Most people wouldn’t think of using keyboard shortcuts as they watch videos on YouTube. However, there are actually several really helpful YouTube keyboard shortcuts that everyone should know and use.

First, while watching a video, remember that you can pause it by pressing the Spacebar once. Press the Spacebar again to make the video play.

Second, you can increase or decrease the volume by, respectively, pressing the Up or Down keys.

Third, the Left and Right arrows will let you, respectively, rewind or fast forward through a video.

Lastly, the Home key will take back to the beginning of a …

Thanks largely the excellent work being done at Avoid a Claim blog by LawPro, Ontario lawyers’ professional liability insurer, we now receive ongoing updates about cybercrime, and in particular, criminal efforts to target law firms and steal from lawyers’ bank accounts.

A post last week by Tim Lemieux provided a splendid, nuts and bolts roadmap on the steps fraudsters took to steal several hundred thousands of dollars from a law firm trust account. It all began with a phishing email that duped a firm’s unwitting bookkeeper into providing its bank account numbers by telephone directly to the bad guys.…

I absolutely love resources like legisalture and parliament websites that offer details about current and historical legislation and it’s progress. I also love government websites that offer the full text of various government publications. Sometimes those sites don’t offer the quick way to exactly what you need.

Today’s Tip: Don’t be afraid to use 3rd party collections of things rather than their original source.

Think about all of the Open Data initiatives – open data websites collect from a variety of sources into a clearinghouse website. Like a library but without a decent reference desk – great for experienced gatherers …

I have , but nothing like a pending deadline to spur the procrastinators amongst us into action…
As of April 8, 2014, Microsoft will cease supporting Windows XP SP3 (Service Pack 3) and Office 2003 (SP3). After this date there will be no new security updates, non-security hotfixes, free or paid assisted support options or online technical content updates from Microsoft for either of these products. Your computer will still operate and Office 2003 programs will still run, but if you continue to use Windows XP or Office 2003, you will be more vulnerable to security risks including harmful viruses, …

♫ Wake up and live, y’all!
(Wake up and live) Wake up and live now!
You see, one – one cocoa full a basket,
Whey they use you live big today: tomorrow you buried in-a casket…♫

Lyrics and music by Bob Marley, Anthony Davis, recorded by Bob Marley and The Wailers.

This post is being written up in Whistler BC while on a spring-break ski trip.  Garry sent me an email that he will be off to Jamaica this week to lie under a palm tree.  Whether it be snow or sand that calls to you, the important …

An important legal research tanslation skill is the ability to look at a case citation and understand what it means. Today’s Tip is in honour of the forthcoming 8th edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation.

There are plenty of  resources on legal citation, but these tips will help when you decipher citations:

• round brackets at the beginning of a citation give you the year that the decision was released
• square brackets at the beginning of a citation mean that you need the year in order to find the correct volume of the reporter to locate the

All too frequently, we have all faced the frustrating “printer is low on ink” warning – usually when we are printing something urgent.
Do you need to immediately change
your cartridge? No. If, despite the low ink warning, you are still getting good quality print jobs (i.e., no fading or streaking), carry on printing. In most cases, you will be able to print a few, several or even more pages without problems. Change your cartridge only when the quality of your print jobs starts to decline.…

Are you thinking of building (or updating) your law firm’s website?

As my firm begins an overhaul of our ten-year old site, I’ve certainly learned it can be a bit of a daunting task.

Website-building for lawyers has become considerably more complicated over the last decade. The public has become much more sophisticated in its expectations of professional websites and the extension of law firms’ online presence, beyond websites to blogs and social media, creates challenges for firms seeking to maintain a consistent message and identity online.

There is no “one size fits all” solution or template that will meet …

Today’s Tip is inspired by my colleague Jane Symons. As we occasionally do, Jane zipped out to another library to borrow a book for one of our lawyers – yes folks, print is still necessary for legal research.  She was looking for something in a government documents collection – yes folks, that is correct, not all government documents are on the interweb. The item was not where it was supposed to be on the shelf.

Jane says the library gods were smiling on her when after carefully scanning each item on the surrounding shelves she happened to glance a …

After spending money to buy a new TV, you want to do everything you can to get the best possible picture. One of the tempting additional purchases – often pushed on you by the salesperson – is an expensive gold-plated HDMI cable. They come in large fancy packages and with big price tags – up to $100.

Are they worth it? No – save your hard-earned money for something else. You will get a decent picture with the basic $20 cable. For longer runs – 3 or more metres – best to stay away from the real cheap no-name cables, …