I never got past trigonometry in math, so fractal geometry hurts my brain. Fortunately, it can be portrayed in images, the most famous of which belong to the endlessly creating (literally) Mandelbrot set. I’ve discovered a program called XaoS (“chaos”) that takes not only the Mandelbrot equations but many others and causes them to output glorious fractal images — images that let you drill down into them only to discover worlds as complex as the one you left — on and on until the ability of the application is exhausted. If you’re feeling lazy you simply ask XaoS to conjure . . . [more]

Back to my old sawhorse. I am delighted that we have three Canadian legal publishers using RSS feeds for new book titles. I’ve now broadened my call to legal publishers to include the rest of the world!

In my latest The Tao of Law Librarianship column on LLRX.com, I talk about how using RSS feeds for new book titles is making my job more efficient, and I call for more publishers to take this on.

A swimming Woman originally uploaded by gabyu to Flickr.

In a very informal survey of major legal publisher websites from around the world using . . . [more]

Hotel Dusk is a new game for use with the Nintendo DS that might catch the interest of those interested in taking books to the electronic sphere. In order to play, the system has to be held sideways, like a book, then one must read and interact with the characters using the stylus in order to proceed. To get an idea, open the book and go to the Easy Touch Navigation paperclip.

The title is reviewed at Wired. And also described at Wikipedia, of special interest is the Gameplay section.

It is not quite at the stage where . . . [more]

Of particular interest to Ontario residents would be the initiatives by Knowledge Ontario to providing online resources to Ontario residents. Access is free of charge from “home, school or work” and is 24/7 and includes licensed full-text newspapers, magazines and journals, references books and newswires .

Two of the major providers are Thomson Gale and EBSCO. There is law-related content, including LegalTrac, which includes links to a fair number of (recent) full-text law journal articles as part of its indexing.

Those in other provinces should check with their provincial library bodies for similar initiatives. . . . [more]

The Sedona Conference has released a draft document that’s a product of the Sedona Conference Working Group 7 (Sedona Canada), entitled “The Sedona Principles: Addressing Electronic Document Production, Canadian Edition.” [PDF]
From the preface:

Working Group 7, “Sedona Canada,” was formed out of the growing recognition that the discovery of electronically stored information can no longer be seen as a peculiarity of litigation in the United States or limited to complex commercial lawsuits in Ontario and British Columbia. It is quickly becoming a factor in all Canadian civil litigation, large and small. It requires universal understanding by the

I am normally loathe to bother readers times with humorous emails and the like, but the following YouTube video is particularly funny (and does not appear to have yet been posted on SLAW – I checked the previous YouTube postings). Without telling you too much, it relates to the impact of “new” technology (books!). Everyone I have shown it to has enjoyed it and suggested they will incorporate it in their LRW training. See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRjVeRbhtRU

Thanks to colleagues Wendy and Louis for forwarding it on. . . . [more]

No lies, please. We’re British.

A European directive (Directive 2005/29/EC Of The European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 [PDF]) that deals with unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices became effective law in Britain at the end of last year. As people wake up to its import, there have been reports that certain of its provisions would apply to misuse of the internet by bloggers. Annex I of the directive lists those commercial practices that are “in all circumstances considered unfair”; and item 22 in the Annex reads as follows:

22. Falsely claiming or creating the impression that

Two weeks ago, I attended the session “Citizens, Pundits and Scholars: In Defence of Blogs” at the Ontario Library Association’s annual conference. Presented by Mark Robertson and Kalina Grewal, both Reference Librarians at York University, it wasn’t a “how-to” session on creating a blog. Instead, it examined the content of certain blogs, and highlighted their value as sources for academic research. Based on a workshop they gave to York faculty, the speakers discussed how blogs’ interactions with global social/political issues have important implications on scholarly work. Specifically, they looked at the value of blogs for academic researchers via three contexts: . . . [more]

There’s a new blawg in town. Techblawg is the recent creation of David Ma, a partner at McCarthy Tètrault in their Technology, Communications and IP Group. As you might imagine, the blawg focuses on developments in the technology industry, or, as the site tag says, “law, technology, finance and other ruminations.”

And by the way, congratulations, David, on the domain name: techblawg.ca — just when you think all the good ones are gone, one like this pops up and gives you a (mild) head swat and a “why didn’t I think to get that?”

techblawg (no cap T)… well worth . . . [more]

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are a few blawg items about the legal problems with romance in the workplace:

• More on Romance in the Workplace (Thoughts from a Management Lawyer, March 11, 2005): “Office romances are a risky proposition for the manager and can have broad and extensive negative ramiffications on the company. “
• Love Contracts and the Workplace Romance (same blog, February 15, 2006): “…a couple of interesting articles that are worth checking out. The first by Michael Best & Friedrich LLP is called ‘Romance in the Workplace: Tips to Minimize the Legal and Practical Risks for Employers’. The second

One of the lawyers in our office recently shared this url – www.oddcast.com – click “Products” and “text-to-speech (TTS)”. Click the picture of the lady – she wll say what you type and if you drag your mouse around the pictures, her eyes will follow.

I cannot think of an obvious use for this technology in a law firm or law firm library – can someone else? And is anyone else feeling completely overwhelmed about the endless potential of today’s technology?

Law firms are pretty consistent in their use of word processing technology (to my knowledge almost everyone now uses . . . [more]

This Press Release from last week (Feb. 8) announces the $25 million investment, and outlines two projects.

• The Digital Content Infrastructure for the Human and Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa will supply university researchers with access to a range of international materials.
• Synergies: The Canadian Information Network for Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Montreal aims to provide access to Canadian materials, including books, peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, theses, and other kinds of Grey Literature.

The projects are jointly initiated by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and Industry Canada. Here’s hoping . . . [more]