INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
February 3, 2002
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #58 of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, a newsletter that delivers relevant and timely legal research information, and other fun stuff, to your inbox every Sunday. If you like what you read, please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to do the same! To subscribe, all you have to do is send an e-mail to ilrw-subscribe@topica.com. It’s free!
And away we go…..
Notable News
Is Your Passport Secure?
The Electronic Privacy Information Center wants the Justice Department to investigate Microsoft’s Passport service, which allows a person to transfer personal and financial information to online merchants.Two From Google
Don’t you just hate pop-up ads? Then use Google as your search engine – they won’t use ‘em.It Sounds Dirty, But It Isn’t – the newest online sport is “Google-Whacking,” the goal to come up with a combination of search terms that will give you only ONE result.
Refresher On Quality of Information
Take a look at this great short article by Genie Tyburski at the Virtual Chase, on evaluating the quality of information you find on the Web.And for Those of You Missed It…The President’s State of the Union Address.
Help DeskWeekly Computer Maintenance – Step #4:
Last week we ran ScanDisk to stabilize your computer. This week it’s time to DEFRAG. When a program on your computer is too big to store in one single place on the hard drive, it will split the program up in different places. This can cause the program to run slower; as your computer becomes more fragmented over time, your whole system can slow down. Just go to Start|Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Disk Defragmenter, and follow the directions.
Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail– I’ll post your question (don’t worry, I won’t use your real name) and try to get an answer for you!
Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet
U.S. Trade Internet System
A website from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service, I can’t begin to understand all of the information offered here – but whatever it is, it’s impressive. Just select a topic – Imports, Exports, or Re-Exports, and choose from one of the categories, with codes that are alien to me – HS-2, HS-4, HS-10, BICO, FATUS, and so on. Turns out HS-4 stands for 4-digit codes, from horses to antiques. You can perform a customized search here, and find records from 1989 to the present. I was able to determine that we sent $141,000 worth of industrial fatty acids to Malaysia in 1994. I’m sure more helpful information is available to those of you knowledgeable on the subject.xrefer
xrefer is, as the service puts it, a “giant online library.” And the offerings in this particular library are everything you would expect from a quality reference library. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, and quotation books, to name a few. And all of the titles are cross-referenced, to get you to related information without performing extra searches. Best of all, it’s free. Of course, if you’re looking for more, xreferplus offers a subscription service with access to four times the reference material, with prices beginning at $1,500 per year.
Canadian Consumer Information Gateway
This is a terrific site from the Canadian government, with 35 federal government departments and 250 partners uniting to promote Canadian consumer interests and awareness. You can find information on a wealth of topics – children, communications, consumer products, environment, food, health, housing, Internet, money, and more. When you select a topic, you’ll get a pop-up window so you can select the jurisdiction on which you want information. I selected Internet information from British Columbia and Ontario, and received 28 documents. More helpful were the subcategory folders at the top of the screen – they reminded me of the folders you see with Vivisimo or WiseNut – with headings such as Consumer Protection, Forms, Privacy/Security, Shopping Online, and Standards.DMV Website Listings
On this very simple page you’ll find the links to the Departments of Motor Vehicles for every state in the country. That’s it. Nothing else.FormsGuru.com
Although this site is geared primarily to consumers, you might find yourself in need of one of the forms found here, and they are free to use. There are form business letters in addition to the legal forms; forms include assignment of lien, financing statement, notice of dissolution, and a quitclaim deed, to name a few. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, just connect to a related site that will charge you for the form you’re seeking.Index of State Discovery Rules
Another simple list of links to each state’s Rules of Procedure and related discovery rules. This one is not as useful as the DMV site above, because not all of the links are accurate, and not all states
offer access to their discovery rules. Still, it’s nice to have all the links in one place.NY Lawyer
An online career guide for young lawyers, New York Lawyer is “for lawyers on the verge…” -- whatever that means. Here you’ll find a daily advice column on job hunting and alternative careers, information on raises, bonuses, and layoffs, a recruiting guide, and more. There’s lots of good information here on law firms, and not just for young lawyers.RDN Virtual Training Suite
Presented by the Institute for Learning and Technology, this is a great site for learning more about how to find certain sources on the Internet. The Suite breaks down its tutorials into professions, from Aviator to Social Studies, Civil Engineer to Women’s Studies, and others. Each tutorial provides sites for you to tour, tips on improving your Internet searching, critical thinking on evaluating the quality of websites, and more. Be careful when looking at some of the sites – I don’t think this site has been updated in a while, and some of the references may be out of date. Still, this is a nice place to learn more about searching the Internet.Tariff Database
I guess trade regulation is one of the themes of the grab bags this week – here you can find information on imports for just about anything, with data from 1998 through 2001. It helps if you know the HTS (Harmonized Tariff Schedule) number for the particular product you’re searching for; a list of the HTS numbers are also available on a related link. I did a search for “pork shoulders,” and found that Denmark provides the most pork shoulder to the United States, 38% of the total in 2000. Yet another valuable resource for lawyers and others interested in trade law.Virtual Gumshoe
This site is the reincarnation of WebGator, with which some of you may be familiar. Virtual Gumshoe is a great collection of links to hundreds of sites that can help you with your Internet investigation needs. You can find information on adoption resources, alumni, archives, associations, criminal histories, departments of correction, libraries, maps, property records, public records, and I’m just getting started. Keep this site in your Investigation folder, and you’ll always have access to the most relevant sites.Now, some fun and useful sites:
Check out the picture of the earth at night. Very cool – but even better are the comments below the picture.
And for those of you who thought Legos were just for kids, visit the LegoDeath Museum of Horror.
Need a perpetual calendar?
Well, that’s it for Issue #58– I hope you liked it! If you did, pass this along to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to subscribe. Also, feel free to drop me an e-mail any time if you have questions, or if you have websites or other topics you want included in a future issue.
Tom Mighell
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