Inter Alia pays homage to Jim Calloway, the Master of Shortcuts (inter alia :-), and between them we can all now know about KeyXL, which claims to be “the largest database of shortcuts in the world”. That may be an accurate claim, or maybe it’s not; either way, KeyXL is a mighty nice collection.
The Oregon Council on Court Procedures has a new website. Their much awaited Minutes are included.
From their home page:
“Welcome to the Oregon Council on Court Procedures. The Council was created by the Oregon Legislature in 1977 to work on court rules dealing with pleading, practice, and procedure. The Council is the Oregon public body that is most directly involved in creating, reviewing, and amending the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern procedure and practice in all Oregon circuit courts (except for the small claims department).
Members of the Council are drawn from appellate and circuit court judges, practicing attorneys who represent both those who bring civil cases and those who defend them, and a public member. All Council members serve without pay. The work of the Council is supported by a professional staff, the Oregon State Bar, and by the Lewis & Clark Law School. All meetings of the Council are open to the public. …”
The Oregonian (11/26/07) has a story by Brian Bergstein (AP), “Software copyright watchdog takes bite out of small business” that puts a human face on the Business Software Alliance strategy:
Excerpt: ‘An Associated Press analysis reveals that targeting small businesses is lucrative for the Business Software Alliance, the main copyright watchdog for such companies as Microsoft, Adobe Systems and Symantec.
Of the $13 million that the BSA reaped in software violation settlements with North American companies last year, almost 90 percent came from small businesses, the AP found.
I happen to be reading Everything is Miscellaneous in spare moments (which is a not-inappropriate way to read such a book). Today I came upon this at Nicole Engard’s What I learned today: … an interview of Cory Doctorow (boing boing) by David Weinberger (Everything is Miscellaneous)
The absolute funniest thing about it is that they are such librarians – guy librarians, though, for sure (not to mention bibiliophilian digerati ). For example, what’s missing from this exchange?
“David: ‘In my book, I actually use the example of “Capri, ” where it’s the Island Capri, the Ford Capri, and there’s a motel Capri that shows up for some reason. The remarkable thing is they do it, as you say, completely by looking at the tags and not by doing any analysis of the picture itself, and it’s remarkably accurate. Which is, I think, actually a very good answer or rebuttal to the criticism that tags are chaos, and as you get more and more of them, it will get more and more chaotic. It turns out that when you have a lot of them, the statistical analysis becomes really pretty precise….’”
Most women will immediately notice the omission: Capri pants 🙂
But it is nonetheless an interesting interview – at least to us librarian types, even us Capri-less (though Capri-savvy) ones.
Computers and TVs, and other electronic thingies can be toxic at the end of their lives so think carefully before you dispose of them.
The Oregonian’s inPortland insert, 11/22/07, had a nice article by Joe Fitzgibbon in their Green Life column about Bear eCycling – and amazing recycling people they are.
So now we have Free Geek AND Bear eCycling. And don’t forget to contact Metro if you need information about other recyclables.
We’re not yet awash in research materials on Measure 49 … passed 11/4/07. But if you need some basic information, here are some places to start:
1) Check your county’s web site for local information.
2) Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (including here and here)
The University of Michigan Documents Center has been a fabulous gateway to government documents for over a decade and their Elections 2008 site is worth a look (or more).
Thanks to beSpecific for the Elections 2008 post.
Even the Periodic Table of Comic Books has a Disclaimer.
“Even” you may ask? Of course! Copyright (and trademark): the ever present bugaboo.
(This and other fun stuff at Neat New Stuff, from the “librarian without walls.”)
(Link found at the Multnomah Bar Association home page.)
Publicly accessible free and low-cost legal research services are being added to the web every week, or so it seems. No, it’s not really happening that frequently, but there are more options available now than a year ago and more are expected in the next year. For the latest exciting news, see the announcement from Public Resource dot org about the some extremely public spirited lawyers and companies and look for a “grand opening” in early 2008.
From the Announcement:
WASHINGTON, D.C. / SEBASTOPOL, CA—November 14, 2007—Public.Resource.Org and Fastcase, Inc. announced today that they will release a large and free archive of federal case law, including all Courts of Appeals decisions from 1950 to the present and all Supreme Court decisions since 1754. The archive will be public domain and usable by anyone for any purpose.
Oregon Legal Research Blog