only to see the light and come back again.  Seriously though, it is a good read, and you can read the full article by clicking HERE.

Source:  "A Mac User Switches to Vista" by Joe Hutsko, published at MSNBC.com.

Published By

Ben Stevens
  • SC Family Law Blog
  • Subscribe To This Blog
  • Join MILO Group
  • Subscribe To Podcast

Subscribe by Email


Blog Archives

Topics

  • Apps
  • Articles
  • Chrome
  • Did You Know?
  • eDiscovery
  • Guest Posts
  • Hardware
  • How Do I …?
  • iOS
  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Mac OS X
  • Mac vs. PC
  • Miscellaneous
  • Office Management
  • Office Resources
  • Offline Resources
  • Online Resources
  • Other
  • Other Operating Systems
  • Podcasts
  • Presentations
  • Product Reviews
  • Security
  • Siri
  • Social Media
  • Software
  • Special Offers
  • Switching to Macs
  • Technology
  • This Blog

Recent Updates

  • Learn How to Protect Your Firm from a Security Breach
  • Free Webinar – The 7 Cybersecurity Threats That Could Endanger Your Law Firm In 2021 …And How To Prevent Them
  • Free Webinar: Expert Tips for Mac-Loving Lawyers

Other Resources

  • 9 to 5 Mac | Apple Intelligence
  • a mac lawyer's notebook
  • A Technology Resource for Legal Professionals
  • Acrobat for Legal Professionals
  • Apple Briefs
  • AppleInsider | Apple Insider News and Analysis
  • Criminal Defense Law with an Apple
  • DennisKennedy.com
  • Digital Practice of Law
  • Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground
  • Futurelawyer
  • Hawk Wings
  • iPhone J.D.
  • Justia Blawg Search
  • LawTech Guru Blog
  • Lawyerist
  • Legal Practice Pro
  • Legal Resource #1
  • Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done
  • Mac Law Students
  • Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About
  • Mac360 – Mac Reviews, Commentary, & Forums
  • Macenstein
  • MacLaw
  • MacLitigator
  • macosxhints.com – OS X tips and tricks!
  • MacSparky
  • My First Mac – Help Buying and Getting Started with Your New Mac
  • PDF for Lawyers
  • Randy Singer's Macintosh Attorney
  • Robert Ambrogi's LawSites
  • Ross Ipsa Loquitur Blog
  • Scripting for Lawyers
  • South Carolina Bar's Macintosh Resources
  • South Carolina Trial Law Blog
  • Switch To A Mac
  • TechnoEsq
  • The Practice

The Mac Lawyer

Ben Stevens | 349 East Main Street, Suite 200, Spartanburg, SC 29302 | P: (864) 598-9172 | F: (864) 598-9264 | info@scfamilylaw.com
Home | About Ben Stevens | Presentations/Publications | Contact Ben
Privacy Policy | Disclaimer
Copyright © 2013, The Mac Lawyer. All Rights Reserved