Attention: what follows is not me, my head shot to the left is not representative of the following paragraphs. Over the summer we have had a library school intern working in multiple capacities at the Sir James Dunn Law Library as our student reference assistant. During this time Amanda (Andie) Bulman has become a fan of Slaw and I thought that as the summer is drawing to a close I thought I would give her a chance to craft a post for Slaw on what her experience has been like over the past several months. I gave her a . . . [more]

Hi-hat, clash, crash, ride, sizzle—and a dozen more variations. These are cymbals, an instrument that dates back to the edge of antiquity but is as modern as a rock band drum kit. The best, I’m informed, are made in Turkey and likely by the venerable cymbal maker Zildjian, which has been making especially resonant cymbals ever since one Avedis, an Armenian alchemist in Constantinople, devised a particular mix of copper, tin, and traces of silver — a form of bronze — in the year 1618. The fame of his cymbals reached the Sultan, who took him into court to . . . [more]

Just a few days ago, we all missed the 30th Annual Intergovernmental Budget Conference, held August 22 – 23, 2011, Victoria. According Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat, it is an event open to the Federal-Provincial-Territorial, Deputy Ministers.

Who knows what goes on at these things. Epic snoozefest or hedonistic free for all… do we have any first-hand reports? It does sound like it has the potential to be a pivotal meeting, and it is remarkable how meager is its presence in google. . . . [more]

This is a post in a series to appear occasionally, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

. . . [more]

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has grown significantly in the last few years. A Gartner Executive Program survey of more than 2,000 Chief Information Officers (CIOs), representing 50 countries and 38 industries, found that cloud computing is the number one technology priority for 2011. Fully 43% of the CIOs expected that a majority of their IT will be running “in the cloud” within four years.¹ In its updated June 2011 forecast of Information Technology spending, Gartner stated that cloud computing expenditures are likely to rise by 16-20% per year through 2015, representing 4% of global IT spending by the end . . . [more]

The LISNews library-related site has been running a series on IT Security for Libraries.

The most recent part covers 20 Common Security Myths:

1. You have nothing important to steal
2. Having antivirus software makes you completely safe
3. Using Mac/Linux makes you safe
4. Patches and updates make things worse and break them
5. You can look at a site and know it’s safe and not serving bad stuff
6. Using a firewall makes you safe
7. Complex frequently changed passwords make you safe
8. Avoiding IE makes me safe
9. If an email comes from a familiar face it’s ok
10. If a link comes from

. . . [more]

Slaw news — for those who read Slaw only via RSS or email.

On Slaw you’ll find a brief excerpt of this week’s SlawTips posts. The links in the following will take you to the full versions, along with 100 more tips. Advice you can use — short and to the point — every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday.

• Tuesday: Technology: Turn Luddites Into Gurus With Lynda.com
• Wednesday: Research: Make Your Own Office Consolidation
• Thursday: Practice: Keep Turnover Low

You can subscribe to SlawTips by RSS or email. . . . [more]

Bloomberg announced this morning that it was acquiring the legal publisher, BNA for $990,000,000.

Bloomberg will acquire all 25,116,830 outstanding shares of BNA for $39.50 per share in cash for a total purchase price of approximately $990 million.

It is a key development in Bloomberg’s strategy to challenge Thomson West and Reed Elsevier in the lucrative legal information market.

In Bloomberg’s history, this is only the third acquisition – they bought Businessweek and New Energy Finance in 2009. Bloomberg’s growth has all been internal and organic to date.

Normally, prices aren’t given so this one is revealing – the . . . [more]

As Slaw readers will likely know, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has recently approved a change to the internet’s domain name system that will mean, in the words of the ICANN press release [PDF]:

Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways.

This is not going to be an easy process, as regards either acquiring a new generic top level domain or coping with the extreme proliferation that’s anticipated. . . . [more]

In the coming months, the Quebec Ministry of Culture and Communications will hold public hearings in 10 cities from October 6 to November 21, 2011, to collect feedback on regulating the media in Quebec by adopting a professional journalism accreditation and consolidating the Press Council.

Lawyers and engineers see the world differently. It is as if they speak different languages, and difficulties of mutual understanding arise. The problem is not so much that they use different words to describe the same thing but rather that they may use the same words to describe different things. It may be more helpful to think of lawyers and engineers as having different belief systems: the motivation for understanding the world and what makes it tick differ. One belief system is not more accurate or ‘true’ than the other, but they can have different practical consequences.

 So long as . . . [more]

Simon’s post earlier today mentioned the Apple vs Samsung patent lawsuits over tablets and smartphones. The reference to 2001 as prior art is amusing – let’s not forget the Star Trek PADD as well. There is actually a Star Trek PADD app for the iPad.

Simon linked to a list of the various lawsuits between Apple and Samsung in various countries. Here is a graphic produced by Reuters that shows patent related suits between mobile manufacturers.

There is market share and a lot of money at stake here. A big reason behind the Google aquisition of Motorola was for its . . . [more]