INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
January 14, 2007
Tom
Mighell
New Year's Eve Edition
Welcome to Issue #254 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
Stream Your Podcasts
Here's an interesting new search/podcast tool -- Noisely is a bit of both. Just plug in the words of something you want to listen to, and Noisely will immediately begin streaming podcasts to you on that subject. You can fast-forward or rewind the podcasts, or move on to the next one if you want. The search returns nine results -- can't figure out how to get more.Free Software.....Every Day
I've been a big fan of Giveaway of the Day for about a month now. It's a site that offers fully licensed software to you every day -- a different title -- for free. Software developers are giving away free copies of their software for one day only -- it's a win-win situation, because we get to know about new software, and the software companies get great exposure. I have already downloaded 5 or 6 programs that I have started to regularly use. This is a great place to learn about new software.Blawgs of the Week
Here are a few of the law-related weblogs I featured on Inter Alia the past two weeks:
- Larry Cata Backer is a law professor at Penn State University, and at his blog Law at the End of the Day he's commenting on current legal issues focusing on institutions, and "the ways in which (1) public law norms are critical for the development of the law of economic organizations; (2) the democratic principle finds expression in the public law of states and the private law of corporations; and (3) the ways in which public, private, economic, and religious institutions clash and cooperate."
- Here's an interesting site -- Bankruptcy Practice Pro is all about helping bankruptcy lawyers find the best way to manage and market their practices. The site was created by New York bankruptcy lawyer Jay Fleischman, and it's great for more than just bankruptcy lawyers -- all lawyers will find good tips here.
- The University of Illinois has four faculty members with their own weblogs, so they've aggregated those blogs at UIUC Law Blogs. A great way to acknowledge the blogging efforts of these professors.
- Barb Kallusky is a law librarian (I'm pretty sure, her blog doesn't say) at Hamline University School of Law, and she's providing reference and other useful stuff at Material Information at Hamline.
- E-Commerce Law is discussing news, trends, and legal issues affecting e-commerce businesses. It's brought to you by Jonathan Frieden, who works at Odin, Feldman and Pittleman, a Washington D.C. firm.
- The firm of Morris James states that "The Delaware courts continue to be ranked as the best in the nation." The firm's Delaware Business Litigation Report provides summaries of the recent decisions of those courts in business-related litigation.
Help Desk
By default, Windows XP thinks you don't need to see file name extensions or hidden files. File extensions are what come at the end of your file -- .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .mp3, .jpg, etc. But there are at least 2 reasons why you should configure your PC to see file name extensions: 1) it's just good information to have as you look through your files; and 2) virus and spyware writers try to trick us into clicking on a file called myphoto.jpg, where if we could see the file name extensions we'd notice the file was really named myphoto.jpg.exe -- a potentially dangerous file. Here's how to fix it:
Right click on the Start button and select Explore, to bring up the Windows Explorer. Click the Tools menu, then select Folder Options, then View. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types, and select Show hidden files and folders, then click OK.
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
Children and Adults with AD/HD
CHADD is a non-profit organization that provides education, advocacy, and support for individuals with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Much of the site is dedicated to the organization and how you can get involved. But there's also a lot of great information on understanding AD/HD, its myths and misunderstandings, and how to find support. The site also has an online communities page, where you can chat with others about issues relating to this condition.Contacting the Congress
If you're trying to track down the phone number, address, or e-mail of a Congressperson, you can always just go to the House or Senate websites and wade through the pages to find the information you need. Or you can just visit Contacting the Congress, which provides all of the contact information in a pretty compact format. You can search by simply clicking on any state in the U.S., or entering a street address, zip code, city or state. You'll get a listing of Senators and Representatives from that area, their contact information, and a brief bio -- including maps to their various offices.Death Indexes
Here's another directory, this one on the subject of death. Just click on a state, and you'll get a listing of links to death records, death certificate indexes, death notices and registers, obituaries, probate indexes, and cemetery and burial records. It's described as "a genealogy guide," but this site is great for legal research as well.National Center for Education Statistics
Part of the U.S. Department of Education, this organization is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. As with most federal government sites, the amount of information provided is amazing -- the Publications and Products search alone is worth a bookmark. You can also review surveys and programs, data tools, tables and figures, fast facts, and search schools, colleges, and libraries. You can also subscribe to Newsflash, an e-mail alert service, or two RSS feeds that will update you on new publications or additions to the site.Foreignword.com
Foreignword is dubbed as "The Language Site," and you'll find some interesting resources here if you are looking for translation information. Perhaps the most useful tools here are the Word and Text Translation utilities; they allow you to access more than 265 online dictionaries to translate words and text in between 60-73 languages. There's also a directory of translation professionals across the country, as well as information on technology tools for translation. The site is somewhat old, but most of the links appear to still work.
Finally, some fun and useful sites to start off the week:
Yes helps you find the top 20 songs that played on the nation's radio stations in the past week, and provides you with links to Amazon, iTunes, or to download a ringtone if you like the song.
Babble is a word game that can quickly become addictive -- you have 9 hours to list as many words as you can find among a random assortment of letters in a grid. The puzzle I played had 268 possible words -- whew!
Well, that’s it for Issue #255 – 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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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.