INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
October 26, 2003
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #130 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…..
A new telephone directory
Gary Price has a nice review of the new phone and e-mail directory, Argali White & Yellow. Unlike most directories, Argali is a free downloadable program that accesses the Internet from your computer. I downloaded it this week -- I'll let you know how I like it.Searching outside the box
Mary Ellen Bates, who always has something interesting and informative to say about searching the Internet, has a terrific tip this month on thinking differently about your search. I agree completely -- if the tried-and-true is not finding the results you want, maybe it's time to think about your search techniques in a different way. Mary Ellen lists a few good ways to do that.
Blazing a trail for online court opinions
You go to most online court sites, you find opinions dating back to 1995, 1996 -- sometimes even 1994. California has done a bit better than that -- there you can search opinions dating back to 1850. Now that's what I call an online court.Good government (web sites)
The Center for Digital Government has awarded its 2003 Best Government Websites. Tops on the list are Utah, Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Maryland. Awards were also given out for top state online legislatures, with Nevada taking the top prize.Search Personalization: not any time soon
That's the opinion of research company Jupiter Research. The company's survey finds that current efforts to personalize a user's website experience is costly and ineffective, and urges companies to instead focus on making sites easy to search and navigate.More great Google tips
You can never have too many tips for using Google. Gary Price offers these tips for searching Google over at the Virtual Chase.What TDMA means, ASAP
Acronym Finder, a helpful database of over 313,000 acronyms, was reviewed on Monday by SearchDay.Toss your Webster's
Well, not really. But Google's glossary tool is a pretty cool alternative. Now the feature is available through the regular Google interface; just type "Define" and the word you're looking for in the Google search box, and the definition will be the first result.What's your privacy quotient?
Be sure to read The Great American Privacy Makeover if you haven't already -- it's a good, pretty thorough discussion of the ways in which your PC is at risk on the Internet.A giant booster shot for your PC
Microsoft has combined 22 of its critical updates into one combined download, called the Update Rollup 1 for Windows XP. You can download it here. If you keep up with Windows Update, you're in good shape. But if any of you have missed even one of Microsoft's critical updates, download this file.Blawgs of the Week
Here's the weekly roundup of law-related (and other) weblogs: Campaigns Online is the weblog component of a project at Johns Hopkins University designed to promote improvements and understanding in the usage of the Internet and emerging technologies in political campaigns. Michael Lowe, a friend of mine who used to work for my firm, publishes the brand-spanking-new (and appropriately named) Dallas Lawyer. A whole bunch of law students from not one but two law schools (American University Washington College of Law and Boston University School of Law), plus some others, bring us Death by Committee. Andrew McLaughlin presents his thoughts on technology, politics, law, culture, and other stuff too. Watch the evolution of an engineer turning into a lawyer over at Transmogriflaw. En Banc is a new group weblog formed to discuss political and legal issues; the combined power of eight blawgers will be interesting to watch. Bryan Gates, an attorney practicing in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, publishes I Respectfully Dissent, featuring "random thoughts, ramblings and rants about things legal, illegal, tortious, outrageous and otherwise." And although not *technically* a blawg, Legal Technicalities is definitely for an under-represented segment of the blawg community: legal secretaries. Written by Crawford Kilian, it's an online companion to a class he's teaching on the subject.It's time for fall computer-cleaning! Actually, you should make sure to clean your computer of unwanted files on a regular basis, because the clutter takes up a lot of useful space and slows down your system at the same time. There are a number of ways to do this; you can purchase a program that cleans your computer for you, or you can go from folder to folder, doing the job yourself. If you have Windows XP, why not let Disk Cleanup take care of things? Click Start, then All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally Disk Cleaner. The utility tells you how much of each type of file exists on your computer, and you can pick and choose the files you want to delete. Just click OK, and suddenly your PC is much lighter.
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
Law Gateway
Part of the Social Science Information Gateway, the Law Gateway provides guidance and access to global legal information resources on the Internet. You can search by keyword or browse one of the categories, which include General Law, United Kingdom Law, European Union Law, International Law, and Law by Subject Area. The categories list websites by the type of document available, whether it's a government publication, organization, or resource. There are also links to legal seminars and courses. The organization of this site could be improved, but the content is pretty good.Texas County Appraisal Districts
For my Texas readers, this is a must-have site for investigating property values. There's not much to the site -- it's just a listing of the counties in Texas with Tax Appraisal District sites. Currently, there are 111 counties listed. This is a handy page to have around rather than search for the sites separately. If anyone knows of other states with pages like this, drop me a line and I'll mention them in an upcoming issue!Applied Discovery ($$)
If you haven't started paying attention to the issue of electronic discovery, you're already behind. E-discovery issues are a hot issue, and several companies are offering services designed to collect and organize electronic information. Applied Discovery has been doing this for four years already, and it has apparently been good at it -- it was recently purchased by Lexis-Nexis. I haven't used the services, so I can't recommend them to you. But I have reviewed the terrific free resources available here. In the Library you can view an E-Discovery Primer, Case Summaries, White Papers, Court Rules, Articles, and the Orange Paper, Applied Discovery's free monthly newsletter. For a commercial site, you'll learn a lot about e-discovery here. Take advantage of the opportunity.Tox Town
Tox Town takes you on a tour through a town or city, introducing you to toxic chemicals and environmental health risks you might encounter in everyday life. You'll need the Macromedia Flash player to view the city map; just move your mouse over the map and select a particular area -- river, airplane, hospital, drinking water, vehicles, etc. Clicking on one of these areas will provide you with a list of government websites that deal with the subject. For example, clicking on River brought up links to Waterways and Your Health and helpful links on water from Medline. Across the bottom of the screen is a listing of different chemicals found around town, with additional links on the particular chemical. This is a visually appealing and informative site.Waypath
Two guys are attempting to network the weblog community in their spare time, and from the looks of it they are doing a pretty good job. The site currently offers contextual navigation of 9,718,702 posts from 916,237 weblogs. You can search by keyword or URL. You can specifically include or exclude certain weblogs, or check out the BuzzMeter to determine when in the past few weeks your topic was especially hot. You can also make your own Buzz Meter -- just enter up to five terms, and Waypath creates computer code that allows you to post the graphic on your own weblog or site.DocFinder
Want to learn more about a doctor in your or another state? The Administrators in Medicine's DocFinder wants to help. It has reached agreement with eighteen states to place physician licensing information on its website. Just click on the state and you are taken to a search page for that state; below the state link is a direct link to that state's licensing page. There are also five states that agreed to provide links to their licensing databases, but the information does not reside on the DocFinder site. This is a nice all-in-one site for finding licensing info; I just wish more than 22 states were participating.Aviation Safety Network
Like most aviation sites, the ASN has a lot of information to offer. The home page features the latest safety occurrences as well as recent aviation news. From the menu bar you can explore accident reports, find information on aviation safety, black boxes, search the ASN database of over 10,000 incidents, review pictures, publications, and statistics, and much more. You can even sign up for free or pay mailing lists, which will send you regular updates on the state of aviation safety.
Census Finder
Census Finder is probably better suited to genealogy researchers, but it offers some useful resources for anyone interested in census information. Choose from one of the pull-down menus to select state, United Kingdom, or native American census records to review. Most of the links will take you to images of census documents dating back to the 1700s. You'll also find census links for Canada, Norway, and Sweden. There are some interesting links from the U.S. government on how to search for census information, but you have to look hard to find it. This is a VERY busy site with lots of great resources -- it's just not well-organized.The Warren Group ($$)
Here's a site for Massachusetts and Connecticut readers, or anyone doing research on residents from those states. Search for bankruptcies, foreclosures, or liens on file, and order records for prices between $5.25 and $5.75. Not much else to this site, but if you're looking for this type of information, what else do you need?EdLaw Canada ($$)
The link above is a gateway to a commercial site for three Canadian publications: Education Law Reporter (Elementary and Secondary Schools), Education Law Reporter (Post-Secondary Institutions), and the Medico-Legal Reporter. The publications cost between $135 and $195 a year, and once you subscribe, you'll get access to the site's online research service. This service essentially provides you with access to past issues of the publication.
Finally, some fun and ghoulish sites for Halloween:
Retrocrush has a nifty gallery of the world's greatest Halloween costumes. Although these costumes probably aren't available anymore, they do make for some good retro costume ideas.
Halloween Online bills itself as the Internet's largest Halloween resource.
Need the latest Halloween headlines? Check out the Halloween News Network.
If you're fresh out of ideas for celebrating Halloween, 101 Halloween Ideas might provide you with inspiration.
On Saturday, you might need to clean up your yard if Halloween pranksters strike. Homestore tells you how.
Well, that’s it for Issue #130 – 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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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.