Tips Tuesday

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on technology, research and practice.

Technology

Crop (Don’t Zoom) for Better Smartphone Pictures
Dan Pinnington

With our camera-equipped smartphones, most of us are snapping more pictures than we ever did before. And while not quite the same as working with a digital single-lens reflex camera, the cameras on today’s smartphones can take amazing pictures. Among the many features they now have, most smartphone cameras offer a zoom function. Nice to have a zoom, but you shouldn’t use it. Why? Unfortunately, smartphones don’t have fancy lenses. . . .

Research

Documenting Legal Research
Shaunna Mireau

The library team at Field Law uses the word blink all the time. We use it in the context of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell; i.e. What is your Blink on a starting point for this legal research question? To back up our blink, we also document common questions and processes within a Library Procedures Manual. We also publish how to guides on our Intranet for common research tasks: How do we note up a case; how do we search for judicial consideration of a statute section . . .

Practice

Protect Your Data (From Snoops and Others)
David Bilinsky & Garry Wise

Prism, the National Security Electronic Surveillance program operated by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) has caught a great deal of press lately. This surveillance program has raised questions as to how individuals can protect their data from being snooped upon. These revelations have led to discussions on ways that allow people to use encryption for protection. I have been advising lawyers to use encryption technology for some time. . . .