INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
March 26, 2006
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #227 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!

News Update

Getting private with del.icio.us
Finally, the folks at del.icio.us have heard my silent pleas, and added a feature that I think makes the service more valuable. It's private saving of bookmarks. There are often some sites that I want to bookmark for later review, but I don't want them to be available to anyone but me. That's why I have been using Yahoo's My Web -- it has allowed the private saving of bookmarks for some time. Well, now del.icio.us is catching up, which is a good thing.

Google gets into the content business
Google unveiled its Google Finance page yesterday, marking a new direction for the company -- now it's not just offering results, but content. There's going to be a discussion section where people can discuss stocks and other business topics, and other interactive features. One neat feature: when you look at the page for a particular stock, you'll notice the chart has letters on it -- these correspond to news stories (to the right of the chart) that came out at that particular time.

Blawgs of the Week
Here's the round-up of some of the law-related blogs I featured this week on Inter Alia:

  • The South Carolina Appellate Law Blog is the product of Bill Watkins, who is with the firm of Womble Carlyle. He's following the opinions of the South Carolina Appellate Courts, the Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
  • IT.Can Blog is a Canadian weblog on copyright and IT issues, for both english and french-speaking blogreaders.
  • Here's a blog with a Caribbean flair: Karel's Legal Blog presents legal issues relating to Aruba & the Netherlands Antilles (which include Curacao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba).
  • The Alabama Family Law Blog is published by Mobile firm Sherman & Jeffries.
  • Expertise Marketing isn't really a law-related weblog, but it's aimed directly at lawyers. The blog is published by Suzanne Lowe of Expertise Marketing, and she's offering some great perspectives on marketing in the professional services sector.

Caught in the 'Net

Alternatives to Writely

So, you may have heard about this great online word processor, Writely. If you weren't lucky enough to be a member before Google snatched it up, you're going to have to wait; Writely has closed off new registrations until it can convert over to the Google way.

In the meantime, are there other worthy online word processing candidates to consider? Well, there are a number of contenders:

  • AjaxWrite just came out this week, and it sure looks slick -- a Word-like tool that comes up fast and easy. But I have had nothing but trouble trying to use it. It won't allow you to save documents to the site (like Writely), and although it claims to allow you to save documents in Word, RTF, Text, and PDF formats, I just couldn't get it to work.
  • gOFFICE -- a somewhat limited offering -- you can save documents online, but can only save them to PDF or HTML when you're ready to publish.
  • ThinkFree Office -- you can also create presentations and spreadsheets here in addition to documents -- it's a true attempt at Office replacement. Two drawbacks: 1) the site works with java, so the load time is a little longer than I'd like; and 2) so far it's only available in IE, not Firefox.
  • Writeboard -- part of the terrific Basecamp group of tools, this is a very basic offering. No Word features, and you have to remember the codes in order to properly format the document.
  • Zoho Writer -- probably my second choice after Writely. Zoho allows you to export documents to Word and PDF format. It doesn't have as many fonts as Writely (10 vs. 18), but I can live with that.

Of all these services, here's one reason why only Zoho Writer comes close to Writely: online collaboration. Not one of the other services allows you to share a document with others, which to me is one of the most important advantages of an online word processor. Writely is fantastic at doing this, and Zoho also allows you to share documents.

If you not already a Writely member, here's my advice while you wait for new signups to become available: check out the other services and get comfortable with the idea of using an online word processor -- I really love the convenience of being able to access a document I'm writing from any computer, at home or at work. Then use Zoho and experiment with sharing documents with others. Then sign up for Writely when it's back in business -- I think it's currently the best around.
Help Desk

Spring has sprung, and it's time to think about the dreaded spring cleaning. While you're at it, don't forget about giving your PC a good cleaning, too. Over the next few weeks I'll be covering a few ways you can keep your computer in tip-top shape.

1. Delete unwanted files -- over time, a lot of files pile up on your computer, and many of them you no longer need (or want). Here's how to get rid of them:

  • Empty your web browser's cache, cookies, history and other files -- if your browser's cache is too big, it definitely affects its performance. In Internet Explorer, select Tools, then Internet Options, then click Delete Files (then sit back -- this could take awhile). After that's done, click Delete Cookies. If you like, you can also click Clear History to get rid of your recent browsing activity. In Firefox, select Tools, then Options, then click on Privacy. You'll have a series of tabs (in the most recent version of Firefox) that you can select to delete your cached pages, cookies, history, and more.
  • Use a computer cleaner. I could go into great detail about finding unwanted files all over your computer and deleting them, but for me it's easier to use a utility that will look for the files without my help. The program I use is called Window Washer -- it's $30, but it will slice through your computer and eliminate all of those unwanted files -- it will also "bleach" your empty hard drive space to remove all traces of the files you are deleting.
Next week: defragging your hard drive.
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

Healthfinder
A service of the National Health Information Center, Healthfinder offers "hand-picked health information from A to Z -- prevention and wellness, diseases and conditions, and alternative medicine -- plus medical dictionaries, an encyclopedia, journals and more." I couldn't have said it better. You can use the search feature or browse the individual sections -- Health Library, Organizations, Online Checkups, Healthcare Information, and Health News, among others.

Justice Research and Statistics Association
The JRSA is a national nonprofit that conducts multistate research on criminal justice issues. The big resource here is ISAR, the Infobase of State Activities and Research -- it collects research conducted on issues like domestic violence and juvenile justice and put it into the database. There's also a page containing current and recently completed research projects, information on publications, and a page of Justice links.

State & Local Government on the Net
This is a directory of over 11,000 state, local, and federal government sites. It's really easy to use -- either browse by state, or choose a drop-down menu of states, topics, and/or local governments. Each page has tons of links in such categories as City Guides, Statewide Offices, Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch, Executive Branch, Boards and Commissions, and more. A good reference resource to keep on hand.

Tax and Accounting Sites Directory
Just in time for tax season, this handy directory will direct you to thousands of sites devoted to the subjects of tax and accounting. The directory is organized in an easy to use table, broken into topics of Tax, Accounting, and Payroll/HR. Lots of great sites to see here.

The Endocrine Society
Who knew there was a whole society devoted to your hormones? No, really, the Endocrine Society is, not surprisingly, the largest and most active professional organization of endocrinologists in the world. While most of this site is devoted to members of the Society, regular visitors will still find a lot of great information. There are related sites and patient resources for various sub-topics, like Adrenal/Hypertension, Pituitary, Thyroid, and much more. You can also get free access to four endocrine journals.

Finally, a few fun and useful sites to start off your week:

Here's another garden resource for those of you with spring fever: The USDA's Plants Database provides information on most any plant in the U.S.

In Sandman, you guide everyone to safety using the power of sand.

Well, that’s it for Issue #227 – 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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