INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
October 8, 2006
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #245 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 -- from the Inter Alia Weblog

Help Build a Better Google Images
Have you tried the Google Image Labeler? It's disguised as a game -- you're paired up with another person who's also online, and you both view the same picture. You provide as many labels as you can that describes that picture, and when your label matches that of your partner, you get to move on to the next picture, accumulating points for each match you make. What you're really doing is help Google improve the relevance of its image search results -- by using the power of the folks who are actually going to be use the search tool, Google's making it easier for those folks to ultimately use.

Blawgs of the Week
Here are a few of the law-related blogs I featured this week on Inter Alia:

  • Kenneth Brock of Macon Georgia brings you the Middle Georgia Bankruptcy blog. He's providing his thoughts on current bankruptcy issues nationally, and of course in the Middle District of Georgia.
  • Trademark Express is a company that provides consultations, research, and analysis of trademark issues. Trademark Express: A Daily Blog provides commentary on a variety of issues pertaining to trademarks, copyrights, patents, starting a business and other miscellaneous topics.
  • Yet another blog from the burgeoning Law Professor Blogs Network: it's the Products Liability Prof Blog, published by J. David Prince, Michael K. Stevenson, and Kenneth Ross, all of the William Mitchell College of Law.
  • And another: this one is the State & Local Government Law Prof Blog, published by Judith Wegner (University of North Carolina School of Law) and Daniel Mandelker (Washington University School of Law).

Help Desk

Isn't the AutoComplete feature in Outlook email both a blessing and a curse? It's a blessing, because it can help you remember email addresses you don't use very often. But it's also a curse if you don't pay attention to the addresses you are highlighting and using. Maybe it will help if you delete some (or all) of the AutoComplete entries. Two ways to do that:
  • The easy, surgical way -- if you just want to delete one email address, open up an email, start typing the name, press the down arrow to highlight the entry you want to delete, then press the Delete key.
  • The nuclear option -- maybe you want to get rid of all your AutoComplete entries and start over. Before you start, make sure you can view Hidden Files and Folders -- right-click the Start button and select Explore. In the Windows Explorer, select Tools, then Folder Options; on the View tab, make sure Show hidden files and folders is checked.
    • Now, using the Search feature from the Start menu, type in *.NK2 -- this will search for all Outlook nickname files. You'll see one file for each profile defined on the system. Just delete any of the files you like; the next time Outlook, it will create a new nickname file.

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

NurseWeek
NurseWeek probably isn't a great legal research site; but it has some good resources. It's a magazine for those in the nursing profession, and most of the information on the site is directed solely at nurses. However, you can read articles from NurseWeek Magazine, see information about available jobs, and more. There's also a handy page of Calculators with tools that calculate dosage, IV rates and infusion times.

PoliceReports.US ($$)
I love sites like this. Just click the map for the area where you're seeking a police report. Then you'll get a list of the towns or counties that currently offer reports through the site. You'll have to pay a fee for the report, which varies by the town or county. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of jurisdictions available right now -- hopefully that will change over time.

Electronic Evidence Case Digest
My good friends Sharon Nelson and John Simek at Sensei Enterprises are hosting, with the help of some legal assistants from American University's Washington College of Law, a great database of cases dealing with electronic evidence. If you know the case name or a keyword, just plug them in and search. Otherwise, you can search by up to three of several predetermined keywords. You'll get an digested report of the case. Electronic evidence is going to be increasingly important over the next few years, especially with the new amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure taking effect on December 1 -- so make sure you're up on the relevant case law.

Southern California Orthopedic Institute
I occasionally like to feature healthcare providers like this, because they offer some nice information on health issues to the public. This particular site has some useful information under the Anatomy and Orthopedic FAQs sections. While this can't be a substitute for the bigger, more comprehensive sites, it still offers some useful data.

Supreme Court Nominations
Well, there are no Supreme Court vacancies left to fill at present, so keep this site in your Bookmarks for the next time a justice is nominated. Sponsored by the Library of Congress, here you'll find an extensive listing of resources for the nominees: articles and books authored by or about them, congressional documents, select case law, memoranda, as well as links to other Web resources.

Finally, a few fun and useful sites to waste time on with today:

Wonder if you're paying too much rent where you live? Check out the Rentometer and see if you're right.

And if you're ever wondered what your name looks like in cuneiform (and who hasn't?), just enter your name at Write Like a Babylonian.

Well, that’s it for Issue #245 – 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

Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net, or visit Inter Alia and sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

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

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