INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
January 12, 2003
Tom MighellWelcome to Issue #96 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 fill out the subscription form -- it's free!
If you didn't visit Inter Alia this week, you missed out on TWELVE stories (that's 12, people) you aren't reading in this issue. Twelve potentially very helpful research and computer tips (or fun stuff) for you to use! What are you waiting for?
And away we go…..
News Update
So, which is it? Do we hate spam or not?
A few weeks ago, the Pew Internet Project released the results of a survey that indicated (among other things) that relatively few people are bothered by spam at work? Huh? I don't know about you, but although my firm's firewall is terrific for keeping out viruses and other malicious invaders, it appears to be powerless against spam -- I receive at least 20 e-mails a day, many of them offering me opportunities to improve the size of my.....well, you get the idea.If spam is not a problem, why then this report that spam costs almost $12 billion a year? The study estimates $4 billion in lost productivity due to deletion of spam, based on a calculation of 4.4 seconds per e-mail. When I go through my inbox at work, I know it only takes me about a second to delete spam -- so maybe the loss of productivity is a mere $1 billion.
Time for your monthly search engine refresher
Each month, Greg Notess publishes an update on new features offered by search engines. His January/February 2003 Internet Search Engine Update is now online; go check it out. I bet you'll learn something you didn't know before.
News site brings you the world
Chris Sherman reported in SearchDay yesterday about WorldNews.com, a pretty impressive collection of news links from around the world. If you want to narrow your focus to a particular world region, check out The World News Network.Recommended reading by weblog
I know All-Consuming has been around awhile, but I just found out about it. A very cool concept -- the site combs weblogs and searches for book recommendations, then posts them on an hourly basis. You can see, at any given moment, what webloggers are reading or recommending. I signed up, so now you can see on Inter Alia what I happen to be reading. Maybe you'll find something worth checking out.The year ahead in technology legislation
The 108th Congress went to work this week, and on the agenda are bills addressing copyright, spam, and privacy issues.How to spend your newly-saved dividend taxes
USA Today reports that lawmakers in Michigan are considering a bill to collect taxes on Internet purchases. The government giveth, and the government taketh away.A refresher on clearing your search history
Months ago I discussed the AutoComplete feature in Internet Explorer, which saves your input for web addresses, search queries, and more. It's useful if you have a particular search that you run all the time -- just type in the first few letters, and IE finishes it for you. But what if you searched for something you didn't want anybody else (anybody who uses your PC, anyway) to know about? Just clear out that search history.Google Responds
If you recall, back in October SearchKing, which describes itself as "the foundation and traffic generating center of the world's largest network of independently owned portals," filed suit against Google for lowering the PageRank of the sites it hosts. On December 30, Google responded to the allegations, and also filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. James Grimmelman has a terrific analysis of the filings over at LawMeme.Another week, another new blawg report
The law blogs just keep on coming! Here are a few worth mentioning:I was devastated when the LLRX Newsstand stopped publishing back in December -- it was a must-have website for the latest in news at the crossroads of law and technology. I have known for about a month that my new friend Sabrina Pacifici was planning a weblog to take up where the Newsstand left off, and I've been dying to talk about it. Well, beSpacific is finally live, and I'm happy to welcome her to the blawg-osphere. Not many bloggers launch their websites with over 4 months of archives...
An Atlanta-based management lawyer has launched laborblog, with its focus on U.S. labor relations news from the private sector.
Nerdlaw.org (also via Bag and Baggage), presents mostly tech and IP law news, "for nerds at heart."
Broc Romanek has moved his RealCorporateLawyer blog to a new site, TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog. He promises to include even more practical information on corporate law.
A blog I'm looking forward to reading is Sub Judice, where "two recently minted lawyers" plan to discuss a different legal topic each week. This week they're discussing Grutter v. Bollinger, the University of Michigan affirmative action case now before the U.S. Supreme Court. This dialogue between two lawyers is a great idea, and I look forward to more discussions.
Finally, a mention to Blawg.org, "your source for law and legal related weblogs." The site is pretty new, and doesn't have every blawg that's out there, but it's a good start. The coolest thing about the site, though, are the Blawg Gear you can buy on the site, including t-shirts, coffee mugs, and mousepads.
iBoogie Nights
Every now and then, I like to review a search tool you may not have tried before. Although I always hesitate to lead someone away from Google, it's definitely a good idea to have a few Internet search sites; as great as it is, Google is not always going to find what you want. This week we'll take a look at meta-search tool iboogie. Remember, a meta search tool does not have its own index of keywords or web pages -- rather, it takes your query and submits it to multiple search sites, then presents the results to you in one location. Most meta-search tools look the same to me, but they all work a little differently under the hood. iBoogie is no different.
iBoogie uses a "clustering" technology similar to that of Vivisimo -- in other words, it takes your search results and organizes them into topic-specific folders, to help you get to your answer faster. When you enter "affirmative action" as your search query, a frame will open on the left side with a list of folders with headings such as Policies, University Affirmative Action, Employment, Human Resources, and many more. Each folder contains a small number of sites that may help you narrow your search. The only thing that annoyed me about this part of the search is that whenever I click on one of the folders, they go away and the iBoogie home page loads in that small window! Maybe it's just my browser.
If you try "affirmative action" in iBoogie's "Deep Web" search feature, the folders on the left are basically useless to you -- they are limited to news, books, people, and performing arts, which are not relevant to the topic. However, on the right-hand site you'll get links to news articles and more on the subject, from resources like Time Magazine, CNN, the Washington Post, New York Times, Barnes & Noble, and others. The interface that displays these results has been taken from another website, one that I reviewed several months ago. I just can't remember which one it is -- can anybody help me out?
iBoogie also has some interesting Advanced Features. It features a spell- checker, which is not unusual, but it claims to be the only search engine that offers spell-checking in languages other than English. iBoogie offers searches in 49 languages, but the site is not clear on whether it offers spell check for each of them. In the Advanced Feature section, you can enter long queries, and select the engines you want included in your search. iBoogie uses Yahoo!, MSN, FAST Search, findwhat, Teoma, WiseNut, OpenFind, and AltaVista. Like most meta-search tools, you can also search for images, video, audio, and through something called BuyWeb, which allegedly allows you to search for shopping sites. However, I never got any meaningful results with any of my searches.
iBoogie's features are promising, but while its clustering technology is definitely useful in searching the Internet, Vivisimo does it much better. Give iBoogie a try and let me know what you think!
Help Desk
I am often asked by people of all experience levels, "how do I keep from getting 'cookies' on my computer?" After we briefly discuss the dangers of eating over your keyboard, I explain that a cookie is a small text file that web sites save on your computer to customize your browsing experience. Sometimes this is good -- I like it that Amazon knows which books to recommend to me based on my prior purchases. But some cookies can be a threat to your privacy, and you probably want to keep these off your hard drive if possible. There are several third-party programs you can buy to help crush cookies, but the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape are nearly just as powerful:
IE 6: Select Tools, then Internet Options, then click the Privacy tab. The privacy level pre-sets may be good enough for you, but if you need more control you can use the Edit button to accept or reject cookies on a site-by-site basis. Just enter the URL of the site, then click Block or Allow, depending on whether you want a cookie from that site. IE will follow the rule you set each time you visit that site.
Netscape 7: Select Edit, then Preferences, click the arrow next to Privacy, then select Cookies. Here you'll see many more options than Internet Explorer. You can disable all cookies, disable cookies that come from third-party websites (instead of the one you're viewing), and even limit the lifetime of the cookies on your computer. Pretty cool.
Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net – 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
National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
This site was originally created by the Department of Veterans Affairs to address the needs of veterans with military PTSD. However, the NCPTSD provides useful information to anyone wanting to know more about the disorder. There's a good overview in the Facts area, including information on treatment and disasters. You can also find a page with a large number of topics related to PTSD, which include Accidents, Child Abuse, Media, Relationships, Severe Mental Illness, among others. Find online documents and publications, or search the PILOTS database, which contains over 22,000 citations on PTSD. This is an excellent resource.Politics1
Politics1 claims to be "the most comprehensive guide to American politics," and I must admit the resources are pretty impressive. The site is primarily a directory that points you to links with political information, beginning with the Presidency and moving down. There's a great section on the 2004 Presidential Race, with links to everyone who has entered the race, those who might run, and those who have dropped out. There are pages for each state, containing links on all Congressional representatives and senators. One of the most valuable areas is the Ideology and Issues section, with hundreds of links to sites on issues like Affirmative Action, Environment, Euthanasia, Gay Rights, Immigration, Seniors, and more.Science.gov
Science.gov, the long-awaited "FirstGov for Science," launched back in December. The site's goal is to connect scientific and technological databases from various government departments and agencies and make the information available in one place. These sites have been specifically selected by agency information managers and librarians as representing authoritative government science information. You can browse by topic, or enter your search terms in the query box. There's also a Database page where you can specify the databases you want to search (up to 10 at a time). Advanced search features are not available here, but clicking on the link of the individual databases may bring you to an advanced search page from that department or agency. FirstGov's search capabilities have always been spotty; here's hoping Science.gov fares better!Telemedicine Bibliographic Database
Telemedicine is the transfer of electronic medical data (i.e. high resolution images, sounds, live video, and patient records) from one location to another. This can be extremely helpful in rural areas, where access to quality health care is often limited, or to reduce the time and costs of patient transportation with regard to nursing homes or correctional facilities. This site is maintained by the Telemedicine Research Center, and its database contains over 12,650 citations of articles on telemedicine; over 3,700 of the articles cited are available for fax or over night delivery. The cost of articles ranges from $15-$30.ToxNet
ToxNet is a "cluster of databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and other areas. It's provided by the National Library of Medicine, and offers a search function for all of the databases offered. These include the Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), Integrated Risk Identification System (IRIS), ToxLine, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), and more. You can search by individual database or all at once. A search for "clordane" brought up results from each database, with different data provided by each. You can download most of these reports directly to your computer.
Finally, a few fun and useful links for you to explore this week:
If you have thought about putting yourself up for sale lately (and who hasn't?), head over to Human for Sale and figure out how much you could bring on the open human market. I found that I'm worth exactly $2,362,710.00. Hmmm. I wonder if personal injury attorneys could use this for their case evaluation... (This site is probably a spam collector, so if you're going to try it, make sure you use an e-mail address where you don't mind receiving junk mail).
Did you know that we tend to tip more to waitstuff who touch us on the shoulder? Read about this and other fascinating tipping information at "How Tipping Works."
A Helena, Montana judge ruled last week that Miranda rights apply to all of a person's multiple personalities, not just the one who was interrogated first. As Best of the Web opines, the South has already got a ready-made solution in second person plural: "Y'all have a right to remain silent...."
Well, that’s it for Issue #96 – 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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