RIP Steve Jobs and Good Advice for Law Students

Download the iPhone candle app, step outside, and hold it up to the sky tonight in memory of Steve Jobs . Then listen to his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005. It was for their undergrads, but its good advice for law students and, well, anyone:

"Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true."

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

- Steve Jobs, 2005 Stanford Commencement

If that excerpt is inspiring, you can read the full transcript of his commencement speech, or watch it here:

Casebook, Yes! Facebook, No!

With the fall semester in full swing, students here at Loyola New Orleans College of Law are busy reading hundreds of pages a week of case law and other assignments. That is a lot of material to absorb. How can you learn all that material more efficiently? Here’s one suggestion: shut down your laptop and smartphone.

Free Federal Rules eBooks from CALI’s eLangdell

Last week, the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (“CALI”), in partnership with the Legal Information Institute (“LII”) at Cornell University School of Law, unveiled three free eBooks: the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the Federal Rules of Evidence.

The start of a new academic year

The Loyola New Orleans Law Library would like to welcome all the new 1L students in both the day and night programs and remind you to sign up for a tour. In addition to learning about library resources and the location of items you will recieve your free mug or water bottle and get enrolled in our computer system. - BB

Terry Stop Extension in Louisiana?

This story came across the wires today with regards to what is and is not enough for "probable cause" regarding a police search. The La. Supreme Court rules in an interim appeal that what the police in this case (see link) was enough to suggest probable cause. For more information see this short article at theNewspaper.com .

New Law School Dean

The Law Library would like to join in all of the other law school entities in welcoming our new Loyola University New Orleans Dean of the Law School, María Pabón López. For the official announcement see here. I've seen Dean López around the building this week so make sure and say hello when you get a chance to meet her.

Password Safety

I ran across this site today that I thought was pretty interesting, http://howsecureismypassword.net/.You can type in your password and it will tell you how long it would take a standard program to crack your password. Give it a try, it may surprise you.- BB