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North Carolina Law Students Must Disable MacBook Pro Touch Bar for 2017 Bar Exam [Updated]
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I KNOW I am old. In the 80's the professors were all freaked out because we had scientific calculators into which we could program equations that were supposed to be memorized. Most of our profs had used slide rules when they went to college.
I would have loved to have had the iPhones and laptops the kids have now. Hauling half my body weight in textbooks and giant binders for miles a day around campus was no fun.
Being an attorney is one of the most heavily regulated and self policed professions there is. I seriously doubt that, in your profession: you've undergone as rigorous of a background check as an attorney; attended as many ethics classes as an attorney; taken a full blown ethics bar exam like an attorney has to; or have to abide by as many ethics rules as an attorney does.
There are bad apples in every profession, but I would trust the attorneys I know, far more than I would people in most other professions.
There are bad apples in every profession, but I would trust the attorneys I know, far more than I would people in most other professions.
The bar exam is a lot of typing.
Also one day when you're in Best Buy, look at the top of the line Lenovo think pad and type on their keyboards. It's in a whole other league. MacBooks, chiclet or not, don't compare unfortunately.
And the bar is something you've worked your butt off for 5+ years to get to. Fail it once and you're off contention from the big law firms. I would buy a new laptop for that one exam.
The computer is locked down into a kind of safe-mode during the exam and monitored by exam officials. You can't see or do anything outside of the program.
If they are unable to ensure that it's locked down then it won't be allowed. When I took it my law school advised us not to install Windows 8 since it was too new. Not all states allowed OSX at the time and I don't think any states allow Chromebooks or any other OS to this day.
I'm a bit surprised USB-C hasn't caused any problems since they require USB in the case of an internet failure. I guess they have an approved adapter in the exam room or something.
The Magic Mouse, the Magic Keyboard, the Magic Trackpad and every other wireless keyboard/mouse are also banned depending on the State. Wired keyboards and wired mice are fine.
...If people don't like it they can always write their answers by hand. Personally I'd never put that bar exam software on an $1800+ laptop. I didn't even like putting it on my cheap-o laptop back in 2012.
Actually, I'm a physician. I've had "background checks" countless numbers of times throughout my career, and our licensing board is always made aware of any legal or "ethical" troubles we may have. I have taken not one licensing exam, but 3, and on each I had a number of ethics questions in addition to all the other aspects of medicine I need to know. And yes, there are numerous ethics rules associated with my profession, and I abide by them every time I'm with a patient.
But let's face it, just because you can take an ethics test, doesn't mean you run an ethical practice. At least the ambulance chasers have you in their corners.
No, but hearing that some people double-click links on the internet is painful enough to cry over
"pain clinic docs?" Do you have any idea what these physicians do? Pain clinic physicians treat chronic pain. They fire people who don't comply with their regimen. I have no idea what you mean by "pill mill docs." There are indeed physicians, PAs, and nurse practitioners who have lost their licenses for illegally distributing narcotics. Thanks for playing.
And do you have any idea what "ambulance chasers", as you put it do? Again, back to the point, I guarantee the law polices their own from an ethics standpoint, far and away more than other professions. I read a heck of a lot more in the paper about medicare fraud and pill mills than I do about unethical lawyers. So, thank you for playing.
I know quite a bit about "ambulance chasers" as I've had to interact with them many times throughout my 16 years as a physician. Glad you read a lot about medicine. I actually practice it daily. Thanks again for playing, come back when you step up your game
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As I am sure someone has already posted, the NYS Bar will not allow students to use the 2016 MBPs with the TouchBar on February's exam.
My dislike of Cook's Apple aside, I agree with the decisions not to allow this laptop at the site.
@oneMadRssn Thank you for your post. Makes a good deal of sense, they just want to be safe rather than sorry.
My dislike of Cook's Apple aside, I agree with the decisions not to allow this laptop at the site.
@oneMadRssn Thank you for your post. Makes a good deal of sense, they just want to be safe rather than sorry.
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If you think about it, there's some risk that makes sense from a test hosting perspective. The touch bar runs a completely independent OS and runs on an independent ARM CPU with its own memory. If it could be programmed to run DOOM, it could probably be programmed to contain any sort of info. The exam software devs prob didnt have enough time to come up with a patch in their sofrware to take full control of the touch bar.