June 25, 2005

Pharm Relief - RoboForm

I've been a fan of RoboForm for some time now. It saves my many passwords, and retrieves them when needed. What I didn't realize is that it also helps protect against phishing and pharming, according to Bob Williamson in a letter to PC Magazine published in the June 7th issue. (I'd like to give you a link to the original letter, but I can't find it, or much of anything else, on the PC Magazine site. Why, or why, do the technology publications have such bad search engines. Sorry, I digress.)

According to Williamson, RoboForm will not offer to enter the saved name and password for a site if the underlying URL does not match with the one it has stored. So if you link through from a fake URL in an email, Roboform "would simply not fill in the fake form."

Pharming, a technique which redirects traffic from a legitimate web site to a fake one, can also be stymied by Roboform as "the falsified Web site would have to have the exact underlying URL/code for RoboForm to function."

There's no guarantee of safety, of course, if you choose to enter the user name and password yourself.

That settles it. If I can't get to it via RoboForm, I just don't even want to go there!

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2005

Another Free Remote Access Service

Free web services makes me feel like it's the late 90's again. And there actually are a few popping up here and there. For example, if you're looking for a way to access a computer in a remote location, such as your home computer while you're away, you'll be interested to know there are several free options available. While we all like free, these services are especially appealing to those of us who only need very occassional access to a remote computer, making a monthly fee seem too burdensome.

The recently introduced MyWebex offers a basic, free service. But it's LogMeInBasic that gets a PC Magazine Editor's Choice in the remote access category. I've been using it happily for the last month or so, and am favorably impressed.

For more information on remote access services see:

Remote Access Software - MyWebExPC.com

Managing Your Email Remotely

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

Internet Utilities - Toolbars, Browser Add-ons and More

There's always room for improvement, and that's certainly true for web browsers. For example, I'm quite attached, as are many others, to the Google Toolbar, a PC Magazine Editor's choice in their recent Internet Utilities article. The article also includes a variety of tools in each category including browser toolbars, add-ons, trace removers and instant-messaging aggregators.

I was recently looking for a utility to do a scheduled download of a couple of web sites. Judging from the description of Copernic Tracker 1.1, included in the browser add-ons category, it would pretty much fit the bill.

Considering all the passwords we inevitably must have these days, a password manager and form filler is an excellent browser addition. (Though you might be interested to know that Firefox offers one built right into the browser.) Editor's Choice in this category went to my favorite, Roboform.

We spend enough time browsing the web (does anyone surf the web anymore?), we might as well enhance the experience!

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 12:58 PM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2005

Furl, Furled, Furling

The implementation of bookmarks in Internet Explorer leaves a lot to be desired. But when Microsoft leaves an opening, there's always someone ready to jump right in and give people what they want and/or need. Enter Furl, one of several "social" bookmarking tools available on the web.

First, let's discuss the bookmarking part of the equation. Once you set up a free account with Furl, and install one of several Furl buttons for your browser, you're set. Instead of adding a site to your IE favorites, you can now add web sites to your Furl account at the click of a button, categorizing and annotating as you go. But there's more. Furl grabs a copy of the web page itself giving you your very own archive of web pages for searching or viewing. Since your bookmarks and archive are stored on the web, they're available to you wherever you are, home, work or on the road.

The social part comes in when you share your bookmarks, and view the bookmarks of others with similar interests. (You have the option to make your bookmarks public or private.) If you find a true bookmark soul mate, you can even subscribe to their links via RSS.

For more information on Furl, see:

Furl Furled Furling: Social On-Line Book Marking for the Masses, by Jim Wenzloff

Tip of the Month: The Wave of New Bookmarks, by Mary Ellen Bates (Feb. 2005)

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2005

Remote Access Software - MyWebExPC.com

These days it seems like the Internet is connecting everything to everything else. So it follows that you should be able to connect to your home computer whether you're home or not. And so you can. Gotomypc.com has been the gold standard for remote access software for some time now. But there's a new challenger out there, MyWebEx.com.

The Webex people are known for creating a web conferencing service, which connects any number of computers together for training, presentations, sales meetings, collaboration, etc. Since they do a good job of web meetings, it follows that it should be a piece of cake to use that same technology to allow you to connect to one computer with another.

I've been a GoToMyPC.com fan for some time. Unfortunately, my firm's web filter now blocks access. But they haven't found MyWebEx.com yet. (Shhhhsh...don't tell.) MyWebEx.com works just like GoToMyPC, but there's one big difference...it's free. At least for now.

MyWebEx.com isn't all goodness and light, at least not for me. The plug-in seems to be crashing my computer upon shutdown. But that's a small price to pay for free remote access.

For more information see: WebEx Readies Remote Access App.

[Spotted on TVC Alert.]

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)

January 03, 2005

Erase that Hard Drive

Regardless of how you dispose of an old computer, whether you give it to a friend, or take it to a local drop-off center, you need to make sure that the information on your hard drive isn't used for nefarious purposes, such as identity theft. The last time I got rid of a computer, I removed the hard drive, and still have the silly thing in my closet. Luckily, it doesn't take up much space

There are better ways. According to PC Magazine (Pipeline, Dec. 28, 2004), EraseYourHardDrive uses "the same technology employed by the Department of Defense to remove all data from a hard drive."

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2004

Internet Librarian - Research Tools: Turning Search into Research

Just so you know, the Internet Librarian PowerPoints have started to appear on the InfoToday site. If I spot presentations for any of the programs I've covered, (I haven't yet), I'll go back and link to them.

It's time to start winding up my coverage of Internet Librarian 2004. We're almost there! But I can't fail to mention "Research Tools: Turning Search into Research." Speakers Marydee Ojala, Darlene Fichter and Sebastian Gard discussed a variety of different tools available to help you manage all that useful information you find out there on the web. Just a few tidbits.....

"Post-processing" tools that will help you store, organize and present your research are very popular right now. Among the software discussed by Marydee Ojala was:

Onfolio
AskSam's Surfsaver
Catchtheweb
ContentSaver
HTTrack
Keepoint
Netsnippets

Darlene covered "social bookmarking" web tools such as:

FURL
Frassle
Del.icio.us
Spurl

These sites help you organize your bookmarks by category, search them, and also view sites saved by others with similar interests. Because they're web based, you can access your saved bookmarks from any computer. FURL has been my particular favorite of late, and probably deserves a more detailed entry at some future date.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2004

Yahoo-OCLC Toolbar

Not to worry, I'll get back to Internet Librarian again, but in the meantime the new Yahoo-OCLC Toolbar was announced, and I thought you should know.

Remember that OCLC has offered the complete Worldcat database to Google and Yahoo so that searchers can find books and the libraries that own them. All the information isn't there yet, there's only 2 million of the 57 million records available in the full WorldCat, but more is coming.

This new joint toolbar let's you search for a book by simply popping your search terms in the search box, and selecting "libraries" from the search drop-down:

The toolbar also includes a "libraries" button (click on the OCLC logo) with the following options:

Okay, that's enough for me! My Google toolbar has been hidden from view, replaced with the new Yahoo-OCLC toolbar, which, by the way, includes some other interesting features such as a guard against spyware (I haven't read any reviews of this yet, so I'm not sure how effective it is), and, of course, the requisite pop-up blocker. But woa is me, it's doesn't work with Firefox.

By the way, if your library uses OCLC, and you don't want your holdings to appear in Google and/or Yahoo, and most private firms probably wouldn't, fill out the form on the OCLC Open Worldcat page. According to OCLC, "Only libraries with ownership information (holdings) in WorldCat will see their holdings displayed in the Open WorldCat interface. Libraries that have declined previously, or that decline via the update form, will not see their holdings displayed."

For more information, see the Infotoday Newsbreak by Barbara Quint, OCLC and Yahoo! Offer Joint Toolbar and the Web4Lib discussion on the topic.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2004

Internet Librarian - AIIP Awards

The AIIP Technology Awards were announced at Tuesday's Keynote....the envelope please......and it goes to Netsnippets! Netsnippets is a product designed for organizing, compiling and presentation of web research.

Runner ups were Dialog 4 and Microsoft's Onenote. By the way, Onenote has very recently become one of my favorite programs.

The speaker for the keynote presentation, Patricia Martin, was amazing. Her topic, essentially advice to nonprofit libraries on how to find and manage sponsorship opportunities was pretty much irrelevant to my interests, but I found it fascinating nonetheless.

She had several book recommendations, one of which, Leading Geeks: How to Manage and Lead the People Who Deliver Technology, sounded like it had some interesting insight into the tech guy psyche. And after all, wouldn't we all like to better understand the tech guys in our lives?

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2004

Find Files Fast

If the new Google Desktop search isn't right for you, that's okay, there are several other tools out there to help you locate your data in a hurry, including emails, Word files, text documents and more. Though unlike the Google product, most of them will cost you. PC World reviews the major contenders in desktop search, giving editors picks to DtSearch Desktop With Spider and Lookout Software.

Note what they have to say about DtSearch: "I could easily see this program serving a reference librarian." So there you go...

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2004

Portable Roboform

I don't stress over the number of passwords that I have to keep track of because I use Roboform. The only downside is that the data it collects resides on your computer, and is therefore unavailable to you when you're out and about. That problem has been solved with the new Portable Roboform. Portable Roboform allows you to save your passwords and a stand-alone version of Roboform to a USB flash drive so you can take it all with you and use it on any computer. You can browse the web in a secure manner, without leaving a trace.

[Spotted on Inter-Alia]

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2004

Google Desktop Search

The rumor floating around for the past several months is true. Google has introduced a search engine for your hard drive.

This is like, SO cool. (Thanks for letting me get that out of my system.) I've been considering trying one of the many alternatives out there for searching email and other files that hide on my hard drive, but procrastination is sometimes the best policy. I didn't procrastinate in installing Google Desktop Search.

As to be expected, it takes time for Google Desktop Search to index all your stuff. My only complaint is that there was no indication as to the status of the indexing process. I thought something had gone awry when I couldn't pull up any of my emails in a search. But when I tried again later, up they came! Yippee!

Google DS searches Outlook email, AOL Messenger, viewed web pages (IE only, not Firefox), Word, Excel, PowerPoint and text files. PDF files are definitely on my wish list for future development.

But the BEST thing about Google Desktop Search is that when I run a regular Google web search from the desktop search page, I get search results from my own hard drive right there at the top. I'd like to turn that on for my Google toolbar as well.

For those concerned about privacy, you'll be happy to know that no data is stored on the Google servers. Google doesn't monitor any personal data, or peep into your hard drive. This tool would not be suitable for public computers, however, as it could allow users to view emails received by previous users.

Darn. Why didn't I buy Google stock. (I guess I'm still traumatized by my homegrocer.com stock debacle. )

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2004

OCLC/Google Bookmarklet

Let's say you're browsing Amazon and find a book you'd like to read. But why not borrow instead of buy? After all, maybe your local library has it. There's a way to quickly find out if they do without going to the library's web site and running a search. Instead, install this handy bookmarklet, click whenever you're on a page that includes a ISBN number, and it will search your library's catalog automatically and let you know if they own it, assuming they are using one of the supported online catalogs. But there's more.

The original version, called LibraryLookup, is designed to work with specific library catalogs. I wanted to use it with the Los Angeles Public Library catalog, which isn't one that's available. As the creator, John Udell says, I could write my own, but I'm just not THAT motivated.

But this week, in an act of online collaboration, several librarians worked together to product one that searches Worldcat records available on Google. Michael Fagan, at the suggestion of Steve Cohen, added the final fix.

Very cool! If it finds the title, you can pop in your zip code and get a list of local libraries who own it. Just be aware that the Worldcat records available on Google are limited and don't represent everything available in Worldcat.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2004

More On Desktop Search

Another desktop search tool joins the fray. Gary Price reviews Copernic Desktop Search this week in Search Engine Watch.

[Spotted on the Virtual Chase]

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2004

Keeping Track of Passwords

These days I think long and hard before spending money on new software. There's so many different utilities that promise to make your computing experience a better one, a person could go broke buying them all! But I DID spring for the professional version of Roboform. And rarely does a day go by when I don't use it.

Roboform is an Internet Explorer add-on that watches for web sites that require you to log in. When you enter your user name and password, RoboForm records the information, and the next time it automatically logs you in without any effort on your part.

In order to keep your passwords secure, you can assign ONE password that is required before Roboform will log you in, or before displaying your complete list of passwords. Now there's a list you wouldn't want to lose!

You can also store your name, address, and/or credit card information, and when you're shopping, Roboform will enter this information in the web form for you upon request. You can spend a lot of money very quickly this way. Trust me, I know.

If you'd prefer to keep all these passwords in your head, you'll probably need some help, so take a look at "Cracking Password Usability... Exploiting human memory to create secure and memorable passwords" to help you create safe passwords, and then remember them all!

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2004

Mission Organization

If I can search the vast resources of the web in seconds, why can't I find an email or file on my own computer? Microsoft is promising more advanced searching capability in the new version of Windows code-named Longhorn, but it isn't expected to ship until 2006. There are rumors that Google is planning a desktop search utility, but mum's the word until after the IPO. So what to do until then? In his most recent column, Steve Bass discusses the IdeaLab's X1, which "indexes the data on your hard drive and searches in four categories: files, e-mail, e-mail attachments, and Outlook contacts." In Econtent, Onfolio, a utility for downloading, organizing and publishing web content is reviewed, as is the Lycos HotBot Desktop, a search bar that allows searching of the web AND your hard drive. I guess there's just no excuse for disorganization anymore.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 03:58 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2004

Recovering Costs on Pacer/ECF Systems

The availability of docket information from court web sites via Pacer is a tremendous boon for legal researchers. But administering a Pacer account for a large law firm can be a pain in the neck. Why? Because Pacer allows only one user name/password per account. As a result, a law librarian has two choices. Create one account with a shared password, and then deal with the inevitable difficulties of tracking down wayward client charges with no hint as to who might have done the research; or create an account for each user, with separate invoices for each account/user resulting in an avalanche of paper at billing time. Obviously, neither choice is ideal.

As a response to this problem, Erik Adams, Electronic Services Librarian at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton in Los Angeles, has created a web application that resides on their LawPort portal. The app captures the user and client information which is then passed to Pacer as a client-matter number, and then appears on the invoice. With this system, there is one Pacer password needed for the entire firm.

Eric explains how this application work, and provides links to the actual code. Thanks, Eric!

Recovering Costs on Pacer/ECF Systems

By Erik Adams, Email: eadams at sheppardmullin.com

Erik Y. Adams is the Electronic Services Librarian at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton in Los Angeles, where he develops web applications and does the same sort of stuff law librarians everywhere do. He is a certified dot-com survivor, having spent 4 years bouncing from one unprofitable company to another. He received his MLIS from UCLA in 1995, back when the "blink" tag had just been invented.

Introduction

This article documents techniques for creating a simple web application that will populate the user name, password, and client id for a PACER or CM/ECF docketing system. At my firm we have derived several benefits from doing this:

• Secretaries can pull dockets for cases without having to have their own ID or know a shared id
• Our application requires users to enter a client ID, which has led to a significant increase in our recovery of costs of PACER charges
• Most of our PACER searches are being done on a single ID, which has greatly simplified billing

Parts of this article are somewhat technical in nature. I have assumed a basic knowledge of HTML and Internet terminology, and tried to explain everything else. If anything is incomprehensible please feel free to contact me and let me know.

It should be pointed out that this is not something that the courts support. I contacted them asking for an opinion, and was rebuked with a statement that they don't help law firms with their intranets. It is entirely possible that the courts will change something on their systems and the methods described here will stop working.

At the end of this article I include a link to sample programs that implement what this article describes. I offer these samples to help people create applications on their own intranet, but make no guarantees or warranties. They worked when I tested them, and didn't damage any systems I ran them on. Your mileage may vary.

Into the Breach

The most basic web application has two components: an HTML form for gathering data, and a program of some kind that processes the form data. After processing, the program may output an HTML document or may redirect the browser to another web page.

This is how the login screens for the PACER and CM/ECF web sites work:

• The user accesses a web page on the court's web site with fields for the user name, password, and client id.
• That form data is then submitted to a program, also on the court's web site, which checks that the user name and password are valid.
• If everything is ok, the browser is redirected to the system's main search screen.

The web application we have built takes the place of the PACER login screen. Our users access an web page on our intranet server, enter a client identifier, and select the court they want from a pop-up menu. That page submits its data to a program, also on our intranet, which validates the client number and then redirects the user to the appropriate PACER or CM/ECF system, passing along the login information and the validated client number.

To the end user, the process is completely transparent; a client number is entered, a court selected, and a moment later they are logged in and searching a PACER system.

There are two ways for an HTML form to submit data to a script: get and post. Data submitted via the get method appears in the URL, as in

	http://intranet/pacer_script.cgi?username=jdoe&password=fnord&client=rroe

Data submitted via the post method is passed from the browser to the web server behind the scenes. There isn't much difference between the two methods, but both the PACER and CM/ECF systems require that login information be submitted via the post method. Which means that strictly speaking the program on our intranet doesn't perform a redirect; it outputs an HTML form that is basically a modified and condensed version of the form found on the PACER or CM/ECF web sites. The two main differences are that all of the form elements are both pre-populated and hidden, and the form contains a little bit of Javascript that causes the form to be submitted automatically to the court's web server.

These modified forms are tailored to each court's docketing system. As of this writing, there are three different systems in use: two versions of PACER and one version of CM/ECF. The only way to tell the difference between them is to visit the court's login web page and view the HTML source. Look for the <input ... > tags and check the name elements, as in:

	<input type="text" name="username">

Each system has slightly different names for user name, password, and client
identifier; also, the PACER systems have additional hidden elements. These differences are documented, in detail, below.

PACER, first kind

The first type of PACER system is the one used by the Southern District of California. The main login screen for this PACER system can be found at https://pacer.casd.uscourts.gov/dc/pacer150.html. On this page, the user name is called "loginid", the password is "passwd", and the client identifier is "client". There is also a hidden form element named "newloc", which always seems to have the same value, "/dc/cgi-bin/pacer250.pl". Our script outputs an HTML document that looks like this:

	<html>
	<head></head>
	<body onload="document.forms[0].submit();">
	<form method="post" action="https://pacer.casd.uscourts.gov/dc/cgi-bin/ChkPasswd.pl">
	<input type="hidden" name="loginid" value="[ user name ]">
	<input type="hidden" name="passwd" value="[ password ]">
	<input type="hidden" name="client" value="[ client identifier ]">
	<input type="hidden" name="newloc" value="/dc/cgi-bin/pacer250.pl">
	</form>
	</body>
	</html>

The Javascript on this form has been tested and is known to work on Internet Explorer, Netscape (and its Mozilla brethren), and Safari (for all you Macintosh users out there.)

PACER, second type

The second type of PACER system can be found at the California Central District Bankruptcy Court, Los Angeles Division's web site at https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?court_id=CACBLA. On this type of system, the user name, password, and client have the same names as the other kind of PACER system. However, there are two hidden input tags: "appurl", which is always blank, and "court_id", which will have a different value depending on the court. For the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Court, the value is "CACBLA". Our script outputs a form that looks like this:

	<html>
	<head></head>
	<body onLoad="document.forms[0].submit();">
	<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/check-pacer-passwd.pl" NAME="f_login">
	<INPUT type="hidden" name="loginid" value="[ user name ]">
	<INPUT type="hidden" name="passwd" value="[ password ]">
	<INPUT type="hidden" name="client" value="[ client identifier ]">
	<INPUT type="hidden" name="appurl" value="">
	<INPUT type="hidden" name="court_id" value="CACBLA">
	</FORM>
	</body>
	</html>

ECF Courts

The ECF courts are a little more complicated than the PACER courts. Such is the march of progress, I suppose.

The Northern District of California Bankruptcy Court is an ECF court, and its login page can be found at https://ecf.canb.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The user name is called "login", the password is called "password", and the client identifier is called "clcode".

What makes the ECF courts more complicated is that embedded in the login page is an ID number that is generated each time the page is loaded. Before our script can generate a form to automatically log in a user, it has to get that ID and submit it along with the other login information. Fortunately, the ID number is always embedded in the "form" tag on the login page, and it's pretty easy to write a program that retrieves the login page and finds the ID. Once you've got the ID, you can output an HTML form like this one:

	<html>
	<head></head>
	<body onLoad="document.forms[0].submit();">
	<FORM METHOD="post" ENCTYPE="multipart/form-data" ACTION="https://ecf.casb.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?[ ID number ]" name="f_login">
	<INPUT type="hidden" name="login" value="[ user id ]">
	<INPUT type="hidden" name="key" value="[ password ]">
	<INPUT type="hidden" name="clcode" value="[ client id ]">
	</FORM>
	</body>
	</html>

Conclusion

In the best of all worlds, as Dr. Pangloss might say, the courts would support account management features that are common in the commercial world, including:

• multiple login IDs on one account, to simplify billing
• IP based authentication, to get rid of the ID problem altogether
• client ID masking, so not only could we require our users to enter a client identifier but also get it in the right format

But they don't. So, we have to add those features on our own and hope the courts don't do something that breaks them.

Samples

Code samples can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~erik/pacer/. The files are:

sample.html

A simple HTML form that prompts a user for a client number and to select a court. Three real courts are listed, and each is example of the three kinds of court documented above.

coldfusion.cfm

A Cold Fusion script, suitable for use on Lawport.

iis.asp

A version in VBScript, suitable for use on a Microsoft server. This script requires a change in the configuration of Internet Information Server that has security implications. Comments in the script describe the changes.

perl.cgi

A version in Perl, suitable for use in a Unix environment. The Perl script requires a module that is not normally installed by default. It also may not be in the best Perl style - my skills in that language are a little rusty.

Pointers on style and corrections on technique are welcome.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2003

Spell Checker for Web Form Entry

I haven't forgotten that I promised more information on the Internet Librarian sessions. I'm waiting until the presentations are posted on the Infotoday site before going into much detail because I'd like to include links to the original powerpoints.

In the meantime, here's here's a tidbit from Darlene Fichter's session on Web Tools. One utility she mentioned was ieSpell, a spell checker for Internet Explorer.

This little program will spell check any text input boxes used for data entry on web forms. I tried it out, and it works fairly well. Just make sure that you set the suggestion mode to "Slow, but accurate." Before I made that change, ieSpell was missing some obvious misspellings. And it's free!

This is certainly useful if you're a blogger entering quite a bit of text. I can imagine it could also be handy for intranet applications as well, as many of those are getting fairly data entry intensive. I'm curious as to whether it could be built into an intranet application.

And yes, I did run spell check on this entry, and my spelling passed muster. At least this time. Too bad it couldn't check my html as well. I always forget to close that href tag!

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2003

Google Pop-Up Blocker - Bypass Feature

In a previous entry I mention issues with the blocking of legitimate content when using Google's pop-up blocker. It turns out that the new version of the toolbar will let you make exceptions for specific URLs.

To turn off the toolbar for a particular site, simply click on the pop-up icon on the toolbar.

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2003

Pop-up Blockers & Westlaw's Find & Print

Genie Tyburski mentions problems with Google's pop-up blocker in Research News for 30 October 2003.
Another reason to be wary of pop-up blockers of all types relates to an issue with Westlaw's Find and Print.

That's because the window with the retrieved case is seen as a pop-up, and so is suppressed. So if you're having difficulties retrieving cases, turn off that pop-up blocker and see if that solves your problem.

I stopped using pop-up blockers some time ago, when I realized that they made some web pages unusable, such as the L.A. County Assessor's property search. I hate those pop-ups, but what can you do....

Posted by Cindy L. Chick at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)