The judge said no more delays, and evidently he meant it. Prepare yourselves for the season premiere of "Redmond Justice," because the trial starts on the 19th, whether Microsoft is ready or not. Drama and tension have been running high in the off-season, as Microsoft complained about a last-minute widening of the antitrust case's scope when the Justice Department added witnesses from Sun and Apple. Those new witnesses are expected to reveal how Microsoft tried to mess with Java and QuickTime, instead of focusing on issues surrounding Internet Explorer and unfair competition with Netscape. After first claiming they needed six extra months to prepare, Microsoft most recently asked for two more weeks, but according to the San Jose Mercury News, that request has been denied, and the show will go on-- on this coming Monday.

The judge has also revealed a flair for the dramatic, as he ruled that written testimony in the case will be kept under wraps until just before each witness testifies in court. See, Judge Jackson is plainly tired of this whole crazy case, and he most definitely doesn't want to see it drag on and take years to finish, so he's been taking measures all along to ensure as quick a trial as possible. One of those measures is an unusual requirement that each witness in the case provide his direct testimony in written form ahead of time, rather than live in the courtroom. That means that only cross-examination and what follows will actually take place on the stand, which will supposedly speed up the trial. When he imposed this unusual restriction last June, it seemed as if all that written testimony would be available to the public and the press as soon as it was submitted, but instead, it's going to be released a little at a time, in accordance with a Justice Department request.

The judge's reason for this piecemeal release of the testimony to the public is that it "serves the public interest by ensuring that the public experiences the trial, including the presentation of the evidence, as it otherwise would have unfolded in the courtroom." In other words, he's trying to deliver the dramatic tension of a conventional courtroom showdown even though the testimony is occurring in a less dramatic fashion. What a guy! He doesn't want to spoil our fun just for the sake of a speedy trial. The man's a genius of direction, and we hope we see more of his work in the future.