Legal Research

iRex Iliad Reviewed (sadly not by me)

Posted on August 31, 2007
In this weeks Law Societys Gazette Rupert White reviews the iRex Iliad Reader, the eBook Reader currently being trialled by Sweet and Maxwell. Overall the reaction seems quite positive, features that have won approval include the ability to annotate texts...

Adventures in Ubuntu: OpenOffice.org

Posted on August 30, 2007
In this post I shall address and hopefully dispel the fear of being Office-less, by which I mean being without your old friends Word, Excel, et al. If you are using your computer for any kind of work, then you will obviously want to be compatible with your colleagues, who more than likely, will be [...

Life Streams

Posted on August 28, 2007
Creating life streams using Tumblr seems to be pretty popular at the minute. Increasingly our web presences are scattered and its not unusual for a person to use many or all of the following to update and share: a blog, Twitter, Google Reader and its Shared Items, Pownce, FaceBook, Jaiku, del...

Adventures in Ubuntu: Downloading Installing Software

Posted on August 28, 2007
Installing stuff with Ubuntu is a very different experience. Ubuntu comes with stacks of applications ready to use, but there is likely to be other stuff you want to run (and believe me there is an amazing amount to choose from). I shall attempt a brief explanation, but please bear in mind I have only [...

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

atoolo

Posted on August 27, 2007
atoolo is a portable desktop and a very attractive one at that. The English version has just been launched (it was founded last year in Germany) and I received an invite to try it out. My initial impressions are good. If you want an online desktop then atoolo seems to have all of the right [...

Penguin Celebrations

Posted on August 24, 2007
Penguin are re-releasing 36 of their recent bestsellers in the classic and iconic Penguin design: three panes, Gill Sans, the lot. To be published in September and available until Christmas, genres include fiction, essays, science, crime, travel and biography (colour coded of course)...

Adventures in Ubuntu: Email: Evolution and Thunderbird

Posted on August 24, 2007
Evolution is the default email program for Ubuntu, meaning it comes set up and ready to go. It is very similar to Outlook in its layout and functionality (although perhaps a little nicer to look at?). Evolution can be set up to access your other email account via POP etc...

This Weeks Useful Tools

Posted on August 23, 2007
Bookmarked this week: freshbadge - create and download Web 2.0 style badges. Seenly - photobooth-esque, take wbcam pics using Seenly and add effects. Web Photo Resizer - crop, resize, and other tools to smarten up your pics for free. I love that you dont have to register, meaning you can use this on the fly...

Adventures in Ubuntu: Graphics Packages: GIMP

Posted on August 22, 2007
GIMP, contrary to popular belief does not refer to a sad librarian type who constantly posts about Ubuntu. In actual fact it is a much loved photoshop type graphics application. Who knew? For anyone who is used to using Photoshop this isnt going to be any kind of scary...

Adventures in Ubuntu: Graphics Packages: F Spot

Posted on August 21, 2007
I was going to try and post about my Ubuntu experience in a kind of logical order, however, I started using one of Ubuntus graphics applications yesterday to edit and upload the screenshots for my last post and I liked it so much I thought why wait. Ubuntu comes bundled with a number of graphics [...

Indie Week

Posted on August 21, 2007
No, not a week of listening to the Jesus and Mary Chain (although feel free to do so), rather a week of celebrating Indie Bookshops. The Booksellers Association has pegged the first week in July 2008 as Independent Booksellers Week and are hoping it will encourage those who never normally visit independent bookstores to venture [...

Adventures in Ubuntu: A Bit of Customisation

Posted on August 20, 2007
As much as my general first impressions were positive, I must admit I wasnt too impressed on the look of the default Ubuntu. If youre used to something a bit more shiny, like Vista for example, you might be disappointed. All very surface I realise, but aesthetics are increasingly important as expectations are raised by [...

Hidden Treasures

Posted on August 20, 2007
The British Library has launched a competition to reveal treasures hidden away in Britains regional public libraries. The winners will digitised and given the Turning the Pages 2.0 treatment. The shortlist and more information can be found here. History revealed: quest for libraries hidden treasures - BBC Bookmark to:

Adventures in Ubuntu: Installation and Connecting to Stuff

Posted on August 19, 2007
My project this weekend was to install Ubuntu on my laptop. Ubuntu is a Linux based OS, it comes bundled with a lot of cool stuff (more on this later) and it is of course free. It is also, from what Ive read, a less scary Linux, so perfect for non techy peeps like me...

Watching Us Watching Them

Posted on August 16, 2007
The Financial Times reports on a project by the COIs Media Monitoring Unit which plans to monitor blog reactions to Government policy. The project was prompted by the spread of debate in new media. Clarence Mitchell, director of the MMU: Theres a whole new level of debate taking place online which simply didnt exist before [...

8hands

Posted on August 15, 2007
8hands is a download (Alpha version) that lets you manage some of your social networks via your desktop. So far this supports FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. You can add locations to your profile, meaning you can set it up so that it recognises your Twitter, FaceBook etc...

Your Media Age

Posted on August 15, 2007
Penelope Trunk: Here's an idea: We should determine our generation not by our age but by how we use media. Trunk has created a quiz to help you determine which generation you really belong to. My test results say I am a member of Generation Y, although my birth date makes me a Gen [...

Out of Office or Simply Screening

Posted on August 14, 2007
The BBC reports on a new trend - using the out of office on your email as a way of avoiding overload. Like it! Turning on your out of office helps keep the pressure off because you know people wont be expecting an immediate response to their email. On the other hand if youre running [...

Penguin Books

Posted on August 14, 2007
Penguin has launched its new look web site. First impressions: its a wee bit busy. But there are lots of cool things (not all of them new) that will take your mind off that: stacks of RSS feeds, Blog a Classic, podcasts and extracts for selected titles...

Microblogging for the Masses

Posted on August 14, 2007
It took me a while to get Twitter, but I did get it in the end. Now I Tweet with some frequency and enjoy following a select few. Some of my fellow librarians regularly post useful links and news items and Ive found on many occasions that this is the quickest way to keep up-to-date...

Stuff I Am Enjoying

Posted on August 12, 2007
Amaztype is a site that will search Amazon for you and display your results as book covers arranged to spell out your search term. Nifty. This is very fun to play with, but probably not a serious search engine to use if you are actually trying to find something...

This Weeks Useful Tools

Posted on August 11, 2007
Only a few this week: urlao - shorten URLs and choose what you call them. Sending emails through Twitter - tutorial from Lifehack. Fun Piper - a bit like Twitter, but asking the question How was your weekend? and enabling photos and video to be uploaded with your post...

Dos Yous Compute?

Posted on August 10, 2007
I have been a reader of Robotic Librarian for a little while now, but his recent post on bookbinding was so interesting I felt the need to share. Go read At the bindery and marvel at Don Quixote bound in fur! Bookmark to:

Minesweeper the Movie

Posted on August 07, 2007
At last!! Watch the trailer at College Humor Bookmark to:

Stem Legal

Posted on August 06, 2007
Belated congrats and best wishes to Steve Matthews of Vancouver Law Librarian Blog and Slaw fame. Steve has embarked upon a bold new venture - Stem Legal: The vision behind Stem is to offer an outsourced service for law firms to increase online profile and web-driven business opportunities...

This Weeks Useful Tools

Posted on August 05, 2007
Bookmarked this week: Twitdir - a Twitter directory, search for fellow Twitterers. Twitter Timer - send Twitter Timer a direct message and it will Tweet you back a reminder. Tweetr beta 1.01 - Twitter on Adobe AIR, not tried this yet but I am going to experiment...

Books etc.

Posted on August 05, 2007
More links, this time with a distinctly bookish flavour: Venezuelas four legged mobile libraries from the BBC. Hooray, the Bibliomulas are here! (via Boing Boing) Reclaiming the bookshelves for reason from The Guardian. A bit of Guerrilla Librarianship biologist style - see Biologists Helping Bookstores: reshelving pseudo-scientific nonsense since 2007...

Picture This

Posted on August 05, 2007
Cassavetes has some damn fine films and I have been slightly immersed, upon resurfacing I discovered I had a slight Peter Falk accent, a moderately successful strip joint and some mental health issues. On the upside I also discovered there was lots of interesting stuff sitting in my Google Reader...

Enjoy the Silence

Posted on July 30, 2007
It might be a bit quiet around here for a few days. Im having a bit of a break from blogging. Going to catch up on some books and films (Naruse, here I come!), and Ill be shooting some b-ball outside of the school, natch. Bookmark to:

The Final Curtain

Posted on July 26, 2007
More famous than the Laughing Cow, and certainly not laughing, Shambo the sacred bull will be slaughtered. On Monday the Court of Appeal passed death sentence on Shambo ending a legal battle that began in April of this year. Today, despite the efforts of protesters he was taken...

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