Tech

Some of the most popular articles from the technology category.

Drawing That Explains Why Google+ Doesn't Suck (8/31/2011)
Any why Facebook is panicking.
Nominate Techdirt For The ABA's List Of Top 100 Law-Related Blogs (8/22/2011)
Techdirt is on my short list of must-read blogs.
Erik J. Heels's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week (8/19/2011)
from the forest-and-trees dept
Scamming The Chinese Domain Name Scammers http://goo.gl/XBoI0 (6/3/2011)
Don't Fall For China Domain Name Fraud. Seek The Deeper Meaning Of Words.
$2 Billion In Angel/VC Funding + 10 Acquisitions By Public Companies = @ClockTowerLaw's Winning Clients http://goo.gl/By5mt (5/24/2011)
Clock Tower Law Group: Helping Smart Companies Get Richer(TM).
Clock Tower Law Group Turns 10, Wants Flying Cars (3/21/2011)
Or a pony.
Top 10 Things Smart Companies Should Know About Intellectual Property (10/22/2010)
Smart businesses should use all laws – including IP laws – to their advantage.
Top 10 Questions To Ask Before Your Company Spends Money On Social Media (9/12/2010)
Social networking is not magic.
Google Legal Summit NYC 2010 (4/28/2010)
Innovation And Disruption As A Google Core Value.
Drawing That Explains Google Buzz Privacy Problems (2/14/2010)
Think visually before launching technology products.
Drawing That Explains Contact Syncing (2/4/2010)
Email is social networking glue.
How Real Life Interfered With My Social Networking Fun (1/26/2010)
Don't sweat the small stuff.
How I Sold My House In Acton 01720 In 5 Days (12/7/2009)
For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) real estate transactions done right.
The Perfect Treehouse (10/16/2009)
Build one with your kids.
ABA nothing.but.net Column Ends 15-Year Run (7/10/2009)
Thanks for the memories.
For Better Branding, Use Your Twitter Username In Other Social Networks (6/4/2009)
I started this as an email and decided to make it a blog post instead. Hence the format.
There Is No Right To The Status Quo (5/13/2009)
The only constant is change.
RT @ErikJHeels How To Write Web Headlines That Work In #Twitter http://erikjheels.com/?p=1800 (4/28/2009)
All web pages are shareable items. All titles are Twitter tweets. Get used to it.
How To Register A Trademark: Part 3: Trademark Filing (4/7/2009)
File your trademark application with TEAS.
How To Register A Trademark: Part 2: Trademark Search (3/11/2009)
Search trademarks to rule out likelihood of confusion.
How To Be A Millionaire On #Twitter (2/25/2009)
In two easy steps!
Three Free #Startup Ideas For The Taking http://is.gd/jr2u (2/13/2009)
Ideas are cool, but execution is key.
How To Register A Trademark: Part 1: Choosing A Good Name (2/11/2009)
A trademark is to your business as a foundation is to your house.
25 Random Things About @ErikJHeels (2/10/2009)
25 random things about me.
Huge Igloo We Built And Slept In (1/14/2009)
Photos from January 1982.
How To Avoid Infringing Red Sox Trademarks (1/13/2009)
Or anybody else's, for that matter.
How To Twittersquat The Top 100 Brands (1/8/2009)
A call for the creation of the Uniform Username Dispute Resolution Policy.
MP3 vs. CD: The Beer Test (12/7/2008)
Unless you're a dog, a whale, or a computer, you're not going to be able to tell the difference between a good MP3 and CD audio.
Rolling Stone Announces More Five-Star Rated Albums And All I Got Was This Lousy Feed (11/25/2008)
Want to know why the music business is broken? Look at how Rolling Stone Magazine mismanages its most prized asset: five-star reviews.
Madrid Protocol: Affordable International Trademarks For Startups (11/14/2008)
The Madrid Protocol is a great option for startups who want foreign trademark protection but don't want to file trademarks in separate countries.
Drawing That Explains Social Networking (11/3/2008)
How to visualize social networking.
Domain Name Law (1/28/2008)
White hat domainers are not black hat cybersquatters.
Paid Content = Invisible Content (01/23/2008)
The more you hide your content, the less relevant it becomes.
Yahoo! Registers First Favicon Trademark (1/15/2008)
Clock Tower Law Group filed historic favicon.ico trademark.
Erik J. Heels Announces Start-Up Heels.com Shoe Store (11/12/2007)
With the name Heels, Erik Heels was destined to be either a podiatrist or a shoe salesman.
LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: USAF (10/26/2007)
Reese AFB, Lubbock, Texas. Hanscom AFB, Bedford, Massachusetts.
Trademarks For Slogans And Taglines (10/4/2007)
Trademarking slogans and taglines.
Illegal Feeds And Betting Against The Internet (9/14/2007)
The clue train has left the station, and most publishers aren't on board.
Chinese Domain Name Scam: Shanghai IDC, Gardiner Limited (08/22/2007)
Legitimate or not?
Drawing That Explains Patent Costs (08/17/2007)
How to control the cost of filing a patent.
Drawing That Explains Provisional Patent Applications (08/06/2007)
Provisional patent applications are rarely the best solution for startups.
Funniest Movies Of The 2000s (7/29/2007)
Funny movie clips from the 2000s.
Funniest Movies Of The 1990s (7/29/2007)
Funny movie clips from the 1990s.
Funniest Movies Of The 1980s (7/29/2007)
Funny movie clips from the 1980s.
Funniest Movies Of The 1970s (07/29/2007)
Funny movie clips from the 1970s.
Drawing That Explains Patent Disputes (7/24/2007)
And what's wrong with law school education.
Drawing That Explains Patent Laws (7/19/2007)
From Chief Justice to the patent examiner.
Drawing That Explains Copyright Law (7/18/2007)
Copyright rights, unregulated uses, and fair use.
How To Debug Computer Problems (07/15/2007)
Let's work the problem people!
The Brand Wars Are Coming, The Brand Wars Are Coming! (7/1/2007)
How to defend your brands on the Internet.
American Idol S06E41 And How To Fix The Show (5/24/2007)
Jordin Sparks wins, an open letter to the AI producers, and the year's best judge.
Yahoo! Announces Agreement to Acquire Right Media, Largest Emerging Online Advertising Exchange (4/30/2007)
Key Step in Executing Yahoo!'s Long-Term Strategy to Transform How Online Advertisers Connect to and Engage With Their Customers – Both On and Off the Yahoo! Network.
How To Print OS X To XP (3/10/2007)
How to print from a wireless Apple MacBook running OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to a shared printer on a Windows XP computer.
Verizon FiOS TV Problems (2/15/2007)
How to spoil a movie night in one easy step.
Boxy But Good (02/01/2007)
Honesty in advertising.
RedStreet Website Relaunched (1/1/2007)
Historic website documents the finest of the first law firm websites.
LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: Cayman (12/26/2006)
Cayman Systems Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts.
LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: BBN (12/22/2006)
Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN) Advanced Computers Inc. (ACI), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: Rautaruukki (12/19/2006)
Rautaruukki OY, Raahe, Finland.
LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: MIT (12/16/2006)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology class of 1988.
LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: CEHS (12/15/2006)
Cape Elizabeth High School class of 1984.
LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: Verio (12/13/2006)
Verio coworkers.
Easy To Infringe (12/5/2006)
Draft to the rule, don't draft to the exception.
Book Review: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding (11/27/2006)
By Al Ries and Laura Ries.
Happy Thanksgiving (11/22/2006)
Of treehouses, patents, and trademarks.
LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels (11/21/2006)
If you know me, feel free to connect with me via LinkedIn.
Batman Lawyer Meets Boston Band Founder (10/31/2006)
Holy rock star Batman!
Steal This Article: It May Be My Last (10/28/2006)
Organizations large and small – including the ABA – need to evolve on the ever-changing Internet.
It's The Metadata, Stupid (9/19/2006)
For the music that I have purchased, I want all of the metadata: the MP3s, the album art, the BPM data, the liner notes, the lyrics, the tablatures, the recording dates, the release dates, the artist's history, etc. Today, I can't get all of the metadata from a single source.
Captain Erik Heels Honorably Discharged From The United States Air Force (3/2/2006)
I will have much to say about my Air Force years when the time is right.
Top 11 New Year's Resolutions (1/1/2006)
Some serious, some not so serious. My list is better because it goes to 11.
A Smattering Of Things That I've Learned In Life (12/13/2005)
This article explains, in a way that a resume cannot, what life experiences I have had and how these experiences have contributed to the unique perspective that I bring to everything that I do.
Free Historic Legal Internet Books (9/9/2005)
While supplies last, I am giving away old copies of books that I've written, including 'The Legal List,' which documents early legal Internet pioneers.
The Dark (Gray) Age Of Music On The Internet (9/1/2005)
While there are a lot of choices for consumers, the current state of music on the Internet leaves a lot to be desired.
Spring Cleaning (Or How To Install Your Own Desktop Search Engine) (6/1/2005)
How to install SWISH-E for your own Google-like desktop search engine.
How To Set Up VNC Over SSH On Windows XP (4/18/2005)
Step-by-step instructions for setting up an SSH server, a VNC server, and an SSH client in order to VNC securely from one computer to another.
Taking Computing Seriously (Or How The Red Sox Won The World Series) (3/1/2005)
A strategy for preventing and curing computer problems.
I Want My P2P (11/1/2004)
There is more to P2P software than its detractors would have you believe.
Recursive Logo (9/17/2004)
Everything You Know About Website Design Is Right (9/1/2004)
No it's not. Everything you know about website design is wrong.
My Kids Now Have A Blog (4/29/2004)
Movable Type Brain Dump (4/27/2004)
Tips and tricks I wish I had known when I started using Movable Type.
How To Create A Dual-Boot Linux/Windows Laptop For Under $700 (4/25/2004)
Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS 3 and Windows 2000 Professional on a Dell Latitude C600 laptop.
Am I A Copyfighter? (4/18/2004)
One practitioner's struggles with practicing — while fighting to change — the law in the dark ages of the Internet.
The 'Duh' Of Shrinkwrap Licenses (4/3/2004)
Kids have figured out the problem with shrinkwrap licenses. So why can't judges?
Google Email (Gmail) – Real Or Parody? (ParodyLaw.com) (4/1/2004)
Google announces email service. Or does it?
The 'Three Full Moons' Clause (2/17/2004)
Simplify contracts by omitting needless words.
Just Say Moo – How To Name And Brand Your Product To Make It Stand Out From The Crowd (12/8/2003)
Good branding can separate your cow from the other cattle.
News: ABA Journal: Risking Failure (11/3/2003)
Erik J. Heels is featured in the November 2003 ABA Journal in an article about lawyers as risk-takers.
How And Why To Try Open Source Software (11/1/2003)
The year of being open minded turned out to be the perfect year to switch to open source software. In this article, I'll discuss why I decided to make the switch, how I am doing it, and why lawyers should consider open source software.
An IP Audit Of Spongebob Squarepants (10/13/2003)
Let's pretend for a moment that it is early 1999, and Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of Spongebob Squarepants, has contacted me for advice about protecting his intellectual property.
Fire Your Website, Hire A Weblog (9/1/2003)
Don't start a weblog. Replace your website with a weblog. In November 2002, I started experimenting with weblog software. Three months into the experiment, I had converted my existing website into a weblog powered by Radio Userland Software. After only two months, I switched to the much more capable Movable Type software. In this article, I discuss what I did, how I did it, and why some law firms are catching weblog fever.
How (And Why) To Trademark Your Logo (7/17/2003)
If you have a word mark that may be difficult to register because it is descriptive, consider creating a logo that contains the words and register the logo.
Software Patents Epilogue (7/16/2003)
The 2003 Law and Technology Conference at the Technology Law Center of the University of Maine School of Law was the most fun I've had at a conference in years.
Software Patents: Final HERTS (Hypotheticals, Examples, Rants, Thoughts, And Stats) (Part 8) (6/16/2003)
Using open source software is a bit like reading Entertainment Weekly. Lots of people do it but few admit it. Plus other observations that didn't fit anywhere else.
Software Patents: W3C Standards (Part 7) (6/16/2003)
The open source community has generally viewed the W3C's decision on patents in standards as a victory.
Software Patents: IETF Standards (Part 6) (6/15/2003)
For now, the IETF has not changed its policy about using patented technologies in the standards process. The tension between the IETF and the open source community will likely increase as open source software continues to grow in popularity.
Software Patents: Copyright Law Expansion And Lessig's Software Patent Non Sequitur (Part 5) (6/15/2003)
Lessig argues convincingly for limiting the extension of copyright terms but argues unconvincingly against software patents.
Software Patents: Examples Of Principled Arguments (Part 4) (6/15/2003)
The two most fascinating principles on which software patent proponents base their arguments are that 1) open source software is better than proprietary software and 2) free software is better than open source software.
Software Patents: Examples Of Unprincipled Arguments (Part 3) (6/15/2003)
Many educated people are opposed to software patents, but few make principled arguments to support their positions.
Software Patents: Principled Dialog (Part 2) (6/15/2003)
Whatever your position on software patents, or on patents in general, one thing is clear. Principled arguments are more interesting than unprincipled arguments.
Software Patents: Good Or Evil? (Part 1) (6/15/2003)
This week, I am speaking at the fourth annual Law and Technology Conference at the Technology Law Center of the University of Maine School of Law. I am taking a non-standard approach to this presentation. Rather than preparing PowerPoint slides (or the like), I will be posting a series of notes on my website.
317 Length-Sorted Disclaimers (6/3/2003)
Legal and product disclaimers, notices, warnings, instructions, etc. This list was derived from many sources. I have updated the list with a few of my own (including some from my copyright page), added some updated references, and added a few jokes.
Zen And The Art Of Data Restoration (5/1/2003)
Standardization is elusive, even though there are so many standards to choose from. Or perhaps BECAUSE there are so many. Nevertheless, for many years I have been pursuing an elusive goal of digitizing, standardizing, and archiving all of my data. In this chapter of the journey, I ended up purchasing a 15-year-old computer to restore one file.
How To Audit Your Intellectual Property (11/21/2002)
Got IP? Top Ten Tips for Identifying, Protecting, and Making Money from Intellectual Property.
How To Name Your Company, Trademark Your Domain Name, And Domain Name Your Trademark (11/20/2002)
Think there are no cool domain names left? Think again. I found 201 cool domain names that are taken but six (count 'em, six) that are not. Some of them from a box of crayons. Plus strategies for protecting your trademarks, domain names, and company name.
How To Write, Copyright, And Publish Your Own Book (11/19/2002)
Self-publishing books is much easier than it used to be. It can also be fun and, if you do it well, profitable.
Patents vs. Trade Secrets (2/5/2002)
The advantages and disadvantages of protecting business ideas with patents and trade secrets.
Are You Eating Your Coffee Beans? (11/29/2001)
Smart companies are 'giving away' portions of their content online without hurting sales of their other products.
GEORGE W. BUSH TO CHANGE HIS NAME TO GEORGE WWW BUSH (ParodyLaw.com) (04/01/2001)
Business Is A Conversation (Or Clueful Lawyers) (10/1/2000)
The business of law is a conversation. Are you conversing?
BILL CLINTON TO LAUNCH E-COMMERCE DOT COM SITE WITH FALL 2000 IPO (ParodyLaw.com) (04/01/2000)
The Meaning Of Life Online (2/1/2000)
We need to seek a middle ground where we can use technology to deliver what it has promised: improved quality of life.
Wear Sunscreen (9/1/1999)
Make your home page readable in black-and-white printouts. Remember that marketing is a state of mind. And don't believe everything you read on the Internet.
Death On The Internet (Or What Would Orwell Do?) (7/1/1999)
What happens to a site after its operator is deceased? When a corporate personality dies, should the person's profile page be deleted from the company site?
VISA PURCHASES THE INTERNET FOR $419.9 BILLION (ParodyLaw.com) (04/01/1999)
The Best New Net-Related Products (7/1/1998)
With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, here is my summary of the coolest new Net-related products I saw at TechShow '98.
Designing Good Internet Experiences (1/2/1998)
The Internet will remain out of the reach of many consumers until computers are as easy to use as lamps.
The More Things Change (Or How The Internet Is Like Maine) (7/1/1997)
Ah, yes, the good old days of the Internet – right? Wrong! The good old days of life in Maine.
Publications: The Legal List (3/24/1997)
From 1992 to 1995, I published seven editions of my book 'The Legal List' in print and on the Internet. This is the complete collection.
Choosing The Perfect Domain Name (3/1/1997)
There is only one perfect domain name left.
Ease-of-Copying In The Digital Age – Turning A Negative Into A Positive (4/29/1996)
Rather than worrying about ease-of-copying, owners of copyrighted works should use it to their advantage.
Why Lawyers Should Get On The Internet (11/2/1994)
Legal research on – and legal issues raised by – the Internet.
On ZAMM (3/3/1987)
Thoughts on the book Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.