INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
December 15, 2002
Tom MighellWelcome to Issue #92 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 visit Inter Alia and filling out the subscription form -- it's free!
If you didn't visit Inter Alia this week, you missed out on FIFTEEN stories (that's 15, people) you aren't reading in this issue. Fifteen potentially very helpful research and computer tips (or fun stuff) for you to use! What are you waiting for?
Another issue of ILRW-Lite for you this week. I'll be back to full steam after the holidays.
And away we go…..
News Update
Now you can do your legal research while flying
Both Lufthansa and British Airways will begin offering on-board Internet access in early 2003. The service will be free for the first month, then $32 for the duration of the flight. That's a little pricey, don't you think? When I first started on PC-Link (now AOL) 12 years ago, I paid a whopping $6.00/hour -- you would think things would have improved by now. Then again, the cruise ship I sailed on a few weeks ago charged $30 an hour -- now you know why you didn't see any posts from me that week.Learn more about the Internet Archive
I've written about the Internet Archive, or Wayback Machine, on many occasions. If you're interested, check out this tour of the massive archiving projectYou gotta feel for the guy...
The Detroit Free Press reports on a bulk e-mail entrepreneur (read: spammer) who has been inundated with hundreds of ads, brochures, and catalogs delivered to his home ever since an anti-spam group found out where he lives. An earlier story in the paper reported that this particular spam king is able to send over one billion spam e-mails a day. I'd say the anti-spammers are just trying to even the score.AllTheWeb adds Word Search
Check out the Advanced Search page of AllTheWeb sometime. You'll find all sorts of goodies, and ways to restrict your search to particular file types. AllTheWeb now allows you to limit your search to Word .doc documents.The Weekly Google Trifecta
Google Labs is at it again. First up is the Google Viewer -- this is Google's version of the Preview function found in other search engines. When your search results appear, they immediately begin cycling as part of a slide show; you can set the speed yourself. Next is Google Webquotes. Just plug in your search terms, and the results will also display up to three quotes from other sites about that particular search result. Hmmm. Finally, for those of you who love fascinating but useless statistics, Google Zeitgeist presents its 2002 search patterns, trends, and surprises.Filling in the Blanks
SearchDay offers a helpful guide on forcing a phrase match on search engines. This is a great article, and a search strategy that more people need to learn to use
Finally, a reason to get rid of those #$!% out-of-office replies
How many of you set up "out of office" messages for those who send you e-mail while you're, well, out of the office? I know I will receive at least 10 when I send out this newsletter later today. I can't deny their usefulness for providing people with immediate notification of your unavailability, but for some reason they annoy the heck out of me. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who doesn't use this feature. Now it seems they might be bad for you. Apparently, would-be criminals are buying up lists of e-mail addresses to find out details of vacation absences. Once they have the list, it's a pretty simple process to determine the address of those "out of office" individuals.Check out these new blawgs
J-Files is a recently launched (October) blawg by a purposefully vague legal professional. It has an RSS/XML feed, and some interesting stuff -- give it a look. And for those of you who enjoy statutory construction, there's a blawg just for you -- the Statutory Construction Zone. This weblog aims to provide "current, succinct, statutory-construction case summaries that will be helpful to practitioners; to demonstrate that there is a lot more to statutory construction than "plain meaning" vs. "intent"; and to disseminate trivia about the pre-1789 English common law." Yet another terrific use of the weblog mechanism.
Help Desk
M.T. e-mailed to ask me to describe how to download music and burn a CD on your computer. Last week we talked music downloading 101, and the difference between .wav and .mp3 files. This week, we'll actually burn some CDs. First, you need some blank CDs. These come in two types -- CD-R and CD-RW. A CD-RW is one that can be recorded over -- thus, RW for "rewritable." You can erase the music on a CD-RW and record new music in its place, much like a cassette tape. Trouble is, many commercial CD players often can't read CD-RW disks. That's why most people go with CD-R disks -- you can only record on them once, but they average 50 cents apiece, so cost is not that much of an issue.
One other major piece of equipment you'll need is a CD-rewritable drive. Many computers come with rewritable drives pre-installed; if yours doesn't have one, you can purchase a stand-alone version that connects to the back of your computer. Check out popular rewritable drives at CNET.
If you have downloaded your mp3s from the Internet, they should be ready to record on the CD. If the songs are still on a CD, however, you'll need a "ripper" -- software that takes a song from a CD and puts it on your hard drive. Some of the CD rippers that I have used include MusicMatch, RealOne, and Roxio Easy CD Creator. Other programs are available, but I can't tell you if they are any good. A sample of these programs can be found in the Google Directory.
Once you have all of your CDs on your computer's hard drive, it's time to start burning! For this, you'll need CD recording software -- MusicMatch, RealOne, and Roxio Easy CD Creator mentioned above can all burn CDs. If you have Windows XP, there's a built-in CD burner; I've never tried it so I don't know whether it's worth the effort. Just pop a blank CD into your rewritable drive, arrange the songs in the order you want them to appear on the CD, click the appropriate buttons, and your computer does the rest!
This has been just a brief and basic description of the process. If you want to learn more about burning CDs, head to any of the websites above.
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
Baker & McKenzie Global E-Commerce Law
This is a great business development tool for law firm Baker & McKenzie. It's a selection of e-commerce laws, both nation and world-wide. There's a listing of legislation, regulation, and policies for the United States, as well as many countries around the world. There are links to e-commerce, guidelines, analysis, articles, as well as information on privacy, data protection, and information security law. You can also sign up for the firm's global e-law alert newsletter.ChemSpy
This site is for all of you who may have been science geeks in school (or still are, for that matter). ChemSpy makes chemistry and chemical engineering databases available for professionals, students, and the average person interested in chemical analysis. Search chemical dictionaries, specialized chemistry search engines, spectral data, chemical journals and patents, MSDS/Safety data, manufacturers, and more. You can check out the latest in chemistry news, or take a tutorial on subjects like thermodynamics, electronic structure, spectroscopy, distillation, and I'm just getting started! This is a comprehensive resource for your chemistry needs.Animal Legal and Historical Center
Presented by the Detroit College Law, the Animal Legal and Historical Center is my kinda site -- it's devoted to a single, discrete area of the law. Here you can search by state for U.S. laws and cases relating to animals, select from a number of topics such as dolphins, shooting pets, whales, and wildlife management, and see laws relating to specific animals. Also available are pleadings and briefs, journals, articles, historical materials, and more. Eventually the creators of the site hope to publish and sell their own original materials. A terrific resource on a little-covered area of law.Terms of Environment
If you ever wanted to know what a "fugitive emission" is, what EDX stands for, or how Method 24 differs from Method 18, this is the place to find out. This set of pages simply provide you with a listing of definition of terms commonly used in connection with the environment. You can also check out a listing of acronyms.GovEngine
I really like this site. GovEngine bills itself as "The Premiere Federal, State and Local Government Site on the Internet," and it may not be far off with that claim. Just select which level of government you're interested in and the state you want to search, and you'll get a listing of courts or government agencies for that particular state. For example, I wanted to check out Oklahoma's courts page. I got an impressive listing of Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, county and municipal courts, and a whole lotta other related links. You can also find links to government agencies at the county, state and federal levels. Did I mention I really like this site?
Finally, some fun and useful sites, all with a Christmas theme:
You may remember getting the program e-mailed to you years ago. Well, there's a new version of Elf Bowling out, just waiting for you to download it. It's free!
At this time of year, Advent calendars are all the rage. Here's a particularly nice one -- today it asks the question "What's a Wassail?" Wassail indeed.
Santa's obviously busy getting ready for his big trip in 10 days. Check out the latest Santa happenings and goings-on at The North Pole Times.
Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? If not, maybe Froogle can help. Yep, it's another service from Google, and it purports to offer "All the World's Products in One Place:"
Well, that’s it for Issue #92 – 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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