INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
December 18, 2005
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #218 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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Check out the Hub
Okay, so I'm not done yet previewing useful Web 2.0 sites. The next is CalendarHub, another calendaring site. You can create your own calendars that you can share with others, subscribe to calendars created by other people, and receive your calendar information via RSS feed or SMS text message. It's really easy to use, so it's perfect for group collaborations.Get the Scoop by RSS
Here's a nifty new site -- ScoopGo will take up to 30 RSS feeds and create a "Scoop" for you. You can add any feed you want, up to 30. Once you have created your Scoop, you can do a few things, the best of which is search it. Just plug in your search terms, and ScoopGo will search those feeds for the information. You can also use ScoopGo as a type of aggregator, and view all the headlines on one page. You can also add the search function to Firefox or even your own web site.Hear your medical research
So, are you including podcasts as a new tool in your research arsenal? Why not? There are a lot of very smart people sharing their knowledge all over the Internet, via podcast. And that includes doctors and others in the medical field. Check out this page of medical podcasts -- it contains nine medicine-related broadcasts that are well worth a listen.Re-discover the power of the hidden code
I occasionally get e-mail from those who read my newsletter that I spend too much time talking about Microsoft Word (see below, for example), and not enough time on tips for WordPerfect users. Well, there's a reason for that -- I don't use WordPerfect, and I'm a lot more comfortable offering Word advice. But if you're one of the WP devout, there's a site where you can get all the info you need: it's the WordPerfect Universe, with tips, user forums, news, and lots more.Blawgs of the Week
As usual, we have a fresh set of law-related blogs for you to peruse. First up, Brian Tannenbaum is a lawyer practicing criminal defense law in Miami, and he's talking about current issues in state and local criminal defense, including commentary on cases of national interest, at Criminal Defense. Janet Langjahr is a Boca Raton/West Palm beach attorney, and she's writing Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Abuse Lawyer in Boca Raton as a service to Floridians in that area. Dan Hull is a litigator and lobbyist working in and around San Diego, and he's asking an important questions for lawyers: What About Clients? WonL features "the random thoughts of an architect turned law school student from the deep south living in Washington, DC..." The Valentine Legal Group is dedicated to the protection of consumers in Maryland and the District of Columbia, and they're talking about what they know at the Consumer Law Blog. Finally, Daniel Weiss is a Florida lawyer who is the former attorney special magistrate for the Miami-Dade County Value Adjustment Board. He now represents commercial, institutional charitable and agricultural taxpayers, as well as municipalities, on both valuation and legal issues, in administrative, trial and appeals court proceedings throughout the State of Florida. His blog, Florida Lawyers Property Tax Appeals, will discuss matters of interest to Florida real and tangible personal property taxpayers.
Caught in the 'Net
PreviewSeek -- a New Meta-Search Tool
I have been experimenting with PreviewSeek, a new meta-search tool from the United Kingdom. It claims to be "the world's most advanced search engine" -- when you make a claim like that, you better be able to back it up. PreviewSeek is certainly an interesting tool, and it provides a lot of great information.
Try a search for ajax. First you'll get a green box listing all of the things that Ajax can refer to: characters in the Iliad, the cleaning powder, the Web technology, or even the fictional company in the Mickey Mouse cartoons. This is a good way to focus your search, if the terms you're looking for can mean different things. Next, check out the folder listing to the left -- PreviewSeek clusters its results much like Clusty, so you can quickly drill down to sites that are related to your search. PreviewSeek also offers thumbnails of the sites, so you can see at a glance the search result. You can also save your results to a Search Folder (30 listings allowed).
There are tons of great shortcuts in Word -- so many that it may be hard to keep up with them all. That's not a problem, if you have Word 2003 -- you can display little tips to remind you of the shortcuts. Just select Tools, then Customize, then the Options tab. Under Other turn on the option to "Show ScreenTips on Toolbars" and then check the option directly below to "Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips." Click Close.
Now, when you hover your mouse over an icon on your Standard toolbar, if there's a shortcut, it will appear in parentheses next to the button's name.
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
U.S. Department of State
I've been visiting well-known federal government sites lately, to see if they have anything new to offer. The Department of State is a huge repository of useful information on this country's international relations. Across the top navigation bar you can get information on Press and Public Affairs, Travel and Living Abroad, Countries and Regions, International Issues, History, Education and Culture, and much more. There's even an area for Podcasts, RSS feeds, and e-mail listservs, so you can keep automatically updated on what's going on.TaxAnalysts ($$)
Tax Analysts is "a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization fostering informed debate on federal, state, and international tax policy." Although it's a non-profit, all of the services are provided for a fee. The resources offered include publications such as Tax Notes Today and Financial Reporting Watch, a basic and complete Federal Research Library, and an IRS manual disk. You can get free access to the Tax History Project as well as Tax Matters, semi-regular articles written by tax professionals.World Justice Information Network
WJIN is "a citizen driven information news and research network on human rights, international crime, terrorism and evidence based practices in all areas related to international justice." It's essentially a blog network, with information on these issues featured in blog format -- but you don't have to be a blog to contribute. There are currently ten sites in the network, including several of the law professor blogs.50-State Summary of BreastFeeding Laws
Here's an interesting niche page. It's actually part of the National Conference on State Legislatures site, which has several pages like this on different areas of law. Interestingly, 38 states have enacted some type of law related to breastfeeding; you can access those laws here, or just read a summary of the relevant provisions.Arizona Genealogy Birth & Death Certificates
This site will be great for you, but only if you're interested in learning about people who were born between 1887-1929, or who died between 1878-1954. For those people, you can obtain PDF copies of birth or death certificates. I was able to print out a copy of a relative who died of tuberculosis in 1933. A nice place to conduct your genealogical research.
Finally, some fun and useful sites with a holiday theme, to get you going this week:
Well, the holiday sites are out in full force. I'm a little late announcing this site -- it has been going strong since mid-November. The HGTV Holiday Craft Countdown is presenting 30 days of holiday craft projects through tomorrow. Figure out how to make a Beaded Polymer Clay Snowflake Ornament, or a Crocheted Snowflake Pot Holder -- whee!
One of the things I loved to do as a kid (and less frequently nowadays) was to drive around town and look at the great Christmas lights. If you learn How to Take Great Photos of Holiday Lights, you'll be able to keep those memories all year long. If just taking photos is challenging enough for you, then check out Taking Better Holiday Pictures.
Still searching for that lawyer on your list? Reid Trautz provides this nifty 2005 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers, with ten useful and fun gadgets for techno-loving lawyers. Lawyers blogs are also pointing to the timepieces from The Billable Hour, for those lawyers who are always thinking in 1/10 of an hour.
Well, that’s it for Issue #218 – 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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