INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
February 8, 2004
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #144 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 Look for Westlaw
Westlaw is redesigning the way you view results. The look is much simpler, cleaner, and -- as Westlaw claims -- faster.Deep-sea searching
Check out Search Tuna, a new search engine that considers itself a "results engine" more than anything else. Just enter your search terms, and Search Tuna will e-mail a link to your results when it's done. More on Search Tuna later.Goodies from Google
Mary Ellen Bates always has something interesting and useful to say -- this time she's saying it over at SearchDay, where she offers us some Hidden Google Tools.Internet Issues Via Audio
The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard recently debuted AudioBerkman, offering audio pieces that provide "a different angle to understanding Internet issues." The new clips will be offered every other Friday.Pinpointing your search
Gary Price was guest-writing over at SearchDay this week with the article A Better Search Tool For Finding Needles in Haystacks. He's talking about the new NeedleSearch toolbar, a utility that allows you to create your own search toolbar for any search engine on the Internet. Way cool -- the problem is, it only works with Mozilla-based browsers, not Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Opera. This is not necessarily a problem, because Mozilla browsers have a lot of advantages over bloated, resource-hogging products like Internet Explorer. But because the average searcher is not familiar with Mozilla, he or she will be less likely to try it out. Too bad.Those ugly webjackers
It seems that spyware just keeps getting worse, and PC World agrees. In Help! I've Been Web-Jacked, we learn about nasty programs that install themselves on your computer, and are becoming increasingly resistant to removal. I can identify -- my father recently had a run-in with a browser hijacker called CommonName. For some reason, my favorite spyware remover Spybot Search & Destroy was unable to completely remove the program. When I tried to remove it manually (an ugly solution, I know), the #!%& program kept reinstalling itself. It was only after I ran Ad-Aware that I was able to banish the program from his PC. It reinforces my prior thoughts that a protected computer makes use of both Spybot and Ad-Aware; both products are able to catch bugs that the other misses.A look back at....January
If you missed any search engine news this past month, Chris Sherman rounds it all up for you in the Search Engine Milestones for January 2004.Chat AND Search at the same time
If you spend lots of time 1) chatting with your friends via instant messaging and 2) reading RSS feeds from around the Internet, you might want to check out Gush, which combines both in a utility that's free to download.Brush up your Google
Need a refresher on using Google? Check out the Google Guide, which is maintained by Nancy Blachman, who is not affiliated with Google (but she's a fan!). The guide offers tutorials on just about any feature of Google you'd care to use.A new 20 questions
This month, Howard Bashman (who opened his own law office this week, by the way -- congrats!) has 20 questions for Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.Blogs of the Week
A good mix of law-related, and regular blogs for you this week. From across the pond, Elbornes' Insurance News is a legal resource for the London insurance and reinsurance market. NPOBlogs bills itself as "News from People Who Are Getting Things Done." It's an aggregator that gathers weblog entries in various categories -- environment, law & society, nonprofit sector, peace, politics, public policy, technology, and others -- and brings them right to your desktop. Michael Arkfeld, the man behind the Digital Practice of Law blog, also publishes Electronic Discovery and Evidence. Paul W. Taylor, Chief Strategy Officer at the Center for Digital Government, has started FastGov, otherwise known as "where government is going." Legal Marketing Off the Shelf is the product of legal industry marketing specialist Ruth Balkin. Way up north, Elder Law in Nova Scotia is penned by Sharon Reashore, a charter member of the Canadian Initiative for Elder Planning Studies. A group of Catholic law professors have begun publishing Mirror of Justice, a weblog interested in discovering how the Catholic perspective can inform our understanding of the law.Use Your Windows Key
Do you ever use your Windows key? You know, the one between the CTRL and ALT key. If you don't, you should; it offers some great shortcuts. Here are a few:
- [Windows Key] + E = Opens Windows Explorer
- [Windows Key] + R = Opens Run Box
- [Windows Key] + F = Opens Search Dialog
- [Windows Key] + L = Locks The Computer
- [Windows Key] + D = Shows the Desktop
- [Windows Key] + F1 = Opens Windows Help
- [Windows Key] + M = Minimizes All Windows (my personal favorite)
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
U.S. Law Reviews and Periodicals
Looking for a law review or periodical? You can't go wrong here -- it's a listing of most of the law school reviews in the country, listed alphabetically. It's hosted by American Law Sources Online, or ALSO. Best of all, it's regularly updated, having been last checked on January 15.The Free Expression Policy Project
The FEPP provides research and analysis on difficult censorship issues, and seeks free speech-friendly solutions to the concerns that drive censorship campaigns. Across the top of the screen are the different issues covered by the organization, including Art Censorship, Censorship of Youth, Copyright, Internet, Political Speech, Sex and Censorship, and others. Each section has a number of interesting and helpful articles on the subject. Down the left hand margin you'll find more informative links suck as Commentaries, Court Briefs, Fact Sheets, News, and Policy Reports. The resources here are quite comprehensive.TracFed ($)
I think I have mentioned TracFed in the newsletter before, but never gave it a full review. TracFed describes itself as "a unique Web-based service for understandable, authoritative and complete information about the federal government -- how it enforces the law, where it assigns its employees, and how it spends our money." The site is divided into six primary areas -- Criminal, Civil, Admin, People, Money, and Context. In each division, the offerings are tremendous -- you can search for the entire federal government, or focus in on one particular federal district. Find out how long it takes a particular federal judge to dispose of a criminal or civil case, and much, much more. I wish I could explore further, but it's $50/month to subscribe. If federal stats are your thing, this is a great place to start.Patent and Trademark Assignments on the Web
A very simple database from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; here you can find information on patent and trademark assignments. Just enter as many search terms as you know -- Serial Number, Registration Number, Patent Number, Assignor Name, Assignee Name, etc. -- and you'll get a list of all patent or trademark assignments that fit your query. For example, I found out that a possible relative, Alan Mighell, invented an "Apparatus for identifying and comparing lattice structures and determining lattice structure symmetries." Whatever that is.Workplace Fairness
This non-profit is affiliated with the National Employment Lawyers Association, and it is dedicated to promoting workplace policies and practices that work for everyone. From the intro page, you can access four major areas: Your Rights, News and Issues, Resources, and Take Action. Each area has some terrific information, although some of the pages are still under construction. The Your Rights area covers most every area you would need to consider: hiring, termination, discrimination, harassment, and the like. The News section has eleven separate sub-pages full of information, and the Resources page (also under construction) has some nice links.
Finally, some fun and interesting sites to start the week off:
Office training getting you down? Get in a little target practice with the trashcan.
If ordinary Pong has you yawning, check out Galactic Tennis.
Want to design your own safety sign? It's easy at the Safety Sign Builder.
Well, that’s it for Issue #144 – 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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