Filed under: Cult of Mac, Apple
New York Bar Association to would-be lawyers: No Macs Allowed
The New York State Board of Law Examiners says:
"We do not support Apple products in any form including Intel-based laptops running Boot Camp - no exceptions."
Today, as eager lawyers-to-be finish the New York State bar exam, those using laptops to write their essays won't be running Macs. The NY board, which has allowed candidates to write essays using laptops since 2003, has a strict no-Mac policy in place. They will not be exploring Mac-friendly options until at least February of next year.
Before you react in outrage, be aware that according to the NY Times, computer support for Windows laptops remains so buggy that many candidates prefer to stick to pencil and paper. After a series of software exams gone wacky, the legal warnings and disclaimers now read: "If you choose to continue to use your computer to write your essay answers after experiencing technical difficulties, or when you have been instructed not to do so, you do so at your own risk." The exam software is designed to lock out all other applications on the laptop, so that test-takers can't leverage reference materials or crib notes on their machines.
Amusingly, the article points out that many candidates have little or no experience writing out essays by hand as law school exams are "routinely administered on laptops." Presumably, a good percentage of those laptops are manufactured by Apple.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
RWhitney said 3:07PM on 7-30-2008
"Why?"
Reply
Michael LaFramboise said 3:16PM on 7-30-2008
Typical ignorant sys admins afraid to touch anything new
Reply
booger said 3:17PM on 7-30-2008
It's nothing personal. They want to make sure they can lock out cheaters and right now they only have windows software to do that. Same often goes for law school exams.
I heard that last year NY lost a bunch of exams taken on computer due to a technical error. I don't remember how they handled the problem.
Reply
Michael LaFramboise said 3:26PM on 7-30-2008
You missed the point here... they say you can't use any Apple HARDWARE period. even if you ARE using windows on it, doesn't matter. You can use a Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer, Asus, Fuji, Sony, ANY manufacturer, EXCEPT Apple.
Its not a matter of them not being able to support Macs - since when its running Windows its identical to any other PC, its just ignorant fools not understanding what in hell they're talking about. Simple as that.
Makros said 4:27PM on 7-30-2008
"Its not a matter of them not being able to support Macs - since when its running Windows its identical to any other PC, its just ignorant fools not understanding what in hell they're talking about. Simple as that."
Actually that is only partially true. It is true if, as another poster noted, you use boot camp, but if you however use something like parallels you can easily get around the "secure exam" software (whatever kind they use). Now you can argue that they should simply require bootcamp, but that would require a whole lot more effort than any bar examiner is willing to put forth. They would have to watch each individual boot the computer and open the software. In a place like NY this could be practically impossible with so many people taking the bar.
Mr. Brown said 10:41PM on 7-31-2008
Two words: Exam 4. (http://www.extergy.com/)
Mac and Windows support, used at law schools, bar exams, and other professional exams all over the country.
Xoviet chiK said 3:20PM on 7-30-2008
That's when you lug in a really noisy electric type-writer, just to piss the examiners off. (They really need to move that thing out of my schools computer lab!!!)
Reply
CaptJoyceJun said 3:26PM on 7-30-2008
My wife is taking the California state bar as we speak. She's running the testing software on her Mac with a Windows partition through bootcamp. If N.Y. is anything like California it's that they want to be sure the testing software isn't just running in something like Fushion or Parallels which would enable people access to their notes, which is probably frowned upon. In fact I had to reinstall XP because the testing software just plain wouldn't run on an os installation that any virtualization software had touched.
Reply
Rick Hamell said 3:47PM on 7-31-2008
Keep in mind that lawyers as a group still rely heavily on Word Perfect. Which is decidedly anti-Mac of course.
Reply
Ed Pummelon said 3:34PM on 7-30-2008
How come the front page says this post has 6 comments (at the time of typing), and yet when you click on the post itself there are only three?
TUAW's comments system have been a bit screwy for me recently, but this is just weird.
Reply
Jon said 5:35PM on 7-30-2008
It means that 6 people left comments but only 3 of them had checked their email and verified the comment.
davebatz said 3:51PM on 7-30-2008
A lot of old school tech guys know they'd be out of work if they allowed Apple - due to both their bias/lack of knowledge of Macs and the fact that Apple needs less tech support. And thanks to Vista, it's not even an argument anymore as to which operating systyem is superior.
Reply
donincognito said 3:55PM on 7-30-2008
My law school had the same ignorant policy during the beginning of my 1L year until a Mac user schooled the IT department about Boot Camp. Currently, students are allowed to take exams either on Windows laptops or Mac laptops running Boot Camp (as I do myself). A Mac laptop running Boot Camp is AS SECURE against cheaters as a Windows laptop.
Reply
spyinthesky said 5:56PM on 7-30-2008
Someone should sue them
Reply
J said 7:01PM on 7-30-2008
ha. nice one.
A Mac OCR developer said 4:02PM on 7-30-2008
It looks like the real problem is the software vendor - Examsoft. If they don't fix their Mac support problems, they should be dumped at the next opportunity.
Reply
andrew said 4:57PM on 7-30-2008
FYI for everyone: I'm in law school currently, we use a software called Examsoft, which will only run on Windows. They have not added a Mac version of this. The purpose of the software is to completely lock you out from the rest of your laptop, so you have no access to internet, notes, etc and can't cheat. The software reboots your system and loads you in to the Examsoft only environment.
We are allowed to use Bootcamp. I have tried to use the software in both Parallels and VMWare, and both times the software detected that I was running a virtual OS and wouldn't let me proceed.
Basically, it is feasible to run something like this in bootcamp, and as stated above, it's a matter of the NYBar not having the right software / not knowing enough about Macs/bootcamp
Reply
Eli Juicy Jones said 5:00PM on 7-30-2008
Looks to me like they don't support Windows running on anything. Frankly these types are so stupid you could probably put some masking tape over the logo and they wouldn't know the difference anyway.
Reply
Matt said 5:00PM on 7-30-2008
New York bar takers should be glad they're allowed to use any laptop at all. I took the bar exam last year in Michigan, and I had to fill out a special request just to use a TYPEWRITER! Imagine being in a room with 20 other intrepid typists for 6 hours. Sounded like a freakin' construction zone -- and no one knew how to put in their correct tape. (Remember that?)
Reply
Calvin said 6:32PM on 7-30-2008
20 typists doesn't sound too bad. I sat in an auditorium with over a hundred other typists for the California bar exam back in '96. There is a reason the examiners recommended ear plugs. Fortunately the second day of the three day exam was the multi-state portion so my ears go some rest during those three days.