DART

If you ride DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit), please note that they are holding an hearing on rate increases on January 9. Details may be found on their web site.

New Texas Comptroller

I almost forgot...
Today was the day that our new Texas Comptroller was sworn in:
Susan Combs, former State Agriculture Commissioner.

Read her public message:
http://www.cpa.state.tx.us/

U.S. Congress and Thomas

Just a reminder that the U.S. Congress returns to session today and Thomas will be back online on Friday, and with that in mind, has anyone seen the new Beta version of Thomas?

http://thomas.loc.gov/beta/

Miers Resigns

This just in from the Wall Street Journal...

"Harriet Miers, whose controversial nomination for the Supreme Court was withdrawn, submitted her resignation as White House counsel, the White House announced today."

Miers currently served 6 years as WH counsel. Will she be coming home to Texas? Who will replace her?

Stay tuned!

Google Ranking News

And speaking of Google...

I'm working on setting up a webpage for my gadgets' presentatations and found something interesting on the subjects of hosting and ranking.

Google ranks websites higher if the website creator pays for a 5-year or more contact for hosting a site and registering a domain address.

I guess this means Google knows that the person is serious about their website and will give it more ranking consideration.

Google adds patent search

Google has added patent searching to their bag of tricks - the advanced search screen may be found at http://www.google.com/advanced_patent_search.

I saw a blog entry about this in InfoToday Newsbreaks. Here's some more info on that entry:

Google Tackles Patent Searching
by Robert E. Buntrock
Posted On January 2, 2007

Like Alexander looking for new realms to invade and conquer, Google has entered the IP (intellectual property) arena, specifically the subset of patents. The new weapon (excuse me, product) is Google Patent Search (GPS), a beta service that provides access (for searching and for display) of more than 7 million U.S. patents. According to the FAQ, patents from 1790 to mid-2006 are included, but U.S. patent applications are not. Patent documents were OCR'd into the database; the usual caveats about this technology apply. Google said that it plans to expand the content to patent applications, international patents, etc.

I haven't tried this myself, has anyone else? If so, click the Comments link and let us know what you think.

Trans Fat: Now it's Starbucks turn...

Starting Wednesday, the treats at Starbucks, such as donuts and muffins, will have very little or no trans fats.

According to the article in Money News, "Starbucks stores in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon, will have no trans fats in their food as of Wednesday." But alas, the change will not affect "retail sites in places such as airport kiosks and grocery stores, which are licensed by the company but operated by other businesses."

I guess it will be awhile before it hits Texas.

And speaking of trans fat, Healthteacher, has a trans fat database and calculator on their website. http://www.healthteacher.com/

Wall Street Journal changes

The Wall Street Journal has changed how the paper looks as well as the paper dimensions. More color, shorter/narrower paper size, more summaries, etc.

You may read about all of the changes at http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/ReadersGuide.pdf.

January DALL Meeting

DALL MEETING
Time: Noon
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 17th
Place: Jenkens & Gilchrist
1445 Ross Avenue
Downtown DallasSuite 3700
Pecos Conference Room

Topic: Virtual Tour of Jones McClure Publishing and Much More!
Special Guests: Dina Dreifuerst and Leslie Rodriguez, Jones McClure
Special Speaker: Mystery!!
The first three DALL members to guess the correct name of the Special Speaker will win a prize at the meeting.
Click on the link to enter.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=640273075893


Lunch will be provided by DALL!

Please RSVP by Friday, Jan. 12th at 5 p.m. by using our RSVP Form at http://www.dallnet.org/rsvp.asp.

Biography of President Ford

I found this updated biography of Gerald Ford on InfoPlease.com today.