About WDFloyd

Dave Floyd is an attorney, real estate broker, and trivia host in Austin, Texas. He works with the Foskitt Law Office and is an owner of Floyd Real Estate. He was a candidate for Austin City Council in 2014 and lives in the Zilker Neighborhood.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Events: AYLA August Docket Call

The Austin Young Lawyers Association ("AYLA") will have it's next Docket Call happy hour on August 16th at Cedar Door. I'm pleased to say that of the sponsors will be the Foskitt Realty Group.

AYLA members can take advantage of the sponsored tab while it lasts.  If you are a young lawyer in Austin but aren't a member of AYLA, then join online or sign up at the door.  Annual AYLA dues are only $50 and quite a value.




Note: Dave Floyd is on the AYLA Board of Directors.  Statements in this blog reflect his personal opinions and not necessarily those of AYLA as an organization.  




Pat's Promise Event

A few weeks ago I posted a note about Pat's Promise, the organ donation awareness, education, and advocacy group started by my friend Pat Butcha.  Pat started Pat's Promise after receiving a life saving liver transplant in March.   Much progress has been made, so save the date for 9/9.  That's the day that Pat's Promise will hold in Zilker Park a rally for organ donors.  Stay turned for more information about this event, and be sure to follow @PatsPromise on Twitter for updates from the man himself.

Mobile: ZAGGfolio for iPad 2

iPad2 in ZAGGfolio Case
I have an iPad 2.   I bought it last August for business purposes, although it gets a lot of personal use as well.  After using the iPad Smart Cover for about a year, I decided to try out an iPad case with a built in Bluetooth keyboard.   While I typically use my iPad to read content, there are times when I want to write long emails or take notes.  My iPad is great for travel as well as taking to seminars and meetings.  Thus I find myself typing on it fairly often; in my experience using the iPad's virtual keyboard becomes fairly tedious after writing a few sentences.

I decided to buy the ZAGGfolio case for iPad 2 after it was recommended by employees at a couple of different stores.  I bought my ZAGGfolio for $99 at Best Buy, after considering it as well as the Logitech Keyboard Case.  I went with the ZAGGfolio because it seemed more robust and it covered the back of the iPad.

I've found that the ZAGGfolio is great if you want to use your iPad like a netbook (see photo).  I find the keyboard surprisingly easy to use, and thus I've had a much easier time taking notes on my iPad as well as composing lengthy business emails.  For example,  next week I'm going to the AGRIP conference in Colorado, and I expect to leave my laptop in the hotel room while I use the iPad exclusively during seminars (Evernote for iPad is great for taking notes; afterward, you can attach additional files to your notes).

What the ZAGGfolio is not great at is treating the iPad like a tablet.  The case only allows you to use the iPad in landscape orientation in conjunction with the keyboard.  When you try to fold the keyboard section behind the iPad section (to hold the iPad like a regular tablet) it feel like you are about to break the ZAGGfolio.  Needless to say, this is distracting.  Thus, you are better off taking the iPad out of the case if you want to hold it while you read content.   Also, if you want to use an iPad while walking around, ditch the ZAGGfolio.  While these aspects of the ZAGGfolio seemed to aggravate some of the authors of product reviews I read, so far I've found it to be an acceptable trade off.  If I'm going to sit and type a lot of information into the iPad, the ZAGGfolio is great.  If I want to use the iPad primarily for reading, if you want to use it while walking, or you want to pass it around at meetings then Smart Cover is better option.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Apple OS X Mountain Lion: I Just Upgraded

On Friday afternoon, I decided to upgrade my MacBook Pro to the new Mountain Lion OS.  I had planned to wait, but after reading about one dozen highly positive reviews I became too curious about the new OS to wait.  

Buying Mountain Lion was easy.  It was $20 at the Mac App Store.  The download, however, took over two hours.  I'm not sure what the hold-up was.  My office network is usually quite fast, thus I assumed Apple's servers were a little overloaded from a rush of Friday afternoon downloads.  Once downloaded, though, everything installed smoothly.

Overall, I like Mountain Lion.  My MacBook seems to be much faster now that it's installed.  I haven't experienced any unusual problems with applications I regularly use.  Among these are:
  • Word 2011
  • Outlook 2011
  • OneNote (through a Windows Virtual Machine)
  • Omnifocus
  • Evernote (Mac desktop client)
  • Picasa
  • Chrome
  • Filemaker 12
  • Pages 
My copy of Mindjet warned me that it may have trouble with Mountain Lion (and thus to save work frequently), although I have yet to encounter any problems.  

I'm very happy with the new Pages interface with iCloud.  It's now quite easy to leave a document in the iCloud folder and have it easily accessed by Pages on my iPad.  I'm also looking forward to syncing Notes through iCloud. As for the rest of iCloud, I haven't made much use of it.  I can see the utility in the keeping the Calendar and Address book on it; however, all of my contacts and calendar items are already synced through an Exchange server.   I don't use Mail, but rather Outlook 2011 as a mail client.  Because I don't use the built in Apple productivity apps, Mountain Lion's new marquee "Notification" center is pretty useless to me.  

Mountain Lion's built in productivity apps look nice, but since I also use a PC and most of my company uses PCs we have found that the Exchange server works best for us.  Also, this means that I'm not bound to any proprietary system for syncing phones, tables, and computers as Exchange works with Apple devices and Windows PCs as well as Android and Windows based mobile devices.  Generally, most of my files are stored in formats which would work on a Windows platform (the main exception being those in Pages and those on programs from the Omni Group).  

The above being said, I still prefer to work in the Mac OS environment and plan to do so as long as it's practical.   I've been quite pleased with Mountain Lion on the MacBook.   While I haven't used most of the touted bells and whistles (i.e., the 200+ new features) I have found already that it is providing a fundamentally faster and better platform for the applications I use frequently.  And, I'm very pleased at the ease with which I can work on Pages documents between my Mac and my iPad.  

More to come as I keep working using the MacBook...

Food: P. Terry's Chicken Burger

Most people think of beef hamburgers when they think of P. Terry's; however, they happen to make a delicious chicken burger.  Unlike most fast food chicken sandwich options, the P. Terry's chicken burger is made from boneless, skinless chicken breasts which are ground and formed into burger sized patties.   Cooked on the grill when you order it, the result is a juicy and delicious chicken sandwich.   And, if you opt to include the tomato slice (which I don't), you'll be delighted to know that their tomatoes are locally grown and delivered fresh every day.

Of course, it goes without saying that P. Terry's burgers and fries are awesome as well.   If you are new to Austin and haven't yet been to a P. Terry's, I highly recommend a trip.


Events: Austin Habitat Young Professionals August Happy Hour

Mark you calendars for August 23rd.  In honor of the upcoming Karaoke 5K, Austin Habitat Young Professionals will have a karaoke themed happy hour at Highball.  There will be free karaoke and other fun activities.

Prism Risk Management Blog

Check out the new posting on the Prism Risk Management Blog:  Protecting Your Online Identity and Reputation, Part 2

5 helpful tips when terminating an employee - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

5 helpful tips when terminating an employee - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

More code words: calling an employee with a learning disability "Forrest Gump" is not construed as a reference to his haircut - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

More code words: calling an employee with a learning disability "Forrest Gump" is not construed as a reference to his haircut - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Friday, July 27, 2012

Event Recap: HYP Happy Hour at Dogwood

Austin HYP and Tabbedout.com
Thanks to everyone who came out to The Dogwood last night for the Austin Habitat Young Professional's July Happy Hour.  We had a great crowd and it was a fun event.

Special thanks to our July happy hour sponsor: Tabbedout.com.  I signed up for Tabbedout in order to take advantage of the special they worked out for HYP.   I'm not sure why I hadn't signed up for this service earlier.  The Tabbedout mobile app lets you follow your tab (at a participating bar or restaurant) and then pay out.  Thus, all you have to do to leave a bar (in which you are using Tabbedout) is to press a few buttons on your phone before taking off.  It's easy and convient.

And, of course, thanks to the good folks from Karaoke 5K for stopping by to sign up some people for their upcoming event.  Proceeds from the Karaoke 5K will go to benefit HYP and Austin Habitat for Humanity.  Ergo, it will be fun for a good cause.  Sign up now, as space in the Karaoke 5K is limited.

HYP's next event will be at The Highball on August 23rd.  There will be free karaoke.  It will be fun.



Austin HYP is the young professional group affiliated with Austin Habitat for Humanity.  HYP offers members opportunities to build homes, build connections, and build leadership experience.  Or, as we like to say:  Have Fun, Build Homes, and Change Lives


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Events: Austin Habitat Young Professionals Happy Hour

Just a reminder:


JOIN US @ DOGWOOD
715 West 6th Street Austin, TX 78701
THURSDAY, JULY 26 from 5:30 - 8 pm
What's special about this happy hour? 
It's brought to you by Tabbedout! 
Use Tabbedout at the Habitat Young Professionals happy hour
at Dogwood on Thursday, July 26 and
SAVE $3 off a minimum $4 tab when you pay with Tabbedout!
 ...................................................................................................................................................
In case you haven't heard of Tabbedout, here's the deal:
www.Tabbedout.com is the free mobile app for iPhone and Andriod that lets you PAY your TAB with your PHONE. Skip the wait to pay your tab at participating bars and restaurants by opening a tab with Tabbedout. View your tab details in real time and leave when you are ready to go. Tabbedout puts you in control of when you pay your tab so you never miss out on a good time or leave your credit card at the bar.
  

Prism Risk Management Blog

Check out the new post on the Prism Risk Management Blog: Protecting Your Online Identity and Reputation, Part 1

Texas Governor says state will not implement two key health care reform provisions - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Texas Governor says state will not implement two key health care reform provisions - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Increase in HIPAA enforcement activity continues and spreads to states - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Increase in HIPAA enforcement activity continues and spreads to states - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

FMLA protects employees who request leave before they are eligible - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

FMLA protects employees who request leave before they are eligible - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Monday, July 23, 2012

Texas Supreme Court now requires direct proof of age discrimination when replacement employee is older than the plaintiff - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Texas Supreme Court now requires direct proof of age discrimination when replacement employee is older than the plaintiff - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

"Plain English" FMLA guide book may increase claims - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

"Plain English" FMLA guide book may increase claims - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

DOL auditing healthcare plans for ACA compliance - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

DOL auditing healthcare plans for ACA compliance - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Losing the expectation of privacy bit by bit, byte by byte - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Losing the expectation of privacy bit by bit, byte by byte - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Friday, July 20, 2012

Events: Habitat Young Professionals 7/26 Happy Hour


JOIN US @ DOGWOOD
715 West 6th Street Austin, TX 78701
THURSDAY, JULY 26 from 5:30 - 8 pm
What's special about this happy hour? 
It's brought to you by Tabbedout! 
Use Tabbedout at the Habitat Young Professionals happy hour
at Dogwood on Thursday, July 26 and
SAVE $3 off a minimum $4 tab when you pay with Tabbedout!
 ...................................................................................................................................................
In case you haven't heard of Tabbedout, here's the deal:
www.Tabbedout.com is the free mobile app for iPhone and Andriod that lets you PAY your TAB with your PHONE. Skip the wait to pay your tab at participating bars and restaurants by opening a tab with Tabbedout. View your tab details in real time and leave when you are ready to go. Tabbedout puts you in control of when you pay your tab so you never miss out on a good time or leave your credit card at the bar.
  

Monday, July 16, 2012

Pat's Promise

Back in March, my good friend Pat Buchta received a life saving liver transplant.  He almost didn't get his new liver in time.  Why?  Because organs are in short supply and some folks have to wait for years in order for a replacement organ to become available.  Some folks can't wait long enough and don't survive what could be treatable illnesses provided that donor organs are available.

Pat had taken his experience with the liver transplant and started a new organization called Pat's Promise.  The goal: to educate and to raise awareness about organ donation as well as to get more people signed up as organ donors.  He's just launched the website, which I encourage all of you to visit.


Scotus to hear three cases of particular importance to labor & employment - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Scotus to hear three cases of particular importance to labor & employment - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

How employers can write social media policies to their advantage and avoid legal challenges - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

How employers can write social media policies to their advantage and avoid legal challenges - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Cyber insurance: the risk-reduction remedy some companies want and need - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Cyber insurance: the risk-reduction remedy some companies want and need - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Ninth Circuit holds no ADA protection for medical marijuana use - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Ninth Circuit holds no ADA protection for medical marijuana use - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

DOL publishes new employees' guide to the FMLA - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

DOL publishes new employees' guide to the FMLA - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Affordable Care Act requires timely employer compliance - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Affordable Care Act requires timely employer compliance - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Can you retaliate against someone because he or she filed a fair housing complaint? No. - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Can you retaliate against someone because he or she filed a fair housing complaint? No. - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

“Private” capital-raising under the JOBS Act - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

“Private” capital-raising under the JOBS Act - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The legal concerns implicated by corporate wellness programs - Corporate Counsel Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

The legal concerns implicated by corporate wellness programs - Corporate Counsel Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

OCR issues protocol for HIPAA privacy, security and breach notification audit program - Corporate Counsel Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

OCR issues protocol for HIPAA privacy, security and breach notification audit program - Corporate Counsel Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

When the best defense is a proactive offense: protecting your reputation on the Internet - Corporate Counsel Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

When the best defense is a proactive offense: protecting your reputation on the Internet - Corporate Counsel Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Employers feel backlash for Facebook snooping - Corporate Counsel Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Employers feel backlash for Facebook snooping - Corporate Counsel Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Monday, July 2, 2012

Size does matter - TEXAS TOAST mark deemed generic as applied to croutons. - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Size does matter - TEXAS TOAST mark deemed generic as applied to croutons. - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Is breastfeeding bias the EEOC's next battleground? - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Is breastfeeding bias the EEOC's next battleground? - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

U.S. Supreme Court to consider definition of “supervisor” for purposes of vicarious liability in hostile work environment case - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

U.S. Supreme Court to consider definition of “supervisor” for purposes of vicarious liability in hostile work environment case - ACC Newsstand - Powered by Lexology

Prism Risk Management Blog




There's a new post up on the Prism Risk Management Blog:  What Is An Employer's Liability For An Employee's Distracted Driving?  Risk Management in the Digital Era






Prism Risk Management provides businesses and organizations with risk and loss prevention consulting and offers services in loss control planning. To learn how Prism can help your organization, contact Prism today online or at (512) 901-0070.