Paper edition of Legalese is out today.

Today, our last issue of the year is available. Please pick one up! You can also find it here.

The next time you'll see us is February 2007.

Scratching the surface of Web 2.0

NOTE: This article appears in today's paper edition of Legalese.

From recent stories in Time Magazine and on NPR , you may be familiar with the term "Web 2.0" as used to describe the wave of new Internet start-ups rushing to share in the success Myspace and YouTube. Myspace, purchased by Fox for $580 million, and YouTube, acquired last month by Google for $1.6 billion, made their founders very, very rich. But the two sites are also the face of a second dot-com boom -- an explosion that is quickly transforming the Internet before our very browsers.

There are disagreements over exactly what Web 2.0 means (some argue whether the term should be used at all), but essentially Web 2.0 describes the upgraded, new-and-improved Web sites that have lately begun taking over the Net. Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and Fox are buying startups like crazy, and internet entrepreneurs are scrambling to build the next Flickr or Facebook. Web 2.0 is the sequel the dot-com boom of the 90s. The gold rush is on again.

With this excitement in mind, I thought I'd discuss a few of my favorite Web 2.0 sites. There are plenty of good ideas out there searching for money and fame. Here are a some that truly deserve your attention.

Meebo.com
Almost everyone has an instant messaging account. Many people use more than one service. But who wants to install two or three separate programs just so you can chat with all your pals? With Meebo, there's no software to install and you can talk to anyone and everyone, no matter what chat service they use. Just go to meebo, log in using your existing AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google, or Livejournal account, and start chatting. You don't have to register with Meebo, but if you do, you'll be able to log in to all your chat accounts at once using a single sign on. Perhaps the best feature is the new "meebo me" widget. Cut and paste the code into your Myspace page, or another web page, and your friends can see whether you're online and even send you a message, without ever leaving the page. Meebo is messaging that is truly instant.

Zoho.com
Imagine if Microsoft Office was completely free and you didn't need software or a hard drive to use it. Well, that's the idea behind Zoho, a suite of productivity software that lives entirely on the Web and doesn't charge individuals (corporations can pay for a more powerful version). Zoho offers a word processor, spreadsheet, and Powerpoint-style presentation program. It also offers email, calendar, and planning software. None of these programs are as powerful as Office, but that's not really the point. Zoho gives you the essentials, and quite a bit more, for free. And because it's Web based, you can access your documents from any computer (Mac, Linux, or PC) and even share them with your friends. Also, you can import and export documents for use in Office or another program. You can even print to PDF. Google's Docs and Spreadsheets service is simlar to Zoho, but not quite as full-featured. Microsoft will eventually offer its own version. But for now, nobody does Web Office better than Zoho.

Yourminis.com , Pageflakes.com , Netvibes.com
Yahoo remains the most popular home page on the planet, but a number of Web sites are rethinking the start page. Like Yahoo and MSN, they try to bring you the best of the Web on one page, but the upstarts have added some powerful features you can't find on Yahoo or MSN. Pageflakes, Yourminis, and Netvibes each allow you to easily add "widgets" that import content from Myspace, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook and a ton of other sites. You can personalize each widget to give you only the content you want. Other widgets include digital clocks, calendars, and local weather. You can even check your email or play games. The key advantage is flexibility. Yahoo only gives you access to Yahoo's mail and calendar programs; these new start pages don't tie you down. Add your Google calendar, check your Hotmail account, monitor your Ebay auctions. My favorite of these is Yourminis.com because it does a great job with Web games. But all three options are swell. You might also try out similar sites offered by Microsoft and Google.

Last.fm
Last.fm brings the social networking features of Myspace and Facebook to the world of music. But instead of telling other people what you're listening to, Last.fm actually monitors the songs you play in iTunes, Winamp or Windows Media Player and uploads that information to your profile in real time. You can also upload track info from your iPod. For example, say you're jamming the new "Weird" Al Yankovic on your laptop. A small program uploads the track information for each song as it's played, and your pals will see what you're listening to while you're listening to it. Last.fm also keeps weekly charts of your most played tracks, and a list of your all-time faves. It's your own personal Top 40. You can share these lists on your blog or Myspace profile. Oh, and if you don't want anyone to know you like "Weird" Al, you can edit your track history retroactively, so that no one will ever know.

Next issue comes out Nov. 28

Got the paper off the printers yesterday. It usually takes them a week, which is already long enough, but because of the Thanksgiving holidays it going to take a day longer soooo look for the next issue on Tues., Nov. 28. This issue is only 8 pages, down from the usual 12 since people are so busy right now with exams and everything. No worries, though. This issue has a lot of good stuff in it including Michael Wright's food review which is absolutely hilarious this issue (especially the accompanying photo). He reviewed TV dinners...Hi-freakin-larious, I'm tellin you. Editor out.
~Emily

The 'Jesus Wept' of the New York Times?

Check out this piece in Slate. Apparently, one of the shortest articles to ever run in the Times read, in its entirety:

Most snails are both male and female, according to the Associated Press.

It was published in 1950, before most Americans were ready for anything that ran both AC and DC.

Did someone say blogging?

http://www.philtube.com/

Today is Election Day!

Go forth and vote. After you've voted, come back and read up on the latest craze: academics questioning voter rationality.

• First, The Volokh Conspiracy's Ilya Somin and Jim Lindgren traded several posts about whether voting is even rational in the first place. Economists apparently agree that voting is an individually futile act, because your vote, by itself, is unlikely to affect the outcome of an election. But if one adheres to rational choice theory, what explains peoples' inclination to keep voting despite its apparent futility? Check out the exchange here.
• After that, head over to the Cato Institute's Cato Unbound. This month's discussion attacks voter rationality in a different manner, arguing that the decisions voters make are based on bad information or no information at all, and that a democracy governed by voter-inspired policymaking is probably hurting us more than it helps.

Personally, I was kind of depressed after reading all that. I'm perplexed about the divergent implications of what I've read. First, it's irrational to vote, because your vote matters not at all. On the other hand, all of us voters together are collectively, and terribly, uninformed. Our votes, harmless by themselves, are quite destructive when aggregated.

Maybe I shouldn't have voted at all. I've always enjoyed voting, but if economists are to be believed, my decision to vote early last week wasn't a rational one. And I was probably horribly informed anyway, harming America with every selection I made.

Oh, well. One can't cry over a vote already cast. I'll know better next time. :)

UH cracks 90% bar passage rate!

On Friday, Dean Nimmer sent out an e-mail announcing bar passage rate for first-time takers who sat for the exam this summer. The results were very positive for UHLC.

	Took	Passed	Pass Rate
BAYLOR	94	92	97.87%
UH LAW CENTER	239	216	90.38%
S.M.U.	222	200	90.09%
UT	353	318	90.08%
T.W.U.	141	124	87.94%
TEXAS TECH	174	152	87.36%
ST. MARY'S	203	171	84.24%
SOUTH TEXAS	280	230	82.14%
T.S.U.	122	69	56.56%

Following these numbers, Dean Nimmer went on to state:

Statistics are sometimes shaped by people who either acquire or disseminate them, and I decline to play that game. I share these numbers only to emphasize two points. First, the Law Center is a great school with excellent teachers and terrific students. And second, because we’re so good, we should aim for a pass rate of 100% on the Texas Bar Exam. That’s how I see my role: to constantly raise the bar in our pursuit of excellence.

Yeah, 100% is the dream, but 90% is pretty cool. Congratulations to our 2006 graduating class.

Re: Horror Movie Review

Apparently Emily's list of the top ten horror movies was widely accepted...because NONE of those movies were available at Blockbuster on Halloween night. It was either Seed of Chucky, or nothing.

Of course if I had NetFlix (or a life) that wouldn't have been a problem, I suppose.

UH IT says to wait a bit before installing IE 7.

In the latest issue of Legalese, I reviewed Microsoft's upgraded Internet Explorer 7.0. Today, Bill Ashley, from UH's Information Technology department sent an e-mail to everyone on campus recommending that students and faculty delay installing the new IE 7.0 until the spring semester.

Information Technology recommends that UH students, faculty, and staff delay installing Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) until the semester break because of incompatibility issues between the new software and certain important UH applications, including WebCT and PeopleSoft.

IT is testing IE7 against all enterprise UH applications to identify software incompatibilities or installation issues that may arise as a result of upgrading to the new browser.

The e-mail also advised that IE 7 was due to be released November 1 (today). Actually, it was released on October 19, so a good many people may have already installed the browser. Also, Microsoft has scheduled the browser to roll out automatically to Windows XP users on November 14. But, as you can see here, you can opt out of the upgrade by simply choosing "Don't Install" when you're prompted. If you decide to give it a try, you can uninstall it later if there's a problem. This kind of user choice is a nice change for Microsoft. In the past, the software maker has made it difficult for users to roll back to previous versions after upgrading.

Should you avoid installing the upgrade? IT issued the following caution:

If you choose to proceed with the upgrade, please be aware of these known issues:

• Incompatibility with the WebCT Vista email editor
• Additional configurations that are required for PeopleSoft

I've been running it since the Beta was released, and had no problems at all. But, like most students, I don't use WebCT or Peoplesoft. If you do, then I'd probably steer clear. If you have additional questions or concerns UH IT asks that you visit this page for more information.