INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
January 9, 2005
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #177 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!
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And away we go....
Starting the new year fresh
Many of you are currently suffering from bloated, slow-moving computers that have no doubt gotten that way because of spyware. Here's how one reporter handled the problem, in Terminating Spyware with Extreme Prejudice.An IP Blawg Starter Kit
A while back Ernie posted an OPML File as a "blawg reading starter kit," to get you up and going fast in the world of following blawgs. Well, J. Matthew Buchanan is doing the same thing, but with a narrower topic -- IP Blawgs. Matt has put together an OPML File containing more than 35 of the best intellectual property blawgs out there. If you're new to reading blawgs or just haven't gotten caught up on IP blawgs, give it a try!Best Free Reference Sites
Thanks to Sabrina for pointing out this page of the Best Free Reference Web Sites of 2004, as chosen by the ALA's Reference and User Services Association. Not all of the sites pertain to legal research, but they are all valuable sites nonetheless.Answers are now free
The pay research site previously known as GuruNet has morphed into the free research site called Answers.com, providing instant facts with its "super encyclopedia" of information. Here's a short review from SearchDay.Have cell phone, never lost
MapQuest announced this week the debut of its MapQuest Mobile service, which will deliver color maps and directions to your cell phone. The only problem is, the service costs $4/month. I'm just not sure that's a wise move, since it's easy to get maps and directions for free by just printing them out from the Web. And I can even get maps and directions from MapQuest delivered for free through my account with AvantGo. So I'm not sure I get it.Resolved: Better Searching
Chris Sherman posted his Search Resolutions for the New Year over at SearchDay, and he's got some good stuff. Interestingly, though, when he resolves to "Break the Google Toolbar Habit," he doesn't plan to wander far from it. What he really means is to stop using Internet Explorer, the only platform for which Google Toolbar is so far developed. I use (as well as Chris) the Googlebar for FireFox, and it works great, although it doesn't have as many features as the original.Blawgs of the Week
And the blawgs kept rolling in -- here's this week's crop of new entries. My good friend and fellow ABA TECHSHOW board member Jim Calloway finally bit the bullet and started his own blog. Check out Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog -- Jim has been in the law practice management field for a long time, and he certainly knows what he's talking about. I expect great things here. New York lawyer Jesse Londin, creator of Spacelawstation.com, "the planet's space law portal," has introduced a companion blog called, appropriately enough, Space Law Probe. robhyndman.com is the blog of Canadian lawyer Rob Hyndman, who believes that "any technology that is distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced."Jay Hollander is a New York lawyer specializing in real estate, corporate and intellectual property law. He has started three weblogs, one on each subject -- the Real Estate Law Weblog, Commercial Law Weblog and Intellectual Property Law Weblog all have some good posts. One request: a set of archives. Other than clicking on the "Next Page" button or selecting the various categories, there's no easy way to navigate prior posts. Finally, Late-Night Pundit features the "Late Night Ramblings on law, politics and anything else" from Dan Hamilton, a recently new lawyer who works for the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law.
More and more wasting their time on blogs
Well, that's not exactly what I mean. The latest Pew Internet survey finds that 27 percent of Internet users, or over 32 million people, are blog readers. But of that 27 percent, only five percent are using RSS aggregators or newsreaders to read blogs. That means 22 percent of Internet users are spending too much time on weblogs -- newsreaders are definitely the way to go. If you'd like to learn more about newsreaders or RSS feeds, drop me a line and I'll be happy to talk with you.
Another interesting correlation of this survey with the recently published 2005 List of Banished Words -- in the survey, only 38 percent of Internet users knew what the term "blog" means, and it's listed on the list of banished words because "many who nominated it were unsure of the meaning."
Do you ever use the "Send To" feature that you see when you right click on something? It's very useful -- with just one click, you can send a document or other file wherever you want -- your CD burner, My Documents, a mail recipient -- anywhere. But maybe the place you want to send something isn't listed. Here's how to do it -- if you're using Windows XP:
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
City Town Info
The Cornelius family of Columbus, Georgia has put together this simple site with the goal of collecting all reliable and stable sources of city and town information. You can select from the list of states or from the U.S. map. Once you choose a state, you'll get a listing of all the city sites available for that particular location. A very simple site, but a great resource and a good candidate for your reference bookmarks.Copyscape
The people who bring you Google Alert also want to help you protect what's yours -- your "content." You can use Copyscape to search for instances of your content being used anywhere on the Internet; just plug in your URL and Copyscape searches Google for instances where your indexed content is being used. You can also sign up to receive alerts of new pages that appear on the Internet, so you don't have to keep coming back and running your search. This is a valuable service -- make use of it!Dallas Public Library
As libraries begin to place more and more of their content on the Internet, I am going to start mentioning them as possible sources of online legal research. I thought I'd start with my hometown library. Unfortunately, you have to have a library card to access the databases. But if you do, you can see quite a lot here. The Dallas Library provides access to seven library databases, including the Dallas Morning News archives, World Book Encyclopedia Online, and EBSCO, a periodical listing that indexes over 2,700 general reference, business, health, social science, humanities, news, and current events titles. Lots of great resources -- if you have a library card.DivorceNet
This site is geared primarily towards non-lawyers, but it's a good place to get some basic information about divorce and other issues of family law. You can go straight to a particular state, where you'll find a listing of family lawyers and mediators, as well as financial professionals, child custody experts, and links on various issues of family law. Other resources include newsletters for lawyers and information divided up by the particular stage of divorce.Discovery Resources
I think I have mentioned this site before, but since electronic discovery is so hot these days, it bears re-reviewing. Here is one of the best places to find up-to-date information on the subject of e-discovery, including news, articles, case law, seminar and webcast listings, and more. There are even sample discovery requests and other form documents you can download, for free. A terrific resource on this very happening subject.
Finally, some fun and useful stuff:
What? The 2005 List of Banished Words is out already? Well, it certainly has some good candidates, including "flip-flop" and "wardrobe malfunction." But "blog"? No way.
There's no question that Microsoft Windows annoys all of us at some time or another. Annoyances.org is the most complete collection of information assembled for Windows users.
Well, that’s it for Issue #177 – 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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