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NEW YEAR'S EDITION

Welcome to Issue #94 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!

This is the last week of "ILRW-Lite" -- back to full speed next week! (I promise)

And away we go…..

News Update

Yahoo! to purchase Inktomi
Very interesting......Yahoo! will purchase search engine specialist Inktomi for $237 million. I guess Yahoo! doesn't want to play with Google anymore.

Top 10 Myth-takes in thinking about Google
SitePoint provides a nice article on the Top 10 Google Myths -- most of it is heavy on Google's PageRank feature.

No privacy issues here, nosiree
Kroger, a grocery chain here in Texas, has introduced a new way to pay for your groceries -- just sign up with a credit or debit card, and if you happen to forget your wallet the next time you shop, you can just pay with your fingerprint.

Search Tips from Pandia
Pandia Search Central offers this short and easy search engine tutorial -- it's a nice run-down of search tips for the new researcher, and a good refresher course for the rest of us.

Online Filings in Georgia
The Northern District of Georgia will make court filings electronically available online beginning next week. I'm glad to see more federal courts putting documents online -- PACER is a lot cheaper than ordering copies of documents at the courthouse.

Help Desk

PC World has an article this week on the Top 10 Resolutions for Your PC. If you want to read the whole article, head to the link above, but I thought I would comment on these resolutions, with ideas for improving your computing experience:

Banish Junk from Your Hard Drive -- as the article indicates, one of the best ways to keep your PC running smoothly is to regularly remove useless clutter from your hard drive. Of course this means regularly emptying your Recycle Bin, but it can mean a lot more. In addition to the great tips offered in the article, I also use Norton's CleanSweep to remove files from my computer -- it does a great job of deleting temporary files as well as whole programs. I also use Window Washer, which is terrific for removing Temporary Internet Files, cookies, and all the junk your browser can accumulate.
Give your PC a jump start -- in other words, defrag. Windows Defrag utility isn't especially powerful, so give the tools mentioned in the article a try, or get Norton's SystemWorks for its Speed Disk Feature.
Protect your Network -- this resolution really has two parts -- the first part on wireless networks you'll have to read about on the PC World site, 'cause I'm just not a networking kind of guy. The second part of this resolution I can discuss -- firewalls. If you have a DSL or cable connection, you should have some type of firewall protection; for most of you a software solution should do the trick. I use Zone Alarm Pro, which will set you back $50 or so; Basic Zone Alarm is free, and without a doubt it's the best free firewall product available. Norton Internet Security is also an excellent choice.

Many of you may ask, "why should I install a firewall on my computer? Who would possibly want the junk I keep there?" You may be right -- no one wants your junk. But creative computer hackers want something else possessed by your PC -- its power. In a distributed denial of service attack, the hacker uses your PC and thousands of other computers to flood a website with simultaneous requests, often crashing the website. A firewall can prevent these unwelcome intrusions.
Give your PC a Flu Shot -- keep up-to-date with the latest virus definitions. If you aren't running programs like Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee VirusScan, you should be. Also make sure you visit Microsoft Windows Update regularly for the latest software security patches -- and with all the flaws Microsoft finds in its software, the patches are released frequently. Remember, the older your software, the better the chance some hacker has found a way to exploit it to get access to your PC.
Browse without a trace -- there's not much you can (or should, probably) do to avoid being monitored while you're at work. If you try an end run around your company's Internet use policy, you might wind up in more trouble than if you surfed the Internet all day in plain sight.

When you're at home, however, you should do all you can to keep prying eyes from knowing your surfing habits. Learn how to manage the "cookies" that websites place on your PC, and check out software like Cookie Crusher .
Say No to Sneaky Ads -- unfortunately, some websites want to install programs (sometimes called "spyware") on your PC that monitor your surfing and shopping habits. The article urges you to check out Ad Aware, a great free utility for removing Adware, and I couldn't agree more. A word of caution: Adware hasn't been updated in a few months (Version 6 is promised mid-January), so it might not catch any new spyware that came out since October.
Want to be Spam Free? -- the bad news is, it's tough to completely eliminate spam. There are certain tips you can follow -- check out this article from PC World for a good start. If it's a spam filter you want, MailWasher is a great program -- I use it myself and it allows me to eliminate all of the spam I receive.
Out With the Old -- do you collect MP3s? You have probably noticed that the music files take up a LOT of space on your computer. Free up your hard drive space by burning those files to CD. For more fun, buy an MP3 player -- an Apple iPod or Nomad Zen can hold up to 6,000 of your favorite songs. As if you had that many.
Stay on Top of Fraud -- the PC World Article mentions CardCops, a site I mentioned a few months ago. There you can check to see if your credit card is being used by anyone on the Internet. But don't stop there. Only shop from online businesses you trust, and be very careful about giving out your personal information on the Web. Be wary of e- mails you receive from people you don't know, especially Nigerians who claim to have untold riches stashed away in foreign bank accounts.
Break Free of Entanglements -- and Bad Posture -- I hate to look underneath my desk. It's a maze of tangled wires and cables. Read this article on Taming your Cables for eight ways to bring order to your PC universe. PC World also has an article on Essential Ergonomics, to make your workspace as comfortable as possible.

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

Texas Records and Information Locator
First, a website for my Texas readers. The Texas Records and Information Locator (or TRAIL) helps you to locate information from over 150 Texas agency websites. Just plug in your keywords, and TRAIL will search all of the state agencies to find relevant pages. There's also an advanced search available if you want to search a specific agency or if you know the name of an electronic publication from that agency. This is a terrific way to simplify your Texas agency research.

United Nations Treaty Collection ($$)
This collection of U.N. Treaties contains a LOT of information: the entire series of multilateral treaties (including the status of treaties still under consideration), the Treaty Handbook, monthly statements of treaties and international agreements, photos of treaty signature ceremonies, and more. You'll have to pay for access, however; $100/month for companies, and $50/month for non-profits.

Today's Front Pages
Every now and then a headline or story you're looking for appears on the front page of a newspaper you can't get in your town. No problem -- just head to the Newseum's Front Page exhibit. This is the online collection of front pages that are posted each day in the Newseum's outdoor exhibit in Washington, D.C. For Saturday, December 28, there were 155 front pages from around the world, 104 from the United States. You can view them online, or download them as a (large) PDF file. Whether this site has any research value is questionable, but it sure is fun to read.

American Legislative Exchange Council
ALEC's mission is to advance Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism and individual liberty among America's state legislators. You can find a whole list of talking points on "Major Issues" such as automobile insurance, cellular phones, health care professionals, prescription drugs, school choice, and many more. If you'd like access to model legislation proposed by the group as well as other information, you'll have to be a registered ALEC member.

Business and Law
This site claims to offer "resources for businesses and law." That's probably true, but this site is poorly designed, and doesn't have much in the way of original content. You'll get a listing of recent news headlines on the left, and a directory-style listing of categories on the right. Choose from such topics as e-commerce, human resources, finance, management, marketing, education, reference, and others. Unfortunately, this collection of links is not original -- the creators of the site have simply downloaded the Open Directory Project index for its data. Unfortunately, there's not much to recommend about this site.

Finally, some fun and useful sites for you this week:

If you have a few hours to kill, try some grown-up paint-by-numbers at SegPlay.

And if by now you're fed up with some of your child's Christmas toys, check SafeChild to see if a recall has been issued on any of them.

Well, that’s it for Issue #94– 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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