Most of you should be familiar with Google’s Street View. It allows you to see pictures of the street you are viewing on a Google Maps map. That can be very handy when you are wanting to know about the landmarks you should be looking for when you are driving to somewhere you have never been before.

But if you are wanting to have some fun with Google Street View, you can use MapCrunch to “teleport” or jump to a random place in the world.

MapCrunch allows you to easily explore the vast array of imagery captured by Google in …

Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”

The world’s premier legal Technology conference takes place this Thursday-Sat, March 29-31, 2012 in Chicago. www.techshow.com has the complete schedule, speakers and more. Can’t make it this year? No worries. You can be there virtually by following the Twitter stream from the conference. #ABATECHSHOW is the hash tag to follow in Tweetdeck or similar Twitter software. In fact, many attendees follow the stream while at Techshow (both of the authors do!).

Why would you do so? The twitter …

Today’s Tip is by 3rd year University of Alberta law student Elsa Johnson in honour of law student week at Slaw.

I am actually writing a research paper at this very moment, and I was thinking back on first year research and how overwhelming it was. I’m not sure if this is a good “tip” or not, but what really stressed me out was not so much finding material (with all the databases and programs you are almost sure to find a ton of information), it was how to know when you have done enough.

I would always think “Is …

I am going to assume you have a recent complete back-up of all your computer hard drives. You do – don’t you?

Here is another important question: Do you have a Startup Repair disc?

Of course you do! But if you don’t, please take a few minutes to create one. It could be a lifesaver if your hard drive crashes. A Startup Repair disc can be used to start your computer in situations where your computer won’t boot-up due to corruption or damage on the hard drive.

Creating a Startup Repair disc is simple and fast. Put a blank writable …

The best time to prepare a to-do list for your day is 15 minutes before you go home the night before.

Why 15 minutes before?  Because it may never happen if you leave it as the last thing to do before you go home.  By the time you do just a few last minute jobs wishfully thinking “this won’t take me long” it starts to get late.  Then you are rushing out the door.  The list might not get done.

15 minutes before makes it more likely that you actually do it and give it the time it deserves.  It …

Today’s Tip: wear a hat. This tip could also be, change your “hat” if you need to.

I visited he lovely city of Yellowknife today. It was brisk and breezy, but beautiful as always. As I was walking downtown with very chilly ears, it occurred to me that I hadn’t planned very well. I knew I would be walking about, I knew it would be cold, but I didn’t bring a hat.

To make (the inevitable) analogy to legal research: I failed to look in a textbook.

Wear a hat.…

Do you have a burning desire to catch a sunrise or sunset? Google can help. If you type “sunrise” or “sunset” followed by the name a city (don’t type the quotes), Google will give you the time of the next sunrise or sunset in that city and how many hours and minutes until it arrives.

What will Google think of next?…

Everyone hates paying bar dues – especially lawyers who are members of a mandatory bar and have no choice about it.  But as long as you have to pay, why not take a little time to investigate what you get in return?

Your law society or bar association can be a great source of information and assistance for the improvement of your practice as well as a bulk-buying group that negotiates member benefit discounts.  Many bar associations offer ethics and practice management advice as well as discounts on insurance, office equipment, wireless phone service, office products, cloud-based storage and backup, …

A tweet by Dan Bowsher @dan_bowsher caught my eye yesterday:
After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses – http://pri.gg/xAKiqE

Dan has some interesting tweets about Encyclopedia Britannica, though there is another twitter conversation you might find interesting:

Richard Cook‏ @Richhjc13
@stevemjones who needs britannica when u have wiki

Steve Jones‏ @stevemjones
@Richhjc13 Yeah but I bet encyclopaedia Britannia never made mistakes with whether people are alive or dead!! #ripbritannica

Today’s Tip: Use authoritative sources.

Encyclopaedia Britannica remains.…

On a complex PowerPoint slide, you will often can have several objects (e.g. clipart, pictures, textboxes) carefully placed so they appear just where you want them. They could be next to each other, overlapping, partially overlapping etc.

If you want to change the location of several objects, moving them one at a time is a pain because it takes multiple moves to move them individually and all your careful spacing is lost and will have to be set-up again as you move each item.

Next time you need to move multiple objects on a PowerPoint slide, remember this handy trick …