Lenovo's Carbon X1 is that machine for me. I carried an Air (running Debian) for a couple of years. I've since replaced it with a Carbon X1, and there's nothing I miss about the Air. The Carbon is simply fantastic.
The justice system weights the crime of consuming child pornography by the number of images the defendent is in "possession" of. I guess laws vary, but at least in my jurisdiciton, you can be sentenced to years in prison per image. It would be easy for a single wank session to result in -- potentially -- life in prison.
The issue is confounded by widespread lack of techical acumen among judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and even the forensic "experts" who investigate and testify (on both sides). For example, would you consider it reasonable to charge someone with a separate crime for every copy of the exact same digial file present on a hard disk? For both an image file and an automatically-generated thumbnail image of that same file? Do you meaningfully posess a file in your browsers temporary cache? How about a file deleted from the filesystem, but still present in residual form on the disk? Some of the issues are nuanced, and it's difficult to even have an intelligent conversation about the evidence.
[source: computer nerd supporting attorneys]
I've just about secured funding to underwrite the development of a new application to be released under the GPLv3. I have no idea who to talk to about doing the actual development work, though. Is it hard to find software developers who will write F/OSS for hire? Are there established, respected groups who do this kind of work routinely? Any suggestions or guidance appreciated.
The other issue is police overcharging crimes. For example, suppose you, in a fit of pique, cut your roommate's arm with a knife. Not cool; that's aggravated assault. But the police then charges you with attempted second degree murder -- or even first degree (eg, premeditated). Now your defense attorney has to work hard just to get your charges down to a reasonable level; the agg assault you should have been charged with in the first place. This is what a huge majority of plea bargaining is about; not getting away with it, but getting the charge down to something that describes your actual offense.
(Source: longtime criminal defense nerd)
The role of the defense is much as you describe; to advance every conceivable argument, etc. The role of the prosecutor is intended to be a seeker of truth, however, which doesn't always mean aggressively seeking conviction.
In practice, however, your description is accurate; it's a rare prosecutor that doesn't pull out all the stops in an effort to convict, regardless of the evidence.