[Not using] End of Year Roundup

The tried and tested tools that I've not liked:

The ones I have no use for, but the concept is good:
MonkeyonyourBack: Nifty idea if I wasn't a student and actually got to tell others what to do.

Waste of my time:
Eluma: download to desktop - complicated, overrated and somewhat boring.
Hordit: inferior version of later this/bookmarking - unnecessarily fiddly.
RustyBudget: looked interesting, signed up, found it dull. left.

Others do it better:
Backpack
Google Notebook

The everyday student stuff:
Coollecter: Downloadable DVD catalogue: not a bad idea, but I personally use lists and imdb for this purpose.

[Not Using] Tab Up

Branding itself an organisation tool - Tab-up has got mixed reviews on the internet - so I decided to have a look myself. It has a somewhat child-like demeanour with the ability to drag and drop various features. However one thing the home page does scream is fun. So I signed up.


Upon exploring I found it was very much a collaboration tool, a "get together" tool even, and not a study tool. Should I have found this during my undergrad it would have been a perfect tool as a committee member of a sports team.

Tab-up comes complete with various features most notably journal, messageboard, to do list, member list, photo album, calender, bookmarks and filesharing. Everything you'd ever need in a group activity. (A lovely example is a tab up for boy scouts.) However wouldn't recommend this for studying use - there are much better tools out there.

[Wiki] PB Wiki (Review)

So now that I've had more time to experiment with pbwiki I decided to do another post (previous post here)to explain how it is going and what I like and don't like about it. A lot of people use it to compile any information all in one place - and I do agree - it is great for that.

First of, it is probably been one of the few tools I will use in the long-term and I could see myself using this for a long time to come, for any reason, simply because of the openness it presents. I've mainly been using it for Civil Litigation module and have branched out into other online tools for other subjects. As variety is the spice of life.

In order to compare the range of products I use, and to get a better idea of what is better for what use, I've highlighted the main Pros and Cons of PBwiki from my point of view.

The Pros:

• freedom to write about what you want, how you want.
• Easy interlinking between different wiki pages, particularly recent ones which other wikis lack
• Easy to format text, add in tables etc.

The Cons:

• Doesn't mark up errors in spelling, or allow inter brower spellchecker through firefox to do so - have to go back and Spell check.
• Can't do sub folders within folders - scrolling through a large number of files in the same folder can be tiresome - I have hundreds of pages in some folders.
• inability to create own page templates.

For a subject as diverse as law, a wiki is definately the best option, as it presents a lot more flexibility than say a blog ever would. I do in turn hope to experiment with additional wiki's and compare and contrast these.

[Legal Links] Property Law

Compilation of links relevant to the PLP course that I’ve found useful/interesting:

• MAGIC
• British Property Federation

[Legal Links] Business Law

Compilation of links relevant to the BLP course that I’ve found useful:

• Companies House
• The Insolvency Service
• Company Law Club
• Berr
• Access Lawyers (Shareholders Agreements)
• Practical Law Company
• LawBore

[Legal links] Podcast Roundup

• BBC Law in Action
• Media Berkman: Berkman Center Podcasts
• Out-Law (Pinsent Masons)
• Law Careers
• Edinburgh Law School
• Warwick Law School
• Sheffield Law School
• City Law School
• Open University
• Sweet and Maxwell (Lecturer’s podcasts).
• Marcus O’Leary (Legal Snippets) – IT/IP Lawyer, London.
• Amercian Law School Podcasts (Compiled by Open Culture).
• Legal Broadcast Network
• Charon QC: Lawcasts
• law firm podcasts (complied by information overload)
• LegalLad
• LexisNexis
• Lawyer2Lawyer
• Nolo
• Life of a Law Student
• This week in Law

[Links] You tube – collection of general interest, government & political links

I can never decide whether the UK government treats youtube as a propaganda machine or whether its useful. You find the rare gem, but is any of it really worthwhile?

I complied a list of most of the government and political links I've come across whilst browsing and thrown in a few extra ones for good measure:

• Amnesty International UK
• Army
• BERR
• Cabinet Office
• Community Legal Advice
• Communities UK
• Department for innovation University and Skills
• Department for children, schools and families
• Department of Energy and Climate Change
• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Department for Health
• Department for International Development
• Department for Work and Pensions
• European Union
• EU Security and Defence
• Foreign & Commonwealth Office
• Greenpeace
• HM Treasury
• Home Office
• Institute of Directors
• Intellectual Property Office
• Lib Dems
• Local Government
• MOD
• Ministry of justice
• National Archives
• Number 10
• RAF
• Science & Technology Facilities Council
• Scottish Government
• The Royal
• UK Parliament
• UK trade and investment
• United Nations
• United Nations Association of the UK

• Allerdale BC
• Belfast CC
• Birmingham CC
• Brighton & Hove CC
• Bristol CC
• Cambridge CC
• LB Camden
• Charnwood BC
• Cheltenham BC
• Cheshire West
• Darlington BC
• Derbyshire Dales DC
• Glasgow CC
• Hillingdon BC
• Lincoln CC
• Luton BC
• Newcastle CC
• LB Newham
• Plymouth CC
• Ryedale DC
• Salford CC
• Southwark BC
• Stratford DC
• Stockport BC
• Tameside BC
• Trafford Council
• Vale Royal BC
• Westminster CC

[Video] Hitler’s Real Estate Downfall

With everyone being so depressive about how there are no jobs in property law (lucky me) thought it was time to inject some light-hearted humour into the whole thing.

Open Culture brought to my attention an amusing video using the footage from the German film – the downfall.

Excellently done.