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Comments from Frankston, Reed, and Friends
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Saturday, November 23, 2002 BobF at 2:11 PM [url]: Mistrial!! From the Boston Globe, Nov 23, 2002: Palm Pilots Grounded at federal courthouse. Electronic devices were banned from the Moakley Federal Courthouse after Sept. 11. Since then, lawyers have found themselves mediating million-dollar settlements without calculators, calling their offices from pay phones, and scheduling court dates on scraps of paper - their trusty electronic calendars maddeningly out of reach. How can there be justice if mental aids are banned from the courtroom? The United States Senate has, at least in the past, had the same attitude towards laptop computers. It's as if having access to knowledge was considered an unfair advantage. While we read about the occasional outrageous settlements the real outrage should be reserved for justice that is not just blind but ignorant. I can understand why people are upset at boorish behavior such as talking loudly on a cell phone in a quiet restaurant or a loud PDA alert in a movie theater. But to rail against all of modernity is a tantrum far worse than the annoyance of poorly designed devices. We will improve these devices over time. But must we forego justice in the interim? By comparison, the lack of respect for trademark in the use of "Palm Pilot" rather than the generic PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is a minor problem. Friday, November 22, 2002 DanB at 2:30 PM [url]: Tablet computing history essay In response to reaction to my First Impressions essay about the Tablet PC, I've written another one looking at the reasoning behind some of my assertions. I explore a bit of the history of tablet hardware, as well as the state of application software for them in the early 1990's. I even link to a few patents to get detailed descriptions. Read "About Tablet Computing Old and New". |
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