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]
From an American Association of Law Libraries Private Law Librarians listserv posting: The Criminal Justice Degrees Guide has a list of The Top 100 Law and Lawyers Blogs which provides a useful summary of the usual candidates with a few new ones I did not recognize (and they are not all focused on criminal justice).
No, SLAW did not make their list but I will attribute that to the American focus of that site. However, included in the list is Coleslaw. Hhmm. A competitor? Likely not, Coleslaw is clearly named after the diced cabbage side dish with entries (entrees?) . . . [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]
To our Canadian readers, colleagues, friends, and fellow Slaw-yers, have a terrific Canada Day!
This beautiful photo of the Canadian flag is by Ian Muttoo and made available under Creative Commons. . . . [more]
Lots of chirping about social networking tool Twitter today from various quarters. A few stories I am following:
Lots of people turn to classified ad websites such as Craigslist and Kijiji to find movers to help them with small moves. But, from the lists and lists of movers, how can you tell who are honest? And if you do get ripped off, where can you turn? Here is a checklist of sorts. . . . [more]
I’ve been getting a daily blast of legal-tech news from Lexology, having ticked the IP, IT etc. boxes and those for Canada, the U.S. and U.K. Today, there was a single item under the “Canada” banner: “Employers need to be careful to avoid waiving the protections of written computer and email policies” from the firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, a name I’m not familiar with — but then I’m not exactly up on them all. The telltale was the mention of the 9th Circuit Court and then “the Ontario Police Department.” Ah. No . . . [more]
[Editor’s note: What follows is the convocation address delivered by Professor Willinsky on the occasion of his receiving an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Faculty of Education at York University, June 19, 2008.]
It is truly an honor, if a slightly odd one as I shall explain, to be asked to join in this celebration of so many graduates’ proud accomplishment as well as an honor to receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws from York University. I say odd because the degree I am receiving could be cast not just as an unearned degree, but a belated degree, . . . [more]
Earlier this week George Carlin (1937-2008), a noted counter-culture comedian passed away. For fans of stand up comedy Carlin’s career needs no introduction but Carlin is, perhaps, best known for his Seven Words you will never hear on television.
For law types George Carlin’s career wound it’s way through the U.S. Supreme Court and he became known as free speech icon. In October of 1973 a New York City radio station played the entire length of Carlin’s standup routine “Filthy Words” which was heard by a father driving in his car with his son. The father in question . . . [more]
End of the month and time to clean out the Fillip Folder on my machine — which means it’s a six-pack today, apropos for (what should be) the long weekend, perhaps.
1. FontStruct
I worked at a university for a great many years, and I eventually discovered that most of the faculty had no eyes. For them the visual world was purely a source of information, primarily in the form of text. All else was ornamentation, something that others might add on at the end — if there was time or an obscure need. The best illustration of this, for . . . [more]
There’s a good overview of four online presentation tools — “PowerPoints” in the clouds — over at ReadWriteWeb. We’ve already looked at Zoho Show 2.0 here on Slaw, and everyone should be familiar with what Google Docs can do in that respect (not much). A new player, 280 Slides, is starting to make online son et lumière look really interesting: you can pluck images out of Flickr and you can download your finished presentation to PowerPoint 2007 format, if you wish.
But I have to say that SlideRocket is the one to watch. Still in closed beta (I’m . . . [more]
One of my first efforts as Crosby Group has been evaluating the B.C. legislation tracking/research service Quickscribe. An excerpt of the press release is below. I hope you find this report useful. I would love to hear your comments!
Quickscribe: A Comparison and Evaluation Report (White Paper) Released
. . . [more][June 26, 2008] A new white paper comparing British Columbia legislative tracking services was released today by Crosby Group Consulting. The report titled, Quickscribe: A Comparison and Evaluation Report, was commissioned by Stem Legal Web Enterprises Inc. to objectively identify key differences between Quickscribe Services Inc. and the BC government
This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada | Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada
