INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
August 24, 2003
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #123 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!
And away we go…..
AltaVista's got the bar
Following in the footsteps of nearly every other search engine out there, AltaVista has launched a search toolbar that lets you query its web, news and multimedia search capabilities while visiting any page on the web. Check out a description of its features over at SearchDay.More about aggregators
If you're an information junkie who hasn't jumped on the news aggregator bandwagon yet, here's an article describing RSS feeds, what an aggregator does,and different types of newsreaders.You know the election's coming when...
Websites (and weblogs) start popping up about the money being spent on presidential campaigns. Ralph Nader's organization Public Citizen has launched WhiteHouseForSale.org, which is both a website and a weblog. And a ListServ.Voldemort, Satan and PowerPoint
Edward Tufte, a professor of political science, computer science and statistics, and graphic design at Yale, discusses why PowerPoint is evil.A new look at the news
Chad Williamson of Detod Blawg Search, MyDetod, and Detod Directory fame is at it again -- now he's aggregating the news, with Detod News. Here you'll find recent top headlines, as well as legal, business, and technology news.Sobig -- no joke!
The Sobig worm is back with a vengeance, breaking virus speed records worldwide. There's even speculation that Sobig is amassing a Trojan army that will deploy on or about September 11. If you're running Outlook or Outlook Express, check out these ways to make rules that can help you manage the onslaught of Sobig e- mails. If you find yourself infected, use this removal tool from Symantec.Blawgs of the Week
The law-related weblogs just keep on coming! Here's a sample of the most recent: Acronym Soup is written by JDR, and is perfect for anyone who deals "with the SEC, NASD, NYSE, CFTC, NFA, CBOT, CME, BOTCC, OCC, CHX, PCX, AMEX, PHLX, EUREX or CBOE (or any combination thereof)." Dave Stratton, an attorney with a D.C. law firm, publishes the Insurance Defense Blog. Jerry Lawson has yet another blog, this one aiming to help lawyers improve their delivery of legal services through the Internet. Appropriately, it's called eLawyer Blog. IPKat presents a look "at copyright, patent, trade mark (that's trademark to our American friends), branding and privacy/confidential information issues from a mainly UK and European perspective," from Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon. A new law student at Washburn School of Law writes Mac Justice, a weblog for law students who use Apple Macintosh computers. The Securities Law Beacon provides "shared scholarship, commentary and news in securities law from a 3L" whose name is Alexander Mackey. A soon-to-be second-year law student at Indiana School of Law writes IU-Indy School of Law at Indianapolis blog.Here's another tip for Windows XP users: Microsoft has a feature called "Error Reporting," which allows you to send a report to MS every time one of your programs crashes. I'm not sure how well the feature works, but it sure is annoying to have that window pop up. If you'd rather not take the time to send error reports to Microsoft, it's easy to turn it off. Go to Start, click on Run, and type in MSCONFIG. In the window that appears, choose the Services tab and remove the check from the Error Reporting Service check box. The error reporting service will not appear the next time you restart your computer.
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
Addresses.com
Billing itself as "The World's Largest Email Directory," Addresses.com only had one of my e-mail addresses. The interface is rather plain, and it offers the usual range of services for a directory -- you can search for e-mail addresses, phone numbers (both yellow and white pages), zip codes, area codes, public records (for a price), and a few other searches. There's also a feature that will give you the e-mail address of your favorite celebrity. Addresses.com uses the SmartPages database if you can't find what you want through the main site, so your chances of getting the right listing is pretty good. This is not a terrific resource, but it's not a bad one, either.Agency for Healthcare Research and Policy
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) research provides evidence-based information on health care outcomes, quality, and cost, use, and access. The hope is that the research on this site will help people make more informed decisions and improve the quality of health care services. On the home page, you can select various Clinical Information topics, as well as resources for consumers and patients; there are also links here to research findings, quality assessment, and public health preparedness. If you'd like to search the entire site, you can do so by keyword, or browse the topic directory, which includes topics from AIDS to Women's Health, and including Managed Care, Elderly Healthcare, Grants and Contracts, Dental Health, Medical Treatment Effectiveness, and much more.Washington Business E-Government Information Network
Maintained by the Municipal Research & Services Center of Washington state, this site "represents a first step toward providing a comprehensive set of local government information and online services to businesses operating in the state of Washington." For now, the only information available are links to commercial business license application forms, which can be accessed by city or county. There's also a link to download a program that lists federal, state, county, and city business licensing requirements, but it's an old link -- this leads me to believe the site hasn't been updated in some time. But the idea for the site is terrific, and there are some helpful links on the left-hand menu to find
municipal codes for Washington cities as well as the Washington Administrative Code.Center for Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange
Commonly known as CIRRIE, its mission is to facilitate the sharing of information and expertise in rehabilitation research between the U.S. and other countries. The database currently contains over 20,000 citations of international rehabilitation research published between 1990 and the present. There's a helpful research guide to assist in formulating the correct search query, as well as listings on rehabilitation centers and conferences worldwide. You can sign up for the "Cirrie Connection," and receive regular alerts when articles in the database are updated.Megalinks in Criminal Justice
Thomas O'Connor, an Associate Professor of Justice Studies at North Carolina Wesleyan College, provides this page chock-full of links on criminal justice. To the left, you can find links to other mega-sites, with topics including crime analysis, criminology, juvenile justice, policing, prisons, security technology, and more. These links have literally thousands of other links from which to choose. To the right, you'll have access to the course descriptions to various classes taught by Professor O'Connor. This is a nifty gateway to the online world of criminal justice.
Finally, some fun and useful pages to begin your week:
Just type in your birthday here, and you'll find out where you stand in relation to famous people, TV shows, movies, or Top 40 songs. For example, I was just 16 when MTV was launched.
MapBlast! has been absorbed by Microsoft, and is now available at MSN Maps and Directions. Give it a try.
Well, that’s it for Issue #123 – 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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