Today, I am one of the many fortunate people selected for jury duty. There were about 250 of my peers here this morning before they started raffling off spots in specific court rooms. Apparently, today is a slow day and this waiting room usually sees more than 500 people and is standing room only. I guess it’s not that bad; I don’t have to be at work, they have free WiFi for the jurors and, it’s Thursday. What does Thursday have that other days don’t? Usually, most cases have already been scheduled and a jury picked earlier in the week. Come Thursday, there’s few to no cases needing jurors. Take today for instance: Volume of prospective jurors is low (250 vs the normal 500-600), there was ONE case that was picking a jury panel and actually starting today, two cases that were just picking jurors today and two court rooms that have the rest of us in the poop pool on “stand-by.” It’s now close to 2 PM and we were instructed to be back from lunch by 1:30 PM. Nothing is really happening. Just a bunch of people watching a Wil Smith movie (the one with his son in it, the name escapes me). We’re all just sitting around waiting (hoping) for them to send us all home. It’s all very interesting.

Oh, on the wireless note: The courts here use some third-party provider for access. Kind of like you would see in a hotel. You connect, open a browser and they intercept the initial network traffic and direct you to a page where you either pay or enter in some access code to get connected to the outside world. Well, I had gotten the access code for today and began working on the side gig. Just before lunch, I had closed out all my windows to get ready to leave when I notice a Verify Certificate dialog that had been sitting there for a while. I’ve seen these before, nothing new there. But, this one took me as a surprise and I’m not sure if I should be concerned about it. At the very least, it “super unprofessional.”

Trust me ...it's super unprofessional

Remember a while back the whole backdating thing at Apple? You know, where the CFO and former general counsel, Nancy Heinen, backdated stocks in 2001? Yeah, that one. I didn’t really pay much attention to it when it came out. I figure, someone making that kind of dough can handle whatever it is they dish out for themselves. Well, Heinen and SEC “settled” on an agreement that she pay some $2.2 million which includes more than $400K in interest and a $200K civil penalty. She released a statement today (through her lawyers of course).

I cherish the great people I worked with at Apple, and am proud of my contributions to its historic turnaround and current success. With this lawsuit behind me, I look forward to addressing the greater challenges of social justice and economic disparity.

From Former Apple general counsel Heinen agrees to $2.2M backdating settlement - East Bay Business Times

Hmmm, interesting. I don’t really think she feels that amicable about the whole ordeal. I actually have a copy of the real statement she wanted to release before her lawyers got a hold of it.

I loath those pretentious freaks I worked with at Apple, and am pissed that those assholes didn’t have my back after all of my contributions to its historic turnaround and current success. With this bullshit behind me, I look forward to harassing Steve in the name of social justice and wish nothing but economic disparity on his whole family. Thanks for nothing asshat!

You heard it here first…

And a stupid smudge on the lens. Damn it!