INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
November 9, 2008
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #317 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!

And away we go.....

News Update -- from the Inter Alia Weblog

Social Networking Tips for Companies
I gave an interview to CIO Magazine last month, and this past week they published some of my comments in "Managing the Social-Networking Data Sieve."

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

  • Mega-Firm Howrey has debuted the Global Climate Law Blog, which is written by a number of the firm's climate and environmental law practitioners. In addition to climate change litigation, they are talking about emissions, regulations, securities disclosure, and environmental torts -- good stuff!
  • The Green Building Law Update is published by Chris Cheatham, a construction attorney and LEED Accredited Professional. He's discussing legal issues surrounding the LEED Certification process, from construction and design of environmentally-friendly buildings to the laws and regulations that are developing around the subject.
  • Aaron Morris is a partner with the Orange County, California firm of Morris and Stone. He's providing information and insight for businesses at his self-titled Aaron Morris' Business Law Alert.
  • The last blog comes from my home state, down south in Houston. The Contingent Fee Business Litigation blog is published by the firm McClanahan Myers Espey, which (as you might expect) typically represents business clients in contingent fee arrangements. They're discussing topics like legal insourcing, corporate owned life insurance, patent litigation, and more.

Help Desk

Anybody out there using Windows Vista? Anybody? Actually, I use Vista on my home computer, and while I don't like it as much as Windows XP, I don't hate it, either. One thing I do hate about Vista, though, is the annoying "A Program Needs Your Permission to Continue" prompt that you get any time you try to install something, or make any changes to your computer. Fortunately, there's a way to turn it off. Here's how.

Click the Windows button, then click Control Panel. Select User Accounts and Family Safety. Under User Accounts, select Add or remove user accounts. At the bottom of that page, click the Go to the main User Accounts page link. The last option on the following page is Turn User Account Control on or off. Uncheck the box on the next page, and click OK. You'll have to restart your computer for the change to take effect.

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!

This Week at Fios

Most every week, my employer Fios offers great webcasts on e-discovery issues, all for free. Here's what's up this week:

On Tuesday, November 11, Fios Consultant Eric Sedwick will present "Records Management and Retention Assessment Policies." He'll discuss the general concept of records management, and will focus specifically on how records management policies are considerably different when they apply to electronic documents. To register, click here

Then on Thursday, November 13, we continue our series on electronic discovery issues for the financial services industry. This week, Brad Harris will speak on "Early Evidence Assessment and Internal Investigations in the Financial Services Market." Brad will talk about how the "early evidence assessment" in litigation will enable more effective and timely decisions when responding to critical discovery obligations stemming from the financial crisis. To register, click here.

Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet

ALS Association
ALS stands for Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis, and is more commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." It's a neurological disorder that ultimately prevents the brain from controlling muscle movement in the body. You'll find tons of interesting information on the disease here, with links for patients, family, and caregivers, as well as areas on the latest ALS research. There are also links to News, Resources, and Public Policy.

EMM News Explorer
There are a lot of news sites out there, and EMM News Explorer is a site based in Italy. The site creates automatically generated daily news summaries, which allows users to see the major news stories in various languages and compare them to how they have been reported in the media written in different languages. When you first visit the site you'll see a map of the world, with a "cluster" of recent news stories -- just click on one and you'll be taken to a page with links to different stories on the topic, from around the world. You can also view a timeline of the articles, so you can see when each was reported, as well as related clusters in other languages.

ePsych
I think I've mentioned ePsych before -- it's a great site from Mississippi State University. It's an interesting way to present information on psychology, and I'm not sure I can describe it well -- you'll just have to visit to find out. The main page features information on the Biological Mind, the Adaptive Mind, and Descriptive Mind. Many of the modules are presented through cartoons or animation, and are really fun to work through. Give it a try.

Family Court of Australia
No doubt family lawyers in Australia are already well aware of this site, but I like that this sort of information is available all in the same place. The site provides access to court lists for proceedings scheduled in each Family Court of Australia registry, as well as judgments and legislation affecting family law. Practitioners can also download forms and publications, and get information on fees, case management, and more.

Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
The FFIEC's goal is to promote "uniformity and consistency in the supervision of financial institutions." These days, this organization ought to be pretty busy. The site contains news, press releases, and other information about the Council, as well as resources on enforcement actions and orders against institutions or their affiliated parties.

Finally, some fun and useful sites to help start off your week:

Adobe Air is a great technology that allows developers to create useful applications for your computer. Here's a list of 100 Adobe Air applications for productivity.

What could be more fun than helping cute little deer cross a stream? With The Crossing, you can find out.

Well, that’s it for Issue #317 – 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

Now available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and 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.