INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
May 22, 2005
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #191 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....
Copernic Rated Best in Study
The University of Wisconsin E-Business Institute conducted a benchmark study of desktop search tools, and found that Copernic Desktop Search topped the list. The report (in PDF format) goes into great detail about several of the products, so you can make up your own mind.Yahoo Groks!
Way back in December 2003, I posted about Grokker, a search engine that displays its results in an interesting visual way. Grokker used to charge $49 for its product, but it's now offering its service free of charge, using the Yahoo! platform. A very cool way to look at search results.A New Dogpile
Meta-search tool DogPile has a newly-redesigned site, plus a nifty little tool called Missing Pieces. You can do two things here: Comparison View lets you easily see how Google, Yahoo, and Ask Jeeves results differ from each other, and the Missing Pieces applet shows the overlap between these three search engines.An Ounce of Prevention
If you don't want to worry about removing spyware from your computer, there's a (relatively) simple answer: don't allow spyware on your computer in the first place. Easier said than done? Maybe. But this article on How to Avoid Getting Spyware is a pretty good guide on best practices to follow. I follow most all of these steps, and I have been spyware-free for months.Google First Portal Attempt -- So-So
Google is finally wading into the portal market with its Google Personalized Home Page, to compete with the wildly popular My Yahoo! and My MSN pages. I have to say, as a first effort, it's pretty skimpy -- there aren't nearly as many features offered as the other two services. Let's see how it grows.Blawgs of the Week
Some good law-related weblogs for you this week. First, Jim Milles is the Associate Dean for Legal Information Services, Director of the Law Library, and an Associate Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo Law School, and he's blogging about law libraries, legal education, and careers in law librarianship at the JD-MLS Blog. The firm of Hoyes Michalos & Associates is providing consumer protection information for Canadians at the Ontario Bankruptcy Blog. The Legal Ethics Blog is the product of Ben Cowgill of Lexington, Kentucky. It features, as you might imagine, "news, commentary, and resources regarding legal ethics and the law governing lawyers." The LEFIS Blog is the blog component of the Legal Framework for the Information Society, the mission of which is to introduce information technology into law schools. It's maintained by three Portuguese lawyers. Another blawg offering from Portugal -- Santerna, dedicated to commercial law topics in Portugal, Brazil, and other countries. Anthony Castelli is the Cincinnati Personal Injury Attorney, providing "information regarding personal injury claims from a Cincinnati personal injury and accident lawyer focusing on Ohio law." Finally, E. Thomas Kemp is an attorney in Richmond, Indiana, and he's blogging about life and law in Eastern Indiana at Kemplog.
Caught in the 'NetYour one-stop security shop -- Microsoft?
Too busy to take care of your computer's security needs? Just don't have the technical experience necessary to properly keep your computer free of viruses, adware, and other nasties? Microsoft feels your pain, and wants to shoulder the burden -- for a fee, probably. Windows OneCare Live will provide you with antivirus, firewall, PC maintenance, and data backup services. Best of all, these services work transparently in the background, and are instantly updated whenever a new version is available.
Given the average computer user's inability or dislike for keeping his or her computer secure, this could be a big deal for Microsoft. It really depends on how MS decides to market this once it's out of beta testing.
We're up to #4 in the list of 10 Things To Do Before Calling in Tech Support. Number 4 is not available to users of earlier versions of Windows:
#4: Roll Back Your System. Windows XP (and Windows ME, if you're still using it) have a System Restore feature that can roll your computer settings back to a time before your troubles began. To get there, click Start and All Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, then System Restore. You will see a calendar of different restore points -- just select one and follow the directions. System Restore won't delete your data files, or anything you have created (documents, e-mail, etc.) since the trouble began -- it will simply restore your system files and Registry entries, and hopefully clean out the stuff that was causing the problem.
Next Week: Rollin' Rollin' Rollin', Part II.
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
Credentials, Inc. ($$)
This company provides services to the business community, parents, students, on behalf of colleges and universities to offer a single source for timely and accurate verification of academic credentials and ordering of academic transcripts at a reasonable price. There are only 56 schools available to check now -- hopefully more will be added. However, if the person you're checking on went to one of these schools, this is the place to go. Searches range from free to $20.Direct-To-Desktop CLE ($$)
The American Law Institute offers this great site of online courses, articles and forms. Here you have access to books and course materials that you can order and pay for online. The types of materials include articles, audio clips, chapters, courses (with audio), forms, and webcast replays. You can purchase audio clips for under $10, forms for $11, and courses up to $70.SMEALSearch
From Penn State University, SMEALSearch is a "niche search engine that searches the web and catalogs academic articles as well as commercially produced articles and reports that address any branch of Business." It boasts it's the only search engine focused on business that automatically gathers specific research information, performs key word and citation searches, and accepts article submissions from users. You can then view an abstract of the article, and view the document in several different formats. Nicely done.Entrez
Here's another specialty search engine, this one from the National Institutes of Health. It describes itself as a "Life Sciences Search Engine," and it searches across over 25 scientific databases, including PubMed, the Nucleotide Sequence Database, UniGene, PubChem BioAssay, a number of genomic databases, and many more. My only complaint concerns how results are displayed -- when you type in your search query, you'll see a number next to each database for the number of results retrieved from each. You'll have to click on each database to see the results there. Great topical search engine, but a bit cumbersome to use.Dept. of Veteran's Affairs Facilities Locator
Part of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, here you can locate two types of places: facilities and graveyards. To find a facility, just click on the map, or narrow it down to a particular type of facility in a specific zip code. In the cemetery search you can look by graveyard and name, and you'll receive listings with dates of birth and death, location of grave, branch of the military, wars fought, and more.
Last but not least, some fun and useful sites to start off the week:
How good is your instant recall? Identify the criminal in Crime Scene, and win points:
David Horowitz has long been a consumer advocate, and he'll help you Fight Back! at his site:
Well, that’s it for Issue #191 – 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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