INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
March 27, 2005
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #185 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!
Are you tired of receiving this newsletter in your Inbox? If you're using a newsreader to read RSS feeds, you can now receive each issue of the ILRW via RSS! Just subscribe to the following feed:
http://www.newslettersbyrss.com/feed/642.xmlIf you do decide to switch to the newsletter via RSS, let me know, and I'll unsubscribe you from the list.
And away we go....
Microsoft is Aggregating (Quietly)
Microsoft has been working on a news aggregator for RSS feeds. It's pretty basic -- some pre-loaded feeds and the ability to add your own, but not much you can do other than read the stories. Still, it's a start. The folks in Redmond are also working on a bookmark manager too. They are just supposed to be "prototypes," so don't get used to them.A tasty search morsel
Andy Beal at Search Engine Lowdown points to a new search tool called Factbites, "where results make sense." It differentiates itself from Google and the other search engines by offering users "meaningful, relevant sentences from every site in the search results." In its current state, 800,000 topics are offered. The search results display three bullet points with sentences containing the specific words in your query. It's way more effective than Google's results, where the words in the results are often not even close in proximity to your search terms.Clusty-ering
Like its father Vivisimo, the new meta-search tool Clusty is introducing specific clustering engines, starting with its Government Clustering Engine. I have long used Vivisimo because of this clustering technology, and Clusty gets it even better.Handy Tax Links
Still working on your (or someone else's) taxes? Check out these pages from the Federation of Tax Administrators -- one features state tax forms on a clickable map, and the other provides links to states that allow Internet filing.Beware the Bot-Nets
I've reported here in the past about "Zombie" computers, which are compromised due to poor security and remotely controlled by the bad folks for the purposes of spreading spam or spyware. A recent study shows that some of these "Bot-Nets" may be made up of more than 50,000 computers. While the article says that many of these bot-nets exist simply to attack other bot-nets, many of them are turning to more nefarious acts. Remember, keep your computer's firewall up-to-date, and regularly run your spyware remover. But you knew that, didn't you?Those Dastardly Pharmers
I have spoken here frequently on phishing scams, and how to protect yourself against the fake e-mails you might receive. But there's an even more evil scam on the horizon, and it's called pharming. It happens when the bad guys send you to a fake site even when you type in the correct URL. To learn more about how pharming works, read this.Take Control of Your Google Presence
If you're a business, anyway. Google now offers the Local Business Center, where you can create a listing for your business, to be listed in the Google Local database.Satisfy your search engine news cravings
If you cannot get enough of the latest news about search engines and the topic of search on the internet in general, this page of free search engine newsletters and web feeds from Search Engine Watch should prove satisfying.Turbo-Charge Your A9 Experience
Amazon's terrific A9 now allows you to customize your search page, and add interfaces for various other sources, including the New York Times, Wikipedia, top weblogs, Furl, CSpan, and lots more.Blawgs of the Week
As usual, another helping of interesting and useful law-related weblogs for you this week. First, a "lunching law librarian" named Abbie Bradfield is publishing AbsTracked, with themes of law, library, reference, and of course, lunch. J.D. Graves is discussing "Justice, Oklahoma Style" over at the Oklahoma Law Blog. In it he discusses, of course, Oklahoma law, along with legal issues and politics. Your Patent Baristas are Stephen and Karlyn, patent attorneys at Frost Brown Todd in Cincinnati. They're serving up Bio/Pharma patent news, fresh brewed daily.Here's an interesting take on the weblog tool: LeapLaw has put together this page of Secretary of State Tips, which is really 50 blogs in one. Each link leads to Secretary of State links and other information for each state, plus blog entries with information related to SOS activities. There's an RSS feed for all 50 states, and one for each individual state. Terrific info! The Electronic Filing and Service for Courts blog says it all -- the blog provides news and information about e-filing and service in U.S. courts. Finally, Evan Brown writes the great Internetcases.com, which provides summaries of recent court decisions involving the Internet. He even discusses these cases via Podcast.
Here's an easy one: having trouble printing out web pages that run off the right side of the screen? No problem. Just print the page in Landscape mode. Some web pages are just like that, and Landscape's about the only thing you can do about 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!
Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet
Fair Housing Law
This site is a joint effort from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, National Fair Housing Alliance, The Ad Council, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's designed to increase awareness of the Fair Housing Act and its protections. There are only a few resources to be found here -- descriptions of housing discrimination, fair housing laws, and a guide for action -- but they are undeniably important.Comparisons of State Tax Rates
Another page from the Federation of Tax Administrators site, here you can compare the various state income, sales, excise, and historical tax rate data. The tables are scheduled to be updated this Thursday, so it's especially timely to mention this page.GrassCatcher
Here's another interior page that's extremely useful. Part of the National Conference of State Legislatures, GrassCatcher features "today's top policy news clippings." The top news can be found in the center of the page, while on the left side you'll find links to news for all 50 states (provided by Stateline.org), as well as a number of issue areas, including criminal justice, education, health care, politics, technology, transportation, and more.How to Effective Locate Federal Government Information on the Web
This very simple page is presented by Patricia Cruse of the University of California and Sherry DeDecker from UC-Santa Barbara, and it's designed to demonstrate how to maximize retrieval of federal government information on the Web. The tutorials are "Know the Structure to Find the Information," "Using Search Engines and Subject Indexes to Locate Federal Information," "Laws of the Land," "Statistics, Demographics and other Data," and "Major Issues to Consider." Each page considers lots of helpful tips for searching government sites, as well as links to those pages. My only criticism of this helpful site is that it does not appear to have been updated this year.Laws Enforced by the Department of Labor
Gee, I'm highlighting a lot of interior pages this week, eh? This one from the Department of Labor is just a simple list of links to compliance assistance on particular laws enforced by the DOL. They are divided into topic area: Workplace Safety and Health, Wages and Work Hours, Equal Employment Opportunity, Agricultural Workers, Foreign Workers, Veterans' Protections, Government Contracts, Retirement and Health Benefits, Whistleblower Protections, and Other Workplace Issues.
Finally, some fun and useful sites to begin your week:
Wondering about that cough? Check out WebMD's Online Medical Symptom Checker to figure out what might be causing it.
Why go out and buy graph paper when you can print your own online, for free?
Well, that’s it for Issue #185 – 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
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.