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Welcome to Issue #305 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!

Screen captures is a Picnik after all
When I capture images from the internet for use in presentations, I typically use SnagIt -- it's easily the best and most powerful screen capture tool around. If you're not willing to spend the bucks for SnagIt and you happen to use the Firefox browser, here's an easy way to make your own screenshots, and for free, using the Picnik Browser Extension.

I've mentioned Picnik before as a great free alternative to edit your photos, and now you can do the same with web captures. Once the extension is installed in Firefox, just select the image (or even the whole web page) you want to capture, and send it to Picnik. Once there, you can take advantages of all of Picnik's nifty editing tools to trick out your image. Then you can save the picture to your computer. If you want a little more help on how to do it, check out this tutorial on how to Use Picnik to make exciting web page screenshots.

Google Docs -- Now with PDF!
If you're using Google Docs to create and share documents, you'll be happy to know that it now supports uploads of PDF files. While you can't edit the PDFs, you can share, view and cut/paste from them. This is nothing special, really -- there are lots of sites that allow upload and review of PDF files (the new Acrobat.com, for instance). It's just nice that Google Docs is offering this feature, too.

Blawgs of the Week
Here are just a few of the great law-related blogs that I covered on Inter Alia this past week:

I'm sure most of you who are using Windows have set Windows Update to automatically check for new patches, and to download and install critical updates as they become available. What you might *not* be doing as often is checking whether other software you have installed on your computer poses a security threat, because it's old or has been unpatched. Here are two tools I use to keep my software up to date.

The first is Secunia Personal Software Inspector -- it examines some (but not all) of the important software programs installed on your PC, and lets you know if they are out of date. The program even provides links so you can download the latest updates. Best of all, the utility is free.

Not all out-of-date software poses a security threat -- but it's still a good idea to update it with new releases, to take advantage of new or better features. UpdateStar is another free software tool that will scan your computer and let you know when updates to your other programs are available.

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!

Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet

College of American Pathologists
CAP "serves patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering and advocating excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine." The site is broken down into several areas: Advocacy Programs, Reference Resources & Publications, Education Programs, Accreditation and Laboratory Improvement,and a Members-Only area. Unlike many associate pages, much of the information on this site is available to non-members -- the resources on the reference page are pretty amazing.

Montana Criminal History Online Public Record Search ($$)
Occasionally I will visit a state site to let you know how you can get criminal records from them. If you have a need to search the criminal history of those in Montana, here's where you start. Unfortunately, searches here cost $11.50 each -- even if your search returns a "No Results Found" result! You also need to have a good deal of information on the person before you begin your search -- if you only fill in limited information and don't get any results, you're out $11.50 and have to try again.

Georgetown Law Library Research Guides
The folks at Georgetown Law Library provide a great set of legal research guides, and they aren't just for GU law students. There are topical guides, both U.S. and international. Just choose a topic (the U.S. topics range from Accounting to Trial Practice Research) and you'll be taken to a page with information and links on how best to research that topic. Some of the print books are links to the Georgetown Law Library, but that's no big deal if you know how to find similar books at your local law library. You'll also find jurisdictional guides, also U.S. and foreign.

LexisNexis Experts and Services
Martindale offers this directory of more than 50,000 experts, consultants, and other service professionals. The directory contains information on experts in dozens of subject areas, investigators and process servers, court reporting and deposition services, attorney and litigation support, and practice management services. For each entry you'll get a basic page of information with contact information and a brief introduction to that individual or entity's services.

Federal Evidence Review ($$)
Every month, the folks at the Federal Evidence Review track important evidence cases as they are decided, and produce a report with commentary, practical suggestions, and analysis on these decisions. A subscription will cost you $995/year, but there's plenty you can read for free on the site. For example, the site provides free access to a number of evidence resources, including the rules themselves, advisory notes, rule amendments, and information on key evidence cases. The Federal Evidence Blog also provides regular updates on new cases.

Finally, a few fun and useful sites to start off your week:

Looking for some stock photography, but don't want to pay a whole lot -- or nothing at all? Check out this list of 25 Free Stock Photography sites.

The Last Canopy is a tough space-shooting game, but it's fun.

Well, that’s it for Issue #305 – 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.

Tom Mighell

Now available: The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell

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