INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
September 11, 2005
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #205 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....
Clustering your Blog Search
Do you use Clusty? If not, you should be -- it's one of the better meta-search tools out there, because it clusters your search results into discrete, organizable folders. And now you can use Clusty to search for blogs or RSS feeds; it queries Technorati, Feedster, Daypop, Blogpulse, and Blogdigger, which should get you a good, well-rounded view of the blogosphere on a particular issue. You can read more about it at Metasearch the blogosphere with Clusty.Start your day with a new RSS reader
Well, not really new, actually -- but Start.com has gone into "preview" mode, and it is really cool. You can easily add/customize your own content -- add individual news feeds to read, or import an entire OPML file. It comes pre-packaged with additional content, if you don't have any content of your own to add. I'm not sure if I'm a big fan of the actual newsreading -- you have to expand the selections to get to the actual articles, and it's hard to tell what's new from a quick glance. Still, I think it's pretty impressive.Protect Your (E-Mailing) Reputation
Ever wonder if other computers think you're a spammer? Or if a computer on your network might be spewing spam into the Internet without your knowledge? TrustedSource is a new service that lets you check on the "reputation" of a particular domain or IP address. The information comes from CipherTrust, an anti-spam company.Improvements to Yahoo! Mail
I have a Gmail account, and I like it okay. But I definitely use my Yahoo! Mail a lot more often, because it is directly tied to my permanent e-mail address (Yes, I know that Gmail can forward to my permanent address. Yes, I'm doing that.). So it was good to see all of the new improvements coming to Yahoo! Mail -- they include the ability to search the contents of attachments, other search enhancements, and a Photo View and Attachment View to see thumbnails of your search results.Blawgs of the Week
The law-related blogs just keep on coming! First up: if you're interested in the topics of law and life in Albany, New York, then Warren Redlich's Albany Lawyer should be right up your alley. The folks at the New England School of Law Library in Boston are blogging about reference issues and other stuff at NESLReference. Paula Seeger of Dane County has another blawg on law libraries: at the Burning Ears Blawg she's tracking law libraries in local news stories. Here's a blog that demonstrates the power of blogs: you can set them up very quickly in response to breaking news. White Washing the Black Storm is written by two Houston law professors, with their "first-hand accounts of the real treatment of Black Americans in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath." The Mediation Mensch is Dina Beach Lynch, who's not actually a lawyer, but a workplace mediator and expert on dispute resolution. She says that "Launching a mediation practice can be lonely and confusing. You need a guide and friend on your journey. Mediation Mensch shares useful information, easy to use strategies and tips to build your own profitable mediation practice." La Ley Today features "pre law school life, the decision process, and law school, like it is." Finally, another blog in the vast Law Professor Blogs empire -- the Chinese Law Prof Blog is written by Donald C. Clarke, of George Washington University Law School.
Caught in the 'Net
Last week, Search Engine Watch discussed RSS in a big way -- if you regularly read this newsletter, then you know that I think that RSS is truly a powerful technology that can revolutionize the business of conducting legal research on the Internet. If you know someone who is interested in RSS but wants to know more (or if that person is you), then make sure these articles are read:
-- What is RSS, and Why Should You Care?
-- RSS Search Engines
-- Choosing an RSS Reader
No Word tip this week -- instead, we'll visit a different member of the Office family, Excel. One of my biggest pet peeves when I'm working in a spreadsheet is that the title row, which contains all the important headings, doesn't automatically stay visible as I scroll through the spreadsheet. Fortunately, though, there's a way to freeze that title row.
In your spreadsheet, place your cursor in Column A, on the row below the one you want to freeze. Select Windows from the menu bar, then Freeze Panes. Your title row should now be frozen in place. To unfreeze, just click Windows, then Unfreeze Panes. It's that simple.
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
Oxford Journals Online ($$)
Here you'll find a complete listing of the journals published by the Oxford University Press, and there are more than a hundred. You can browse by title or subject, and each journal contains searchable archives. You can only see the abstract for free; everything else requires a subscription. But an article title and abstract should get you enough information to decide whether it's worth heading over to the library -- or subscribing to the journal itself, if you like. I only with OUP would offer its articles up for separate purchase, in addition to full subscriptions -- I bet they could make a lot more $$ that way.London Court of International Arbitration
The LCIA is "one of the longest-established international institutions for commercial dispute resolution." Most of the resources here deal with the company's services, including rules for arbitration in nine languages, rules for mediation, fundholding, and conferences. There's also a nice collection of links to arbitration treaties, laws, and rules, as well as other ADR guidelines.Deciphering Medspeak
This incredibly helpful page is part of the Medical Library Association, with a great dictionary for translating medical terms. Many of the terms are actually parts of longer words (like "schizo" and "nephro"), but there are plenty of whole words here, too.National Whistleblower Center
This is a hard page to read; the background is charcoal, and the organization is pretty haphazard. But the information is definitely relevant, and looks to be regularly updated. The home page features the latest news relating to whistleblowing, and there are literally 24 buttons down the left margin, with titles like Press Room, Action Alert, Seminars, NIH/Drug Safety, SOX Resources, FBI Whistleblowers, Employee Rights, False Claims Act, and a whole lot more.NextPage ($$)
Here's an interesting product that helps you maintain control over the document review process. NextPage keeps track of all changes to a document, as well as all different versions of a document. Once you receive the marked-up document from all reviewers, you can compare the different changes and incorporate them into a final document. And it doesn't matter if the reviewers aren't using NextPage; you'll still be able to see and compare their revisions. The product costs $99 per user per year.
Here's a great service that just got an Editor's Choice award from PC Magazine. YourTechOnline provides tech support with a twist: for $39.99/30 minutes (and up), you download a small program that allows the techie to remotely control your computer, and hopefully solve your problems. No more having to explain the problem over the phone!
Or...you can play Sheep Bubble and keep the wolves away from the sheep.
Well, that’s it for Issue #205 – 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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