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Welcome to Issue #244 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!

Farecast your way to a cheaper ticket
Check out Farecast -- just enter your departure and arrival cities, and Farecast will let you know whether you should buy now ('cause fares will rise), or wait a bit ('cause they're going to drop). There's also a map where you can see where you can go next week within your budget. Cool stuff.

Excel at spreadsheet formulas
Although I like to think I know Excel pretty well, I'm just no good at creating formulas. Microsoft says, "no problem!", and they've provided this handy page of commonly used formulas, with instructions on how to create them.

Fun with Topix.net
In my recent seminars, I've been touting Topix.net as the best current news search tool. Here's a way to make it even better: read Steve Rubel's Five Ways to Be a Better Info Junkie with Topix.net -- he offers five different ways to super-charge your Topix experience. I especially like #5 -- I am a big fan of sites that give you the ability to create your own customized keyword search, and Topix really delivers on this -- with an RSS feed to boot!

Google Reader Makeover
The Web was all abuzz this week over the release of the newly-redesigned Google Reader. Where the earlier iteration was a bit cumbersome for an RSS reader, the new version looks a lot more like....well, your email inbox -- right? It's definitely a more user-friendly interface, and it lets you do a few things with each post you read -- you can star interesting posts for viewing later, share with or email them to others, or tag them. In my opinion, this is still not as full-featured a program as the newsreader I use, FeedDemon, but it's a nice alternative if you prefer a Web-based alternative for reading your RSS feeds.

Blawgs of the Week
Here are some of the great law-related blogs featured on Inter Alia this past week:

Caught in the 'Net

Powercharging Your GMail

Do you have a Gmail account? I have one, but I have to admit I don't use it all that often. It's undeniable, however, that a bunch of interesting tools are emerging that provide added functionality to Gmail.

The first is for those of you who are into the Getting Things Done method of personal productivity -- it's called, appropriately enough, GTDGmail. It's a Firefox extension that, once you install it, will automatically integrates Getting Things Done labels into the Gmail system. The bad news: no add-in for Internet Explorer. The good news: for Firefox users, it's free.

The second link isn't really a tool, exactly, but it does try to solve a problem of which many Gmail users complain: its inability to synchronize with Outlook. Engtech had this same issue, so he came up with a series of interesting (but also complicated) steps that allow you to synchronize your online email with your computer-based Outlook folders. The article is titled The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to Synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, IPod, and Mobile Phone....

Over time, sections of your hard drive may lose their ability to store data. Before you lose the data connected with these hard drive sectors, make sure you run a disk diagnostic tool at least once a month so you can move your data out of harm's way if certain sectors are damaged. Here are couple of ways to do that:

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!

We have a federal government-themed issue today -- the following are either federal sites, or discuss some aspect of federal law.

TaxAlmanac
TaxAlmanac is an example of a Wiki, a type of web site that can be edited by the community at large. In this case, you have to be a registered member to edit the content. There's a lot to find here - the top of the main page has quite a large menu. There are separate links to topics like Income, Deductions, Depreciation, Forms and Publications, and more. There are links to a Tax Research Library, which includes access to the Tax Code, Regulations, topical articles, and other research resources. Also great are the discussion forums, which allow users to talk about tax issues and get questions answered.

National Ag Safety Database
This database was created to provide a national resource to educate workers and managers about occupations hazards associated with agriculture-related injuries, deaths, and illnesses. The home page itself is pretty simple; just choose among Topic, State/Agency, Videos, Spanish Materials and Miscellaneous to get what you need. The Topics page provides links to other sites, primarily from the Centers for Disease Control, on subjects ranging from Animals to Workers' Compensation. A basic site, with links to lots of helpful material.

National Security Agency
The next stop on our federal agency tour has been in the news a lot over the past year. The NSA site is one of the coolest federal sites I have seen, with lots of Flash. You'll learn a lot about the agency here, but you probably won't find much information of use to you -- it's all top secret. The Public Info area is closest you're going to come.

National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases
An arm of the National Institutes of Health, NIAMS supports research into the causes, treatment and prevention of arthritis, musculoskeletal and skin diseases, and disseminate information on research progress in these areas, among other things. The Health Information area provides comprehensive information on related health topics, patient research registries, information on patient studies, a place to order publications, and more. You'll also find links to information on research and training projects around the country.

Patent Commons
The Patent Commons project is devoted to providing a place where software developers and users can "innovate, collaborate, and access patent resources in an environment of enhanced safety, protected by pledges of support made by holders of software patents." So you'll probably only find this site useful if you're interested in working with software patents -- you can locate patents pledged in support of open source software, view the relevant standards and technology, and look at other solutions that help protect software users and developers.

Check out Wize, a site that offers "unbiased product ranking based on thousands of expert and user reviews." You'll currently find lots of products in categories like Technology, Home and Garden, Photo/Optics, and more.

Well, that’s it for Issue #244– 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.

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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.