Can’t believe I am only just noticing this. The stellar law school blog Law is Cool is not just a blog, but also a podcast! They periodically put out audio with interviews and discussion targeted at law students.

I just listened to the recent Episode 10 discussing the 7 Year Law Degree with Jordan Furlong; using a law degree for alternative careers with David Aylward, founder and director of COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance; and access to justice and the Justice on Target program with Minister Chis Bentley, the Attorney-General of Ontario. Kudos to this episode’s . . . [more]

In the U.S., some Members of Congress have started reporting about their activities on the floor using social networking tool Twitter. In a blog comment, Texas-based Christopher Glenn explains the meaning of this to him as a U.S. citizen:

So in June, I was made aware that the House of Representitves Congressman for my district, John Culberson just started using Twitter. Just because it seemed interesting, I added him (www.twitter.com/johnculberson).

Shortly thereafter, he tweeted “I am on the House floor. I am voting yes for Community Health Centers which provide medical care to uninsured Americans.”

This completely

Apple’s new iPhone App Store (which allows developers to create applications for the iPhone) is now available on iTunes 7.7 (you can download it here). Once you have access to the store, you can browse “All iPhone Apps,” “All iPod Touch Apps,” and “All Free Apps.” . . . [more]

Last week, Simon insisted that he wouldn’t be getting an iPhone when it’s introduced this week to Rogers’ lineup. Turns out he’s not alone – 52,000 people have signed a single online petition, and there are more petitions out there. There were rumours – now debunked – that Rogers was blocking access to the petition site.

The rumour mill has really started to spin out of control, though, with stories about Apple’s response. First, there were stories that the company was limiting Canada’s supply to punish Rogers – leading to thousands of job cuts among Rogers temp staff who . . . [more]

bit.ly (that’s the whole URL) is a new URL shortening service. What may set it apart from the current faves, such as TinyURL, or any of the nearly 70 alternatives, are some special features such as your ability to use your own keywords, the fact that they show you your latest 15 shortened URLs when you visit their site, and the (promised) fact that they will save every page you shorten, and not just the URL, forever.

The URLs here at Slaw aren’t too bad: they’re typical WordPress links. But from time to time you may want to shrink . . . [more]

Small footnote to the SCC’s recent decision in Simpson v. WIC and Mair.

LeBel J’s concurring judgment mentions blogs:

[73] This is all the more true in an age when the public is exposed to an astounding quantity and variety of commentaries on issues of public interest, ranging from political debate in the House of Commons, to newspaper editorials, to comedians’ satire, to a high school student’s blog. It would quite simply be wrong to assume that the public always takes statements of opinion at face value. Rather, members of the public must be presumed to evaluate comments

A ruling released July 1st in the copyright infringement case Viacom v. Google has created a stir in the online world. Judge Louis L. Stanton in the U.S. federal New York Southern District Court ordered Google to produce to Viacom:

all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed on the YouTube website or through embedding on a third-party website

Those interested in the work of the European Court of Justice, might like to subscribe to the ECJ Blog. Allard Knook, a lecturer in law at the Institute of Constitutional and Administrative Law, University of Utrecht, has regular postings in English on cases decided by the Court. . . . [more]

From today’s Globe and Mail:

…for $75 a month, Rogers provides 300 weekday voice minutes, 750 megabytes of data and 100 text messages. In the United States, a customer gets 450 weekday voice minutes, unlimited data and 200 text messages for the same price.

Yes, that’s “unlimited data.” No, that’s not in Canada.

See, the further north you go, the colder it gets; and colder air is heavier air; so it costs more to push signals through such weighty atmosphere. Which explains why Rogers… . . . [more]

We’ve written a few times about powerset, the natural language search engine. When it brought its service public in May, there were rumours about it being purchased by one of the search giants.

Those rumours have now been proven true, with reports that Microsoft has purchased the company. We can all hope that this move will help bring more intelligent search to the broader public. . . . [more]

Adobe is talking to Google and Yahoo. The plan is to make sites that use Adobe Flash searchable, because now search engines slip off the face of Flash sites as if they were glass. The Adobe press announcement doesn’t add much of substance to this declaration (but does use the wretched phrase “going forward.”) Google, on the other hand, announces that it has already launched its Flash indexing algorithm and that web designers should expect better results with respect to their Flash sites.

I don’t have a Flash-based site in mind that I can use to check the situation — . . . [more]

Lots of chirping about social networking tool Twitter today from various quarters. A few stories I am following:

• In What’s Twitter doing right now? Investors would like to know, Globe and Mail (July 1, 2008), tech reporter Matt Hartley explores the value of Twitter and whether we can expect an IPO soon;
• The Digital Home: How Twitter could be worth nothing in a year, CNet News (July 1, 2008), by Don Reisinger discusses valuation of Twitter (could it really be worth 1 billion dollars?);
• in her article All a Twitter: Want to Try Microblogging?, School Library Journal