Bad Glacier

I’m pretty sure the fates are trying to prevent me from drifting back into full-fledged computer nerdity. I even have proof. See?

Proof #1: SCO finally states what they’re suing IBM for, but the court document is sealed, so I can’t spend hours ridiculing it.

Proof #2: This talk just happened to be scheduled during my only evening class:

Is the GPL Impotent? A Talk by Greg Aharonian

Mr. Aharonian is gearing up for a legal battle against the US Justice
Department, where he is challenging the legality and constitutionality of
software copyright law. He welcomes anyone who wishes to debate his views.

Coincidences? Doubtful.

In case you missed it, I recently got a laptop, an IBM ThinkPad T42, and I like it. A lot.

In the hope that it might be useful to someone out there, here are my thoughts on the good, the bad, and the unexpected things about my laptop (compared to the desktops I’ve used in the past).

The screen (15″ with a 1400 x 1050 resolution) is great. It’s well-lit, very sharp, and I don’t think I have any dead pixels. I had a 19″ CRT on my desktop that I liked to run at 1600 x 1200 resolution, but this screen doesn’t feel cramped to me. Of course, I like to have lots of windows open and I dislike scrolling, so if you think you can handle a smaller screen or lower resolution, you probably can. I’d be scared to go under 14″, though.

The little pointing stick thingy is also nice. I don’t like touchpads very much, and this is much easier for me to use. Unfortunately, there are just buttons for left-click, right-click, and scrolling. I use the middle button on my mouse to open links in a new Firefox tab, so I really miss the middle button. I’ll probably buy a mouse to use at home, but the pointing stick works well enough that I don’t think I’ll carry the mouse around with me.

The fingerprint scanner was a neat bonus, but the password-saving software was made for Internet Explorer, so it doesn’t really work for Firefox. Slightly disappointing, but Firefox stores your passwords anyways, so it’s not really a big deal. I wouldn’t recommend paying extra for the option unless you’re really crazy about security and too lazy to type in passwords.

The keyboard is nicer than I expected. I had heard IBM puts some pretty nice keyboards in their notebooks, but I still expected to have a hard time adjusting to it. The lack of a number pad bugs me, and the Fn key (which enables all the laptop specific functions like sleep mode, wireless, screen brightness, etc.) is placed right where I expect the Control key to be, but other than that I haven’t really had problems with the keyboard. This is really something you should try out before you buy a keyboard, though. Especially considering how much you’ll be typing in law school.

I haven’t run it off the battery yet, but it’s got a high-capacity one instead of whatever comes standard. I’m hoping it’ll last through my classes so I don’t have to carry the AC adapter around with me, but this wasn’t that high on my priority list so I won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work out. I’ll probably have a report on battery life after I get back from vacation.

And it’s got a three-year warranty, so I won’t have to deal with a broken laptop during law school. Nice.

Professor Leiter:

Jonathan Zittrain (intellectual property, Cyberlaw), currently an Assistant Professor at Harvard Law School, has accepted an appointment as Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University, to start in the fall. He will, however, continue to be a Berkman Visiting Professor at Harvard for the next couple of years, teaching in the January term and in residence in the summer.

I’m not yet sure which area of law I want to go into, but cyberlaw is what got me thinking about law school in the first place, and Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society looks really cool. Sucks that they’re losing Professor Zittrain. His classes looked quite interesting.

Just a warning: this post is going to get painfully nerdy in a few seconds.

I should have known, especially since I’m currently re-reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming. The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and which laptop should I buy for law school is, of course, forty-two. IBM ThinkPad T42, I mean. (Ha! I crack myself up.) I’ll be ordering it on Monday.

I just need to figure out how much the fingerprint scanner option is worth to me. I’m thinking not enough to justify the moneys, but I really like my gadgets, so we’ll see what happens.

I’ve spent a good part of the last few days looking at laptops. I was going to wait ’til summer to get the best deal. However, my parents’ computer has started the death rattle (y’know, when the hard drive gets so loud you know it’s gotta be destroying important data). Since I was going to give them my desktop when I left anyways, I figure I’ll accelerate the process and buy a laptop now.

Ugh.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited about getting a laptop. It’s just a pain in the ass to buy one.

I started out looking at the thin-and-light models (under 6 pounds, 14″ screen). My parents, who thought I should get something bigger, put my mom’s purse on the scale and found it weighed eight pounds. That’s when the mocking began.

So I’m now looking for something bigger, preferably with a 15.4″ wide screen. But I’m having trouble finding one with the features I want and very little extra stuff tacked on. Basically, I want the wide screen, a DVD burner, bluetooth, decent battery life, a 3-year warranty, and a magical genie that grants all my wishes. And the whole thing should weigh less than 7 pounds.

Is that too much to ask for?

MGM v. Grokster, which determines if the makers of P2P file sharing programs will be held liable for copyright infringement that occurs on their networks, will be argued before the Supreme Court on March 29. Needless to say, this is something I’m really interested in. The case doesn’t seem too terribly complicated, so I’m hoping this is something I can work my way through without making an ass out of myself. I mean, I was gonna read all this stuff anyways, so I might as well blog about it too.

This probably won’t be interesting to any of you, but if I happen to be wrong, feel free to join in the nerdity!

Since I’m not even a law student yet, I won’t try to say anything insightful about the case. For now, I’ll just link and summarize (hopefully without too many glaring mistakes).

Basically, a bunch of motion picture studios and record companies (among others) sued Grokster (and Streamcast, but we’ll just ignore them), saying Grokster was liable for the copyright infringement of its users. The district court found for Grokster and the Ninth Circuit affirmed (those crazy west-coasters!), finding that because the file sharing software has substantial non-infringing uses, it falls under the control of the Sony-Betamax case and Grokster is not liable. The Supreme Court granted certiorari, and here we are.

(links below)

(more…)

I’m gonna take advantage of the link from ambivalent imbroglio and encourage everyone who hasn’t done so already to download the Firefox web browser. It’s like Internet Explorer, except, y’know… good. Tabbed browsing is the greatest thing ever. And the whole “no gaping security holes” thing is pretty nice, too. But you probably know that already, smart people that you are.

(You see, I have to suck up to you because I don’t actually have any content yet and I want you to come back again. Please? Don’t make me beg.)

P.S. - If this page looks messed up on your browser, please let me know. I’m still messing with the design and layout, and I haven’t been able to test on anything but an old IE and Firefox 1.0. Damned style sheets. Thanks, y’all.