The blog Rands in Repose just published a Nerd Handbook, ostensibly aimed at helping someone attached to a nerd understand that nerd. Here the nerd is understood in terms of involvement with a computer.

You could, of course, understand the handbook as applying to lawyers or legal librarians, it seems to me. The fit isn’t perfect (observation 5 doesn’t carry over for lawyers in my experience), but it’s enough to give one pause.

Herewith the topic heads from the handbook, with substitutions suggested where appropriate, and a few quotes under the first heading to give you the flavour:

1. Understand

“The StupidFilter Project: Because the internet needs prophylactics for memetically transmitted diseases.”
*MTDs = Memetically Transmitted Diseases, similar in concept to STDs. After all, communication is a form of intercourse. I haven’t seen this acronym before, so maybe I’ve coined one.
The Dictionary.com dictionary (Random House Unabridged) includes these definitions of intercourse.

1. dealings or communication between individuals, groups, countries, etc.
2. interchange of thoughts, feelings, etc.

Those of us old enough (or otherwise informed) will remember the remarkable euphemisim: “criminal conversation”. (It’s related to the third of the dictionary.com definitions.) . . . [more]

Click image to enlarge

Because we at Slaw work hard to ensure that you are kept up to date on the latest developments, particularly as far as technology is concerned, it is with great pleasure that we draw your attention to a new online word processor, Word Perhect. It is my consdidered opinion that you will find it a hoot, a riot and generally quite witty. As an extra bonus, there is the fact that it works, more or less.

PS. Be sure to try the food, drink and smoke buttons in the second toolbar.

[via Things Magazine] . . . [more]

A Slaw 6 – It’s a Draw

Not one thing today, but six, “A Slaw Six,” a new flick of the fillip that I’ll try from time to time.

1. indexed

A blog of witty sketched graphs and Venn diagrams on 5 x 8 index cards.

2. Bob Truby’s Brand Name Pencils

“a visual encounter with the incredibly diverse world of brand name pencils”

3. JetPens

Japanese pens and stationery. (Okay, okay, and pencils too.)

4. (Online) Etch a Sketch

An oldie but a goodie. Draw, rinse, repeat.

5. Road Signs: Children’s hair-dress world-wide

Monsieur Jean – coiffeur – displays . . . [more]

Well, not by everyone, but by the efforts of thousands of people at least. That’s how the giant Oxford English Dicitionary was created, as pretty much everyone knows.

Reading The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester recently, I was struck by a few parallels between then and now — or, rather, between that and this. One thought was that this is a pretty good illustration of the wisdom of crowds, so popular nowadays. Of course, it depends on the crowd you hang with as to how wise the product will turn out to . . . [more]

The Law Society is calling for lawyers to participate in a demonstration at Downing Street about developments in Pakistan.

Supporting lawyers in Pakistan

Thursday 08 November 2007

The Law Society, the Bar Council, and the Association of Muslim Lawyers have raised strong concerns about the treatment of lawyers in Pakistan following their demonstrations in support of the rule of law. Andrew Holroyd, Law Society president said:

‘Events in Pakistan must be of concern to everyone who supports the rule of law, and they underline once again that the rule of law is nothing without lawyers. I can think of no . . . [more]

I won’t bombard Slaw readers with a weekly report, but wanted to relay my thanks after a really great first week for LegalPubs. Over the past 7 days, the website has averaged over a hundred visitors a day, and the RSS feed more than 3500 product views. See the stats graphic below:

After some tinkering, I’ve got the new product email alerts working, and have added a mobile version using the same service as Slaw. I’m not sure how many librarians are doing their collection development work on a blackberry, but it was a 15 minute addition, and certainly . . . [more]

Back in June I wrote about Powerset, a start-up aiming to become an important natural language search engine. At the time I said, “I’m probably wrong, but this one feels like it might go a mile or two.”

Since then I’ve become one of the Powerset Labs volunteers, let into the alpha test phase, and if anything my sense has strengthened that these people are on to something important and useful. Along with perhaps a couple hundred other active volunteer testers — there’s growning bench strength, and I imagine more and more will move from passive to active roles . . . [more]

All of you, I’m sure, are aware of Radiohead’s recent experiment in distributing its most recent album. Rather than release a CD, the band made its music available for download from its website, giving “customers” the choice of paying whatever amount they wanted for the album. The results of the experiment are of interest to both music industry executives (who can’t believe an artist would cut them out of the loop) and classical economists (who can’t believe a rational consumer would pay for something they can get for free) alike.

Early results on the experiment are coming in. A company . . . [more]

Well Slaw hasn’t had a discussion about piercings or personalized skin art. Because – you might say – what does this have to do with law or legal information.

Well given that these things are manifestations of some sort of creativity, it isn’t surprising that there might be IP implications.

Yes – there is law, and the leading expert is an Ottawa native ((Harkins is legal counsel at Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione, a Chicago intellectual property law firm. He is the son of Zoe and John Harkins of Ottawa.)) whose article “Tattoos and Copyright Infringement: Celebrities, Marketers and . . . [more]

Life’s demands, both work-related and personal, interfered with the essential obligations of this Slawyer last week. Some of those demands have passed, so I’m back. . . . [more]

Twice this morning I saw a parent telling a child that saying the right word would make the traffic light turn green, and twice I saw the look of wonder and delight in the child’s eyes as the spell worked. That double sighting was a sign, I think, that this fillip should be about magic, which, after all, is not that different from some law: the words must be exactly the right words, and must be written not spoken, sometimes to the accompaniement of flames and hot red wax, whereupon things (often invisible) are ipso facto! changed. And we who . . . [more]