Legal Research

Ted Kennedy Won the Stanley Cup in 1966

Posted on June 05, 2009
Google 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, 2009
Someone 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, 2009
Yesterday 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, 2009
Item 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...

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“Closing Bell” For Business Method Patents?

Posted on June 03, 2009
The 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, 2009
Tomorrow’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, 2009
By 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Last 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, 2009
While 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, 2009
Today 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, 2009
Time 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, 2009
Facebook 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, 2009
By 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, 2009
I’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, 2009
Mine 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
I’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, 2009
By 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, 2009
A 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, 2009
My 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, 2009
Back 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, 2009
There 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, 2009
On 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, 2009
By 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, 2009
Looks 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, 2009
About 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, 2009
Here’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, 2009
I 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, 2009
Here’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 [...

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