We're not big Court TV viewers, so maybe someone can fill us in: is it at all common for the judge presiding over a big important case to laugh at the defendants and regularly display open contempt for their legal tactics? Do you often see a judge show outright impatience, and broadcast an "I can't believe I'm wasting months of my life hearing such a cut-and-dried case" kind of vibe? If the answer's no, then that might explain why "Redmond Justice" commands such high ratings, because Judge Jackson is alternately amused by Microsoft's mistakes and irritated by the courtroom behavior of the Redmond legal team.

When we tuned in last time, the judge laughed when government golden boy David Boies introduced some Microsoft email into evidence, showing that, despite having been caught with their epistolary pants down via numerous electronic missives in the past, they continued to send "sensitive" email with reckless abandon as late as this past January. Continuing in that general vein, today Jackson "lost his cool" and snapped at Microsoft lawyer Rick Pepperman, essentially for being boring and annoying. Pepperman had asked IBM exec Garry Norris whether he had ever seen an IBM-produced white paper entitled "OS/2 Warp vs. Windows 95: A Decision Maker's Guide to 32-Bit Operating System Technology." When Norris asked to see the paper, Pepperman "insisted" that Norris first state whether or not he had ever seen the paper before. According to an Info World Electric article, that's when Jackson turned red, took off his glasses, and said to Pepperman, "Show him the document if you've got it."

But wait, there's more! The day before, Jackson implied that Pepperman was being somewhat less than persuasive in his line of questioning, because when Pepperman said that he expected to continue questioning Norris all day on Wednesday, Jackson responded, "Well, I'm not going to tell you that you can't have it. I'm not sure how much progress you've made so far, but we will leave that aside. But be economical with your examination." Sounds like Pepperman continued to bore, leading to the judge's red-faced outburst. Jackson just doesn't seem like a happy man, what with this trial taking so long and the apparent unwillingness of both sides to reach a settlement and give him a way out. But them's the breaks for a high-falutin' judge, we suppose. If you ask us, Judge Jackson's pretty much the most sympathetic character on the show. Poor guy.