Anita Sarkeesian asserts her right not to be in danger of being shot

Anita Sarkeesian asserts her right not to be in danger of being shot

HBO without cable coming in 2015

HBO without cable coming in 2015

Update to iOS 8 even without enough free space

I’ve heard from many people who insist their iPhone or iPad “can’t handle” or “doesn’t fit” iOS 8. I read an article about a slow-down in updates to iOS 8. John Gruber of Daring Fireball first posited that some well-documented software bugs were making people reluctant to update.

But his follow-up post reminded me how many times I’ve been asked by “normals” how I managed to update my iPhone 5. Their phones, the common story goes, just don’t have enough free space available to perform the update.

I know this is frustrating, so I wanted to share some quick and easy advice on the topic. First, if your iOS device is low on space, it’s probably because of all those photos and videos you’re taking. Learn how to move that stuff to your computer so you can safely delete it from your device.

Second, if you have an iPhone 4 or 4s, think hard before updating to iOS 8. Some reports suggest you’ll have a much slower device after the update. There are some neat new features, but none of them are worth slowing your phone down.

Third, make sure your iPhone or iPad is fully charged before you try to update. While it will be plugged into the computer and therefore charging during the update, it’s best to be safe about these things. Make sure your battery icon is green before you start the update and you should be fine.

Update to iOS 8 with iTunes

  1. If you want to install the iOS 8 update but your iPhone or iPad tells you it doesn’t have enough free space, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes.
  2. Plug the charging cable into your computer’s USB port and then connect it to your iPhone or iPad.
  3. If iTunes isn’t already opened, it will open. If it doesn’t open automatically you’ll just have to open it yourself (a first-world problem if ever I heard one).
  4. Click on the iPhone button that appears in iTunes and, if iTunes isn’t already offering to update your phone, click Check for Update.
  5. Wait. iTunes will download the five-gigabyte update to your computer and install it on your device.

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p>Check out Apple’s support page for more information.

A sense that it wasn’t design

A sense that it wasn’t design

Philly will consider adding LGBTQ protections to hate crimes ordinance

Philly will consider adding LGBTQ protections to hate crimes ordinance

Subprime auto lenders use technology to compel payment

Subprime auto lenders use technology to compel payment

FBI Director dislikes encryption on Apple and Google devices

FBI Director dislikes encryption on Apple and Google devices

Anonymous Instagram users role-play with stolen baby photos

Anonymous Instagram users role-play with stolen baby photos

Apple can't bypass your iOS passcode

Apple can’t bypass your iOS passcode

Check for lint before trying to replace your iPhone's charging port

My iPhone 5 recently stopped charging, unless I propped the phone upside down against an inclined surface like a lamp stand or a keyboard. I’m not in a position to buy one of those fancy new iPhones, so I shopped around in the internet’s DIY isle.

I found a well-reviewed set of iPhone surgery tools and even a well-reviewed replacement part on Amazon. Armed with those and an instructional YouTube video, I planned to replace the part myself.

Luckily, one of my many neuroses involves exhaustively reading through reviews before I buy anything from Amazon. It’s my favorite part of the site. I don’t even consider products with less than 25 or so reviews.

In a bricks-and-mortar store, you probably only have the staff to ask for advice, and they’re obviously biased. And if you’re anything like me, you probably know far more about the product than they do. Always take advantage of the availability of reviews on Amazon.

Anyway, with the necessary tools in my cart and the video queued up in the Watch Later section of my YouTube account, I headed over to read some reviews. That’s when I found this gem by Amazon user DullJack, who wrote:

First off, if you suspect your charging port is going bad, it probably isn’t. Grab a flashlight and a safety pin/needle, shine the light into the charging port and you will probably see a bunch of lint tightly jammed into the back of the port that is preventing the cable from fully inserting.

But I had looked in there and I didn’t see anything, DullJack. So what gives? He continues:

I looked into my old port before replacing it and it looked clear, but I didn’t shine a light into it.

Ah. I shined a light into it and alas, there it was. I turned my phone off (better safe than sorry when poking around inside your iPhone with anything sharp or metal) and gently used a paper clip to pull out more lint that I would have though could fit in there. Do this over a piece of white paper to get the full effect.

So. Much. Lint.

Then, I plugged it in with the reckless abandon I had used before the problems began. A small white Apple logo appeared in the middle of the screen. The phone booted up and the battery icon showed it was charging. I moved it around in all the common ways that had been causing it to stop charging.

Fixed!

I don’t use exclamation points very often on this site because that’s just not the tone I’m going for over here. But that one was obligatory. The sense of relief I felt upon learning I wouldn’t need to expose my iPhone’s innards to the harsh light of day is something only fellow geeks can understand.

Of course, exposing an iPhone’s innards to the harsh light of day is something only fellow geeks would even consider, too.

Let this be a lesson, well, several lessons, to you all:

  1. Always, always read the reviews before you buy online,
  2. Be absolutely certain the problem isn’t lint before replacing your iPhone’s charging port, and
  3. Amazon user DullJack is a gentleman and scholar deserving of the gratitude and respect of fellow geeks everywhere.

OutBeat, America's First Queer Jazz Festival

OutBeat, America’s First Queer Jazz Festival

Millenials won't use subpar enterprise software

Millenials won’t use subpar enterprise software

The systemic failure of modern hiring practices

The systemic failure of modern hiring practices

7th Circuit strikes down gay marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana

7th Circuit strikes down gay marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana

Listen: The Lawfare Podcast discusses zombies in the context of international law and national security

Listen: The Lawfare Podcast discusses zombies in the context of international law and national security

How law firms can innovate by providing third-party services to other law firms

The Economist wrote in 2011 about the end of the legal industry’s lofty heights, saying of one large but ill-fated American firm:

Howrey’s boss, Robert Ruyak, blamed two new trends for his firm’s demise. Howrey had begun acceding to clients’ demands for flat, deferred or contingent fees, causing income to become clumpy and unpredictable. And the rise of specialised e-discovery vendors hollowed out another source of revenue.

Legal services continue to unbundle as traditionally firm-based work like document review is outsourced and electronic discovery becomes more complex. Chicago-based law firm Winston and Strawn is bucking both trends, performing e-discovery for not only itself but other firms and forgoing staffing agencies to directly hire and provide benefits to its document review attorneys.

The firm’s e-discovery division brings in little revenue compared to the firm’s other practice areas. But it has seen three years of growth amid increasing demand for a la carte e-discovery services from other law firms and non-clients. This is a classic example of a business disrupting itself before outsiders irreparably damage it. Ben Thompson wrote an exhaustive case study of Apple’s own self-disruption that perfectly illustrates the strategy.

Many firms are still trying to cope with the boom in third-party legal services providers and complaints about the cost of good legal representation. Formerly bullet-proof business models no longer guarantee the luxurious profits to which so many law firms were once accustomed. And law firm leadership, like publishing and music executives before them, must find innovative ways to provide new value to clients and industry peers.

That’s why law firms like Winston and Strawn are doing more ancillary legal work in-house. I wonder whether more firms will pitch those services to their competitors. It sounds counterintuitive to provide valuable services to competitors, but I think there’s a case to be made for it as a way to revitalize the legal industry.

Many law firms could use guidance on business process improvement, e-discovery, technology, management consulting and more. No one is more qualified to provide those service to law firms than other law firms. Two factors should minimize the fear of deliberate sabotage by a firm you have hired in a non-legal consulting role. The first is a reputational consideration and the second is an ethical one.

Law firms providing their own third-party services to clients and non-clients, including other law firms, have the opportunity every business has when it is among the first to market with an innovative high-value product or service. That opportunity is the chance to become the gold standard, to set the bar high and be the first name that comes up when someone seeks out that product or service. It makes good business sense to treat that first-mover reputational advantage as you would any valuable asset, with great care and cultivation.

<

p>Law firms, via the attorneys who helm and staff them, are subject to myriad ethical requirements. The same processes currently in place at most large law firms to manage conflicts of interest, particularly with regard to walling off potentially conflicted attorneys from a given client or matter, could be easily applied to the firms consulting clients. In fact, the team within a firm which provides third-party consulting services to other firms could be completely walled off from the firms legal work, insulating the consulting services from concerns about endangering relationships with and the interests of current, former and prospective clients.

Larry Lessig fighting for campaign finance reform with Mayday PAC

Larry Lessig fighting for campaign finance reform with Mayday PAC

Why we don't speak up at work

Why we don’t speak up at work