Laptop Computers

Goodbye to the reams of paper and the dusty binders stacked under the desks in the nation's oldest working State House.Welcome to the Cyber-Senate.The Maryland Senate is now wired. When they return Wednesday for the 194th legislative session, 22 of the 47 senators will go about the ancient business of lawmaking with the help of a quintessential modern convenience: laptop computers."I'm pretty computer illiterate," acknowledged Sen. Leo E. Green, 66, a Prince George's Democrat, as he started up his laptop during a training session this week in the Senate chamber.

Gadget allows access to e-mail away from PCIf you're looking for low-cost access to e-mail when you're away from your computer -- or maybe you don't have a computer at all -- Vtech's e-Mail Postbox ($99) is a worthwhile solution.The small, lightweight computer (under 2 1/2 pounds with batteries) has a full-sized keyboard and a small, eight-line LCD screen. Like other gadgets of this type, it makes me wonder whether seniors and others will have trouble with the dinky screen and small characters.

Moving into spacious and worker-friendly new barracks is only one of four major changes state police in Westminster will be adjusting to within the next five weeks.Along with the move to the new $3.1 million facility, which is next door to the current 38-year-old barracks, troopers will begin 10-hour shifts June 30 and soon after will receive new 800-megahertz radios and laptop computers that will modernize communications and filing of accident and crime reports.The change from five eight-hour to four 10-hour shifts will mean less overtime, improve protection at peak periods and boost morale, said 1st Sgt. Eric Danz, who coordinates the troopers' rotating shifts, allowing time for days off and court appearances.

Of the 26,177 words spoken during the opening statements of Ruthann Aron's lawyer and the subsequent questioning of two witnesses, "hit man" was used 11 times.Two seconds after the words left attorney Barry Helfand's lips for the first time, they appeared on the screens of five laptop computers in the Montgomery County courtroom. A minute after that, the words were on a piece of paper in Helfand's hands.Real-time transcription in Aron's murder-for-hire trial has captivated lawyers, courtroom staff and the presiding judge, Paul McGuckian, a first-time user.

DUNDALK -- Baltimore County police and fire officials were VTC investigating a Dundalk teen-ager's motive for making a napalmlike bomb that prompted police to block off the 8000 block of Delhaven Road while officers removed it from his home Monday night.The device, a tennis ball containing liquid bleach, caustic drain cleaner crystals, gasoline and plastic foam, was found in the boy's bedroom by his mother. The mother called police.Sgt. Robert Stelmack of the North Point Precinct said the youth, 17, was released to his mother after he was charged with manufacturing and possessing a hazardous device.

Look out, spiral notebooks, your days at Oldfields School are numbered.The old, reliable friend of students everywhere is being replaced at the Glencoe girls' school by laptop computers that flip open almost as easily -- but which students also can use to produce science projects, hand in homework and communicate with their parents.These days, black laptop bags are nearly as common as backpacks and lacrosse sticks at Oldfields, a boarding and day school and one of 10 private schools in the country participating in a pilot technology project co-sponsored by Microsoft and Toshiba.

Someone stole eight laptop computers -- worth $8,000 each -- from a Linthicum hotel conference room Wednesday while a group holding a meeting there took a break, county police said.Robert Warner of Alcon Laboratories told police that national representatives of the Texas-based firm left the meeting at the Doubletree Guest Suites in the 1300 block of Concourse Drive shortly before 1 p.m. so hotel employees could rearrange the room.When they returned a few minutes later, the IBM Thinkpad computers were missing, police said.

Thieves broke into a Hanover office building overnight Wednesday and stole thousands of dollars worth of electronic and computer equipment, county police said.The thieves entered the building in the 7200 block of Parkway Corporate Drive between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 7 a.m. Wednesday by prying open the back door of the ground-level Red Cross office, police said. They vandalized a conference room and took a $500 combination television-videocassette recorder from a supervisor's office, police said.

If newly appointed Baltimore County Police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan gets his wish, his department will get 67 new police officers, 56 new patrol cars and more than $1 million to fund a pilot project for laptop computers in patrol cars.Mr. Sheridan's requests are part of the $85.5 million budget for 1996-1997 that he has submitted to County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III. If the budget is approved, it will mark a 9.8 percent increase over the current year. Mr. Ruppersberger will unveil his proposed operating budget today.

Baltimore County police and law enforcement agencies across the nation are replacing ticket books, note pads and lengthy report forms with high-tech computer equipment that they say will improve their chances of catching crooks.Within a year, county officers will begin using laptop computers that eventually will be linked to a national crime information network, allowing them to quickly check for arrest warrants or determine whether a car has been reported stolen.Officers also will use the computers to write and file reports, eliminating time-consuming handwritten reports and filing procedures.

Paul Brian Steedman stole 32 laptop computers from his employer, a Marriottsville-based nonprofit health care company owned by nuns, prosecutors say. The Westminster man then sold the computers on eBay, prosecutors say, listing photos of box labels with serial numbers that matched those of the stolen computers - along with a picture of himself as the seller and a user name that included his birth year. Steedman, 28, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Howard County Circuit Court to a felony theft scheme and could now face 15 years in prison, according to prosecutors.

A 36-year-old Clarksburg man was sentenced yesterday to seven years and three months in federal prison for using a computer to entice a 15-year-old Anne Arundel County girl into having sex with him. After his release from prison, Michael Lawrence Manoly is to register as a sex offender and will be under federal supervision for the rest of his life, U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake determined. Prosecutors said Manoly, using the screen name "Kevin" and portraying himself as 25, began corresponding with the teenager in February 2006.

In an attempt to get every school onto the same technological page, the Howard County school system is phasing in a plan to get rid of about 4,000 computers, servers and other types of technology deemed behind current standards. The department, under an agreement with Apple Financial Services of Austin, Texas, will pay $1.6 million a year to lease new equipment -- including desktop and laptop computers and up-to-date operating systems -- and at the end of four years will have the opportunity to purchase each computer for a dollar.

NETWORKING home computers is one of the geekiest jobs the average PC user may ever undertake, but some new figures indicate that it's getting easier. And that's good news if you're thinking about making the leap. In a January survey, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 46 percent of homes with two or more PCs had some kind of network operating, compared with 29 percent slightly more than two years ago. Pew's researchers - whose meticulous surveys produce some of the most reliable statistics on Internet use - attribute the increase to two factors.

The crime report is a sampling of crimes in Howard County compiled from police. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 410-313-3700. East Columbia Majors Lane: 6000 block, Long Reach. Someone entered an apartment early Feb. 10 through a rear sliding door while the resident was sleeping and stole clothes. Watchlight Court: 8900 block, Long Reach. Someone entered a home by forcing a rear sliding door late Feb. 10 and stole cash, digital video discs and a video game system. Stanford Blvd: 5500 block, Columbia Corporate Park.

IN A WORLD of techno-boredom where a hot consumer product is a cell phone that takes bad photos, one little corner of the market has kept its cool - Wi-Fi. That's the industry's coinage for wireless networks that operate under a standard known officially as IEEE 802.11x. Bored already? That's why they invented a sexy name for it. Wi-Fi networks don't try to do too much, which is why they're successful. They have a 100-foot range and operate on the same 2.4 GHz spectrum as cordless phones, microwave ovens and other gadgets.

Already investigating the use of an off-the-books Baltimore police expense account, federal authorities yesterday subpoenaed more records from the city force, this time requesting extensive telephone records and even laptop computers used by Edward T. Norris during his tenure as police commissioner. The subpoena arrived at city police headquarters yesterday, and police officials said they were cooperating with the federal investigation. A federal grand jury in February launched a probe into the little-known expense account used by Norris to finance thousands of dollars in trips, expensive meals and gifts.

The main problem with laptop computers is that they're not very comfortable to use on your lap. First, today's hot microprocessors put out a lot of heat, which is often vented downwards through the bottom of the computer. As a result, a reasonably powerful computer can wind up slow-roasting your legs. Second, your lap isn't a very stable place. Move a leg or squirm a little - which is going to happen when you get cramped enough from sitting with your legs together with a computer balanced on them - and your expensive PC winds up, with a "thunk," on the floor.

A teen-ager recruited to play football at the U.S. Naval Academy has been charged with breaking into his high school in central Pennsylvania to steal advance copies of exams, police said. Luke Wascovich, 18, and four other seniors were charged Wednesday with repeatedly entering Lower Dauphin High School at night during the past year and a half, first to steal tests and then to take about $23,000 worth of laptop computers and calculators, authorities said. "The original intent was to have access to tests to give them an advantage in the test-taking process," said Charles M. Dowell, the police chief of Hummelstown, a suburb of Harrisburg.

A teen-ager recruited to play football at the U.S. Naval Academy has been charged with breaking into his high school in central Pennsylvania to steal advance copies of exams, police said. Luke Wascovich, 18, and four other seniors were charged Wednesday with repeatedly entering Lower Dauphin High School at night during the past year and a half, first to steal tests and then to take about $23,000 worth of laptop computers and calculators, authorities said. "The original intent was to have access to tests to give them an advantage in the test-taking process," said Charles M. Dowell, the chief of police of Hummelstown, a suburb of Harrisburg.