Situation checklists - I’ve started an online reading notebook
July 23, 2008
Like most lawyers, I do a lot of legal reading. I often run across information that I think to myself, this would be good to keep in mind when X happens. The problem, of course, is that when X does happen, I might or might not remember to think about the information I read.
As an experiment, I’ve started putting together an online notebook of situation checklists. The idea is that, when I run across useful stuff in my reading, I’ll take a minute to write a quick summary, copy the link, and then update (or start) the appropriate checklist of things to think about when X happens. To do this, I’m using the same software (MediaWiki) that powers Wikipedia.
Protect your laptop’s sensitive information before entering the U.S. - a customs agent might decide to peruse it
May 16, 2008
Moved ….
April 2, 2008
I’ve migrated the 100 Feet Up blog to self-hosted WordPress software. The RSS feed is the same, and so is the URL (www.100feetup.com), so the change should be transparent to just about everyone.
I’ve been a faithful TypePad user for going on five years, but WordPress can do some writerly stuff I want to do that TypePad can’t (notably, editing existing posts). I’m also very pleased with the WordPress user interface.
The blog is back, with a new name
March 18, 2008
After a hiatus of nearly four years, I’m reviving the By No Other blog and renaming it 100 Feet Up. I’ll be using it again to post notes on technology- and business-law topics, ones that wouldn’t really fit at the Pactix Web site.
I got the idea for the new name from an old lawyer joke in which one of the characters shouts, "you’re in a balloon, about 100 feet up in the air." (The same joke gets told about consultants.)
But the name also has a less-frivolous meaning. Recall that Civil War generals sent observers up in tethered balloons to do surveillance and reconnaissance. They knew that, from 100 feet up, you can often get useful information about the challenges ahead. I hope that will prove true here as well.
Bibliolatry versus Trust in God
June 25, 2004
On my other blog, The Questioning Christian, I’ve posted comments (and no, they weren’t supportive comments) about a recent essay by a traditionalist Episcopal priest. For those who don’t know, in recent years there’s been an on-going battle in the Episcopal Church, of which I’m a member, about the proper role of Scripture. I would guess most Episcopalians take Scripture quite seriously, but not as the be-all and end-all. (This befits what a [woman] fellow parishioner describes as “the thinking man’s church.”) Traditionalists, on the other hand, are quite upset by the prospect of gay and lesbian clergy and of committed same-sex relationships. They claim these things are contrary to Scripture and therefore are per se unacceptable. They have been fighting an aggressive rear-guard action against the church majority, whom they brand as liberal revisionists. It seems clear to me that they intend to split the church if they can’t have their way.
The Symphony as Fighter Squadron
June 19, 2004
Fascinating NYT article by a reporter and amateur clarinetist who gets to play with the New York Philharmonic.
. . . As a reporter, I was getting the chance to experience what it felt like to play in a great orchestra, an organism that at its best has the might of a jet engine, the delicacy of an eye-surgeon’s laser and the coloristic nuance of a Monet painting.
* * *
. . . I was also struck by how the players invested even the simplest phrases with expressiveness. If Mr. Maazel held a beat here, or pushed forward there, they reacted instantly, like fighter pilots adjusting a wing. It was surprisingly easy to play with them. The solidity of their intonation, rhythm and musicality were like beacons that had only to be followed.
I envy those who get to participate in such an “organism.”
Build Floors, Not Walls
June 14, 2004
From an on-line Q&A with NYT columnist Thomas Friedman on the subject of outsourcing:
My motto is build floors not walls. Build stronger foundations so more people can compete without walls. But putting up walls will only impoverish everyone.
Decoupling Office Size From Corporate Status
May 30, 2004
From Terry Pristin, A New Office Can Mean Making Do With Less, NY Times, May 26, 2004:
When PricewaterhouseCoopers moves into its new offices in Midtown Manhattan this summer, it will slim down by about 200,000 square feet of space from the 1 million it now occupies. Yet PricewaterhouseCoopers says it is not planning to reduce its New York work force of 3,500. Instead, everyone is just going to have to squeeze in.
* * *
[T]he point, naturally, is to save money, since office space is leased by the square foot. In doing so, PricewaterhouseCoopers is also trying to crack the longtime link in employees’ minds between space and status - the notion that each higher rung on the corporate ladder brings with it an entitlement to a larger, fancier office.
Partners who now luxuriate in window offices averaging 250 square feet will move to interior spaces half that size, said David Jarman, the executive in charge of planning the new office. Managers who now have as much as 140 square feet will get 80.
This could be a good thing — Robert Townsend, former Avis Rent-a-Car CEO, suggested it 30+ years ago in his book, Up the Organization!
Blog Scope
May 30, 2004
Life gets busy, and my good intentions don’t seem to be expressing themselves as regular blog posts about business-law lessons. I haven’t posted in over a month, and I’ve done only 10 substantive posts since January 1.
So as an experiment, I’m going to tinker a bit with the scope of the blog. I’ll be broadening its coverage to include interesting things I read, or otherwise encounter, in both law- and non-law areas. In this I’ll be following the example of Steve Bainbridge, who somehow manages successfully to mix corporate law with wine and Catholic business philosophy in his eponymous blog, ProfessorBainbridge. I’m hoping the blog can thus also serve as something of a card catalog, to help me locate things that I remember reading but can’t put my hands on.
Test of Zempt blog posting software
April 1, 2004
This is a test of the Zempt blog-posting software mentioned on the TypePad Web site.