Love.Law.Robots. by Ang Hou Fu

Newsletter

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August is almost over! With this, I have completed 3 months on Ghost. I am still feeling my way around this newsletter thing, so bear with me as I continue working on it. One of my new experiments is to use little title cards to feature quotes from my article for social media marketing. Like this little gem from my last post:

I am ashamed of my subpar graphic design skills, though.

Hmm. Needs a tad more work, back to Inkscape.

What I am reading now

  • The last newsletter featured Tech.Law.Fest in some detail, and this week featured a bigger conference on the other side of the globe — ILTACON. You can follow some of the reporting done by Artificial Lawyer here. It's interesting how different these conferences are. In Singapore, the discussion easily conflates the technology of law and the law of technology. See this Exhibit A. Innovation doesn't happen just because you know a little bit about the legal issues surrounding artificial intelligence or blockchains.
  • Here's something about coding. SQLModel was dropped suddenly, and if it is anything like FastAPI, I will love it. For folks who don't know SQL (pronounced “S Q L” or “sequel” depending on how old you are), it is the database that runs the world. The language that runs queries on SQL might look like an Excel formula on steroids, but I have been putting off learning it (including ORMs like SQLAlchemy and tortoise). If the interface were more like Python, I would really welcome learning one less thing. Databases are essential to any application, so this would open up new possibilities.
  • IAPP's Asia Privacy Forum for 2021 is online only with a significantly scaled-down program. Now I am having serious doubts about whether Tech.Law.Fest will feature any in-person content. Furthermore... where am I going to get all these CPE points for my certification? 😵

Postscript

It's great to hear good things about your posts from time to time, and this week features “Mining PDFs to obtain better text from Decisions”, which was described by a reader as helpful and inspiring. The post talks about reverse-engineering PDFs, which is the prevailing format in court decisions. I've always wondered why I didn't think about using the formatting of a document to improve parsing its information. It's literally right in front of me! Inspiration is such an odd journey, which is why it can be exciting. I am thinking of employing the technique to lift text from all sorts of decisions, which will make them more accessible.

Mining PDFs to obtain better text from DecisionsAfter several attempts at wrangling with PDFs, I managed to extract more text information from complicated documents using PDFMiner.Love.Law.Robots.Houfu

Post Updates

I am still experimenting with the right balance between free, subscriber and paid content so that you might notice some A/B testing or modifications to my approach.

I also just learnt that I am supposed to prune my subscriber list for non-active readers. If you are reading this, you aren't likely to be affected. In any case, I would send a reminder email before making any drastic moves.

That's it!

Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out!

#Newsletter

Author Portrait Love.Law.Robots. – A blog by Ang Hou Fu

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It's August! This newsletter came slightly late this time because I spent a few evenings playing computer games. Tsk. The Battle of Polytopia reminded me of a condensed Civilization, which is great because I still need to work the next morning. Get the Humble Bundle and do something for charity!

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Tech Law Fest Special Edition

Now let's get back to the newsletter.

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Over three days in September, Tech.Law.Fest happens in Singapore. There's a lot of talking involved over the three days on a cornucopia of topics that someone with legal knowledge might be interested in. It's going to be in person as well as virtual.

These talks are organised according to four ideas — “Legal Operations”, “Law of Technology”, “Access to Justice” and “Technology of Law”. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that each of them gets equal or even some representation — “law of technology” features at least half of every day, while tangential topics lightly touch the others.

The best day seems to be Friday — 24 September 2021. You will get to hear Mary O'Carroll, a huge name in Legal Operations, speak in one of the few sessions featuring a panel. So if you are going to pick only one day to turn up, maybe you should pick this day.

Tech.Law.Fest also features something they call “matchworking”, an in-person networking session that greatly benefits from the recent relaxation of meeting rules in Singapore (you can have fun if you're vaccinated). They are organised into four tracks like the topics; you have no idea when a topic is happening, and you might be charged $100 for no show. I ain't a big fan of wine either. So I am a bit hesitant to put my name on this. You can still register your interest.

Here's something new — there's an ALITA SOLIA Award thing that has a public voting section happening next week. There's not much information on who is up for voting. So I reckon we have to keep checking.

As you can tell from my fairly unvarnished take on the event, no one is paying me to write about it. Nevertheless, I will be figuring out whether there is a way to post Twitter updates of hot takes, so I don't need to write a 20-minute long article on this blog. Follow my Twitter!

Let's be grateful that we can see the light of the tunnel. In terms of event design, Tech.Law.Fest seems to have suffered and adapted to the whiplashes caused by the pandemic, so one should applaud their efforts. (I haven't heard much about the other major Singapore legal conferences like IAPP Asia). It's still an exciting time to write a blog!

I'm still figuring out how to write this blog

Iced Coffee in a glassImage by cromaconceptovisual from Pixabay

Bravo to our new full subscriber! I have been writing this blog for over 2 years now, but I am s.till humbled by the many new things I am still learning in this journey.

So far, I have been feeling my way around this blog or newsletter stuff. For the initial product, everything was free, but it was unsustainable. I didn't run out of ideas or words in my head, but I wasn't sure whether this was worth my time. Some feedback, in whatever form, was important to keep things going.

As such, paying for a subscription shouldn't be seen as a transaction. At 1 cup of kopi a month, you're keeping the lights on in this room and pushing me to come up with more ideas to create value. So, if you ain't one already, do consider signing up.

Of course, there are other ways to contribute, such as providing feedback on what I have written or what kind of content you would like to see. When I talk about books on the blog, you can also use the affiliate links to purchase them and support the blog.

Let's build something together!

That's it!

Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out!

#Newsletter #blog #TechLawFest

Author Portrait Love.Law.Robots. – A blog by Ang Hou Fu

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😩😢😴 I am not surprised these days were coming, although less than 2 months is a bit sooner than I expected.

I am sure this would make a great post one day , but I am feeling burnt out right now. Implementing a policy is always a tiresome project, but I am glad it's about e-signature. The roll-out has received a lot of praise and I liked many aspects of it personally.

Right now though, I feel like I need to bury myself in a hole and stay quiet for a while. So, forgive me if this newsletter feels a bit truncated than usual.

What I am reading now

Before I leave the topic of implementing e-Signature policies in your company, I just wanted to write about Sign Here: The Enterprise Guide to Signing Contracts Quickly by Alex Hamilton from Radiant Law. I mentioned Radiant Law in my previous post about law firms that are different. I finished this book in a few weeks ago and found it actionable. Unfortunately, I had to obtain my insights the hard way, i.e. looking at things critically and a bit of experimentation.

You don't need to go through that like me. Just buy the book.

Sign Here: The enterprise guide to closing contracts quickly : Hamilton, Alex: Amazon.sg: BooksSign Here: The enterprise guide to closing contracts quickly : Hamilton, Alex: Amazon.sg: BooksAlex HamiltonI earn a commission from purchases made through this affiliate link.

In Singapore, our return to normalcy has been stayed by the latest COVID-19 cluster. What started from a KTV cluster moved quickly into fish markets and has now extended its tentacles in several locations of everyday life here. It's not been highlighted, but this scenario would have been very dangerous at the same time last year. Our neighbours are vivid examples. We have to thank vaccinations.

Amidst all this, there's been talk as to how to push more people to vaccinate. At last, we have come to a very sticky situation.

Adrian Tan on LinkedIn: EXPLAINER: Employers have legal right to mandate COVID shots | 48 commentsCan a business require employees to be vaccinated, in order to protect other employees and customers? Google and Facebook have said that US employees ... 48 comments on LinkedInLinkedIn349 Posts

I actually encounter loved ones who refused to be vaccinated. Many of their reasons aren't rational. They are unmoored by emotions. They are clouded by misinformation. Worse, when you think about it, many of them (like old folks) are the ones who stand to gain the most from vaccinations.

In the meantime, my family and I feel threatened by their stupidity and selfishness.

At this point, I feel that people should be ordered to vaccinate. These subtle nudges just don't help. People who think they are exercising their free choice look like they are just waiting for the rest of us to protect them. What do you think?

Postscript

Somebody might have read my post. I was excited about the HTML conversion of the PDF judgements in the Singapore Supreme Court website but complained why this feature was being hidden.

Now that the page is more powerful, it makes the secrecy about it even more confounding. From a UX viewpoint, the way results are displayed make it look like a PDF is the only way to read them. The hint to the search box still suggests that you can only search case titles. Why improve something if you're not going to show it off?!

New homes for judgements in the UK... and Singapore?I look at envy in the UK while exploring some confusing changes in the Singapore Supreme Court website.Love.Law.Robots.Houfu

Now, the pretty PDFs are hidden by default on the Supreme Court Website. The converted HTML judgement is now the primary way to access the judgement. The search options now seem to have left Beta and are reflecting its new powers in the descriptions.

In order to get the PDF, you now have to click on the judgement and then click download PDF.

... and now the case summaries have disappeared from the page.

Still, It's a step in the right direction. We will take whatever little victory we can get.

Post updates

While I get over my work hangover, I am currently working on my first feature since moving to Ghost. It's gonna be a list of free legal resources in Singapore... and it'd be free. This might upset Full Subscribers, of which they are currently 0 (why? Come on, guys!!). As mentioned, being a full subscriber should be a token to say thanks, and I will be grateful.

I am moving posts slowly in the meantime. The move is nearly complete since I don't intend to move everything here. While I learn more about how Ghost affects my search engine performance, I reckon that I will not make any new restrictions for now.

That's it!

My TraceTogether app now says I am fully vaccinated. Some have claimed that September is the month to go travelling. Well, I don't know much about that. I'll be staying home and nursing my burning out for now.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out!

#Newsletter #E-signature #COVID-19 #Judgements #SupremeCourtSingapore

Author Portrait Love.Law.Robots. – A blog by Ang Hou Fu