The annual Consumer Electronics Show is about to start in Las Vegas. Many companies anounce their latest and greatest products at the CES. Indeed, there have already been several announcements over the last few days.

The netbook / notebook distinction continues to blur. Netbooks have sold in large numbers – mainly because of their price – but their performance was not stellar. We are now seeing new netbooks using an updated Atom processor (there is even a dual core version) that will improve performance. And we will see more thin and light notebooks using ULV (ultra low voltage) processors that . . . [more]

The Law Commission of Ontario wants to create forums for various of our groups to have confidential conversations on various issues. For example, the Research Advisory Board has raised having something of the kind for discussion of issues. Our advisory groups could use forums to discuss issues relevant to a project. In fact, we started to set up a forum using Google only to find that government employees couldn’t use it (or any American-based system) because of the ramification of the Patriot Act. We have talked to a consultant about it and will be getting a proposal from them, . . . [more]

Google has finally released its own android phone, Nexus One.

Decent reviews and the implications of the release can be found on Wired, Mashable and PC World.

It appears as if the phone is not yet available in Canada. . . . [more]

With the controversial prorogation of Parliament last week comes a new grassroots movement, Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament. Started only a few days ago by University of Alberta student Christopher White, this group is organized via a Facebook group and currently boasts over 30,000 members.

The idea behind the group is to ask Members of Parliament to return to Parliament despite the prorogation. The precedent being cited is the so-called Long Parliament that, according to Wikipedia, took place in England in the 1600s after the English Civil War. The Facebook group includes a sample letter to MPs inviting them to . . . [more]

Check out The Globe and Mail’s list of technology that you didn’t know existed ten years ago but you now can’t live without. Its a hoot. The tech on the list that I personally need to survive:

• the iPod
• Text-messaging
• Wi-Fi
• the BlackBerry

I know it’s a long way till Friday, but this gag deserves a Monday mini-fillip:

Google is honouring the birthdate of Isaac Newton today. They’ve got a special doodle for the purpose. Give yourself a treat and go to the Google home page, and once there, roll the cursor over the doodle.

  . . . [more]

It’s been a little while since I wrote about The Law Librarian podcast created by Richard Leiter and available over at BlogTalkRadio and iTunes. I am one of several regular panelists; panelists now take turns participating in the shows depending on the topics. Richard has also expanded the schedule from once a month to once a month plus frequent updates, which will hopefully mean a new show every couple of weeks.

In case you missed them, the last two shows are:

Google Scholar Legal Opinions and Journals: A Conversation with Anurag Acharya (Dec. 4/09)
– Anurag Acharya is a . . . [more]

For someone who really likes to use a keyboard, it’s a bit of a surprise to see that I now have a Blackberry Storm, iPod Touch and Sony Reader (Touch Edition). I wasn’t the only one to find a Reader under the Christmas tree last week. When I tried to configure the Reader on December 25th, various odd error messages appeared – it took me a while to realize that the Sony website was completely overwhelmed with other new owners attempting downloads.

A confirmed “browser first, searcher second”, I was a little puzzled by what appeared to be limited content . . . [more]

As some of you likely know – it’s hard to miss the news on the web – on Dec 30, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the class action suit which alleged that Apple iPods were defective in the manner alleged in the action: that the “iPod is defective because it poses an unreasonable risk of noise induced hearing loss to its users.” . . . [more]

Two days ago, according to records in the United States Patent Office, IBM [International Business Machines / Inclusion body myositis / Integrated Bituminous Mining / International Brotherhood of Magicians / Interacting boson model / Ibm (town)] was granted USP [United States patent / United States Pharmacopeia / University of the South Pacific / University of the Sciences in Philadelphia / Unique selling proposition] 7,640,233. The nub of the patent is described in the abstract:

The databases each define shorthand terms with one or more longhand terms. A shorthand term is targeted within a text message, and

In the last couple of weeks, there’s been a little twittering about Osun.org, a search engine that seeks out documents of the PDF, .doc and .ppt persuasion. And that’s all we know.

Well, we know that it’s designed to mimic Google’s front page in all but colour. But apart from that, things are murky: there is no “about” page; there are, in fact, no links on the search page at all that offer to take you to explanation.

A search in whois reveals that the domain name is owned by Wang Linhua, who gives Shanghai as the city of . . . [more]

Dear all,

For those who don’t have or won’t find more compelling reasons – without limiting the generality, etc., getting together with family, giving and getting presents, unwrapping presents, staking out garbage, getting a pedicure, washing the dog, herding cats, discovering the next unknown prime in Pi, successfully rendering coherent some of the jurisprudence of … [subject optional] – occupying their time in the immediate future, I’m pleased to announce I’m going to be a guest blogger on the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law, Faculty Blog.

What can I say? I’m sure my occasional musings, here, played some . . . [more]