INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
April 30, 2006
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #230 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

A Utility Smorgasbord
I am always trying out new utilities, and the ones I especially like I try to mention here. PC Magazine has rounded up a whole bunch of my favorites, and more, in their article Incredibly Useful Utilities. You're sure to find something you can use in this great collection of tools.

Outsourcing Links
This month's topic over at Law Practice Today is Outsourcing, and I contributed a Strongest Links column, featuring some of the outsourcing links available on the 'Net. As I indicated in the article, outsourcing is not treated in a very organized way on the Internet, and so good links were few and far between. Still, if you're interested in the subject of outsourcing and what it may mean to the practice of law, it's a good starting point.

Google Calendar Finally Live
After months of speculation and anticipation, Google finally unveiled its Google Calendar application last night. And it's pretty darned good, once I was able to log on -- it's apparently pretty popular right now. You can import your regular calendar, in either iCal or CSV formats (which means you can import your Outlook calendar if you want). Entering appointments is a breeze -- there's a detailed entry form, or you can click Quick Add and just type something like "Lunch with Beverly next Tuesday at noon." You can view the calendar in Day/Week/Month/4-Day/Agenda modes, and you can also keep multiple calendars, in case you want to keep different calendars for work, family, projects, etc. For a more detailed review, check out Google Calendar Makes Impressive Debut over at Search Engine Watch.

Talking about Tech
I had a great time being interviewed on Coast To Coast by J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi. I was on their latest show, along with David Snow, who is Law.com's Technology Editor. It was a lot of fun, talking about technology at TECHSHOW and in the legal community at large. Give it a listen.

Blawgs of the Month
Here's a listing of some of the best law-related weblogs I featured on Inter Alia in April:

  • Phillip Brooks' Patent Infringement Updates features the writings of -- you guessed it -- Phillip Brooks, an independent consultant who helps companies and patent litigators investigate their market for possible infringers.
  • A group of federal defenders of the Ninth Circuit court of appeals are providing case summaries and commentary at the Ninth Circuit Blog.
  • Kurt Leyendecker and Peter Lemire are two IP lawyers in Denver, and their Control Protect & Leverage blog features their intellectual musings spanning patent, trademark, copyright, business law, and whatever else strikes their fancy.
  • The Bankruptcy Litigation Blog is a great-looking blog published by the Coleman Law Firm of Chicago.
  • The Patent Prospector is an "open forum of patent information and opinion." It's also a group blog, authored by Peter Haas, David McFeeters, and Gary Odom.
  • Nexsen Pruett is one of the largest firms in the Southeastern United States, and two of their corporate lawyers, Phil Johnston and Scott Tobin, have their own blog. It's the Corporate Governance Leadership Blog, and the two attorneys are providing commentary on corporate governance there.

Caught in the 'Net

Introducing the Kennedy-Mighell Report
Well, we went and did it. With Dennis Kennedy, I finally -- gulp -- recorded my first podcast. The Kennedy-Mighell Report is a "Podcast on Legal Technology, with an Internet Focus." Our first episode is called ABA TECHSHOW Preview. Dennis and I discussed ABA TECHSHOW, some of the things you can expect to see if you're coming, and how to get the most out of your TECHSHOW experience. On a personal note: for a first effort, I think this podcast is okay. I never thought just talking into a microphone trying to sound conversational could be so hard! And we obviously need to add some music, to liven things up some. But Dennis did a great job mixing the tracks and removing almost all of my "Uhs," so it's much better than when we started out ;-) If you're a regular to podcasting, here's the RSS feed so you can receive our future endeavors. We are also registered with iTunes; just search there for "Kennedy-Mighell". Hope you enjoy it!

ABA TECHSHOW: Wrap-Up

Well, ABA TECHSHOW was a great success, and I had a lot of fun while I was in Chicago. Unfortunately, I was so busy working on the show, I didn't have time to blog about my experiences, or the things I learned. But that's okay, because plenty of other bloggers took care of that for me. So if you missed out on TECHSHOW, reading the following will almost make you feel like you were there -- or wish you were:

If this isn't enough to get you interested in attending TECHSHOW next year, we'll just have to work a bit harder at it. ABA TECHSHOW 2007 will take place March 22-24, 2007 at the Chicago Sheraton Hotel -- mark your calendars now.

Help Desk

Even though we're almost into May, we're still spring cleaning our computers. This week we'll tackle updating. With security threats popping up on a regular basis, you can't afford not to run Windows Update. Every couple of weeks Windows will release security patches, and you NEED to download these. To make it easier for you, why not enable Automatic Updates? All you need to do is click Start, then Control Panel, then Security Center, and then Automatic Updates. You've got four choices there -- I recommend the Automatic option, because it only installs the patches you need, and you don't need to worry about it. Click OK, and you're good to go.

Next week: Dusting.

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

Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
Here's another gem from the Department of Labor site. And it's very simple in what it offers: it's just employment and wage estimates for 1999-2004, broken down by occupational group. It's a good place to find the mean and median hourly wage estimates for nearly every job imaginable, both on the state and federal levels.

Arkansas State Police Crash Reports
If you need information on an auto accident that occurred in Arkansas, this is the place to go -- well, crashes from 1/2/2000 through 3/18/2006, anyway. You can download a PDF of an accident report for $12; a little pricy, but not too bad. Unfortunately, the site also says that "not all crash reports are available for online purchase."

CareScout ($$)
CareScout will help you find and compare nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home health and hospice agencies. However, the databases are not available for free anymore; you'll have to pay a hefty $499 service fee to access the information here. Corporate users like insurance, employee assistance programs, and large employers also have membership access.

National Institutes of Health
I usually don't mention to government sites in the same issue, but the NIH is a great site. In fact, a short review can't do it justice; you'll just have to explore the site on your own. In short, the NIH is essentially the gateway for all health-related information of the federal government. From the home page you can get to an A-Z index of health resources, which is really where you'll want to spend most of your time. You can also obtain information from RSS feeds, podcasts, and e-mail newsletters.

NursingNet
Interested in becoming a nurse? Even if you're not, you'll probably find some interesting information at this site full of nursing resources. Most of the links involve nursing school and careers in nursing. There's also an online nursing forum, as well as complete contact information for all state nursing boards.

Finally, some fun and useful sites to peruse:

Hotpads.com is a cool new site billed as the "place to find your place." The interface makes it really easy for you to find apartment and home listings, or to list your own.

Falling Sand is pretty meaningless, but surprisingly addictive.

Well, that’s it for Issue #230 – 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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