Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog

Link of the Day - Crime Reports Online

This is going to be my final Link of the Day for a while. I'll continue to feature helpful links, but less frequently.

Crime Reports Live is a Web site where you can search for information on recent crimes in your neighborhood (or anywhere else). Here is information from the site:

The Community Safety Management Network is here for your safety. Part of that obligation is keeping you as informed as possible concerning crimes in Dallas neighborhoods, and business districts. This online tool has been designed to be an easy to use, easy to understand means of getting information about crime type, location of crime by street, date, police district or beat, zip code, premises, and displays it on a zoomable city map.

Link of the Day - Travel Tips

Whether you travel for business, pleasure, or both, flying seems to be a bigger hassle than ever before. That's where JohnnyJet comes to the rescue. This Web site is published by a fellow who travels practically nonstop, and has an enormous variety of travel tips and resources. Here's his sotry:

I started this newsletter/website for fun. It all began when I e-mailed a few friends who traveled a lot, and wanted to earn as many miles as I did. We competed to see who could accrue more miles, and after kicking their butts (I learned a lot traveling 150,000 miles a year for the past 10 years), I decided to be nice and help my friends out. My first e-mails told them what numbers to call so they could earn double miles or points. Each week I got more creative, adding new features like tips, web cams and helpful travel websites. My list grew and grew. I got e-mails from people I didn't even know, asking to be added to the distribution list. When my list reached 500 I decided to make a website. I felt there were many helpful, cool websites out in cyberspace, but not one of them had everything I needed. I had so many travel bookmarks and favorites that sometimes even I couldn't find what I was looking for. So I laid them all out, organized them, and voila: The Johnny Jet Portal! The website was designed to point travelers to everything the web has to offer. It doesn't matter if you travel five days a week, or once every five years. This site is for everyone! It has become the "first stop" for thousands of travelers. Those who contribute to Johnny Jet share my vision -- and I share theirs. Together, all of us get the inside scoop on how to do travel -- and how do it economically, comfortably, efficiently and with plenty of style. Don't forget to tell your family, friends and colleagues to sign up to our free Johnny Jet’s Travel News, Tips and Stories newsletter (at www.JohnnyJet.com) -- and to use our search engines when booking travel.

Link of the Day - End User License Agreement Analyzer

Do you ever take the time to read the end user license agreements (EULAs) that pop up each time you buy or download a software program online? No, neither do I. But now there's a free program that will read the EULA for you, and alert you to any tricky language. Just visit JavaCoolSoftware.com and get the program for free. Here's more information:

End user license agreements (EULAs) are the bane of most computer users.
No one wants to read through pages and pages of boring text before installing a program. And many programs put their license agreements in small windows that require lots of scrolling. So many people either skim them or skip reading them altogether.

But it can be dangerous not to read license agreements.
License agreements can provide information about the intentions of software, and other bundled components. Have you ever installed a program, only to have your desktop taken over by advertising? It may have been noted in the license agreement that you simply clicked past. If you aren't reading the license agreements, you have no idea what you could be agreeing to.

You should always read license agreements before agreeing to them.
But now there's a way of making that much easier.

EULAlyzer - Making it all easy

EULAlyzer can analyze license agreements in seconds, and provide a detailed listing of potentially interesting words and phrases. Discover if the software you're about to install displays pop-up ads, transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you, or much much more.

The Benefits

• Discover potentially hidden behavior about the software you're going to install
• Pick up on things you missed when reading license agreements
• Keep a saved database of the license agreements you view
• Instant results - super-fast analysis in just a second

And with additional features like the EULA Research Center, which optionally allows users to anonymously submit license agreements they scan to help us to further improve the program, everyone can be a part of the effort to make something that used to be so tedious, so easy.

Link of the Day - Friday Fun

Another time-waster, courtesy of Tom Mighell. Dodge is a very simple game of chasing a blue box around the screen while avoiding red dots. Have fun!

Link of the Day - Regiftable.com

OK, Christmas is over, and you absolutely love every gift you got, right? Yeah, me neither. Here's the answer for us: Regiftable.com. This is their story:

Why Regiftable.com?

The credit counselors at Money Management International (MMI) know that being in debt is no way to start the New Year. They created this Web site to help you get through the season with your budget and your sanity in tact.

Whether you are a fan or foe, regifting has become a phenomenon. Regifting experiences can range from resourcefully refined to a comedic disaster; it’s all about the five ‘Ws’ (who, what, when, where, & why). In our opinion, if you are going to do it, do it right! With this holiday season’s particularly tight budgets, it only makes sense to talk about all possible ways to stretch your resources.

In addition to regifting, the folks at MMI love to talk about pregifting, postgifting, ungifting, misgifting, multigifting and nongifting. In fact, the experts at MMI have developed materials that cover a wide range of topics; all to help you financially survive the holidays. So if your holiday debt typically outlasts your fruitcake, consider giving yourself a gift this holiday season; the gift of freedom from financial worries. (After all, the holidays are supposed to be fun!)

Link of the Day - Texas Advocacy Project

The former Women's Advocacy Project is now the Texas Advocacy Project. The name change is due to a change in focus -- from helping female victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, to a broader mission of providing a full range of legal services to victims regardless of gender. Here is their explanation:

Women's Advocacy Project Marks Its 25th Anniversary with a Name Change.

In celebration of this milestone, we have changed our name to more accurately reflect our diverse client base, as well as our statewide presence. As of March 1st, 2007 we are Texas Advocacy Project. Please join us in embracing this exciting new chapter in the history of our organization.

The Project is a statewide, nonprofit, legal organization that promotes access to justice for Texans in need. Started in 1982 as a legal hotline, the agency has evolved over the years into a leading service provider in the field of family law, particularly where it pertains to helping survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. We now provide a full range of legal services to victims of these crimes across the state of Texas.

The organization is staffed by attorneys, legal advocates and social workers with specialized knowledge and experience in legal issues related to family violence. Program attorneys provide individualized legal advice, prepare and send legal documents for litigation or other purposes, and maintain on-going relationships with clients across the state through statewide toll-free legal hotlines.

Link of the Day - Christmas

Wikipedia is the first place many people go to for all types of information, including the history of Christmas.

Link of the Day - Track Santa's Progress On NORAD Radar

Is Santa Claus coming to your home tonight? Find out where he is right now. You can track Santa's progress on NORAD radar.

Link of the Day - A Really Fast Online Dictionary

NinjaWords.com is a Web site that does only one thing, but does it really fast. If you need a quick definition for an unfamiliar word, check it out.

Link of the Day - Associated Press Stylebook

One of the best sources for information about writing -- word usage, punctuation, etc. -- is the AP Stylebook. It's available as a printed book or as an online guide. The Web site also has quite a few FAQs, including these:

How do you reference hours in this situation: "It was going to be 2-4 hours" or "It was going to be two to four hours"? – from Portland, OR on Mon, May 01, 2006 AP spells out numbers under 10 (unless referring to clock time).

Hi, What is the proper way to refer to .coms, as in this quote: "There are a lot of shaky .coms out there." Thanks – from KC, MO on Fri, Apr 28, 2006 C. Butler: AP would spell it out: dot-coms (hyphenated).

Hello.I am in a news editing class at SUNY Cortland and a couple of questions arose that we could not find in the AP Stylebook. The word "Guided-Missile Cruiser". Is there supposed to be a hyphen between the words "guided" and "missile". and also in the sentance "He signed his name every 2 seconds" is the number 2 supposed to be spelled out even in this instance? Thank you and I look forward to hearing back from you. – on Wed, Sep 12, 2007 Nick Martinson: Thanks for your interest in AP style. We would not use a hyphen in "guided missile cruiser." And we would spell out "two seconds" in the sentence you cite. Norm Goldstein/AP Stylebook editor

When two words are hyphenated and the first word is capitalized, is the second word capitalized also. For example, should it be: Long-awaited or Long-Awaited Thanks – on Fri, Mar 31, 2006 Carole Gillham: Thanks for your interest in AP style. No, generally the second part of the hyphenated compound is lowercase. Norm Goldstein/AP Stylebook editor

Hello, Joe Carberry here with Paddler magazine. We couldn't find website. Is website Web Site, Web site, Website or website....thanks – on Tue, Jun 27, 2006 Joe: Thanks for your interest in AP style. AP uses Web site (two words).