Legal Research

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, 2008
I’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, 2008
Actually, 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, 2008
By 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...

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Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Google-fied

Posted on September 29, 2008
Danny 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Interesting 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, 2008
Yesterday 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
I’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, 2008
People 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, 2008
A 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, 2008
Have 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, 2008
Safari 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
Ars 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, 2008
OK, 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, 2008
I 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, 2008
I’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, 2008
I 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...

Webblits have been discontinued - Please update your bookmarks

Posted on December 04, 2007

Dan Bought a Cordless Drill at Target Last Friday

Posted on November 30, 2007

This Baby Hasn't Kindled My Interest

Posted on November 21, 2007

New Jersey's New Prescription Price Website

Posted on November 02, 2007

The Party's Over (After Only 10 Months)

Posted on November 02, 2007

Call Me Old and Busted ...

Posted on October 25, 2007

hey that's me! no joke. i think i'm being insulted ... can you tell me where this was taken.

Posted on October 17, 2007

Your Newspaper is Waiting for You @ Jenkins

Posted on October 12, 2007
Did 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 .

Antivirus Misconceptions and My Favorite Vestigial Organ

Posted on October 09, 2007

Would You Put Your Medical History in Bill G's Hands?

Posted on October 04, 2007

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