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From Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia
Post Frequency: 3.5/day Last Entry: November 05, 2009 at 09:52:50 Recent Entries: 426
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Apple Store on Walnut Street
Posted on November 04, 2009Looks like it will be at 1607 Walnut. No official date for the opening. But it looks like staff will be using iPod Touches as checkout devices. Regarding the following quote: “Until now, the Apple Stores have used Windows CE-based handheld computers to check out your purchases...
Eight Months Later, the Guy in the Mask is Still Stumbling Around Scaring People
Posted on November 03, 2009Back in February I blogged about how Internet Explorer 6 is the Jason Voorhees of browsers — never dying, still causing havoc. At the time, I said IE6’s market share was between 10-20%. Eight months later, CNET reports that “IE 6 still is the dominant version of Microsoft’s browser, with 23...
Ever Been to Argleton? It’s Just a Couple of Miles Away from Erewhon.
Posted on November 03, 2009Last Saturday the Daily Telegraph ran a story titled “Mystery of Argleton, the ‘Google’ town that only exists online“. Google Maps has plunked a town named Argleton in the middle of “acres of green, empty fields”. A local academic went to check Argleton out and found it to be, well … romantic: “I started to weave this [...
What Do Home Improvement Projects and Company Acquisitions Have in Common?
Posted on November 02, 2009It always costs more than you think it will. (Takes longer, too.) Anyway, Amazon wound up paying $1.2 billion for Zappos, about $270 million more than the price quoted back in July.
Driving After Imbibing: Evaluating Cases in Pennsylvania, 2009
Posted on November 02, 2009By William T.C. Tully, Esq.Driving After Imbibing: Evaluating Cases in Pennsylvania offers understanding and insight into Pennsylvania DAI law and guides the practitioner in evaluating and preparing a driving after imbibing case. The book also includes information on the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program and related guidelines and forms from all available Pennsylvania counties...
PubMed Redesign
Posted on October 30, 2009The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has redesigned the interface to PubMed. It takes a little bit of investigating to figure out where everything is now but I think I have pretty much figured it out. You need to choose Advanced Search to access the Limits feature...
Perspicacious Persimmon
Posted on October 29, 2009Amazon has introduced PayPhrase, a way to create an easy-to-remember passphrase, coupled with a PIN, for express checkout without logging in. Works with partner sites such as Patagonia, too. Disingenuously Diaphanous? Nah … I’ll never remember how to spell it...
Google Music Search Now Live (I Guess)
Posted on October 29, 2009The Google music search service I blogged about last week is now live. Except I’m not seeing it. I performed a controlled, highly-scientific search for “Ants Marching” and “Pride in the Name of Love” and got nada. Google said “We’ll be rolling this feature out gradually to users across the U...
Piercing the Corporate Veil
Posted on July 06, 2009By Stephen B. PresserThis treatise helps you interpret the “piercing the veil” doctrine in any state jurisdiction or federal court. It examines differences among piercing doctrines in various state and federal courts and analyzes each state's leading case law...
Google “Fairness Hearing” Set for October 7
Posted on July 06, 2009U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin has set October 7 as the date for the “fairness hearing” for the Authors Guild-Google Books settlement. If the Justice Department wants to present its views in writing — and, according to the DoJ, “the issues raised by the proposed settlement warrant further inquiry” — they have until September [...
What Happens on Facebook Stays on Facebook (For a Lot Longer Than You Want)
Posted on July 06, 2009Ars Technica (link via Lifehacker) reports that some social networking sites are better than others when it comes to removing your uploaded images. In Late May Ars staff deleted images from Flickr, Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Links to the deleted images were broken immediately for Flickr and Twitter...
Lori Drew Walks
Posted on July 06, 2009Last December I posted about my ambivalence with the verdict in the Lori Drew cyberbullying case. On one hand, I think she did something pretty jerky. On the other, trying to equate her violation of MySpace’s Terms of Service with computer hacking is really scary...
At Least They Have Bing!
Posted on July 06, 2009TechCrunch reports that from March-June 2009, Internet Explorer’s U.S. market share dropped 11.4% to 54.4%. Firefox has 27.6%. Looking at the data from StatCounter this morning, I see the following breakdown (which differs from that reported in the article): Browser U...
Understanding Medical Words
Posted on July 01, 2009Although it may look a little juvenile, I think this is a useful tutorial from the National Library of Medicine which helps you understand medical terminology. It shows how to put words together and how to break them apart into prefixes, suffixes, and word roots...
Facebook’s Gonna Simplify the Privacy Process
Posted on July 01, 2009WSJ’s Digist blog reports that Facebook plans to streamline and simplify the privacy options on the site. About time, too — it was a pain to wade through all those settings just to make sure I locked down all the things I needed to. And I always had this nagging feeling that I missed something...
Is Anyone Else Having This Problem With Firefox Tabs?
Posted on July 01, 2009In the new version 3.5, one of my tabs will pop into its own new window. Randomly. Or so it seems — I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why. It’s really annoying. Sheesh.
Firefox is Getting a Bit Plump
Posted on June 30, 2009When downloading Firefox 3.5 (twice) this morning, I noticed that it’s 10.2 MB, about 33% larger than 3.0.11. I like the New Tab button. I haven’t, as yet, tested the Private Browsing feature. Nor have I tried to see how much speedier this version is...
China Cuts PC Makers Some Slack
Posted on June 30, 2009China’s Xinhua News Agency reports that PC makers will not be required to install the “Green Dam-Youth Escort” filtering software on new PCs as of July 1. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that the “massive installation demanded extra time”...
The Pirate Bay Goes Legit
Posted on June 30, 2009The Pirate Bay, the notorious file-sharing site, has been acquired by Swedish (woohoo, Sweden again!) software maker Global Gaming Factory X. TPB will clean up its act, come August 2009. According to the press release, “GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners...
I Wish It Was Like This At My House
Posted on June 30, 2009We have 4 different mobile phones at my house. (What better way to express our individuality!) This leads to a rat’s nest of incompatible charger cables by the kitchen electrical outlet. But if we lived in Europe — and I’m voting for Sweden, woohoo! — this vexing problem would be a thing of the past...
“Orderly Shutdown” for Clear
Posted on June 30, 2009Last week I posted about how Clear, the airport VIP service, had ceased operations. Here’s how they are dealing with your personal data and their computer storage so that there aren’t any security oopsies. Your personal data - Plan A is to sell it, if they can...
American Indian Law in a Nutshell, 5th
Posted on June 29, 2009By William C. Canby, Jr.The book covers the essentials of American Indian law with emphasis on the governmental policies underlying it. It includes chapters on Indian gaming and Alaska native law. The guide does not cover specialized problems of Oklahoma and New York Indians, urban Indians, or native Hawaiians...
Silence is Golden
Posted on June 29, 2009Back in 1962, President Kennedy asked members of the press to sit on the story about the discovery of Russian missiles in Cuba. This gave Kennedy about a week to try and defuse the crisis privately with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, without the pressures of intense media scrutiny and public opinion...
Firefox 3.5 Available Tomorrow
Posted on June 29, 2009Firefox 3.5 will be released tomorrow, June 30, reports PC Magazine. According to Mike Beltzner, Director of Firefox at Mozilla Corporation, “the cumulative number of direct from our website Firefox downloads should surpass 1B [that's a billion, folks] shortly after we ship Firefox 3...
The Barcode Turns 35 today
Posted on June 26, 2009And what was the first item scanned using the device that changed retailing forever? A 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gum.
Flash Coming for Smartphones (Except the iPhone)
Posted on June 23, 2009Adobe has announced that mobile Flash will be coming in October for Android, Symbian, Palm Web OS, and Windows Mobile. Flash on the iPhone? Don’t hold your breath. My “clunky” T-Mobile G1 is lookin’ mighty good right now.
Gimme My Iris Scan Back. And My Fingerprints Too.
Posted on June 23, 2009Clear, the screening service that would zip you through the airport check-in process, folded yesterday. According to the Website, “Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations...
Misrepresentation in the Life, Health, and Disability Insurance Application Process: A National Survey
Posted on June 22, 2009By Joseph M. Hamilton, EditorThe book is organized by jurisdiction and addresses how state common law and statutes address misrepresentations in the life, health, and disability insurance application context. In addition, there is a chapter for each federal circuit that provides an overview of misrepresentations in the context of an employee welfare benefit plan [...
Steve Goes to the Head of the Line [UPDATED]
Posted on June 22, 2009On Saturday the WSJ reported (sub required) that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant back in April in Tennessee to treat the medical condition that left him emaciated. Why not California? “Having the procedure done in Tennessee makes sense because its list of patients waiting for transplants is shorter than in many other states...
Be Careful What You Ask For
Posted on June 19, 2009After Jammie Thomas was dinged for $200,000 in her first trial for illegally sharing 24 songs, she got her wish: a retrial. Won’t get dinged again, right? (Get it? It’s The Who. Won’t Get Fooled Again. Get it?) Right. This time she got clobbered, to the tune of (pun intended) $2 million...
Finally Somebody Explains It!
Posted on June 18, 2009I was watching the last few minutes of the PBS NewsHour last night. Margaret Warner was interviewing Reza Aslan, author and assistant professor at UCal Riverside and Robert Faris of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society about the role Twitter is playing in disseminating info on the chaos in Iran...
This Video Was Very Painful To Watch
Posted on June 17, 2009I’m so close to the forest that I can’t see the trees anymore. I can discuss market share among the top 5 browsers, highlight their strengths and weaknesses, and tell you which one I’d use under certain circumstances. But I’m atypical...
Will Facebook Kill Twitter?
Posted on June 17, 2009Facebook is currently testing a real-time search tool with “a small group — just a fraction of a percent of the people on Facebook”. Will it spell the end for Twitter? I’m thinking not. (Just like Twitter isn’t a Google-killer...
iPhone OS 3.0 Upgrade Available Today [UPDATED]
Posted on June 17, 2009For those of you unfortunate non-Android users, today’s the day you get cut-n-paste, landscape soft keyboard, MMS messages, and more. UPDATE (because I’m ADD today) - Should have mentioned that it’ll be available sometine after 12:00 noon today.
My Kid Can Beat Your Kid
Posted on June 17, 2009If I had only known about this contest beforehand, I’d have entered my son. Fifty thousand bucks for texting? There’s your college tuition right there, Gil.
MedlinePlus Search Clouds
Posted on June 16, 2009Recently MedlinePlus introduced a nifty feature called search clouds. These “clouds” are arranged alphabetically and display the top 100 searches run using the MedlinePlus search box, with the size of the cloud representing the number of times that term was searched...
T-Mobile Will Introduce the Second Android Phone
Posted on June 16, 2009The WSJ’s Digits blog is reporting that T-Mobile will introduce another U.S. Android-based phone shortly, called the myTouch 3D. Digits says “the myTouch 3D is much thinner than the G1, which has a clunky swivel-out keyboard.” Clunky? I beg to differ...
This Is Cool. I Just Don’t Know What To Do With It Yet.
Posted on June 16, 2009Opera, the browser people, have introduced a service that turns your PC or laptop into a Web server so that you can share your files and images with other people, stream your MP3 files, host a Website, and more, without uploading anything to the Web. It’s called Opera Unite...
2 Social Networks Going In Opposite Directions
Posted on June 16, 2009Facebook has new digs, hot usernames, and is now the largest social network in the U.S. MySpace? They’re cutting 30% of their staff. The NY Times says “its brand is becoming synonymous with one of those perpetually declining Internet properties like AOL...
Microsoft Plays Whac-A-Fraudster
Posted on June 16, 2009Yesterday Microsoft filed suit in U.S. District Court in Seattle against 3 members of a Vancouver BC family, accusing them of “perpetrating a massive ‘click fraud’ scheme on the online advertising network operated by Microsoft”...
The Privilege of Silence: Fifth Amendment Protections Against Self-Incrimination
Posted on June 15, 2009By Steven M. SalkyThis book explains the contours of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in practice, providing a guide for both the civil litigator who may encounter it infrequently, as well as the criminal lawyer who seeks to advance his or her client’s interests through the use of the Fifth Amendment...
This Weekend Twitter Earned Some of its Hype
Posted on June 15, 2009The ReadWriteWeb, NY TImes, and WSJ Digits blog all note how CNN failed to adequately cover the protests in Iran this past weekend following the disputed presidential election. Twitterers created a new hashtag, #cnnfail, which trended on Saturday and Sunday (but isn’t as of now)...
Now We’ve Got 2 Decision Engines, Plus a Discovery Engine, and a Computational Knowledge Engine
Posted on June 15, 2009Hunch, a new Decision Engine, has launched. (Coverage here, here, and here.) How’s it work? Here’s what the site’s “About” page says: “In 10 questions or less, Hunch will offer you a great solution to your problem, concern or dilemma, on hundreds of topics...
You Win Some, You Lose Some
Posted on June 15, 2009As of 12:15 am Saturday morning, half a million rabid Facebookers had registered their usernames. Dangian wasn’t a hot property, so I was able to snag it about 10 hours later. Flush with success, I decided it was time to install my DTV converter box...
I Guess Wolfram Got Google’s Attention
Posted on June 10, 2009GoogleBlogoscoped has a post today about a new service from Google Labs: Fusion Tables, which allows you to upload spreadsheets, visualize the data on maps, timelines and charts, and share the data with others. Philipp Lenssen says, “Somewhat confusingly, this product seems like a set of features that already is, or seemingly could become, integrated in [...
All in Favor, Say “Arrrr”
Posted on June 10, 2009Eugene, our long-suffering IT guy, passed this one on to me. Sweden’s Pirate Party, which wants to reform copyright and strengthen privacy laws (among other things), has won a seat in the European Parliament. (The party won 7.1% of the vote in Sweden, which is significant, considering the PP is only about 3 years old...
I’ll No Longer Be Just a Number on Facebook Come Saturday Morning
Posted on June 10, 2009Right now on Facebook, I’m simply a number: 570062098. But come 12:01 am on Saturday, I can be any name I want. HunkaHunkaBurningLove? Nah. TwinkleToes? Heck no. Dangian, like I am on LinkedIn? Now you’re talking. We’ll see if it’s available …
Wolfram|Alpha Now Knows About The Love Apple
Posted on June 09, 2009Wolfram|Alpha has announced that they’ve “just made live the first broad updates to the core code and data of Wolfram|Alpha.” They’ve provided a list of more than 20 additions and changes to their data set, including “Improved linguistic handling for many foods (e...
Say That To My Face
Posted on June 09, 2009A few months ago I blogged about the 10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse. Today it’s the Top 10 Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument. As with my previous post, I must confess that I’ve actually discussed numbers 2 and 9 today at work with colleagues...
Safari 4 Is Out Of Beta
Posted on June 09, 2009I’ve upgraded on both my Mac and office Windows-based laptop. I like it, but it’s going to remain my #3 browser after Firefox and Chrome. Link via Lifehacker.
If People Would Just Stop Looking for Freebies, the Web Would be a Safer Place
Posted on June 09, 2009McAfee has just released a report on The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms. It all boils down to this: people who search for freebies — MP3s, screensavers, ringtones, games, work from home for free, whatever — are probably 20 to 30 times more likely to be exposed to pages containing malware (spyware, viruses, and Trojan [...
Electronic Evidence and Discovery: What Every Lawyer Should Know Now, 2nd Edition
Posted on June 08, 2009By Michele C.S. Lange, Kristin M. NimsgerThe advancement of technology in the past decade has catapulted the prominence of electronic evidence. It is not only making discovery faster, easier and less expensive for practitioners and their end-clients, but it is opening the doors of possibility toward a path of substantially reducing the total cost [...
iPhone 3GS Due on June 19. I Won’t Jump On That.
Posted on June 08, 2009Another big thing from Apple’s WWDC 2009 is the next-gen iPhone. It’ll be faster, with better battery life, a zoom camera (plus video), and voice control. Two colors: white or black. Two sizes: 16GB ($199) or 32GB ($299). I’ll pass — I’m still happy with my G1, especially now that it has the “cupcake” software upgrade.
Snow Leopard for $29? I’ll Jump On That.
Posted on June 08, 2009Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) will ship in 3 months. It’ll be faster and smaller (by 6GB). Price: $29. For twenty bucks more, I can get the family pack and upgrade my daughter’s Mac Book. Honey, don’t worry, I swear you won’t even notice that I upgraded the OS...
Twitter Proves The 80/20 Rule
Posted on June 08, 2009According to TechCrunch, there seems to be a lot more listening than talking going on with Twitter: Twitter accounts with less than 10 followers: 80.3% Accounts with 10+ followers: 19.7% Twitter accounts with less than 10 Tweets: 78.1% Accounts with 10+ Tweets: 21...
China Outsources the Whole Justice Potter Stewart “I Know It When I See It” Pornography Thing
Posted on June 08, 2009The Chinese government has announced that all new PCs sold in China must have a porn filter installed on them. They’ve given the PC manufacturers all of 2 1/2 weeks to comply — the law takes effect July 1. The software, called “Green Dam-Youth Escort” regularly checks a list of banned sites so that it can [...
The Short Happy Life of Bing
Posted on June 08, 2009TechCrunch tells us that Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, shot up to #2 behind Google (and ahead of Yahoo) for exactly one day, June 4. Then it was back to business-as-usual: Microsoft was #3 and trying to buy #2.
Steve Jobs Is On The Mend
Posted on June 05, 2009Steve Jobs was in a bad way when he announced a six-month leave of absence back in January. The Wall Street Journal quotes an anonymous source in an article today: “He was one real sick guy. Fundamentally he was starving to death over a nine-month period...
Ted Kennedy Won the Stanley Cup in 1966
Posted on June 05, 2009Google Squared tells me so (see number 24 on the list.) Apparently an antique corset also won the Cup in 1896. As I said yesterday, Squared needs some work. But, hey, Wolfram | Alpha’s not perfect, either.
Once Again, the Lawsuit Proves its Worth as an Attention-Getter
Posted on June 05, 2009Someone created a fake Twitter account for St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa. The account’s Tweets were offensive, referring to the deaths of pitchers Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock. It was immature, obviously the work of a young kid...
Google Squared Needs a Bit More Time in the Easy Bake Oven
Posted on June 04, 2009Yesterday Google announced a new product out of Google Labs: Google Squared. (Three “Googles” in that last sentence — top that!) What does G Squared do? “Google Squared is an experimental search tool that collects facts from the web and presents them in an organized collection, similar to a spreadsheet...
Stuff Only An Operating System Geek Could Love
Posted on June 03, 2009Item 1: Acer plans to sell an Android-based netbook this year. For an idea of what a phone-based OS will look like on a netbook, here’s a clip of an ASUS Eee PC running Android. Item 2: Windows 7 will ship on October 22 in 5 different versions: Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate...
“Closing Bell” For Business Method Patents?
Posted on June 03, 2009The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear In Re Bilski, the poster child for business method patents. You may recall that back in October 2008 the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision of the USPTO Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences rejecting the claims of this particular business method patent application dealing with hedging risk [...
Stop Grousing About “The Media”. It Beats The Alternative.
Posted on June 03, 2009Tomorrow’s the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising. Right now Chinese Web surfers can’t access Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and many more social networking sites. (Plus Microsoft’s Hotmail and Bing search engine. Go figure...
Chow's The Legal System of the People's Republic of China in a Nutshell, 2d
Posted on June 01, 2009By Daniel C.K. ChowThis book begins with a brief overview of the important events of the 20th century that have shaped modern China. It examines all major legal institutions in China, including the lawmaking organs, courts, police, and the legal profession...
ONC to Develop Online PHR Model
Posted on June 01, 2009The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) plans to develop an online personal health record (PHR) model to help the general public understand PHRs. A recent notice in the Federal Register announced the plan to create this model which will “be developed to allow presentation of important PHR facts and policies to consumers, [...
Again with the Scooping
Posted on May 29, 2009Last month I had an idea for a post, came into the office, and found that TechCrunch beat me to it. Today the same thing happened. (I guess I’ll have to start working 16 hour days, 7 days a week, like Michael Arrington does.) I was mulling over yesterday’s product announcements by Microsoft and Google in [...
Another Product Announcement: Google Wave
Posted on May 28, 2009While we’re on the topic of product announcements, Google’s announced Wave, which is all about rich, multi-threaded, real-time communication. It is, according to its developers, the answer to the question “What would email look like if we set out to invent it today?” I don’t have access to Wave right now...
Microsoft “Unveils” Bing. It Looks Like a Polar Bear in a Snowstorm to Me. [UPDATED]
Posted on May 28, 2009Today Microsoft issued a press release “unveiling” its new search engine, Bing. When I clicked on the link in the PR page, I saw a nice blank page. Sort of like a field, after a snowstorm, before anybody walks through it. I’ve noted previously that Microsoft just doesn’t get the concept of branding...
AOL’s Lost Decade to End Soon
Posted on May 28, 2009Time Warner’s board has stated the obvious — they’ve “enthusiastically endorsed” spinning off AOL — the poster child for the dot-com bubble — as a separate company by the end of this year. As part of the deal, TW will have to buy back Google’s 5% stake in the company...
Facebook Says Spasibo for the 200 Million Bucks
Posted on May 26, 2009Facebook has announced that they are taking a $200 million investment (for a 1.96% ownership stake) from Digital Sky Technologies, an investment group based in London and Russia. DST is getting preferred stock in the deal, but no seat on the FB board...
Nolo's Quick LLC.: All You Need to Know About Limited Liability Companies
Posted on May 25, 2009By Anthony MancusoIf you run your own business, you’ve probably heard about limited liability companies. Business owners who operate LLCs aren’t personally liable for business debts, so their personal assets are never at risk. But is an LLC right for you? Practical, concise and easy to read, the 5th edition of Nolo’s Quick LLC [...
Another Oddball Wolfram Answer
Posted on May 22, 2009I’ve noted previously how the answers can morph in Wolfram | Alpha. Here’s another example: a search for gdp tells me that the U.S.’s is $13.78 trillion. (Ditto for gdp U.S.) However, a search for gdp U.S. by state gives me an answer of $13...
Pop Quiz: Which Horse Came in Second on Saturday in the Preakness?
Posted on May 20, 2009Mine That Bird. Very good. And third? Do you need to take a few minutes to Google it? (I did.) Musket Man. Unless you bet your house on them, you don’t care about second and third, do you? Nah. Same is true with search engines. Nobody’s talking about Yahoo and Microsoft right now — we’re focused on Twitter’s [...
Wifi on AirTran: There’s Nothing Stopping You (Except Maybe the Price)
Posted on May 19, 2009The NY Times is reporting today about how AirTran will install Aircell's Gogo Inflight wifi service on its entire fleet of Boeing 717s and 737s by mid-summer. (Other airlines are adding in-flight wifi as well.) The article points out 3 problems with in-flight wifi: Price — on AirTran it ranges from $7...
My First Week With a Netbook
Posted on May 19, 2009I’ve been interested in netbooks since last autumn. I didn’t buy one at the time because I wound up getting my mitts on a T-Mobile G1 smartphone. Last week I pulled the trigger — I got the Acer Aspire One. For me, it was an impulse purchase...
First-Time Landlord: Renting out a Single-Family Home
Posted on May 18, 2009By Janet Portman, Marcia Stewart, Michael MolinskiThe declining U.S. economy has forced many homeowners to make tough decisions about their property. If you’re one of the millions of Americans affected by the credit crisis, struggling to make your mortgage payments, and are considering renting out your home to make ends meet, you’ll need to [...
I Just Found My New Favorite Business Search Tool
Posted on May 18, 2009A lot of folks are writing reviews of Wolfram Alpha, now that it’s finally launched. Some are good, some are not. Some have even found some interesting Easter eggs tucked away in the system. Now that I’ve finally had a few minutes to poke around WA, I think I’ve found my new favorite business search tool...
New Personal Record
Posted on May 14, 2009My son just shattered his personal best for text messages. Last month he sent/received 5,682 texts — a whopping 681 more than the previous record. (That’s 189 messages per day.) Way to go, Gil! Just curious … how are your grades at SHS?
Google Search Options Now Live
Posted on May 14, 2009Back in March I created a stunning video demonstrating one of the new options that Google was testing on the results page. They’re now live. Here’s a few of them: The timeline for the query swine flu. (Remember when it was a big thing in the mid-seventies? I sure do...
Looks Like It’s Retrial Time For Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas
Posted on May 14, 2009There was no settlement Tuesday in Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas, what Wired calls “the nation’s only file sharing case to have gone before a jury.” This sets the stage for a retrial on June 15. You may remember that the judge threw out the original verdict because he felt he erred in his instructions to [...
This is Why I’d Never Want to Run a Social Networking Site
Posted on May 14, 2009On Tuesday Twitter made what they called a “small settings update” so that you would no longer see @replies to people you don’t follow. They called them “one-sided fragments” and “undesirable”. For 99.9% of the humans on the planet, this was fine...
The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: 2009 CD-ROM Supplement
Posted on May 11, 2009By Dennis Kennedy, Tom MighellThe Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: 2009 CD-ROM Supplement (in Acrobat PDF Format) contains the most recent updates and latest developments in collaboration tools. Expanding on the content of The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, this first-of-its-kind publication for the legal [...
Windows 7 To Ship This Year?
Posted on May 11, 2009Looks like Windows 7 might actually get out the door this year, according to the Windows 7 Team Blog: “If the telemetry we receive from the Windows 7 RC meets our expectations in terms of quality, then we expect to hit RTM [release to manufacturing] in 3 months or so … If this happens, it looks [...
More Stuff About Wolfram Alpha
Posted on May 11, 2009About 10 days ago I posted about Wolfram Alpha, the best dang search engine I know nothing about. I’m still in the dark — its official launch is a week from today — but there have been more articles about it in the meantime: Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land calls Wolfram Alpha “impressive” and a [...
BlackBerry CEO Wants to Move an NHL Team to Canada. After April’s Debacle, May I Suggest the Flyers?
Posted on May 11, 2009Here’s a story my buddy Chris L. and I have been talking about: Jim Balsillie, the CEO of Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry attention-deficit device, wants to move the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario. (After what I saw on April 25, he can have the Flyers...
The Frankenbox Likes Windows 7. (Well, Tolerates It Mostly.)
Posted on May 07, 2009I had an epiphany. I realized that there’s a perfect place to put the copy of Windows 7 I downloaded a couple of days ago. (Karen can now remove the barricades from around the Mac.) I decided to play with the house’s money. I asked our IT guy Eugene — who’s only the most patient [...
Twitter Search Goes All “Knock Knock, Neo” On Its Engineers
Posted on May 07, 2009Here’s an interesting quote from an article about changes Twitter’s going to make to its search algorithm: “Finally, a real-time search story from [Twitter Vice President of Operations Santosh] Jayaram, which he used to illustrate the immediacy of Twitter Search during the panel discussion: he told of being in the Twitter offices in San Francisco on [...
489 Bucks? Daaaaaannng!
Posted on May 06, 2009The wraps are now off of the bigscreen Kindle, the Kindle DX. Here’s the new stuff that its older sib doesn’t offer: 9.7 inch display (2.5 times bigger than K2) Built-in PDF reader Auto-rotate capability 3.3 GB of memory, enough storage for up to 3,500 books Coverage via Engadget, Wired, CrunchGear, and TechCrunch...
Public Opinion Regarding Electronic Health Records
Posted on May 05, 2009A recent NPR/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health survey determined that 75% of adults think it is either very important or somewhat important for their health care providers to use electronic health records. But ironically, 59% of those surveyed are not too confident or not at all confident that their personal health information will [...
Obama Administration Decides Google’s a Real Tempting Juicy Target. Beats Having to Fix the Economy.
Posted on May 05, 2009Less than a week after the DoJ announced it’s looking into antitrust issues wrt the Google Books-Authors Guild settlement, the Federal Trade Commission is now investigating whether Google and Apple violated the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 because they have 2 common directors: Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt and Genentech’s CEO Arthur D...
In a Moment of (Temporary) Insanity …
Posted on May 05, 2009… I have elected to download the Windows 7 Release Candidate, which was released today. I have only 1 hour, 37 minutes and 53 seconds remaining until I can experience once more the joy of installing Windows. Only question is, where do I put it? Right now, the only place I can is on my [...
Crime, Incorporated: Legal and Financial Implications of Corporate Misconduct
Posted on May 04, 2009By Miriam F. WeismannToday, whether prosecuting or defending, the approach to understanding organizational crime has become more difficult because of the increased multi-organizational character of corporate crime. Crime, Incorporated: Legal and Financial Implications of Corporate Misconduct, provides a complete re-examination of how traditional legal rules and their application given how corporate crime has changed [...
Follow the Money
Posted on May 04, 2009Interesting story in the NY Times about how researchers at Northwestern University are modeling the spread of swine flu using data from, among other things, the Where’s George Website. For those of you who haven’t visited the site, Where’s George has allowed you to track the movement of U...
Large-Screen Kindle to be Introduced on Wednesday
Posted on May 04, 2009Apparently a new version of the Kindle, with a bigger screen that’s optimized for newspapers and magazines, will be introduced on Wednesday at 10:30 am. The NY Times has been involved in this newest evolution of the Kindle. Will it save the failing newspaper biz? “But if Kindle-like devices really do take off, they will be [...
Well, It Took ‘Em a Month …
Posted on May 01, 2009… But Twitter finally made their “Discovery Engine” search tool available to the unwashed masses like me.
Google Goats
Posted on May 01, 2009Go figure. (Why is it that people in California consistently and habitually seem so, I don’t know, *weird* to those of us on the East Coast?)
Here’s the Best Dang Search Engine I Know Nothing About
Posted on May 01, 2009You may have been hearing some hype lately about a new search engine, Wolfram Alpha. (Danny Sullivan has some commentary, just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about.) You can’t actually use it right now, because you’re one of the unwashed masses (wow, used that phrase twice already today!) The creator, Stephen Wolfram, did [...
Disney Gets a Piece of Da Action
Posted on April 30, 2009Disney has purchased a stake in up-and-coming YouTube challenger Hulu. According to the Washington Post, NBC, News Corp., and Disney will each own 27% of the site. (Wired pegs it at 30%.) Anyway, shows from ABC (and Disney) will soon join those from Fox and NBC on Hulu...
Claude Shannon Would Have Been 93 Today
Posted on April 30, 2009Wired has a “This Day in Tech” post about Claude Shannon’s birthday today. Shannon is one of the biggies — if not *the* biggie — in the field of information theory. I started reading his masterpiece, A Mathematical Theory of Communication, a couple of years back...
Boy, Ya Gotta Jump Through a Lotta Hoops To Become a Monopoly
Posted on April 29, 2009The proposed Google-Authors Guild settlement is back in the news again. The DoJ, which has decided it really doesn’t care for Google’s attitude, thank you very much, has notified everyone that they have decided to look into various and sundry antitrust issues related to the settlement...
It’s Just So Obvious — They Never Leveraged the Synergies
Posted on April 29, 2009The Washington Post reports today that Time Warner would really, really, really love to spin off the red-headed stepchild they got stuck with, AOL: “The Company continues to review its strategic alternatives with respect to AOL. Although the Company’s Board of Directors has not made any decision, the Company currently anticipates that it would initiate a [...
How Much Love Does Google Have To Give Newspapers?
Posted on April 29, 2009Earlier this month I wrote about how newspaper publishers were threatening action against Google for “stealing” their copyrighted stuff. Danny Sullivan wrote a long rant titled “Google’s Love For Newspapers & How Little They Appreciate It” that’s a great read...
Twitter’s Retention Rate Is 40%. Should They Be Concerned?
Posted on April 29, 2009NielsenWire reports that 60% of new Twitter users do not return to the site: “Twitter has enjoyed a nice ride over the last few months, but it will not be able to sustain its meteoric rise without establishing a higher level of user loyalty. Frankly, if Oprah can’t accomplish that, I'm not sure who can...
Read This
Posted on April 28, 2009Read this article. All I can add is “amen”. Amen amen amen. (Now the fact that he calls out 2 of my favorite whipping boys, Microsoft and Facebook, has nothing to do with why I think this article is great.)
The Law of Obscenity and Pornography
Posted on April 27, 2009By Margaret C JasperThe law of obscenity has evolved considerably since the first cases appeared in the courts. Most of these legal changes are the direct result of shifts in industry and cultural standards. The advent of the computer has presented new and novel issues to be addressed, as it is a difficult medium [...
Don’t Follow Me, I’m Lost
Posted on April 27, 2009I’d wanted to post something about swine flu and the Web, but these guys beat me to the punch. That’s the price I (gladly) pay for not blogging on the weekends. Anyway, I want to examine how people are using the only Internet sites anybody really cares about anymore — Google, Facebook, and Twitter — to [...
iPhone on Verizon? Really?
Posted on April 27, 2009It’s just a rumor, but USA Today is reporting that “Verizon (VZ) and Apple (AAPL) are discussing the possible development of an iPhone for Verizon, with the goal of introducing it next year, people familiar with the situation say.” Repeat after me, “It’s just a rumor...
One Billion iPhone Apps Downloaded
Posted on April 24, 2009In about 9 months, just in case you’re counting.
Google Has My Profile, But Doesn’t Think I’m An “Everyday Essential”
Posted on April 23, 2009Google has a bunch of smart answers that they plunk at the top of the results page. They call ‘em “Everyday Essentials“. Wanna know the weather in International Falls, Minnesota? Boom … it’s right at the top of the results...
Public Service Announcement #4
Posted on April 21, 2009Lifehacker points to a PowerPoint presentation containing info about how to identify ATM skimmers — electronic devices glommed onto cash machines that steal your card number and PIN. Skimmers are becoming more common each month. Each day my life gets more complicated...
On The Rebound
Posted on April 20, 2009Oracle has announced that it will buy Sun Microsystems for about $7.4 billion. As you may recall, earlier this month Sun’s board scuttled a proposed deal with IBM at $9.40 per share. Oracle’s offer comes in at a dime more per share.
How to Protect Elders from Harm (Oceana's Legal Almanac Series Law for the Layperson)
Posted on April 20, 2009By James T O'ReillyHow to Protect Elders from Harm is a useful resource for anyone interested in learning more about protecting elders from insufficient care or mal-treatment. The author presents a number of scenarios and offers expert advice on how to prevent harmful situations as well as how to take appropriate legal action if [...
Technological Changes in the Medical Laboratory
Posted on April 20, 2009The California Healthcare Foundation recently released a report entitled Under the Microscope: Trends in Laboratory Medicine which was prepared for them by the Lewin Group. Having spent 16 years as a Medical Technologist in a hospital laboratory, I found this report quite interesting, especially seeing how much the lab has changed since I left to [...
The People’s Republic of Facebook Has Become a Democracy
Posted on April 17, 2009Facebook netizen, you are now empowered to vote on the rules of governance for the site. Do you want the Proposed Statement of Rights & Responsibilities or do you want to retain the current Terms of Service? The vote will be binding if at least 30% of active users participate...
Bits and Pieces
Posted on April 17, 2009A collection of stuff with an odd sort of a common thread running through them: Jail time for The Pirate Bay? The 4 leaders of the file-sharing site were found guilty of violating copyright by a Swedish court and sentenced to a year in prison. They’ll appeal, of course, so the drama will continue...
Now I *Know* the Apocalypse is Upon Us
Posted on April 16, 2009Oprah’s going to Twitter tomorrow on her show. Aaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.
But For a Nail the Shoe Was Lost
Posted on April 16, 2009But for a nail the shoe was lost, But for a shoe the horse was lost, But for a horse the soldier was lost, But for a soldier the war was lost, But for a war the kingdom was lost. And, according to the Daily News, “but for 9 bucks the case got postponed for 5 months”...
Thirteen Million
Posted on April 16, 2009The Wall Street Journal has a post today titled The Susan Boyle Bubble. Ms. Boyle was an unknown Scots woman who wowed the panel of judges — including Mr. Nasty Pants Simon Whatshisname — on “Britain’s Got Talent” by belting out an amazing rendition of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis...
Google Latitude Is Now Only 99% Creepy
Posted on April 15, 2009TechCrunch has retweeted (oops, got my social media all confused there) posted a link to a video from CBS5 in San Francisco. Thieves stole a young woman’s purse. Unbeknownst to them, she had Google Latitude installed on her phone — as a “joke” so she and her sisters could stalk each other...
Spamming Twitter Two Different Ways
Posted on April 14, 2009If you’re 17 and bored, you can exploit “a cross-site scripting vulnerability” (!) so that infected Twitter accounts spam their followers with tweets promoting a Twitter knockoff, StalkDaily.com. Or if you’re a Fortune 500 company — or, to be fair, one of their affiliates — you can use a service called Magpie to send fake tweets [...
They’re Leaving Home After Living Alone For So Many Years (Bye Bye)
Posted on April 14, 2009On Friday I read a NY Times article about how Skype’s founders are trying to arrange financing so they can buy their Internet-based phone service back from eBay. In 2005 eBay bought Skype for about $3 billion. Then yesterday I read about how StumbleUpon, a Web 2...
Lawyers at Midlife: Laying the Groundwork for the Road Ahead
Posted on April 13, 2009By Michael Long, John Clyde, and Pat FunkLawyers at Midlife is a detailed planning guide to help mid-and late-career lawyers lay the financial, medical, and social groundwork for the next chapter of their lives. Library Record • Borrow it • More Titles
Harry Kalas, 1936-2009
Posted on April 13, 2009Longtime Phillis announcer Harry Kalas collapsed and died today at 1:20 pm. Once more, for old times’ sake: Harry calls the last pitch of the 2008 World Series. Listening to games just won’t be the same any more.
If You Give Me 80 Thou, I’ll Be Glad To Go Away For a Year
Posted on April 13, 2009Heck, I’ll stay away as long as you want, at least until the money runs out. The NY Times has an interesting article about how Skadden Arps is offering their 1,300 associates a deal: they’ll pay them a third of their base pay if they go away and not cost them any more money for a [...
Don’t Be Coy … Tell Us What You Really Think
Posted on April 09, 2009Here’s the first paragraph of a Silicon Valley Insider post titled “YouTube Is Doomed“: “YouTube, that incandescent tower of video Babel; monument to the sloughed-off detritus of our exponentially-exploding digital culture; a Technicolor cataract of skateboarding dogs, lip-synching college students, political punditry, and porn; has reached the zenith of its meteoric rise; and Icarus-like, wings melting; [...
It’s Alive. It’s Aliiiiiiiiive!
Posted on April 09, 2009Elinor Mills is reporting that the Conficker worm has come to life, a week late: “The Conficker worm is finally doing something — updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday...
Two Stories I’d Love To Link To [UPDATED]
Posted on April 09, 2009But since they’re from the Wall Street Journal, which is subscription-only, I can’t. But I can write about them, and include some quotes, which (I guess) makes me an aggregator, so the lynch mob’s probably due here at Jenkins any minute now...
In Only 3 Months, Facebook Gains 50 Million More People With Too Much Time On Their Hands
Posted on April 08, 2009Back in January I posted about how Facebook was up to 150 million users. (At the time, they would have been the 8th most populous country, larger than Japan or Russia.) Well, they’ve added another 50 million folks in 3 months, which bumps the People’s Republic of Facebook up 3 notches to #5 in the [...
New iTunes Pricing Now In Effect
Posted on April 08, 2009Yesterday the new iTunes pricing I wrote about previously went live. I would have loved to perform an in-depth test of it last night, but someone (and she knows who she is) seems to feel our Mac belongs to her and hogged it all evening. So I had to install iTunes on my work laptop [...
Windows XP Is Sort Of Like Freddy Krueger
Posted on April 07, 2009I couldn’t call it Jason Voorhees, ’cause I used him already for IE6. Anyway, Gizmodo reports that Windows XP will live on — long past its eXPiration date (heh heh) — well into 2010 on certain HP machines. (And not just netbooks, either...
Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be
Posted on April 06, 2009By Carolyn ElefantThis book is dedicated to every lawyer who ever wanted to run the show but worried that going solo was career suicide … every lawyer who wanted to solo but didn’t know how to set up the office and make it work … every lawyer who never set foot in a courtroom [...
The Buggy Whip Manufacturers’ Lynch Mob Is Forming [UPDATED]
Posted on April 06, 2009… And it looks like they’ll head straight for Henry Ford’s house Google. Huh? Here’s a collection of recent articles by outraged folks from what could be termed “buggy whip” industries — those whose business models have been destroyed by new technologies...
Tying Up Loose Ends
Posted on April 06, 2009In case you still care, here’s a Conficker “eye chart” — if you can see all the images, your PC’s not infected. If not, well get up close and read the fine print. And that deal I mentioned previously? The one that had IBM buying Sun for $7 bil? It’s off (for now)...
U.S. Govt Beginning to Check Airline Passenger Lists; I Feel So Much Safer Now
Posted on April 02, 2009Wired reports that 4 unnamed airlines are the lucky guinea pigs for the federal government’s Secure Flight program, which has been in the works for about 6 years now: “The program, known as Secure Flight, will require all passengers to provide more information when booking a flight, including their date of birth and gender...
Twitter Announces “Discovery Engine” But Makes Me Wait For It
Posted on April 02, 2009Yesterday Twitter announced changes to its search engine. Now there’ll be a search box on the sidebar of your home page, rather than a link buried at the bottom. I believe the search engine will default to the accounts you’re following; it’s unclear to me if you’ll be able to broaden it to everyone...
Wanna See a Work of Art?
Posted on April 02, 2009Here it is. That, my friends, is a typical Google server. That’s what handles your searches for paris hilton. Home made. A model of efficiency. About 1,110 of ‘em are packed into shipping containers. Each Google data center — and there are at least 20 of ‘em worldwide, but nobody knows for sure how many they [...
“Wiki” Isn’t Necessarily a Magic Word
Posted on April 01, 2009Yesterday Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announced that he will shut down his new(-ish, it’s about a year old or so) search engine, Wikia Search: “… our project, Wikia Search, has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped...
Wikipedia Forces Microsoft To Surrender
Posted on March 31, 2009Ars Technica reports that Microsoft will discontinue their Encarta encyclopedia on October 31, 2009. Here’s what they said: “Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed...
Ten Years Of Bullet Time
Posted on March 31, 2009Wired reports that today is the 10th anniversary of the release of The Matrix. The other 2 movies in the trilogy sort of lost their way, but the original sure changed the way we looked at cyberpunk.
Google Decides To Give Money Away
Posted on March 31, 2009Google has announced Google Ventures, a venture capital fund that they will use to fund promising start-ups: “We’ll be focusing on early stage investments across a diverse range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean-tech, bio-tech, health care and, no doubt, other areas we haven’t thought of yet...
Editorial Note
Posted on March 31, 2009Due to a shocking lack of editorial oversight, the name of a certain Internet worm has been misspelled from time to time in four posts from this blog. The posts have all been corrected. The editor in charge has been disciplined. Dan Giancaterino, naturally, is not at fault...
Yes, They Launched On April Fool’s Day
Posted on March 31, 2009Gmail was born on April 1, 2004 — here’s the earliest version I could find at the Internet Archive — an interesting day to launch a new product. On the eve of its fifth birthday, Todd Jackson, Gmail Product Manager, gave an interview with the folks at Ars Technica...
Tomorrow’s The Day For Skype On The iPhone
Posted on March 30, 2009Wired reports that Skype will announce a version of its software for iPhones on Tuesday. Your VoIP calls will be free to other Skype users; if you call a landline, you’ll pay the same rates as you would with SkypeOut on your PC. The Skype app will even recognize the numbers in your iPhone address [...
Guide to Representing Religious Organizations
Posted on March 30, 2009By Lisa A. Runquist, Jeannie Carmedelle FreyThe book addresses critical issues and risk factors of concern for religious organizations ranging from formation and governance, to taxes, fundraising and employment issues, and property rights. It outlines the general requirements of applicable law and highlights areas in which religious organizations receive special consideration under the law...
If You Can Read This Then My CAPTCHA Isn’t Squiggly Enough
Posted on March 30, 2009David Pogue ranted last Friday about CAPTCHAs, those codes you have to enter on certain Websites so that they know you’re a human and not a bot. He even points us to a Website with examples of CAPTCHAs even humans couldn’t decipher. Only a geek would know that CAPTCHA is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public [...
Conficker Specifically Targets Jenkins … Site Down … Employees Reduced To Playing Solitaire On Computers
Posted on March 30, 2009Sorry … Just warming up for Wednesday, the day that the Cornficker worm’s supposed to go nuclear. There’s been a fair amount of buzz about Cornficker — some of it from yours truly — but apparently 60 Minutes went over the top last night...
Sending Tweets At 65 MPH
Posted on March 30, 2009Apparently in the near future, cars equipped with OnStar will allow you to send and receive Tweets. They’ll be converted to and from text using voice recognition technology. Given my experiences with people trying to multi-task while driving, I’m not exactly thrilled by this.
Leading By Example
Posted on March 27, 2009File this under Very Cool. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has spent this week working in a distribution center in Lexington Kentucky, getting a perspective on how the worker bees do their job. Emphasis is on the word “working”. The Lexington Herald-Leader asked for an interview and got this response from spokeswoman Patty Smith: “Thanks so much [...
8 Hours a Day Looking At a Screen? Welcome To My World!
Posted on March 27, 2009Today’s NY Times reports on a just-released study by The Council for Research Excellence about video media usage. According to the Press Release, here’s how the study worked: “Using handheld smart keyboards equipped with a custom media collector program developed by Ball State [University], the observers recorded - in 10-second increments - [350 subjects'] exposure to [...
If You Can Read This, Then Everything’s OK
Posted on March 27, 2009But just in case you can’t, I wanted to let you know that we’ve been under attack by spambots over the last couple of days. That’s why you haven’t been able to connect to our Website from time to time, or to databases we offer you such as Fastcase...
YouTube Gets Smarter
Posted on March 27, 2009Check out YouTube EDU, which features video content from colleges and universities. Right now, I’m watching the Science of Watchmen, a lecture by University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios, Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, and, of course, Randy Pausch’s last lecture (viewed 9...
It’s Never Too Early To Start Running For Reelection
Posted on March 26, 2009Both Wired and the NY Times are reporting that the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Wyoming County District Attorney for civil rights violations in a “sexting” case. (There’s a new word for you. Sexting involves sending a provocative picture of yourself — nude, semi-nude, semi-gloss, whatever, it’s your choice — to someone’s [...
Q: What’s Worse Than Rising Gas Prices?
Posted on March 26, 2009A: Rising music download prices. The LA Times reports that, come April 7, certain hot songs will now cost $1.29 over at the iTunes Store. Back in January Apple announced the price increase, but didn’t give a firm date. OK, I get that the tracks will be DRM-free...
Apropos Of Nothing
Posted on March 26, 2009I was fixin’ to click off of this article because I felt it wasn’t blogworthy — despite the fact that I’ve posted about the topic before — when the full meaning of the 3rd paragraph really hit me: “In 2008 alone, traffic generated by YouTube video was more than the whole sum of traffic crossing the [...
Because Maybe You’re Gonna Be The One Who Saves Me
Posted on March 25, 2009Got that song by Oasis running through my head right now. Why, you might ask? Google is now testing a new feature on its results page called Wonder Wheel. (Get it? Wonderwall … Wonder Wheel. Get it? Can you tell I’m on my 4th bottle of Diet Dew?) Anyway, what a great opportunity to fire up [...
AT&T Confirms Its Intention To “Observe And Report”
Posted on March 25, 2009Cnet reports that AT&T has confirmed that it is, indeed, acting as a music cop for the Recording Industry Association of America. You may remember that back in late January the RIAA announced that AT&T and Comcast were interested in participating in the RIAA’s “graduated response program”...
Facebook Tries To Calm Down The Whingers
Posted on March 25, 2009Responding to lots of people who need to get a life — sorry, but Facebook just brings out the worst in me, I apologize — Facebook has posted a list of upcoming changes to the site. It’s too early in the morning for me to read the teeny type, but I gather they want to [...
China Says “Bu Yao Xie Xie” To YouTube
Posted on March 25, 2009Yesterday the NY Times reported that YouTube access is being blocked in China. According to the article: “Google said it did not know why the site had been blocked, but a report by the official Xinhua news agency of China on Tuesday said that supporters of the Dalai Lama had fabricated a video that appeared to [...
Time To State The Obvious
Posted on March 24, 2009The iPhone accounts for 50% of mobile Web traffic in the U.S., reports TechCrunch. Duh … with a bazillion units sold, I’d be surprised if it didn’t. And speaking of surprises: how about that T-Mobile G1 Android? Huh? From zero to 5% in like 3 months...
Stand Up to the IRS
Posted on March 23, 2009By Frederick DailyIn Stand Up to the IRS, tax attorney Fred Daily shows you what you need to know to prepare for an audit. Daily explains how the IRS works and offers advice on everything from who should attend the audit with you to strategies on protecting your assets from the IRS...
More Than 90% of Facebook Members Are Unhappy
Posted on March 20, 2009With the redesign of the site, that is, according to a poll of more than 800,000 members. The new layout doesn’t make any difference to me — I never much liked Facebook anyway.
Up To Their Old Tricks
Posted on March 20, 2009OK I lied. I downloaded IE8 and installed it today. I had hopes that it would go quicker than IE7 — which cost me 25 minutes of my life plus 2 reboots — but noooooo: Download IE8: 5 minutes (16MB) Install IE8: 5 minutes (I think I can! I think I can! I think …) Restart (mandatory) Download and [...
“You Can’t Take It Back” No Longer Applies With Gmail
Posted on March 20, 2009Gmail has released a nifty feature: Undo Send. If you enable it via Gmail Labs, you can retract emails you send within 5 seconds. (I’d pay good money to have a “Undo Say” button for conversations with my wife.) Anyway, this is yet another reason why I’m seriously contemplating switching my primary Webmail account to Gmail...
Cornficker (Watch Yer Mouth, This Is a Family-Friendly Blog)
Posted on March 19, 2009Regular readers of this blog — and the three of you know who you are — remember that back in January John Markoff of the NY Times wrote about the Cornficker Internet worm and used some over-the-top quotes. Well he’s back with an update: “An examination of the program [Cornficker C] reveals that the zombie computers [...
IE8 Will Be Released At Noon EDT Today
Posted on March 19, 2009Here’s the announcement from Microsoft, which includes the link for the download. Given their recent problems with downloads, I wish you good luck if you try to get it. (No way I’m going to download it any time soon.) I wish Microsoft good luck as well, given that their browser market share has eroded of [...
“That’s a lot of complaints about one company”
Posted on March 19, 2009The blogosphere’s buzzing (I’ve been wanting to use that in a post for awhile now) over a story in the Seattle Weekly about Intelius, the online public records site. For a couple of years now, the site has automatically signed you up for credit-protection services to the tune of $20 per month if you didn’t [...
Dude, You Are So Busted
Posted on March 18, 2009Guy gets a job offer at Cisco. Good news, right? Especially since we’re in a scary recession. Time to celebrate, right? Now back when I was young, that would mean going out to dinner or whatever. These kids, nowadays, the first thing they do is Tweet about it: “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I [...
Wow!
Posted on March 18, 2009IBM wants to buy Sun for $7 billion. The NY Times hints there might be antitrust issues involved since the combined companies would control more than 40% of the server market. Looks like Microsoft will have another target other than Google to plot against.
Let’s All Pile On Google
Posted on March 18, 2009Seems like everyone’s lining up to take a legal shot at Google these days. If it’s not the DoJ, then it’s the Italian government. Here’s another one: according to the NY Times, in light of last week’s Google Docs oopsie, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has asked the U...
Everyone Has a Blindspot
Posted on March 18, 2009TechCrunch reported yesterday about how major publishers are now posting full novels to document-sharing site Scribd. It was a wake-up call for me. In my CLE classes I’ve been limiting my discussions of electronic texts to Amazon, Google Books, and the Jenkins catalog...
iPhone 3.0 Gets Like The Most Amazing Feature Ever Invented
Posted on March 17, 2009This summer, when you get your free iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade, you’ll finally be able to copy-and-paste. (Something my T-Mobile G1 has been able to do from day one.) “So what,” you say? Well, how about 3G tethering, multimedia messaging, a voice memo application, peer-to-peer wifi connectivity, and push notification? “Huh,” you say? Read this — it’ll tell you [...
Louisiana Criminal Jury Instructions and Procedures Companion Handbook, 2009 ed.
Posted on March 16, 2009By Cheney C. Joseph, P. Raymond LamonicaThis handbook is designed to coordinate with volume 17 of the Louisiana Civil Law Treatise Series, Criminal Jury Instructions and Procedures. While primarily intended as a quick reference or use at trial, it is equally useful as a legal research reference for lawyers preparing for litigation and trial...
The iPhone: a Weapon of Mass (Infrastructure) Destruction
Posted on March 16, 2009On Saturday, lots of hip, trendy, iPhone-wielding artsy types descended on Austin, TX for the annual South by Southwest festival. And they brought Austin’s AT&T 3G network to its knees. In true Gen X style, SXSW attendees turned to Twitter to vent their frustration...
The Ol’ 90/10 Rule
Posted on March 16, 2009In a quick post, the NY Times talks about how cybersquatting — registering Web addresses containing variants of trademarked products — is up 18% over the past year, even though there are laws against the practice in the U.S. They quote the Chief Marketing Officer of MarkMonitor, a Web registrar: “Most of our customers' portfolios are [...
Old Enough To Know Better [UPDATED]
Posted on March 16, 2009The Philadelphia Inquirer reports today that a juror in the federal corruption trial of former State Senator Vincent Fumo has been posting trial updates to his Facebook page and to his Twitter stream. Fumo’s defense lawyers have petitioned for a halt in jury deliberations and the removal of the Twittering juror...
I Fess to Numbers 1,2,4,5,7 and 8 in the Indictment
Posted on March 13, 2009Wired has a post on the 10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse. I confess that numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 8 apply to me. I’m especially guilty of #5: Wearing obscurely geeky T-shirts to “normal” places. I actually own the t-shirt they show in the article, “There are only 10 types of [...
It Takes The Equivalent of 166 Tweets To Tell Us How We Use Twitter
Posted on March 13, 2009Danny Sullivan has a meaty post — 23,125 characters, the equivalent of 166 Tweets! — on how we search with the Twitter “Help Engine”. Danny’s poll about whether Twitter is a search engine or not got more than 450 responses...
Good News/Bad News for Bill Gates
Posted on March 13, 2009Here’s the good: Bill (net worth: $40 billion) is now the richest man in the woild again. Now here’s the bad: The only reason why he’s #1 is that his net worth declined less ($18 billion) than last year’s #1, Warren Buffett (who lost 25 bil)...
Google. Eggs. Basket. (Yet again)
Posted on March 12, 2009Google has announced Google Voice, which gives you one phone number that will ring on all your phones — mobile, landline, whatever. It’ll do the same for text messages (send them to one or all your phones, that is.) It’ll even create text-based voicemails automatically...
Patient Involvement Helps
Posted on March 12, 2009A recent study shows that the participation of patients in the use of electronic health records (EHRs) might improve the effectiveness of the system. The study was conducted by Harvard Medical School, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (abstract of study, fulltext not available without a subscription)...
Jefferson’s Rolling Over in His Grave
Posted on March 12, 2009“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter...
The Broadband Gap (The Sky Is Falling, Again)
Posted on March 12, 2009Saul Hansell of the NY TImes has just finished a three-part series comparing U.S. broadband Internet with the rest of the world. Here’s my executive summary: Part 1: Why is theirs faster? It’s all about population density. DSL speeds vary by distance, so the closer that people live to the phone company equipment, the faster the [...
How Do You Define “Interesting”?
Posted on March 11, 2009In a post titled “Making ads more interesting“, Google today announced the launch of “interest-based” advertising: “… as a beta test on our partner sites [those sites running AdSense advertisements] and on YouTube. These ads will associate categories of interest — say sports, gardening, cars, pets — with your browser, based on the types of sites [...
Just Another Thing To Nag Me
Posted on March 11, 2009During the course of my day, I got the wife, the kids, the cat — she’s the worst, come feeding time — and the boss (’nuff said), all yapping at me. Do I really want to add an iPod to the list?
Put Yourself In The Jurors’ Box
Posted on March 11, 2009Let’s say you’re a juror in a criminal trial. The perp got caught with a gun after running from the cops. Open-and-shut case, right? Not so fast. Listen as the defense lawyer reads a comment that the arresting officer, Vaughan Ettienne, posted on his Facebook page a couple of weeks before the trial: “Vaughan is watching ‘Training Day’ [...
For Discriminating Collectors: An Early iPhone Prototype
Posted on March 10, 2009An early iPhone prototype dating from December 2006 has been listed on eBay, according to iLounge. The phone can make calls, surf mobile versions of Websites, take pictures, and receive text messages, but you can’t type on it. Current bid: $1,625...
Pennsylvania Central KeyRules, 2009 ed.
Posted on March 09, 2009By West, A Thomson Reuters businessThis book contains an outline of the applicable rules of practice, timing requirements, filing and service requirements, hearing information, checklists, and other pertinent documents related to pleadings, motions, requests, notices, and applications in the Pennsylvania Central courts...
Justice For “Joe The Plumber”
Posted on March 09, 2009Judicial Watch has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against 3 former employees of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for performing unauthorized searches of 3 state databases in order to dig up dirt on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. Mr. Wurzelbacher, you may recall, had his 15 minutes of fame during the election of [...
If Anybody Finds My Resume, Would You Please Send It Back To Me?
Posted on March 09, 2009Last week Google acknowledged they had a security lapse with their Google Docs service. In “an isolated incident affecting less than .05% of all documents,” some people got access to text files and presentations that they weren’t authorized to read by their owners...
Microsoft Finally Decides To Cut Down On Lawyers’ Workloads
Posted on March 09, 2009After more than a decade of legal battles with the U.S. Justice Department and the EU, Microsoft has rather quietly decided to give everybody what they want: Windows 7 will allow you to uninstall Internet Explorer, as well as other apps such as Windows Media Player...
CD Turns 30, Vital Signs Are Failing
Posted on March 09, 2009Gizmodo reports that yesterday, March 8, was the 30th birthday for the CD. It may be on the way out, but during its heyday it sure made the music labels a ton of cash.
Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement & Medical Benefits
Posted on March 02, 2009The World is Still Full of Mystery
Posted on February 25, 2009Google Earth didn’t discover Atlantis after all — it was simply noisy data: “For the patch of ocean that drew so much attention last week, there was a discrepancy in the readings collected from satellites and the higher-resolution echosounding data collected by boats at water level...
Netbooks, Revisited
Posted on February 24, 2009Netbooks are all the rage. I’ve blogged about them before. I haven’t followed up on that original post, because most of the articles I’ve been reading are written by propeller heads who argue about cache speeds or screen refresh or some other esoteric thingie that 99...
Google Gives Up On Saving The World, Decides To Make Information Look Really Cool Instead
Posted on February 24, 2009Yesterday Google.org announced that its Chief, Dr. Larry Brilliant, will now be its Chief Philanthropy Evangelist. At the same time, Google.org is redefining its mission: “During our review it became clear that while we have been able to support some remarkable non-profit organizations over the past three years, our greatest impact has come when we’ve attacked [...
Safari 4 Is Out And It Looks All Chromey
Posted on February 24, 2009Today Apple announced that the beta version of Safari 4 is available. I installed it on my work laptop — hey, for any app the installation is half the battle! — and have been playing around with it for about a half hour. Aside from the placement of a couple of buttons, it strongly resembles [...
Dear Sisters, Dear Daughters: Strategies for Success from Multicultural Women Attorneys
Posted on February 23, 2009By Commission on Women in the Legal Profession, et al., SponsorsDear Sisters, Dear Daughters: Strategies for Success from Multicultural Women Attorneys is a unique, inspirational collection of letters from 44 experienced women attorneys of color to the next generation outlining various roadmaps for success in the legal profession as a minority woman attorney...
Google Earth Discovers Lost City of Atlantis, However No Sign Yet of Bermuda Triangle
Posted on February 20, 2009Must be a slow news day. Multiple sources are reporting that something resembling a grid of streets has been spotted off the coast of Africa. This is consistent with the supposed location of the Lost City of Atlantis. To see for yourself, fire up Google Earth — it must be version 5, which has the ocean [...
IE6 … The Jason Voorhees of Browsers
Posted on February 20, 2009Internet Explorer 6 is just like a certain fictional film star — it simply won’t go away. According to Wired, between 10-20% of all Internet users worldwide are still using the creaky old browser released in 2001. There’s a groundswell to get people to upgrade to IE7 — no spring chicken itself, as it’s been out [...
There’s An App For That. (And You’ll Use It For a Day Then Forget About It.)
Posted on February 20, 2009How about those “There’s an app for that” iPhone ads on TV? Makes you envy those folks who, with a touch of a button, see snow conditions at Tahoe or Sun Valley, find the calories in their lunch, or get directions to where they parked their car...
Online Services Let Patients Seek a Second Opinion
Posted on February 19, 2009A recent Newsweek article discusses online second opinion services which offer a patient a consultation from a medical specialist based on the patient’s medical record which he has sent to the specialist via either fax, snail mail, or e-mail. The cost averages $500 to $1000...
Google Wins The Right To Photograph Me In The Driveway Picking Up The Newspaper In My Jim Jams
Posted on February 18, 2009Not exactly, but that got your attention, right? Anyway, a U.S. District Court justice in Western PA threw out a suit against Google that alleged that the Search Giant (Like that? I just made that up.) caused them mental anguish and diluted the price of their home when it captured their digs on Google Street [...
The Inmates Are Running The Asylum
Posted on February 18, 2009Which is a good thing, as far as Facebook is concerned. Recently they changed their Terms of Service so that they claimed the right to use the content from your profile even after you remove it or terminate your account. This caused an uproar among the FB faithful...
I’m Not Going There … Or There
Posted on February 17, 2009Here are 2 new services I’m going to avoid: TrueScoop is a new Facebook application that lets you do a free public records search for an individual. According to Mashable, “When you do a search, it’s broadcast to Facebook’s News Feed...
Time To Grow Up
Posted on February 17, 2009TechCrunch reports that visitors to linkedIn (the social networking site for grown-up professionals) was up 22% from December 2008-January 2009. Total minutes spent on the site doubled in one month. This is predictable. When you’re out of work, you don’t have time to send cowbells to your friends...
The Ethics of E-Discovery
Posted on February 16, 2009By John M. BarkettThis concise book examines the ethical issues associated with e-discovery and provides guidance on how to deal with the new and challenging intersection of electronic discovery and ethics. Library Record • Borrow it • More Titles
Yet Another Article About Carl Malamud
Posted on February 13, 2009Yesterday the NY Times had another article about the ongoing activities of Carl Malamud, the guerilla legal publisher who’s trying to shove PACER into the 21st century. The article doesn’t really say anything that hasn’t been said before: Malamud says the PACER system is outdated and we shouldn’t have to pay to see legal documents, [...
They Stole My Headline
Posted on February 13, 2009Wired reports that today at 6:31:30 PM EST, Unix time, which is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970 — don’t ask why, Unix guys are just different, trust me — will be 1234567890. Our IT guy Ken tipped us off about this on Tuesday...
I Skew the Demographic
Posted on February 13, 2009According to Pew Internet & American Life, I’m not supposed to have a Twitter feed: “Twitter and similar services have been most avidly embraced by young adults. Nearly one in five (19%) online adults ages 18 and 24 have ever used Twitter and its ilk, as have 20% of online adults 25 to 34...
The Ritual Renews Itself Again Tomorrow
Posted on February 13, 2009Pitchers and catchers report. It seems like about 20 minutes ago my son and I were screaming and hugging.
WSJ to Close its Library
Posted on February 12, 2009I’m a librarian, so I’m fatalistic. I realize that library budgets get cut all the time. But when an organization like the Wall Street Journal decides to close its research library, I have to shake my head. I realize that journalists are intelligent, and they can do their own research...
Note to Firm: It’s Not a Secret if You Tell People
Posted on February 11, 2009Last year Facebook paid $65 million to make ConnectU go away. (The founders of ConnectU claim that Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerburg stole their idea and code.) Details of the settlement were sealed by the judge. I shouldn’t be able to tell you how much the settlement cost Facebook...
This Kind of Makes All the Yinging and Yanging Moot
Posted on February 11, 2009Last week I posted about how Congress, after much back-and-forth, has decided that once-and-for-all (And we really mean it this time!) that the switchover to digital TV will occur on June 12. According to an article in today’s NY Times, that may not matter much — more than a quarter of major TV stations (491/1,796) [...
Copyright, Again (and Again and Agian and …)
Posted on February 11, 2009Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, like everyone else, had an article about the introduction of the Kindle 2. Among other things, it discussed the new text-to-voice feature, which reads the book aloud to you. (Keep in mind, this is an ebook that you’ve already purchased...
Internet Darling Du Jour
Posted on February 10, 2009Five years ago bloggers were talking about the Google Operating System. Two years ago it was the Facebook Platform. The latest addition to the pantheon? The Twitter Community: “Thanks to its open-ended design and a thriving user community, Twitter is fast outgrowing its roots as a simple, easy-to-use messaging service...
Open-Sourcing the Kindle
Posted on February 10, 2009Yesterday ZDNet’s Open Source blog called for Amazon to open up the Kindle: “… so far Amazon seems to think it’s going to be the Apple of eBooks, not the Google. Be the Google. While Apple made a ton of money selling iPods, the big bucks here are in the blades, not the razors...
Twitter = Google-Killer?
Posted on February 09, 2009That’s what these two posts from yesterday seem to be saying. And two weeks ago David Pogue of the NY Times posted The Twitter Experiment: “Yesterday, I spoke at a conference in Las Vegas. The topic was Web 2.0, with all of its free-speech, global-collaboration ramifications...
Kindle 2 Unveiled
Posted on February 09, 2009CrunchGear live-blogged the 10:00 news conference. Here are the relevant specs: Ultra-thin (.36 inches) 7X storage than K1 Text-to-speech Battery last 25% longer Price: $359 If you’ve ordered a K1 and haven’t received it yet, you’ll get a K2 Want more? The K2 page is up on Amazon.
Construction Law
Posted on February 09, 2009By William Russell Allensworth, Ross J. Altman, et al., EditorsWritten by leading construction law practitioners, the Forum on the Construction Industry’s new textbook Construction Law meets the pressing need for a comprehensive law school textbook...
Diagonally
Posted on February 06, 2009Mrs. Weasley: Now don’t forget to speak very, very clearly. Harry: Diagonally. [Harry vanishes] Mrs. Weasley: What did he say dear? Arthur Weasley: Diagonally. Mrs. Weasley: I thought he did. (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) I got an over-the-air software update for my T-Mobile G1 Android phone last night...
Yet Another Reason Why I’m Glad I Don’t Live In North Dakota
Posted on February 05, 2009Here’s an interesting article about a novel way to trick people into downloading malware onto their PCs. Someone in North Dakota has been putting motor vehicle violation notices on people’s cars parked in various locations. The notices instruct the car owners to visit a particular Website in order to see pictures of their cars caught in [...
Here’s What People Without Converter Boxes Are Doing
Posted on February 05, 2009Watching video online — 14.3 billion of ‘em in December, almost 2 bil more than in November. YouTube dominates: more than 41% of the market (as you might imagine). But look at Hulu: 240 million videos served. Maybe I don’t need the converter box after all.
I Yearn for Simpler Times
Posted on February 05, 2009First the Senate said “June 12.” The next day the House said, “No … February 17.” Yesterday the House said, “Never mind, June 12 works for us now.” So here’s the deal: the switchover to digital TV will occur on June 12...
They’ve Nailed “Omniscience”. They’re Working on “Omnipresence”.
Posted on February 05, 2009Yesterday Google announced that they’ll help us to share our location with our friends and family (and them). Today comes word that Google will enable us to stream data from medical devices such as heart rate monitors to Google Health. Once Google decides to go after “omnipotence” they’ll be just like You-Know-Who.
Facebook Turns 5 Today
Posted on February 04, 2009How ever did we function without it? Here’s a post by founder Mark Zuckerberg and a design retrospective by Techcrunch. And that’s all I’m saying on the topic ’cause I’m not a fanboy at all.
Google Book Preview in JAC
Posted on February 04, 2009As of today, you can preview many of the books in the Jenkins collection from within JAC (Jenkins Automated Catalog) on your desktop. Yes, you do not even need to visit our physical location to turn the pages of our books! This is a part of the Google Books digitizing project...
It’s a Real Winter Wonderland Out There Today
Posted on February 04, 2009And I was, in fact, humming “Winter Wonderland” this morning while I shoveled out the driveway at 5:00 am. (While the 3 other humans in the house, plus the cat, were snug in bed. But I’m not bitter.) Anyway, I felt secure knowing that I was well within my rights to hum that tune...
Firefox Continues to Gain Ground
Posted on February 03, 2009The latest (as of January 2009) browser data has been released: IE: 67.5% market share (down 7.3% over the past 11 months) Firefox: 21.5% (up 3.7% over the same time period) Safari: 8.3% (up 2.5%)
Microsoft: Clueless About Search
Posted on February 03, 2009Microsoft execs constantly talk about how they’ll eventually catch Google. (It’s the same spiel over and over, so one example will suffice.) They really only need 2 things: technology that works and branding. And lemmee tell you, Microsoft just doesn’t get #2...
Something to Ponder
Posted on February 03, 2009While reading this article about the state of the cellphone industry, this one quote jumped out at me: “The challenge is both simple and daunting: how to expand when four billion of the six billion people on the planet already have phones.” Four billion people with cellphones...
If You Turn on the Light, the Cockroaches Scatter
Posted on February 03, 2009And if you boot ‘em off MySpace, they’ll just move on to Facebook. Simple as that. Sex offenders having access to social networking sites is, understandably, a hot-button issue for many people. But it’s important to have some perspective here...
Does this Make Sense to You?
Posted on February 03, 2009Today Google’s Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer, along with 3 other company officers — David Drummond, Google’s Chief Counsel, George Reyes, former CFO, and another, unnamed person — will appear before the Milan Criminal Court, reports the NY Times’ Saul Hansell...
This Is What Happens When All Your Eggs Are In One Basket (Reprised)
Posted on February 02, 2009Back in late November I blogged about how all those nifty Google services you love — Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and more — are tied to one email account. (Heck, I even had to have a Gmail account to activate my G1 Android phone.) If someone hacks your account, you lose your data — [...
Google Discovers that the World is Mostly Covered by Water
Posted on February 02, 2009Today Google released Google Earth 5.0, which features a new ocean layer that lets you zoom down to the bottom of the ocean, view data from ocean monitoring buoys, track tagged marine wildlife, play videos and other content from partners such as the BBC and National Geographic, and a whole lot more...
Retirement Tax Guide: Your Health, Home, Investments & More
Posted on February 01, 2009By Twila Slesnick, John SuttleWhen you retire, your taxes and potential deductions change considerably. The Nolo’s Essential Retirement Tax Guide explains all these changes. Library Record • Borrow it • More Titles
This Chart Tells You All You Need To Know …
Posted on January 29, 2009… About search: Google’s market share continues to go up, while everybody else flatlines. Game over.
Today is Data Privacy Day
Posted on January 28, 2009This is the second annual gathering of people from the U.S., Canada, and 27 European countries to discuss privacy rights and practices in a wired-up world. Who knew? I didn’t. I wish I had, because there’s an interesting talk at Drexel that unfortunately started 50 minutes ago: “Data Privacy: Why Should You Care?” Oh, well, at least [...
Don’t Ditch Your Hard Drive Just Yet
Posted on January 28, 2009One of the supposed benefits of Web 2.0 is “Cloud Computing” — all our apps and docs will be stored on the Web. No more MS Office. Heck, no more Windows. I’ve dabbled a bit with this. I’m using Google Docs instead of PowerPoint for my presentations when I’m on the road...
Digital TV: It’s Back On For February 17
Posted on January 28, 2009Though the Senate voted to delay the switch to digital TV until June 12, the House said, “Uh uh.” So we’re back to February 17.
Comcast and AT&T: Music Cops?
Posted on January 28, 2009Last month I posted about how the Recording Industry Association of America planned to enlist Internet Service Providers to battle music-sharing. Today comes the news that AT&T and Comcast reportedly are interested in participating in the RIAA’s “graduated response program”...
… And Speaking of Hard Drives
Posted on January 28, 2009… Today I wiped mine and installed CrunchBang linux, a distro based on Ubuntu. I had a ton of trouble getting Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake to install on my 5-year-old Dell laptop. I couldn’t even install the last 2 releases. But CrunchBang installed in 30 minutes...
Kindle 2 Coming Next Month?
Posted on January 27, 2009John Biggs of CrunchGear reports that Amazon has scheduled a press conference on February 9 at the Morgan Library & Museum in NY: “… unless they’re announcing a Bezos-themed amusement park in the Ukraine, I’m pretty sure we’re going to see the Kindle 2...
Senators Fail To Stop The Insanity
Posted on January 27, 2009But at least they voted to postpone it by 4 months. If the House agrees and the president signs, the digital TV cutover will be pushed back to June 12. Senator Jay Rockefeller says, “I firmly believe that our nation is not yet ready to make this transition at this time...
China + U.S. = 34% of Internet Users
Posted on January 23, 2009ComScore estimates that 15% of the planet — a billion people — are now using the Internet. China and the U.S. together account for about a third of all users. FYI, China’s Internet population passed the U.S.’s back in April 2008.
Eastern European Criminal Gangs, Moles, Pearl Harbor, and Rosa Parks, All In The Same Article?
Posted on January 23, 2009Seriously, John Markoff’s article in today’s NY Times has some over-the-top quotes in it. It’s about an Internet Worm known as Conficker or Downadup that’s making the rounds. It’s hit at least 8 million PCs worldwide. If your machine is infected, it’ll become part of a botnet: “The program uses an elaborate shell-game-style technique to permit [...
We’re Kinda Wired Here In Philly
Posted on January 23, 2009Forbes has released its list of the top 30 most-wired American cities. Philly barely made the list, at number 27. Who did we beat? Cincinnati, Columbus OH, and Austin TX. Who didn’t we beat? Pittsburgh, at #24. Yeah, but have I mentioned that the Phils won the Big One lately?
2.5 Million Macs, 22.7 Million iPods, 4.3 Million iPhone 3Gs
Posted on January 22, 2009Apple had a very good first quarter. On the other hand, Microsoft didn’t.
No Phones, No Lights, No Motorcar, Not a Single Luxury …
Posted on January 22, 2009… Like Robinson Crusoe, it’s primitive as can be. And, according to the Washington Post, it’s the White House. Actually, it’s not that bad. But the article makes it sound like the White House is a sort of technological black hole: “Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack [...
Information Superhighway? Not Hardly.
Posted on January 21, 2009TechCrunch has an interesting post today — The Day Live Web Video Streaming Failed Us — lamenting the problems most people encountered while trying to view the live video of the inauguration on their PCs and laptops. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Internet still doesn’t scale for live video: “When [...
Blog Digest, January 1-19
Posted on January 20, 2009Here’s a digest of newsworthy items from the first 2 weeks of 2009. Apple Changes Coming to the iTunes Store Three price points: $.69/$.99/$1.29. One-click option to upgrade your library to higher-quality, DRM-free versions that can be played on any MP3 device...
Book Review: Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age, Steve Knopper (2009)
Posted on January 20, 2009I’m not terribly interested in the music business. Nor do I download digital music — my wife is the iTunes maven in our house. But I’m interested in how disruptive technologies — PCs, the Internet, and such — destroy business models that have worked well for years...
Obama Has Delivered On His Promises Already
Posted on January 20, 2009Change has come … to the White House website. Have a looksee at the redesign.
Tax Savvy for Small Business
Posted on January 19, 2009By Frederick W. DailyCompletely updated, the 12th edition of Tax Savvy for Small Business provides the latest tax breaks, rules, forms and IRS publications. Library Record • Borrow it • More Titles
Future of Jenkins Survey
Posted on January 16, 2009Jenkins has engaged Axelroth & Associates to assist with refreshing our library’s Strategic Plan. Today, libraries face many challenges and we want to be sure that we are positioned to meet them over the next few years. We need your help in identifying the library services and resources that you value most, as well as [...
Fearless: The Richard A. Sprague Story
Posted on January 12, 2009By Joseph R. DaughenIn <i>Fearless: The Richard A. Sprague Story</i>, Joseph R. Daughen chronicles the significant events of a renowned Philadelphia lawyer who changed the landscape of the profession. Richard A. Sprague's philosophy holds that the law is sacred in this land, and as a lawyer he has always had the solemn obligation to [...
Courtroom Cowboy: The Life of Legal Trailblazer Jim Beasley
Posted on January 12, 2009By Ralph CiprianoF. Lee Bailey on Courtroom Cowboy: “Ralph Cipriano has brought Jim Beasley back to life, jumping off the pages through chapter after chapter. . . . Don’t start this one if you have something important to do early the next day. It’s damned good, just like its subject...
PHRs Projected to Save $21 Billion Annually
Posted on January 12, 2009The Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) recently published its research findings on the value of Personal Health Records (PHRs) and estimated that they could save $21 billion annually in the United States (full report). Their research also indicated that PHRs could result in an annual net value of $19 billion based on a [...
Real Estate Finance in a Nutshell, 6th
Posted on January 05, 2009By Jon W. BruceThis book presents a thorough overview of the law of real estate finance. It covers introductory matters, the mortgage market, real estate financing devices, the underlying obligation, mortgaged property, and transfer of both the mortgagor’s interest and the mortgagee’s interest...
Jenkins Closed on Saturdays Beginning January 2009
Posted on December 31, 2008Having reviewed usage on Saturdays over the past few years, we found that an average of 14 patrons, some of them members of the general public, use Jenkins on Saturdays. This is less than 3% of our membership The cost of keeping Jenkins open on Saturdays is about $30,000 annually...
Cuil Has Tanked (In Case You Actually Care)
Posted on December 30, 2008Cuil, the new search engine that launched in July with massive media hype, is getting almost no search traffic, reports TechCrunch. I’m not surprised — it was almost unusable when I tested it. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one, either...
Money For Nothing
Posted on December 30, 2008Last month my son — Mr. Monosyllabic — set the family record for text messages: 5,001. If I hadn’t already surrendered to inevitability back in the spring and agreed to shell out $30 a month for unlimited texting, he would have dinged me for $1,000...
Garner on Language and Writing
Posted on December 29, 2008By Bryan A. GarnerIn her foreword, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declares the book to be “a ‘must read’ primer” for her law clerks. Anyone with a lively interest in language, writing, and law will find this book hard to lay aside...
A Lean Christmas For Google Staff
Posted on December 23, 2008No cash bonuses for them this year — the company’s stock is trading at less than 50% of what it was last year. So they only get a free G1 phone. I’m sorry, but they shouldn’t kvetch, for the following reasons: (a) 570,000 people are unemployed, the highest number in more than 25 years (b) The G1’s a [...
PACER Turns Twenty [UPDATED]
Posted on December 22, 2008Here’s an article from The Third Branch celebrating PACER’s 20th birthday. Usage is up, way up: in 2008 alone, they added more than 130,000 new users. Even though Carl Malamud of public.resource.org thinks PACER is “broken” and suffers from a “mainframe mentality”, the system is still innovating: “The latest enhancement to the PACER system is the availability [...
The Little Red Book of Wine Law: a Case of Legal Issues
Posted on December 21, 2008By Carol RobertsonWine is a great passion of many professionals and this book takes an interesting look at how law and the wine have intersected, sometimes with very interesting results. In this book you’ll find a number of fascinating stories that examine the various legal concepts that are related to wine, vineyards, and wine-drinking, [...
YouTube’s Now The Second-Largest Search Engine
Posted on December 19, 2008It says so right here: 2.7 billion searches in November, about a quarter of all Google-based searches, and more searches than Yahoo. And Google’s starting to figure out how to monetize YouTube. According to CNET, Universal Music Group (one of the Big 4 labels) is receiving “tens of millions of dollars” is advertising revenues from YouTube...
No Color Monitor. No Hard Disk. No Keyboard. But It Had Switches and Blinky Lights.
Posted on December 19, 2008Thirty-four years ago today the world’s first commercially-successful personal computer, the Altair 8800, officially went on sale. (Notice I didn’t say “world’s first personal computer”. Obsessive techno-nerds get all manner of cranky when you call it the first PC...
HHS Secretary’s Blog
Posted on December 19, 2008I recently (yes, I know, better late than never) discovered (stumbled upon) Mike Leavitt’s blog. He is the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. I must say that I am impressed that a member of the President’s cabinet has a blog that he writes himself so that he can [...
Yahoo To Anonymize Data After 90 Days
Posted on December 18, 2008Yahoo has announced a new anonymizing policy — by mid-2010 they’ll begin scrubbing search logs after 90 days. According to the NY Times: “Under Yahoo’s new policy, the company will strip out portions of users’ IP addresses, alter small tracking files known as ”cookies” and delete other potential personally identifiable information after 90 days in most [...
Steve Deserts Us In Our Hour Of Need
Posted on December 18, 2008The economy’s tanked. January’s short, cold days loom ahead. Could it get any gloomier? Yup … Steve Jobs won’t be giving any more keynotes at Macworld. Not this year. Not ever. Hyperventilation ensued after the announcement by Apple on Tuesday...
Yahoo Tries To Get All Facebooky With Its New Smarter Inbox
Posted on December 16, 2008Yesterday Yahoo announced its new Smarter Inbox, which adds a whole bunch of social networking stuff to your email account. I haven’t used it, since it’s in a limited beta right now, but from what I can tell it looks like they simply duct-taped some of the features that Facebook popularized — friend invitations and [...
69% Of You Have A Problem [UPDATED]
Posted on December 16, 2008That would be all of you IE users. There’s a serious security flaw that hasn’t been patched. Wired reports that there’s already been an exploit aimed at stealing passwords for games. But you can bet there’ll be others coming along that will look for other, more lucrative stuff, such as credit card numbers...
An Australian Couple Got Served Papers. Thankfully All I Got Was A Lousy Cowbell.
Posted on December 16, 2008When my daughter found out I had a Facebook profile, she said hello by sending me a cowbell. (Cute … but useless.) Then she friended me. (Awwwwww.) Anyway, last week an Australian couple in default on a home loan were served a default judgement via Facebook after attempts to reach them at their home, and via [...
50 Unique Legal Paths: How to Find the Right Job
Posted on December 15, 2008By Ursula Furi-PerryOne of the best-kept secrets about the law degree is its versatility. Few degrees can match the 600 career tracks that can be followed upon its receipt. Today’s world requires increased flexibility, and a law degree can provide diverse career choices and many legal paths that still allow you to impact the [...
The Perils of Self-Diagnosis via the Web
Posted on December 15, 2008A recent study by Microsoft Research reports on the perils of cyberchondria, which the study defines as “the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology”, e.g. assuming the worst while attempting to diagnose your own health problems by searching the Web...
Another Article About Carl Malamud
Posted on December 12, 2008Back in September I blogged about a couple of articles on Carl Malamud, the driving force behind public.resource.org. Today Wired has another profile of Mr. Malamud. It’s an interesting read. Here are two pithy quotes I’d like to share with you: “The PACER system is the most broken part of our federal legal mechanism...
Hard Drives: Present and Future
Posted on December 11, 2008Whether you store all your data locally (on your desktop computer or laptop) or keep it on the Cloud, it’s gonna live on a hard disk somewhere. Two articles I stumbled upon today summarize the present and future of hard disk technology. First, Gizmodo demystifies the current technology...
Gmail Adds a Slew of New Features, Pushes Me to the Brink
Posted on December 11, 2008… To the brink of giving up my Yahoo mail account, which I’ve used for a decade, that is. I’ve resisted switching over to Gmail just because I don’t want my eggs in one basket, but since I’ve recently gotten a G1 Android phone, which requires a Gmail account to activate it, I think the [...
Google Further Fragments Itself
Posted on December 09, 2008Google announced today that they’ve begun digitizing millions of article from magazines such as New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Ebony. The articles are part of Google Book Search. If you want to search ‘em specifically, Google advises that you use the GBS Advanced Page, which now has a Magazines radio button in the Content [...
Buyer’s Remorse? Nah.
Posted on December 09, 2008It’s been a week since I got my T-Mobile G1, the Google Android phone. I’m really pleased. I don’t regret passing on the iPhone 3G. The G1 feels a lot like my Linux desktop — it’s different enough from Windows that you notice, but everything works together perfectly...
40th Anniversary Of The Mother Of All Demos [UPDATED]
Posted on December 09, 2008It was 40 years ago today that Doug Engelbart introduced the world to the wonders of the computer mouse, hypertext, video- and teleconferencing, and more. The 90 minute presentation, part of the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, stunned attendees, and was dubbed The Mother of all Demos by Steven Levy in his book [...
Easy Ways to Lower Your Taxes: Simple Strategies Every Taxpayer Should Know
Posted on December 08, 2008By Sandra Block, Stephen FishmanEasy Ways to Lower Your Taxes provides legitimate tactics and useful insights that can really lower your tax bill without running afoul of the IRS. Each rule is accompanied by excerpts, strategies, ideas, and real-world examples, plus information on retirement plans, home mortgages, student loans, charitable contributions, medical expenses, and [...
Etiquette Traps, And How To Avoid Them
Posted on December 08, 2008Yesterday Michael Smerconish published a column about Facebook. He’s skeptical about its value. According to Michael, “Texting is for chicks, Facebook is for teens, and nobody is going to convince me otherwise.” Hmm … interesting perspective...
Tweets From Mars
Posted on December 08, 2008The Discovery Channel has a short article about the Mars Phoenix Lander’s Twitter stream. NASA staffer Veronica McGregor hit on a brilliant idea: use Twitter to send short, 140 character updates about the lander’s progress to thousands of interested people...
DoJ Was 3 Hours Away From Stating The Obvious
Posted on December 04, 2008… That the Google-Yahoo advertising deal would make Google a monopoly. From an interview in The Am Law Daily with Sandy Litvack, lead counsel for the government: “We were going to file the complaint at a certain time during the day … We told them we were going to file the complaint at that time of [...
New Domain: .Tel
Posted on December 03, 2008The NY Times reports that there’s a new domain, .tel, which will allow you to store your contact info — email address, Skype address, cellphone number, work phone number, location, keywords, and more. According to the article, .net “has the potential to become a phone book for the Internet...
iPhone Lawsuit Update
Posted on December 03, 2008Back in late summer a couple of lawsuits were filed over the iPhone’s tendency to drop calls and suffer other network-related problems. Well, the Empire has Struck Back. According to Wired, in an answer to the one of the suits, Apple has stated that: “Plaintiff’s claims, and those of the purported class, are barred by the [...
Tops Hits, 2008
Posted on December 03, 2008Search engine end-of-year “top lists” can be pretty darn boring. Number one at Yahoo this year? Britney Spears. Do I care? No. (Here’s the list for Ask.com. Google’s isn’t out yet, but it’ll be available here soon...
Google Walks The Tightrope
Posted on December 03, 2008There was a great article in the NY Times on Sunday about the challenges Google faces as it becomes the world’s Internet gatekeeper. It focused especially on YouTube — which is ground zero for Google’s free-speech battle — and noted Google’s attempts to satisfy takedown requests made by countries such as Turkey and Thailand, as [...
Windows Plunges to 89% of Desktops Worldwide; Linux Surges Towards 1%
Posted on December 02, 2008A new survey from Net Applications indicates that worldwide market share for Windows and Internet Explorer continues to drop. On the operating system side, it shakes out thusly: Windows - a bit over 89% Mac OSX - just about 9% Linux - almost nudging 1% (after like 17 years of development) For browsers, here’s the top 3 (all others need [...
The Essential Guide for First-Time Homeowners: Maximize Your Investment & Enjoy Your New Home
Posted on December 01, 2008By Ilona Bray, Alayna SchroederWith Nolo’s Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home you’ll get the crucial information that will make the difference between worrying about your home and enjoying every minute you spend there. Packed with tips and timely reminders, the book gives you the information on: prioritizing purchases, maintenance and repairs, insurance, [...
Facebook Says, “Only Connect.”
Posted on December 01, 2008Two articles today about Facebook’s upcoming Connect service, which will allow you to sign in to Web sites using your Facebook credentials. They’re being very cautious with the rollout of Connect — after all, it was only a year ago that they ticked everybody off with Beacon...
Justice, But For The Wrong Reason?
Posted on December 01, 2008Last Wednesday a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Lori Drew of Missouri of three misdemeanors for her part in the suicide of teenager Megan Meier. Back in 2006, Drew created a fake MySpace account in the name of “Josh Evans”. She used the fictional teenager to flirt with Megan Meier, a young neighbor of Ms...
The Evolution of the Citizen Journalist
Posted on December 01, 2008Back in the early 1990s, an amateur with a $300 video camera exposed police brutality and changed the way that news was reported. During the 2004 Asian tsunami, bloggers on the scene posted updates every few minutes with details that matched, or exceeded, those provided by the mainstream press...
This Is What Happens When All Your Eggs Are In One Basket
Posted on November 26, 2008Here’s a warning posted on the Google Online Security Blog: beware of phishing sites that want to steal your Gmail account credentials: “To keep your Google account secure online, we recommend you only ever enter your Gmail sign-in credentials to web addresses starting with https://www...
No Kindle 2 Under The Tree This Year
Posted on November 25, 2008Apparently Amazon has delayed the release of the Kindle 2 until 1Q of 2009. If the leaked images of the next-gen version that made the rounds in October are real, it looks much more polished that its predecessor.
Death Penalty in a Nutshell
Posted on November 24, 2008By Victor StreibCovering both the substantive and the procedural law of the death penalty, this title begins with an explanation of its basic constitutional challenges and limitations. Major sections cover capital crimes and defenses, as well as trial level and post trial procedural issues...
Microsoft Knows It Has a Branding Problem
Posted on November 24, 2008MSN Search just didn’t sound Googley enough. So Microsoft changed the name to Live Search. Still not catchy. Next year, they may call their search service … Kumo? Personally, I vote for Moist and Chewy Search.
If You Build It, They Will Come
Posted on November 21, 2008And then you’ll have to build it again. The architects of the new Europeana digital cultural library designed the site to handle 5 million hits (to oversimplify, think “visits”) per hour. They got 10 million instead, so the site’s now down a day after it launched...
Google SearchWiki
Posted on November 21, 2008Yesterday Google launched SearchWiki, which allows you to reorder your Google search results, delete sites from the hit list, add sites to the results, and annotate your results page. For each hit, you’ll see an up-arrow (to reorder), an “X” (to delete), and a speech balloon (for comments)...
A Half-Hour to Boot? Even Vista’s Not That Slow
Posted on November 20, 2008The National Law Journal reports on a spate of lawsuits being filed by hourly workers against their employers over time spent booting their computers. The article quotes Las Vegas solo lawyer Mark Thierman, who has filed of few of these suits himself: “‘These are hourly employees who are not making much more than minimum wage,’ Thierman [...
From Hurricanes to Hollywood
Posted on November 19, 20081) Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Outstanding Need, Slow Progress 2) Editing Hollywood’s Editors: Cleaning Flicks for Families 3) Steroids in Sports: Cheating the System… What do all of these things have in common? They are all the titles of hearings before the U...
Microsoft Will Offer Free Security Software Next Year
Posted on November 19, 2008From the announcement: “Code-named ‘Morro’, this streamlined solution will be available in the second half of 2009 and will provide comprehensive protection from malware including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans. This new solution, to be offered at no charge to consumers, will be architected for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources, making it [...
Free Download: Doc Scrubber
Posted on November 19, 2008If you create and distribute documents with MS Office, you need to be aware of metadata. What’s that, you say? Metadata is data about data. It describes how, when, and by whom a document was created. You can manually remove this hidden information, or you can purchase one of the metadata scrubbers available on the market [...
PC Magazine, Print Edition, Will Cease in January 2009
Posted on November 19, 2008Ziff Davis says that, following the lead of some newspapers, they will now go all-digital. I dunno … there’s nothing like the print version of a magazine or a newspaper. You can read it anywhere. Leave it stuffed in the couch to finish later...
… And Speaking (Yet Again) of the iPhone
Posted on November 19, 2008The SearchMe application for the iPhone is now available. In case you’ve never used the Web-based version, SearchMe displays your hits the same way that Apple’s iTunes Cover Flow does album covers. You flip through your hits by clicking on the “forward” and “back” arrows...
More Halos for Wal-Mart
Posted on November 19, 2008Previously I blogged about how Wal-Mart’s selling the G1 Android phone 30 bucks cheaper than the T-Mobile store. Come December 28, they’ll also be selling the iPhone 3G, so says Boy Genius Report. Right now, there’s no info on what Wal-Mart’s discount will be, if any.
We Haven’t Come To Bury Jerry, But To Buy Yahoo Stock To Kick Him While He’s Down
Posted on November 18, 2008Amid the flurry of stories about Jerry Yang’s resignation as Yahoo’s CEO, two posts stand out. The NY Times reported that Yahoo’s market value rose $2.3 billion in pre-market trading this morning, hours after Yang’s resignation was announced...
No “Over the River and Through the Woods” This Year
Posted on November 18, 2008Hitwise reports that, just a week or so before Thanksgiving, visits to airline Web sites are at their lowest levels in 3 years. On the other hand, searches for “cheap flights” have increased, which indicates that travelers are being forced to pinch pennies this year...
The Good Earth, Revisited
Posted on November 18, 2008Google has digitized millions of photos, most of them previously unpublished, from LIFE magazine and has made them available via a special archive that’s part of Google Image Search. The first thing that I looked at was the Earthrise images snapped 40 years ago by the astronauts of Apollo 8...
Pennsylvania Trust Guide: A Handbook for Trustees and Their Advisors, 2008 Edition
Posted on November 17, 2008By Julieanne E. Steinbacher, Esq. and Adrianne J. Stahl, Esq.This timely new book is a practical guide for those in the profession who practice trust law, fund trusts, or advise trustees. The experienced authors have crafted an easy-to-use book that allows practitioners to examine the applicable statutes, benefit from insightful practice tips, and read [...
It’s Hard to Imagine Life Without USB
Posted on November 17, 2008Wired reports that the next-gen version of the USB standard, USB 3.0 (”SuperSpeed USB”) has been introduced and will be available late next year. This is the first upgrade to USB in eight years. USB 3.0 will be about 10x faster that USB 2...
Yet Another Reason Why Jenkins Really Oughta Sorta Think About Considering Getting Me An iPhone (Please)
Posted on November 14, 2008The NY Times reports that today Google is expected to release a free voice-recognition application that will allow iPhone users to submit their queries verbally, rather than by typing them using the iPhone’s virtual keyboard. The app will be available from the iTunes store...
FBI Investigating Threat to Reveal Patient Prescription Data
Posted on November 12, 2008An article in the WIRED Blog Network reported on an extortion plot to divulge millions of patients’ prescription information. Express Scripts, a St. Louis company that manages the prescription benefits of 50 million people, recently asked the FBI to investigate an extortion plot which threatened to expose the personal information, including the prescriptions, of [...
There You Have It — AVG Thinks Windows Is A Virus
Posted on November 12, 2008To be precise, it mistakenly thinks the Windows file user32.dll contains a Trojan Horse, but I enjoyed coming up with the smarmy title. If you are running AVG and you see the warning, do not delete the file. AVG has released an updated version of the virus definitions that corrects this problem.
Google Flu Trends
Posted on November 12, 2008I was on the Michael Smerconish radio show this morning, talking about Google Flu Trends, which tracks user search activity for flu-related terms. Google has analyzed 5 years’ worth of search data and discovered that search activity correlates with the CDC’s data on flu outbreaks...
Remembrance Day 2008
Posted on November 11, 2008I bet if I asked fifty people on the street why Veterans Day is celebrated on November 11, most of ‘em wouldn’t have a clue. But if I asked fifty Europeans, particularly the Brits, they’d know why November 11 is special. It’s Remembrance Day, the day that the armistice was signed ending World War I...
Nonprofit Meetings, Minutes & Records: How to Run Your Nonprofit Corporation So You Don't Run Into Trouble
Posted on November 10, 2008By Anthony MancusoNearly 1.5 million nonprofit organizations are busy preserving historic sites, saving libraries, helping the homeless, greening our cities- and so much more. Yet, while some have sophisticated record-keeping systems, most nonprofits are staffed by volunteers who need help running the organization and keeping up a proper — and legal –paper trail...
One Response for Every 12.5 Million Emails and Spammers Still Make $7,000 a Day [UPDATED]
Posted on November 10, 2008The BBC reports on a study by the International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley and the Computer Science and Engineering Department of UCSD on spam conversions — people who actually click on a link in a spam email in order to buy what’s being offered...
If You Think Gasoline Is Expensive, Then Consider This
Posted on November 10, 2008On average, your printer’s black ink costs you about $4,731 per gallon. This tidbit comes from PC World, which recently ran a test using one of the models from each of the top 4 printer manufacturers to see just how much ink is left in a cartridge when the printer forces you to change it...
That’s What You Get For Buying Version 1.0 Of Anything
Posted on November 10, 2008The iPhone 3G had its teething problems with dropped calls. Now its Android’s turn. ZDNet’s Ed Burnette reports that Android executed every word you typed into the T-Mobile G1 as a command: “When the phone booted it started up a command shell as root and sent every keystroke you ever typed on the keyboard from then [...
Windows: A Work-In-Progress after 25 Years
Posted on November 10, 2008Wired reports that today is the 25th anniversary of the introduction of Microsoft Windows. It wasn’t actually released to the public for another 2 years. (Hmm … talk about your corporate culture.) I remember working with CP/M, MS DOS, the Apple Lisa, and the first Mac, but I managed to avoid Windows for the first decade [...
Libraries … They’re Just Financial Black Holes
Posted on November 06, 2008Why is it every time there’s a budget crisis, the first step they take to cut costs is nuke the library system?
Firefox At 20
Posted on November 05, 2008After making a run at 20% of the worldwide browser market share in August, Firefox finally hit the mark in October, reports Wired’s Web Monkey blog. IE’s at about 71%. The market share for the other noteworthy browsers — Safari, Google Chrome, Opera — combined are under 10%...
America Votes, CNN Wins in a Landslide [UPDATED]
Posted on November 05, 2008TechCrunch reports that yesterday CNN had 27 million unique visitors to their site and generated 276 million page views. I haven’t seen figures for other news sites yet. But when I consider that CNN had more than 5 times their normal traffic and dished up 8x their average page views, it hits me that it [...
Will Someone Please Rescue Yahoo Before They Drown?
Posted on November 04, 2008In a bid to get approval for their advertising partnership, Google and Yahoo have submitted a revised proposal to the U.S. DoJ. The deal is now for 2 years, instead of 10, and revenue is capped at 25% of Yahoo’s total search advertising revenue (which, according to this post by John Battelle, will be [...
Something(s) To Think About While You’re Standing In Line This Afternoon
Posted on November 04, 2008UK Internet searches for the US Election Hitwise gives us an interesting chart showing the UK search activity for Obama, Biden, McCain, and Palin. (Geeze … look at the spike for Palin. I’ve noted this previously.) From their analysis: “As you can see, the Democrat candidate Barack Obama has received more searches than his Republican rival every [...
The Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs to Know
Posted on November 03, 2008By Stephen FishmanCopyright law is a complex field, and it’s crucial for writers to understand what’s entailed. Stephen Fishman covers what a copyright is, how it’s created and protected, limitations and transfer of ownership, how long it lasts, and what copyright infringement is all about...
Legal Roundup
Posted on October 31, 2008Recording Industry Association of America Judge Michael J. Davis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota has scheduled the retrial of RIAA v. Thomas for March 9, 2009. Davis had declared a mistrial last month after he decided that he had erred in one of his instructions to the jury — where he [...
Big Mac, Free Wifi … Does It Get Any Better Than That? [UPDATED]
Posted on October 30, 2008AT&T is now offering free wifi for iPhone users at AT&T hotspots in places such as airpoorts, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Barnes & Noble bookstores, and more. Access seems straightforward: once you connect to the network, you’ll have to enter your 10-digit number...
Public Service Announcement #3
Posted on October 30, 2008If you see a pop-up from a program calling itself either Antivirus XP 2008 or Antivirus XP 2009 warning you that your PC is infected, ignore it. Don’t click on it. And by all means, don’t shell out $50 for the software. It’s “scareware” — a fake program originating from Russia...
Google Syntax Squishyness
Posted on October 29, 2008Yesterday Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped reported that Google no longer ignores punctuation characters between words. Thus, a search for low cost will retrieve different results than low-cost. However, Google’s help still says that they ignore special characters...
A Unique Health ID Number for All
Posted on October 28, 2008A blog on the LA Times website reports on a RAND study (summary, full report) that estimated an $11 billion cost to provide every American with their own unique health ID number with a resultant $77 billion savings in increased efficiency and reduced errors...
The Christian Science Monitor Puts Its Faith In The Web
Posted on October 28, 2008The Christian Science Monitor will become the first U.S. national newspaper to go Web-only, reports the NY Times today. The changeover will occur in April 2009. From the article: “John Yemma, The Monitor’s editor, said that moving to the Web only will mean it can keep its eight foreign bureaus open while still lowering costs...
Maybe You Think Wal-Mart’s Evil …
Posted on October 28, 2008… But they’re selling the G1 Android phone for $148.88, more than $30 cheaper than the T-Mobile store, so they can’t be *all* bad. Right?
GE Stands for Google Electric, Right?
Posted on October 28, 2008Here’s an article and a blog post from the NY Times about Google’s research into energy, in particular alternative energy sources. If you’re interested, both are worth reading. One paragraph of the blog post caught my eye: “As to how Google would commercialize its own energy research — and the intellectual property that rises from it, [...
Google Books Library Project Settlement: $125 Million [UPDATED]
Posted on October 28, 2008Two weeks ago I blogged about how Google’s lawyers are such busy bees. Well, one case down and a zillion to go: the NY Times reports that Google has settled the class-action suit filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers over the Google Books Library Project for $125 million...
The Globalized Lawyer: Secrets to Managing Outsourcing, Joint Ventures and Other Cross-Border Transactions
Posted on October 27, 2008By David A. SteigerA practical, step-by-step guide on how to prepare for, negotiate and implement a new cross-border operation, The Globalized Lawyer examines both legal and business considerations involved. This book incorporates the advice and insights of more than two dozen leading experts, including professionals from such globally recognized organizations as Baker & McKenzie, [...
Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together
Posted on October 27, 2008Google has released an official version of Google Earth for the iPhone. Coverage here and here.
Netbooks
Posted on October 27, 2008One of the reasons cited for declining Windows Vista sales is the rise of netbooks — cheap, small notebook computers perfect for people who want to check their mail, surf the Web wirelessly, stuff like that. They normally run Windows XP (and can continue to do so until at least June 2010) or some flavor [...
Vista, We Hardly Knew Ye
Posted on October 27, 2008Last week Microsoft released its 1Q earning figures for July-September 2008. Fifteen billion in revenue. Office and server software, both up 20% or more. Woo hoo! Take that, stupid Steve Jobs and your annoying commercials. Um … not so fast: Windows revenue was up only 2%, and income was down 4%...
And While We’re on the Topic of the iPod …
Posted on October 23, 2008The Wall Street Journal today has a short post (subscription required) about how “fun” technologies — iPods, iPhones, DVD players, digital cameras, etc. — are adopted by people around the world about 5 years faster (on average) than “work” technologies such as microwaves, dishwashers, and washing machines...
The Day The Music (Industry) Died
Posted on October 23, 2008Seven years ago today, the iPod was introduced to the world by Steve Jobs. It helped save Apple, which up to that point was getting by on the five or six dozen people left in America still using Macs. And it was the nail in the coffin for the CD and the record business as [...
bgC3 LLC
Posted on October 23, 2008That’s the name of Bill Gates’ new think tank, according to TechFlash, a new Seattle tech blog. “BG” obviously stands for Bill Gates, the “c” means “catalyst”, and the 3 indicates that it’s his third organization, after Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation...
… And While We’re On The Subject Of Literacy
Posted on October 22, 2008… Let’s also discuss tech literacy. Frank Hayes at Computerworld has posted an article about how lawyers for Barclays Capital messed up (for lack of a better term) a spreadsheet of assets belonging to failed investment bank Lehman Brothers...
Search Literacy Is Not Just About Children
Posted on October 22, 2008Yesterday John Battelle blogged about how his daughter had been assigned a project to define 10 related words. Her teacher said she could either use a dictionary or talk to her parents about what the words mean. Battelle asked his daughter if she had considered using Google...
Today’s Numbers
Posted on October 22, 20081,400 - Yahoo employees waiting for the pink slip now that Jerry Yang announced a 10% workforce reduction. 6.9 - Million iPhones sold during Apple’s 4Q (July-September). 13 - Million (again) - Total number of iPhones in the wild. ** Note to Jenkins: I coulda been one of those lucky 6...
More Next-Gen Search Engines
Posted on October 22, 2008Last week I made a video blog post on next-generation search engines Searchme and Powerset. This week: round two, featuring Soovle (which lets you compare and contrast the suggested search terms offered up by Google, Yahoo, and others) and Facesaerch (a “cover-flow” front-end to Google image search, limited to facial shots)...
Botnets, Zombies, Malware, Trojans, Spam, Phishing … Oy!
Posted on October 21, 2008There’s an interesting article in today’s NY Times about botnets — networks of “zombie” PCs that have been compromised by malware such as Trojan Horses — that are being used by criminals worldwide to distribute spam and carry our phishing attacks...
ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools, 2008-2009
Posted on October 20, 2008By Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, SponsorThis publication sets forth the standards that law schools must meet to obtain ABA approval. The 2008-2009 edition reflects all changes and/or revisions made at the August 2008 Annual Meeting of the Section’s Council...
Compiling Bibliographies in JAC, Jenkins’ Catalog
Posted on October 17, 2008Q: I am working on compiling a bibliography for a research project and would like to know how I can accomplish this by using JAC. A: You’re in luck. JAC offers a new feature of creating lists (called My Lists) To use this feature: Login to MyJAC Click on “Search JAC” button to search JAC From [...
True Or False: George Orwell Was Born In England?
Posted on October 16, 2008False — it was India. But he was English. And today the English government is starting to look more and more like the Big Brother regime Orwell envisioned in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The NY Times reports that the government is considering the creation of a giant database containing Internet, email and telephone traffic in [...
Using HTTPS with Gmail
Posted on October 16, 2008I’ve created a three-minute video discussing how to use HTTPS with Gmail. I’ve blogged about this previously, but hopefully the video will help you understand the benefits of an encrypted email connection when you’re accessing your mailbox in a public location such as a coffee bar or airport.
Apple’s Version of the “Changing of the Guard”?
Posted on October 15, 2008Maybe … Maybe not. But yesterday’s Apple event, launching their refreshed line of laptops, sure featured a whole lot less of Steve Jobs than we’re used to. He still talked for about 30 minutes, though — not bad for a guy who’s died and had a heart attack (in that order) since the end of [...
This Explains Why I Only Saw 406 Junk Messages In My Email This Morning
Posted on October 15, 2008Yesterday the NY Times reported that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission shut down a major spammer network. From the article: At one point, the network accounted for 1/3 of all spam Their botnet consisted of 35,000 compromised PCs — Notice I wrote “PCs” and not “computers”...
Next-Generation Search Engines: The Movie
Posted on October 15, 2008I’ve prepared a three-minute video on a couple of the most interesting next-generation search engines: Searchme and Powerset. Enjoy!
Lawrence Lessig is a Pirates Fan
Posted on October 15, 2008Lawrence Lessig posted a thoughful essay, In Defense of Piracy, in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) on Saturday. What he calls piracy, I’d call “mashups” or “remixes”, but then you’re left with “In Defense of Remixes”, which is pretty flat indeed...
My Second Public Service Announcement
Posted on October 14, 2008(Here’s the first.) Anyway, in case you haven’t noticed, our economy melted down last week. I’ll leave the messy details to others. Suffice it to say that a lot of banks are a tad shaky just now, and some have been swallowed by others...
Where We At With Anonymizing Google?
Posted on October 14, 2008Danny Sullivan has written an excellent status report for Google’s program for anonymizing user data. Key points: Google is anonymizing only the last octet of the IP address with zeros, i.e. 12.345.678.000. This is a compromise between privacy on the one hand, and, on the other, having enough of the IP address in order to do [...
Google’s Keeping Their Lawyers Busy [UPDATED]
Posted on October 14, 2008Google’s trying to head the Department of Justice off at the pass in order to try to reach a settlement concerning their advertising deal with Yahoo, reports the Wall Street Journal today (subscription required). We’ll see how that goes — a lot of people have already piled on, urging a “no” vote...
The Reflective Counselor: Daily Meditations for Lawyers
Posted on October 13, 2008By Maureen C. Kessler, F. Gregory CoffeyThis is the only book of it's kind written just for lawyers. Reverse the burnout trend, and discover how easy it is to put energy and enthusiasm back into your career with this once-a-day meditation strategy, you won't be disappointed...
Let’s See … Which Persona Will I Be This Time?
Posted on October 10, 2008I’ve been using Zoho for, I guess, a couple of years now. They offer a great suite of online tools: text editor, presentation manager, spreadsheet database, and a lot more. Unfortunately, they — like just about everyone else — are overshadowed by Google...
Text JAC Records To Your Cellphone
Posted on October 09, 2008Let’s say you’ve searched JAC, Jenkins’ Automated Catalog, and you’re viewing the record for a book that is on-point. You could: Print it out, which is a waste of paper and toner Get a scrap of paper, find a pencil buried somewhere in your briefcase, write down the call number and hope you don’t misplace it Use [...
If It Was My Kid
Posted on October 08, 2008He’s only 20 years old. It was a game that went too far. Politics played a part, too. But why, oh why, did David Kernell think that hacking into Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s email account and posting that info for others to see was a good idea? He had to know that the trail would point [...
England Changes Patient Consent Policy for Electronic Health Records
Posted on October 08, 2008One of my previous blogs discussed some of the security issues with the National Health Service’s Connecting for Health IT Programme. A recent article in the Financial Times reports that the NHS has changed the way that patients can consent to having their Electronic Health Record (EHR) posted online...
Thanks For Making Me Feel Old
Posted on October 08, 2008Google has introduced a new feature to Gmail, Mail Goggles, designed to slow you down before you send that late-night email on the weekend that you’ll regret come Monday morning. Unlike Jon Perlow, the Gmail engineer who posted about Mail Goggles, I don’t have any email regrets with ex-girlfriends...
As a Public Service …
Posted on October 08, 2008… I present you with a guide for stopping cellphone spam. One of the options involves blocking text messages sent through email. (You may not be aware that your cellphone has an email address. For AT&T, my carrier, it’s phone_number@text...
The Database of Intentions, Then … and Now
Posted on October 07, 2008As part of Google’s never-ending 10th birthday party, they’ve got a link on their homepage to their oldest available index, from January 2001. Come with me to a kinder, gentler time, when: A query for paris hilton returned pages about hotels instead of a spoiled bimbo...
LexisNexis Congressional
Posted on October 07, 2008We’ve just added a great new resource to our Member Online Services. LexisNexis Congressional is available 24/7 to all Jenkins members. This web site will help all of those federal legislative researchers out there. For starters, it provides access to the Statutes at Large (1789-present) and the United States Code...
The Legal Career Guide, Fifth Edition
Posted on October 06, 2008By Gary A. Munneke, Ellen WayneWritten by a law professor at Pace University School of Law and the Dean of Career Services at Columbia University School of Law, New York, this fifth edition of one of the ABA’s bestselling career guide books has been updated to address the unique needs of today’s law students [...
David Pogue’s Tech 101 Class Is Now In Session
Posted on October 06, 2008David Pogue over at the NY Times has posted Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User. As he puts it: “One of these days, I’m going to write a book called, ‘The Basics.’ It’s going to be a compendium of the essential tech bits that you just assume everyone knows — but you’re wrong … I’m [...
Linux At 17: It’s Old Enough To Drive, But I Wouldn’t Loan It My Car
Posted on October 06, 2008Linux journal reports that yesterday (October 5) was the 17th anniversary of Linus Torvald’s post to the comp.os.minix newsgroup announcing the availablility of what we now know as Linux. I have a love-hate relationship with Linux. It’s such a cool concept, but a real pain to deal with...
It Ain’t Bragging If You Can Do It
Posted on October 06, 2008You may remember that when the iPhone was introduced in January 2007 Steve Jobs predicted that Apple would sell 10 million of ‘em by the end of 2008. According to Fortune, it looks like they may have gotten the job done with 3 months to spare.
Steve Jobs Had a Heart Attack? Whew … I Thought It Might Be Something Serious!
Posted on October 03, 2008‘Cause the first time, they said he was dead. Anyway, Silicon Alley Insider reports that a “citizen journalist” posted a fake story on CNN’s iReport.com about Steve having a heart attack. (Does everything have to have a lower-case “i” in front of it now? Is that like a Web 2...
KGB and Keystone Kops, All Rolled Into One [UPDATED]
Posted on October 02, 2008John Markoff reports today about how the Chinese government blocks chat messages sent by TOM-Skype users containing forbidden words, then logs the text of the message, date and time, and the IP address and user name of the sender. They even log chats between TOM-Skype users in China and Skype members in other countries...
Brinkmanship
Posted on October 01, 2008Wired reports today that Apple has threatened to shut down the iTunes Store if the Copyright Royalty Board votes on Thursday to increase by .06 the royalties paid to publishers and songwriters. That’s right, they’ll close down iTunes. Apple pays about $...
… And Yet More Control
Posted on October 01, 2008Thomson Reuters is suing George Mason University, arguing that the university reverse-engineered Thomson’s EndNote citation software and created a free Firefox extension called Zotero. Thomson wants GMU to stop distribution of Zotero, plus damages of $10 million for each year it’s been available...
Anonymous Web Browsing
Posted on October 01, 2008For at least a year now, I’ve been interested in installing and using Tor, the software which hides your IP address by bouncing your packets among a number of servers. But I held off — it seemed a pain to install. Plus, to be totally protected, you need to encrypt your packets...
And Speaking of Control …
Posted on October 01, 2008… Which I just did, Microsoft is trying a new angle in their attempts to bribe people to use them. They’ve announced SearchPerks! — oy! — which lets you earn “tickets towards exciting prizes whenever you search the Web.” The control? You “must have Internet Explorer 6...
Book Review: The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, Nicholas Carr (2008)
Posted on October 01, 2008I’m a sucker for a good story. Nicholas Carr starts his study of the effects of “Cloud Computing” on society with a visit to VeriCenter (now Sungard) datacenter in Boston: “I realized that what I was standing in was a prototype of a new kind of power plant — a computing plant that would come to [...
BusinessWeek’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web
Posted on September 30, 2008Actually, it’s really 27 –the article counts Sergey, Larry and Eric as one human unit. Hive mind? For the most part, I’m OK with the list. I must confess that I’m not real familiar with some of the people who made it. Others, I’m not too fond of: Ariana Huffington and Jon Stewart...
The ABA Section of International Law: Leading the World's International Lawyers since 1878
Posted on September 29, 2008By Robert E. Lutz III, Aaron SchildhausThe ABA Section of International Law: Leading the World’s International Lawyers since 1878 chronicles the founding, seminal events, distinguished leaders, and significant accomplishments that have shaped the 130 year-history of the Section of International Law...
Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Google-fied
Posted on September 29, 2008Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land has written a long — more than 4,400 words! — piece on the Google Hive Mind. According to the article: “Rather than follow a rigid top-down master plan, the company’s direction and success has been shaped by decisions often taken [...
Facebook Gets Some Adult Supervision
Posted on September 29, 2008The LA Times reports that Facebook has hired Theodore W. Ullyot, former chief of staff to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as vice president and general counsel. The article discusses other members of Facebook’s management team, particularly Sheryl Sandberg, who was hired away from Google...
The U.S. Government, Brought To You By Google [UPDATED]
Posted on September 29, 2008Interesting article in today’s Washington Post about how Google has set up a Washington DC office in order to evangelize government agencies about the merits of Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Docs. The article mentions how Vivek Kundra, Chief Technology Officer of the District of Columbia is in the process of switching all 38,000 employees [...
I Have a Gub. Abt Natural.
Posted on September 29, 2008Yesterday the NY Times published a short piece about how, as of the end of last year, U.S. cellphone subscribers are sending more text messages than making calls. From the article: “Teenagers ages 13 to 17 are by far the most prolific texters, sending or receiving 1,742 messages a month, according to Nielsen Mobile...
Guess Who’s Missing
Posted on September 26, 2008The NY Times reports that 3 of the top 4 U.S. Internet Service Providers have told Congress that they will develop a set of “best practices for behavioral advertising and information collection”. In other words, you will have to give them permission to scan your packets in order to dish up relevant ads...
A Bit O’ Shameless Self-Promotion
Posted on September 26, 2008I’ve written an article on next-gen search engines. It was published in The Legal Intelligencer on Tuesday, and it’s now made its way to law.com. Enjoy. BTW I have another article from May of this year, on encryption, available from law...
Wink Links to Half a Bil
Posted on September 25, 2008People search engine Wink now has now indexed 500 million profiles from social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. I blogged this week about how I use Wink to look for people who don’t show up in White Pages searches (scroll down to the “Snip!” article...
More Copyright Pushback
Posted on September 25, 2008A couple of weeks ago I began reading and thinking about how much effort corporations are putting into the “command and control” of what we get to see and do on the Web. I decided to start following copyright cases. At first, I only cared about how copyright would affect Google/YouTube...
Journal Portal
Posted on September 25, 2008Have you checked out Jenkins’ Journal Portal lately? The Journal Portal is a great tool to use when you are trying to figure out where a title is available electronically (i.e. Westlaw, Lexis, HeinOnline, etc.). It works well for journals and even many treatises...
Firefox Almost Hit 20% Market Share In Late August
Posted on September 24, 2008Safari made a run at 7%. Google Chrome? Not even 1%. (But still better than Opera. Go figure.) And that (cough) other browser still has like 70% of the market.
Book Review: Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters, Bill Tancer (2008)
Posted on September 24, 2008I promised a full review of this book, so here goes. First, I have to say that Click is, in effect, a 203-page advertisement for Hitwise, a firm that analyzes 10 million Internet users in the U.S. But I’m totally OK with that, because they surely have all manner of cool data at their disposal...
Don’t Blame the Victim
Posted on September 24, 2008Ars Technica has posted a story entitled Fake popup study sadly confirms most users are idiots. Forty-two students at North Carolina State University were presented with 4 different bogus Windows dialog boxes that popped at random times during a presentation of medical Web sites...
Birthdays
Posted on September 24, 2008OK, I lied, again. Here’s the last — I swear! — “Google turns 10″ post. They’ve launched their own Google 10th Birthday site. I like the timeline. … And today is the 15th birthday of Myst. It was the first CD that I bought when I finally got a PC with a CD-ROM drive...
I’ve Changed My Mind (And I’ll Probably Change It Again) [UPDATED]
Posted on September 23, 2008I think I prefer the T-Mobile G1, the Google Android phone introduced today, over the iPhone. Seriously. WSJ’s Walt Mossberg has posted his first impressions after playing with a prototype. Since the G1 won’t be available for the masses until October 22, it’s too early for a head-to-head comparison with the iPhone...
I’m Just the Messenger. Please Don’t Shoot Me.
Posted on September 22, 2008I’m about halfway through Bill Tancer’s new book, Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters. It is fascinating. Tancer is general manager of global research for Hitwise, a firm that analyzes 10 million Internet users in the U...
Dan Declares Blogging Bankruptcy
Posted on September 22, 2008I was out of the office last week. It’ll take me forever to write up each of these individually, so here’s a digest of interesting stuff, in no particular order: Japan, Sweden and Netherlands Lead in Broadband More sky is falling news. The bad news: the U...
hey that's me! no joke. i think i'm being insulted ... can you tell me where this was taken.
Posted on October 17, 2007Your Newspaper is Waiting for You @ Jenkins
Posted on October 12, 2007Did you know that your membership @ Jenkins brings your favorite newspapers and news magazines to your desktop? Yes, you can them remotely as many of our members already do. You can learn how to effectively search the newspaper and news magazine collection of over 800 titles by viewing this 8 1/2 minute .
Music in the Park
Posted on July 06, 2007In response to the controversy over the recent enforcement of Fairmount Park Regulations concerning the playing of music in Rittenhouse Square, the City Solicitor has issued a on the Regulation of Individuals Playing Music in Parks.
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