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New Orleans Law Firm Revamps Backups Post Katrina

That revealed a flaw in the law firm’s disaster planning. “We had our data, and it was safe in New Orleans, but it was inaccessible,” he says. “We were protecting our data, but we weren’t fully protecting the processes of our business.”
Zeller has set up a Web-based e-mail system to forward mail so during a blackout when both Baton Rouge and New Orleans are shut down, e-mail would be available through a separate Web site domain.
Also, the law firm has set up a Web site where employees can log their current location in an emergency. The site also contains phone numbers of close friends and relatives who live out of the likely path of hurricanes who will know the locations of employees.
Chaffe McCall has learned that the best disaster recovery planning can’t bring the business back up any faster than the people who work there can learn to cope. “That first week a lot of people were still getting their acts together on a personal level realizing they had just lost everything they owned,” Zeller says.

Law firm retools its backup scenario

There is a lot here for law schools to learn. When disaster strikes, are you prepared? Reminds me of the Law School Emergency Planning Project, described here and talked about at the 2006 Conference for Law School Computing®.  Law schools really need to be working on this sort of thing because when it happens, it’s too late.

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Linux In Education: Advancing An Elementary School

Two parent volunteers at an Atlanta district school have revolutionized technology use there by replacing Windows workstations with Linux on thin clients, using K12LTSP.Click here!Daniel Howard and William Fragakis were spending too much time fixing “broken” computers at Brandon Elementary School. They were slow, frequently frozen, and “fraught with hardware, software, and malware issues. We would hear over and over again, ‘our computer doesn’t work anymore,'” Howard says, “and it takes hours to reinstall the operating system or figure out what driver got corrupted by what virus.” Students weren’t learning how to use the computers because frustrated teachers weren’t including computer work in their lesson plans. “What we discovered is that teachers were really using [the computers] only for browsing and office applications.” The school didn’t have enough money to upgrade Windows 98 or aging hardware, and Howard and Fragakis were working many hours just to keep the school’s technology afloat.

NewsForge | Brandon Elementary transformed by K12LTSP

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$899 iMac for Education

Apple® today introduced a new $899 configuration of the 17-inch iMac® designed specifically for education customers featuring a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, a built-in iSight™ video camera and iLife® ‘06, the next generation of Apple’s award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications. The 17-inch iMac for education is available immediately and will replace the eMac®, Apple’s last CRT based computer, providing students and teachers everything they need to learn and create in today’s digital classroom, all in the ultra-efficient iMac design.

Apple Introduces $899 Education Configuration for 17-inch iMac

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Putting Needles in a Haystack

Haystack will allow us to deliver very robust storage solutions for users at a very low marginal cost.

Forward Looking Statements: More on Haystack

Haystack is the storage technology that backs allyoucanupload, a new venture from CNet.  It uses commodity hardware, including 400 gb SATA drives, and software to power a cutting edge object storage and replication system. 

I am fascinated by the movement away from tradational data storage schemes to more open, commodity based solutions that actually scale quickly and effectively. 

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MSFT, CC Team to Add CC Licensing to Office

Microsoft Corp. and Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works, have teamed up to release a copyright licensing tool that enables the easy addition of Creative Commons licensing information for works in popular Microsoft® Office applications. The copyright licensing tool will be available free of charge at Microsoft Office Online, http://office.microsoft.com, and CreativeCommons.org. The tool will enable the 400 million users of Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel® and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® to select one of several Creative Commons licenses from within the specific application.

Microsoft and Creative Commons Release Tool for Copyright Licensing: The organizations announce availability of Microsoft Office add-in that enables easy access to Creative Commons copyright licenses.

This is a step in the right direction.

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