Thursday, August 24, 2006

NY Times Investigates Pedophiles on the Web

The New York Times has two long articles about the community of pedophiles on the Web. Editors' Note - New York Times, Aug. 20, 2006; Kurt Eichenwald, Dark Corners: With Child Sex Sites on the Run, Nearly Nude Photos Hit the Web, NYT, Aug. 20, 2006; Kurt Eichenwald, Dark Corners: On the Web, Pedophiles Extend Their Reach, NYT, Aug. 21, 2006. Interesting, and creepy.

AOL Search Histories Made Public

AOL published on the Web millions of search queries. The users' anonymity was protected by numbers -- sort of. The article looks at one woman whose identity was determined based on her searches and discusses the privacy issues. Michael Barbaro and Tom Zeller Jr., A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749, New York Times, Aug. 9, 2006.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

NYPL Goes with LC in Reference

The New York Times editorialized about the New York Public Library's move to using LC classification in its reference collection: Where the Books Are, NY Times, Aug. 22, 2006.
This change may seem like a trivial matter to you who Google everything. But the Reading Room at the New York Public Library is one of those places so common in this city where the clientele is both passionate and knowledgeable. Sooner or later, everyone who loves a library broods about how the books are arranged. Thomas Jefferson did. He sent 18 or 20 wagonloads of his books to the nascent Library of Congress. He wrote a long letter about the problems of classification and prepared a detailed catalog of his books on a system of his own devising. He loved books and loved arranging them. But that letter is easily his driest piece of writing.


And here's the news story: Sewell Chan, With a New Classification System, the New York Public Library Makes a Change for the Clearer, NY Times, Aug. 17, 2006.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Advice for law students

A big collection of links, from Paul Caron: TaxProf Blog: Advice for the Incoming Law School Class of 2009.

And from John Mayer: Advice for New Law Students: Web Roundup, CALI's Pre-Law Blog.

Court says FBI should use Google

The FBI didn't want to release documents under FOIA because it wasn't sure whether named parties were alive. The DC Circuit said: geez, try Google. Robert Ambrogi, Court: Government's Got to Google, Law.com, Legal Blog Watch, Aug. 22, 2006.

A Day in the Life of a Law Librarian

Some comments on what law firm librarians do. The first task in Todd's day is summer associate orientation. Todd Bennett, A Day in the Life of a Law Librarian, Recorder, Aug. 4, 2006.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Patent Code in Verse

Hardly resting after his triumph rendering the Copyright Code in verse, Yehuda Berlinger now offers the U.S. Patent Code ... in verse.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Putting the White Back in Strunk and White - Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design

Great commentary on style in writing and website design: Christina Wodtke, Putting the White Back in Strunk and White, Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design, July 5, 2006.