The Friday Fillip arrives a little early today, but it’s a holiday weekend and there may not be much posting to cap. (This weekend is Easter, Passover, Baisakhi, and only one week off Mawlid al-Nabi, Mohammed’s birthday, and three weeks off the birthday of the Buddha.)

So all of this calendaring, lunar and solar, got me thinking of time.

Charlotte van der Waals has designed a marvelously simple 12-sided clock. The concept is brilliant: no numerals on the face; turn one facet uppermost depending on what city/locale you want to know the time in; the top is noon and midnight, . . . [more]

With all the buzz about Google Calendar, I skipped my coffee break to give it a spin not expecting to find it very useful given that I rely heavily on my Outlook calendar in conjunction with the rest of Outlook. Still, my only out-of-office access to my Outlook Calendar is through my PDA. I don’t yet know if Google Calendar will sync with my PDA.

What particularly appeals to me about Google Calendar even without testing it is the ability to share calendars in a collaborative way. Very 2.0.

I found Matt Cutts review of Google Calendar very helpful . . . [more]

The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice presents Into the Future: the agenda for civil justice reform, a conference to be held in Montreal April 30-May 2.

Thirteen expert sessions presented over 3 days will bring together the legal profession, the public and the most influential and respected leaders of Canadian civil justice reform!

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
Judges, lawyers, corporate counsel, litigants, court administrators, policy makers, mediators, academics, and the public.

WHAT WILL BE DISCUSSED?
-Civil justice system challenges and innovative solutions.
-Keynote speakers from Canada and abroad will provide expert advice on ways and means to make our civil . . . [more]

I spent some time up at the law school today and learned a new acronym — one new to me, at least: Snails.

It stand for “Students not actually in law school” and means to describe those insignificant others who hang about the halls and cafeterias drinking proto-lawyer coffee and generally scuffing up the court-like slate. Evidently Snails are allowed in the law library and will sometimes bother librarians with reference questions.

Nothing quite like a lawyer wannabe, is there? . . . [more]

Law.com has just reported that the U.S. Supreme Court “adopted a historic rule change that will allow lawyers to cite so-called unpublished opinions in federal courts starting next year”. Apparently, unpublished opinions represent 80 percent of cases decided in the federal appeals courts.

It seems to me that recent rulings of the courts (Canadian and American) may be the start of a re-evaluation of the legal research process. The Ontario Court decision discussed in the April 10 post “Computers Have All the Answers”.- looks as though it will be impetus for some lively debates amongst practicing lawyers (I think the . . . [more]

Cl1p.net — that’s a numeral 1 — is a means of transfering text or files (2 MB limit) between computers. To do that, you go to cl1p.net/anydirectorynameyoulike and follow your nose. So, for example, I entered http://www.cl1p.net/slaw and when the entry page came up I put in some text that you’ll find when you go there; you can copy it with a click of the “copy” button.

What I’m not clear about at the moment, because I don’t have another computer handy, is what the password I’ve entered will do. I imagine that despite the password you can still see . . . [more]

Windows Live Academic Search is available in beta. For us — and for most people — it will be “academic” (in the poorest sense of that word) for a while yet, because it’s only drawing on content in computer science, physics, electrical engineering, and “related subject areas.”

I gave it a try with “topic mapping” (not the phrase) and got 5,670 hits. (For some reason “legal research” produced 63 hits, most of which had no apparent relation to the announced subject areas.) When you hover over a hit, an abstract appears in a right-hand panel, though you can choose at . . . [more]

The Accountability bill [An Act providing for conflict of interest rules, restrictions on election financing and measures respecting administrative transparency, oversight and accountability], Bill C-2 can be found here in html format and here in printable pdf format. . . . [more]

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been noticing a trend. Is this the busiest time of year? or is it just me?

First off, I’ve got a firm wide portal project set to roll out over the next few weeks (again, maybe just me, but it seems like there’s always a major spring project).

Add in the fact that it’s planning and budget time, that I’m prepping a presentation for the BCLA conference next friday, and the CALL Conference is coming quickly there after — and then, woh-and-behold — I should come back just in time to welcome . . . [more]

Get ready for Microsoft’s competitor to Google Scholar, Windows Live Academic Search, which may be announced either tomorrow or Wednesday, according to Charles Bailey Jr.’s Digital Koan. A note in PCWorld says:

Academic Search, aimed at Google Scholar, will allow users to search articles in academic journals or find out if books or articles are available in a library located near the user, according to another LiveSide posting.

According to LiveSide, Academic Search will allow users to do the following:

• View an abstract for an academic article in a search preview pane;
• View the complete article, as

BlackBerrys are helping police officers in West Yorkshire to deal with suspects who try to bluff their way out of being arrested when stopped on the streets.

When officers stop someone they suspect is wanted for an offence, they need to confirm that person’s identity.

Not surprisingly, many of those who are wanted will try to trick their way out of being arrested by providing false details – often those of someone they know, who is not currently wanted by the police.

But now officers issued with BlackBerryThe best BlackBerry joke I’ve heard in a while is:
“say . . . [more]

Wires just announced the development of Westlaw-Japan. Our friends at Eagan, MN have teamed up with Shin Nippon Hoki Shuppan K.K to create Westlaw Japan K.K., a business that will develop a new, state-of-the-art online service created expressly for the world’s second-largest legal information marketplace.

Since West now derives 68% of its legal and regulatory revenue from online, it made sense to focus on the largest undeveloped marketNote that non-North American sales make up only 15% of the West Thomson legal and regulatory market.

A few comments from the launch:

President Shozo Hattori – “We believe significant future