Law Technology

Joey Heape, Director of Media & Tech for the South Carolina Bar wrote the following commentary about the  "Mac v. PC" article featured in this month's ABA Journal:

This is an absolute great article/shootout. Problem is, I see both sides. It's like in the movie "A League of Their Own" when the young kid and Dottie are sitting in a car and he say's, "why don't we jump in the back seat and you make a man out of me"? And Dottie replies, "why don't I slap you around a bit"? And the young boy recants, "Why can't we do both"?

As you know I use both PCs and Macs. I'm a "best tool for the job" person. Macs excel at some things, while PCs excel at others. I think Apple has the right idea on the front side with the notion of "let's offer Windows functionality via Boot Camp" so we can reign in that market and offer Windows users an alternative, which, on the surface, makes Apple look like the guys that want to play well with everyone.

On the underside though, are they tossing in the towel and saying "if you can't beat them join them"? I don't know the answer to that. What I do know is, I'm happy to have the choice. At work, I mostly use a PC because we are running a Windows Active Directory environment, but I have a Mac Pro on my desk as well. However, at home where I do a lot of Bar work, I primarily use a Mac. If I need to use a PC, I remote into one of mine at home or one at the office. They can live and work together. We have eight of them on our network at the SC Bar. I understand that resources are not unlimited to most people, but if can you do both, then do it.

Here's little known secret, Chief Justice Toal's PowerPoint themes that she uses for her presentations (state of the judiciary for Legislature, Bar convention, private speaking engagements) are Keynote themes converted to PowerPoint for her use. I know this because I create them for her. I have even been able to get the Chief's IT director, Joan Assey, to purchase a Mac laptop. Also, all of the Distance Learning programs the CLE Division produces are done on Macs and Final Cut Studio.

For managing networks and websites though, I prefer the Windows boxes. Remote Desktop for the Mac is available and I use it extensively. I think Microsoft is willing to acknowledge the Mac environment (have you checked out Office 2008 for the Mac yet). Microsoft offers several pieces of software for the Mac. Is it going to soon be MACrosoft? Keep up the excellent work and I look forward to your presentation at the Bar convention in 2009.

Joey Heape
Director of Media & Tech
South Carolina Bar