INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
January 8, 2006
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #219 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!
It seems like forever since the last issue -- so much to talk about! Unfortunately, I just won't be able to cover all of it, so you'll be getting the highlights of the past few weeks.
Stop Typing Your E-Mails
Have a long message to send to someone, and just don't feel like typing it? Enter WaxMail, a program that records your message in MP3 format and then attaches it to an Outlook message. And it's free, too.Legal Tech in 2006
In December, Dennis Kennedy go to thinking about 2006. And he is, in his annual predictions column over at LLRX. Make sure you read Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Predictions for 2006: Small Steps for Most Firms, Giant Leaps for a Few Firms.Your E-Mail Address: Rules to Live By
How many e-mail addresses do you have? The author of Future-Proof Your E-Mail Address has about 3 dozen. I only have 4, I think. Even so, the tips listed here on keeping an e-mail address for the long haul is worth a read.Editing Photos on the Fly
Need to quickly edit a photo, and want it done free? Check out PXN8 -- it's an online photo editing site. You can crop, rotate, resize, blur, filter, de-redeye, and do lots more with your photo -- all for free. It also integrates with Flickr, so you can edit your online photos with just a few clicks.Follow the Votes
The Washington Post has put together this nifty page with every vote in the U.S. Congress since 1991. The U.S. Congress Votes Database provides statistics by House or Senate member, or by legislative session. There's also a separate column on the most recent votes taken. Even better -- you can subscribe to an RSS feed for every member of Congress (so you can be notified each time he/she votes), or for the 10 most recent votes.A local search tool worth checking out
Looking for a new search engine that will help you find an electrician or pizza place in your neighborhood? Try TrueLocal, which includes information on over 13 million U.S. businesses. In his article Two Alternative Local Search Services, Chris Sherman states that he thinks TrueLocal's results "are superior to those found with either Google or Yahoo's local search services..." Give it a look.Schedule Meetings in a Flash
Here's another Web 2.0-ish tool, one that is pretty nifty for scheduling meetings. It's called MeetWithApproval, and it's a snap to use. Just create an event, list a few dates that you're considering for your meeting/party/reunion/whatever, and send out e-mail invites to everyone who's attending. After all the attendees choose their best dates, the meeting will be confirmed through an e-mail sent to everyone. A nice way to avoid the back and forth of e-mails trying to find out availability for a meeting.Take a shortcut with Yahoo
It looks like Yahoo! is channeling ActiveWords with its new Open Shortcuts feature. It only works with web sites, and it's best if you have the Yahoo Toolbar installed, but it's a pretty cool feature. Just try it out -- type in !ebay lamps to go straight to the lamps listing there. If you have a Yahoo mail account, type in !mail anyone@anyemail.com and an e-mail will appear, ready for you to complete. You can also create your own shortcuts -- assign a few letters to your shortcut, then point it to the site you want to visit. Then just type these shortcuts in the Yahoo search box, and you're off.Blawgs of the Week(s)
Since the list issue, I've previewed more than 20 new law-related weblogs. That's just too many for this one issue, so I'll just bring you the highlights: first up, Scott Pullins is an Ohio lawyer, lobbyist, public affairs consultant, and entrepreneur. He's providing comprehensive, insider commentary on grassroots Ohio politics at The Pullins Report. Stephen Seckler is a legal recruiter who focuses in the Boston area, but his Counsel to Counsel blog discusses career issues facing lawyers at all levels of practice, no matter where they're located. Legal Pad is the blog of CalLaw.com, which is the California Division of Law.com. As you might expect, they're blogging on matters of California law there. The law offices of T. Scott Eller and Associates is publishing the Washington Personal Injury blog, with information about personal injury law in the Evergreen State. Rebecca Tushnet is a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and her blog 43(b)log features news and commentary on false advertising, and more. Jus Cogens is written by a New York attorney with a "specialized interest in public international law." The blog discusses recent developments in international law.Morgan Gilhuly is an environmental law practitioner in San Francisco, and he's writing about that subject in his Environmental Law Diary. The Massachusetts Trial Court Libraries are offering a blog on its What's New page, Massachusetts Law Updates. As you might imagine, it discusses recent developments in Massachusetts law, as well as newsworthy issues from other jurisdictions. John Palfrey is the self-titled blog from the Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. He's writing about the doings of the Berkman Center, as well as how technology and the Internet are impacted by the law (and vice versa). The Law & Society Weblog is co-written by contributors known only as DRHFK and Bloomfield. They are discussing such topics as jurisprudence, law & economics, and general system theory. The Law Offices of Jane T. Woodworth specializes in handling commercial collection matters for all kinds of businesses, with a particular emphasis on software companies. They're blogging about it at Corporate Collections. Last but not least, Mark Beese is the marketing guy at Holland & Hart, and he's interested in helping lawyers become better leaders. That's why his blog is titled Leadership for Lawyers.
Caught in the 'Net
Metadata and User Error
Metadata is a hot topic in the legal field right now -- heck, it's a hot topic in a lot of fields; this article on Document Security 101 shows how a little bit of information left in the metadata can embarrass or cause harm. And it's usually not the technology that's causing the problem -- it's more likely to be user error. Dennis Kennedy, Evan Schaeffer and I discuss this very issue this month in our Thinking E-Discovery Column, Mining the Value from Metadata. Our article talks mostly about making sure you rid unwanted metadata from your Word documents; check out Clean Up Your PDFs to learn that even if you do the right things with Word, you're still not home free if your PDFs contain metadata.
Forward Thinking
The theme of this month's Law Practice Today is Looking Ahead to 2006, and as usual it's a great roundup of articles. I'm pleased to have been involved in two of them:
If you have Word 2002 or later and you try to insert an image into a document, you may notice that Word wants to create a box called a "Drawing Canvas" to hold the graphic. VERY annoying, in my opinion. Here's how to banish the canvas to the Word dungeon: Select Tools, then Options, then General. Simply uncheck the box next to Automatically Create Drawing Canvas When Inserting AutoShapes. Then select OK. If you really, really need the drawing canvas, you can always make it come back by checking that option, OR on a case-by-case basis by selecting the Insert menu, then Picture, then New Drawing.
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
Archive-It
The terrific Internet Archive has created a new service that looks like it's going to be a great research tool. It's called Archive-It, and it allows you to browse or search through the archived collections of web pages. There are currently 25 databases, but more are surely on the way. Some of the collections include South Dakota State Agencies, Indiana State and Local Documents, documents on Anarchism, South East Asia, and the Islamic Middle East, and documents from the French Institute. Searching the archives is free, but if you want to create and manage your own collection, you'll have to pay a subscription fee.American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers
The Academy was founded in 1962 "to encourage the study, improve the practice, elevate the standards and advance the cause of matrimonial law, to the end that the welfare of the family and society be protected." There are currently more than 1500 members in 50 states. This site is primarily a resource for members; you'll find a member directory, criteria for membership, and other administrative information. But you don't have to be a member to peruse the articles, or order publications from the Academy.Beenmapped.com
The tagline of this site is: "Never forget the location of that awesome place again. Bookmark it on BeenMapped.com! It's free!" If you don't know the latitude/longitude of the location you're trying to map, you'll have to visit Google Maps, find the location, and take the URL back to Beenmapped. Once it locates the place, you can enter any descriptive information you want. You can also search the bookmarked locations of others.Cybercrime.gov
For a federal government site, I'm a little surprised at the lack of design on this page. No matter; the information provided here is substantial. You can obtain immediate links to information on Computer Crime, Intellectual Property Crime, Cybercrime Documents, and Cyberethics Information. There are also a number of news updates at the bottom of the page that you can review.American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility
The CPR is the home to the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct. In addition to rules regulating lawyers, you’ll also find codes of judicial conduct and client protection, as well as ETHICSearch, a feature that allows you to ask ethics questions, many times for free. The site also offers links on multidisciplinary and multijurisdictional practice. Some resources require you to be a member of the Center; subscribers have access to all ABA formal ethics opinions, the member directory, and two quarterly publications.
Well, that’s it for Issue #219 – 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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