Wi-Fi Problems Dog Apple-Samsung Trial 80
alphadogg (971356) writes "There's a new sign on the door to Courtroom 5 at the federal courthouse in San Jose, the home to the Apple v. Samsung battle that's playing out this month: 'Please turn off all cell phones.' For a trial that centers on smartphones and the technology they use, it's more than a little ironic. The entire case might not even be taking place if the market wasn't so big and important, but the constant need for connectivity of everyone is causing problems in the court, hence the new sign. The problems have centered on the system that displays the court reporter's real-time transcription onto monitors on the desks of Judge Lucy Koh, the presiding judge in the case, and the lawyers of Apple and Samsung. The system, it seems, is connected via Wi-Fi and that connection keeps failing."
Wow... in my house I avoid WiFi for critical links (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wow... in my house I avoid WiFi for critical li (Score:2, Insightful)
The reason they don't do this is because many court reports like to be within a certain distance of whomever is talking and many are surprising particular. For example, there is one in my local district that insists on being exactly four feet away and at a forty-five degree angle to whomever is speaking. Additionally, sometimes the real-time transcription programs take two people to operate: one to type in the words phonetically and one to change it to actual English if the computer's algorithm is a miss, which can be common in cases with highly technical words. Finally, there is probably multiple court reporters taking turns because it is very tiring to do for long periods of time because of the concentration required and each reporter would have their own stenotype.
Re:Um... (Score:5, Insightful)
Courthouses are often large old buildings with a lot of marble pillars, marble floors, and immovable walls. This may be why they used Wifi... It's just not feasible to drill a hole through 3 feet of marble to run Cat5.
... and yet they have power. So how did they do that... extension cords running all around the joint?