Criminal Law Library BlogVolume 2 Number 5 May 2009.
Rogue (Fake) Anti-Virus Software: How to Spot It & Avoid It!*
From the Desk of David Badertscher
Articles Posted in Technology News
List: Law Library Blogs
We are delighted to see the updated List of Law Library Blogs. It was originally compled by Bonnie Shucha, University of Wisconsin Law School, and has been updated by Michael Robak, University of Illinios College of Law. When viewing this list it is important to note that it contains only law library blogs; all others have been removed. Many thanks to Bonnie for her pioneering efforts in creating the original list and to Michael for maintaining it at a high standard.
Amazon Has Now Released the Latest Version of It’s Wireless eBook Reader: Kindle DX
Amazon has now released Kindle DX, a larger, more versatile veriion of its wireless Kindle ebook device. The new DX version has a larger display and a screen which rotates from portrait to landscape to view Web pages and spreadsheets, etc.
Kindle DX and other wireless ebook reading devices certainly do not portend the end of the tradional book as we know it; they are simply useful, but additional, methods of conveying information to readers.
Here are some of the features of the Kindle DX as listed by Amazon:
Obama CIO Apointee: Obsolete Regulations Block Government Adoption of Social Media
The U.S. government’s CIO recently appointed by President Obama told Congress this week that obsolete regulations are blocking agencies from serving the people by participating in top Web sites and social media. Regulations governing the use of cookies and — ironically — disclosure laws are keeping government stuck in the 20th Century. See:
Obsolete Regulations Block Government Adoption Of Social Media
Comments on How and Where to Write Better Tweets
According to C.G. Lynch’s provocative artice in the CIO Insider Newsletter,Twitter’s growing popularity is exposing a considerable “fraility” of writing among those tweet. He observes that Twitter’s 140 character message format demands concise, engaging writing “and that’s a skill that a lot of people don’t have. To read more of Mr. Lynch’s practical, expert advice click here.
As for where to write, sometimes it seems as though tweeting or twittering is almost universal. Amy Hale-Jenke, Head of Reference at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has found many fellow twittering, or tweeting, law librarians by going to the Twitter Yellow Pages. To “meet” all types of legal professionals, including law librarians who like to tweet, you can also go to Justia’s Legal Birds, a “Twitter Community.” Perhaps all of this gives the quotation, “birds of a feather flock together” a special meaning. Thinking of all this one wonders if tweets are becoming sort of information age variations of haiku that are being spread around the web.
In Challenge to Integrated Library System Industry, OCLC Extends WorldCat By Launcing New Library System
BY Philip Y. Blue, Senior Law Librarian New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library
In a move that could reshape the library automation landscape, OCLC has expanded WorldCat Locals existing cataloging and discovery tools with new circulation, delivery, and acquisitions features. This new project, which OCLC calls “the first Web-scale, cooperative library management service,” will ultimately bring into WorldCat Local the full complement of functions traditionally performed by a locally installed integrated library system (ILS).
Libraries that subscribe to FirstSearch WorldCat will get, for no additional charge, the WorldCat Local quick start service: a locally branded catalog interface and simple search box that presents localized search results for print and electronic content along with the ability to search the entire WorldCat database and other resources via the Web. Further automation support would come next year.
CLLB Information Security Newsletter. April 2009 Volume 2 Number 4.
http://www.msisac.org/April 2009 Volume 2 Number 4.
From the Desk of David Badertscher
The use of credit cards to pay for goods and services is a common practice around the world. It enables business to be transacted in a convenient and cost effective manner. However, more than 100 million personally-identifiable, customer records have been breached in the US over the past two years[1]. Many of these breaches involved credit card information. Continued use of credits cards requires confidence by consumers that their transaction and credit card information are secure. The following provides information as to how the credit card industry has responded to security issues and steps you can take to protect your information.
PowerPoint Security Bug Found in Microsoft Office 2003
“A new zero-day remote code execution vulnerability has come to light, this time affecting Microsoft Office PowerPoint.
The software giant has issued a security advisory about the potential exploit, which affects older Microsoft Office versions up through Office 2003. The current flagship Office 2007 product is not vulnerable.”
For more details see article by Jabulani Lefall, “PowerPoint Security Bug Found in Office 2003” at:
An Appeal to A Jury of Your Twittering Peers
Written by: Ira Winkler March 24, 2009. For the Internet Revolution Blog:
“The ‘CSI Effect’ is what people call juror expectations of forensic evidence that unequivocally proves the defendant guilty. Unfortunately, there is now a “Twitter Effect,” where defense attorneys hope for mistrials because jurors just can’t control themselves and have to tweet what’s going on inside courtrooms or deliberation areas….” See entire posting at:
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=515&doc_id=173990&
Two Twitter Stories
Stories about popular, exciting topics, often appear almost together , sometimes on the same day. On March 13 two stories published in the InformationWeek Daily Newsletter caught our attention and we wanted to pass them on to our readers:
In “The Intruder Story: Man At His Best”, Michael Hickins writes:
“As far as I’m concerned, David Prager is a hero. I would love to meet the man with enough sangfroid (that’s French for cojones) to Tweet and to even set up a Ustream of the event, all while reflecting on the relative degree of danger in which he found himself.”