Internet Legal Research Weekly -- March 30, 2008

Welcome to Issue #293 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!

Blawgs of the Week
Here are two of the law-related weblogs featured on Inter Alia this past week:

Here's a tip I hope none of you ever have to use -- what to do when water or some other liquid gets spilled on your laptop keyboard? Usually, you're out of luck -- you're going to need to get that keyboard replaced, or maybe even the entire laptop. Before you panic and go order a new laptop, do this first:

Turn the laptop upside down immediately to keep the liquid from seeping down onto the internal circuitry. Keeping it upside down, turn off the power, unplug it, and take out all removable parts (battery, CD drive, modem cards, etc.). Lay it face down (gently!) with the lid open on a towel or some other absorbent cloth. Keep it there for at least 24 hours -- if you really soaked it, you might want to leave it alone for a couple of days. There's some dispute about whether you should use a hair dryer to dry out the keyboard -- some say it's a good idea, others say it could drive the moisture further into your computer.

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!

California State Library
State libraries are increasingly developing terrific online resources, and the California State Library site is no exception. Although of course you'll find more at the physical library itself, the online version provides a whole lotta stuff. You have access to all of the library's catalogs, so that you can find books, legal materials, documents, maps, videos, and more. There's a picture catalog featuring selected images from the library's collections, and a good set of online resources. You can also subscribe to one of 5 RSS feeds, to keep up with the latest developments.

Teacher Certification Requirements
This is one of those pages you keep in your Favorites for when you happen to need it -- if you're ever doing research on teacher certification, that is. Provided by the University of Kentucky College of Education, it's just a landing page of links to the education boards of all 50 states. A handy page to keep around.

AltLaw
AltLaw is billed as the "free legal search engine" -- as of today it has 716,134 cases in its database. You can search U.S. Supreme Court cases from 1759 to the present, and Circuit Court cases from around 1940 (most of them, anyway). Just perform a search, and you'll get a listing of cases that you can view for free. If you see a case cite in a page that is hyperlinked, that means it's also available in the database -- just click on it and you'll go to that case. As with many of these new free research tools, coverage is not complete -- but they're getting there.

American Stroke Association
A division of the American Heart Association, the ASA aims to reduce stroke and risk 25% by 2010. This site provides a ton of information on dealing with stroke, including some good advice in reducing your stroke risk. The Heart & Stroke Encyclopedia is a great resource, with links to data from ACE Inhibitors to Z-Trim. You can also subscribe to Stroke Connection Magazine for free.

Black Book Online
Looking for dirt on someone? Make sure the Black Book Online is one of the places you start. This site is really a collection of links, but extremely high-quality links, from what I can tell. Just click on one of the categories -- Bankruptcies, Criminal Records, Inmates, Maritime, Military, SSN Validator, and Voter Registrations, among others -- and you'll be taken to a page with links to databases and other sites specializing in that type of information. Some of these links take you to free sites, while you'll have to pay for others. But just having them all in one place is what makes the Black Book Online a valuable resource.

It's probably debatable whether TimeMachiner is useful -- but if you want the ability to email people in the future, including yourself, to send reminders for things you might forget, then it's definitely for you.

MicroLife is an addictive game, as you work to build a colony of little creatures and keep them alive against the catchers.

Well, that’s it for Issue #293 – 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.

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.

Archives: Miss an issue? You can read previous issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly in the Archives.

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