I bought a laptop from Dell ((Dell’s are great – if you know what you’re doing OR if you spring for the all-you-can eat repair buffet AND like talking to tech support.))
After a year, I sent my laptop in for a minor repaird
Dell last my laptop, and after much agony, replaced it with another model
After a year and a half, laptop monitor stopped working
Backup your data before something goes wrong ((Like discovering you have an evil android twin who’s exactly like you – except that he has emotions.)) ((Thanks to wikipedia for the photos.))
On July 23, 2008 this website was all of one year old. That day I made a goal of posting something ((Admittedly, sometimes nonsense.)) every single weekday. ((Even on holiday-weekdays.)) Today is the 100th post on this site and I can’t help feeling somewhat accomplished. ((I’m not exactly ready for NaNoWriMo, but you need to walk before you can run.))
As any website regular can tell, I’m constantly tinkering with this site. I fully understand constant change might be somewhat disorienting. On the other hand, I’m making these changes in an effort to improve the appearance and usability of the website.
Most recently, I moved the Medical Provider Network and Links sub-pages to be their own ((Top level)) menu options. These pages seem to be things people use a lot and really deserve their own spot at the top. Then again, I don’t want the top menu to be too cluttered. There’s really no one great solution to this dilemma.
Other changes I’m considering:
Moving the EAMS and WCAB search functions to their own page. Some users ((I suspect mostly non-attorneys.)) use these functions exclusively and probably don’t appreciate the dozen or so other calculators.
Combining the Blog and Articles pages. I haven’t done this so far because I doubt people want to sift through my technobabble to learn something about workers’ compensation.
MicroSoft has no one to blame but themselves for my deleting MicroSoft Office. Well, its partly Dell’s fault too, but that’s a long story I’ll tell some other time. (Short version: Dell repaired a prior laptop and shipped it to a construction site in Oakland.)
OpenOffice.org released version 3.0 of their program on October 13, 2008. It was so wildly popular that their website was crushed under the overwhelming demand. The three most important things to know about OpenOffice are:
Its open source, so its completely free. So, there’s no reason not to give it a shot.
It can open, edit, and save to any MS Office 2000, 2003, 2007, and WordPerfect formats.
It can print or export any file to a PDF.
If you’re a Workers’ Compensation professional in California, you’re probably dealing with EAMS. Since filing things with EAMS means working with a lot of PDF’s. In order to keep from reinventing the wheel, it makes sense to save those PDF’s of the document cover sheets. But what if you need to make a small change later on? Well, OpenOffice v3.0 can help with that too.
Using an extension((basically a small program)) OpenOffice can open and edit and re-save a PDF file. Not even Adobe, the company that promotes the PDF format ((I know that’s redundant.)) , does a good job of opening and editing PDF’s.
This is a really big deal to me because editing saved PDF’s is going to save me a lot of time editing settlement documents and various pleadings.
Update
I wrote the above about a month ago while I gave OpenOffice 3.0 a shot. It won’t install on my Vista laptop but works great on my XP desktop. I’ve reverted to OpenOffice 2.4 on the laptop while I wait for a fix. OpenOffice 2.4 is still free, but it won’t open MS Office 2007 formats (which not everyone is using anyhow) and cannot edit PDFs.
How can you make their job easier? Well, the good news is you don’t have to, I’ve given you all the tools to make your office run faster and more efficiently, saving you time and money.
Top 5
MPN’s. Medical Provider Network lists, complete with logins and passwords. Whether you’re on the applicant or defense side, your staff is going to need access to these lists. You can find a doctor for your client or so you can give a list of doctors to opposing counsel.
EAMS DWC to ADJ Number Search Engine. Chances are you’ve got cases with more than one “legacy” Board file number. With this search engine, you can search for the corresponding EAMS ADJ numbers. And, you can search for as many Board (or ADJ) numbers as you want at the same time, just by separating them with commas.
EAMS Office Search Engine. When your staff is filling out documents for you, they’re going to need to know the correct name and address for all the parties. When they need to call opposing counsel, they can also look up the phone number with this search engine.
EAMS Document Type and Document Title Search Engine. Your staff needs a quick way to find the exact EAMS document type and EAMS document title for every document cover sheet getting filed with the Board. Sure, they could comb through four or five pages of 3 point font on the Board’s form. Or, better yet, they could search and find exactly the document type and title they need.
EAMS Body Part Codes. There are 62 different body part codes in the EAMS system. There’s no need to keep the EAMS chart on hand, just tell your staff what body part you want on the form and have them look it up on this website.
DWC / WCAB / EAMS Forms. There are now more than 130 different forms, new and “legacy”, available on the DIR website. There’s no reason your staff should have to scroll up or down looking for the right form. Type in a few characters and get a direct link right to the exact form you need.
Date Calculator. Sure, everyone in your office could have their own date wheel. In my experience, date wheels and money charts are two of the most commonly swiped office aides right after the good stapler and scotch tape. With a date calculator built into the website, all of your staff can quickly and easily calculate the number of days between two dates or what day it will be in a certain number of days.
I’ve been upgrading to the latest releases of WordPress as soon as each one comes out. And, its a good thing too.
Over the last week or two a website named “Wordpresz.org” ((I’ve edited the link so that it goes to WordPress.org instead. I don’t want contribute to these hackers fooling anyone else.)) was discovered. The people who created this website were using a vulenerability in WordPress version 2.6.2 to redirect users to their website. Their website purported to release WordPress version 2.6.4 ((The latest version is 2.6.3 which is just version 2.6.2 with a small but important security fix.)). The problem was that they had hacked one file in the installation package to create a bigger security vulerability.
This just goes to show that:
Monitor for Updates. Many programs these days automatically check to see if new versions are available. If the program does not have this feature ((Or if you turn it off, as I sometimes do.)) , its a good idea to check about once a month or so.
Update Frequently. Not all software updates are equal. If the program is being updated to fix security vulnerabilities or improve the program’s stability, you definitely want to install the update. This website’s installation of WordPress was already “inocculated” against this kind of attack because I had alled version 2.6.3 almost as soon as it came out.
Use Official Sources. WordPress is open source software built using PHP and MySQL. Since the program is open source, its easier to modify the code. ((As Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”)) The themes and plugins available through WordPress.org are reviewed by other users for malicious code and for possible improvements. If you’re not certain how to examine source code for malicious code, its best to only use official sources.
