Robert Ambrogi

Hidden metadata in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be bad news for a lawyer. This add-in from Microsoft lets you permanently remove hidden data as well as collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments.…

The folks who developed askSam, a free-form database tool, have imported the complete legislative text of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act into a searchable askSam database file and made it available as a free download on their Web site. To use it, you will also need the free askSam viewer.…

Thanks to Rick Klau for his pointer to this tweak for speeding up the Firefox browser.…

Seekport is a new Internet search engine optimized for users in the United Kingdom. Through customized ranking algorithms and a British indexing team, it aims to provide high-quality searching with much less spam and far fewer hits from the United States. The company also provides country-specific search indexing for France and Germany,…

GuruNet Corporation today announced that it will no longer charge subscription fees for its Web site-and-software combination reference service, Answers.com. GuruNet will sell ad placements and sponsored links alongside topic entries rather than charge subscription fees. Answers.com claims to include information on more than a million topics, drawn from a database of more than…

From MARS in my last post, I jump to space law. Thanks to Tom Mighell’s Inter Alia, I learned about the blast-off of New York lawyer and journalist Jesse Londin’s new blog, Space Law Probe, companion to her space law portal, Spacelawstation.com. I have been a fan of Jesse’s writing since her…

By way of beSpacific comes a pointer to a listing of the best free reference Web sites of 2004, compiled by MARS — the American Library Association’s Machine-Assisted Reference Section.…

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that California consumers racing to make the deadline for claiming benefits from a $1.1 billion Microsoft court settlement are hitting a virtual wall — the Web site containing the claim form they need gives them gobbledygook or aborts their request. Curious, I gave it a try. I had…

BabySafeHaven is a Web site launched today by Massachusetts officials as part of a campaign to make the public aware of a new state law that allows a parent anonymously to leave a newborn who is less than a week old at a hospital, police station or manned fire station without legal consequences. The…

I have a mental shortlist of people who should be blogging but who are not. That list just got one name shorter with today’s launch of Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog. Jim is director of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Management Assistance Program and chair of the American Bar Association’s TechShow 2005.…

Wisconsin court officials are putting together a Web site and developing a set of divorce forms for people who want to represent themselves in divorces, the Watertown Daily Times reports.

“They hope the forms, to be available statewide, will allow divorcing couples to avoid spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on lawyers and

Google has this page listing sites for tsunami relief information and donations.…