Internet Legal Research Weekly -- May 18, 2008

Welcome to Issue #300 of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, a newsletter that delivers relevant and timely legal research information, and other fun stuff, to your inbox every Sunday. If you like what you read, please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to do the same! To subscribe, all you have to do is visit Inter Alia and fill out the subscription form -- it's free!

Well, I didn't make it out of town -- I decided to get sick instead. But my loss is your gain -- here's another issue of the newsletter!

And it's a special issue, in terms of numbers, anyway. This is the 300th issue of the Internet Legal Research Weekly. Well, maybe it's not quite a weekly -- 300 issues over 8 years translates to just over 37 issues a year. Still, I hope you enjoy it, and I thank all of you who have stuck with me during all these years!

Blawgs of the Week
Here are a few of the law-related blogs featured on Inter Alia this past week:

This week I'm continuing my lengthy (but necessary) series of tips on computer security. This week, we're tackling Privacy, Part 2:

-- Although password-saving programs are great on your own individual computer, don't save passwords if you are prompted to do so on a shared or public PC. Also, if you are using a public/shared computer, make sure you log out of sites so others can't read your email or other private files.

-- Any time you buy something online or register for a service, you are asked for your email address. Because you don't always want these sites keeping up with you, give them a temporary email address. Sites like Jetable allow you to create temporary email addresses that expire hours (or in some cases, minutes) after your use for it ends.

-- Get a secondary email address -- don't give out your regular email address to everyone. Use a web-based service like Gmail or Yahoo for your less important email, and save your regular email address for friends, family, and others who are close to you.

Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net – I’ll post your question (don’t worry, I won’t use your real name) and try to get an answer for you!

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
Occasionally I visit the legislatures of other countries, and today we're looking at the Canadian province of British Columbia. Here you'll find what you usually get a most legislative sites: information on the Speaker, Members, and Officers, as well as Documents and Proceedings, Legislation, a Legislative Library, links to House and Committee webcasts, and more. This is a well-kept, regularly-maintained site.

Government Information Online: Ask a Librarian
Having a problem finding government information? Ask a government information librarian! This service allows you to chat (Monday through Friday) or email a reference librarian at a number of different university libraries around the country. They promise to respond to email queries within 48 hours. Best of all, the service is free!

Radiological Society of North America
The RSNA's mission is to promote and develop the highest standards of radiology and related sciences through education and research. Like most association sites, many of the materials here are intended for members, but there are a great deal of resources for the radiological researcher as well. The home page has links to several journals, which feature many articles for free (as well as RSS feeds to learn about new articles). The Education, Publications, Science, Quality, and Technology links all contain useful information -- give it a look.

Texas Educator Certification
For those of you in Texas, here's a way to check on a teacher's educational certification. Just plug in a name, and you can find out when the teacher was certified and in what topics, as well as the status of that certification. That's all this site does -- but it's still a very useful site to have.

State of Michigan RSS Feeds
Here's another useful site that doesn't do very much -- it just provides a listing of all the RSS feeds currently offered by the State of Michigan. As of this morning there are 71 feeds -- a great way to keep up with what's going on in Michigan, if you are so inclined.

Microsoft's unveiled a really nifty, useful tool this week -- the WorldWide Telescope. Download the free software and view the universe as you've never seen it.

BoomStick is exactly what is sounds like -- you have a gun and you shoot things. Don't worry, you're a stick figure shooting targets, so it isn't too violent.

Well, that’s it for Issue #300 – I hope you liked it! If you did, pass this along to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to subscribe. Also, feel free to drop me an e-mail any time if you have questions, or if you have websites or other topics you want included in a future issue.

Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net, or visit Inter Alia and sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

Archives: Miss an issue? You can read previous issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly in the Archives.

Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.