--> divine angst: Application Activate! Form of a Headache!

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Application Activate! Form of a Headache!

I began my apps last night, using LSACD on the Web.

After tinkering with two computers, one server, a laptop, and adding me
as an administrator to most of those machines, I could finally use the
damn web application. Stupid Service Pack 2! Stupid Windows! Stupid
LSAC, making us use stupid Windows!

The funniest thing is that the problems were caused not by our lack of
computer savvy, but because of our over-abundance of it. Between the
two of us, we have mastery of three operating systems and working
knowledge of another two and regularly do things with our machines that
make our friends say, "Wha?" We'd have been better off if we were a
little more ignorant.

I think LSACD on the Web is sort of indicative of the relationship
between law and technology in general. It looks and smells like you
need some technical know-how to use it, but when you investigate, you
find that you need to start with the lowest common denominator or none
of the directions will work. In other words, if I had just added
another user to the original machine, instead of trying to log in
remotely with my domain identity, all would have been well. Sigh.
Live and learn.

The applications aren't difficult, at least. There are some things
that are annoying--high school GPA, for instance. I'm putting mine
down in the 100-point scale, because I have no clue what it would be on
a 4.0 scale and I'm not sure my high school will tell me. Also--class
rank in college? I have no clue. I know the general percentage. I
wish I'd known I would need that information when I was up there last
weekend. I had the foresight to get a copy of my transcript, and my
exact major GPAs. But class rank? Of course I wouldn't ask for that.
Phbbt.

And then there's the way you're supposed to select your major for the
common information stuff. I had two, so I just used "Other" and filled
in my majors, using a handy / (slash) between them. This despite LSAC
saying how important it is to use the standard abbreviations, so the
schools can properly download the data. I think many of their
instructions are just filler, to make people who frequent the boards
happy. I avoid directions, because if you have to read the manual,
it's probably not good design, right?

Sigh. I think I might have to unlearn that prejudice.