It's no secret that a wealth of information is sent to us on our wireless devices, but along with the information, we also get attachments that just tell us the sending party has sent the attached to us. On the PDA, we never get to see what was sent. At times, this could be of great importance, wherever in the world we may be.
PrinterOn is a provider of web services, focusing on remote document hard copy (Internet printing) and related solutions. Its products, many of which are free, simplify and facilitate the delivery of PrinterOn services for individuals and organization. Several solutions have been developed, depending on your PDA.
PrinterOn comes in five varieties for whatever platform you have come to know and utilize on your own personal PDA, as well as your office environment, and how you receive your remote e-mails. All the varieties are designed to help you get the most out of the PrinterOn services.
* PrintWhere is the universal print driver that allows you toprint a document on any printer, anywhere.
* PrinterOn Focus is the lightweight print server that removes corporate obstacles to enabling Internet printing for an enterprise.
* PrinterOn Envoy Server is the attachment-handling server that provides view, print and fax capabilities to users of wireless handheld e-mail solutions such as the BlackBerry, Palm OS R and PocketPC.
* PrintAnywhereR is a server-based tool that lets you build Internet printing and fax capabilities into your web services or back-end applications.
* PrinterOn PocketWhere Applications for your BlackBerry or Palm OS R that work with Envoy or PrinterOn Wireless to make mobile view, print and fax simple and convenient.
PrinterOn gives you a better way to deliver printed documents securely, quickly, inexpensively and simply. Print to your office, home, client or a public location, such as a hotel or print center.
With the PrinterOn technology, you are allowed to send documents to a black-and-white or color printer anywhere in the world. Internet printing is more efficient, compared to three of the most common delivery methods used today:
Facsimile Printing is faster and cheaper, with higher quality color, too.
Courier Printing is instantaneous, and very low-cost.
E-mail Sending documents by e-mail requires a trusted recipient who won't modify your document, and who has the same computer programs that you do. E-mail also has size, transmission security and virus limitations.
With PrinterOn, there really is no comparison with using these other methods. You get a complete solution to on-the-go printing needs that provides all the pieces you need to take advantage of Internet printing:
Global Printer Directory An on-line directory of printers that allows you to search for a printer, determine if you have permission to use it, and verify that the printer meets your needs.
PrintWhere A universal print driver that automatically looks after configuration, permission checking and driver installation to send printed documents from any Windows application.
Focus An Internet print server for printers that do not support the protocol standard.
With the PrinterOn wireless service, and its hosted Envoy service for users of BlackBerry and other mobile e-mail solutions, you now have the ability to view, fax and print e-mail, including attachments and web pages, right on your mobile handheld device.
This is a great boon to productivity, as you have the ability to read attachments instantaneously and make decisions at that moment. Before this innovation, I had to wait until I was at a computer to read and answer questions regarding any attachments sent to me.
No longer am I stuck trying to forward messages, set up print drivers, look for cables or find a printer I can use. No more waiting for couriers or trying to read the fine print on faxed copies of documents.
Whether I am out of the office, at home or across the country, my PrinterOn services keep me productive everywhere I travel. I highly recommend that you try it. Once you do, you are going to wonder how you ever got along without it.
PrinterOn can be located for additional information on the web at www.printeron.net
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Northbrook attorney Alan Pearlman serves on the ISBA Assembly, the Committee on Legal Technology and the Law Office Management and Economics (Standing Committe on) Council, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the ABA General Practice Technology and Practice Guide. He is co-author of "The Busy Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Word for Windows '95," published by West Group. Contact Pearlman at pearlman@lectrniclawr.com.
Foundation gala benefits children's waiting room
Proceeds from the sixth annual Kane County Bar Foundation dinner next month will add to the growing funds for establishment of a supervised room for children of parties involved in legal matters at the 16th Circuit Judicial Center in St. Charles.
The gala event (black tie optional) will take place Saturday, Jan. 11, at the St. Charles Country Club, starting at 6:30 p.m. with a reception. Call (630) 762-1900 for reservations at $150 per person.
The Foundation will present its annual Pro Bono Award during the dinner, and a raffle and silent auction will be conducted to raise additional funds for scholarships and other initiatives.
The Children's Waiting Room Project has been approved by the Kane County Board, and the cost of its ongoing maintenance is expected to be derived from a statutory filing fee increase.
But the estimated $100,000 cost of construction and furnishing the room must be raised by the foundation through grants and donations from interested lawyers, judges and community organizations.
Foundation President Lisa M. Nyuli of Elgin, a member of the ISBA Assembly, said the goal is to have the room up and running next spring.
During the past 11 months, 167 of the Kane County Bar Association's 687 members have supported the foundation through a tax-deductible $15 dues check-off. Nyuli said she hopes to have a greater percentage of donors by year-end.
Jacksonville attorney, husband take Fulbright
Barbara Fritsche networks women lawyers on Cyprus
By Hilary Anderson
Like many of her peers when she was a college sophomore, Jacksonville attorney Barbara Ann Fritsche did not know what to do with her life.
She thought a new environment might help her decide so she quit school, traveled to Germany, landed a job as a nurse's aid in a Frankfurt hospital and lived in a Lutheran nunnery for a year.
"It was a wonderful adventure," said Fritsche, a partner in Rammelkamp, Bradney, Kuster, Keaton, Fritsche & Lindsay. "We had a great time meeting people and traveling around. I always thought I'd like to do it again some day."
She returned to the United States, finished college in Ohio, married John W. Fritsche and was a juvenile probation officer until the couple moved to Chicago.
Barbara Fritsche attended the DePaul University College of Law at night and worked at the National Criminal Defense Consortium until her final year, when she was a full-time law student.
Through it all, she never forgot her year in Germany. She yearned to travel again, and began to fulfill that wish with her family.
"We took our children everywhere," Fritsche said. "We traveled all over Europe, Japan and China. My husband and son also went to Africa together."
Higher education, John Fritsche's vocation, took the family to Jacksonville, where he became a professor at Illinois College. The family continued to see the world on vacations.
Barbara's experience in Germany had ignited a desire to be an emissary of sorts for the United States, and that flame began burning more brightly.
"I always wanted to live abroad and spend significant time in a culture far different from my own," she said. "I also had a desire to help people in ways I hadn't been able to do as a lawyer."
Barbara and John Fritsche heard about the Fulbright Scholars program, which sends abroad adults with doctorates or law degrees to act as good-will ambassadors. It also brings scholars from foreign countries to America.
The couple liked the concept. They thought about applying for it when their children went off to college, and the opportunity came last year.
"We searched on the web for a place where our skills would be needed most," Barbara said. "Cyprus seemed to suit both my husband's education background and my law degree, so we both applied. It is rare for a couple to be accepted in the same country, so we decided whichever one of us was chosen, the other would go along."
The couple wrote separate proposals on what they wanted to accomplish as Fulbright Scholars in Cyprus. "Writing the proposal was very involved," she said. "We had to be meticulous and specific.
"We described our project ideas, which were then screened in Washington. After acceptance there, they were sent on to Cyprus, where they were screened once again."
Several months passed before the Fritsches heard the answer. "We received notification by mail on the same day," she said. "We were astonished to learn we both made it."
The couple notified colleagues and clients, made wills, signed a powers of attorney, selected a person to pay their bills and found a handyman to watch over their house for the next four to six months.
The situation in Cyprus was somewhat of a culture shock to the Fritsches, who were accustomed to the inherent freedoms of the United States. The island in the Mediterranean just 40 miles off the coast of Turkey is a crossroad between the East and West.
"Many civilizations have conquered and controlled Cyprus, including the Ottomans, the Venetians, the Greeks, the Assyrians and the Romans," Barbara said.
"Most recently, the British occupied the island for 100 years. Almost since its independence in 1960, the island has been patrolled by United Nations peace-keeping forces. For the past 28 years, it has been divided into the north and south by what is known as the Green Line."
Barbara found the area around the Green Line to be a buffer zone, like a no-man's land. "There is barbed wire separating it with guard posts," she said. "It reminds me of the pictures we saw of the Berlin Wall when it still stood.
"The area is constantly patrolled. Both the Greek and Turkish governments discourage all communal activities. No mail or telephone communication between the north and south is possible."
Barbara Fritsche formed a group of young women lawyers whose members struggled with criticisms from family, friends and colleagues in their search to develop friendships across the border. She also established groups of business women and women focusing on domestic violence.
She spent time getting to know teachers. She directed an effort to allow American college students to tutor primary and secondary students in English, hoping to promote an exchange in English between Turkish and Greek Cypriots across the border.
"I helped one Cypriot women's group with several communal project grant proposals to the American Embassy, the European Union and the United Nations," Fritsche said. "This group hopes to make a video to be used in counseling adolescent girls across the island in their search for empowerment and success."
It was discouraging at times. "I tried to get women together from both sides who wanted to meet each other," she said. "This was a lawyers' group formed so their counterparts could establish professional relationships.
"When peace came, they would have friends and know their neighbors. It never happened. Both governments banned all bi-communal activities every time, even when the American ambassador requested it," she recalled.
"Trying to make peace isn't very popular among the two groups. A lot of atrocities were committed on both sides 28 years ago, and that won't soon be forgotten."
No list of missing persons has been issued by either side. On Saturdays and Sundays, women dressed in black walk their areas of the buffer zone, hoping to learn whether family members are dead or alive.
Despite her discouraging encounters, Fritsche is satisfied with her Cyprus accomplishment. "Most of all, I took time and spent much energy developing relationships and building cross-cultural friendships," she said.
"Rather than teach the Cypriots how to operate and work, I listened and supported them in their efforts to bridge the gap between two diverse and often conflicting cultures. Whether I succeeded in my work is yet to be seen."
John Fritsche worked with educational institutions in the north and south, encountering thousands of teachers and students and directing workshops all over the island on cooperative learning and standard setting.
"We left good friends in Cyprus," Barbara said. "The warm and loving nature of the Cypriot people will always be with us, and the lessons learned from our time and work there will hopefully improve and enrich our lives in America."
Before the couple returned to the United States, they traveled throughout the Middle East,with the exception of Israel. They were back in Jacksonville in September after having been gone since January.
"We returned to our jobs with a renewed enthusiasm," Barbara Fritsche said. "We also returned committed to encourage the acceptance, ideas and cultures unique to the Middle Eastern and European peoples.
"We likewise gained a whole new respect for the freedoms here in America and are even more grateful they exist. We will never take them for granted, including the freedom of the press."
Director of Legislative Affairs
As the 92nd General Assembly prepares to dissolve, it is time to acknowledge seven retiring lawyer-legislators who have contributed so much in Springfield to improving the administration of justice.
Senator Carl Hawkinson (R-Galesburg) has been the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee since 1993 and as chairman worked hard to ensure that Judiciary's work product was good as it could be. Hawkinson personally read every analysis on every bill that was referred to Judiciary, and he generally reviewed each bill as well. Of special interest to lawyers, Hawkinson sponsored the Capital Litigation Trust Fund Act, the Equal Justice Act, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 1998, the rewrite of the misidentification statute in the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Genetic Testing Privacy Act.