Legal Research

There’s An App For That. (And You’ll Use It For a Day Then Forget About It.)

Posted on February 20, 2009
How 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, 2009
A 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, 2009
Not 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, 2009
Which 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...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

I’m Not Going There … Or There

Posted on February 17, 2009
Here 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, 2009
TechCrunch 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, 2009
By 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, 2009
Yesterday 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, 2009
Wired 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, 2009
According 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, 2009
Pitchers 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, 2009
I’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, 2009
Last 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, 2009
Last 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, 2009
Tuesday’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, 2009
Five 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, 2009
Yesterday 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, 2009
That’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, 2009
CrunchGear 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, 2009
By 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, 2009
Mrs. 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, 2009
Here’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, 2009
Watching 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, 2009
First 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, 2009
Yesterday 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, 2009
How 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, 2009
As 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, 2009
And 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Microsoft 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...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.