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Ross Kodner’s Cool Legal
Gadgets By Ross L. Kodner, Esq. ©1999 Ross L. Kodner, Esq. All Rights Reserved Well gang, this month you get two, yes, count ‘em . . . TWO Cool Legal Gadgets!! Without further adieu . . . The Electronic Whiteboard Goes Mobile: No More Furiously Scribbling Meeting Notes! Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to take notes in office meetings or Bar committee brainstorming sessions anymore? Well one answer has been the electronic whiteboard. Companies like Microtouch with their Ibid 100 (www.microtouch.com) and Panasonic with their series of electronic whiteboards have been making these for several years. These look like traditional whiteboards, using standard dry-erase markers. The difference is that these products then let you print out whatever you’ve scrawled on the whiteboard (either with a built-in printer as is the case with the big Panasonic units or via a connected PC with the more compact and less costly Ibid product line). The problem with these admittedly cool products is that they’re big and bulky–not something you’re likely to travel with if your meeting isn’t taking place back at the legal ranch. To the rescue comes the Mimio (I ‘spose the name is expected to conjure nostalgic memories of mimeograph systems . . . ah . . . there’s nothing like the smell of fresh mimeograph pages in the morning!) From Virtual Ink (www.virtual-ink.com). This $499 gizmo is a portable thingamajig that turns any ordinary whiteboard up to as large as 4 x 8 feet into an electronic version that can transmit to a nearby via infrared technology or by USB or serial cable. The Mimio consists of a foldable (in half) 28" bar that weighs under 2 pounds, four color-coded dry-erase marker "sheaths" and a pressure-sensitive eraser. The Mimio bar which attaches to a standard whiteboard via suction cups, has position-sensing optics that detect and record your strokes as you write or scribble with the marker "sheaths" containing ordinary dry-erase markers. The eraser’s actions in removing writing are also recorded. While as of this writing the product may still be in the pre-production testing stage, it’s still pretty darned cool. Even though it doesn’t recognize handwriting and convert it to text (but neither does my Crosspad XP which was specifically intend to do that (), the ability to print out pages and pages of live meeting notes and distribute them to participants–where there isn’t a "traditional" electronic whiteboard available . . . well, I want one! Modern PC Keyboards are Pieces of Flimsy Junk . . . But Shades of Days Past: The Venerable Northgate Omnikey Returns - It’s the Harley of Keyboards! Don’t you just hate the wimpy, skimpy, flimsy, cheap plastic keyboards that come standard with most desktop PCs these days? It seems that when you pay a couple of grand for the latest Pentium III or AMD K6-3 barnburner that they could give you more than a $10 keyboard. Remember the "good old days" when 5+ pound monster keyboards ruled? Keyboards that clicked and clacked with every key press and were clad in genuine, honest-to-goodness metal–probably real steel? I loved my original IBM 83-key 5150 keyboard so much that it lived with through 6 or 7 different desktop PCs. It was replaced by an IBM Trackpoint II keyboard–with that wonderful little pointing stick smack dab in the middle of the character keys–and still with a tactile click that was so satisfying and real heft that kept it firmly planted in one place on my desk. When the Trackpoint keyboard died, I replaced it with IBM’s latest Trackpoint IV keyboard . . . and it pales by comparison. IBM took once of those neo-plastic 1 lb. junkers and stuck a pointing stick in it. And I can’t feel any metal anywhere. I hate it and I thought the situation was hopeless. Until . . . I found the Avant Stellar keyboard. The best way to describe this is to say this is actually the old Northgate Omnikey Ultra keyboard resurrected once again. Remember it? Much like its IBM comtemporaries, it weighed a ton–about 5 lbs. Why? METAL everywhere–a solid steel base. We’re talkin’ "big iron" here–the Harley of keyboards! Typing salvation has returned! And remember that cool pro-WordPerfect feature of the Northgate keyboards? Not only function keys along the top row but also, hearkening back to simpler times, functions keys along the left side of the keyboard! And you want tactile feedback? A good solid click so you know when you’ve pressed a key? Well the Avant Stellar’s got it–noisy, mechanical clicking to spare. It’s available from Creative Vision Technologies at 888-770-0500 (http://www.cyberhost5.com/cvtinc/prod03.htm) and runs around $190. Expensive? Maybe? But so are Rolex watches and Rolls-Royces . . . but if you want the best . . .
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