Insanely Great - I'm reading this Steven Levy book, which is the story of "the Life and Times of the Macintosh, The Computer That Changed Everything." The Mac was introduced in 1984. I was entering my third year of law school when I wandered into a computer store and saw the Mac. I knew right then it was a revolutionary product, and I wanted one immediately. I pooled all of my resources, and borrowed money from relatives, to buy one. I still have that Mac in my garage, and I will keep that computer (which doesn't work anymore) until the day I die. It was a sad day when I realized that I had to switch to the PC world (which is consistently behind the curve on things like Firewire, and Wi-Fi). Steve Jobs was absolutely right when he said the Mac was "insanely great" It truly did change computing, and open a special door to a world that we now all take for granted.
11:35:39 PM
Really useful computer program - Scripting News points out that Jon Udell says "I've been meaning to try ActiveWords, so when its inventor and evangelizer Buzz Bruggeman wrote to me about it recently, I took the plunge." I took the plunge about 333 days ago, and have saved about 58 hours of time since using that program (it keeps track of how much time it saves you). I was going to mention this the other day when Eugene Volokh raved about Atomica, which is a great thing -- but nowhere near as great as Activewords. Listen up, all you bloggers, download the program and try it for 60 days (its free to try fo that period) and if it doesn't change your life I'll be shocked.
8:58:51 PM
Law News & the Blog Revolution - much has been made of what blogging portends for traditional news coverage. I don't want to get into that debate; it encompasses too many facets for anyone to have a strong grasp of what will happen. But, in the narrow sphere of law things are clearly going to change, at least for lawyers who want legal news. The press simply can't keep up in this area.
No longer do I have to pray for useful commentary on things like the confirmation of a Fifth Circuit judge (I can read Howard and at least get pointers to good articles, if not first-hand commentary). The Volokhs cover interesting socio-legal issues in language that anyone can understand, but which is at a level that invites discussion by lawyers. For corporate law I can turn to Larry Sullivan, who covers Delaware law (which is the touchstone for much corporate law in this country). Bill Altreuter reports heavily on legal events in the Empire State, and does so with style and wit. The media can't keep up with this. In fact, I predict that in about 3 years the mainstream media will rely almost exclusively on lawyer-bloggers to cover local legal events. And I predict in Louisiana they won't call me.
I don't cover Louisiana law that much --and don't plan to-- because we're not really blazing any interesting legal trails here (other than to distinguish ourselves as a wonderful place to file a bizarre class action). But I'm sure someone will emerge who is driven to cover local legal events with intelligence and intensity, and when they do I'll tune to that channel. It will solve one of my serious pet peeves with the local media, which has to do with sentencing in state criminal matters. Don't you love it when the press reports that some convict "may receive up to 200 years in prison at sentencing"? Other than in Texas, when is the last time you heard of someone getting a sentence of 200 years? The press is so cute when they try to cover legal events --sort of like a puppy dog wagging its little tail.
12:16:01 PM
