October 24, 2004

Welcome to Issue #169 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!

New search from the French
Exalead is a new search offering from France, and Gary Price has a brief review of the service. The interface looks interesting -- search results provide you with related terms and categories, the ability to limit results by file type, location, or multimedia content, thumbnail images that can be turned on or off, and more.

Get Info on Ballot Initiatives
The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center features information on over 160 ballot measures in 34 states. The site provides a short description of the individual initiatives, as well as links to sites supporting and opposing the measure.

The Top 101
PC Magazine has released its Fall 2004 Edition of the Top 101 Web Sites. Definitely worth a look.

Stay up-to-date with the Texas Legislature
When members of the Texas Legislature are not fleeing across the border, they are engaged in the serious business of passing laws and whatnot. If you'd like to keep up with what they're doing (when the legislature is in session, of course), you might want to check out the Texas Legislature mobile legislation page. Here you can get legislative information directly on your Palm or Pocket PC; there are even a number of RSS feeds on topics like Today's Bill Text, Fiscal Notes, Bill Analyses, and House and Senate calendars and schedules.

Those Diabolical Trojans!
I have always been of the opinion that unsubscribing to spam doesn't work in most cases -- in fact, sometimes it even results in even more spam. Now there's another reason to beware of the Unsubscribe link: you run the risk of downloading a Trojan that turns your computer into a virtual spam-machine. My advice still stands -- if you must unsubscribe, only do so with e-mail from vendors whose names you recognize -- if they are reputable companies, they will honor your request and leave you alone. If you don't recognize the vendor, don't take the chance.

Blawgs of the Week
As usual, I find several law-related weblogs worth mentioning each week. Here are the latest: Patent Attorney Bob Shaver has been blogging over at Patent Pending since June, rambling on inventions and technology of all kinds. NYCLegal features a group of New York lawyers who provide per diem services in NYC and beyond. And they're also blogging over there on matters of interest to New York lawyers. Students at the New England School of Law are blogging at the American Constitution Society of New England College of Law, featuring news, information, and discussion of interest to "anyone with a progressive view of the Constitution."

Anthony Cerminaro, whose Nano Tech Lex and Bizz Bang Buzz blogs I have previously mentioned in this space, is also publishing Robo Lex Tech, which focuses on robotics, automation, expert systems, artificial intelligence, wearable computers, bionics, and other human-machine technology. Looks more "robo" than "lex" right now, but he's just getting started. As if that were not enough, he's already publishing a fourth blawg, Bio Lex Tech. Anthony's writing here on biotech, bioengineering, bioinformatics, genomics, biometrics, and other biotechnology.

Google Gets Closer to Knowing You

It has been clear for some time that Google was not content with merely having the best search engine on the Internet. First it was GMail, which aimed to take over the Internet e-mail market. Now it's the Google Desktop Search tool, which works on the same premise as the Copernic Desktop Search and X1. The Google offering will perform a full-text index of many of the files on your computer, including: e-mail messages, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, AOL instant message files, and text files. The tool also indexes the titles of files that cannot be full-text searched, including images and PDF files. Once the index is complete, you can then instantly search for documents from a Google interface.

Here's where the Google tool is different from the others -- it works when you are at the Google home page. Just click the tab that says Desktop, and you can search from there. Even when you run a search on the Internet, if there are files on your computer that match your search terms, they'll be displayed along with your regular Google results.

As usual, Search Engine Watch is all over this new Google feature, with a long listing of articles on the new software, as well as a pretty comprehensive review of its own. CNet reviewed the major desktop search programs, and declared the Copernic Desktop Search the winner.

One concern about the new tool is raised by the Register, which quotes Copernic's CEO as saying that Google Desktop Search is a privacy disaster just waiting to happen. That's what makes Google different from the Copernic and X1 tools -- the connection between Google and your computer. PC World also weighs in on the privacy concerns. Danny Sullivan responds to this issue, saying we really shouldn't worry. But I'm not sure he's getting the point.

I'm sure Google makes a ton of money through advertising in its search results. What if Google, after seeing the contents of files on your computer, was able to target advertising directly to you based on what it learned about your interests? What a cash cow that would be. In its privacy policy, Google states that "the content is not shared with Google or anyone else without your explicit permission." That will hopefully keep what's on your computer private, for now.

Help Desk

You can use your ALT key to type special symbols. Here are just a few:

ALT + 21 = §
ALT + 20 = ¶
ALT + 0133 = …
ALT + 0153 = ™
ALT + 0169 = ©
ALT + 0174 = ®
ALT + 0176 = °
ALT + 0233 = é
ALT + 0231 = ç
ALT + 0235 = ë
ALT + 0225 = á
ALT + 0237 = í
ALT + 0241 = ñ

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!

London Court of International Arbitration
The LCIA says it is "the longest-established of the major international institutions for commercial dispute resolution, and also the most modern and forward-looking." Here you'll find a lengthy description of the services provided, as well as rules for both mediation and arbitration, in nine languages. The rules are available for download via separate link. Other links provide information on membership, conferences, the Young International Arbitrators Group, and a page with some useful links to treaties, arbitration, and other dispute resolution sites.

Marketplace
This is the web presence of Public Radio's Marketplace radio show. Here you can find streaming audio from every show from 2001 to the present -- that's a lot of business news. You can even search for specific stories by keyword. If you subscribe to the newsletter, you'll receive an e-mail each day with links to that day's stories.

ABA Judicial Division
The ABA's Judicial Division has some good resources for judges or those interested in judicial activities. In addition to comprehensive information on the section, you can also check out books, periodicals, and other publications, and even subscribe to one of eleven mailing lists. Some of the
resources could use some updating, but in general the site is well-maintained.

National Agricultural Law Center
Maintained by the University of Arkansas School of Law, the National AgLaw Center conducts research, serves as an information center, and serves to educate law students on agricultural and food law. The resources here are tremendous; you can get lost in the Reading Room, with in-depth studies of various agricultural areas, from animal feeding operations to pesticides. Also available are research publications, case summaries of recent developments in agricultural law, a glossary, congressional links, a reference desk, and we're just getting started! This is a agricultural law reference.

OmniMedicalSearch
This site is a meta-search tool, that queries 32 medical search engines, new sites, and medical image databases. A search for "Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome" brings back 100 results from sites like MedlinePlus, HealthFinder, eMedicine, and more. For focused medical search, this is a good place to start.

Here's a way for parents to ensure their kids are doing their homework instead of watching television: TV-B-Gone. It's a $14.99 device that can turn off every model of U.S. Asian, and European television, all with a single click. I'd be interested to know the range of this thing -- can a person using it drive down a neighborhood street turning off all the televisions on the block?

Some of you may feel like you need 24/7 access to a computer specialist, to help you with your PC problems. That's where Ask Dr. Tech can help. For $89/year, they'll provide you with 24/7 phone and online support for all of your computer problems.

Well, that’s it for Issue #169 – 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.

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