Windows 10?  Yawn.

If nothing else, the imminent launch of the new Windows OS gives us opportunity again to wonder why the Powers-That-Be at Microsoft continue to fail to grasp the obvious:

In terms of user interface, they got it right – with Windows XP.  Its been mostly downhill from there.

XP set the gold standard for user satisfaction.  That seminal OS would probably still have many millions of added, happy home and office users if the company hadn’t eliminated support for it a bit more than a year ago.

At its front-end, Windows 7 represented fairly lateral change …

To continue the theme from the last couple of weeks, Today’s Tip is about linking in to CanLII.  The tips for WestlawNext Canada and LexisNexis Canada have been about linking to a specific source within the services and that makes sense for CanLII as well.

Stable, predictable, readable URLs are one of the truly wonderful things about CanLII.

What is the start page for searching Statutes and Regulations of Alberta?

http://www.canlii.org/en/ab/laws/index.html

How about Ontario legislation?

http://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/index.html

The legislation of Manitoba?

http://www.canlii.org/en/mb/laws/index.html

The pattern for decisions is also very predictable and stable. The case R. …

Last week, I gave a shout out to Ted Tjaden for sharing some info about deep linking to LexisNexis Canada sources, and I am continuing to thank Ted this week. Ted shared some information about deep linking into WestlawNext Canada.

Deep-linking to the Canadian Abridgment:

https://nextcanada.westlaw.com/Browse/Home/AbridgmentTOC/TOR.XVI.6/View.html (this should be strict liability, rule in Rylands v Fletcher)

When you are in the Abridgment, you can usually get the abridgment schema code and simply insert it in the foregoing URL.  The portion of the URL above that is the schema code is TOR.XVI.

I have had good luck with jumping …

Hat tip to Ted Tjaden for Today’s Tip. Ted is a fan of deep linking to sources including fee based sources of legal research.  I am a fan of Ted, including his excellent Irwin Law text Legal Research and Writing which has a companion website. Ted recently shared the pattern of how to deep link to specific material in LexisNexis Canada.

As you may know, not all databases in QL give you the “hyperlink” option.The following pattern gives you a stable URL to a single database:

ICLIP = http://www.lexisnexis.com/ca/legal/search/UrlApiShowSearch.do?sfi=CA03STCmtrySrch&csi=281866

The only variable is the CSI number. You can get …

♫  Snap, what a happy sound
Snap is the happiest sound I’ve found
You may clap, rap, tap, slap but
Snap… makes the world go round…♫

Lyrics and music by Moosebutter.

Continuing with the theme of technology that just works, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500.

This little scanner punches way above its weight.  In fact in the years that I have been talking about scanners and going paperless, no one has ever said that they have regretted purchasing one of the ScanSnap line of scanners.  They have been a hit with …

Today’s tip is a reminder that web delivered content may display or act differently depending on your browser and the size of your browser window. If it is possible in your organization, use more than one web browser.

To highlight this tip, I will show you three versions of Lexbox, a groovy new research tracking service that is available from Lexum at mylexbox.com.

Chrome – full screen:

IE – full screen:

Firefox – Full screen:

Note the very minor differences in where your see down arrows and …

Happy 148th birthday Canada.

There is a nice history of Canada day outlined at this federal government website that was updated in June of 2014.  It reminds us of some facts.  I share those blow that relate to finding the law of Canada Day:

• July 1, 1867: The British North America Act (today known as the Constitution Act, 1867) created Canada.
• 1879: A federal law makes July 1 a statutory holiday as the “anniversary of Confederation,” which is later called “Dominion Day.”
• October 27, 1982: July 1, “Dominion Day” officially becomes Canada Day.  The

♫  He ain’t no drag 
He’s got a brand new bag… ♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by: James Brown.

This post continues the ‘no brainer’ posts about technology.  This time it is about a bit of technology that most people don’t put much thought into, I suspect, namely their computer laptop bag.

Now some people will say that a bag is a bag is a bag.  I am not one of them. In fact I can say that I am quite particular about my bag.  I had a nice laptop bag given to me by our local Continuing …

When someone does or says something nice to, for, or about you, it is appropriate to express your gratitude.

This holds true for someone who goes out of their way to assist you with your legal research problem.  I am not especially advocating a regular contribution to the wine fridge of your local law librarian who helps you all the time – I leave that to you.

Today’s Tip is particular to those (unexpectedly) wonderful public servants who call you back with information in a timely fashion, the colleague down the hall who saves you with a precedent, the partner …

The Wall Street Journal, of all places, had a feature this week on the increasing prevalence – and acceptance – of mindfulness training for lawyers.

In Lawyers Go Zen, With Few Objections, writer Jacob Gershman delivers more than just a clever headline.  He focusses on the enhanced listening skills that can be developed through mindfulness techniques.

I don’t have much personal expertise in this area, but I do have the luxury of deferring on this topic to my significant other, Toronto marketing consultant Sandra Bekhor, who has completed mindfulness training.

She notes:

“Sharper listening skills will make