Techshow's '60 Sites' highlight: Glitter revenge?
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A more efficient way to compare and buy airline tickets. Several ways to test the strength of your password. A website where you can watch the best television programs from the 1980s. And glitter?
Those were only a few of the many websites recommended by five person panel during the traditional ABA Techshow closing session on Saturday: “60 Sites in 60 Minutes.”
The panel, which consisted of outgoing Techshow chairman Brett Burney, principal of Burney Consultants, Herbert Dixon, judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Debbie Foster, partner with the Affinity Consulting Group, Dennis Kennedy, vice president and senior counsel at MasterCard and Mark Unger of the Unger Law Firm, gave out a list of 60-plus websites that can help attorneys practice law more effectively, stay informed of the latest news and trends, and waste time.
With so many lawyers and consultants flying into Chicago from various parts of the country, the panel gave out several useful websites that could come in handy the next time they hit the road. Burney recommended Hipmunk, a powerful website that allows users to search almost every airline carrier for ticket prices and book directly with the airline without leaving the site. Burney also mentioned TripIt, a website (and app) that allows users to put their plane tickets, hotel reservations and car-rental information all on one screen instead of having to carry around several different pieces of paper.
Dixon, meanwhile, tackled a topic near and dear to many Techshow attendees’ hearts: hotel wifi speeds. With Hotel Wifi Test, users can see how fast the internet connections are at whatever hotel they are staying in, or check the speeds of hotels around the world before booking them (hint: hotels in Germany and Singapore tend to have super-fast Internet connections).
And for people who are looking for fun things to do when they’re visiting a city, Foster suggested Roadtripper. The site gives users information about natural wonders, tourist attractions, restaurants, and other things they can do in a given city, and collects pictures, videos, travel essays and stories.
Like last year’s session, cybersecurity was a major area of interest, and the panel listed several websites designed to test password strength, determine whether you’ve been hacked or scan files or URLs for suspicious content. Dixon suggested VirusTotal, which analyzes files or URLs for viruses or malware, as well as How Big is Your Haystack? a site that determines how strong your password is and how long it would take hackers to crack it.
“The security folks will tell you that any password can be found,” said Dixon. “The only question is how long will it take.” The site calculates the time it would take for various passwords to be cracked, down to fractions of a second. For those that don’t want to see those kinds of complex calculations, Burney recommended Passive Aggressive Passwords, a site that utilizes sarcastic comments to analyze the strength of your password.
The panel also listed several websites that can help improve productivity. Unger suggested ClipCard, a search tool that integrates with a large number of applications like Gmail, Evernote, DropBox, Office 365 and many others. Kennedy recommended Pronounce Names, saying: “If you work with clients in other countries, going that extra mile to figure out how to pronounce their names is a great way to go.” For those that need some nice infographics for an upcoming presentation, Foster talked up easel.ly as a great site to help create eye-catching and informative charts and graphics.
Of course it wasn’t all about hard work. Unger brought up shipyourenemiesglitter.com, a site that delivers glitter bombs to people you don’t like. “This is great for opposing counsel, as well as clients that you don’t have to worry about anymore,” Unger said with a laugh. Unger also suggested Invisible Girlfriend, a service that provides evidence in the form of social media profiles and text messages to make people think you have a real girlfriend.
Not to be outdone, Foster recommended My 80s TV, a website that allows viewers to watch actual television programs from the 1980s. “Recently I got sucked into watching an episode of ‘As the World Turns’ from 1983,” said Foster. “In fact, I may have watched that episode when it was new.”
Burney said the full list of sites will be available online through the ABA TECHSHOW 2015 website “in a week or so.”
