Articles Posted in December, 2005

I think therefore I am the Court of Appeals: The OSB Constitutional Law Section blog has a blurb about “Carey v Lincoln Loan Co“, out of the Court of Appeals on 12/28/05. Yes, Virginia, there really is a Court of Appeals.

RFID Blocking Wallet: While you may not now think you need one of these, blink. I bet in a year or so that everyone from Martha Stewart to the Fashionistas will have one to show off. Thanks to my favorite security and privacy issues blogger, Bruce Scheier. Now about those tin foil hats … maybe they know something we don’t know.

How private is your personal RSS Feed?: See this warning at the Seattle Public Library. See also the continuing discussion on the subject at LibraryLaw Blog.

Getting a seat at the Jan 10th Measure 37 oral argument: OJD has information for people who might want to try and get a seat in the courtroom to listen to Oregon Supreme Court oral arguments in the “MacPherson v DAS” Measure 37 case on January 10th. Upshot: don’t count on getting a seat but argument will be broadcast over the legislative cable network. The link given for the legislature’s cable network doesn’t work now, but may later, or it may change. For more information click on “News” at OJD and follow the drop down link to Supreme Court. (There’s lots of other useful info at the OJD web site so explore if you haven’t already done so.)

Cataloging a small collection: I’ve written about Library Thing before and now there is one that seems even more fun, Delicious Library. What sort of people catalog their home collections and how large does your office collection need to be before finding it useful to catalog it? Do true bibliophiles want organization or disorder? Would I really exchange the joy of finding a “lost” book for the satisfaction of seeing them all arranged and tidy in my catalog? And how do you catalog – author alpha, title alpha, subject, size, color? I like the way Roget organized the knowledge of the world and West did it with law, but there are a zillion other ways of classifying information. Ask any library science student 🙂

Oregon Forfeiture Law: Interesting story in today’s Oregonian about civil and criminal forfeiture. (Go to Oregonlive and search for the word “forfeiture.”) It also discusses HB 3457.

Cleaning up your PC: Life Hacker may turn out to be a very useful web site and blog with some, mostly, easy-to-understand instructions, especially for those of you who “go home for the holidays” and have to clean up the pc after the parents. (Whatever happened to just getting stuck with the dishes :-). The blog’s comments have additional advice. If this link doesn’t work, the post was made by Life Hacker on November 18th. I linked to it from a Dec 24th, 2005 post at the Waterboro Public Library.

Anti-SLAPP suits: If you don’t know what a (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) SLAPP suit is, you should. One place to start is here.

Find your librarian: “Search is one of the hardest computer science problems in the world, because basically we are trying to create artificial intelligence so that we can speak with our computer, they can understand us and deliver what we are looking for. That is equivalent to turning your computer into a very intelligent research librarian, which of course is the holy grail of computer science, to create artificial intelligence.” From a CNN interview with Wired Magazine co-founder, John Battelle.

Bob Loblaw Blog: As reported by How Appealing, there really is a Bob Loblaw and he has a blog. It’s an interesting blog too, with Robert Loblaw reporting on the best and worst of federal appellate decisions.