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VMWare Fusion or Parallels? October 26, 2007

Posted by atharkhan in : Personal, Review, Tech , 2comments

Does anyone out there have a recommendation as to which one of the two is a better virtualization platform?

By “better,” I mean:

Having used VMWare Workstation on Windows, I am somewhat familiar with — and therefore slightly biased towards — VMWare. However, I am interested in hearing about your own experiences rather than a review by either of the two vendors. Have you switched from one to the other? If so, what compelled you to go ahead with it?

Thanks!

-Athar.

Rating Attorneys with Avvo.com July 20, 2007

Posted by atharkhan in : Personal, Review, Tech , 1 comment so far

I came across Avvo (www.avvo.com) and thought it was an interesting concept. The site calculates a “rating” for attorneys based on an algorithm. This calculation starts out with publicly available information and determines a baseline number. Then, ratings and reviews from clients and peers are factored in.

Although I am a wholehearted fan of mass collaboration to create an ever-evoving body of knowledge, I am not sure if this particular implementation/embodiment of the concept will be helpful for a potential client in the long run. I can’t imagine established attorneys (who have enough to do already) paying much attention to a site like this. On the other hand, an attorney with a smaller practice may have a greater incentive to increase his/her prominence through this site. One seemingly easy method of manipulating the site would be to ask one’s peers for endorsements in exchange for the same. Given that (wholly subjective) assumption, a solo attorney could easily gain a greater rating than a more experienced and established attorney. One has to wonder whether the algorithm is sophisticated enough to compensate for any potential manipulation.

If the algorithm were indeed susceptible to manipulation, wouldn’t a consumer be misled by the ratings and endorsements? Of course, these are my opinions based on a cursory navigation of the site. I am interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on the topic. Do you think that a lawyer rating system is worthwhile? Would it help a client or mislead them?

Plaxo 3.0 Makes Using the MacBook More Viable July 8, 2007

Posted by atharkhan in : Personal, Review, Tech , add a comment

I’ll be the first to admit that I was often frustrated with the MacBook when I first got it. I was using it primarily for web browsing and iTunes and not much else. The main reason I kept it was primarily that iTunes worked better — Music sounded much better (less static/interference from other components) and supported longer (non-truncated) file names for music files.

However, I couldn’t use it as a primary system because Microsoft Outlook isn’t available on the Mac platform. And, I simply must (MUST!) have Outlook and Plaxo before I can consider making the switch. Yes, Plaxo does sync the Mac Addressbook but it isn’t exactly flawless. It seems to have trouble with timezones on the Mac and often caused duplicate entries due to categories.

The new version of Plaxo (currently in Beta) is a step in the right direction. I am now able to sync both iCal and the Mac Addressbook. I can also sync my Outlook Calendar and Addressbook with Gmail. This is allowing me to sync my phone with the MacBook instead of the ThinkPad and it seems to be working well — no duplicates and no issues with timezones. Yaay!