Current Issue

Welcome to Issue #151 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!

I'll be out of town the next two weekends, so don't look for another issue of the newsletter until May. See you then!

Check out Kinja
Kinja is a weblog portal that debuted late last week. It's collecting some of the best news and commentary from popular weblogs all over the Internet. The site is designed to bring weblogs to a wider audience, and make the weblog experience easier for everyone. The site really is easy to navigate and set up -- give it a look.

Online public records: the debate continues
There's no question that having courts (criminal, civil, you name it) placing case information online is a huge benefit to the Internet researcher. However, privacy advocates are concerned that too much information is being made available. I come down squarely in the middle of this issue. Of course, if I could find anything I wanted to online, I would be in research heaven. However, I understand there are others out there who would use the information for less savory purposes. Hopefully the powers that be can strike a thoughtful balance that allows some information to remain online.

Fire up your browser
Tired of Internet Explorer hogging all your PC's resources? Looking for something lean, mean, with lots of great features? Check out Mozilla's Firefox, which really is a great product. It comes complete with a pop-up blocker, tabbed viewing, a form filler, download manager, and much more.

HotBot's New Toolbar
The new HotBot Toolbar has all of the usual features of a search toolbar: pop-up blocker, highlighter, search engine, etc. It also allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds, and it has the ability to search your computer files, e-mail, RSS, and browser history.

Become a Trackler
Here's another way you can make research come to you -- it's called Trackle. Once you sign up, just tell Trackle the websites you want to monitor, and whenever the content on those pages changes, Trackle will send you an e-mail containing all the new content. It's free to try, then $19.95/year to keep.

Alert yourself via Yahoo!
Yet another way to make research (or other helpful information) come to you. Check out Yahoo! Alerts, which will send you an e-mail based upon your preferences. Sign up to receive alerts with news, weather, stock quotes, best fares, missing children, and horoscopes.

See spam stopped right in front of your eyes
If you still don't understand how spam filters work, this nifty visualization will show you how they keep junk mail out of your inbox.

Topix overtakes Google News?
In the number of sources crawled, anyway. Topix.net, the terrific news service that debuted a few weeks ago (and reviewed in last week's newsletter), now features news from over 6,000 sources. If you want to keep up with all the goings-on at Topix.net, check out their new weblog. Looks like some good stuff.

New search limiter from Google
Google is now offering a new number range limiter, so you can specify results that contain numbers within a certain range. For example, if you want to check out DVD players in the $250-$350 range, you would type dvd player $250..$350. That's the idea, anyway. I ran that search and received results both above and below the range.

See? People do get fooled
Here's an interesting outcome from a typical Nigerian e-mail scam: a lab worker in Boston was arrested for bilking $600,000 from students, co-workers, and friends, apparently in order to invest in a Nigerian business offer valued at $50 million. Even after his arrest, he apparently didn't catch on that he himself was being scammed.

PDA stuff for lawyers
Do you have a PDA that is not living up to its potential? Thinking about buying a PDA, but not sure how it can help out your law practice? The folks at New York Law School want to help, and they have created Juris PDA to do just that. Lots of helpful hints on purchasing and using a PDA, as well as links to useful software for the mobile lawyer.

Your secret CRS search engine
The Congressional Research Service issues over 3,000 briefs, reports, short issue papers, and longer position papers each year. Unfortunately, it does not make these documents available to the public. That hasn't stopped congressmen and government agencies from passing them around, and about 1,000 are currently available on the web. Here's a handy CRS search page that uses Google to search only the CRS reports that are available.

Blogs of the Week
Only two for you this week. Greg Skidmore, a law student at Harvard, is publishing the Sports Law Blog, covering all things legal relating to the sports world. The National School Boards Association presents BoardBuzz, a daily weblog on schools and education.

Goin' Phishing

The folks who are pulling off phishing scams are trying something new and particularly dastardly. The user receives an e-mail purporting to be from their bank, asking him/her to click on a link to update account information. I have received e-mails like this, and I have often clicked on the link, so I could examine the "fake" website set up to steal your personal information. The URL of this site is usually a giveaway that you're being scammed.

This new twist is designed to fool you into believing you're at the original website. Once you click on the link, a bit of javascript is activated that replaces your Address bar with a fake one, displaying what looks like the correct URL. Diabolical!

Of course, smart Web users and readers of this newsletter will never be fooled by such a scheme, because they know that their bank or credit card company will never ask them for their personal information through e-mail. Right?

Welcome back to Spring Cleaning here at the Help Desk. Last week we learned how to use Windows Disk Cleanup. Now let's venture into the Control Panel, to learn how to add and/or remove programs.

You probably have software programs sitting on your computer that you no longer use. Why allow that program to continue hogging your PC's hard drive? Get rid of it.

If you have an "uninstaller" program, run it once every few months to get rid of programs you no longer need. If you don't have an uninstaller, click on Start, then Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. You'll get a listing of all the programs on your computer. If you don't recognize a particular item, don't remove it until you figure out what it is; it could be an essential system file. If you find an application that you no longer use, click Remove, and Windows will uninstall the program for you.

Sometimes, however, even the Add/Remove Programs function will not completely clear out that unwanted program. To get rid of the leftovers, click Start, then My Computer. Navigate to the drive where that program is located. For most of you, it will be the C: drive, in a folder called Program Files. Once you locate the folder corresponding to the program you just removed, highlight it, and press the Delete key (Of course, if you don't find a folder at all, chances are Windows was able to completely delete the program). That's it!

An alternative way to remove programs: most programs these days come with their own uninstall feature. Just use your Start|All Programs menu to navigate to the program folder, and see if there's an "Uninstall" program in there. If so, click on it, and watch it go. (This is really what the Add/Remove Programs feature in Windows does -- it just finds the Uninstall file for the particular program and runs it).

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!

Places Online
Presented by the Association of American Geographers, Places Online's goal is to provide access to the world's very best place-based Web sites. The site is pretty simple; just click on a continent, then click on a country within that continent, and you'll receive links to maps, online tours or photo essays of that region. Unfortunately, not every country has a link. This site is probably good for parents to introduce to their children.

CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response
As usual, a U.S. government site crammed full with information. Most of the links on this page deal with the types of threats the Centers for Disease Control is prepared to handle, including bioterrorism agents, radiation emergencies, natural disasters, and chemical agents. There's a section on "recent outbreaks," with information on diseases like avian flu and SARS. Each sub-page leads to tons of great resources on the subject.

Crash Profiles Online
Another government site, this time from the Department of Transportation. Crash Profiles are summarized crash statistics for large trucks and buses involved in fatal and non-fatal crashes that have occurred in the United States, from 1998 through 2002. Just click on a state, and you'll be taken to a page with a summary of that state's crash statistics. Some of the data can be downloaded for later use. If you click on National Profile, you'll find a page offering many National Reports on various statistics. Reports are available in HTML, PDF, Word, Excel, and Text Documents.

ebusiness lex
This portal aims to provide European small and medium enterprises with extensive, clear and practical information on all legal aspects of e-business. An "expert system" is available (after free registration) that asks questions about the formation of a business, and provides a framework of the legal aspects that should be taken into consideration. There are answers to Frequently Asked Questions on various legal issues, broken down by European country. You'll also find articles, a forum for asking questions, a good collection of links on the subject, e-business legislation for each country, a glossary, and much more.

First Amendment Online
Maintained by the University of Minnesota, this site provides a great set of resources on First Amendment issues. You'll find summaries and links to U.S. Supreme Court First Amendment issues, both pending and past opinions. There's also academic materials, links to First Amendment news, primary sources, historical materials, public opinion polls on the issue, and links to other First Amendment sites. A little messy, but some great information.

Yahoo! just keeps rolling out the new features. The latest is the new Soul-Search Engine.

Ever wonder how they came up with those crazy codes for airports? In Airport ABCs, you'll get an explanation.

If you need an occasional reminder to keep in touch with the people you care about, Magic Minder is on the job. Just enter the names of people you want to keep in touch with, and receive random and regular e-mail reminders.

Well, that’s it for Issue #151 – 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.

Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net, or visit Inter Alia and sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter. Or, send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net and I'll remove you from the list.

Archives: Miss an issue? You can read previous issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly in the Archives.

Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.