US Federal Courts Are Busy!

The April 2010 edition of The Third Branch US Federal Courts newsletter contains four very interesting court IT related articles.  They are:

• E-Pro Se Bolsters Access to Court
• Committee Suggest Guidelines for Juror Use of Electronic Communication Technologies
• Local IT Initiatives Receive Grants
• New Look, New URL for Supreme Court Website

Canadian Forum on Court Technology Scheduled

Our friends at the Canadian Centre for Court Technology has announced they will be hosting their first Canadian Forum on Court Technology in Ottawa from September 22-23, 2010.  They are listing twenty-two session in three tracks and the NCSC is happy to be a supporter of the event.  For more information see the conference website at: http://www.ccct-cctj.ca/forum/en/

Online Traffic Payments System in Cook County

Public Safety IT magazine published an article in their March/April, 2010 issue on "Paying traffic tickets online in Cook County, IL".  Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Hon. Dorothy Brown states that:

"It enables individuals to rapidly and conveniently respond to their traffic violations and, if they so choose, pay associated fines and other charges safely and securely on their home computers."

California Issues Report on Statewide CCMS Project

The Government Technology magazine website posted an article on April 26, 2010 titled: California Court Case Management System Needs a Cost Cap, Review Finds.

The link to the complete CIO report in PDF is: http://www.cio.ca.gov/pdf/CCMS_Final_Report.pdf

All-In-One PCs Cut Power Consumption

The fact that many court clerks offices and chambers are cramped for space does not come as a surprise to those who suffer in those conditions every day.  The addition of a full sized desktop computer, especially when full sized CRT displays were used did not help the situation. But during the past year a new form factor for standard PCs has been introduced by the manufacturers, the All-In-One computer.  Of course this is not new for Apple iMac users, but for the rest of us, this is a good development.

What is meant by an All-In-One computer?  Simply it means that the parts of the computer; the hard disk, DVD/CD drive, processor, and memory are placed behind the display screen resulting in one compact package.  In addition, many All-In-One computers have touch-screen capability that could potentially help to speed data entry with the proper programming.

But why else am I writing about this?  It is because the All-In-One computer format is also a green machine in that it uses much less electrical power than the standard desktop computer.  The All-In-Ones I looked at used a 65 watt or lower power supply.  In contrast, a survey of currently available desktop PCs showed they used from a low of 220, to a high of 450 watts of power each.  Multiply this by 25, 50, or 100 computers this turns into a significant amount of power and heat.

If you are interested in more detailed information; I found the following review article for this style of machine from last fall on the Computer Shopper website.  It provides a quick overview of the All-In-One machines that were available at the time.

http://www.computershopper.com/back-to-school/2009/reviewed-nine-all-in-one-desktop-pcs-for-students