June 26, 2005

Welcome to Issue #195 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!

A New look for Technorati
Technorati has long been an authority on what's happening in the blog world, but its interface has not always been friendly to those not familiar with blogs or finding information on them. But check out the new Technorati Beta site, which is now much easier to navigate and understand all of the great resources available here. Give it a test drive.

A Matter of Trust
Now that Jux2 is gone, we could use another search engine that helps us compare results from both Google and Yahoo!, arguably the two best search engines out there. Enter DoubleTrust, which does just that. It's based on the premise that "trusting the top two authorities is better than one." Your search results will show the best sites according to Google and Yahoo!'s mutual agreement, then a list of sites ("orphans") that are unique to each engine. You can also tweak the "Trust-O-Meter," if you trust one search engine more than another. Nifty tool.

How not to get revenge on someone
It's amazing to me that the CAN-SPAM has been almost wholly ineffective at prosecuting the spammers that make our lives miserable, and yet it's relatively easy to convict a non-spammer who signs up others to receive spam, for spite.

Hello, My Name is Tom Mighell, and I'm.....
....an e-mail addict. That's what this article says, anyway -- a survey claims that the average user checks his/her inbox 5 times per day -- and I'm way above that, unfortunately. One of the suggestions given for cutting back on e-mail is to "go without e-mail one day per week." I can already feel the shakes coming on...

Blawgs of the Week(s)
Lots of law-related weblogs to catch up on this week. First up is Bob Kraft's P.I.S.S.D.. The acronym stands for Personal Injury, Social Security Disability, and it reflects Bob's attitude toward those government agencies and insurance companies that routinely mistreat injured or disabled people. The Kansas Family and Divorce Lawyer is Grant Griffiths, and he's providing this blog as an "information source for divorce, child support, child custody, cohabitation, spousal maintenance, adoption, parental rights, grandparent visitation rights and family." Another family law blawg is presented by Birmingham, Alabama lawyer/mediator Lee Borden, and it's the appropriately-named Lee's Divorce and Family Law Blog. The PrawfsBlawg features five law types who may or may not be about to become law professors. Or, as they put it, "a group of young legal turks and turkeys offering their thoughts on law and the things that really matter in life." And to keep the family law meme going, Alan Nye, of Al Nye the Lawyer Guy fame, is also writing about family law issues in the state of Maine (and elsewhere) at the Maine Divorce Law Blog. The folks at Goldstein & Howe, who already publish the fabulous SCOTUSBlog, are writing on something that will likely become a big issue during the second Bush administration: The Supreme Court Nomination Blog. So far it's filled with profiles of potential nominees. The PharmaBlawg discusses pharmaceutical regulatory issues in Common Law and European countries. It's published by Richard Best, a dual-qualified lawyer in England/Wales and New Zealand, who is also a Registered Foreign Lawyer in Frankfurt, Germany.

Jean-Frederic Carter is a newly-minted French lawyer who is discussing free and open-source software, as well as other cyber-subjects, at Jean-Frédéric Carter - un juriste de plus sur Internet. Finchism features the world according to the self-styled "Atticus Finch," a "broke recent grad in his mid-20s desperately fleeing from the dismal failures of his past and quixotically chasing the wild successes in his future." Oh, and he's applying to go to law school, too. Mark Zamora is an attorney licensed in Florida and Georgia, and he's blogging about forms, news, musings, and commentary from a lawyer working for consumers and injured people, at A Georgia Lawyer. MJP News is a companion site to Crossingthebar.com, and both sites offer news and commentary on the issue of Multijurisdictional Practice of law. The Washington firm of T. Scott Eller & Associates is providing information about criminal defense in alcohol-related charges at the Washington DUI Defense blog.

Help Desk

We're up to #8 on the list of Ten Things To Do Before You Call Tech Support.

No. 8: Check for IRQ Conflicts. IRQ stands for Interrupt Requests, and they are hardware connections that request computing time from your computer's processor. If two devices are using the same IRQ, you could have problems. Here's how to see if you have an IRQ conflict:

Select Start, then Control Panel, then System. Select Device Manager, and find the device that you're having trouble with -- right-click on it, select Properties, and then click the Resources tab. You'll see a list of resources, as well as the conflicting-device list. Make a note of the IRQ and any conflicting devices. You'll need this information when you finally call Tech Support.

Next week: Use your computer's "black box."

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!