It’s a pleasure for me to present a guest post submitted by Jarry Taylor, a partner with Maynard, Cooper & Gale PC — one of Alabama’s leading law firms located in scenic Birmingham. And… he’s my dad! Thanks to Jarry/Dad for contributing to Tropophilia!
The American Bar Association’s Litigation Newsreports on a recent phenomenon many of us law types have been talking about, namely the change in the way investigations are performed and how to get information about people involved in legal cases. Forget the old style gum shoe black cloak, long-lens photographer investigator (although they do still come in handy sometimes). We’re now talking about finding out all sorts of neat and interesting stuff from MySpace, Facebook and even Match.com.
Have a witness you’re about to depose in a case coming to trial next month? Worried you might not know all there is to know about him? Think you should fork out money for an investigator to dig up information about him? Nah, it’s all right there on the internet and in the social networking world where nothing is sacred.
“They” tell you to be careful what you post as a student because colleges, grad schools and employers will check out those crazy photos you thought it would be fun to share with your buds. But, those beyond those years or the witless still include information that, sometimes, can be very helpful to the inquiring lawyer on the other side of a case. Courts are now having to deal with evidentiary questions, and report decisions on whether such information is admissible in court or not. Even if it’s not substantive information relevant to your case, it can always go to the credibility of that witness.
“I solemly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Google.” Oh, and that applies to lawyers, too!
Welcome to the new and improved Tropophilia. Same great taste, but now 86% crunchier. The redesigned site (which, by the way, we’re still scrambling to de-bug), will give us a lot more flexibility than our old platform. We’ll be unveiling and developing new features in the coming weeks, so be on the lookout for those. Jarred and I are hopeful that the new product is more like Diet Coke than Clear Pepsi…fingers crossed.
“US airlines must pay for their carbon dioxide emissions or face a curb on flights to the European Union, the EU transport commissioner warned [...] Barrot said negotiations on a second phase for the treaty will include a demand that US carriers join the EU emissions trading scheme or an equivalent system in the US.”
techPresident has a great interview with Mitt Romney’s former Director of eStrategy. They (politely) avoid the obvious question of ‘how do you manage to spend $105 million, including $42 of the candidate’s personal funds, and lose?’ but they do cover online strategy in a way that’s only possible in retrospect when the campaign staffer can speak (more) openly. Teaser quote:
Q: Anything you wish you could go back and do differently?
A: Well sure. I would have introduced more interactive elements — contests, grassroots tools, live webcasts — earlier in the campaign to keep our email supporters engaged and active.
While we’re on the topic of politics, NPR introduced a cool variant on their “This I Believe” style of listener-generated content with “Get My Vote.” Hat tip to EchoDitto for spotting this.
I was recently equal parts shocked, excited, and sort of concerned to see my childhood house in vivid detail on Google Street View when they expanded coverage to my hometown of Chapel Hill, NC. With such an extensive project (driving around in a car with panoramic cameras cataloging everything), there were bound to be a few hiccups. Thanks to the internet, those funny bloopers are all in one place. My favorite is the guy climbing a fence in San Francisco…first crime documented on Google Maps? Hat tip to Mental Floss on this one…as with nearly any funny links I post.
Lifehacker points out this nifty link for online shoppers; let’s be serious, at this point we’re all online shoppers, right? Well, then we can all benefit by checking FreeShippingOn for money-saving free shipping deals with online retailers. I like saving money…and this is starting to feel like an (unpaid) advertisement. Moving on…
Finally, in all of the Tropophilia chaos this weekend as we switched systems (serves us right for claiming to “love” change…), you may have missed some great new material from Jarred. Be sure to check out a post on Google Sky, a review of the movie Helvetica, and a reflection on unconventional typing form (a bad habit I share…and for which I’m called out in the comments).
Plenty of new material to come this week, so stay tuned. And thanks for your patience as we complete the transition to our new platform.
For those of you who get jazzed up over some of our space-related posts, Google just made your (and my) day. Last August, the G-spot updated their Earth application with a new feature called Google Sky. Sky allows you to discover the universe in much the same way we’ve been able to discover our own planet using Earth. I’ve toyed with it off and on, and it’s pretty awesome. But since I unfortunately can’t download Earth at work, I am unable to browse the galaxy while I sit on my keister doing jack diddly enthusiastically seek assignments from my superiors.
The Giant of Mountain View must have heard my soul’s death rattle for, behold, here comes “Google Sky Maps.” (That’s my name for it anyway. I think they just call it “the web version of Google Sky,” but that’s lame. C’mon Google! Use some of that 20% time to dream up something creative. Google SkyNet? No? Too creepy?).
It still has room to improve, though. I get a little disoriented; as Garett Rogers suggests, it could use some sort of ground reference so we are reminded that we’re always observing from the Earth’s surface. And the service is still a little laggy, likely due to an overwhelming response from the geekosphere to Google’s conch shell call (I was lucky enough to have a tape recorder with me when the sweet sound came echoing down the streets of Washington. See below.)
Anyway, for better or worse you can now waste spend your billable free hours frolicking across the universe. Enjoy.
It’s been a long time coming and has a ways to go still, but Google Health is on the way.
Google confirmed last week that it is testing this new product (click here for a screen shot) with the Cleveland Clinic, followed by another update on Thursday by Google VP (and totalbabe, btw) Marissa Mayer:
One of the most exciting and innovative parts of Google Health is our platform strategy. We’re assembling a directory of third-party services that interoperate with Google Health. Right now, this means you’ll be able to automatically import information such as your doctors’ records, your prescription history, and your test results into Google Health in order to easily access and and control your data. Later, this platform strategy will mean that you will be able to interact with services and tools easily, and will be able to do things like schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and start using new wellness tools.
Meyer assures us that Google is emphasizing privacy, security, and user control in its Health offering. But as Nick Carr points out, Meyer is careful to leave open a future loophole. “We won’t sell or share your data without your explicit permission,” she says (with my emphasis). Hmm.
Google Health is sure to be a useful product, but there is certainly a risk in putting your most private of information in a third party’s hands. When it is released, would you consider using Google Health?
Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user j.reed.
Mashable reports that Google introduced an “invisibility” feature into its Gmail version of Google Talk over the weekend. I am very much against this type of feature, and am disappointed that Google has chosen to implement it.
If you’ve used AOL Instant Messenger (or its Microsoft and Yahoo! competitors), you’ll be familiar with the invisibility option: while you are able to see which of your contacts are online and even initiate conversations with them, it appears to them as if you’re offline.
The Argument
Instant messaging is a form of social networking. By choosing to become invisible, you’ve chosen to selectively participate in your social network. You have elected to receive all the benefits while experiencing none of the risks or costs. I believe that this goes against the very social nature of the whole social networking phenomenon.
Disclaimer:All content found on Tropophilia represents the thoughts and positions of its authors alone, and does not seek to represent those of their employers.
It’s a pleasure for me to present a guest post submitted by Jarry Taylor, a partner with Maynard, Cooper & Gale PC — one of Alabama’s leading law firms located in scenic Birmingham. And… he’s my dad! Thanks to Jarry/Dad for contributing to Tropophilia!
It’s been a long time coming and has a ways to go still, but Google Health is on the way.
The Story 
