INTERNET LEGAL
RESEARCH WEEKLY
June 17, 2007
Tom
Mighell
Welcome to Issue #270 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
Reducing that New Computer Bloat
Have you seen that Apple Commercial where the PC character comes onscreen, and he's HUGE, which he explains is due to all the programs that came with the new computer? I take issue with the idea that these programs are crowding and slowing down the new computer user's hard drive -- as big as new hard drives are these days, you can install dozens more programs and not slow down your system. But I do agree that computer manufacturers put too much unnecessary stuff on new PCs, usually as advertising to various vendors. Finally, there's a way to get rid of all these programs in one fell swoop -- it's The PC Decrapifier. It scans your system, then looks for any software it knows how to remove -- usually installation files for Internet services, banks, and search services, among other things. Then it gets rid of them, all at once. It's free for personal use, although the creators would appreciate a donation if you like the product.Everything you want to know about your PC
That's the tagline for SIW, which stands for System Information for Windows. It's a nifty free tool that (nearly) instantly tells you what's going on with your computer -- installed programs, running processes, hardware system information, devices, network information, and a whole lot more. It even tells you the serial numbers for most of your software applications, in case you don't know where to find them. And you can never argue with free.Blawgs of the Week
Actually, these are some of the best law-related weblogs I have featured on Inter Alia over the past *3* weeks:
- Effective, Ethical Marketing for Attorneys is the blog of Ben W. Glass, a PI attorney with an interest in marketing. He's discussing such topics as ethics and regulation, looking outside the box, and general marketing advice.
- Here's a California blog for you: In the (Red): The Business Bankruptcy Blog is published by Robert L. Eisenbach III of the California firm Cooley Godward Kronish. As you might expect, he's discussing business bankruptcy issues and the financially troubled company, among other things.
- Anne Reed is a trial lawyer and jury consultant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She's putting her knowledge about juries to work with Deliberations, where she's talking about law, news, and thoughts about juries and jury trials.
- Carlton Fields' Class Action Blog is brought to you by a firm with offices throughout Florida. Their goal is to provide readers with information on what's happening with class action litigation in the Southeast, or the burgeoning area of class action arbitration, as well as the latest developments in caselaw from the Eleventh Circuit.
- The UK firm Freeth Cartwright, LLP is blogging about intellectual property at IMPACT. Their mission is simple: to set out their thoughts on all things to do with intellectual property and IT law, and to give tips and thoughts for the news and stories they discuss.
- Donna Byrne is a professor of law at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. She's also behind the Food Law Prof Blog, a part of the Law Professor Blogs Network. She's discussing legal issues related to food production, marketing, and consumption.
- Jami Floyd hosts the show "Best Defense" on Court TV, and she's writing a corresponding blog -- it's also called Best Defense. She's discussing current legal topics in the news, among other things.
- Bill Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel at Google and author of The Patry Copyright Blog, is blogging his publishing efforts at the Patry Treatise Blog . He has published a 7-volume treatise, "Patry on Copyright," and he intends the blog as a forum for people to post comments on the publication.
- In addition to being a Partner at Thompson, Rosenthal & Watts in Chicago, Bryan Sims is also The Connected Lawyer -- he's discussing practicing law in an increasingly mobile world. You'll see posts on technology topics of interest to lawyers -- e-mail, gadgets, hardware, the Internet, software, Treos, and more.
- Jan Crawford Greenburg is a legal news correspondent for ABC News, covering the Supreme Court and providing other legal analysis. At Legalities, a blog hosted by ABC itself, she's discussing "life and law," and other topics.
- Justia Law Review is another offering from Tim Stanley and the folks at Justia -- this particular weblog focuses on legal research, news, and anything they want to comment on.
Help Desk
FINALLY, our last installment on tips for dealing with a slow-moving computer. This week, we'll talk about background applications that eat up your PC's resources.
Look at your system tray -- it's the area on your desktop where your clock resides. It's also the place where you can see the icons for most of the programs running on your computers. It's simple math: the more icons you see, the more likely your computer is to run slowly. Some of these programs really chew up processor and disk time, and noticeably slow down a system. One way to find out which programs start up automatically, go to Start, then All Programs, then the Startup folder -- if an icon is here, it means that program starts automatically when your computer starts. Fortunately, this is easy to fix -- just identify any of the icons that you don't need to start with, delete those icons (you're not deleting the program, just a pointer to it), and the programs won't start next time you boot up your PC.
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
American Society of Hypertension
ASH is the largest organization dedicated exclusively to hypertension and related cardiovascular disease. Like most membership association sites, much of the content here is for members only. But you'll still find some good resources -- free access (after you register) to the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension, The Journal of Clinical Hypertension, Current Concepts in Clinical Hypertension, and more. There's also a directory of specialists in clinical hypertension that you can search.Canadian International Trade Tribunal
Here's a site for my Canadian subscribers, and others interested in Canadian trade issues. The Tribunal is a quasi-judicial institution that conducts inquiries into matters dealing with international trade. You can review the hearing schedules and pending decisions, as well as decisions and other documents in the areas of Dumping and Subsidizing, Procurement, Safeguarding, Textiles, and other areas. You'll find a number of forms and other publications available on the site, and you can sign up to receive e-mail updates whenever new documents are added.Connecticut Law about Criminal Records
Need to search criminal records in Connecticut? This page from the Connecticut Judicial Branch provides helpful links to do just that -- research guides, general criminal statutes, and Department of Public Safety request forms, to name just a few.U.S. Embassy, Costa Rica
This page is part of the U.S. Embassy system of sites on various countries around the world, in this case devoted to information on Costa Rica. You can access U.S. government information about Costa Rica as well as data from other sources. The links provided here are probably intended primarily for travelers, but researchers can definitely make use of the stuff you'll find here.Wirtz Labor Library
Speaking of government sites, the Department of Labor provides, in my opinion, some of the best content of all the federal government pages. The online version of the Wirtz Labor Library doesn't provide a ton of information, but it gives you access to its contents. You can search the online catalog for holdings added beginning in 1975. Links to bibliographies and special collections on labor law are also available.
Finally, some fun and useful sites to start off the week:
Shuffle is a totally addicting game that has you trying to knock yellow balls off a playing board.
Does your backyard fence keep your dog from being able to see what's going on outside your yard? Try PetPeek -- for only $29.95, you can install a bubble-shaped viewing dome in your fence.
Well, that’s it for Issue #270 – 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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